Being Alpha Vs. A Mate

Being Alpha Vs. A Mate
Osprey
I began to walk around the wolves, slowly circling as I debated what to do. I was so fucking furious that these wolves seemed stupider than most. They kept fucking with my mate, and I was over it. I wanted to punish them, and I wanted to punish them cruelly. I wondered what exactly they hoped to achieve by taking or harming my mate. I punched Dimitri in the face.
“WHO TOLD YOU TO ATTACK MY SCARLETT?!” I roared.
“Silver,” he said.
My head whipped around to glare at the male in question. I stomped over to him to stand in front of Silver as my fury grew even more.
“Was this your doing?” I growled. “TELL ME!”
He lowered his head. “No, Alpha Osprey, I did not.”
I threw him to the ground in frustration, kicking him in the ribs as my hands fisted at my side. “This is exactly what you’ve done in the past! What makes me sure you didn’t facilitate this attack, too?!”
“Because of my bond with Scarlett, I swear, Osprey, he’s lying,” Silver whimpered.
I turn back to the other wolves, unwilling to tear Silver’s head off just in case he was truly innocent. I let my aura out more, glaring at the wolves.
“Who here knows who ordered the attack on my Alpha Sow?” They all raised their hands, making me chuckle. I narrowed my eyes on Dimitri as I pulled my aura back from everyone else to focus it entirely on him. “Who gave the order?”
Blood droplets welled up on his skin to slowly drip down his face, leaving bloody trails down his face and neck. He fell forward, gasping for air, as I bore down on him.
“SPEAK! WHO THE FUCK TOLD YOU TO ASSAULT SCARLETT?!”
“Ruth and Saul,” he panted.
“WHO IS THAT?” Dimitri clutched at his throat as my aura cut his oxygen off even more. “ANSWER ME OR I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU RIGHT NOW!”
“It’s Laura’s parents,” Silver said.
I glared at Silver. “Why would they order a hit on my mate? Their daughter is the one that got hurt.”
“I don’t know, Alpha Osprey. That’s just who that is.”
I returned my focus to Dimitri. “What were your orders exactly?”
“We were supposed to take the girls—all three of them. We were supposed to stage it to make it look like Laura had taken them,” he gasped out. “We were granted permission to use them all before taking them to Ruth and Saul. If they fought back, we were supposed to subdue them. If we couldn’t take them alive, then we were supposed to kill them.”
“What did Saul and Ruth want with the girls?”
“We don’t know.”
“What else do you know? I would advise anybody who knows anything to speak up. My patience is already wearing thin. You are already doomed to die. Why would you keep on attacking her?” I snarled.
“Because if our fates were sealed, we want you and her to both suffer, too.”
“Wrong choice.”
I started pacing again to try to cool down. I was torn over what I wanted to do. On one hand, I wanted to kill them all, but on the other hand, I wanted to make sure Scarlett was okay. I bared my teeth at them as I reached for my link with Scarlett.
‘Hey, Letti, baby, how are you doing?’
‘I’m okay. Are you almost done? I want a hug,’ she responded immediately.
‘Yes, sweetheart, I’ll be there in a few minutes, okay? Where are you?’
‘We are in the food court.’
‘Okay, baby. Order me some teriyaki chicken, will you?’
‘With the shrimp fried rice and shrimp egg roll?’
‘Yes, baby.’
‘Okay. I’ll do that.’
‘I love you, Letti.’
‘I love you, too, Osprey.’
I clasped my hands behind my back as I reached for Tara’s and Mona’s links. ‘We have 11 wolves that need to be escorted back to town. They need to be imprisoned until I get home tonight. All 20 of the rest of them do. I will not allow Scarlett to be hurt anymore.’
‘What happened?’ Mona linked back.
‘They attacked her at the mall. She is okay. I need time to decide how I’m going to kill them. That and our woods. It won’t be fast. I will kill them all very slowly. And painfully.’
‘Yes, Alpha Osprey. We will be there in ten minutes.’
‘Bring help.’
‘Understood.’
I cut the links as I squatted down in front of Dimitri. I tilted his chin up to make him look into my eyes.
“My sleuth will be taking you all back to our woods. Until I get home, think about how you want to die. I will snap the neck of whoever comes up with the most painful way to die. Got it?”
I let him go as I stood up while the other wolves nodded vigorously. I stretched as I met Beanie’s eyes.
“Have you checked on Laura?”
“Yes. Stu took her to the family bathroom and gave her blood. What are we going to do about Ruth and Saul?” He asked.
“We will discuss this with Laura and see what she wants to do. They are her parents. If I don’t like her option, I will kill them myself.”
He nodded. “Alright.”
Eight sleuth members arrived a few minutes later, easily surrounding the group of wolves, who all swallowed nervously. I rolled my eyes.
“Don’t be afraid now. You intentionally tried to hurt my Alpha Sow and Beta Sow. You did hurt their friend and one of my friend’s mates. You’re lucky that they are more important to me than your deaths are.” I looked at my aunts. “Take Silver with you. He’ll know how best to make sure their existence for the next few hours is not pleasant without killing them.”
They both lowered their heads submissively. “Yes, Alpha Osprey.”
“Now that this is taken care of, shall we retreat back to the mall and check on our women?” I asked Beanie, who nodded eagerly.
“Let’s go.”
I jogged away from the wolves quickly, with Beanie by my side. I knew in my heart that Scarlett was fine, but that didn’t stop me from needing to see her and run my hands over her body to actually fully believe it.
