Seventeen-year-old Keri Edwards has led a hard life. She is the daughter of the most ruthless Alpha in the territory. In the shadow of cruelty, he molded her to follow in his footsteps.
Her father's unexpected death has freed her and made her the Al...
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Keri
I was agitated at the lack of progress in the last twenty-four hours since I'd last spoken to Cade. I'd expected to be released already but I was still pacing the white cell that I'd been in for the last two days.
The door opened and Cade walked in with someone else. I vaguely recognized the second person as Kyle, Scarlett's cousin. The similarities left no doubt that they were related. He had midnight black hair that reached to his ears and the same silver-gray eyes that Scarlett had. I'd never met him in person but I had seen photos of him. Victor had ensured I knew our enemies and Kyle had been noted as one of them.
Both of them stood powerfully, with their legs slightly apart as they surveyed me.
"You needed two of you to do this?" I asked sarcastically. One female alpha against two male alphas didn't seem fair. I was tired and agitated. All I wanted to do was get back to my pack. I wasn't a very patient person and with all the free time I'd had it was enough to start driving me a little crazy.
Kyle arched an eyebrow at me.
"We've decided to send someone to oversee your decisions until we are able to trust that you'll keep the peace," Cade said, telling me their terms without wavering.
I hadn't expected that. He watched me for a reaction but there was none. There was no hidden agenda on my part so I had no reason to fight him on that condition and at this point I'd agree to anything. I just wanted to go home. The alpha blood in my veins refused to allow me to give in too easily, though, so I decided to play them for a little while and put up a bit of an argument.
"Is that really necessary?" I asked while I held Cade's gaze.
"Your actions spoke volumes," he argued with a steel gaze. "You're the one that helped your father try to wipe out our packs and start a war."
I tried to keep the guilt from showing on my face.
"You helped Curtis kidnap Scarlett and...God only knows what would have happened if she hadn't managed to kill Victor," he stated, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice but I heard his voice waver for a moment. He would have been devastated.
He was right; I'd done all of those things. I was guilty as charged and there was no arguing that. In his shoes, I wouldn't trust me either. He was doing the right thing but there was no way I would tell him that. I had to make it seem as if I was putting up a bit of a fight on the subject before I relented and did as they said.
As an alpha of my own pack, I needed to make it clear from the beginning that, despite the fact that I was a female, I wasn't a pushover. There would be future run-ins with them—that couldn't be avoided—but I wouldn't allow them to think they could dictate to me. Their impression of me as leader counted now. It was all about first impressions.
"What if you never trust me?" I asked with my hands settled on my hips. I had to mentally stop myself and I let my arms drop to my side. Victor had always taught me to never display female reactions. He always told me if I wanted to be respected I had to act like a man.
"Then we have a big problem," he stated, his hard eyes on me. I didn't want to know what that entailed. I wasn't interested in a war so we wouldn't have that problem. They would send someone to watch over me and he would report nothing unusual, and then they would move on and leave me alone.
We continued to hold each other's gaze.
"Doesn't he have a pack to run?" I tried to argue before I flickered a gaze to Kyle who was trying to suppress a smile.
"Yes, he does but he's sacrificing his time to do this for all of us."
With just that sentence, the line was drawn; it was them against me. I'd never felt so lonely like I did at that moment. Trust me, I had plenty of lonely moments in my life, more than I could count. But the fact that my mate didn't want me and it felt like everyone was against me... It felt so overwhelming. I didn't let it show, though. I pulled myself together.
"Fine, let him babysit me," I shot back and Kyle grinned.
Cade turned to Kyle.
"She's all yours," he said, sounding exasperated before he stalked out of the room and leaving me alone with Kyle.
Kyle let out a sigh as I watched him pull a pair of leather gloves from his back pocket.
"I really hope I don't regret this," he mumbled before he opened the door to my prison and stepped back to wait for me. I eyed him out for a moment before I walked out.
"Come on, Cinderella," he said as he opened the door and looked at me.
I arched an eyebrow at the nickname he'd just used for me. I'd never been given a nickname before.
"What?" he said with an innocent shrug. "Don't you get it?"
I narrowed my gaze as I remained silent. No, I didn't.
"You know...the girl with the evil stepmother and stepsister," he explained.
"I know the story," I said in a clipped tone while I held his gaze. How did that have anything to do with me?
"Well, you know, instead of the evil stepmother and stepsisters, but in your case you had the evil father," he tried to explain. I shook my head at him and passed him as I walked out of the room that had been my prison. Wasn't Cinderella a good person that got treated badly? I wasn't good, so that didn't make me a Cinderella.
This guy was going to annoy the hell out of me and we'd just met. I wondered how I was going to cope with him being around all the time and breathing down my neck. The whole exercise was going to impossible to get through without wringing his neck.
"Hey, don't forget about me," the annoying person reminded me from behind me as I stalked forward. I couldn't wait to get out of here and back to where I belonged.
"You know this might go quicker if you could be friendlier," he muttered, but I didn't acknowledge him.
I didn't do friendly.
As we made our way from the basement into the garage, I couldn't stop my eyes from wandering, looking for glimpses of Blake. Just the thought of him made me relive the pain of my rejection.
Hang in there, I told myself. When I was at home and in private I would be able to mourn the loss of something I'd never had, nor ever would.
It was a good thing I had a good memory because I remembered the way out and when I opened the front door of the house and stepped outside I saw Scarlett standing beside a couple of SUV-type cars. I wanted to roll my eyes at her and tell her to stop but instead I played the indifferent card. If I showed her no reaction she might get the hint quicker.
She stepped forward and I halted.
"I just wanted to see you off," she explained while she gauged me for a reaction. I remained tightlipped and her gaze flickered to her cousin.
"You'd better be right," he muttered to her.
"I am right," she said before her eyes settled back on me. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she was wasting her time.
"I'll speak to you soon," he said to his cousin as he gave her a brief hug.
"Let's go, Cinderella," he said, opening the passenger door of the first SUV for me. I stepped past Scarlett and got into the car. When Kyle got into the driver's seat I turned to him.
