Page 40 of The Werewolf Cowboy
Chapter 11
Katy cried out and lunged against the grip of the two males holding her fast, but they were much stronger than her. Grayson staggered backward, blood streaming down his cheeks. The alpha had just missed clawing his eyes.
Oh damn, she knew it had been a bad idea to come out here. Every instinct had warned against it, but her Skin side said this was Grayson’s pack and she had to be polite. Katy struggled in the arms of the two men, who held her firmly.
“Cedric, have you lost your damn mind?” Chase asked.
“Shut up,” the alpha said, his gaze never leaving Grayson’s. “This doesn’t concern you.”
Waves of sexual arousal radiated from him, along with male aggression…and something else. Something so dark and tainted it suffocated her throat.
Whatever had happened to Cedric was not normal or natural.
“Cedric, let her go,” Grayson said quietly. How he could be so calm with the bloody claw marks gouging his skin?
“Never,” the alpha snapped. “She’s mine.”
Grayson fisted his hands. “You’re the one who had her kidnapped.”
“It was easy enough to convince that weak fool Charles to bring her to the portal, in exchange for gold. All I needed was a pawn, and hanging out in the Skin world, as disgusting as it was, gave me the opportunity to find an insider to where she lived.”
“Cedric, man, what the hell are you talking about?” another Lupine yelled.
“Shut up,” the alpha said. “Katy is one of us, and she belongs to me.”
“No, I don’t.” She struggled in the grip of the two males holding her fast.
“Oh, you do, my dear. Why else did I allow Grayson to take you to the Skin world? I was waiting for the moment when you’d turn twenty-one and come into your full power. I have planned this for a long time, Katy. I’m certain you will enjoy being with me. I am a most exquisite lover. I’ve had many, many years of practice.”
Her heart beat faster, but not with arousal. Pure terror arrowed through her. She’d been kidnapped and brought to a brothel in the Dark Kingdom to satisfy the lust of this…thing.
Not a Lupine. Not an ordinary one. But a Lupine who had lived more than eight hundred years and was corrupt from the inside out.
“You won’t have her,” Grayson snapped.
Cedric let his talons lengthen. “I am the alpha. She belongs here with me, the strongest male, to take her and breed with her.”
Katy bristled. “I am not a steak. I make my own choices.”
“In the Dark Kingdom, females know their place,” the alpha said calmly.
Blood still streaming down his injured cheek, Grayson looked at her. “In the Dark Kingdom, females have their own defenses to fight off males who would hold them against their will. Katy is still innocent of her powers. She received no training. She doesn’t yet know of her powers.”
Powers? Katy’s instincts tingled. This place, which seemed so familiar. The feeling of isolation back at the Mitchell Ranch, as if she never would quite belong…
Did Grayson mean she was from this world?
Her gaze swept around the rest of the pack. They looked uncertain, but the alpha ruled them, and they would not interfere.
“You chose the Skin world, Grayson. Your life is there. You are no longer pack,” Cedric sneered.
“And you are no alpha who protects females.” Grayson gestured to the pack. “You forgot the number one rule of pack: never put your own needs before the others. If you need a mate that badly, why would you steal one?”
“She’s mine by right. I am alpha!” Cedric yelled.
Until one female stepped forward. With dark red curls spilling down her back and deep green eyes, she looked regal and commanding.
And mighty angry.
