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Her pleas for a break came faster that time, and once again, he’d relented. For a few hours.
She’d growled at him in the beginning, but despite her token protests, once she’d rested, she never told him no. Instead, during the past nine days, she’s let go of the guilt, the sorrow, and allowed him to become her alpha in every way.
“Hmm?” His mate’s sleepy murmur draws his attention back to her pretty face. Her mouth is half-open and a piece of hair sticks to her cheek. For all intents and purposes, she’s still fully knocked-out, but the separation of their bodies has disturbed her.
“I’m just getting some wood for the fireplace,” he murmurs, stroking a hand over her hip before pulling the blanket from the floor to cover her body. “I’ll be back shortly.”
“Mm,” she agrees, snuggling into the blanket before stilling again.
Moving quietly, Jacob pulls on his jeans and sneaks down the stairs. He takes a moment to pour two mugs of coffee from the thermos before he walks out into the night.
“I wouldn’t have taken Dr. Thompson for a screamer.”
The rumbling voice comes from the tree line. When Jacob spins toward it, a large, hulking figure steps out from behind an old oak.
“But then, she’s provided us a great many surprises since you mated her.” The man steps into the moonlight, accepting the mug Jacob offers him.
“You’ve waited long?”
AX1 chuffs, shrugging a shoulder. “Couple of hours. S’all right. One expects delays when dealing with a newly mated man. At least I find your mate significantly less distasteful than I did before I heard how well she takes a knot.”
Jacob levels him with a look.
The other alpha lifts his mug-free hand. “All right, enough jokes about the girl. She paid her dues, taking that knife for Jack.”
“Speaking of—he’s not here?” Jacob gives the surrounding trees a cursory glance, but he would’ve known if someone was out there. It’s just him and AX1 in the darkness.
“I made him stay back.” AX1 sighs and blows into his mug before taking a sip. “I’ve got an idea what you’re gonna ask, and I’m gonna be the one to do it. Had to tie the kid up, mind you. He’s determined to pay back your missus for saving him, but… yeah, don’t buy his bullshit that he’s got nothing to go home to.”
“A sister, was it?” Jacob says, remembering something Addie mentioned about the young alpha.
AX1 grins. “I fucking hope not, the way he’s pining. Anyway, whoever she is, he’s gonna want to be able to go back to her some day. And I take it, considering you didn’t ask any of the guys with families to come here, whoever does it won’t have that option.”
Jacob nods and glances at the other male. “If her dad’s executed, both her parents die. I can’t let that happen. Everything’s still too fresh. But what I’m asking goes beyond the bonds of brotherhood.”
“Nah. It doesn’t. Not the bonds forged in the place we were made.” AX1 takes another sip of coffee and looks up, locking his gaze with Jacob’s. “All I want is a quiet life far, far away from American shores. I want a name to call mine and a little cabin in the woods. A gun to hunt with and a boat to fish from. I want peace. If you can get me that, I can get your mate’s shitty dad out of Ezban. Mind, he might not enjoy where I drop him off, but he’ll be alive. And with his wife.”
“I don’t care where you take him, so long as they both live,” Jacob says. He wants them alive for his mate’s sake, but he hasn’t forgotten what she told him about the promotion the former general got in return for sacrificing his daughter to a superior’s monstrous son. “I can get you what you ask, and my eternal gratitude along with it. Are you sure that’s what you want? Because once Thompson’s out of Ezban, there’s no returning to U.S. soil.”
AX1 finishes his coffee and places the mug on the chopping block before he claps a hand on Jacob’s shoulder. “I’m sure. The others—they’ve got their memories intact. Their families. You’ve got your mate. I’ve got nothing but bitterness. I don’t have much gratitude to your mate for how she treated us while we were under her thumb, but she did right by us all in the end. And I acknowledge, had she not conducted her twisted little experiments, we’d have been dead long before this all played out. So I’m doing this one last thing, and then I’ll consider my debt paid. And I’ll be gone.”
“Then thank you, brother,” Jacob says softly, placing his hand on top of AX1’s for a brief moment.
“Give me a few weeks. I’ll need to make sure you and the others all have solid alibis, and from what I heard before, it’ll be a while before you two’ll be capable of doing anything but fucking.” AX1 gives him a small grin as he steps back into the shadows. “Enjoy your life, my kin. You’ve earned every scrap of goodness you’ve got, even if you seem to think it’s all found between your mate’s shapely thighs.”
Jacob barks a laugh and waves him off. He waits by the chopping block until he can no longer sense the other alpha’s presence among the trees. Then he turns back to the cabin to find peace with the woman he loves.
ALPHA TIES
ADDICTED TO THE DARKER SIDE?
Meet the Alpha who’ll chase you down, kill your enemies and claim you in the middle of their bloody remains…
ALPHA
A shadow moves in the darkness, and death follows in its wake. The faint light from the city reaching into the park gleams off cold steel as the newcomer finally makes himself known.
He whirls across the grass, and I hear the sick sound of metal slicing through flesh followed by wet gurgling. When the two remaining men fall to the ground, he finally stands still, staring down at the unmoving bodies. His victims.
