Alpha Betrayed: A Dark Shifter Romance

juliet

I should doas I'm told and follow Ford's advice.

I have no idea who my friends or enemies are, why my father wants to kill me, or even what he looks like. It makes sense to trust a person I feel certain wants the best for me, at least for a while. But I have a feeling, I'm not that kind of girl.

I'm the kind of stubborn creature who trusts her gut and follows her own star, even when it's dangerous.

So, I don't soar away along the shore, following the rocky coastline toward a village I glimpse in the distance. I reach the tree line, and circle back, watching Ford swim hard through the choppy waters, his gray head barely visible through the fog.

He's almost the same color as the slate-colored ocean reflecting the gray, early morning sky. If you didn't know to look for him, he'd be virtually impossible to spot. At least, I hope that's true, because the dark blue boat behind him is closing in fast. And I'm pretty sure the old man with the broad shoulders and thick beard pacing the deck with a rifle in hand is my father. Hammer.

I have no memories of the man, but there's a sense of recognition. Connection.

But it's a cold, distant link, not the rush of love and gratitude I felt when Ford came bounding across the sand toward me. This man may have helped give me life, but he isn't my friend. Or Ford's. And if he spots the wolf in the water, he'll shoot him. There's no doubt in my mind.

I swoop a little lower, staying mostly above the cloud cover, but close enough that I can create a distraction, if needed.

Or put myself between Ford and my deadbeat dad. If I'm shot, I can flame out and rise from the ashes. Ford will just be gone, and I refuse to imagine Ford gone.

I'm not sure what he is to me-friend, family, or something more-but the thought of losing him feels like standing in the snow while the only home I've ever known burns to the ground. I'm not about to let a maniac with a gun take him away without a fight. The man I'm almost positive is Hammer barks something toward the back of the boat and two more men emerge from the wheelhouse. They also have guns, but I don't feel any sense of recognition when my gaze skims over their faces. Either I've never met them, or they didn't mean enough to my old self to trigger a response.

I briefly wonder if it's always like this when I go full burn-and how many times I've risen from the ashes before-but I'm soon distracted by two more players on the deck.

A large, muscled young man with a blond buzz cut guides a woman in handcuffs up the stairs leading down into the hold. Her hair is blond, as well, but a darker shade, streaked with gray. I instantly know she's family, too, though I'm not sure how we're connected. I don't sense that she's a threat to me or Ford, but I don't necessarily feel protective of her, either.

Still, when Hammer slaps her across the face, I bristle, and flames lick at the tips of my wings. I may not feel a connection beyond the biological to this woman, but I don't enjoy a bully. If Hammer's going to strike a woman half his size, he should at least take the cuffs off first and give her the chance to fight back.

I tamp down the flare quickly, but it's too late. I've already attracted the woman's attention.

Her gaze flicks up to me for a fraction of a second before her gaze fixes on Hammer again. She doesn't say a word to the men or look my way again.

I'm not sure that means she's a friend, but at least she doesn't seem to be an enemy.

Storing that bit of information away for later, I tilt my wings, allowing the next gust of air to carry me above the clouds and away from the small boat. I glide toward the trees, touching down in a small glen and shifting back into my human form before I jog toward the beach. I reach the sand just as Ford is shaking the water from his fur at the edge of the tree line.

When he's done, he looks up and pulls in a breath, shifting as he exhales.

A moment later, a ridiculously beautiful man with silver eyes and a body a Greek god would kill for stands in front of me, and I'm suddenly absolutely positive that Ford and I are more than just good friends.

Or at least that I wouldn't be at all upset if we were...

"Why am I not surprised that you did exactly as you damned well pleased?" he asks, his husky human voice a melody I could listen to a thousand times. His lips quirk in a half smile and I'm pretty sure I'd give up the throne I'm supposed to inherit to bask in a full- fledged grin.

I'm being ridiculous-I have way more important things to worry about than a cute boy-but I can't seem to help it. Just looking at Ford is enough to fill my blood with sunshine.

My cheeks heat as I say, "I'm guessing you probably know me better than I know myself right now. Fair guess?"

