Page 1 of Brutal Alpha

Prologue - Julia

Knock, knock, knock.

The familiar rap of my big brother’s knuckles on my bedroom door filled my stomach with dread, and I immediately felt guilty. He hadn’t done anything wrong.

Our father had been dead for three days, and I was still waiting for grief to settle in. All around me, I saw it in the faces of others; Caleb, my dependable big brother, had curled inward, feeling unsure and directionless, while the rest of our Pack mourned the loss of their Alpha. Abe Thorne had been universally respected, strong, and unwavering like the stone of Lapine’s quarries. He had never met a problem he couldn’t solve, which was why he had always resented me; he could not forbid my mother from dying at my birth, nor could his Alpha authority prevent me from being born half-blind. My weakness was a stain on his perfect image, one he couldn’t wash off.

Since he couldn’t fix me, he chose to ignore me. That might not have been so awful if he hadn’t encouraged the rest of the Pack to do the same. He grudgingly allowed me to attend school in the town hall, but I was forbidden from socializing with my peers, and I could only run as my wolf under the cover of darkness. Abe Thorne had been my father, technically, but in my seventeen years, I had only known him as my jailor. Now my jailor was dead, and I was expected to cry for him.

It took monumental effort to raise my voice enough for Caleb to hear me through the door, and all I could bring myself to say was,

“Yeah?”

Caleb pushed the door open gently. He didn’t come all the way in but leaned against the door frame, watching me. Helooked tired; there were dark bags beneath his bright blue eyes, and his face was pale and pained.

“Uh—the guys are gonna be here pretty soon,” he said. “I’d like you to come down and meet them.”

It wasn’t a demand. He could have ordered me—he was Lapine’s Alpha now—but he was asking. He’d asked so little of me in the last few days despite the fact that his grief ran oceans deeper than mine, and he already had so much responsibility piled on his shoulders. He was only just twenty and suddenly being asked to fill the shoes of one of the most respected Alphas in the Nightfire archipelago.

“Sure,” I agreed, sitting up for the first time in hours. It occurred to me that I needed to pee. I was wearing stained sweatpants and one of Caleb’s old t-shirts, and I hadn’t washed my hair since Dad had clutched his heart and keeled over at the dinner table. “Do I have time to—?” I gestured at the general state of myself, and Caleb nodded.

“Probably. They radioed from Ferris just after noon.”

It was nearly dusk: they’d be over the bridge by now, but probably still outside of town. I had time to shower and change. Dragging myself out of bed felt like climbing a mountain, but it was worth it for Caleb’s weak smile. As I brushed past him, he reached out and pulled me into a hug. He was as strong and solid as he’s always been, but his breathing felt shallower, more labored, as if every inhale took effort.

“I love you,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. I might be the tallest girl on the island, but Caleb still had a good few inches on me, and that would probably increase now that he’d graduated from Heir to Alpha.

“Sap,” I muttered into his shirt. “I love you, too.”

We stood there for a few more seconds, leaning on each other, until Caleb pushed me away.

“Go on,” he said, “you stink.”

I stuck my tongue out at him as I marched down the hall to the bathroom. One day, I reminded myself that things would feel normal again, but for now, I had to shower, get dressed, and pretend I was sad that my dad was dead in front of my brother’s friends.

I’d never met most of the guys who were descending on the house that evening. Sure, I’d heard enough about Leo and Jace and Xander and Noah over the past few months to paint myself a pretty clear picture, but that was hardly the same. I tried not to think about the fifth member of their little gang as I turned on the hot water and stepped beneath the spray. Ethan Cain should have no place in my thoughts right now.

As our neighbor and our closest ally, the Ferris Alpha had visited Lapine fairly frequently during my childhood, always with his Heir in tow, and both Caleb and I had been fascinated by the straight-backed, serious boy. For Caleb, this had turned into a fast friendship, and for me, it had turned into a deeply embarrassing crush. Ethan was five years my senior and barely acknowledged me for more than a few seconds at a time. That wasn’t going to change tonight—my father had just died, after all—but that didn’t stop me from using extra conditioner, and combing carefully through my long black hair until it shone.

It took another half hour to get myself ready, drying my hair—making sure it hung properly over my face, hiding my bad eye—and picking out a pair of low-rise jeans that looked casual enough, with a pale blue shirt that brought out the color of my good eye and hugged the modest curves at my hips and chest. Not that any of that mattered. Because my dad was dead.

The sound of commotion drifted toward me as I descended the stairs, and suddenly, our home was full of Alpha scents—so much that it was almost overwhelming. Honestly, I wouldn’t have cared if they smelled of unwashed socks and jockstraps because Caleb looked happy for the first time in days. As I joined them, he slung an arm around my shoulder, ruffling my hair, because he was the worst.

“Guys, this is my sister, Julia. Julia, this is—”

“No, no, let me guess.”

Caleb rolled his eyes but acquiesced, and I observed the assembled shifters with faux concentration.

“Leo,” I said, pointing to the Alpha with a riot of auburn curls and a twinkle of mirth in his green eyes.

“At your service,” he replied with a smile. Charm was a rare quality in an Alpha—as a breed, they usually relied on respect over likability—and I took to him instantly. Moving on, I turned to the Alpha to his right. Older than the others, he was even more muscular and already carried several scars on his arms.

“Xander,” I said, receiving a nod in return. I’d been a little wary of my brother becoming friends with the Alpha (or the Heir, as he had been then) of Ensign, but Xander wasn’t the hulking menace I’d imagined from the Alpha of such a place.

The other two were Heirs, only around my age, lean and rangy rather than muscled like their Alpha friends. They elbowed each other in the ribs as I appraised them, trying to figure out which was which. Jace was the Heir to Opifex, that much I knew, and Noah the Heir to Cunic.

“Jace?” I guessed, pointing to the Heir with dark brown skin and coiled black hair cropped short. He remained stone-faced, trying to make it hard for me. A weaker woman might have folded, but I stuck to my guns.

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