Alaric’s POV
+25 BONUS
How can this be possible? I am Cara’s mate. Me. Not some traveling wander who happened into town on the night of a party.
I don’t trust this man, not in the casual way he’s standing or in the possessive way he’s holding Cara’s hand. It makes a deep unsettled feeling stir in my stomach.
Yet, as much as I want to storm over there and tear his hand away from Cara’s, the knowledge and recognition of my past mistakes holds me back.
All of this is my fault. My own careless actions in the past pushed Cara away from me. How callously I broke our bond in the past! All for a woman who was never my match. Cara is bright and beautiful, a dedicated, hard- worker, with an unbridled passion in the bedroom.
She is my match in every way. I had been a young fool six years ago to not recognize that, and to not just let her get away but to force her to.
Since leaving DarkWood pack, she has loved and lost someone else, the father of her children, nowhere in the picture. Now some other man wants to swoop in and claim her love?
Even if Alaric isn’t determined on making Cara his again, he would still be roused to protect her against this strange outsider.
She’s been through enough. She doesn’t need more heartbreak.
“He touches our mate,” Grey growls in my mind. “He attempts to take her from us.”
My feet start moving before I even think about it, but I cannot wait to hear Cara’s answer. She might agree to his pursuit, she might be lured in by the charms of this stranger.
I can’t allow that. Cara is mine.
Cara glances at me as I storm closer. I might be imagining it, but I swear she almost looks relieved.
The stranger sees me too, and his smile tightens.
As I get closer, Cara pulls her hand from the stranger and backs up a step. I slide into the space she made, standing directly between her and this man.
He’s tall, but still an inch or two shorter than me, and not as broad. He lacks the strength of an Alpha then. If things dissolve into a fight, I’m confident that I will win.
This man does not seem intimidated though. His smile is tight, showing teeth, and his eyes reveal his annoyed curiosity at my presence, but the rest of his posture remains relaxed.
This frustrates me, and Grey inside of me. We both want to make him cower, for him to realize he is an inferior male when compared to me.
He doesn’t seem ready to acknowledge this at all.
“Noel,” says Aidan, one of the twins. I’m coming to learn he is often the instigator, a mischievous one. Undoubtedly this introduction is providing great humor for him. “This is Alaric, Alpha King of the Darkwood pack, and my sister’s former mate – oof!”
Aidan abruptly cuts off as his twin Ryan elbows him in the side.
*25 BONUS
This is clearly news to the stranger, Noel, who suddenly looks Alaric over with more annoyance than before.
“You are the man who hurt her,” Noel says.
“That’s none of your business,” I snap. “Who are you, anyway? Some wanderer? A rogue?”
“He’s a friend of mine,” Cara’s brother Landon says. I look at him, trying to discern if he is backing up Noel’s claim on Cara. Landon, as ever, appears aloof, and I have trouble deciding whose side he’s really on. Likely, in communion with the other brothers, they will follow Cara’s lead.
“It doesn’t matter,” I say, my voice low and rough. Returning my attention to Noel, I make no attempt to try and hide my utter distain. I hate this man, through and through. Without even knowing him, I hate him.
He wants to take Cara from me. That’s enough reason to hate anyone.
“Cara is mine, do you understand?” I tell him. “I am the one who will win her heart.”
“Oh?” Noel lifts a single brow. It feels mocking. “So you don’t presently have it, do you? Seems to me as if you have already ruined your chances. If I were you, I would step aside and give the lady a chance to be happy with someone new.”
