Fated To the Alpha by Jessica Hall
Chapter 164
I could hear my pack members talking out the front of the packhouse as we drew closer. The boy’s hand was still tucked in mine and yet I couldn’t seem to pull away from him. The look he gave me when he looked up at me made something twist in my gut. When we break through the treeline, I hear them stop behind me.
The she-wolf sniffs the air before backing back, the boy looks over his shoulder at her and the other two are standing just in the shadows of the trees. “ Are there children to play with?” The boy suddenly asks.
“No” I tell him, both of the two wolves growl behind me.
“Jonah come here” The young girl says, waving him over. Her hair was cut short and if I couldn’t smell her scent, I would have mistaken her for a boy.
Her brown doe eyes shone with fear of the small child standing beside me. The chatter of my pack seemed to stop but I could hear the crackle of the firepit that sat out the front of the packhouse and smell the spit roast cooking above it.
“He won’t hurt us, he gave me an apple isn’t that right Mr?” The boy asks looking up at me, yet I had no idea what I wanted to do with them. I couldn’t understand why I didn’t just walk away and leave them behind.
“Andrei,” I tell him.
“That doesn’t mean we should trust him,” The girl says behind me.
“Can we trust you? What does trust mean?” he asks biting into his apple which was now mainly s*eeds and the c*ore.
I don’t answer him, not having an answer to give the child. “Please Paige, I don’t want to go back. He has apples” The boy says, making me chuckle.
‘We can’t leave them to fend on their own Andrei, say something. Make them trust you,’ Donnie tells me.
‘They can’t trust me Donnie, I don’t trust myself’ I tell him and he growls at me.
“Hungry?” I ask them not knowing what else to say. The boy nods and I start walking around to the front of the packhouse to see most of our pack gathered around the fire pits set out in the centre of the small park-like area. They look up as I walk out and I start looking for Zane but can’t see him anywhere.
The she-wolf behind me whimpers and the teenage wolf growls looking over at all my men before taking a protective stance in front of the girl.
“Where are the girls?” I barely hear her whisper to her friend.
“You said you had a Luna, where is she?” she asks, her eyes frantically scanning the crowd of people sitting down. A few got up and I could see the shock on their faces.
I too couldn’t believe I had brought rogues onto my territory willingly. Malik and Casen stand up and walk toward us, the little boy ducking behind my leg but he doesn’t let go of my hand.
“My men won’t hurt you” I tell the young girl. “No one here will hurt you” I try to rea*s*sure them. It was dangerous being rogue. Everyone knew that, but being female and rogue was even harder.
Countless times I had seen it growing up, witnessed my own mother f0rced to do unspeakable things to keep us alive before my father found us.
“Where is Zane?” I ask Malik as he approaches.
“Trying to calm Sage down, she has smashed herself up pretty badly trying to get out of the
packhouse” Malik answers be fore his eyes dart down to the boy hiding behind me. Casen stops beside him and I see Clay get up and walk over to us. My entire pack I could see was watching with curious eyes but also fear. They were all aware of m y hate for rogues, my need for their deaths and I could tell they were holding their breaths to see what I would do.
“Please Alpha” Casen whispers his eyes on the three behind me and I nod to him. He tugs off his shirt holding it out to the male wolf but he doesn’t take it, just watches him warily.
The girl hesitantly steps forward, her arm outstretched before taking it from him quickly. I hear bone snapping and know the teenage boy is shifting.
“I’m Casen, this is my brother Vince” Casen introduces himself and his brother as he comes over and stops beside Casen.
“I’m Paige, my brother Liam and my sister’s name is Nora ” She says pointing to the she-wolf.
“And that is Jonah” she says, pointing to the boy.
“We have food, come” Casen says, stepping backwards and waving at them to follow him.
“We won’t hurt you?” Vince tells them, the she -wolf growls at Paige and she looks at her sister. “What did she say?” Malik asks the girl.
“That we shouldn’t because there are no girls here”
“We can explain, just come get some food and if you want to leave after you can” Malik tells her before looking at me. His voice flitted through my head via the mindlink.
“They can leave can’t they, you wouldn’t” I don’t bother answering instead looking down at the boy.
“Go with Mallik Jonah, I need to go get my mate” I tell him but he doesn’t move.
“Here you can take the apples, ” I tell him, offering him the basket in my hand. He looks in the basket.
“I can have them all?” He asks and Malik laughs, his eyes crinkling around the edges.
“All the apples you can eat ” he tells him. It had been so long since we had children at the pack, everyone watching and wanting to come meet them but not wanting to scare them at the same time.
“I will get you some clothes” Vince says, turning away and walking back and I see around 1o of my pack members jump up rushing off, others make room for them around the fire and Malik holds his hand out to Jonah.
“Go on, he won’t bite” I tell him and Jonah steps toward him. I watched them hesitantly walk over to the group of my men who instantly started plating food for them, scraping as much as they could onto the plates for them. The she-wolf
refuses to shift back, her eyes watchful of everyone as she guards her siblings. Malik walks over to her and drops a plate of pork next to her nudging it closer with his foot.
“You’re safe here, they are safe here. We aren’t monsters” Malik tells her. I see a few of my men rush out with blankets and clothes and bottles of water approaching them and handing things to them, trying not to move too quickly and spook them.
Jonah carries his basket and flops down next to the fire, sopping w*et trying to warm himself. He seemed the most trusting, maybe because he was so young while the others were wary but the offer of food was too much for them to p@ssup. I walk toward the packhouse front door when I see them seated together.
Placing my hand on the panel the door unlocks and I slip inside. I could hear Sage crying before spotting Zane crouched beside her next to the fireplace trying to calm her, smell her blood and see the droplets on the ground, turning and looking at the door the metal was dented and blood was on the door.