My Alpha's Betrayal: Burning in the Flames of His Vengeance novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Lena Hart

Under a false name, Thea beats Stonebrook's best warriors at guard tryouts, and Alpha Tobias Kincaid, who cannot smell her, puts her at his door.

Six weeks later, I stood in a muddy yard in Stonebrook with a number pinned to my shirt.

My hair was hacked off at the chin, and I had washed out the juniper smell with pine-tar soap until my skin stung.

My name on the sign-up sheet said Lena Hart, a rogue wolf from Spokane.

Two hundred Stonebrook wolves stood around the yard in a ring.

Guard tryouts were a public show here, and the Alpha liked to watch.

I had left Bryn with my human aunt in Missoula and told her I was looking for work.

It was the first lie I had ever told her.

"Number nine," a woman called. "Lena Hart, step up."

The woman was the guard captain, Odessa Ness.

She was broad and gray-braided, with a limp, and she looked at me.

"You're skinny," she said.

"I'm fast."

"Everybody's fast. Who are you going against?"

She pointed across the ring at a Stonebrook warrior, who had arms like fence posts.

He grinned at me and cracked his neck.

"Don't bite," he said. "I'm not allowed to bleed on the porch."

The crowd laughed.

I looked past him, because I had already found what I came for.

The Alpha sat on the porch of the big stone hall with his boots on the rail.

He was bigger than I remembered, and the burn on his arm had healed into a shiny pink web.

His eyes were green, and they swept over me once and moved on.

My wolf rolled over inside me.

I told her to shut up.

Then the warrior charged, and I stopped thinking about the porch.

He was strong, but strong men put their weight in front of them.

I let him come, caught his wrist, and turned my hip under his belly.

He flew over me and hit the mud so hard that the ring went silent.

"Again," he said, from his back, and the crowd howled with laughter.

He got up and came at me a second time, lower and angrier.

I went under his arm, took his knee out, and set my boot on his throat.

"I'm not allowed to bleed on the porch either," I said.

The yard exploded.

Odessa laughed so hard that she had to lean on her stick.

"Number nine's through," she called. "Any other fools?"

Two more tried.

One I flattened in under a minute, and one I let have a bloody nose so I wouldn't look too good.

Then the crowd parted, and the Alpha was walking across the yard toward me.

He moved slowly, like a big dog who knows nobody is going to stop him.

My mouth went dry.

Up close he smelled of cedar and iron, and the warm bread under it hit me so hard that my knees nearly gave out.

He stopped an arm's length away and looked down.

"Where did you learn that?" he asked.

His voice was the voice I had heard on the footbridge, and I held myself very still.

"A farm, then a lot of bars," I said. "Spokane."

"You've got no pack."

"No pack."

"Why come here?"

"Because I heard Stonebrook pays a guard on time," I said. "And because I heard Redcliff burned."

The yard went quiet.

His face did not move at all.

"What about it?"

"Nothing," I said. "I figure the Alpha who did that is the one I'd want guarding the door."

A sound ran through the crowd, half a laugh and half something else.

The corner of his mouth lifted, a little, just once.

"Give me your wrist," he said.

I held out my right hand.

He took it in his and turned it over, his thumb on my pulse.

His palm was dry and hot and enormous.

I felt it all the way to my knees.

My heart was going, and I was sure he would catch the lie in it.

"You're angry," he said.

"I'm nervous."

"No." He bent his head, and the dark hair fell across his forehead. "You're angry. I like angry in a guard."

He did not let go.

His thumb moved over the inside of my wrist once, slowly, and every nerve I owned went to the spot.

Behind him, a man I had not seen before watched with narrow eyes.

He was lean and sandy-haired, and he smiled the careful smile of someone who has a good nose.

He tilted his head toward the Alpha, and said nothing.

"Emmett, she's through," the Alpha said, without turning. "Captain, put her on my door."

"Alpha, she's a day off the road," Odessa said. "She hasn't even sworn."

"Then she can swear in the morning."

He finally let go of my wrist.

My skin kept the print of his hand, and I would have sworn I could still see it.

"What's your name again?" he said.

"Lena."

"Lena," he said, like he was trying it out. "I'm Tobias."

I knew.

I had been saying it in my head for six weeks.

"You sleep beside my door," he said. "Tonight."

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