The Blood Pack (book one)

Chapter two

We were dancing together to the beat, when a tall muscular shifter came up behind Sanna and started grinding against her. I checked in with her through the pack link and she was happy, so I backed up a little to give them space. Just then muscular hands wrapped around me. I could feel a dominant wolf behind me. Maybe even alpha material. My wolf sat up to attention as his rough hands glided across the bare skin of my stomach, pulling me back to grind against him.

He felt good behind me as our bodies moved together. I took a chance and turned around to find a handsome young male, not any of the alphas I had looked up earlier. He had a big grin across his face as our eyes met and our bodies continued to move together. His hands wound up my back and tangled in my hair, angling my head just right and then he kissed me. It was hot and passionate. Shifters were not afraid of PDA and I bet there were even a few who were full blown shagging somewhere in here.

The wolf tried to dominate the kiss but my alpha instincts kicked in taking charge right back. When I managed to take full control a pang of disappointment filled me. He was not an alpha. He was close but something held him back. We carried on regardless our bodies grinding together in just the right way for my core to start to clench and I could feel his excitement against my stomach.

Soon he pulled away and nodded to the bar. "Want a drink?" he offered and I nodded, telling him mine was a double vodka. We went over to the bar where the bar man was quickly in front of me again. When the male wolf next to me ordered I could not help but notice the disappointment in his eyes. We got our drinks and sat on two stools towards the end. "So what's an alpha female like you doing in a dive like this?" he said taking a swig of his whiskey.

I nodded towards where Sanna, who was still dirty dancing with Mr. Tall. "Friend brought me." I took a swig of my vodka. "What is an alpha male like you doing not being an alpha?" I had little filter sober and tipsy as I was at the moment, I had none.

Luckily the guy smiled. "My alpha is more of an alpha and my wolf is happy to follow him." I nodded.

"Which pack?" I asked curious as to how a male as dominant as this could be outshone in any of the local packs I knew.

He smiled again. "We are new to the area. That's why I'm here, seeing what the local packs are like. And I must say I like what I see so far." He said resting his cold whiskey glass against my inner thigh. The sensation caused a small moan to escape my lips and my legs to part. The male wolf smiled and leant forward to capture my lips again.

" Cassy! " Sanna's scream brought me tumbling back to earth. I whirled in my seat and saw her pinned against the wall with Mr. Tall nibbling on her neck. I stood quickly.

"Need help?" the guy I was with asked.

"No thanks." I called back already stomping over to the offending wolf. I tapped him on the shoulder and he turned slightly before going back to pinning Sanna to the wall. "I will warn you once. Let my friend go and you get to walk out of here still able to have pups."

The guy chuckled and mutters something like "Back off bitch." with that I used my alpha strength to grab one of his arms that was caging Sanna in and twisted it behind his back." Get off me. "he cried as I turned him towards me and stamped on his foot with my heel before kneeling him, hard in the balls. Just then his friend came at me landing a nice punch to the face splitting my lip.

" Hold my bag Sanna. "I said thrusting the clutch at her. Luckily the shortness of the dress was an advantage as I managed to kick up connecting with the wolfs side making him hunch over enough for me punch him in the face knocking him out cold. When three more wolves turned to come at me, I held my fists up ready to defend myself but they stopped mid way.

I turned around hoping to see my mysterious wolf, but instead it was tweedle dumb and tweedle dee. They looked pissed. I rolled my eyes. "What are you guys doing here?" I said crossing my arms.

"Alpha wants you home now!" they said together.

I scoffed. "Alpha isn't here." I stated.

"He came back when he heard we lost you today." tweedle dumb said. "he wants to see you now." tweedle dee finished.

Internally I was screaming. f**k. I turned back to Sanna. "You okay hun?" I ask as she leapt at me wrapping her hands around my neck. She started to sob against me. "You wanna go home?" she nodded against my neck. "Fine tweedles, let's go."

