Chapter 13: Chapter Thirteen

Alaric Frost was Jame’s Beta. His best friend and his only confidant in all their years of growing up. He was exactly one year younger and one inch shorter than James at twenty four and six foot four. Some said he was Jame’s other half born from sin and hell. He was as ruthless as James was and as his beta, he was around much more to enforce the laws that James had set forth as the leader of the BlackStone pack. Laws that right now, James himself was breaking.

Hunter had come to him, woke him up from his sleep and Alaric had been downright angry with the younger brother. “Something is wrong with him. James is more aggressive than he usually is and I don't want to be the one to back him down if he is finally losing it. He never goes into the prison and he pinned me down tonight over the human bitch that is in there. Said he will be the only one doing all of her questioning. Just… Make sure he isn't losing himself. Okay?” Hunter had said to him and Alaric begrudgingly agreed. It was out of character for James to take over any of the prison duties. Especially over humans. Humans were always given a death sentence if they were caught in the borders of the territory snooping around where they didn't belong. A swift end without any loose ties.

“Fine.” Alaric said and had slammed the door in Hunters face and reached out on he and Jame’s private link between their minds but found himself blocked from being able to disturb his alpha. He had gotten himself dressed and spent a half hour at least searching the pack house and the surrounding little town before he caught sight of one of the prison guards coming home from his shift. The second he was informed James had gone in, but had not come out yet by the time the guard had left his post it threw several red flags up for the beta.

James had put up laws when he became alpha that humans were forbidden in all aspects of their lives other than when necessary for business or otherwise. They were far too untrustworthy and unpredictable and had caused nothing but trouble for the pack. Reports had been coming in that it was humans working with the rogues that were attacking the west coast packs now and if James had went in alone to try and get answers, there was no telling what the alpha would do in the name of his pack.

Gathering as many guards as he could on the way to the pack prison, Alaric ran as quickly as he could the few miles to the prison outside of their little town. He rushed down to the command room where the guards on watch duty were gathered around a screen smelling of fear, worry and arousal. “What the hell is going on?!” he demanded in a booming voice and the guards moved back like the parting of the red sea for him, Allowing the Beta to see the scene the room’s camera was recording, the audio clear as day of the woman hung up and writhing from what the Alpha was doing to her.

The video was enough to make Alaric's heart speed up with adrenaline. Hunter was right. Something was very wrong with their Alpha and Alaric didn't have time to question Jame’s poor choices right now. What the man was doing was breaking so many of the pack rules, he could be challenged for the position of Alpha if this got out. “Get the tranquilizers… Just incase we need them.” Within seconds, Alaric was stripping from his clothes and shifting into his wolf and running through the halls, stairs and lower levels of the secure building with the guards following behind him.

The reached the lowest level just as the female was begging their alpha from the other side of the door and seconds later the group was filing into the room that was meant for only the toughest interrogations. Alaric came in snarling to the shocked look of the human and the sudden anger on his Alpha’s face. Alaric had interrupted his alpha several times before with females over pack business, but the rage he seen in his closest friends eyes sent a chill down Alaric’s spine.

“HELP ME!” Cassidy had screamed the moment the haze of arousal and lust was lifted and she was instantly thrown back into reality. An arm came around her middle, holding her so tightly it was difficult to draw in a full breath and when the massive dark brown wolf had glanced at her for a brief second and then took a step forward that seemed to trigger the Alpha behind her. There was a roar so loud, all Cassidy could hear was the high pitched ringing around her, drowning out the snarls and growls between the two men. She was dazed for a moment, the fine hair on her body rising at the heated breath on the back of her neck, a small warning of what was to come.

It was an odd sensation to feel the teeth of another wolf on the tender and sensitive skin of her neck. Not in the way the alpha had just been teasing her, but this was pressure with a purpose. A small hesitation from the wolf as if he was questioning himself on whether he should continue down this path or not before he sank his teeth deep into the crook of Cassidy’s neck. She clenched her fists high above her and drew her knees upwards, her slight weight easily held by the arm that was securely wrapped around her middle. She was shocked at first, and then outraged, her swift anger ignoring the pain at first as she tried to twist and struggle out of his grip but the second she did she knew it had been a mistake.

The alpha snarled from behind her and sank his teeth even deeper into her. Purposely clamping down to trigger the slight release of toxins in his saliva that acted as a venom to humans. Cassidy had never been bitten before nor had she bitten anyone, but she knew of how wolf bites worked. At least on the human population. Jett was quick to teach her that. Wolves however, were never part of that lesson plan.

As the venom worked its way into her blood stream, the pain of the bite instantly became a searing, white-hot agony that had her screaming, tears rolling down her flushed face and thrashing to get out of the man’s grip but he held firm.

~MINE!~ came the savage snarl into her mind, a whole new link and connection opening and spreading in the space that had been dark since she had lost her family and her pack. The sudden voice, so angry and full of conviction, had Cass freeze in her struggles. She was panting hard, sweat forming on her skin and she staring straight forward at the wall from the pain… but the voice where no one had spoken in years brought an instantaneous fear. “NO!” she breathed in a voice that was disbelieving of what she had heard, tuning everything else around her out for the few seconds she had as the shock faded and the pain came back full force, the venom slowly working its way into her body.

Just as Cassidy recovered from hearing his declaration of ownership to her, seconds after the pain began anew, James released her. Her wrists took on the full weight of her body, swinging from the chains above her as distressed whimpers turned into the hysterical harsh sobs and screams of a non-wolf body being given a healthy dose of venom. James’ wolf had staked a claim and now that it had what it wanted, it was satisfied enough to let the man-side of his soul come back to the front and when James realized what was going on, where he was at and with who, he dropped the woman faster than a hot coal and moved away. “Take her… Get the bitch out of my sight…” he commanded in a ragged tone, disgusted with himself and even more, hating the wolf at that moment.

Time seemed to move at an incredibly slow crawl and faster than she had ever known all at the same time for Cassidy once the searing pain took control through her entire body. Every nerve was firing off at once, every cell on fire. Time no longer had meaning as hands touched her body. Aggressive and conflicted sounds of a fight drifted to her as James got angry over the guards touching her and Alaric had to do what Alaric did best and distract James from his own destruction. The last thing she heard as the guards rushed her from the room and the fight behind them was James’ roar and promise “I will kill you all for touching her!” as his wolf took back over and a guard locked the Beta in the cell with his Alpha.