Unwanted Mate (The Alpha Shifter Collection)

“Yes, shit. I’m so sorry. I’m not good at this, but if you give me a chance, I know I can do better.”

“I think you need to start from the beginning,” Caspian said, nodding his head toward the sofa.

The pack members each took different places of attack as Caspian turned toward her. “If you don’t want him here, he’s gone.”

“It’s fine.”

He put his hands on her face and forced her to look at him.

“Caspian, it’ll be fine. I know it will.”

“I’ll kill him before I let him hurt you.”

Her heart fluttered.

“I can hear you, you know,” George said.

“Then be glad my hands are on my woman and not finding some reason to throttle you. Be thankful for that.”

“Oh, believe me, I am thankful,” George said, laughing.

“So, start from the very beginning,” Caspian said, taking hold of her hand.

She didn’t realize she needed his strength, but with his hand in hers, it was exactly what she needed, and nothing more.

George started from the very beginning. He talked about their parents, the twin birth, which was rare in wolf packs, especially for that of a boy and girl. Most often, it was same-sex twins, but their parents got lucky, and well, the pack turned that into a nightmare. She learned how her parents were not welcome within the pack, but they had no reason to get rid of them either. They never stepped out of turn. Always followed instructions, but for some reason, the pack couldn’t stand them, and so, for the most part, they lived in misery. They did so for their babies.

After about three years, it became apparent to the alpha that George wasn’t going to turn, not one bit, which started the divide. George couldn’t be a member of the pack. He had to be removed, and seeing as their parents refused to kill him, he was sent to the opposite side of the forest, given the order to never enter the pack’s borders, and forced to live with an old nanny, who took care of him during the times their parents were with Sofia. In time, it didn’t take long for her parents to end up on the wrong side of the alpha’s wrath, who in turn, killed them, leaving Sofia without either parent, and George alone with a dying nanny. Time passed, as it always did, and in time, George realized the truth.

Where their parents had kept George’s identity a secret from Sofia, he had come to learn all about the special girl with the power to heal, and in doing so, all of the dangers she now faced.

“It was never you,” George said. “They were scared of our parents. The alpha couldn’t force them apart. He couldn’t do anything.”

Tears filled Sofia’s eyes. “I had no idea you were real.”

“Hold the fuck up. Why are you here now?” Liam asked.

George stood, removed his jacket, and went to the button of his pants.

“Whoa, there, big boy, there are ladies present, you know,” Books said.

He didn’t stop, pushing his pants down to just beneath his hips, and Sofia saw what he was trying to show them. The unwanted mark. The burn that had been seeped into his flesh. “I got this as a gift on my eighteenth birthday. The alpha made a special trip to the cabin. When you were finally freed by Caspian, I knew I had to find you. So … I took care of a few things, and then I came to find you.”

“Took care of a few things?” Caspian asked.

“I can’t turn into a wolf, but I do have plenty of abilities of my own. I’m also a keen hunter.” George removed a necklace from around his neck. “This was our mother’s. I watched the alpha tear them to pieces. He ordered them to stay perfectly still as he tortured them.” He held out the necklace. “I had no choice but to watch them hunt you. Hurt you. I heard your cries, felt your pain, Sofia. That man, he had to pay.”

Sofia stared at the necklace, recognizing it instantly. Her mother would often sit, late at night, staring at the inside of the locket, but she’d never show her.

“What’s inside?” Sofia asked.

George opened the locket and there it was. An image on either side of both of her mother’s babies. The story, no matter how farfetched, had to be true.

The tears in her eyes spilled down, and Sofia let go of Caspian’s hand and threw her arms around George.

He held her tightly, and she felt his sobs just as she released her own.

“I’m so sorry, Sofia,” George said. “I wanted to help you so many times.”

“How did you kill the alpha?” Caspian asked. “If you were ordered to never step foot on pack lands, why did you kill him?”

George smiled. “Since the moment you humiliated him, he was after someone else to prove that he was better. That he was worthy, and he came hunting for me. He thought he would find a scared little boy. What he got was a man, and I made sure he felt pain long before he ever got the death he begged me for.” George looked at her. “I made sure to mark him so that even in hell, they knew who he was.”