One: A Cow to Pasture

PEYTON POV

The morning sun warms my skin, giving me hope that today will be a good day. Sweat rolls down my brow, and in between my shoulder blades. This May morning is warm, the humidity makes everything sticky. My wolf is unusually alert, prancing in my head with anxious energy.

Hell, the entire pack is practically drunk with excitement. Its bittersweet taste, soaks the air, coating my tongue. Our future alpha, beta, and gamma return home from college today. If they’re anything like the younger versions, there’s no reason for me to be happy about their arrival.

To make matters worse, the alpha and beta are coming home without mates. Every girl eighteen and older will be throwing themselves at them at the welcome back party. I’d avoid the whole mess if the Alpha didn’t command all of-age females to attend.

I round the corner, and that’s when I notice them, the torture squad, as me and my friends have ubiquitously named them. Brad, the younger alpha, and ringleader of his high school minions. Hopefully, I can sneak by without them realizing it.

Shit. Well, there goes that plan. I swear these assholes have some otherworldly satellite that’s sole purpose is to know where I am. All. the. fucking. time. Brad locks eyes with me, and I know he’s on the hunt and I’m his favorite prey.

They’re blocking my usual path home, forcing me to cut into the creepy ass forest. Okay, it’s not horrible unless you’re being chased by a horde of teenagers, then it’s basically the start of every nightmare I’ve ever had. And any hope I had for this being a good day has officially been squashed.

The forest is silent, the only noise comes from the leaves underneath my feet but nothing feels right. My guard goes up, my eyes scanning the surroundings for any threats, and that’s when I see them. The band of terror, emerging from the shadows, surrounding me, closing in, making it so I have nowhere to go.

“Oh, shit Brad! I didn’t know they let the cows out to pasture.” One of his dickhead buddies jokes from behind me.

“Well, if it isn’t our favorite little heifer.” Claudia, Brad’s girlfriend, and Blackstone’s resident bitch chimes in. Her cackle hits my eardrums, like nails to a chalkboard. “Mooove it along, bitch!”

“Seems originality is dead.” I groan, exasperated, with this repetitive conversation. “Seriously, it’s been two years of the same shitty insults. Come up with better material.”

“What we lack in creativity,” Claudia’s minion says, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “We make up in effectiveness.”

“Are you working out to impress my brother?” Alpha Brad, interrupts, an emotion I cannot decipher in his irises. His gaze narrows, sweeping over my body, devouring me like a starved man attacks a meal. He lingers on my chest, practically slobbering with desire. It’s disgusting. Since my eighteenth birthday, my figure has transformed, lean and toned, keeping all the curves from before.

His question elicits laughs from his idiotic friends, acting as if it’s the funniest shit they’ve heard all year. The storm brewing in Brad’s pupils tells me he’s invested in the answer. “Oh, don’t be silly, Brad.” Claudia purrs, hanging on his arm. “As if our Alpha would accept a cow for a mate.”

“Better than a vapid bitch,” I mutter, meeting her gaze, wearing a look of disdain. Pushing myself between them, shoulder checking them on the way. My aim to run is easily thwarted, the gang on me like piranhas, kicks and hits rain down at me from all sides. My flesh bruising from the assault, pain rocking my body, someone shoving me into a mud pit.

The sticky substance covers my body, the gunk splattering in my hair. Laughter surrounds me, tears of frustration prickle the back of my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. I won’t cry in front of these assholes, they don’t deserve that satisfaction.

“Smile for the camera, cow!” Claudia’s best friend sings, waving her camera in my face. The flash blinding me, my eyelids fluttering from the light being shoved into my face. Rolling to my stomach, I push up on my hands, and knees, but a boot in the small of my back, halts my ability to stand.

“Where are you going?” A male voice sneers, putting pressure on my back, until I slip and fall in face first. “Cows love the mud.”

“I don’t know, guys.” Brad leers from the tree he’s leaning against to watch this spectacle unfold with amusement. “Maybe we should give this heifer a bath?”

Visceral fear holds me in it clutches, my heart racing, while my chest collapses, oxygen hard to find. My gaze finds his, silently pleading with him not to do this, anything but this. Of all the years I have been on the receiving end of Brad’s torture, he’s never been this cruel. Or ever used my unnatural fear of water against me. I hold his stare, hoping to find the boy I once told this secret to, only to find him gone replaced with an excuse of a man.

My wolf is frantic, clawing to break free, and tear these bastards to shreds. Brad notices the fire in my pupils, as they shift between their normal green and her obsidian, he kneels holding my chin. “No shifting.”

His command slides over me, the alpha aura too hard for me to resist, and he knows it. “Grab her,” he instructs, he releases me, standing above. The others don’t wait, their hands wrapping around my limbs, dragging me from the mud.

Tears I contained earlier, break free, coating my cheeks, as I thrash and kick, using all my strength, to rid myself of them. Hysteria has me in a vice grip, my vision is blurred, my inability to see adds to the fear. My skin crawls at their touch, throat raw from my screams and pleas that fall on deaf ears.

