Seventeen-year-old Keri Edwards has led a hard life. She is the daughter of the most ruthless Alpha in the territory. In the shadow of cruelty, he molded her to follow in his footsteps.
Her father's unexpected death has freed her and made her the Al...
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Keri
I was sitting in a cell on my own. I'd been locked for a couple of hours already. I was sure they'd put Curtis and the other members from my pack in nearby cells that were similar to mine. I was confined to a small white room with bars that ran the length of the room about a meter from the door. The bars would be covered in Wolfsbane, which was standard practice. One touch would be agony.
My father, Victor, had discovered there was more than one use for Wolfsbane. He'd learned that Wolfsbane given in small doses suppressed the werewolf features so you would appear human. It was how he'd managed to implant me as a spy in their territory without them knowing I was a werewolf. My job had been to keep an eye on Blake's and Cade's packs.
How long were they going to keep us locked up? I didn't for one moment think that they would harm us, they wouldn't dare. My father, who'd been the alpha of the biggest pack in the territory, was dead and I, his heir, inherited the title. I was now the alpha and if they harmed me it would lead to a war with my pack.
Relief was the only emotion I felt at the passing of my father. Finally I was free of the evil that had brutalized my life. He'd been a tyrant who had done as he pleased, without any regard for anyone else. To him I hadn't been a daughter to love and cherish, I'd just been another soldier in his army to do his bidding. He'd never cared for me in any capacity.
I wanted to shed tears of relief that it was finally over but I was taught from an early age that emotions were for the weak. Victor had broken me down and built me up into a person that would do his bidding without question.
Blake. I closed my eyes when I thought back to when Blake had walked away from me. I took a deep breath before releasing it after a few moments. I'd lost him. It had been the first time in a long time that I'd shown my emotions even if it had been for just a brief moment when a single tear had slid down my face.
It wasn't like I'd expected him to forgive me for everything I'd done and carry on like none of it had happened. But watching him turn his back on me had felt like someone had ripped my heart out of my chest. It had hurt. Before when I thought of him I felt a flutter of excitement. The little time I'd spent with him had meant more to me than I'd even admit to myself. We'd had a connection.
In his eyes I'd betrayed him and he was right. I was a werewolf from another pack that had been implanted into their territory to spy on them for my father, their enemy. Blake and his friend Cade were both alphas and ran two packs in the same territory. It was unusual but they'd grown up together and somehow it worked. The arrival of Scarlett had led us down this road and to where we were now. I wanted to blame her for it but it hadn't been her fault. The blame fell completely on the shoulders of my father. But he was dead and I was the one to reap the repercussions of his actions.
Sitting on the bed with my back against the wall, the door to my prison opened. I hid my shock when Scarlett stepped into the room with Cade behind her. He held a chair in his hand. Bruises still marred her pale skin. Her silver-gray eyes found mine.
"You should be resting," Cade told his mate as he placed the chair in front of the bars. The concern in his eyes when he looked down at her was touching. I couldn't help thinking that Blake wouldn't look at me like that.
"I need to do this," she insisted while she shuffled forward. Wincing slightly, she sat down on the chair and Cade stood beside her protectively.
That was the thing about Scarlett—she did exactly as she wanted. She was strong and independent. It had taken Cade some getting used to. Alpha men tended to be possessive about their mates.
Cade looked at me for a moment. He had black hair that was short on the sides and slightly longer on top. He was hands down one of the most good-looking guys I'd ever met but for me nothing compared to Blake. There was justified hatred in his turquoise eyes. His eyes went back to his mate. He was hesitant to leave her alone with me, even though there was no way for me to harm her. Even if I could, I wouldn't. The fact that I'd been raised by Victor didn't mean that I didn't have some humanity left in me.
"I'll be fine," she assured him with a steeliness that told him that she was determined.
"I'll stay," he said and she turned to glare at him.
"I want to talk to her alone," she insisted. He stood unyielding with his legs apart and his arms crossed over his chest for a few minutes. It was like they were having a glaring contest to see who won the argument. Finally, Cade threw up his hands and stalked out, shutting the door behind him.
Scarlet let out a sigh as she turned her gaze to me.
We looked so different, like night and day. Her black hair framed her beautiful face and silver-gray eyes were fixed on me. I had long blond hair and pale blue eyes, which met her gaze with indifference. Why would she be so insistent on talking to me just mere hours after what my father and I had done to her? I hadn't physically harmed her but the fact that I didn't stop my father from beating her made me just as guilty.
"I should be angry with you...but I'm not," were her first words to me. I was taken aback.
I tried to remain still and to show no emotion like my father had taught me countless times. Failure had resulted in punishment, which had usually entailed being locked up for a week with very little to drink or eat. The more severe the failure, the more severe the punishment. I'd been beaten countless times and on a few occasions I'd lost consciousness.
We stared at each other. I felt the guilt at the visible signs of her fight with my father. I had no idea how she'd been able to defeat Victor. He had been an alpha and she had been no match against him, but somehow she'd managed to kill him.
"I injected him with the Wolfsbane he was going to give me to keep me from mind-linking with Cade or shifting into my wolf," she began to explain as if she was able to read my thoughts.
She paused for a moment.
"The Wolfsbane in my system wore off and I was able to shift, but Victor couldn't," she revealed as she watched me for a reaction. She didn't get one.
It explained how she was able to kill one of the most powerful alphas.
"Do you know that he murdered my parents?" she asked. There was a sadness that settled in her features.
I let my gaze fall to the floor. The guilt that my father was responsible for the death of her parents was too much to hide.
"He hunted them down like animals and killed them because he was infatuated with my mother. He wanted her as his own even though she wasn't his mate."
Emotion mixed with anger in her voice. None of this was new to me. I knew about his obsession with her mother. It had driven him to hunt her parents down after they'd left their pack and gone on the run. It had taken him years, but he'd found them.
