Page 4 of A Kitten for Alpha Kenny

“Alpha, I brought your lunch.” Zoe, my lead beta poked her head through the doorway. “Is this a good time?”

I waved her in and took the tray from her before sending her down to the kitchen for her own meal. I generally ate down there for dinner, often skipped breakfast, and took my lunch at my desk. Since most everyone else was eating around the same time, I could count on being undisturbed for a while.

After the scene at the gate, on the day everything changed, I promised not to “fink” on the two goofball security wolves and pulled my car a bit down the road behind some trees before continuing on toward the alpha house and all the buildings in the vicinity. Most of the pack members lived there, including my fathers, and it was toward their home I was beelining when a shout caught my attention.

Pivoting, I spotted clusters of people, whispers reaching my ears. I continued past them, though, wanting to get to my dads. In my mind, I was going to get them the hell out of here and whatever was going on. They’d fought me before, but nothing about this place was the home they’d loved. Everything I passed looked run-down and uncared for. How had I not seen it in progress?

I’d been raised to be a pack member, but I’d lost that spirit. My wolf had missed his people, but I’d tuned that out too. It was all about me and what I wanted. Of course, I’d sent money and brought food to my dads, but I’d missed whatever this all was.

Shame infused me at the misery I could see around me. The children who should be running around, laughing, playing, learning, but none were in sight. Where were they? And the elders who I’d expect to see sitting in the shade or perhaps teaching the little ones were few, and none appeared at all relaxed.

Getting my dads out wasn’t enough, but it was all I could do. It would have to be enough.

But right before I got to their home, a cry brought me back around. The others in the open area fell quiet, and my heart sank. The alpha—I’d never actually seen him, but I had no doubt who it was—had emerged from the manor house and stood over a beta who cringed away from him, reeking of fear.

My wolf struggled to get out again, but what if he did? He couldn’t attack the alpha. This pack had enough issues without that happening. There was only one reason to fight an alpha, and that was a challenge for leadership of the pack. I had a great life, a great job, everything I wanted. Living here had never been the plan.

But I couldn’t look away from that beta and his terror. What did he think the alpha was going to do? And then the alpha, the person in charge of the pack’s welfare, reached into his back pocket and pulled out a flogger.

“Shirt off!” he snarled, and the shivering beta pulled his faded T-shirt over his head. Before it was all the way off, the flogger’s leather straps landed on his vulnerable back with a snap that made my blood boil.

All thoughts of grabbing my dads and getting them the heck out of there fled my brain as I strode over and snatched the whipfrom the alpha’s hand and flung it into the dirt as far away as I could. “Stop that.”

The alpha was a good three or four inches taller than me and all muscle. He wore jeans, boots, and a cowboy shirt with all those snaps down the front. “And who are you? How did you get on the lands?”

“Never mind that. Why are you beating this man?” Not that there was any excuse for it, ever. If he’d committed some kind of crime, he would face the elders or, if it was particularly egregious, the alpha might judge and banish him, but this type of public pain and torment had never been allowed. Even with right on my side, I had a hard time keeping upright in the face of the rage the alpha turned on me.

“You dare to question me? Whoever you are?”

“I am a member of this pack, and I know our rules and lore.”

“You are no member. I know the members and I have never seen you.” As he shouted at me, his claws began to extend. How could an alpha have such poor control of his wolf? “Wait, you’re that Kenny who I have banished.”

“With what cause?”

“You went rogue.” His fangs descended. “And you are not allowed here.”

“Yes I am. I pay my share and visit often and I was born of this pack.” Rage suffusing me, I closed in and poked him in the chest. “And, unlike you, I know the rules and follow them.”

His eyes burned into me, but it didn’t matter. If this poor excuse for an alpha was allowed to continue, who would he beat next? A female? A child? One of my fathers?

Patches of fur broke out on his arms. He had zero control. “Are you challenging me?”

“If that’s what it takes.” I stumbled back a step, not in fear of losing but of winning. My perfect life melted in front of my eyes.I was nobody’s hero. “But I think we should be able to talk this through.”

His laughter rolled over me before the shift covered him. Challenges in our pack were in two-legged form, but this alpha was breaking all the rules, and I doubted he’d been able to stop it anyway. With a prayed to the goddess, I let my wolf out, clothing shredding around me. If I’d been enraged by what I saw, my wolf was more so, and he did not wait for me to act, leaping upon the shaggy gray animal with a vicious growl. Not all challenges were to the death, but this one would be. As the alpha sought my throat with his yellowed fangs, I struggled to find a position where I could make my own impression on his jugular.

We were locked in mortal combat, rolling in the dust, blood spattering around us. I had jagged wounds on both shoulders, but the alpha was hurt too. We went back and forth, evenly matched, it seemed, but then, as I was beginning to tire, I saw my shot and ended it in one clean bite. Well, not really clean—but at least it was over, and I stood over the alpha, tongue hanging out, panting. He shifted back, blood spurting from his destroyed throat, and lay still.

It seemed every member of the pack had closed in around us, and they stood quietly, watching. I stared, horrified at the battered corpse that lay at my feet, but my wolf tipped his head back and howled in triumph.

He was glad, apparently, but I was horrified because I had made a move in the heat of the moment that uprooted my entire life and left me in charge of a pack that had been subjected to years of destructive leadership. And I had to get them back on track.

At first, I thought that I’d never make progress, but a few years in, I was beginning to see the light of day. It had taken all that time to get somewhat past the hurt and distrust that hadbuilt in my people. To accept that I wasn’t going to be able to just step back into my old life. And for the storehouses to begin to refill with the abundance that made all those things happen.

I’d learned that the alpha had separated the pack from all others, and one of the things I was working on was rebuilding all the connections there. We’d been isolated and had a terrible reputation to overcome. Although things were better, they were far from perfect, and sometimes I was so exhausted I fell asleep fully dressed, too wiped out even to disrobe.

“Alpha? You have a call from Aspen at the Wolfe Enterprises pack?” Zoe was back. “And you haven’t touched your lunch.”

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