Prodigal (Outcast Sons Book 1) Page 15

  Goddamnit. It was time, past time, for him to take the old man down. He snarled and raised the knife. Jon stood next to him like an obedient dog at heel, not cringing, but not showing his teeth, either. He knew that this was Caeden’s fight.

  “I’m flattered,” drawled his father. “But I’m not going to fight you, Caeden. I’m simply going to kill your lover.”

  Beside him, Jon instantly shifted to a wolf, unable to help himself when faced with such a terrifying threat from his Alpha. He whimpered, lowering his head and tail.

  Rage flared even hotter inside Caeden. Jon was his to protect, and always would be. “I’ll never let you hurt him,” he snapped.

  “As if you could stop me.” The Alpha laughed, a cold, cruel sound. “He deserves to die. We all know that.”

  We all know that. Caeden glanced away from his father and looked around him. All of them were watching—just watching.

  They’d stand by and let the Alpha do whatever he wanted, simply because he was the Alpha. He could command them to murder Jon right here in front of the whole town, and they’d cheerfully carry out his orders. It was the wolf way.

  But it wasn’t the right way, damn it.

  Beside him, Jon whimpered again, and flattened himself against the ground in terrified submission. Anger flared in Caeden again. He wasn’t going to stand by idly while the Alpha ordered the wolves to tear his friend and lover to pieces. He’d fight with his knife as fiercely as he possibly could. He’d fight all of them, cutting through fur, hacking through muscle, becoming spattered with their blood as it gouted from their bodies…

  He found that he liked the graphically violent images that filled his head, just as he’d liked the idea of shattering human bones while in the city. A terrible joy swelled inside him, and he grinned maniacally.

  “No,” the Alpha said, seeming to guess at the dark emotions that prompted the grin. “You won’t hurt any of my people, Caeden. I won’t permit it. I will be the one who kills Jon MacArthur. And there is nothing you can do to prevent it, not really.”

  He strode down the steps and jumped onto the grass, shifting in mid-leap, so that he became a great gray wolf in the blink of an eye. There was more silver around his muzzle than there had once been, and his long canines were yellowed, and more blunted than they had been in his youth. And yet he was nonetheless a truly frightening beast, a fearsome creature straight out of human fairy tales.

  He lowered his head, the fur bristling along his neck and spine, and a long, resonant growl rose from his chest as he crouched, ready to spring.

  Caeden dropped into a crouch as well, the knife held in front of him. Despite his brave words, he knew that his chances of defeating so enormous a wolf as his father while in human form were miniscule. He was quicker and stronger by far than any human, but nowhere near as fast and powerful as a shifted wolf. But if he could slash the beast’s jugular, or disembowel it—

  Somewhere beneath the rage that burned in his brain, the thought of killing his own father was a painful ache. It’s not a beast. It’s my father. It’s Dad.

  But he pushed the ache away, and focused on his anger and hatred. The Alpha had allowed him to be ridiculed for years, had tried to keep him and his lover separated, had exiled Jon. He was going to kill Jon. Fury bubbled up inside him.

  I am invincible.

  The wolf approached, slinking slowly toward him, and Caeden shifted position so that he was between the Alpha and Jon. He knew the great gray wolf wouldn’t kill him unless he had to. Jon was the one in real danger here.

  But Jon was his. Taboo or not, Jon belonged to him, and he wouldn’t let the Alpha hurt him. He wouldn’t let anyone hurt him, damn it.

  The enormous wolf feinted, trying to draw him off balance. The golden eyes, so like his own, watched his every movement, studying him for any weakness. Caeden stood steady, braced for the attack.

  The wolf lunged for him, and Caeden ducked to the side, slashing at its face. He aimed for the eye, its most vulnerable spot, but it moved too quickly, and all he managed to accomplish was to slice its ear open—a painful wound, but hardly incapacitating. The wolf growled in irritation, and the great jaws snapped open, then closed on his arm like a vice, clamping down hard. The pain forced the knife from his nerveless fingers. The wolf’s paw scrabbled at the knife, sending it flying twenty feet away.

