Page 2 of The Tracker's Rage
A couple of minutes later, Eric appeared through a door in the back. He wore a pair of blue pajama pants and a gray T-shirt. His bare feet slapped against the polished concrete floor. His brown hair stood on end, and two-day stubble covered his jaw. Piercing blue eyes stared at me, cold and cautious.
“You are part of a bargain I shouldn’t have made,” he said tiredly. He had agreed to train me to pay a favor he owed to Damien Ward.
“Am I an alpha?” I expected him to laugh in my face, but he only continued staring coldly. “ANSWER ME!” I demanded.
“Ask your wolf, not me. She knows the answer.”
I shook my head.
He sighed, scrubbed at his face, and sat on the nearest sofa, a leather number with slick lines and stainless steel framing.
“The two times you’ve trained with me,” he said after a moment, “you’ve always heeled to my commands, though you fought me every step of the way. I thought you might be a beta, a strong one at that, but now I know I was wrong.” He glanced up. “Yes, you’re an alpha. I heard your thoughts clear and strong.”
I took a step back, the horror of this revelation hitting me full force. “No,” I whispered, wishing it weren’t true, but knowing deep in my heart that it was.
“No?” Eric asked, puzzled. “In case you don’t know, being an alpha is a good thing when you’re a werewolf, especially if you’re femaleandpackless like you are. You should be glad.”
His words registered at some level, but all I could do was think of Stephen and Blake. It couldn’t be true. Stephen couldn’t be responsible for... for what? The rhabo? The unrest in the Skew community? His own kidnapping?
Eric stood and took two steps in my direction. “What’s going on, Sunder?”
I stared at my hands while my lungs pumped air in and out as if they were getting paid for overtime. Could I trust Eric with what I’d discovered? At his party, the day I met him, he had been serving rhabo, then that vampire girl had shown up at his door, demanding more of the glittery, deadly liquid. Did that make him a provider? A dealer? Jake thought so. He had warned me to be careful. But I didn’t know for sure, so telling him what I knew could turn out to be a huge mistake. Still, there were other things I could discuss with him, things that terrified me.
“I feel I’m changing all the time,” I said.
He nodded. “It might take some time for your wolf to settle and reach her full potential.”
“I’m afraid I will become a different person, someone I won’t recognize.”
Eric huffed. “You don’t have to find out you’re a werewolf for that to happen. You’re young, Sunder. You haven’t lived enough to know, but there are many things that can alter you. Time doesn’t pass in vain.”
I sank on the sofa Eric had just vacated. “I don’t want any of this. I want to go back to normal.”
“Stop whining,” he spat, his voice cutting, unsympathetic. “You’ve nothing to complain about.”
His expression had turned hard as if etched in rock. I swallowed the lump in my throat. If I wanted sympathy, I was barking up the wrong tree. I suspected Eric had lost his heart when he’d lost his family.
“You haven’t lost anything,” he said. “You have instead gained what many others would kill for. You have no idea how many young werewolves would move heaven and earth to have what you have.”
“I would give it to them gladly.”
“Don’t be pathetic.” His voice boomed through the large room, startling me.
I slowly rose to my feet. “Stop yelling at me.”
To my surprise, he threw his head back and laughed. “Few would dare talk to me like that, and I only allow it because of your ignorance, but let me make it clear now, alpha or not, you will follow my lead if you want our little arrangement to continue.”
He stared me down until I looked away. I wanted him to keep teaching me—now more than ever. I needed to know how being an alpha changed things for me. Would it make it easier or harder to remain packless? Did it make a relationship between Jake and me impossible?
At the thought of Jake, I grabbed my head, feeling the world around me falling apart. He was engaged to Allison Blackridge. Their relationship was nothing more than an arranged marriage meant to make the Knight pack stronger. He didn’t love her. He loved me. He had said so himself. And yet, he was going along with it, hadn’t even had the balls to tell me about it himself.
“You were right,” I said. “Jake is getting married.”
Eric grunted. “Not this again. I’m not a relationship counselor, so please, spare me.”
I didn’t care if he didn’t want to talk about it. He was supposed to be helping me. “Jake loves me and not that simpering blonde his grandfather is forcing him to marry. I don’t have a pack to help them grow their numbers, but could being an alpha make a difference?”
His mouth twisted to one side. “If anything, it makes things worse. I already told you that the Knight pack is old-fashioned. They want their females submissive. As if that weren’t enough, alpha and alpha don’t always mix when it comes to mating. You can’t have two werewolves trying to lead. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll forget about Jacob Knight and find you a nice weak beta to keep you warm at night.” He sighed tiredly. “Look, it’s been a long week. Go home, Sunder. Come back tomorrow, and just know that this whole ordeal could be a lot harder for you. Be grateful for the strength you’ve inherited.”
