Alpha Maddox

1. Jade

Chapter 1

Jade

Bring Jack Robert’s head to our client in exchange for two thousand dollars.

It was a simple, almost laughable mission for a group of misfits and an easy night to bring in five hundred dollars each, but the two idiots behind me who didn’t know how to shut the f**k up were going to ruin it for us all.

I crouched behind a tree, watched Jack tug off his shirt through his cabin window, and inhaled the vile scent from Roger, who hadn’t showered in days. If the Chaos hit this year and Roger finally found his mate, I’d be damn sorry for that woman.

“You think it’ll come this year?” Roger asked, his voice booming through the quiet forest.

Cutting my gaze to him, I sneered. What didn’t he understand about staying quiet?

“I fuckin’ hope so.” Harold hacked up a wad of phlegm and spat at the ground beside his feet. “I heard s*x during the Chaos is the f*****g best. She-wolves’ cunts get so tight and sopping fuckin’ wet. I can’t wait to—”

Unable to stop myself, I shot up from my crouched position, grabbed them both by the neck, and pulled them closer. “Will you shut the f**k up? We’re out here for a reason, and if you two don’t get it together, we won’t get paid tonight. Talk about she-wolves’ cunts in your dreams. It’s not like you’re going to get any, anyway.”

After pushing them away, I resumed my position and glanced over at Vex who was crouched about fifty feet away with a smirk on his lips and dark hooded eyes. Out of us four, Vex was the only one who had a damn chance of getting any if the Chaos finally decided to descend upon Chaos Valley after nine long and dry years.

If the Chaos hit this year, it’d start at dusk, which meant we had about two hours, if that. And I wanted to get out of here by then because the forest would turn to madness, wolves would run around aggressively searching for their mates, and love would conquer all, or some s**t like that—whatever Mom said before Dad cheated on her.

But I didn’t give a f**k if it came. Honestly, I would rather it not.

For some miraculous reason, it hadn’t happened in almost a decade now, and the world was better off. Mates were pieces of s**t anyway. After what happened in my pack, I didn’t want one, and would prefer to live my life in peace by myself.

Inside his house, Jack unzipped his jeans and tossed them onto his bed. If this man was going for a run, he’d be even easier to snag without anyone finding out that it was us. The moon might’ve been full tonight, but everyone was preparing at home like they did every year at this time.

“I heard that there’s an auction for girls up north,” Roger said.

After cursing under my breath at their blatant stupidity, I dug my claws into the monstrous tree trunk in front of me and imagined that it was their throats. The air thickened, sitting hotter and heavier in the air. But maybe that was just my anger getting the best of me.

When Jack opened his front door, I looked at Vex who nodded back at me. We waited for Jack to transform into an enormous silver wolf, his coat smooth and shiny under the setting sun. Jack started on the needle-covered path away from his secluded home, and I tugged off my clothes and shifted into my wolf.

Wanting this night to be over with already, I sprinted after Jack. Leaves from last fall crunched under my paws. I yipped as a hidden branch cut into my paw pad and split it open. Jack glanced over his shoulder and spotted me, wolf eyes widening, then ran right into Vex who sunk his canines into Jack and pulled out his throat.

Easy. f*****g. Peasy.

I didn’t know why Roger and Harold needed to come at all, but Vex insisted.

Once I made it to Jack’s lifeless body, I shifted back into my human form and squatted next to him. Roger handed Vex a silver knife with a leather handle, and Vex slid it across Jack’s neck, the poisonous silver making the incision swift. Instead of pulling off Jack’s head right away, Vex looked at me.

“Take what you want, Jade,” he said, gruffly.

Not wasting another moment, I sunk my fingers into the wolf’s mouth, dug my claws into his gums, and pulled out his bloodied canine. Another to add to my collection.

That’d make fourteen within the past year, and I didn’t feel one ounce of guilt about it. They were from all types of criminals in the Valley: rapists, murderers, liars, and launderers. The less of these pieces of s**t there were, the safer the forest was.

But that wasn’t why I started hunting with a bunch of rogues.

I needed the cash.

“What’re you doing tonight?” Vex asked me, taking the head in his hand and walking through the woods with Roger and Harold behind us, both gushing about how much p***y they’re going to get tonight.

Turning the canine in my fist, I shrugged, tugged on my clothes, and followed him. “Going home.”

“And if the Chaos comes?” he asked, l*****g some of Jack’s blood off his lower lip.

“I’ll be sleeping.”

Vex chuckled. “For the entire week?”

“Yep.”

“Why don’t you stay with me tonight?”

I arched a hard brow at him, pushing some of my lilac-colored hair out of my face. I really needed to touch it up this weekend, my brown roots were growing back twice as dark as they had been. Every time I looked in the mirror, they gave me chills. The color reminded me of Mom.

“I’m fine,” I said.

“Just for the night,” Vex pushed, tucking another strand of my hair behind my ear with his b****y finger. “If it comes, you know people are going to go f*****g crazy at dusk. Someone might try to take you for himself.”

“Don’t talk to me like you actually care, Vex.”

Nobody really cared. Wolves were just as selfish as humans.

He jumped across a fallen tree trunk in our path and reached out to help me over it. “I’m looking out for you, Jade. I know you don’t want to mate someone the Moon Goddess has fated for you. You and I both know that s**t doesn’t work out. You should be with someone that will do anything for you.”

“Like who?” I asked, taking his hand and hopping onto the tree.