"Maybe." Sadness creeps into his expression, banishing that ghost of a grin. He nods toward the woods behind me. "Let's find a place to lie low for a while and find out."

I fall in beside him as he starts through the woods. "And I'll tell you about the people I saw on the boat while we walk."

He grunts. "I heard it coming. Thank God for the fog or I would have been spotted for sure."

"And that would have been bad," I agree. "There was a big, bearded guy on the deck, and he was armed."

Ford's eyes narrow. "Hammer. Your dad."

"That's what I thought," I say. "I don't have any memories of him, but I felt a connection. It was him, two other armed men, a beefy young guy with a short blond buzz cut, and a blond woman in handcuffs, who Hammer didn't seem to like very much." I relate the rest of what I saw-the slap and the way the woman noticed me but didn't alert the others-and Ford's energy darkens even further.

"Who is she?" I ask. "The woman? I got the feeling we're related somehow, too."

"Probably your mother," Ford says, "the one you only met once, when we first arrived at Lost Moon. Your entire life, you thought she was dead, but she isn't. She's alive and the president of the university. Or...she was."

"But now Hammer's taken her prisoner." I nibble my bottom lip, wondering why my parents hate each other so much.

"And taken over the campus, I'm guessing," Ford says. "Probably with the help of the New Lupine Brotherhood. I'd bet my left nut the big blond guy you saw was Beck."

"And judging by your tone, you hate Beck."

"We hate Beck," he corrects. "Beck's a piece of shit." He hesitates for a moment before adding in a softer voice, "He's the reason you went full burn. During the first trial to get into Lost Moon, he tried to kill me. You flamed out carrying me away and saving my life." "I gave you my fire. To heal you." I nod slowly, the movement gathering speed as my cells hum with certainty that that's what happened. "I remember. Almost. At least that's as close to a fully formed memory as anything I've experienced so far."

"I didn't even know you could do that. Heal someone," he says. "I don't think you did, either. You just...did it. You gave me your fire without knowing what would happen after."

"I didn't know?" I frown. "That's strange. Now, it feels so instinctive."

"In your other life, you were kept from your phoenix form for a long time. I'm guessing it dulled your instincts. But you still managed to pull off a miracle. At least for me. I wouldn't be here without you."

I glance his way out of the corner of my eyes. "So, I'm basically your knight in shining armor?"

His lips quirk again and his sexy silver eyes flash. "Princess in shining armor. I'm into the breast plate with the boobs in the front."

I wrinkle my nose. "Boobs. What a horrible word."

"You used to love it," he says. "Boobs was one of your favorite words. 'Please, Ford, touch my boobs,' you used to say."

"Teasing the girl with no memory." I cluck my tongue in mock disapproval. "Not cool. You're going to get me all confused."

"You would never say anything like that. I was kidding."

"I know," I say, butterfly wings fluttering in my stomach as I add, "but I'm not sure about the other part."

"What other part?" he asks.

"The...you and me naked together part," I say, trying to keep the words casual and failing miserably. My voice cracks in the middle of the sentence and my already flushed cheeks feel like they're on fire. "Was that a thing?"This content provided by N(o)velDrama].[Org.

"No," he says with a shrug. "At least not like that. And not on a regular basis. We messed around a couple of times, but we were waiting until after the trials to take things any further." He pulls in a breath and exhales audibly as he adds, "And you wanted to keep it casual if we did. At least until you thought I was dying. Then you told me you loved me and wanted me for the long haul, but I'm not sure it counts since you were under duress."

I chew at my bottom lip again, feeling like a stranger in my own skin.

Who was the old me? This girl who had the love of a kind, loyal, sexy as hell man and was so determined to push him away? Was I really the kind of person who didn't realize I loved a guy enough to go full burn for him until it was almost too late?

I'm about to ask why I was so hesitant to embrace our obvious chemistry and connection, but suddenly I know. "I wasn't sure you really loved me," I say, my chest going tight. "I was worried that you only wanted the throne. Or at least that you wouldn't want me without it."

His focus sharpens on my face. "You remember?"

