Alpha Mine

“Alpha Mine”

2012 Copyright All Rights Reserved

Prologue

“What is it Jared?” Aiden held himself back, not so sure about the out of place bundle lying in the middle of the woods and waited for his brother’s answer. He crouched down to try and get a better look, but being this far back, he couldn’t tell what it was.

The two brothers had been running security rounds on the outskirts of the Lumbee territory when they stumbled upon it. Aiden had been brutally attacked as a small child and left for dead; which was precisely why he was always the more cautious one. Jared, on the other hand was the more curious of the two, nothing scared him.

Jared walked up a little closer, taking each step slow and easy like. “I’m not sure Aiden,” he whispered, keeping his voice low. When he was only feet away, he made out what looked to be a small child. He sniffed the air and realized the scent was off. It was human but yet it wasn’t. He stepped closer and struggled to hold in a gasp. “It looks like a little girl. Maybe five or six years old at most.”

Aiden jogged over to his brother’s side. “Out here in the woods? All alone? In this frigid weather?” His voice raised a decibel with each unanswered question. He couldn’t believe that a little girl would be out here in these woods all alone.

“That’s what it looks like. Its twenty degrees out here and look, she doesn’t even have on shoes. How do you think she got here?” Jared walked around the small girl and knelt by her side. She was unconscious and laying on her stomach. Her blond hair hung limply down her back, the ends of it wet and already showing signs of ice building up on the individual strands.

“I don’t know,” he frowned. Jared wondered if the little chit was even alive at this point. All the clothing that she had on was a whimsical night gown made up of pink frills. Gently, he held his hand over her mouth, checking for warm puffs of air. When he felt the slow heat warm his skin, he turned the small girl over to see her face.

“Damn it!” This time it was Aiden that cursed. The vicious bite on her shoulder blade was in plain sight. “She’s just a little girl. How could someone do this to her, a baby no less?”

Jared picked up the little thing and held her in his arms. That was what he would like to know. It was bad enough to be bitten by one of their kind if you’re an adult but a baby? Would she even survive the transition? Now that she was in his arms, Jared could feel the fever in her skin. She was burning hot to the touch. He pressed his hand up against the gaping wound in order to staunch the bleeding. “We better take her back to Rafe. If she’s going to have a chance of surviving this, he’s her best bet.”

Aiden lightly touched the little girl’s forehead. Pictures from the night of his own attack ran vividly through his head. At ten years of age, he was a little older than this girl was right now but the after effects would be the same. Experiences like this you never forget. The nightmares will always be there no matter what happens. And what would happen when this little one realized that she was going to become the very same animal as the monster that attacked her? Would she even be able to handle it?

Jared started to turn away with the child in his arms and head back to town. “Wait,” Aiden called out.

Jared stopped and glanced back over his shoulder. “What?”

His brother worried his bottom lip. “Do you think it’s worth it?”

When Jared’s brows knitted in confusion he quickly added, “Saving her I mean. Do you think she will be able to go on as one of us? Never to see her family again?”

Jared looked down at the precious bundle in his arms. His own mate had ovarian cancer the year before they mated. She had to have her uterus removed. They weren’t able to have any pups of their own and in the beginning; he thought that having each other would be enough. But now that he was holding this little angel in his arms, he wondered. Could this have been fate? Could the Moon Goddess have placed this tiny little girl in his path for a reason?

“She’s has a new family Aiden. She’s part of our family now. We have to do what we can to help her.”

Aiden turned his head and swore again. He saw the look in his brother’s eyes and knew exactly what he was thinking. Didn’t he realize that she wouldn’t be like any other pup that was born in the pack? She would have problems, lots of problems that would need to be dealt with. “Think Jared.” Aiden begged him with his eyes. “Think about what the hell you are saying before you make this type of decision. She isn’t really going to be like us and the other kids in the pack are going to treat her differently. She will be a turned rather than an original. Are you really ready to step up to that kind of plate?”