The Wanted Alpha

Ethan

It was very rare I could be stupefied into complete silence, but this? Even Ezra was silenced from his linking with his mate, his full attention, now, on the man in front of us.

I stared at his eyes, rimmed with red now…trying to grasp the words that had spewed from Kevin’s mouth. Carrick was also silent behind me and I could feel the shock and sadness roll from my mate next door.

…Jude had just heard that.

Not a second later, the door was thrown open, brutally. Jude stormed in, eyes black, chest heaving and his aura pulsating with rage.

“WHAT THE f**k DO YOU MEAN THAT b****h WAS YOUR FATED MATE?!” he roared.

He marched over and grabbed Kevin by the collar hauling him into the air as far as his chained wrists would allow. I quickly stood, grasping Jude by the arms to get him to drop the bastard. We wouldn’t get any information about whatever the f**k this entire shitstorm was if my Beta completely lost it and killed him.

“Jude! We’re not gonna get anywhere like this, I want answers just as much as you!”

Maria had a fated mate all that time? Had they rejected each other? Had they colluded?! Right now I didn’t even know what to think.

Kevin was dropped back to the table, as I managed to wrestle my Beta into some form of control. Chris appeared behind, wrapping his arms around Jude in an attempt to calm him and hold him back. To be able to hold onto an enraged Beta, Christopher had to be an incredibly strong vampire.

Jude continued to struggle, with incredible strength, shouting over my shoulder “So what the hell was I?! Just some revenge f**k for you?!”

“N-no…yes…in the beginning…I always liked you…I…I loved you!” he tried to plead, pathetically.

Whatever it was he felt, it wasn’t love, this…this was selfish, spiteful, cruel.

At Kevin’s words something in my Beta snapped, the last shred of any control or sanity gone. Christopher was flung backwards hitting the wall behind, while he quickly pulled my arms down sending me off balance enough for him to rush past me. I turned in time to see him launch his fist into Kevin’s face with a sickening crunch. Before he could rear back and drive another punch, Carrick dove in to tackle Jude back while I moved to grab him from behind, lifting him clear off his feet.

“LET. ME. GO! I’LL f*g KILL HIM!” he yelled, his voice mixed with that of his wolf as fur started sprouting on his neck and face, he was about to shift and violently so.

Christopher staggered to his feet and came to stand in front of his mate, still looking a little dazed as both my Gamma and I struggled to hold Jude back despite our strained shouts for him to calm down. The vampire grabbed his face trying to get his mate to look at him.

“Jude!…Jude stop. Just look at me. Don’t concern yourself with him…just me.”

My Beta’s struggling started to falter, his ragged breathing started to level out and the menacing growls vibrating from his chest eased. Both mine and Carrick’s grip loosened but we didn’t let up till we were certain Jude wasn’t about to break into a rampage again. Though Christopher’s face never turned from his mate’s, I saw the split second glance he made to Kevin out of the corner of his eye. A look so sharp it would rival his own blade and filled with so much hate I feared we may have been holding back the wrong man from a b***d fueled frenzy.

With our grips relaxed, Jude shook free and promptly stormed out without a word, almost bowling over April who stood shellshock at the door. Chris stilled for a moment before quickly following after him, giving me a hurried nod on his exit.

‘Stay, find out everything this a*****e knows. I’ll make sure Jude is ok, try not to worry about him right now. I’ve told Bryce to stay stationed next door, if you need him’ my mate mind-linked me as she closed the door and left.

I was torn; in wanting to follow my mate, in wanting to make sure my best friend was ok and in needing to stay here to question more on what the ever living f**k just happened.

Want and need were two very different things that didn’t always go hand-in-hand. April was right, here is where I needed to be. And she was right about coming here with me, as always; I don’t think there’d ever be a time I’d win an argument with her.

‘Let’s get this s**t done with, before my own damn head explodes’ Carrick impatiently mind-linked me, he was desperate to make sure our friend was ok too.

Turning to look at our prisoner, I noticed the huge welt across his left cheek and the mass of bruising that had already formed; his cheek was most likely broken, not that I really gave a s**t right now.

His gaze was still on the door, holding a mix of hurt and jealousy “that’s his mate?” I wasn’t sure whether he was asking anyone in particular or just voicing his thoughts aloud, but I’d be damned if he thought he deserved any pity!