I shake my head, hating to disappoint him, but determined to be honest in this incarnation, even if I wasn't in the last one. "No. But that makes sense. As a princess poised to inherit a significant amount of money and power..." I sigh. "Well, that could make trusting that someone wants you for you complicated."

"Yeah, I get that," he says, almost beneath his breath. "And I was your stepbrother, so..."

My jaw drops and I trip over my own feet. He reaches for my elbow, but I right myself and take a step away. "What? No way. You're teasing me again."

"I'm not," he says. "But it wasn't like what you're thinking. We only lived together for about a year, when we were much younger, and we never had a sibling relationship. We weren't even friends until recently."

I arch a brow. "Because you bullied me and wanted my throne?"

He sighs again. "Can we discuss this later? We have more pressing problems. Like your father staging a coup and taking your mother prisoner. And potentially killing or imprisoning innocent people while he's at it. There are a lot of good people at that school. Teachers and students and at least three or four of them are our allies. We owe them a rescue."

I nod, feeling a new weight settle around my shoulders. "I didn't know that. Obviously. But you're right. Saving our people comes first. Tell me about them. Is Layla one of them? The girl you told me to reach out to if we didn't see each other again?" He nods. "She's your roommate, a bear shifter. She stuck with us after I was injured, risked her own life and her place at the school to try to help me across the finish line. She ran ahead at the last minute to get help and we never saw her again." I frown. "Why? What happened?"

"I fell off the last obstacle. You caught me and flew me to that island right before you..." He clears his throat. "That was yesterday morning. By the afternoon, I knew something was wrong. No one came to look for us and there was no sign of life on the beach by campus. It was like everyone vanished. We had other friends there, too. Alexander and Catherine, a brother and sister who were helping you learn to shift, and Natalie, the staff member who picked us up on the road on the way here and helped keep your father's assassins from killing us."

I blow air past my pursed lips. "Wow."

"Yeah," Ford says. "It's a lot."

"What did I do?" I ask, my stomach churning. "To make my dad hate me so much?"

"Nothing." He turns to me, reaching out to take my hand in his much bigger one. "You didn't do anything wrong. You were always a good kid who tried so hard to please him. He just wants your younger half-sister, the one we didn't even know existed until we came to Lost Moon, on the throne. That's it. It's all politics and Hammer being a monster. You're an innocent victim."

My jaw clenches. "I don't like being a victim."

His gaze warms. "I know. You'd rather be the badass riding in with guns blazing, slaying the bad guys, and saving the day."

My brows lift. "I know how to shoot?"

"You do. Or you did," he amends as he starts through the forest again, heading north not too far from the shore. "And you were damned good at it."

"Hopefully I still am," I say, keeping pace. "Or I can learn quickly. We'll need to be armed. And we'll need backup. I'm guessing Hammer has a lot more men than the few I saw if he took over the whole school in a day."

"Agreed," Ford says. "And like I said, I'm pretty sure he had help from the inside. If the brotherhood is working with him, that's at least fifty big, beefy Alphas who know their way around the place eager to do his dirty work."

"But we have people on our side, too," I say, determined to focus on the positive.

Ford makes a coughing sound that isn't encouraging.

"We do," I insist. "We have to. We're on the right side. The universe is aligned with us, not them. I can feel it."

"You're right, but that doesn't mean we have the connections to fight and win against your father," Ford says. "Not yet anyway. That's why we came to Lost Moon. We needed a safe place to hide out for a year or two while we gained strength and found allies. We aren't ready to face Hammer right now. Not even close."

"But what about Agatha?" I ask. "The woman you said wanted to back me for the throne? Won't she help us?"

"She might," Ford says. "But she's all the way on the other side of the continent. And I'm pretty sure you've never actually met her. You just heard she was sympathetic to helping female Alphas gain power."

I walk faster, refusing to lose hope. I may not know much about the world right now, but I know hope is vital. "Okay, then what about the parents of the students at the school? I'm sure they're not going to be happy to learn Hammer and a bunch of armed men have taken control of campus. Maybe some of them will help us."

"Maybe," Ford says. "But a lot of the students don't have parents or a pack. That's why they're at a school for reject shifters. The most powerful, involved parents are on Hammer's side. Beck's dad is a billionaire real estate mogul and Beck f*****g worships him. He wouldn't align himself with a plan like this without his daddy's permission."

