Alpha, Beta, Omega

Chapter Twenty-One

Kali blinked.

And then Chloe's words fully sank in and she snarled.

"What?!" She started to step forward but again Kay pulled her to a stop. "You think...You...Are you insane?!"

Chloe glared at her and Kali growled.

"I've been the perfect she-wolf," Chloe growled, eyes blazing, shining with a hint of her wolf. "Strong. Beautiful. Powerful." Her gaze narrowed. "If anyone deserved an Alpha mate it was me! Not you! I knew if I could just get rid of the two of you then I could woo Alpha Garroway and he'd see that I am the perfect mate. That I'm worthy of leading a pack at his side."

Thornton growled suddenly, drawing Chloe's gaze even as other members of the Lawton pack glared at her, their postures tense, some were flexing their claws. All ready to rip her apart for her threat to the Alpha Mates of their pack.

"The two of them," Thornton question, voice pitched low, dark and the rumble in his voice was full of his power as Alpha. "Were you planning on targeting Kay tonight as well?"

Chloe let out a low sound and shot Kay a disgusted look.

"If Ryan had done the job right he'd already be dead. Same as that little bitch. Stupid shit never did know how to handle his daddy's rifle right."

A collective growl went through the pack and Kali felt her heart try and crawl into her throat. Her sister had just admitted to having had one of her friends shoot Kay and then her. All because in her crazy mind she believed that Kali had stolen something from her. Something that had never truly been hers. Fate had given Kali to Thornton and Kay, just as it had given them to her. Something must have come loose in Chloe's brain. Something important.

Kali snarled, deep and dark, her wolf pressing up from deep within her and, wrenching free of Kay's hold, she launched herself at her sister, shifting in midair.

Chloe shrieked as Kali slammed into her, trying to shift, fighting to get away, but Kali was full of rage. Rage that her own sister had tried to kill her, had nearly killed her mate, all because of a delusion that Kali's Alpha was supposed to be hers.

Her claws and fangs sank into vulnerable human flesh and Chloe screamed as Kali tasted blood, her wolf driving her, pushing her to eliminate the threat to her mates, to her pack.

Before she could go for the suffocating bite, the killing bite, to Chloe's throat, a hand grasped tightly into the scruff of her neck, jerking her back. She twisted and snapped at the hand reflexively. Feeling an echo of pain in her front left paw before she realized that Thornton was the one who had grabbed her. Thornton had stopped her from killing her sister. Something that, while she wanted in her rage induced state, she knew she would feel guilty about for the rest of her life if she had actually gone through with it.

Whining faintly she licked at Thornton's hand in apology and was surprised when his expression softened, grip loosening on her fur, fingers gently combing through the soft white tuffs before he stepped away, moving towards Chloe. His body language said what he himself did not.

He was Alpha.

It was his duty, his right, to kill the threat to his mates and pack.

Kali stepped back, remaining in her wolf form, watching Chloe closely as her sister, now badly wounded, tried to push herself backwards across the ground. Trying to get away from the Alpha she had clearly pissed off.

A low growl bubbled up from Kali's chest and it tapered off only when Kay crouched next to her, running his hand over her side, smoothing down the fur that was still standing on end.

Despite the sick twist in her stomach she forced herself to watch as Thornton, claws extending from his fingertips, slashed open Chloe's throat.

It was the only way.

So she would know, so her wolf would know, the threat was truly gone.

Thornton stood over Chloe until she was dead and then he turned to the members of his pack who were now holding Chloe's friends and accomplices.

"Take them, and the bodies, into town," he rumbled, eyes blazing with his status of Alpha. "I'll contact their Alpha and he can deal with them."

As Chloe's friends were hauled away Kali noticed that Samson was still standing over the tawny wolf, neither moved, not even when Thornton let out a low growl, attempting to get Samson's attention.

The Gamma briefly glanced at his Alpha but pressed closer to the tawny wolf, who curled tighter into a ball, his body language and scent reeking of submission.

Kali scented the air even as Thornton rumbled in warning to Samson's clear defiance. It took her a moment but she managed to sort the tawny wolf's scent from the others and she shifted quickly, eyes wide as the small male looked at her with wide, frightened eyes. She let out a soft, disbelieving sound even as she spoke the wolf's name.

"Ephraim?"