The Cursed Alpha

Kain

"I don't think I need to tell you twice, Alpha Kain. My son means the world to me, and I want to meet that mate of his. He has refused to allow me a meeting with her and did not even bother to give me her name. And the fact that she has already claimed other mates? How are you allowing this? I don't think you want the Elder council to intervene with this issue."

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. I had only taken the phone call because I thought with it being from the council, it would be important. No, it was just an empty threat from Lance's mother. Apparently, he had told her about Ariadne. I will have to have a conversation with him.

"Elder Phoenix, I understand where you are coming from. But what could I possibly do? I don't even know who this mate is that he claims to have. I have not met her either."

Liar.

"He is your gamma. I'm sure there's something you can do to convince him. You have Alpha command. Use it on him."

"Are you suggesting I use my power for the gain of something as petty as an introduction to your son's mate? I don't think I need to remind you that the Alpha command is only permitted to be used in situations of immediate danger."

"Figure something out, Kain, or I will inform the rest of the council of this bitch under your jurisdiction that is claiming all the males for herself."

Kage growled, but I was wearing enough silver to keep it to myself. I had added more silver to my body since Rhea had moved in. Keeping Kage under control was now just as important as keeping my extra head-mate locked up.

"I'll get someone on it, Miss Phoenix, but I am not going to make any promises. Your son is very strong-willed and will be tough to break even with an Alpha command. I hope you understand that this is not an answer to your problem. Perhaps, your solution is to just wait it out until he is comfortable with bringing her around."

"Just remember what I said, Alpha. I would hate to have problems with you. I always loved your mother like a sister. Don't make this difficult." The call ended with a click, and I threw my phone against the wall, shattering it to pieces.

"Son of a bitch!" I was about to mind-link Lance to come to my office when a soft, musical voice rang through my head.

Alphaaaa.

A calmness settled over my mind, and I wanted to slap myself for the smile that followed. The little temptress was under my skin already.

That's Kain to you.

There's something I need to tell you. Will you come upstairs?

Is Lance with you?

Yes. He taught me how to mind-link so I could call you.

I sighed and stood from my seat. As pissed as I was with the gamma wolf, I couldn't deny the pleasure in her voice when she spoke of him had me rethinking the approach I had planned for him. Well, the approach Kage had planned. He wanted to strangle the mutt until his mother had no reason to threaten my pack again. I didn't argue with him about it either, at first. But the truth of the matter was if I'd killed him, my mate would never forgive me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"And you never mentioned this guy before, why?" I didn't want to be angry at her. She was the last person I wanted to argue with, but she intentionally neglected to tell me one of the most important details of her life. Her protection was top priority to me, even above my own pack, and if I failed at that, I wouldn't be sane enough to run the pack on my own anyway.

Wolves who lost their mates went slowly insane and eventually turned rogue. There were some exceptions, like my gamma's mother, who'd found someone else to keep them sensible, but they were never in their wholly sound mind again. Even Elder Phoenix was missing a couple pieces in her puzzle, but she wasn't gone enough to be kicked from the council.

Rhea just shrugged and wouldn't look at me. I hated it, that she felt like she had to keep this from me; I hated that she wouldn't look at me. I wasn't mad at her so much as I was upset that I wasn't able to watch out for this guy that kept stalking her.

"What is he?" She finally looked at me, confusion written in her eyes. "His species, Rhea. Vampire, demon, wolf? Something else?"

She looked down at her hands, lost in thought about something, then shrugged again, "Something else. I don't really know what he was. He wasn't human, I know that for a fact."

"No, he's definitely not human. He sniffed her out at my apartment when we were-" Din stopped speaking when he caught Rhea glaring at him. "What?"

"You met this guy?" Din looked at me and hesitantly nodded. "And you didn't tell me either?" He bit down on his bottom lip, resembling a young child being admonished for hitting his sister. "What about you? Did you know about this too?"

Lance shook his head before taking a drink from the beer in his hand. "No, Alpha. I just overheard them talking about it a few minutes before Addie called you up."

"So, you two thought you could keep this from me?" I stared hard at Din and Rhea, even though neither of them were looking at me.

"I mean, we were doing a pretty good job at it."

I looked directly at my mate this time and the rest of the room faded to black. Her head was turned away from me, eyes focused on something on the furthest wall. The frown present on her face told me that she wasn't happy with the way she was being questioned. I had to admit, grilling her about why she didn't tell me sooner wouldn't help the situation at all and I needed to move past it to find the best course of action.

"Come with me." She finally, finally, looked at me; questions swirling in her blue eyes. "It's time for our training session."

"Alpha, I don't really feel like-"

"I said come with me." I let my voice carry a sterner tone and it seemed to work. She stood, unwillingly, from her seat and followed me out the door into the hallway, down the stairs, past the kitchen and into the gym where we trained three times a week. "Go change."

"Do we really have to do this right now?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

I stepped closer to her and lifted her chin with my forefinger, forcing her eyes to meet mine; when they finally did, she calmed down. Her heart rate slowed to its normal pace and the anguish I'd been feeling from her had dissipated.

"We are moving past the fact that you neglected to give me important information about your safety. And you are going to stop acting like an angsty teenager. We are going to train harder now that there's a threat over your head and you are going to learn to control the alpha power I gave to you. Is that understood?" She nodded thoughtlessly. "Good, now go change."

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

*A/N: Oooh! Kain is starting to get demanding! And it's so hot when it has to do with keeping Ari safe! She's under his skin alright!

Keep going, it's just starting to get good, I promise!*