Page 4 of The Alpha's Forced Bride

Clancy nodded silently. “I can always check the archives.”

“Did Anise leave anything behind worth looking over?”

“Other than her romantic ramblings about you…” His smirk grew sinister and then turned flat as he observed the fire. “I don’t know, Harvey. I haven’t checked them in a few years.”

“Get the boxes. I don’t care if it takes all night. We need to look over her journal with fresh eyes.”

With a sigh, Clancy obeyed my directions. He was understandably reluctant to review the scribblings of a mystical woman who had gone insane while dealing with a pack of possessed wolves. That was another horror of being possessed—those around us were tortured as well.

Before the end of her life, Anise had attempted to observe each individual possession and record every possible outcome. She did wax scrying, read tea leaves, and even read palms at one point. Everything she did was recorded in a leather journal, much like the tome that held a more concise collection of symptoms.

In the end, madness was the biggest symptom of a demonic possession reaching breaking point. Anise didn’t make it. Most of my pack didn’t make it. But maybe I could help the ones who were left and willing to be healed.

We poured through the rugged and weathered journals for what felt like days. In reality, only a few hours had passed. By the time the sun was peeking over the horizon, I found exactly what I was looking for.

I waved Clancy over to the desk. “Anise wrote that mating could possibly break the curse.”

He frowned while leaning over the book to read the scratchy handwriting. “Demons seem opposed to kindness. I show it constantly and see no real improvement in the host other than the light in their eyes growing brighter.” His frown deepened. “Harvey, that’s…”

“Pulling straws. I know.”

He sighed.

“It’s something, right?” I clenched the binding of the journal. “Right?”

“Yes,” he agreed in a low voice. “You’re right, Harvey.”

I nodded while pushing the book aside and thumbing through the Plague Journal to see who was left. Only a handful of women were in our pack, and they were either already mated or beyond the mating age.

I shook my head while shoving the book off to the left.

Clancy patted my shoulder. “Get some rest, Harvey. You’ll think better after some sleep.”

How was I supposed to do that when I could barely get any rest from my demon?

Not more than a few minutes later, Clancy left. The cabin—what should have been my home—stood silently around me like the empty walls were judging my position. What was I supposed to do now? Go out hunting for a mate like she was some kind of rabbit? It wasn’t like a possessed wolf would help at all. My pack was slipping through the cracks. Already, a couple of people were caught being reckless in town. I had to do something before they were spotted.

I didn’t know where to begin. I was too paranoid to go into town, but I didn’t want to risk the salvation of my pack by doing absolutely nothing. So, I did as Clancy suggested. I went horizontal on the couch with my arms crossed over my chest, facing the last dying embers of the fire, and within the minor blips of sleep I was able to obtain, I ran. In those brief dreams, I chased after a woman with olive skin and long black hair like midnight.

Chapter 2 - Kiara

The last thing I wanted to do was to sit through yet another boring alpha meeting for another dull brainstorm about how in the world we could possibly get people to mate with each other. However, since my best friend had married my dad, I had to reconcile a lot of things that were, well, not exactly fun to do.

Feelings had gotten hurt and words had been exchanged; in the end, friendship and connection won—family won. I also wanted something like that to happen to me, for once, instead of watching everyone around me find love.

And get laid.

Yeah, no—I wasn’t excited about another hour-long rant from Blake about the importance of mate pairings providing that extra layer of protection while Troy wisely nodded in quiet agreement. That wasn’t my idea of fun, but more to the point, I needed to get through the dull stuff to get to the good stud.

I meant, stuff.

Ugh, I was starting to feel hopeless. Regina didn’t always have time for me when she was with my father. I knew they were just kindling their romance, but I hated the persistent feeling of jealousy that lurked in the back of my mind. They just had something really special, didn’t they? They had this beautiful, unspoken bond that didn’t make sense to me.

And yet, it did make sense to me. Love was familiar in so many ways, so many avenues, that it almost made me sick to think about it. My thoughts were full of those romantic desires, like muscular men lifting me up and sweeping me off into a meadow where we would make love for hours.

If I dared be honest with myself, it was becoming a bit of a distraction. I had already missed about ten minutes of Blake’s ranting about how to make people love each other when his defeated gaze and insistent frown caught my attention. I pulled myself out of my fantasy and jumped back into reality in time to hear him say something that daunted me.

“We can’t hear names anymore.”

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