An Alpha's Alpha

Broken

She stared at the wood panelled ceiling. Once again she counted from one to one hundred, then started again.

"Count sheep," her father would tell her as a child, "that'll help you sleep". 

"Or just make me hungry." She'd always reply.

Sadness clawed at her heart, so she rolled over onto her side and glared out of the window.

After their little 'moment, or 'accident' as she kept telling herself, Jake had insisted that she should rest whilst his wolves went to investigate the outsiders that had been spotted.

Evening had quickly turned to night and there had been no word.

Cassidy sighed deeply as once again the front door opened and somebody new walked in. She had been listening to the sound of Jake pacing backwards and forwards, her breath hitching in her throat every time he neared the stairs.

Her wolf was restless knowing there was danger nearby, but she was going crazy about the fact that there was a strong, safe, male wolf just a few feet away. Her wolf could not understand why Cassidy hadn't wrapped herself around him like a boa constrictor and never let go - in her weaker moments, nor could Cassidy.

Yet with each thought of lust, a dose of reality would be delivered as yet again the front door would open, the pacing would stop, and there would be a brief, penniless exchange. "No word yet, Alpha."

Quite how long it took them to find four wolves, Cassidy wasn't sure. If it was Caine or people from his pack, which strangely Cassidy didn't think it was, then they normally weren't skilled enough to have hidden this many wolves, for this long. Only skilled, well-trained wolves would be able to avoid detection for this long, which eased the guilt that had been weighing on Cassidy since earlier.

A pang of worry occasionally echoed through her hollow chest as she thought about her girls, somewhere out there in the wilderness, searching for her. What would happen if the male wolves found them first?

She shuddered, unwilling to focus on the dark thoughts and instead returned her mind to Jake, and the relative safety he seemed to promise her battle-scarred wolf.

No, for the first time in a long time, Cassidy felt....safe - and that scared the shit out of her. She should never have kissed him, she should have kept her distance. She had no intention of taking a mate, not that her wolf was in full agreement with that, but even her wolf knew that she had other priorities - they'd both lived through too much to then throw everything away for a handsome alpha wolf.

"Liam." The name had her silently leaping from her bed and slowly opening the bedroom door. She listened as the Alpha and his beta exchanged general updates on the search, it seemed they still hadn't found anything.

Cassidy sighed and cursed silently, she was about to go back into her room, when Liam's tone changed and she paused, knowing that evesdroppers never liked what they heard, but risking it anyway.

"She needs to leave."

"No."

"Jake!"

"Alpha." Jake corrected, his tone tight, his voice strained.

"Alpha, she needs to go. She's endangering the pack."

Jake growled, "no."

"Why won't you listen to reason? Even she knows she should go! What is it about this she-wolf that makes you unable to let her go? Do you even know why you can't let her leave?"

"I-. I-."

"Didn't think so. I can't work out if you're horny or trying to save a ghost."

"Watch it, Liam."