In the Alpha’s Arms

Leave Him to Rot

Cole had his father cornered, his hind leg leaking, his chest slashed open from collarbone to stomach. His fathers wolf had been a machine at the start of their fight but Midnight was better. In every way. Better trained. Better motivated. Better at killing. Turned out, Maxim wasn’t nearly as strong as he pretended to be.

Lita suspected it had been quite some time since Maxim had been forced to fight his own battles. It made for a pretty weak Alpha. And that wasn’t surprising in the least for the kind of man he was. A man who ruled with pain and violence and fear. A man who kept slaves and saw no woman as an equal. A man who tortured and did god knows what else to women he sold to his business partners. A man who endeavored to ruin his only child. The man wasn’t a man at all. Weak at heart. Cold and empty. And without anything to love or anything that loved him, he had nothing. Lita suspected even now, his men had likely turned on him the second they were overrun. She’d seen those men, the ones like Chris. Seen the women too, the ones reduced to being wolf–less and afraid.

man they didn’t much like

They had no loyalty to Maxim. They were loyal to themselves and their vices. They were afraid. They were like Ren, d to a man and never respected.

Midnight prowled forward, growling low, rumbling the floor. There was no mercy in that growl. Midnight’s eyes flashed once as he lunged for Maxim 1 wolf again. Bone cracked, echoing off the chamber walls. Lita thought of Maxim’s grand plan of bringing his son home and breaking him until he caved to his father’s will. Further proof that Maxim never really knew Cole. Because if he did, he would know it was an impossible tack. Things were always going to end like this. A father dying at the hands of his son. Lita thought she would feel something about it when the time finally came. But she didn’t. Not a single thing.

Nyx stood, inching herself forward along with the others. All of them had worked together to shred t parts and blood were everywhere. And Lita thanked the lord again, that Nyx hadn’t eaten anyone.

Will you let that go already?! Nyx harked, it was my first shift. I had an urge. Sue me.

I’m the one that had to digest that so NO I don’t plan to let that go any time soon. Nasty as hell

You eat pickles and chocolate together and the masty one? No way

the wolves that hadn’t run from the room. Body

Is this really the appropriate time to compare our eating habits?! Lita decided to be the bigger person. Nyx huffed.

Despite Cole begging her to stay back, Nyx had been right in the thick of it, slashing and biting and roaring her rage into the face of every one she could get her paws on. Because, fuck those men, those animals, and every empire they held. Lita had already made a mental note of all the ones who had run away before Cole armed. She’d make sure they paid as heavy a price as they were due. It was cathartie, she realized, to maim and kill bad people. Rad men. She felt some measure of goodness when bad people died and it made her think of Brian.

Was he truly a bad person? Was he this bad? Did he deserve whatever pain she rained down on his life when she got home? Because as she’d sat in that cell she’d itemized her list of loose ends to deal with. And his name was at the top. Did she truly intend to kill him for all he had done? For the ways he’d knowingly driven her so deep into depression she thought she would never crawl out? Yes. Nyx growled. We will take what we are owed. Lita nodded. They would. And the blood on her paws didn’t make her feel bad at all.

The sound of something severing snapped Lita’s attention back to Midnight, who forced his full bodyweight onto Maxim’s wolf, pressing and rumbling In his face. He dug his claws slowly into Maxim’s throat, leaving a necklace of holes that made a wet sucking sound as Maxim tried and failed to breathe. A year ago, Lita might have thrown up. Might have cowered in the corner. Might have cried and screamed to have mercy. But she didn’t move now. Didn’t blink as Maxim’s wolf shivered and shifted. A very naked, very injured Maxim remained behind, chest rattling as he opened and closed his mouth like a fish. Nyx gave a toothy grin and Lita smiled inside. She supposed he’d never envisioned his plan turning out like this if his surprised Exce was any measure. All he did was underestimate people and hurt them. Even his son. Shit, especially his son.

low, buffing into his father’s ear as Cole shifted

father, than to take what was mine.” And Maxim’s chest stopped moving

This entire clusterfuck of a week had been because he called her his. And she’d taken it to mean property. Ownership. Like she was nothing more than a thing. That’s what she had always been before. An item to be owned, whether by her parents or her boyfriend. Hearing him say at had terrified her, tugged on a raw thread that hadn’t fully healed. And it drove her

here

the cusp of his father’s last breath she didnt hear any of that noise o feat. She brand protection And loyalty. Trust and love and the milhon things in between that he’d given her in their short time together. Nothing had been easy up to now and she had a supados things might not

Leave Him to Fol

fear and grief and anger. Let her have her

made her talk for that week she wallowed in pity after her first kill. He’d been building them a house. A place of her own to be free and happy. To raise pups one day, if she wanted

measures, she was his. And that fact didn’t bother her any longer because he was hers too from now until the end. And she could finally understand what he

the room like he owned the place. All swagger and zero fucks, “Well shit, did I miss the finale? Goddammit Lita, if you didn’t need clothes I would have been here sooner!” He whined, tossing a few bookbags of clothes at her feet, and the feet of the other wolves. They all shifted and Lita realized she recognized them all. One or two she’d seen in passing and the others she’d only seen from afar. But that would change the minute they all got home. She’d endeavor to be the type of Luna they all needed. One who knew the whole pack and

scooping her body up over his

the hell are you going? What are we supposed to do with the other men?” Ace yelled, “What do pointed at Maxim’s dead

to do with…

Hold the others. Raid the house, I want every soul rounded up and held outside,” Cole called over his shoulder, halfway through the doorway. “No more killing unless necessary. Tell the others. And Ace… I want the house stripped of everything we can use. Have Rafi call

and Cole let the door close. It opened into a hallway, gilded and beautiful just like every a million different things as they headed towards the door at the end of the

she’d seen here. Lita wanted

the fuck is my father doing

baby, and I tell you I promise. But I really don’t want to spend the

She stopped immediately, looking down to see the blood trailing down his arm, Shit are you hurt? Put me

mate, he chuckled, “But I

the guest

nodded, “These aren’t the same pack grounds but the house is constructed exactly the same as it was when I was a

Lita rolled her eyes. The never seen such an unnecessary amount of gold in my life. And the paintings? The whole house is over- fucking done. Like

for

letting him put her down at the entrance to the room, “Do you want to talk about