CHAPTER ONE
Keri
I was sitting in a cell on my own. I’d been locked up 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 three feet 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 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.
Scarlett 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 eat or drink. 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 were 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.
They had been forgotten about until Scarlett had moved here and started school a few weeks ago. When he saw a picture I’d taken of Scarlett, he’d known straightaway that the woman he’d obsessed over and murdered had somehow had a daughter he hadn’t known about.
His obsession had started all over again but this time it had been fixed on Scarlett. I hadn’t been able to understand it. He’d started a war to crush the surrounding packs to ensure that Cade wouldn’t be able to find support with them when my father took Scarlett away from him by force. He’d wanted to kill Cade to ensure that Scarlett would only belong to him.
But his plan had failed and in the end Scarlett had killed him. One of the packs that her parents had belonged to had fought with Cade and Blake to fight off the attack by Victor.
I didn’t know why she wasn’t angry.
“I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to grow up with a father like Victor,” she said quietly. My eyes lifted to hers. There was sympathy in her eyes.
I pressed my lips together. She had no idea what I’d been through. What Victor had done to her had only been a glimpse of the life that I’d led beneath his iron fist.
I’d gotten close to Scarlett, probably closer than I had with any other person, but it didn’t make me trust her. I’d been taught to never trust anyone. What was she trying to accomplish? I didn’t believe for one moment that there wasn’t some hidden agenda behind this conversation. Was she trying to get information from me that she could use against me?
“Why didn’t you just run away?” she asked softly as her eyes held mine.
She had no idea the hold that Victor had over me. I would have done anything he’d asked, anything.
She wanted me to confide in her the reason I stayed with a psychotic monster that made every day of my life miserable. Even suicide hadn’t been an option, and I’d contemplated it on more than one occasion, but there had been no escape from the nightmare of my life, not even death.
“I’m still your friend,” she said softly. “And despite everything, I still care about you.”
I couldn’t believe that, not after everything that had happened. It had to be a lie. My own mate couldn’t even look at me without hatred. How could I expect anyone else to feel differently?
“I know that you did it because of Victor,” she tried to explain to me.
She was right but that didn’t make me feel any less guilty about what had happened. I held her gaze without betraying the swirl of emotions that pulled at my heart. Feeling and caring for people gave the enemy something to use against you. I wouldn’t allow that to happen. The person who had the most power to hurt me had turned his back on me. It was a good thing we hadn’t touched yet. When mates touched, the connection of feelings was made and it would have been crushing for me to deal with the rejection.
“I know you still care about Blake,” she prodded further.
I didn’t want to talk about him.
“I know you were lying when you said you didn’t care if Blake died as well.”
I remained silent. It had been a lie. I cared for Blake even though I hadn’t known at the time he was my mate. His death would have hurt. If Victor had found out how much I cared for Blake, he would have killed him just to teach me a lesson. It would have been a weakness to exploit.
Victor had raised me to take over the alpha role and I was more than capable of doing the job. All I wanted was for them to release my pack and I so we could go back to our territory. I was worried about the pack. From the snippets of information I’d been receiving from my pack through the mind-link, we’d sustained quite a few losses.
While the attack had taken place I’d been with Curtis, another one of my father’s implants, delivering a sedated Scarlett to my father. The attack had also been a diversion to keep Cade busy so he wouldn’t notice that Curtis, who he’d thought was a trusted human, had actually kidnapped Scarlett right from under his nose.
Blake and Cade had combined their packs to fight effectively. Cade had retained the alpha title because his pack had been bigger. Blake had taken the title of beta. But there was no way Blake’s and Cade’s packs could have fought us off. I’d found out another neighboring pack, the Full Moon pack that was run by an alpha named Kyle, who was also Scarlett’s cousin, had shown up at the last minute to help. But even that wouldn’t have given them the numbers to tip the battle in their favor. The decision to allow females to fight had ensured their victory.
She let out a sigh. I knew she was starting to get annoyed because I wouldn’t open up to her. Little did she know, I wasn’t capable of being the person I’d pretended to be to fool her into a friendship.
“I want to help you,” she said as she shifted slightly on the seat. Pain was visible in her features.
There was no point in having this conversation with her. It would mean nothing. Soon, I would leave and they could carry on with their lives. Any friendships or feelings had been made under a veil of betrayal couldn’t continue once the truth was out, no matter how hard they tried. I was glad that I wouldn’t have to face seeing Blake every day. It would kill me slowly to watch him move on with other girls.
“I tried to get Cade to release you and your pack members,” she continued.
That surprised me. My father had been the one to attack but he was dead now and I didn’t want to go to war with anyone. All I wanted to do was to get back home.
“But he isn’t budging at the moment,” she revealed as she scanned my features for some sort of reaction.
I could feel my agitation rise. I didn’t have to say a word for her to know what I was thinking.
“With Victor, everyone knew where they stood, but with you, they aren’t sure and it’s making them nervous,” she revealed.
So that was the reason for this little conversation, I thought to myself. She wasn’t trying to be a friend, she was trying to get me to open up to her so she could manipulate me. I wouldn’t allow them to dictate the terms of my release. My pack was bigger, I had more power. There was nothing she could say that would reach the person she thought had been her friend. This conversation as far as I was concerned was over. When I stood up and I saw the surprise in Scarlett’s features, I walked over to the bars that separated us and held her gaze.
“I’m not your friend,” I stated calmly. I wouldn’t allow my emotions free rein. “I never was.”
I could see the hurt in her eyes as she reacted to my words. The more I hurt her, the more likely she was to forget about me and move on. It was better for everyone.
“It was my job to fit in and get information for my father. I was good at it, but it’s over. I don’t care about any of you,” I stated firmly. She knew I was referring to Blake as well even though I hadn’t said those exact words. “Tell Cade I want to talk to him.”
I needed to get out of here so I could get back to my pack. They needed me and, as their alpha, it was my job to take care of them. I saw the determined glint in her eye but I turned my back on her and walked back to the bed. Finally, Scarlett stood up and with one last look she shuffled out of the room. I let out a sigh of relief as I sat back down on the bed. I rested my head against my knees as I pulled them up to my chest.