Alpha Mine

“Alpha Mine”

2012 Copyright All Rights Reserved

Chapter 13

“Maybe some other day,” Jared gritted out between his tightly clenched teeth while he struggled to get out from underneath his Alpha.  “Today really isn’t looking like a good day for me to die.”

Rafe responded to Jared’s smart ass comment with a vicious growl that reverberated loudly deep in the recesses of the ravine.  His wolf had taken full control over his human self and he wanted blood.  All his wolf could comprehend was that this man that he was holding was the one that stopped him from getting to his true mate when she needed him the most.  This man let another male take her away from him- now he would have to die.

Jared somehow managed to bring his knees up to his midsection and was preparing to try and throw Rafe off of him when his Alpha moved quicker than a snake and out maneuvered him instead.  Rafe wrapped his hands around Jared’s neck and lifted him up off the ground so that his feet dangled precariously in the air, pulling his face up close to his.  He pulled his lips back, showing the sharpened points of his elongated canines. 

“How dare you,” he growled.  “How dare you interfere?”  The wolf in him wanted to kill this man slowly; he wanted to watch the life bleed out of his eyes while he chocked the very air from his throat.  Dava belonged to him dammit!  She was his and his alone and this man dared to hold him back? 

“Alpha?”  Jared strained to reach his Alpha under the bruising grip of his hand.  “She’s not… she’s not your mate,” he finally managed to get out between gasps.  He grabbed a hold of Rafe’s wrist and struggled uselessly to break the arduous hold.  When that didn’t seem to work he fought to speak again.  “You… you have a another mate Alpha.  Ta… Tayla.  What,” he coughed, “what about Tayla?”

Rafe’s whole body froze.  A spark of recognition flickered in his eyes.  His grip lessened but his wolf still howled inside, demanding him to seek revenge.

Tayla.    

Mate.

“That’s right, think about your wife,” Jared continued.  “Think about the mother of your son.”

Rafe dropped Jared where he stood, letting him fall in a heap to the ground.  He shoved both of his hands through his hair and squeezed his eyes closed.  “Why?  Why is this happening to me now?  All this time I’ve been so damn careful.” 

Breathing heavily, Rafe suddenly rounded on his Enforcer and opened his shame filled eyes.  He was at a loss for words.  He had attacked his lead Enforcer and threatened his son over a mate that he couldn't have.  And now, the lone secret that he carried for so long and worked so hard to guard from everyone else had finally been exposed.  He had no doubts that his Enforcer had figured out the truth because there was no other reasonable answer he could give that would defend his reactions.  

Rafe shook his head and let his shoulders slump, clearly at war with his wolf. “I can’t do this anymore Jared.  I can’t keep fighting my instincts and I don’t want to fight my son.  I love Tayla but yet I can’t stay away from her.”  He didn’t have to say which her he was referring to; they both knew that he was talking about Dava.  “I’m going crazy man. I feel like I'm losing my mind and I can't control it.”

Jared pushed himself up into a sitting position but was careful to keep his head down as a show of submission.  Every parental instinct he had reared up in him.  His priority was the safety and happiness of his daughter.  “How long have you known?” he asked him quietly.

Rafe turned away from Jared, staring off blankly in the distance.  “Since the very beginning.  The first moment that I touched her, I knew but she was just a baby.  I had already chosen Tayla as my mate thinking that I would never find my true mate.  We had a son together and I knew then that it could never be.  I decided that day that I would let you care for her because I couldn’t trust anyone else to do it.  I knew that you and your wife would be good to her and make sure that her every need was taken care of.  I was so careful to keep my distance and let you and Samantha guide her into adulthood.”  Rafe then turned and stared down at Jared.  “I had it all figured out.   I knew that there was a chance the mating gene would affect Adam since I was rejecting our bond.  That was why I had sent him off to school.  Dava was supposed to leave for college at the end of the year and then Adam would return to take his rightful place as Alpha.  I planned to have him mated before Dava finished her schooling and I had hoped that between you and me, we could find her a suitable match as well.  Everything would have been fine.  But I didn’t plan on Adam wanting to return home this year.  He begged his mother to come home after I told him no.  When Tayla came to me, I couldn’t deny her.”