They both grumbled at my nickname for them, but started to lead the way out. When we got back up the stairs the bouncer stepped between me and Sanna and the tweedles. "Everything okay love?" he said taking in Sanna in my arms.

"You got some shifters who don't take no as no. Sort it out." I snapped stepping around him with Sanna still clinging on tight. The tweedles led us to their car and we all got in, Sanna still cradled to my side. I rubbed her hair and mumbled encouraging words all the way." Take us to Sanna's first. "I ordered the tweedles lacing my voice with my alpha tone. They sighed and didn't argue thankfully.

Once outside Sanna's house, me and her got out and I walked her to the door. She looked at me with the key in the lock." Thanks Cassy. That guy… he got pissed when he ordered me to… And it didn't work and I didn't want to and…" I pulled her back to me.

"You going to be okay?" I asked rubbing her side.

"Yeah. I just need a shower and my bed. You go deal with your father." a shiver ran down my spine. He would not be happy I went out without back up and got into a bar fight. I nodded and waited for her to go in and lock the door. I turned back to the car and got in. They set off again without a word and we were soon outside the pack house. "Somebody's in trouble." I looked up to see my idiotic brother leaning against the wall.

"f**k off Liam." I said as I walked past him. He grabbed my arm and brought me to a stop in front of him.

"Slut looks good on you sis." I tugged my arm free and continued past him. My brother was a few chips short of a happy meal and did not see an issue with ogling his own sister. I shivered at the thought. It made me sick. Being an alpha male he got to mate who he wished but he always looked at me. We weren't blood related, he was adopted from another pack, when he became stronger than the alpha at a young age. But I saw him as a brother and so nothing was ever going to happen there.

I walked into the house and my father was pacing in the entry. When he saw me he paused. "Again Cassandra." Yes full name, I was in trouble. I hung my head in mock submission. "I ordered Peter and Paul to follow you for your protection and look what happened. A fight in a shifter club. Really?"

Obviously tweedle dumb and dee had filled him in whilst I was walking Sanna to her door. "Those guys deserved it, there will be no repercussions on the pack. He was trying to force himself on Sanna!" I added showing the anger I felt in my voice.

My father froze. "Sanna. Is she okay?" my father also had a soft spot for my best friend. I nodded, and he let out a long breath. "It is by time you took a mate and settled down Cassy. You're getting too old to be shadowed by your old man." I swallowed as he took a step towards me. "It will be good for the pack." he cupped my face. "You will make one alpha very happy." taking a step back he said. "I'll put a note on the wolf Web. See what alliances we can get. I heard a new pack is in town with a powerful alpha. Being their first alliance in the area would be a fantastic p*****t don't you think?"

"Yes father." I said quietly. He would know my distain for the idea of mating by the fact I called him father and not alpha.

He clenched his fists. "You will do this for your pack Cassandra. Do not question your alpha!" I silently nodded and headed to my room. I thought I had more time. I thought I had a chance to maybe change his mind. But he used the pack card and I knew I had no choice. f**k.

~Ash~

I sent my pack out to scope out the area around our new territory. There were a good few packs here and I could make a name for myself without the watchful eyes of my fathers and mother. I loved them but I needed to do this on my own. Needed to prove myself. I was not the eldest so I was not next in line for the lead alpha roll which meant I would one day have to answer to my brother. I needed to establish myself before then. I had a long time, my father, although hundreds of years old, had found a new lease of life in my mum. But I didn't want to count on that.

I sent Ste, my beta to a local shifter club. Theo, my head enforcer and Luke one of his men to a few other shifter hangouts. I sent Jen and Josh, a mated couple, to scope out the local retail. Jonny, an enforcer, was on patrol and Clara was up to god knows what. Why she wanted to come to my pack instead of staying in my father's was beyond me. Meanwhile Trev, my tech guy, was setting up our wolf Web account and filling me in on the local packs.