  The wolf could have easily torn his arm off, but it let him go before the great teeth even broke the skin—though he’d have bruises there— and stood there, its mouth open in an unpleasant grin. Now, it seemed to be saying, there is nothing you can do. I will kill your lover, and you will do nothing except watch.

  Fury filled Caeden, driving out any human emotion he’d ever had. He clenched his fists together, and slammed them down on the wolf’s skull.

  He might be in human form, but he was nevertheless inhumanly strong, and the blow was enough to stagger the wolf. Caeden tried it again, but this time the Alpha dodged his blow. Snarling, it lunged into his chest, knocking him onto his ass, and for a moment, Caeden thought it was going to rip his throat out.

  But then something smacked into it from the side, staggering it.

  Jon, Caeden realized with shock.

  Jon had attacked the Alpha.

  It had been startling enough when Jon had attacked a human with the gun in the city. For him to attack anyone was a surprise. But for him to attack his own Alpha was so shocking, so utterly unheard of, that Caeden couldn’t wrap his head around it.

  Omegas didn’t fight. They just didn’t. And they sure as hell didn’t take on the Alpha.

  But Jon, although badly out of his weight class, was doing his best. He had the Alpha by the side of his neck, his sharp white teeth digging fiercely into the thick fur, and was trying really sincerely to knock the larger wolf over so that he could get at his throat. Around them, the watchers muttered in shock, but no one made a move to intervene. The law was clear—the Alpha had to fight his own battles.

  The Alpha shook Jon off, roaring, and reared to meet Jon’s next charge, snapping at him. The great jaws caught Jon by the shoulder and flung him to the ground, so hard that his skull smacked against the dirt. Jon lay momentarily stunned in the dirt, helpless to defend himself, his furry belly and throat exposed. The Alpha snarled, lowering his snout. His lips writhed back from his lips, exposing the huge fangs.

  All the rage, all the dark fury that Caeden had felt growing inside over the past four years seemed to coalesce inside him, swelling and burning until he felt like he could burst with it. That was Jon, his Jon, his lover, lying there on the ground, about to have his throat ripped out.

  Jon was about to die for him. And before that, he’d sacrificed everything, lost his home and his friends and his Pack. All because he’d had sex with Caeden.

  No. Because he’d mated with Caeden.

  Caeden roared in fury, and let the animal rage run through him, transforming him.

  It was a bizarre sensation. He could feel his skeleton rearranging itself, could feel the configuration of his body changing, and yet it didn’t hurt. Ebony fur burst out all over his skin, and his fingernails and toenails shifted to claws. Somewhere along the line his clothes ripped away from his body—probably, he figured, about the time his tail popped into existence. Levi’s had never designed their jeans with a long furry tail in mind.

  The shift took no more than a second, though every instant of it registered on his mind, an indelible memory, never to be forgotten. If he’d had time, he would have looked himself over, found a mirror and seen exactly what his markings were, sniffed with interest at the grass and discovered for himself how different canine senses were, learned how to use his back paw to scratch his ear. But he didn’t have time right now.

  Jon was in danger.

  The insane rage and hatred he’d felt had somehow melted away in the change. Hormones, he thought, a little relieved that he wasn’t actually going mad. Jon had been right. What had been driving him out of his mind had simply been a
huge, unrelenting storm of hormones. And now that I’ve changed, he thought with relief, they probably won’t bother me anymore. Changing had…

  Well, it had cured him. He could feel it.

  But even though he was no longer seething with fury, he did feel hot indignation at the fact that his father—his own father—was threatening his lover. He let the wrath fuel him, and barreled into his father’s side at top speed, flipping the old wolf over completely.

  He was, he realized with satisfaction, a big wolf, even bigger than his father. And he was young, and in the prime of his life. His teeth were dagger-sharp and white as alabaster… and deadly. He planted his front paws on the Alpha’s chest, pinning him beneath his considerable weight. His father struggled, but Caeden lowered his head, showing all his teeth in a threatening snarl. By biting into the Alpha’s neck, he would win the ritual fight.

