KARA
I made a conscious effort to avoid the two Alphas today. Keeping myself occupied wasn't as difficult as one would think. I went into town earlier this morning with a few of the other she-wolves so I could help stock up the reserves. Us wolves ate a fair amount of food so we consistently made trips to the town in Mystic Valley.The pups shared a school with the human kids. There was a total of one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school. Our pack may have been large but our town was respectively smaller than most so one of each worked well.We supported our local stores and boutiques as well as restaurants as much as we could. It helped build our little economy and most weren't prepared to make the hour-long drive to find a Starbucks or McDonalds. The humans who ventured out here to build a home for themselves and maybe their families came with the notion of idealistic peace and privacy in mind. With that being said, some of the Blood Wolves had chosen human mates over the years which led to many half-blooded wolves and many humans discovering our little secret. So far, all of the humans who knew kept their word and took a vow of secrecy.I watched as throngs of wolves gathered outside the pack house. My father had a gleam in his eyes, one that had faded over the years. This gave him a heady rush, toying with my life brought elation to him and that had my stomach roiling with rage.Miles and Orion stood side by side diligently awaiting their instructions for the first game. Their acute gazes never wavered from my father. I knew, from the pulsing set of their jaws, the thinned press of their lips, and their taut muscles that rigging the game for them to lose would be a difficult feat. Especially when they seemed dead set on doing the opposite."Welcome, Orion and Miles Kessler, to the first game of The Mating Games," my father's bellow brought the cacophony of whispers to pin-drop silence. He commanded attention and weaved it so not a soul would have a wandering thought, "My Kara over here," tucking me under his arm with an appreciative glance, my father trailed on, "is an expert tracker. She and her wolf have honed the skill. I'm not sure there's any as skilled as her in our pack or even beyond that. However, when mated, it is important to find your mate as quickly as possible when there's danger lurking. Being able to track your mate's scent is something any mate should be able to do. Therefore, Kara will have thirty minutes to hide anywhere within the territory. Once the thirty minutes are up, you'll be sent out to track her. The first to find her wins.""We haven't been around her much to be able to track her scent accurately. It seems a bit unfair, especially when the she-wolf in question won't permit our touch," Orion mused pensively as he scratched the stubble coating the sharp angle of his jaw.I could rig this. I could beat them. I wasn't only skilled at tracking, but also hiding from those who wanted to track me. It was another skill I picked up while learning to track. I bit back the smile that threatened to split my face as a bubble of hope swelled in my chest."We've thought of that," Ma pushed forward through the crowd of gathered pack members—from the human ones to our wolves. Throwing two items of clothes to the Alphas, she said, "Use those to help pick up her scent."Upon closer inspection, I realized that Miles held the sports bra I wore last night and Orion held my sweatpants."Ma!" I squeaked, my cheeks heating with utter humiliation, "why would you give them that?""It was either that or they sniff you," her tone was bland and her expression bored.Un-fucking-believable.Miles white-knuckled the fabric of my sports bra as he brought it to his nose. With a darkening gaze, a rumbling growl, and a deep inhale, he gritted, "Lemon and pine."Orion echoed his agreement with the fabric of my sweatpants against his face and a larger-than-life grin bottoming out my stomach, "A hint of something cool, mint maybe."Was my heart still beating? Why was the sky not opening so the Goddess Celine could put me out of my misery?Lex paced on the floor of my mind, "Miles has more certainty in his deduction. He's the stronger tracker. Focus on him.""Noted," even my internal voice shook as my nerves frayed."Off you go, Kara," my father ushered me forward before whispering for only me to hear, "I know you don't want this so I designed this game for you to have a bit of fun. Give them hell, Kara."My lips parted in a gasp, "You can't be serious.""I know the outcome might not be the most ideal one. But, it's for the betterment of the pack and you deserve to release your anger. Maybe this will help. Maybe you might learn to respect the one that finds you because of their exceptional skill. Who knows what can happen.""That's if they find me," I muttered, chancing a glance at Miles who pocketed my sports bra while Orion shot me a sultry wink as he tied the legs of my sweatpants around his shoulders the way preppy, rich kids would in town with their