Page 41 of The Werewolf Cowboy
“Cedric, pack is pack. Grayson will always be one of us until he leaves. Now either fight him for the leadership of our pack, or stop blathering. You’re beginning to bore me.”
Growling, the alpha whirled, and stared at the outspoken female. “How dare you!”
On the sidelines, Chase grinned. “Oh damn, Sienna, you’ve done it now. Challenged the alpha.”
But the redhead refused to lower her gaze and only rolled her eyes. Katy hoped Cedric would see reason.
And then the alpha stepped forward and hit Sienna hard. Gasping, she fell backward. Chase barked out a curse and rushed forward to help her up. He gently touched her cheek and then glared at Cedric.
“You’ve taken this too far, old man. If you don’t fight Grayson, damn it, I’ll take you down myself,” Chase threatened.
“Show some respect. I am your alpha. No one tells me what to do,” Cedric snarled.
All the while Grayson was inside her head.
Use your powers, Katy, darling. There has to be a reason why he went to all this trouble to kidnap you. It isn’t for sex or breeding. It’s something more. He could choose any female among his pack. Drill into his thoughts, see his true purpose. I can’t, not without him detecting me. But he doesn’t know you.
Closing her eyes, she envisioned Cedric, the thick silver hair spilling down to his collar, the thin nose and the upper lip lifted in a sneer. Katy took a deep breath, and as if she dove into a deep pool, plunged into his mind.
She found his thoughts blinking on and off like a bright purple neon sign in the night. Katy slipped through them as if they were pages in a magazine, and what she found shocked her.
She’s young, not tainted with the darkness yet. Fresh. More energy, more power than my last mate. I’m not going to die. Get a baby on her, fuck her, then drain her. I’ll be younger, last a hundred more years with her energy and the baby’s. She is purebred, good fight to the death.
Cedric didn’t want her out of pure lust, to make a baby with her and secure his line, as most male Lupines desired. He wanted to mate with her, breed with her, and then…
Kill them both. Katyandher unborn child, so Cedric could siphon away all their energy, leaving her a dried husk of a Lupine, her baby dead.
And he planned to fight Grayson to the death to achieve his goal.
Instantly she telegraphed this information to Grayson.His last mate didn’t die from natural causes. Right after he became alpha of this pack, he started to lose energy and die. So he killed her, siphoned out her energy so he could live longer, stay younger and remain in charge of the pack. I have some powerful magick he wants. He wants…to drain me of life. Me and the child he plans to make with me.
Like hell he will. Reckon I’ll have to fight him for you.
NO!
I must, sweetheart. Don’t fret. Knew it would come to this.
Grayson knew when he returned to Wolf Haven, he took a huge gamble. He’d been gone too long, busy living in the Skin world.
But in all the years of his absence, he never thought his alpha would turn mad.
Stinging pain from the lacerations didn’t hurt half as much as Cedric’s betrayal. The alpha had taken him in when Grayson’s parents were killed, raised him, taught him all a dark Lupine needed to know to survive.
And now Grayson faced the task of killing the very male he’d held in high esteem above all others.
Or dying at Cedric’s hand.
There remained only one choice. No backing away now. He had to make a stand for what was right, what he knew in his heart he must do, no matter how difficult.
The slick, coppery scent of blood filled his nostrils. His blood, and perhaps his death. But he must do this to save Katy, because no one taught her how to use her enormous powers to protect herself. She deserved a chance at life. With Cedric, she would surely die.
Grayson wiped the blood off his cheek. “I’ll fight for her, Cedric. To the death.”
For the first time, the silver-haired Lupine looked uncertain. Before Grayson could utter another word, before Cedric gave the official acknowledgment of the battle, the alpha struck him. Long talons cut into Grayson’s chest.
He gasped from the pain.
Dark light pulsed around the alpha, not the strong bluish-white light of each dark Lupine in this world, but a more sinister power, as if Cedric could no longer summon anything good. He stretched out his claws. Yellow venom dripped from the tips.