“Fuck.” Someone whimpers, after my heel connects with their face, probably their nose based on the crunching noise. “Stupid bitch won’t stop fighting.”

“Drop her.” Brad instructs, and without fail, I’m falling to the ground. Pain radiates through my skull, blood trickling down the back of my head, and neck. His face swims in my eyesight, my head aching from being dropped on a rock. Now I’m seeing double. “You’re going to stop being defiant, do you hear me?”

He’s using his goddess given aura to enforce his bidding, and I have no will to fight him off. As a low-ranking mateless wolf, without an official position within the pack, I have no ability to mindlink either. Instead, I’m left to the mercy of these idiots, hoping one of them gains a conscious and soon.

“You’re going to walk, and not try to run.” He pushes more of his aura onto me, making his point. “I want to hear you say it.”

“I’ll stop fighting.” My response is less than a mumble, my stomach rolling with nausea, while I try to disobey his instructions. “I will not scream or run.”

“Good.” Brad sneers, pleasure in his smile, enjoying the superiority he has over me and the rest of his friends. Goddess, help this pack if we’re left to alphas like this. I’ve never talked to Bane, Blackstone’s heir, but if he has his brother’s personality, we’re all in trouble. “Now stand.”

Unable to resist his energy, I struggle to stand, one of his friends stepping up to help me. Maybe one of them has a heart after all?

“Don’t help her.” Brad snarls, his hand up stopping whoever’s willing. The kid halts, his glance going between us, conflicted on what to do, until the alpha aura wraps around him. No one moves, their stares locked on me, watching as I flounder, dizziness making it hard to get my bearings. Brad’s wrapped in giddiness, relishing his power, and I don’t think I have ever hated him more.

Minutes pass before I’m upright on shaky legs, my wolf thrashing around, hating that she’s caged inside, unable to do anything about the situation we are in. Or his stupid grin. Goddess, how I’d love to remove it from existence.

“Brad, I’m bored.” Claudia pouts, crossing her arms, but it doesn’t stop the jealousy crossing her face. Brad’s always made snide comments, and little remarks, but lately, it’s become something more.

Almost obsessive since my birthday. A day doesn’t pass without him seeking me out. She might not be the brightest crayon in the box, but she’s intelligent enough to recognize her boyfriend pays more attention to me than he should.

“You’ve had your fun.” She whines, stomping her foot, like a child who hasn’t gotten her way. “Can’t we go back now? The party will start soon.” I’ve never been a fan of Claudia, but if she’s able to distract Brad so I don’t end up in the lake, I’ll praise her name till I die.

“Why?” He lashes out, his pupils melting into his irises, showing his wolf is in control. “So I can watch you and your slutty friends whore yourselves out for my brother, the future alpha, and his fucking beta?”

“No!” She denies, but everyone knows it’s a lie, Claudia has aspirations for the luna position, regardless of how she gets there. Even if it requires sleeping with one brother to get to the other. “You know I love you, baby.”

He snorts, rolling his eyes with disbelief. “Maybe, but not more than you love yourself.” He hand wraps around my arm, lifting me to my feet. “I’m tired of waiting.”

He drags me along beside him, yanking me upward whenever I stumble or trip over his feet. His friends move to follow, but he stops, turning to look at them. “Go home.” He demands, a glare filled with daggers landing on his girlfriend. “Wouldn’t want you to be late to greet my brother.”

Claudia and her friends don’t even bother arguing or persuade him to go, spinning on their heels, following the path into town. It’s the gamma and beta’s younger brothers who remain, apprehensive, as they glance between us. “Come on, man.” His best friend says, waving his hand. “We’ve all had our fun let’s leave Peyton be, and go get ready for the party.”

“Yeah, bro.” The gamma’s younger brother, the same man who intervened earlier, says. “Let’s go get drunk.”

“Well, I’m not done having my fun.” Brad says, tugging me into his side, lust in his irises that makes my skin crawl. “Now, go!”

His friends throw me an empathetic look, guilt and shame crossing their features. They hesitate, pain on their face, like they’re trying to fight the energy Brad is releasing. Eventually, their wolves give in, running toward the pack house.

Once they’ve disappeared, this monster’s nose is in my hair, inhaling my scent, and pressing his body against mine. The hardness in his pants, caresses my hip, causing me to shiver. What exactly does he have planned for me?

I break out in a cold sweat, as his nose runs down the length of my neck, before landing in my marking spot. Disgust and terror render me useless, paralyzed, my limbs not responding, and neither does my mouth. It’s like a frog is in my throat, and I’m unable to speak. Speak, damnit!

“Even covered in mud, you smell delectable.” He groans, his tongue dragging against my skin, my wolf revolted by his touch. “Come along, it’s bath time.”

Brad belts out in malicious laughter, eating up my panic, deriving more power from it. He pulls me along down the path, as we approach the one place I avoid within the entire pack. The eerie lake that sits right on the border of our territory.