The Alpha (The Lycans 4)

Kane furrowed his brow. “Okay, but can I ask why the hell you’re giving the wolves anything? Seems like a gift to me, and although the truce between our two kinds is there, it's fucking thin at best.”

I didn’t hold back the low sound of warning that spilled from me. “That may be, but have you forgotten my sister, your cousin, is mated to Banner, the Scottish Lycan king?” The growl was thick in my voice. “You forget that as much as we may not like their kind, I have nephews and a niece who are half-wolf, and I’d die protecting them.” I bared my teeth. “So a war—even if you two fuckers may want some bloodshed—isn’t going to happen. Got it?”

Sebastian, the stoic fucker he was, didn’t speak, just kept his hands clasped behind his back as he inclined his head.

“Like you don’t want a bloody fight as well,” Kane muttered. “Like you aren’t hard up to kill.” I kept still, quiet, as he kept talking out of his ass. “I saw the fearsome brutality toward those human Assembly fuckers on the road. I could smell how you got off on it, Cousin.”

I was in front of Kane in the next instant, my hand wrapped around his throat, his body lifted up and off the ground as I pressed him against the wall and brought my face close to his. I kept my expression even, my voice matching the cold brutality I was known for.

“You forget because you’re family and I’ve been lenient with you, but I’m in charge, Kane.” I stared him in the eyes, and although all who were in this position would cower before me, Kane kept his face a blank mask. “I can’t control what you think, Cousin, but family or not, you'd do well to keep your thoughts to yourself, you feel me?” I tightened my hand on his throat to drive the point home, watching his face redden, his lips darken from lack of oxygen. And still he stared at me, not moving or fighting me off.

I was off him a second later, his body sliding down the wall before he caught himself. He sucked in a ragged breath and rubbed at his thickly muscled neck. “Yeah, I feel you,” he finally muttered in a strained voice as he continued to rub his throat.

I looked at Sebastian, only a year younger than Kane, yet the two could have been twins. Sebastian, ever the stone wall where emotions were concerned, smirked. I didn't have to tell them to get the fuck out. They left a second later, closing the door behind them and leaving me with my foul-ass mood still in place.

I walked back over to the window and stared down at the humans for long moments, my mind drifting to nothingness, this rare moment where shit wasn’t hitting the fan, a precious gift I latched onto.

I thought about Cian and his mate, about my sister, Luna, her Lycan mate, and their four hybrid children. Two had already found their Linked Mates, the term Lycans had for finding their fated ones. I wasn’t foolish enough that I’d ever be gifted my female. My Coveted One. I was too much of a killer, and my emotional capacity was fucking zero. I wouldn't be able to cherish a female who was deemed by fate as mine and mine alone.

But I was curious about such a thing, a connection two people in the Otherworld had. I’d watched Cian with his mate, saw the way he looked at her, that protectiveness and the possession in his eyes. He didn't care who saw. In fact, I was pretty sure he wanted others to see and know, to fucking feel that she was his.

What I knew for sure was if I ever found my female, she’d be sure to hate me, to loathe who and what I was. She’d look into my cold, dead eyes and know I didn't have a heart to give. Of course, instinctively I'd be drawn to her, the need to protect her taking over. I’d heard enough about the mating phenomenon to know how it worked. But to care for her wholly? To love her?

I wasn't capable of such emotions. I wasn't capable of any.

I stood there a few more moments, staring at the gyrating bodies, seeing nothing but livestock below, bags of flesh and blood, short life spans, and hollow dreams. The doors to the main club room opened and broke up the flashing lights and hazy atmosphere of the interior. The hallway from those doors to the front ones that led outside was short and allowed me a momentary glimpse of the long line of customers salivating to get inside.

Two patrons, a man and a woman, were allowed entrance, and the next two waiting to come in stepped up to the red velvet rope blocking off the double doors.