“Do you already have an idea of how you’re going to kill them?” Beanie inquired softly.
“Of course Godric does. He’s been chomping at the bits to end all of them.”
“Good. I have a few options, too, if you want to hear them.”
“I’ll give you a few if you want.”
He grinned. “Of course! They tried to take my mate and my Alpha Sow. I definitely want in.”
“Done.”
As soon as we reached the food court, I rushed up to Scarlett, who met me halfway to throw herself into my arms. I held her tightly against my body with one arm while my other hand moved over her body in long strokes, searching for any sign of injury. When I was satisfied that she was truly uninjured, I set her back a foot to look into her eyes.
“How are you doing?” I murmured.
“I’m better now that you are here. Where is Silver? Did you hurt him?”
“No, Letti. He was sent home to help Aunt Tara and Aunt Mona get the wolves situated until I am ready to deal with them later. I just needed to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m okay. I got your food for you.”
“Thanks, baby.”
I took her hand and didn’t miss the way she clung to me tightly. I brought her hand to my lips as she led me toward the table where Beanie was checking Elena over just as thoroughly as I had checked Scarlett. I smiled at Laura as Scarlett pushed me into a chair.
“How are you feeling?”
She leaned back against Stu as his hands descended on her shoulders. “I’m fine. Stu helped me.”
“Good.” I reached across the table to take her hand. “I was really worried about you.”
She squeezed my hand before letting me go. “Thank you, Osprey, really, but I’m not so easy to kill. I promise.”
I chuckled as I pulled Scarlett down onto my lap. “I should hope not. I need to discuss something with you.”
She eyed me worriedly. “Alright. Why do I get the feeling that I’m about to be grounded in my room for the rest of my life?”
I burst out laughing. “You’re silly. I’m not mad at you at all. We found something out when we were speaking to the wolves. I need to know how you feel about your parents.”
“My parents? What do they have to do with anything?”
I hesitated before responding, not wanting to hurt her. “They may have been the reason for the attack today. The wolves are claiming that they are who orchestrated it.”
“I don’t understand,” she said as tears filled her eyes. “If that’s true, why would they do this?”
“They didn’t know. Has there been conflict or hard feelings lately?”
“No.”
“Is there any reason they would want you dead?”
Her hand crept up to grip Stu’s on her shoulder. “Not that I know of. The biggest thing we ever fought over was Stu, and they like him now.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
She nodded. “They support us. They’ve asked him to come over for dinner the last several nights, but you had stuff for him to do, so he couldn’t come.”
Dread filled me as I looked at one of my best friends. “I don’t want you going to the pack until we are sure of what’s going on, okay?”
He nodded. “Alright, Osprey.”
I leaned toward her. “Laura, what do you want to do?”
“If this was my parents, I want to find out.” She looked up at Stu. “What if it was them and they were trying to get you to come over so they could hurt you?” She whispered defeatedly.
He leaned down to kiss her softly. “I promise you, sweetheart, I’m not that easy to kill either. Besides, Osprey and I have been working on something. He doesn’t trust your pack entirely, and after this, I can understand why.” He met my eyes. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Well, we have the wolves involved being detained and awaiting their execution. We need to get to the bottom of whether or not Laura’s parents are involved or not. Then, I need to have a meeting with Jarrod about what’s going on.”
“Laura, are you alright?” Scarlett asked as she took her free hand from across the table.
She shook her head. “How can I have been so wrong, Scarlett? I thought everything was okay. I thought that they were happy for me.”
I felt Scarlett’s aura flare out, but it felt different. It was warm and inviting, like when she comforted my mother and when she interacted with Silver. I wrapped my arm around her waist, completely overwhelmed by her need to always support the people around her.
“Laura, I know this is going to be hard. I pray to the Goddess above that the wolves are lying. I pray that they are just trying to cause conflict. If they’re not, we will be here with you. Stu will hold you, and I will be a shoulder you can cry on. Elena will be a listening ear, while Beanie and Osprey will make sure nobody ever hurts you again.”
Laura offered Scarlett a watery smile. “I appreciate you, Scarlett, more than you know.”
“I love you, Lala.”
“I love you, too, Scar.”
I took a deep breath. “Do you need anything from us, Laura, to help you?”
She shook her head. “No, but I will ask you that you leave the wolves alive until after I investigate my parents. I wouldn’t want them to die and my parents to be innocent. Then we wouldn’t have any idea who really put them up to the attack.”
I mentally sighed. I knew none of the wolves would have been able to fight my aura. I was 99% sure that her parents were responsible for the attack, but out of respect for her relationship with my mate, I was going to give her the time she needed.
“How much time do you think you will need?”
“Just until tomorrow.”
I nodded. “Alright, I can do that.”
“Thank you, Osprey. Can we get back to our fun day, or is there something else we need to discuss?”
“No. What do you girls want to do?”
Laura looked at the other two. “I don’t know about you, but I think I need a spa day.”
Scarlett’s eyes widened with excitement. “At our house?”
Laura nodded. “We obviously can’t do it at mine.”
Scarlett jumped up, clapping. “Yes, yes, yes. Let’s go.”
I glanced at my to-go box overflowing with food before calling out after the girl’s retreating figures, “But I’m hungry.”
Beanie chuckled as he patted my shoulder. “I don’t think they care, Osprey.”
“They should,” I mumbled as I got up to gather my food before hurrying after them. “When are people going to respect me as Alpha?”
Stu burst out laughing. “Never, brother. We all know who’s really in charge.”
Beanie and Stu high-fived. “Scarlett.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever!”