Healing The Alpha Collection (2 page)

      
"Are you Rowan's little sister?"

      
"We're Irish twins," Leena said, crossing her arms impatiently and stamping her foot.

      
"What's an Irish twin?" Aster asked.

      
"It means we were born nine months apart. My mom had Rowan and then she was pregnant with me right after."

      
"Oh, that's cool," Aster said, trying to still give her his best smile. She was absolutely breathtaking. He hadn't seen any girls at school who made him feel this way. He wanted her to notice him, to see him and want to talk to him.

      
"Are you in my brother's class?" she asked.

      
"Yes," Aster said, probably too excitedly. At least she was engaging him in conversation.

      
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

      
"No, it's just me and my mom."

      
"Good job getting my dad angry. Now he's going to go down and smack Forrest around."

      
"Why would he do that?" Aster asked.

      
"Because the old ways are outlawed, dummy! You can't go around killing people and challenging for official positions!"

      
"Why not?"

      
"You just can't, stupid!"

      
"I'm not stupid," Aster said, putting his hands in his pockets and kicking a toy on the floor. "I'm not stupid at all."

      
"How do you not know this stuff?" Leena asked, throwing her hands in the air and shaking her head. "Thanks for getting my daddy in a fight!"

      
"I'm sorry," Aster muttered. "I didn't mean to. I was just being honest with him. Aren't alphas supposed to respect honesty?"

      
"I guess," Leena said. "Are you one of those Oakdale dogs?"

      
"Dogs?"

      
"That's what my daddy calls them. He says they're closer to dog than man."

      
"Well, we're wolves," Aster said, trying not to laugh. "I don't think I'm really in a pack. My mom doesn’t participate in any town business and I'm too young. My daddy's gone, though."

      
"You should join our pack," Leena said.

      
"Really?" Aster said, looking up with hope in his eyes.

      
"No," Leena said. "Why would we want a smelly tree dog in our pack?"

      
"That's not nice."

      
"Too bad," she said. "You just don't have what it takes to be a Dawn member!"

      
* * *

      
After that Aster had sat at the dinner table and watched Leena, unable to take his eyes off of her. That was the first day he had met Leena and the first day he had been introduced to a normal home situation. Now, all these years later, he was the one with the wild hair and the weight of leadership. He'd spent his entire life trying to emulate Luke and make him proud, because he was the only real father Aster knew.

      
What would Luke do in a situation like this? Luke wouldn't run and he wouldn't allow himself to be captured. That left only one thing: fight.

      
Aster turned as the door to his study flew open. Commands were shouted as bikers flooded into the room with several recognizable members of the Oakdale pack.

      
He stood there as they all surrounded him, forming a semi-circle around him. The only thing to his back was a picture window and a three-story drop to the ground.

      
"Come quietly," the biker in the center of the circle said as he stepped forward. He wore a red flannel shirt underneath his biker leathers, an indication that he was in a higher position than many of the other members. "You won't live, but your death doesn't have to be painful. Abaddon will spare you the pain if you give yourself up now."

      
All Aster could do was smile. These guys didn't know who they were messing with.

Chapter 2

"You don't even have a pack!" Storm said, pointing his finger and laughing at Aster.

      
"He couldn't hack it in the Oakdales," Tank said, crossing arms that were way too beefy for an eight-year-old child.

      
"His daddy was a loser and so is he!" Maple said, running forward and poking Aster in the chest, knowing he wouldn't hit a girl.

      
Aster stood his ground, not budging as the three Oakdale pack pups continued to pick at him. Ever since his father had lost his challenge and his mother had all but vanished from the face of the earth, he had been a constant target for bullying from the Oakdale pups. These three in particular were the worst of his tormenters.

      
Storm was a cocky, self-assured child who saw himself as the heir apparent to the Oakdale throne. He was one of Forrest's many bastard children. The alpha still recognized the old ways and thought it was his right to mate with any female in the pack.

      
Tank wasn't one of Forrest's bastards, but his father was one of the pack's most trusted enforcers. Of course his pup had naturally taken to the role on the playground, following Storm around like a lost dog. If Storm wanted something, Tank got it. The stout pup was famous for walking into the lunchroom and taking lunch money by force. If he got caught by a teacher he just blew it off because he knew his daddy would intimidate his way out of any trouble.

      
Even though he was just a child, Aster had repeatedly wondered how difficult it was to run a school in a wolf-filled town. There were too many pack politics to hamper any kind of decent teaching job.

      
Finally there was Maple. She was the daughter of Forrest's number one beta, Timber. She was also Storm's main girl. Of course, like his father, he thought he had a right to any female who happened to cross his path. It didn't work that way in other packs, but that didn't stop Storm from trying. Forrest had almost gone to war with the other alphas over the attitudes of his children. Luckily most Oakdale members didn't see the need for formalized school and chose to home school their children, although their definition of schooling was pretty loose. Still, these three, and a few others, had ended up in school and were a constant source of irritation for Aster.

      
They can't hurt you,
he thought.
They can try, but they can't hurt you. Those are just words.

      
The words suddenly changed when Storm picked up a rock and threw it at Aster, whacking him good in the temple. Aster tried not to react, but involuntarily his hand shot up to rub the area where the rock had hit.

      
"Got him!" Storm yelled. "Direct hit!"

      
Aster ignored the sound of their hands slapping together as they high-fived one another and looked down at his hand. It was stained red from the blood that was now pouring out of the side of his head. As he stared at the blood he could feel anger beginning to bubble inside of him. Like a rumbling it started somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind before stampeding forth.