sweaters, "I can't believe those are my two options.""You'd only have one if they hadn't divided their pack," a chaste kiss was pressed to my forehead before he could shoo me off.I knew I'd cover more ground in my wolf so I brought Lex forward, allowing her red fur to burst free from my flesh. My nimble paws carried me through the thicket until the shadows blanketed my figure. Then, I took a sharp turn and veered off to the right, heading toward the lake on the territory.Rule number one: no wolf could track a scent they could not pick up.Thirty minutes would practically fly by so I had to make quick work."Are you sure you don't want to just make this easy for them?" The quicker it's over with the better," Lex suggested as we slowed to a trot."A better option is if no one wins. Think of it this way, if they both lose then neither one of them is fit enough to be forced to marry us," my logic was sound—at least, it was to me."I really don't want to have to do this," Lex grumbled as she locked our muscles in place."Lex," came my warning laced with potent irritation, "you're the most bourgeois wolf I know.""We could be out here all night, what if we freeze to death?" She whined."In this heat? This will likely keep us cooler," I argued, forcing her to give me control so I could trot into the lake. It was abnormally hot for a November night or maybe that was the adrenaline pumping through my veins.The water lapped at my paws, sending a chill racing up my body until my thick fur stood in attention. Clamping my jaw shut, I lowered myself into the icy water until I was fully submerged. When I ambled out of the lake, a brisk wisp of air assaulted my matted body as water streamed from my drenched coat.I rolled onto the sandy embankment, muddying my fur until the red turned to brown and I was cocooned in the thick dirt."There, this will cover our scent," I thought to Lex."What about the paw prints?" She pointed out."Let's have them running in circles.""All this mud will slow us down.""I have a plan." My confidence inflated that bubble of hope in my chest.These Alphas were in for a real treat tonight.KARA"Someone's close," Lex murmured quietly in my mind. I wasn't sure why she whispered when no one but me could hear her but it somehow felt like a sin for my thoughts to be at a volume above that. The forest blanketed in thick shadow had fallen eerily silent over the last thirty minutes as if it waited with bated breath to crown the victor of our first game. We had run laps around the area to throw off the two participants in tonight's game. If they were tracking my prints, they were going nowhere slowly. And, if they were tracking my scent, it would take them a while to realize I had planted my scent in almost every direction I could in thirty minutes with the help of Denver.He had found more pieces of clothing and scattered them around the forest, rubbing the fabric against trees to leave a lingering trail behind at my behest. We had even gotten the wolves running border patrol to spread my scent around which led to us covering more ground. They'd be out here all night and I'd
KARA"You've got to be shitting me!" I peered up at the scoreboard perched outside the pack house. Orion: 0Miles: 1"Kara," my father cut me a chastising glare which was more playful than anything else, "don't let your mother hear that."Alpha Killian Sommers might have been a scary, malicious man to the rest of the world but to me, he would always just be my dad. He was the one to tuck me into bed at night. The one to sing to me when the thunder roared too loudly or streaks of lightning lit up my room too brightly. He held me the first time I shifted for as long as my wolf would allow him and trained me as best as he could when he noted my exceptional tracking instincts. I had fond memories of my father so it made sense why this entire situation felt like one hard slap in the face. He had blindsided me and took advantage of the years of trust he built with me. "Of course not, she'd just blame you anyway," I quipped but my tone didn't hold the bite I wanted it to. An exasperated si
KARA"He hasn't left my side all day, save me," I begged, grumbling down the mind link between Denver and me. "I wish I could, Kara, but your father has made it a point to keep me extra busy," Denver's annoyance tugged at the link, causing it to grow taut. "He's really making it impossible for me to catch a break," there were about a thousand different things I could have been doing that didn't include Orion in them. Instead, I was stuck making small talk with the guy, "It's okay, I just have to put up with him until I get back.""You've got this, Kara," Denver said reassuringly before breaking the link. Too bad his reassurance didn't inflate my spirits and boost my confidence the way he hoped. During our border patrol, I learned that Orion's wolf, Diesel, had a pure white coat, unlike Miles who had white with black, smoky tendrils. The white of his wolf made it difficult for him to camouflage into the foliage, causing him to be an eye-sore. However, he resorted to muddying his coa
