Fate of the Lycan Alpha

Author Note: This is the second book in the Fate series. If you have not read it yet, please check it out: Fate of the Alpha's Mate. Lucas The cold air hit me like a wall as I stormed out of the packhouse. I needed the fresh air. The cold air was even better. Deciding to live in the house Esme’s dad built was the best thing we ever did. Having my work and my home in the same place sometimes felt suffocating. Having the short walk from the packhouse to our home gave me some time to breathe and decompress. Today, I needed to breathe. I don’t know what gave the lycan families the idea that they could dictate to the rest of us, but I refuse to be a part of their bullshit. The best part of living in the United States is we don’t have any lycan families watching our every move and trying to impose their ideals on us. The evolution of my wolf may make me like them, but that was the extent of our likeness. They obviously got word of my transition into a lycan. Why they thought that meant they could summon me to a different country is beyond me. Not that I would even consider it if they were only an hour away. I owe them nothing. I don’t fall under their kingdoms and have no desire to be a part of any of them. I walked up the steps of our front porch, taking two at a time, and took a deep breath before opening the front door. The smell of Esme filled me up and I could feel my body relaxing already. This house wasn’t home to me. She was. “Hey, babe, where are you?” I called out when I didn’t see her. She popped up with a smile from behind the island in the middle of the kitchen with a pan in her hand. Her long dark hair was piled on top of her head and she had flour on her face, but she still took my breath away. “Working on some recipes for Books and Beans,” she smiled, wiping her hands on her apron as I walked toward the kitchen. I glanced around and saw a variety of pastries lining the counters. The house has smelled like nothing but baked goods the last few weeks. Since she fulfilled the prophecy and broke the curse, she had more time to focus on the bookstore she planned on opening with a coffee shop and bakery inside. That meant endless baking as she worked to perfect the recipes. They were already pretty perfect to me, but her pregnancy seemed to change her taste buds daily. I pulled her in for a kiss and tasted the cinnamon sugar on her lips. “Tastes like heaven,” I teased her as I snatched one from the plate on the counter. She rolled her eyes and walked back to her bowl of dough. “Bad day?” she asked as she started placing what appeared to be cookie dough onto the tray she pulled out. Why I thought I could come in here and pretend I wasn’t pissed off was beyond me. We had been more in sync than ever. The rage that rolled through me while reading the stupid letter probably pushed right through. “I got a letter,” I sighed, taking another bite. Figuring I could chew and stall while I considered what to tell her. “From the Morrighan family. They want me to meet with them.” I answered truthfully. She was going to figure it out, so there was no point in sugarcoating it. “Why?” She narrowed her green eyes. “Didn’t say,” I replied, popping the last piece in my mouth and started eyeing the other options sitting around. “Where?” she asked, eyeing me carefully. “Some private airfield in England. Doesn’t matter. I’m not going.” I answered simply. “So, this was something you could decline?” she asked doubtfully. She was the one who did a deep dive into the lycan families. She was well aware of the fact that they take rejection lightly. “Not exactly, but I’m not going. I don’t owe them anything.” I scowled. I am an alpha. I don’t really do well with taking orders from others, no matter how important they think they are. “What do you think will happen when you don’t show?” She raised her eyebrows at me like I hadn’t considered they would be pissed. I was very aware that they would not be happy. I just couldn’t bring myself to care. “I don’t really care. I am not one of them, they have no say in what I do or don’t do.” I answered as she popped the tray into the oven and set a timer. “Lucas, I’m worried they will show up here,” she frowned, biting her lip. “So, you think I should go?” I asked, shocked. “Not at all, I just have a bad feeling about this. Maybe you should at least send a letter back. Thanks, but no thanks. Don’t leave them expecting you. That will just piss him off more.” She moved to me and leaned her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her. “I’ll send a letter if it will make you feel better. I don’t know how much good it will do.” I said, burying my nose in her hair. “My grandmother said you created fear, no wolf has ever evolved into a lycan like you did. No lycan can fully shift into their wolf. I never thought it would be the lycans that she was talking about.” I could hear the fear in her voice. We just made it through one war, and we may be walking into another. Our bond was stronger than ever and together I knew we were unstoppable. But I also never had more to lose in my life. “I don’t think they are afraid of me, but I also don’t think they are just inviting me to the family,” I told her, pulling back from our embrace. I ran my hands down her sides and over her little baby bump before leaning down to kiss her belly. “You and him are all the family I need anyway,” I smiled up at her. “Or her,” she scowled at me. “Or her,” I laughed and rolled my eyes. She could get her hopes up all she wanted about her line of first daughters. Science says that the father determines the s*x and alphas make boys first. “Do you think they will show up here?” she asked as I reached for another one of her pastries. “Not if they know what’s good for them,” I answered and took a bite. “This is really good.” I smiled at her and set it on the counter before picking her up and plopping her down beside it. Her legs fell to my sides as I moved between them and tilted her chin up to me. “But not as good as this,” I grinned and captured her lips with mine. Her arms went around my neck and pulled me closer with a groan. I ran my tongue across her lips, pushing my way inside, deepening the kiss. She tasted like cinnamon and heaven and I couldn’t get enough. My teeth grazed her bottom lip, pulling another moan from her lips. I cupped her ass with my hands and pulled her closer to me. My c**k strained against my jeans already, rubbing against her core. A beeping sound filled the air, and she pulled back quickly, glaring at me. “You are distracting me!” she accused and pushed me back to jump off the counter. I laughed as she grabbed the potholder and whipped the oven open. “They are out now. Let me distract you some more,” I smirked, wrapping my hands around her waist and pulling her back into me. Kiara Staring at my uncle across the table, it was hard to hide my disgust. The entire family was called to a meeting about some new hope for our kind. New land, new blood and new possibilities. I was being offered up like I was being given some amazing opportunity to further our control. I would be queen of the American lycans. We hadn’t taken control over the American wolf packs yet, but Lucas would change all of that. Lucas was a wolf that recently evolved into a lycan. Rumor is his mate is a powerful witch that somehow managed to curse him. That’s what this was, despite what others thought. Being a lycan was a curse. As soon as my uncle, the king of all the lycan kingdoms, heard of this news, he began trying to figure out what to do. Initially, his thought was to kill him. Then the possibilities of new blood reviving our kind changed everything. We wouldn’t need revived if we were given the freedom to mate with the wolves, with our fated mates, with anyone outside of the lycan families. That was forbidden. That would be what destroyed us. Uncle Conri would never admit that this line of purebreds that he demanded was what endangered us. Lycans only mating with other lycans could only last so long when we began with five families. Especially when Conri slaughtered anyone that opposed him. “Kiara! Are you even listening to me?” Conri demanded from across the table, finally grabbing my attention. “Yes, Uncle. I apologize.” I gave a soft smile to appease him. “I will need you prepared. This will not be easy. He has taken a mate.” His lip curled as his brow furrowed, showing his disgust at Lucas’s choice. He looked down on witches even more than he did wolves. The wolves he just felt like he was better than them. He didn’t hate them as a breed, he just refused to allow us to dilute our superior lycan blood with theirs. The witches, on the other hand, he hated. I knew that hatred derived from fear, though he would say otherwise. “Yes, Uncle.” I nodded in agreement, as if I had a choice. “I have sent for him. I will need all of the families ready for his arrival. We will need to welcome him together, show him the life we are offering him.” Conri looked around the room at the representatives from all the families. I should have known when I was invited to the meeting that this was going to be bad for me. I was never invited to these things. My cousin, Marus would take over for Conri someday, so I had no place in their politics. At least not until they decided to marry me off.