The Alpha’s Other Woman
41 Naughty

Carrie

The night of the full moon dawned cloudy, and it did not clear up in the slightest as the day progressed. My wolf spent the day clawing at my mind, wanting to be let out, and everyone else was just as on edge as I was. Still, we had a nice distraction planned for the afternoon.

We gathered everyone in the pack who was available, and Jason stood at the front. “Alright. It’s time to name this thing. No more debating, and we’re all going to deal with whatever happens. Following Carrie’s proposed system, we vote, and knock out any suggestion that doesn’t get at least two votes, then take a second vote. Any complaints about that? Because we don’t want to hear them later.”

No one did. If anything, they were excited to have some say in such a momentous decision.

My favourite option was a clear leader in the first vote, but I didn’t let myself get too excited. I wasn’t worried, since all the remaining options were better than TBD. Bloodrogue also got knocked out, I was not disappointed to note.

“I’m just glad that one with my name in it is out,” Jason said. “Krystal suggested it to mess with me. I know it.”

Privately, I thought he was right. She had advocated hard for it, and tried to get a vote for Rosella to sway the vote, when she couldn’t convince her mate to go along with her plan. A true rogue, that one. She disliked agreeing, just for the sake of disagreeability. I quite liked her.

Jason spoke again, as ridiculously hot as ever. “That leaves us four remaining options. Moonhaven, Glenshadow, Newhaven, and Wildlupus. This round, is out of the final four. If there’s a tie, we’ll go another round, if not, this decides the pack name.”

It didn’t take long for everyone to vote, and for Jason to tally it. He wouldn’t let me look ahead of time, blocking me with his shoulder, with a smirk. I pouted and gave up.

“All right. We’ve got a clear winner,” Jason announced.

Everyone waited in expectation. Jason said nothing.

Krystal growled. “Just spit it out, Alpha! If this is revenge for Bronsonclaw...”

Jason narrowed his eyes at her jokingly. “This is revenge for a lot of things. But, my mate will kill me if I drag it out longer.”

I rolled my eyes. A chuckle ran through the crowd.

“Welcome to Glenshadow.”

—————

We inducted Theodora, West, and Nash into the pack that night, the first new members under the new name. I felt fully confident in our decision to allow Theodora and West in, but Nash still made me feel slightly uneasy. He seemed to have relaxed a bit, and was willing in his surly, jittery way to work as hard as anyone else, so there hadn’t been a good reason not to allow him along with his brother and mate-sister.

Once our hands had bled together, the links to three more presences established themselves in my mind, along with the wisp of a fourth, I assumed the young one Theodora carried inside her. Being so directly in the centre of the ceremony was a strange new experience for me, because as acting luna I had never taken part beside Asshole Dane, instead just like any other pack member would have in the assembled audience.

But now, I was like the mother to this pack. We were family, and it was Jason’s and my job to care for them.

My mind slipped back to the pregnancy test in our room. I hadn’t noticed any unpleasant symptoms, but I had been extremely hungry the past couple of days. Was it related to our heat activities, or just me being oversensitive to any changes?

Although I was nervous about the idea of being a mother and all it entailed, I was also excited and so was my wolf. But for now, she was mostly just happy to transform so that she could run wild through the forest. I shifted, and I dashed towards the trees, my mate hot on my tail.

I slowed and nudged him playfully. We would hunt and eat, but there was no reason we could not spend a bit of time letting our wolves tease each other first.

He returned the gesture, pushing his muzzle into my shoulder. I gripped the ground with my blunt claws, and sprang forward through the dark forest. My wolf loved when he chased me, and even more when he caught me.

Our little game was interrupted by a high-pitched scream, coming from the direction of the road. Both Jason and I, along with every other member of our pack still in sight turned to look, or dashed in the direction of the disturbance to see what the commotion was about.

“We’ve got an intruder.”

Our beta and several fighters rushed forward along with us. Another scream sounded, and I had a sudden bad feeling that I recognized the voice.

My suspicion was confirmed when Porter put on speed and passed us, faster than I had known he could run.

We dashed after him.

Amanda was standing up against a tree as Porter burst into the clearing. Several of our pack was surrounding her, and she was shaking and brandishing a pitiful leafed stick that probably would not have even helped her against a real wolf, let alone a werewolf. Porter ran up to her, and she smacked him, but he ignored her assault as he turned and bared his teeth at the rest of us. “Leave her alone, she’s mine!” he nearly shouted through our mind link.

“Stand down,” Jason told the others. “But stay close. We need to figure out the situation. What does she know?”

