Alpha, Beta, Omega

Chapter Twenty

Snarling she leapt to the right, goading Chloe into following her and, as her sister lunged, jaws open, intent clear, Kali dropped to the ground and rolled away. Chloe yelped as she slammed into the rocks, slipping and sliding along the wet stones and ending up half in the creek. She yelped again and scrambled, trying to get her footing under her but Kali was there, jaws closing around the back of her sister's neck, holding tightly, fangs piercing the skin, drawing blood, the taste thick and coppery in her mouth and, when Chloe started to move, to try and break free, Kali growled and shook her head slightly in warning.

Chloe growled and started to move again only to yelp in surprise and pain when Kali unexpectedly drug her away from the bank, using the momentum to throw Chloe across the ground, watching her roll, and pouncing the moment Chloe landed on her back, jaws once more closing around her sister's flesh.

This time around the bitch's throat.

Everything around them fell still and silent.

From the corner of her eye she saw Lydia scramble away from one of Chloe's friends even as Carter grabbed the smaller male by the scruff and tossed him several feet away from his mate. Samson had a sandy brown she-wolf pinned and, judging from the amount of blood spilling onto the ground around her head said she-wolf was either dead or dying. The rest, though still outnumbering Kali and the others, were backing down. They had followed Chloe and now Chloe was pinned, in a submissive position, beneath the she-wolf everyone in the Henson Pack had thought too weak to ever be a real threat.

Kali growled again even as her sister whimpered and she looked at the wolves who were still stepping back, though one, a lanky tawny male was crouched low, tail tucked beneath his belly and, when Samson looked at him, whined loudly and quivered. She didn't understand that but thought, perhaps, that it was just fear. Returning her attention to her sister she gave Chloe a slight shake, the meaning clear, before slowly releasing her, stepping back and waiting for Chloe to shift back to her human form before she herself shifted.

"Did you seriously think you'd accomplish whatever you came to do," Kali snarled, eyes blazing, her wolf still very much at the forefront. "Did you seriously think you wouldn't be caught?!"

Chloe growled faintly and, in response, Kali felt her claws pop out and her fangs drop.

"I didn't think you'd be running with back up," Chloe spat, her gaze still murderous despite the fact that she'd just submitted, in front of witnesses, to her younger sister. "Thought you'd be alone. Thought I could..."

"Kill an Alpha's mate."

Kali's head turned at the sound of Thornton's voice and she watched him, Kay and a dozen or more others approach, fanning out around them. The way Chloe looked at Thornton had Kali snarling and stepping towards her sister. She didn't care if she and her mates were having problems. No one, not even her sister, got to look at Thornton, or Kay, the way Chloe was.

She would have likely clawed Chloe's eyes out but Kay was, surprisingly and suddenly at her side, his palm sweeping lightly over the small of her back and, though she knew they still had things to work out, she took a bit of comfort from his presence. She let it be a balm against the fury her sister had riled within her.

"I have every right to kill you, all of you," Thornton rumbled as his Betas and Gammas surrounded Chloe's friends. All but the tawny male who was still curled up on the ground, watching Samson and only Samson. "For trespassing and for threatening my mate and pack. But I might be willing to show you mercy if you tell me why you attacked my mate."

Chloe let out a low sound, something between a chuff and a whine, and Kali started to take another step forward but still when Lydia suddenly appeared at her side, her friend taking hold of her hand, lacing their fingers together, the smaller she-wolf glaring at Chloe darkly.

"She took what should have been mine!"

Chloe's words were cold yet whiny and Kali blinked, some of her wolf receding as confusion began to fill her. What on earth was Chloe talking about? Thornton, it seemed, shared her thoughts because her Alpha mate gave Chloe an unreadable look before huffing lightly.

"And what," he growled. "Is it she's meant to have taken?"

"You!" Chloe's voice had risen to a shout and Kali's confusion quickly turned to shock. "You should have been my mate! Not that useless freak's! Mine!"