“Me.”

“You?”

“Is that such a bad thing?” Vex asked.

I jumped down onto the other side and glanced back at Roger and Harold who walked as fast as f*****g slugs. The one damn time I needed them to get home, they couldn’t keep up. I should’ve figured.

“I’m not looking for a mate,” I said once we turned onto our client’s property. “I’m looking for money for my work.”

While I tried so desperately to keep some distance from him, he walked closer than before, his muscular shoulder brushing against mine and his dark, mid-length blond hair blowing into his face. “Think about it, Jade. You don’t even like it there. Your entire pack hates you for your parents’ mistakes.”

“My father’s mistake,” I corrected. “My mom didn’t do anything.”

He always brought that back up to make me feel like s**t; it was his way of trying to control me. I glared down at the head in Vex’s hands and bit back a growl. One day I’d have his head, just like he had beheaded so many wolves for money, except I wouldn’t want any p*****t, killing him would be reward enough. I’d be free for real. I wouldn’t have to use him to find jobs, I wouldn’t have to work at the bakery with Jain, and I wouldn’t have to remember all the horrible things I’d done in my life.

I turned the canine over in my hand, the tooth scraping against my calloused palm.

Freedom.

Not the physical kind but the mental.

That’s all I had wanted for so long.

“Think about it… or I’ll make your decision for you.” He gave me a half-smile and nudged my shoulder as if he were making a joke, as if there was no truth behind his words, as if he wouldn’t r**e me to get what he wanted in life.

I called bullshit on it just being banter.

After we walked up a long dirt road to a house that sat on the curve of the river, Vex banged his fists against the side of a rotting wooden door. Crows cawed up above, and a flock of them headed south. They shouldn’t have been going there, not this time of the year. It was summer.

A moment later, our client opened the door with his hand on his beer-belly and a large grease stain on his gray shirt. He pulled off a pair of yellow-lensed glasses and nodded to Vex. “You do it for me?”

When Vex held up the head, blood dripped from the gash. “Two thousand dollars.”

Our client stared at Jack Roger’s head, upper lip lifting until I saw his stained teeth. I blew out a heavy breath and suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. Damn it, I couldn’t wait until I didn’t have to do this s**t anymore, but now I needed the extra cash. Jain could only give me so many hours at the bakery and Alpha Maddox—I f*****g hated that guy—wouldn’t let me work anywhere else in his pack.

Fine by me though. I didn’t want to see his stupid, ugly face anyway.

If the Chaos did come tonight and wolves went wild like Vex said they would, I wouldn’t care if Maddox had his face ripped off by a feral monster. Hell, maybe he wouldn’t be such a d**k all the time if he did. I mean, he’d look a lot better too and wouldn’t walk around thinking he was a god or some s**t.

Fingers crossed.

I watched more blood drip onto the ground and smiled. Forget luck, I would be the one to rip off his face. That’d be the most blissful payback I could ever even think of. And then, at that point, my entire life’s purpose would be fulfilled and I would honestly feel content.

Who cared if my pack members would call for my head? I’d give them their alpha’s first.

“Where’s his canine?” our client asked, scratching his belly and giving off the foul scent of piss like he was a scratch-and-sniff sticker.

Vex gave a hoarse growl. “You got the money or not?”

Our client pulled out a wad of cash from his pants, not even from his pocket. He straight up stuck his hand down the front of his pants and pulled out twenty hundred-dollar bills, smacking them into Vex’s hand. Vex grabbed the money and tossed the head into the run-down cabin, then turned on his heel.

“Come on,” he said.

Roger, Harold, and I followed after him until we reached the area between their hideout and my pack. I wasn’t a rogue like they were, and I planned to keep it that way, as long as nobody caught me and ratted me out to Maddox. All I needed was money, for now. Soon, I’d seek vengeance.

“He stunk like a motherfucker,” Roger said.

Harold scrunched his nose. “I can’t believe he keeps his cash in his briefs.”

“Me either,” I admitted, watching Vex divide the money four ways.

Four hundred, four hundred, four hundred, and eight hundred dollars.

Definitely not the share split we agreed upon.

But Roger and Harold didn’t notice. They never did when Vex did s**t like this, and it annoyed the absolute s**t out of me. And if they did, Vex would even make them believe they dropped the money they were missing, completely putting the blame off him.

Once the other guys went off in their own directions with their cash, Vex handed me the eight hundred dollars. I widened my eyes at the cash and stared up at him in confusion. Never in a million years had I thought Vex the Rogue would give me more money than he gave himself.

“Does this change your mind?” Vex asked, gesturing down at the hundred dollar bills.

My blood boiled at the thought of spending the night with Vex. Sure, chances were he was a good lover; I had seen him fight before and that man was ruthless. But I didn’t want a malicious thief and a cold-hearted murderer as a lover. He’d steal my heart and rip my body to pieces.

“Why don’t you spend the night with me? I’ll keep you safe.”

I turned on my heel and headed back for my pack. “I have work tomorrow. Jain needs my help at the bakery.”

Vex followed after me, catching my wrist. “Come on, Jade. You don’t even like that place.”

After yanking my hand out of his, I said, “Maybe some other time. I’m exhausted.”

I wasn’t; I just didn’t want to go home with him. But… if I pissed him off, he’d kick me out of the group, and they were the only people I really had at the moment. Not friends, but people who I tolerated and who tolerated me… for now. My pack hated me too much for my father’s mistakes.