Chapter Forty-Eight--They Will Realize I'm Not The One

Chapter Forty-Eight--They Will Realize I'm Not The One
 moved in front of me, meeting the multiples of his clan, one by one.

“As you all know, a crime was committed against your Alpha, by harming the woman under my protection. My mate, no less. As the Betas and I agreed, they have been caged, and awaited the Alpha pair’s decision these long, uncertain weeks. Many a time, you have come to me and asked what my plans for them were. I have told you that I did not? the outcome of their fate.” He stalked around the cage, throwing the steel walls contemptuous glances.

He entwined his hands behind his back, every inch the fearless leader. “I withheld your counsel, and with good reason. For I had to await my beloved’s fate, before I decided anyone else’s. You know our laws, and our practices, even those who are not jaguars. For in the end, was the actual crime against me?” He cocked his head and nodded toward me. “Or Katrina?”

No one answered the question that needed no response.

“We are the Alpha pair, in every way possible.” His fingers stroked my bite mark on his body. “That makes Katrina your Alpha.” Yips of denial from inside the box. “She is a new breed, something we have never been graced to witness before. Katrina carries the very soul of the jaguar inside of her. She has been blessed in a way that none of the rest of us have been deemed worthy. You will fear her. Respect her. Her—Word—Is—Law.” He turned from the box and came back to my side. “I officially forfeit any right for judgment on the criminals.”

Two howls from within.

“Release them, and put them on their knees,” I said, echoed by the cat.

Syber produced a rusty key, sliding it into the padlock bigger than my both of my fists. The metal clunked to the grass. Next, he hammered a long bolt from a loop. The door creaked, revealing shadows my sight penetrated without resistance.

Two dirty, thin women huddled in the recesses, in separate corners, carefully not touching or looking at one another. Interesting. Weren’t they supposed to be friends and allies?

They made no move to leave the cage. In fact, they appeared downright scornful. I sneered. Kalvyn nodded. Syber reached in, grabbing Bianca by a fistful of hair, and a second woman, who was no doubt Sadie. They kicked and clawed.

Syber didn’t care.

I vacillated.

My cat calmed me with a purr. Katrina, my adored human, if you can’t make an example of them, allow me to do so in your place.

You want to kill them.

You wanted to just a moment ago. Though we may not reside in the jungle, the laws still apply. You must make your position clear, here and now. Or they will treat you like spun glass, or worse, walk over you. Haven’t you had enough?

How very ominous.

She sighed, a remarkable human gesture that forced me to keep my face from betraying a smirk. Even through your anger, you don’t believe you can live with fatal blood on your hands. I understand. Such actions will take time for you to adjust.

I doubted there’d be a time I’d kill another, and be able to live with it. Even as the two kneeling cats glared at me, daring in their expressions.

There are other ways to make enemies suffer much more than death, my cat mused. Remember that in the moments to come. For instance, did you know that marks made by an Alpha are permanent?

No, I didn’t.

My stomach settled as my gaze drifted over Bianca’s supermodel, beach babe good looks. In her ripped, stained designer clothes, hair tangled, face and body covered in smudges of dirt and blood, she still looked beautiful. Under her hair, a dull metal collar with spikes pointed inward cut into delicate flesh. Thin trails of blood drifted down her chest. A chain at the back, led her to cuffed wrists.

Sadie, had suffered a similar fate. She knelt, cowed. I didn’t believe that for a second. Neither did my cat. Something about that one had escaped me. In fact, all of them. She wasn’t as she appeared. Her heart rate was remarkably calm for someone who was knocking on death’s door—or so the clan had assumed.

How many of those “beautiful, popular” girls had attacked me in one way or another? Toting around their gorgeous forms like a shield that protected them from the world, somehow giving them the right to treat everyone else as the garbage they viewed them?

Resentment returned.

“You think you’re hot shit now, standing there in my man’s t-shirt,” Bianca taunted. How comfortable she’d gotten in the brief moment I’d stood there and had done nothing.

My cat was right. The time to make a stand was now.

I closed the distance between us, looming over her. My hand itched. I backhanded Bianca. Her head snapped back, hard enough that if she had been human, her spine might’ve cracked. The spikes of her collar ripped into her skin. The scent of blood heavy on the pine laced air.

The clan moved restlessly, the violence calling out their wildness.

“You will not speak until I tell you to.” Power moved behind my voice, the skill of an Alpha’s control over her pack combined with the essence of the jaguar. Her lips clamped shut against her will. She was unable to fight me. The power of an Alpha was an amazing thing. No wonder so many abused the absolute control this afforded. Especially in the face of an unruly cat who needed a dose in her current reality.

Sadie leaned away from Bianca, shrinking in on herself. A smaller target perhaps? I zeroed in. She made the mistake of glancing up at me, through her jagged sable bangs. Underneath the subservient manner, an unruliness seethed.

How did I know that? Right then, I learned each emotion has an associated scent. All you had to do was identify them.=