      
"Look at him!" Maple cried, laughing while she screeched. "He's shaking! What a puppy!"

      
"Let me try," Tank said, bending to pick up a rock.

      
"If you throw that rock you're going to be in trouble," Aster said quietly.

      
"What did you say, puppy?" Tank asked. "Was that a threat?"

      
Aster didn't respond; instead, he puffed his chest out and clenched his fists at his sides.

      
"Do it!" Storm yelled, shoving Tank in the shoulder.

      
"Screw you, puppy!" Tank yelled before hurling the rock at Aster.

      
With lightning reflexes Aster caught the rock in one hand and threw it to the ground beside him.

      
"Oh, you want to play catch?" Tank asked, bending to pick up another rock.

      
"How about you go to hell?" a voice yelled from behind Aster.

      
He turned to see Rowan and Leena walking up beside him, a scowl written across both their faces.

      
"Oh, look, it's the pretender's children," Storm said, crossing his arms and looking defiant.

      
"Pretender?" Rowan asked. "Your dad's the only pretender in these parts."

      
"Your daddy's only head alpha because Storm's daddy hasn't challenged him!" Maple said, leaning forward and shaking her head in a manner that made Aster want to rip it off.

      
"We don't do things that way, you ugly cow," Leena said. "We can't help it you backwoods hicks are stuck in the past."

      
"Are you sticking up for your boyfriend?" Maple asked.

      
"Boyfriend?" Leena said, turning red. "He's not my boyfriend!"

      
"I hear he's been at your house every night for dinner," Tank said, casually throwing a rock into the air and then catching it. "I guess your daddy's ready to marry you off to the mongrels in this town. I'd be embarrassed to have a daughter like you around too."

      
Tank's eyes grew wide as Rowan caught the rock in mid-air. The beefy child hadn't noticed Rowan advancing on him and now they were face to face.

      
"What are you going to do?" Tank asked. "Is he your boyfriend too?"

      
Rowan started to turn away, but then suddenly spun, slamming the rock into the side of Tank's face. Tank screamed and fell to the ground as Rowan pounced on him. Storm started to rush forward but Aster was already in action. In two steps he had reached the smug bastard and had tackled him to the ground.

      
"My dad was a good wolf!" Aster screamed. "It's your dad's fault my mom is the way she is!"

      
Aster began to punch Storm in the face, driving his fists into the other boy's face with unchecked ferocity. Everything was a blur. He was barely aware of Tank screaming for help or Maple doing the same. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Leena had Maple in a headlock and was casually pulling her hair out in clumps.

      
It was the first time Aster, Rowan and Leena would ever team up, but it damn sure wouldn't be the last.

      
* * *

      
Now he stood alone without anyone to back him up. His entire life Aster had learned to fight with Rowan and Leena at his side and in his later years the entire Dawnguard pack.

      
They'd formed the pack after so many had lost their lives to Satan's Angels and now here they were again, facing down the hellfire pack without any sacrifice to appease them.

      
This time it ends in violence,
Aster thought as he quickly surveyed the situation. He was surrounded, but he didn't fear any of these wolves.
This time someone dies. There will be no deal.

      
His eyes darted to the faces of the Oakdale members who stood with the bikers. He knew Leena's kidnapping had to be an inside job, but why would they throw in with Satan's Angels if they were the ones who had kidnapped their queen? Unless it was all a ruse to throw Aster off so they could strike unnoticed.

      
Aster smiled. How could he have been so foolish? Demons operated by ancient rules that humans didn't understand. Abaddon couldn't break a pact unless he had an excuse to. When the Oakdales kidnapped Leena, he had an excuse to attack and finish what he'd started ten years ago. Aster didn't know why Abaddon hated them so much and at this point he didn't care. The demon was a dead man walking.

      
"Who's first?" Aster asked.

      
From behind a scream pierced his ears as a biker rushed in, a chain swinging over his head. He swung it at Aster with all his might, but it wasn't good enough. Aster easily caught the chain in one hand and yanked with all his might, pulling the biker off his feet and sending him careening into one of the Oakdale wolves.

      
"He's strong," Archie Sanders, a low-level Oakdale member, said to the leader. "I told you he's stronger than any wolf I know!"

      
Everyone else began to advance, but Aster easily ripped the chain out of the fallen man's hand. Like a scorpion's tail it struck, cracking Archie across the face. Blood spurted as Archie cried out in pain and grabbed his broken orbital bone. Aster swung the chain in circles over his head, keeping all the attackers at bay.

      
Finally one of the bikers shifted, revealing a mangy gray wolf. He snarled and charged, but Aster sidestepped and whipped the chain, catching the wolf around his neck and yanking him out of the air. The wolf hit the ground with a satisfying crunch as the bones in his neck snapped.

      
The others began to get the same idea and Aster knew he could not win this fight as a human any longer. His body cracked and shifted as his snout elongated and fur sprouted all over. In just a few seconds he had exploded into the largest wolf anyone had ever seen. His fur was nearly blue as he stood his ground, snarling and snapping at the other wolves. He was nearly as big as a full-grown grizzly bear, towering over the other wolves.

      
The leader of the attack was recognizable. He had shifted into a large black wolf with gray streaks through his hair. He was much bigger than the others, but still not as big as Aster. He snapped and charged, trying to catch Aster off guard. The alpha wolf's reflexes were too great, though, and he reared up and brought both front paws down on the creature's head, smashing him into the floor. The other wolf yelped as Aster's jaws closed on the back of his neck, easily snapping the tendons and bones underneath.