There were a good twelve packs in the local area of varying sizes. Mine was by far the smallest, with only nine members, but we would be the strongest. Each male was trained from the head trainers, my mother's other mates, and were excellent fighters. One of my men was worth ten of a normal pack, if not more. Trev had been trained by Nick, another of my mother's mates. They were all technically my father's but we all knew Eric was mine and my brother biological father, the dominance of our wolves was unmistakable. And as times had moved away from females taking multiple mates, I found it harder to see them with her.

We were just finishing off on one of the packs when Ste stumbled into my office. "Are you drunk?" I shouted getting to my feet. God I sent him out to do a job not to get hammered.

"I think I'm in love. f**k. This she-wolf tonight she was pure alpha female and her friend was in trouble and she went f*****g wild, she was all 'hold my purse' to her friend and then." he started to kick his legs around and flail his arms. I am sure it looked better coming from an alpha female. I just laughed, not being able to control myself when my best friend acted so stupid.

" Anyway, other than that. Seems the other packs here get along. They mainly seem to have alliances already set up and I put the word out that we were new around here. That alpha female she was not impressed that I was not an alpha though." he said looking more seriously and sighing. I rolled my eyes. At least he put the word out there that we were here.

We had a nice large territory on the outskirts of town. High tech security already in place around the border and a solid pack house already built. As we grew we could use the surrounding land to build more houses but that was once the pack was established. I did not want to grow too fast, wanting to trust and know each member.

Trev cleared his throat obviously ready to show me the next pack. I turned and took my seat back, Ste also pulling one up to take a look. It was another pack of about a hundred wolves under an old alpha. I sighed, this would be harder than I thought. These old alphas were stuck in their ways, it would be harder to bend them to my way of seeing things. "What was your dream girls name anyway?" I asked ignoring the same old spiel on the screen.

Ste froze. "s**t. Her friend shouted it… Oh my god I didn't get her name! I didn't give her mine! Well I f****d that up." he said cradling his head in his hands making me chuckle. This was typical Ste, his head gets away with him and the reality crashes back in. Trev flicked to the next pack on the wolf Web and Ste jumped." That's her. There, next to the Alpha. s**t man she is even hotter when not in a dark club." he pointed to the profile pic next to the one of the alpha. She was the alphas daughter. A true alpha female, and dear God she was gorgeous. Even though she looked pissed off as hell in the picture. She had long Ash blonde hair, pale skin and massive purple eyes. Her full red lips were pulled down into a frown and I could only imagine the body that went with that face.

A growl rumbled in my throat as Ste continued to gape at her, proclaiming his love. "You are not the alpha." I gritted out. He stopped and looked at me before sinking into his chair. He knew I had a point, it was a waste of time him wanting to get to know her when it could never happen. I took in the rest of the profile. It seemed the alpha also had an adoptive son who looked a bit of a sleaze, he had short brown hair and brown eyes with a stern jaw. We were flicking through the rest of the pack members when a message pinged on the screen.

Trev opened it and I could not contain the snarl in my throat. The alpha of this pack was looking to mate off his daughter, an alpha female as I thought, to an alpha male to form an alliance. Interested parties needed to post their pack name and alpha. Just whilst I was reading the message five packs had posted their names and alphas. "Come on alpha put your hat in the ring. She is amazing." Ste started up again. I sighed.

"Trev." I grunted and he looked back at me confused. "f*****g put me on the list." his fingers moved lightening fast as he added our pack and my name to the list which now had ten packs. It had only been two minutes. I read the message in more detail and it said that selected packs would be invited to pack territory to discuss negotiations once selected.

I clenched my jaw tightly. This was barbaric. This alpha was selling his daughter to advance his standing. Just as I stood to go and get myself a drink another ping came from the laptop. "Alpha." Trev said opening the message and tilting the screen so I could see.

Dear Alpha Ashley Blood.

I see that you are interested in forming an alliance. I must say this pleases and intrigues me greatly. I would like to extend the first invitation for negotiation to you, I hope that you accept. Negotiations will take place in two days time on my pack's territory. Let me know if you are still interested.

Alpha Carter Moon