  He heard another mutter run through the crowd, and knew they were all wondering if he’d finish with the ritual bite, or if he’d rip the Alpha’s throat out. Everyone there knew that he could kill the Alpha if he wanted to… and for all the deep love the town held for the Alpha, no one would step in to save the old man.

  But Caeden didn’t want to. He’d never wanted to fight his own father. Which, he realized at last, had always been the problem. His respect and love for his father, his awareness that his father was a born leader, revered and beloved, the sort of leader that only comes along once in a great while, had prevented him from fulfilling his destiny to defeat the old Alpha and take over the Pack.

  At least, that had been part of it. The rest of it…

  He lifted his head without concluding the fight, and concentrated on his body, shifting from lupine back to human form. Even as a human, he wasn’t small, and his not inconsiderable weight rested on the alpha’s furry chest as he grabbed the thick ruff in either hand, holding the Alpha’s head against the grass despite the wolf’s furious snarls.

  “Now,” he said, “let’s talk.”

  Chapter 20

  Jon was immensely relieved to see that all the madness had faded from Cae’s eyes. He’d been right, then—the stress of needing to change, but not being able to, had slowly become too much for Cae’s body to handle. Now that he had learned to effect the change, Jon was confident he would revert back to the kind, decent, steady guy Jon had fallen in love with years ago.

  He’d also revert to a man who needed a mate and cubs to be happy. At the thought, Jon felt his heart turn cold inside his chest, but he tried to ignore the sensation. It didn’t matter anyway. He’d been exiled, and he had to leave this place. He wasn’t welcome in Wolf Green any longer. And even if Cae reversed that ruling, and allowed him to stay—

  Well, all he truly wanted was for Cae to be happy, and an alpha couldn’t be happy with a mate of the same sex. Everyone knew that. If he had to stay, he’d try his hardest to be happy for his friend, even when Cae found a woman and had cubs of his own. He’d support Cae’s choices, even if he felt like he was dying inside.

  “I understand now,” Cae was saying, still sitting on the Alpha’s chest. The Alpha had ceased growling, and was listening, his ears pricked. “I couldn’t change because I didn’t want to defeat you, Father. You’ve been a good leader all these years. The best. You’re the glue that holds this community together. But as great a man as you are, the truth is that I don’t want to be like you.”

  A murmur ran through the crowd. Jon felt bewildered himself. When one alpha defeated another in ritual combat, the victor became the Alpha. That was the way of things. All Cae had to do was let his teeth close on the Alpha’s neck, a ritual bite symbolizing a fatal slash to the jugular, and he would become their leader. But Cae remained in human form, and went on, his voice even, but loud enough to carry throughout the gathering crowd.

  “You’ve been a great leader,” he said, “but not the kind of leader I want to be. You see, our people need to change the way they do things. The abuses of power I’ve seen, the way lower-ranked wolves are treated, the limits on who can do what—these things all need to change. But change needs to come from the head of the Pack, and until now I wasn’t confident I could be that Alpha. I suppose it was easier to let you remain in charge, to accept the status quo. But I can’t accept it any longer.”

  He glanced over at Jon, and went on. “Until today, I wasn’t sure I could step into your pawprints. But I don’t need to, not really. I intend to walk in my own pawprints, and no one else’s. That being said… I truly don’t want to defeat you, Father. To the Pack, you represent tradition. Continuity. Old-fashioned values. And those things are still important, because change can’t come all at once. So I have a proposition for you.”

  He fell silent for a long moment, and a hush fell over the crowd as they waited. For a long moment there was only silence. At last Cae spoke again.

  “What I’d like to suggest,” he said, “is that we lead the Pack together. The two of us, side by side. Father and son. The idea that there can only be one Alpha in a Pack—well, it’s tradition, but just because something’s tradition doesn’t make it right, does it? The way I see it is that some rules are meant to be broken. You’re getting older, and your teeth aren’t as sharp as they once were, but that doesn’t mean you have nothing left to contribute. You have wisdom and experience, and I have strength and energy and new ideas. We’d be great together, Father. And even if you don’t want to lead forever, even if you want to retire someday, the way humans do… well, at least for a while, the transition will be smoother if we are both Alphas. And the changes will come more easily if you’re willing to throw your weight behind them.”