Kain trotted back towards us, his dark coat helping his lanky wolf blend into the shadows. “I think she saw, Alpha and Luna.”

“Saw?”

“Everything. Her scent trail leads directly up to the clearing.”

“Fuck,” Jason said. “Porter, we can’t just let her go. Not right now.”

“What am I supposed to do, Alpha? She’s going to hate me if we don’t.”

I tried frantically to think of a plan to deal with the situation. Had she really seen us transform, or had her scream only been a display of natural fear of large and aggressive wolves? She wasn’t talking to us like we could understand, and the woman normally never stopped chattering. But everyone reacted to fear differently, and maybe that was the one emotion that could silence her.

I settled on a plan, but she might hate me for it. Still, better me than Porter. “Keep her here for a minute, I’ll be right back,” I ordered. Then I ran back to our trailer. Once there, I forced myself to shift. My wolf was reluctant, but didn’t put up too much of a resistance.

My bones shifted and my muscles morphed in an excruciatingly slow process compared to the quick and painless shifts I normally experienced. It was like my first shift all over again. I couldn’t see it from the window, the moon was full, and my wolf knew it deep down.

Finally, I crouched on the ground, sweating and fully human.

Once I recovered, it took me only a couple of minutes in the trailer to look like my usual self, and wasting no time, I ran through the forest. I couldn’t see perfectly, but I could see at least well enough to navigate. As I approached, I ordered everyone, “Back off. She needs to believe I’m alone.”

Porter whined and reluctantly obeyed. Immediately, Amanda began crashing through the trees in a new attempt to escape, but I was faster and she was bumbling in the darkness. Could she see anything at all? She shrieked again as I grabbed her hand. “Amanda!”

“Shit! Shit, Carrie, there’re wolves, I swear I saw—” She shook her head as if to clear it. “We have to get out of here, fast, before they come back. I lost my flashlight, but we’ve got to keep moving.”

She held my hand more firmly and began to pull me along, stumbling in the darkness. As I tried to guide her back towards the pack, I attempted to pull her so that she wouldn’t hit as many obstacles in her blind rush, but she still managed to cut open her leg on a fallen log. Iron contrasted sharply with the decaying trees and plants.

Then she stopped suddenly.

“You’re one of them. That’s why you’re here!” She threw away my hand as if it burned her.

“I—”

“Don’t even lie to me. You’re all werewolves, or something crazy like that! I just saw people turn into wolves, and you showed up right when they left! Do you think I’m stupid?”

“Of course not, Amanda. You’re my friend.” I stepped forward.

She scoffed, but she was still shaking. “If I’m really your friend, then call off your wolves and let me go.”

“I can’t do that, at least not until—”

She tried to run again, but Porter appeared in front of her in his human form, and she slammed into him instead of the next tree she would have collided with. With another shriek, she stumbled backwards.

I steadied her, and she jerked away from me, straight back into Porter. In a smooth motion he swung her up onto his shoulder and began to stride away. Apparently my damage control of the situation had been a spectacular failure.

“Put me down!” she screeched as she kicked at his chest as best she could with him holding her legs. She flailed punches at his back. “Someone help! I’m being kidnapped by freaking monsters! Help!”

“No one can hear you. And I’m not going to hurt you,” Porter said, his voice loud so he could be heard over the sound of her shrieks.

“Porter!?” she snapped. “What the hell? I made myself clear, I told you to stay away from me, damn it!”

“I did stay away,” he said, his voice very nearly a growl, his wolf skimming the surface. “I did exactly what you demanded, and I was going to keep doing that. But, you’re the one who came sneaking around here after you said you don’t want anything to do with me.”

She kicked at his back again with little effect. “I didn’t ask for this!”

“You were trespassing!”

“That doesn’t give you a right to kidnap me, you bastard! And for that matter, you—hey, wait a second! Where’s your shirt? Are you naked right now!?”

They were well into the trees, but still within hearing range. There was another growl.

“Stop growling at me!”

“Then don’t bite me!”

“I’ll bite any freak monster who kidnaps me naked!”

“You weren’t complaining about me being naked last time.”

I didn’t hear her response. Jason came up to me and rubbed his muzzle against my side, almost hitting the underside of my breast. I rolled my eyes at him. “Naughty wolf.”

“Porter’s got this for now, nothing we can do. You should shift back and be a naughty wolf with me,” he said. His wolf was way too large, but somehow his puppy eyes still worked on me, so I did exactly as he asked, putting aside my worries for the rest of the night.

Tomorrow was soon enough to deal with Amanda. Just what we needed before our hearing at the assembly, more problems and complications.

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