I slammed my fist on the table, denting the metal and gaining his attention “yeah, a vampire coven leader who’s 10 times the man you could ever hope to be. But right now I’m seconds away from just ending all of this and taking your head, so I suggest you explain what the f**k you mean by Maria being your fated mate” I growled out and I was sure my eyes were pitch black too.

He averted his eyes quickly out of fear and with a shaky breath, he began.

“I wasn’t living at the pack house at the time when she came…when you brought her” he started, looking down at his hands “it was about a month after, when I got my room there…that’s when I saw her. I didn’t know whether my mate would be a man or woman…but I always wanted it to be Jude…”

“Beta!” I quickly interjected “you don’t get to say his name, you address him with his title” my voice was low and hostile, it was a command not a request.

He paled back but nodded, continuing “…she was walking around with you…I wanted to go to her but she turned her back on me and walked away on your arm, like I didn’t even matter. I tried going to her but she rejected me…or least she tried to. I wouldn’t accept it, I didn’t want to give up, I wanted to try and show her I could be good enough…but I suppose I’m not much competition for an Alpha.”

How the hell had Maria not given anything away? Those first four days after seeing April had driven me to the point of insanity, how did she keep it hidden for almost a year?

“That’s when I started to feel it, Maria betraying the mate bond…and I wanted to get back at her, to make her jealous. I’d already dated Ju…the Beta” he caught himself quickly “a couple of times…that’s when I started sleeping with him.”

Now, little things started to make sense. Sometimes Maria would look as though she was in pain for no reason or would suddenly become hysterical. I wondered now whether that was because she too felt the bond being betrayed. And it also explained why her heats were so intense. At the time I just thought it was because we had such a close bond…now I knew the real reason.

“And this went on for a year? Why? Why didn’t you just accept her rejection?” it was insane that anyone would go through all this for someone that showed no signs of reciprocation. But then again, if April had tried to reject me…I wasn’t sure whether I would have been able to accept it either.

“I thought she was coming around, she’d meet me in secret. I thought I could get her to run away with me…but then I felt it when you marked her. Our bond hadn’t completely broken and I felt it when she died…I thought of all people who could’ve kept her safe, it would’ve been you” he looked up from his hands for the first time to throw me a disdainful look, which he quickly looked down from at my growl.

He was playing with fire with my patience, but I still needed answers from and I needed him to be compliant. He didn’t know the truth of her death, no-one other than myself, my Beta, Gamma or their fathers knew. They had told the pack that an assailant had broken in and killed my father and Maria. What happened was incredibly painful and personal, I hadn’t wanted the pack gossiping about me behind my back more than they already had.

“And after?” I prompted him to continue.

“After, I shut everyone out for months. I just did my job and went home, that was it. The pain started to ease and I started to hope that maybe I’d get a second chance mate, that it’d be the Beta…but he wasn’t. I started seeing him again, I knew he wanted his fated mate but I thought I could change his mind. And I know he was seeing other guys as well…but he always came back to me” he held a slight dreamy look when he spoke of Jude, I beginning to see he didn’t do what he did to him out of cruelty or malice…he was obsessed, fixated…which I knew from personal experience could be far more dangerous.

“That’s why I wanted to be a warrior” he continued “to be closer to him. But you failed me on my qualifier. That’s when I went to the bar and met the rogue. He got me drunk, I spilled some stuff, he paid me…I regretted it the next day but it was too late. I was already in the guy’s pocket, he said if I didn’t get him more he’d sell me out as a traitor and I didn’t want to lose Jude!” I growled at him for using my Beta’s name again and not his title “sorry…the Beta.”

“Why did you arrange to have my mate kidnapped? Was it to get back at me?” I could feel my wolf’s voice mixing with my own at the memory of almost losing her, my rage and fear feeling anew.

“I didn’t, I swear. The guy started hassling me last week for more information, saying the samples I stole weren’t good enough. I mentioned about our new Luna being a former rogue and when I gave her description he was interested, told me to find a way to get her out of the pack…so I suggested to J…the Beta about taking her to visit the wiccans with him. I didn’t know anyone was going to attack her…and now the Beta has his fated mate, there was nothing here for me anymore…it was a death sentence to stay…” he trailed off.

