I went and sat on the couch, feeling a strange buzz in my veins. A weird desire to chuckle and laugh aloud. There was no anger or regret, only warm feelings I couldn’t identify.
I’d once read that some people experienced a sort of euphoria before they died. This was what they must have meant.
I chuckled to myself, realising how ridiculous I sounded even inside my own head.
I waited what felt like hours, but it probably wasn’t that long until a young kid stumbled into the room.
“Who are you?”
He smelled like the wrong end of a horse, and unfortunately my wolf-like senses made me cringe.
“Um, I’m Tayte. Can you get the Alpha for me?”
“Hmm. Okay.”
And he wandered off.
Oh my God. Why was I so worried about an attack from these people?
They were unclean, unorganised and slept all day.
But then I heard it.
The rumble of the men.
The hairs on the back of my neck tingled as a dozen men stepped into the room.
Trevor, their Al
pha, was in the centre.
Celeste was right about their physicality. They were soft bodied and unshaven, and on the surface looked unfit. But they were big, and like the bears they shifted into, I knew they would be fast and strong and mean.
“What the hell are you doing here? I thought you said a month?”
Oh, so they’d partied and relaxed, had they? Thinking they had time before they had to do anything with us.
Maybe I should have come back later with a hunting party. Every Alpha and Beta in the pack could have taken these guys down.
But my pack didn’t want me. My Beta wouldn’t even look at me and my mate had rejected me.
Why would I risk the lives of anyone else, when a simple sacrifice was all these bears wanted?
I squared my shoulders and said what I’d come to say. “I’ve come to take her place.”
Trevor blinked, then glanced to the men at his side, who seemed equally confused.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean exactly what I said. You want Celeste here, so you can carry out your sentence. I’m here to take her place. A peace offering to stop all the fighting.”
The men gaped at me.
“But… but… you’re an Alpha. You can’t do that,” Trevor said.
One of the beefy old guys at his side, said, “This is a trap. I’m sure of it.”
I wanted to laugh. Why was this so hard?