  The old wolf looked up at him, surprise and a growing respect clear in the golden eyes.

  “Of course,” Cae went on, his voice growing noticeably chillier, “you’ll have to agree that some things must change. No one should be mocked or humiliated or bullied for what they are. No one should ever be ostracized without a trial. A higher-ranked wolf should never be allowed to physically abuse anyone, ever—and that goes for the Alpha as well as for anyone else.”

  He drew in a long breath. Jon had the uncomfortable feeling he had a suspicion that the Alpha had struck Jon before his exile, though he certainly hadn't volunteered that information. But Cae had his emotions under control now, and nothing showed on his face besides a brief flicker of anger. He went on, his voice steady.

  “The Pack deserves a body of well-designed laws, not just traditions, to protect them, all of them, so that their wellbeing doesn’t depend solely on the whim of the Alpha. A benevolent dictator is still a dictator, and I won’t stand for that.” His voice lowered. “And the idea that an alpha may not mate with whomever he chooses—well, an alpha should be free to follow his own heart, as should anyone else in the Pack.”

  Jon blinked, bewildered, as Cae continued.

  “Jon MacArthur has proven himself to be as brave as any wolf of any status in the Pack. He has thrown away everything for me—home, security, and family. By returning to Wolf Green and attacking you, he risked death for me. He is my mate, Father. Accept this, accept him, and I will stay here and rule by your side. Turn him away, and you turn me away as well.”

  Jon felt his legs tremble beneath him. He is my mate. It was such a simple phrase, and it was, he realized with a tremendous burst of emotion, absolutely true. That was why he’d experienced such intense physical reactions to sex lately, such impossibly long orgasms.

  The fact that the two of them hadn’t been able to knot didn’t matter, not really. What mattered was that he was Cae’s, and Cae was his. All at once he knew that Cae would never leave him for anyone, no matter what.

  And the truth was, he’d known it all along. He’d just been too blinded by tradition to see it.

  Or maybe he’d wanted to be too blind to see it, because the knowledge of how the Pack might react, the knowledge that he might lose the person he loved most, scared him too badly.

  He stood there on shaking paws, waiting for the Alph
a’s response. At last the Alpha inclined his head, very slightly, and Cae’s shoulders relaxed visibly. He rose to his feet, and extended a hand to his father.

  The Alpha shifted into human form, accepted Cae’s outstretched hand, and stood up. The two of them stood there, shoulder to shoulder, and looked at the Pack.

  The Pack began to applaud. Very slowly at first, but then the sound grew, until it rolled like thunder around the town. Jon forced himself to shift back into human form, and Cae threw a casual arm around his shoulders.

  And still the applause grew.

  ✽✽✽

  “It’s good to be home.”

  Caeden threw himself down on the old tattered sofa in Jon’s bungalow, sighing with contentment. He expected Jon to sit down next to him, but instead he went to the refrigerator and started looking for food.

  “You know everything in there is spoiled, right?”

  “Ugh.” Jon straightened up, his nose wrinkling. “Gross. I guess the first thing we need to do is go shopping.”

  “No. The first thing we need to do is talk. Sit down, Jon.”

  He intentionally worded it as a command, but still Jon hesitated, looking like he felt safer with a counter between himself and the alpha.

  “What’s wrong, Jon?”

  “Um. Well. It’s what you said to your father about… about…”

  “About you being my mate.”

  “Yeah. That. Do you really—I mean, we haven’t been able to—”

  “Jon.” Caeden spoke as gently as he was able. “The way I see it, knotting doesn’t matter much, not really. You’re my mate, no matter what. For now and forever. I’m never going to leave you for anyone, I swear. If that’s not a life-bond, I don’t know what is.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, me too. But the thing is—I figure you probably really want to knot. I mean, it’s like an instinct with alphas, isn’t it? I’m not sure you’ll ever truly be happy with me…”

  “Stop it, Jon. I am happy with you. I promise. There is no possible way I could be happier.”