"Which means he has money for all the guns," I say.

Ford nods. "Yep. All the guns and all the PR campaigns and bribes to assure the other parents come around to seeing that this change of leadership is for the best."

I curse beneath my breath. "You think he'll really be able to do that? Throw money at this until the fact that his son almost killed you and Hammer staged a hostile takeover of an academic institution just goes away? Is the world really that f****d up?" "I would love to tell you no..."

I wait for him to say something else, but he doesn't.

The only sound is the soft crunch of our bare feet on the pine needles, the rustle of the wind through the trees, and the shush of the ocean nearby. But all of those things, every voice in nature, assures me that things won't always be like this. Nothing stays awful forever. Nature is about balance. No matter how bad things get, balance is always restored-eventually.

But nature has more patience that I have. I can't find peace in hoping my grandchildren will live in a better world than this one. I want a better world now. For me and Ford and all the people at Lost Moon who came there hoping for a better life. "We'll find allies," I say, rolling my shoulders back. "We will. There has to be someone. You're just not thinking hard enough. There has to be someone on campus with powerful parents who's on our side."

He pulls in a breath, but hesitates, cocking his head. "Actually, yeah. There was. But she left a few days ago. Under weird f*****g circumstances."

He tells me the story of Diana, our friend who was cursed into the body of an owl, and the bloody footprints that led away from the owl's corpse found in the woods.

Diana, the young woman who also happens to be the younger sister of the Alpha chosen to unite the packs of North America.

"That's it," I say. "That's what we have to do. We contact her brother, tell him what happened, and ask him for help."

"He's in mourning," Ford says. "I told you. In the note she left behind, Diana said she didn't want him to know that she was still alive. She thought it would only make things harder if she wasn't able to break the curse in time."

"We don't have to tell him she's alive," I say, though I'm honestly not sure that's the best policy. If Diana only has two weeks to break this curse, wouldn't it be better for her to have some help? But I push that worry aside for now, knowing we won't be able to help our friend until we help ourselves. "We'll just tell him what happened with Hammer and that we need backup. If he's the chief Alpha of North America, this is part of his territory, and no decent leader is going to tolerate another Alpha coming in and taking over without his permission."

Ford nods, but his brow is furrowed.

"What?" I ask. "What am I missing?"

He shakes his head. "Maybe nothing. But I..." He glances my way. "We don't know much about this guy. Only that he went to war with his brother and destroyed access to a parallel dimension while he was at it. Diana seemed like a good person, but her brother might not be. And even if he is, he has his share of enemies. If he steps in here, it could lead to war all over again. He might not be willing to risk it for a school where his sister was killed before she even officially got in."

"But we have to try," I say. "Right now, this guy is the only solid lead we have."

"You're right," he says after a beat. "And he's not that far away. His pack is based in New York. If we steal a car, we can be there by tomorrow morning. We should try to get a face-to-face meeting. This isn't the kind of request you make over the phone." "Do we steal cars on a regular basis?" I ask, thrown by how casually he threw that into the mix.

He shrugs. "Sometimes. We also..."

I wait for him to continue. When he doesn't, I prod, "We also what?"

"Nothing," he murmurs. "It isn't important. I smell gasoline. There's a town not far away. Let's figure out how to get some clothes, find something to eat, and we'll take it from there. Maybe we'll find someone willing to loan us money for a bus ticket to New York. If we can avoid stealing, it's probably for the best. We don't want to attract attention from the human authorities or any of the shifters around here. At least not until we know whose side they're on." "Okay," I agree, torn between demanding he tell me what he's holding back and the voice in my gut that assures me I don't want to know.

I've only been alive in this refreshed body for about an hour and it's already clear my last incarnation wasn't an easy one. I was nearly killed by my own father, fell in love with my stepbrother, and have numerous friends in terrible danger. If Ford's keeping a few cards close to his chest for my own good, I should let him.

But I already know I won't.

I'm one of those people who hungers for the truth, even when it hurts.

And my old truth is going to hurt, I can tell that already.