KARADenver had left the room before I woke up this morning. He had taken up residence on the floor while I slept soundlessly on his bed. Like the other wolves in this house, he had to use the communal showers. The only rooms with an ensuite were the main bedroom my parents slept in and my room. I grabbed the shower gel Orion had purchased before we could leave town yesterday and a shower bag with my towel slung over the top. He hadn't only purchased the shower gel, but also the set of leather gloves and the dress he desperately wanted to rip off of me. I protested but it was half-assed because I wanted to know if he was a man of his word. I wanted to know if he would make good on his promise. And I wanted to yeet myself out of a window for giving into such a temptation when I vowed to hate Orion and Miles. My body was a traitorous vessel that housed a mind with a weak resolve. I had this sinking feeling that, if Orion did do as he said, I wouldn't stop him and that scared the shit
KARAI listened. My hair was braided into a crown around my head and away from my face. Even as I braided my hair I could still feel Miles' thick fingers wrapped around it, tugging until a pang of pain blossomed on my scalp. I wanted so desperately to hate the feeling but the throb between my legs and the bottomed-out sensation still lingering in my stomach proved otherwise. What would it feel like if he coiled my hair into a fist while he completely obliterated me from behind? Would he talk dirty to me or would he simply enjoy the view as he fucked me?"No. No, that's a stupid thought," I muttered under my breath as I made a beeline for the basement. "Stop talking to yourself in public. You're making us look insane," Lex quipped. Sharing a mind with her was getting more and more frustrating. The gym in our pack house was built in the basement. It was a large, open space with half designated for machinery and the other for sparing mats. We held training sessions there every morni
ORION"This is stupid. Just claim her as ours and put an end to this ridiculousness," Diesel's guttural tenor rumbled off the walls of my skull. My leather-clad fist clenched as it connected with the jaw of a she-wolf I was up against while simultaneously dodging my feet from getting swept from under me by another wolf. We learned from a young age that a she-wolf could be just as dangerous as a male. On the battlefield, there was no room for you to take the moral high ground by refusing to fight a she-wolf. "We can talk about this when I'm not trying to avoid getting the shit beaten right out of me," I growled back, rearing my arm to elbow someone behind me. A burst of pain erupted from my stomach, knocking the air out of my lungs and sending a bout of delirium to my head. Shaking off the feeling before someone could land another blow, I grabbed a hand from the fray and initiated a maneuver that had the guy on his stomach with his arm painfully twisted behind his back. "Whose faul
MILES"This is going to hurt," I murmured but I couldn't stifle the grin which split my face in two. "Just get it done and over with," came my brother's muffled voice through the bag of frozen peas Kara had handed him for the swelling, "I have no idea how you've survived through a broken nose more than once. No wonder your nose looks crooked. I hope my nose doesn't look like that.""It just might, pretty boy," I chuckled, batting his hand away so he could remove the peas. Orion slid to the edge of my bed with a grunt of frustration, "Okay, on three?""Fuck that," I gripped his nose, ignoring his squeal with a roll of my eyes before setting it back in place with a sickening crunch, "there, just hold your head back and keep the peas on. You'll heal in no time. Just be grateful you're not human and don't have to sit with the pain for longer than a day.""Oh, how lucky I am," Orion sardonically quipped, falling back onto the mattress with a groan, "how many games do you think are left?"
KARAI paced the length of the cliffside as I waited for Miles and Orion to arrive. At every snap of a twig or crunch of a dry leaf, my heart leaped out of my chest at a violent speed. A buzz filled my body and restlessness infiltrated my mind. I couldn't sleep last night and my fraying nerves created a sturdy foundation to lay the bricks of anxiety. My doubts about my father were the cement that held those bricks in place. My father seemed genuinely excited about the games—too excited I noted on more than one occasion. However, if he had malicious intentions, why would he insist I get close and get to know the Alphas? Did he know I'd be headstrong and refuse it? Or worse, did he want me to get close to them so I could extract information and pass it on unknowingly? Wasn't that exactly what I had done when I disclosed the information of the first time Miles' wolf emerged?This was just one big conspiracy theory. What if I was overthinking this and making a massive mistake by trusting