“Have you been in contact with the Monkshood Moon pack?” I needed to know whether he was involved directly with them or not.

He looked confused “no, I’ve never heard of them…I’ve only ever dealt with this guy, this rogue.”

So whoever this ‘guy’ was most likely gathered information and sold it on, either to the highest bidder or directly to those he knew wanted it.

‘Do you have his phone on you?’ I mind-linked Carrick behind me.

‘Yeah’ he passed it over my shoulder.

I slid it across to Kevin “unlock it” I wanted this unknown bastard’s number so I could have a word myself.

As soon as he had entered the code I snatched it from him and instantly changed the code so I could go through everything later.

“Your contact on this?” I demanded, he nodded.

“J. Smith” I would check this later.

“You do realise when my mate was attacked, Jude protected her, took the main force of the car collision. He could have died for something you set in motion.”

That revelation seemed to bring him great pain.

“And it’s also how he met his mate, so I guess some thanks are owed for your treachery” I said, adding more salt to the wound.

A tear slipped down his face hearing that, but this fucker didn’t deserve anyone’s pity.

“Had you come to me, to say that you had done something stupid and sold information…I could have helped you. But you didn’t” and I meant it. I had made idiotic decisions in the heat of the moment. One moment of insanity wasn’t enough to condemn someone fully in my eyes, not if they showed true remorse afterwards.

“And if you had come to me…and told me Maria was your mate…I would have never involved myself with her” which would have saved lives and many, many tears.

He didn’t look up or speak and continued to stare at his hands in shame.

“If you want to save any shred of your life, you will give me a list of everything you sold to this man and every last thing you remember about him.”

Carrick, as ever, was prepared with paper and something to write with. He slid them across, standing behind him while he wrote. Kevin looked quizzically at the crayon but started to write nonetheless. It may sound infantile to write with, but a pen or pencil could easily be used as a weapon either on themselves or us. A crayon? Not so much.

Once the list was complete, my Gamma snatched it from him and read over it.

‘There’s a few things we didn’t know about, one is banking information and recently. We need to deal with that asap’ he mind-linked as he read.

‘Was it 3 days ago?’

‘Yeah’ he replied.

That was when April and I returned home from our date and caught Kevin coming out of Jude’s suite. I knew Jude may have had some of the pack’s financial information in his study, that I knew he locked. Like me, he was good at math and even better at finances. Kevin must have somehow gotten access…maybe as Jude slept afterwards. That thought made my anger flare again.

“I think we’re done here” I spoke as I stood and headed over to the door, pausing before I left.

“And just so you know, the truth about your mate. She used me, to get me to mark her, so she could kill my father and then herself to cause me the most pain in some insane revenge plot of hers for justice for her own father. He had been caught stealing on our land and killed our patrol too, so my dad executed him…so tell me, was all this worth it?”

His face was a mix of emotions and pain at hearing the truth; the mate bond could equally be a curse as it was a blessing. Had they just accepted each other, so much could have been different…

“You truly deserved Maria, you’re as f****d up and vindictive as she was!” I growled venomously as I exited with Carrick quick on my heels.

Bryce exited out of the side room at the same time “I’ll take him to the max security wing, he’ll be under close watch. His wolf healing can take care of his f****g face” Bryce spat out. It was rare to see him lose his cool, but he was loyal to this pack above all else.

“I’ll have the recordings sent directly to both of you, you have my word I won’t repeat anything from… whatever the hell that was” and I knew he wouldn’t.

Once we were far enough away, at my truck, Carrick let loose a huge breath.

“Holy s**t, that was the most f*****d up thing I’ve ever seen, heard, witnessed, you name it. My brain actually physically hurts” he said as he rested his forehead on the doorframe.

I nodded in agreement feeling more conflicted than I had been in quite some time. I could sympathise with Kevin, the mate bond had devastated the both of us and I, myself, had engaged in a looooonnng stint of self destructive behaviour after Maria. But even at my most f****d-up, I hadn’t betrayed everyone and my pack in such a despicable way.

I would decide on his fate later, someone else was more important right now.

“Come on, Jude needs us right now” I said, clapping Carrick on the back as I moved to get in the truck.

“Abso-f*****g-lutely.’