The Alpha Heir (Kingdom of Askara Book 2) Read online

  “But you have barely any interaction with any wolves,” Taegan pointed out.

  “And as I said I am over two hundred years old. Caleb’s twenty-five. He’s been denied physical touch amounting to torture for six years, to say nothing of the extra physical torture he has endured. He is covered in scars and burns. He has been starved, and on top of all that he meets his mate. It’s no wonder the bond formed so quickly and is so strong. Caleb’s wolf is desperately clutching at the first real comfort he has had in a very long time.”

  “But I’m human,” Taegan protested. And Caleb was a wolf. He hated the wolves. It was impossible. Taegan shook his head and went back into the cave. His mom was trying to comfort Caleb but she stood as soon as he appeared. Caleb was shaking but instinctively Taegan knew it wasn’t with the cold. Every muscle in him seemed rigid. The veins on his arms corded and his jaw clenched so much he looked in danger of flying apart. Taegan reached out for Caleb’s hand, drawn despite himself. The first touch was explosive even though neither of them moved. The deep pained sound in the back of Caleb’s throat sent vibrations straight to Taegan’s heart and he felt Caleb’s pain in his gut. Taegan forgot who and what Caleb was and stretched out next to the smaller man and gathered him close. Instinctively shielding, comforting. Not even questioning why. If he could take one hurt from another whose suffering was so intense he could nearly hear every desperate, silent cry, he would. He couldn’t stand by and watch someone suffer like this.

  Caleb held himself stiff, scared for barely a second. “Hush,” Taegan breathed and tightened his arms. The response was immediate. Caleb went from rigid to boneless in an instant, and barely a sigh escaped his lips, the breath warm and welcome on Taegan’s neck as he tucked Caleb’s head under his chin.

  Taegan listened as Caleb’s breaths evened and slowed until he seemed to be sleeping peacefully; his face worry free, color normal. “How long will it last?”

  Silas arched an eyebrow. “As long as he lives or as long as you do.”

  Taegan felt the thudding of a heartbeat in his ears, but couldn’t have said which one of them it belonged to.

  Chapter Seven

  “Are you hungry?”

  Caleb jerked awake and immediately looked around for Taegan. It was Silas that had asked him the question. A trickle of unease wound its way down Caleb’s spine. Where was Taegan? He sat up and looked around the small room. It was a cave. A small one. Just enough room for a bed, a stand with a few clothes, a small table with a cup on it, and a chair. The only natural light was coming in from two deep slits in the cave wall. He shivered; it reminded him of where he had been locked up, except at least he was in a soft bed. He shivered again, unsure why because he seemed warm enough. Caleb’s glance around came back to Silas who was watching him with a kind smile.

  “I’m sorry, you asked me a question?”

  “I said are you hungry, Caleb? I am arranging to get some meat for you.”

  Caleb looked at the bread and fruit on the plate Silas was holding. He should eat, but he really wasn’t interested. “Where’s Taegan?” he burst out and then immediately cringed.

  Silas put the plate down on the bed next to him. “He has just gone to speak to the night patrols. He will be back in a little while.”

  Caleb lowered his head and rubbed his arms. His skin was irritating him and he pushed the blankets down. He sighed, needing something. Anxious, but not sure why exactly. Caleb licked his lips as the image of warm blue eyes came to him. Silas pushed a mug of tea into his hands.

  “Try and keep calm. He won’t be long. He is aware you need him.”

  “Need him,” Caleb replied woodenly. “What do you mean?” he asked, trying to be casual even knowing his heart had started to thud loudly in his chest. His hand shook as he put the cup down without drinking any. Silas opened his mouth but the wooden door across the cave entrance opened and Taegan stepped through. Everything in Caleb settled immediately, especially when the blue eyes he had just been thinking about stared straight at his own.

  “How are you feeling?”

  Warmth spread through Caleb. “Better.” He picked at the blanket, suddenly unsure. “What are you going to do with me?” Caleb saw the quick look Taegan and Silas shared. Taegan paced and Caleb wished he would sit down.

  “Caleb, have you ever heard of bonding?” Silas asked. Caleb dragged his eyes away from Taegan and shook his head. “I’m not surprised,” Silas sighed. Caleb was barely listening, too busy watching Taegan who was stood on the other side of the cave. Maybe he could get up. Maybe Taegan would like to sit down. “Taegan, please sit down before you have him climbing out of bed to get to you,” Silas said dryly.

  Taegan met Caleb’s eyes again and Caleb stared and drank him in. He could easily have been a wolf. Huge muscles sat on a powerful frame. At least a head taller than he was. Deep blue eyes staring intently at him, nearly jet black hair, but cut really close. Shame it wasn’t longer. Caleb’s fingers itched to feel it. Caleb took a breath even as Taegan watched him and felt something stir inside him.

  “What are you going to do with me?”

  Taegan put his head to one side as if considering his answer. “My original intention was to bargain your release with your uncle.” He paused.

  “Original? You are the rebel leader,” Caleb added after a few seconds. Of course he is.

  “Yes, for the last three years. I was based nearer Re-Pal before that. I only took over when I came up north.”

  Caleb fiddled with his blanket and tried to ignore the knots tripling in his stomach.

  “Taegan,” Silas said again and Caleb looked at the older wolf. The frustration and the … censure? were apparent in Silas’s tone. Caleb looked from one to the other. There was something they weren’t telling him. Then it dawned on him. Renee had told him Taegan was in a meeting with the other rebel leaders earlier, when she had brought him some tea. That could only mean one thing. They had decided he must die. He was too much of a risk. He had seen too much and his uncle wouldn’t bargain for him. That must be it and Taegan didn’t want to tell him. For a second he waited while the expected huge rush of relief rolled over him … but it didn’t. For the first time in years he felt a tiny regret at what might have been. He suddenly wasn’t sure he wanted to die at all.

  “Will you execute me yourself or will you have someone else do it?”

  “What?” Taegan burst out.

  Caleb wrapped his right arm around his middle protectively and looked down. Silas stood up, growled at Taegan and walked out of Taegan’s cave. Caleb looked up and watched the wolf leave. That was another regret. He could have learned so much from him. They might have been friends. “It matters not really,” Caleb whispered. “That day in the ring was finally my day to die. This is just putting off the inevitable.”

  He blinked as his eyes smarted and heard Taegan take three steps towards him. Even as he ached for Taegan’s touch he closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see Taegan’s and what decision they held. The bed dipped and then a gentle but calloused hand cupped his cheek and thumbed the tiny bit of moisture that had leaked out from under his lids. Goddess, Taegan’s hands felt so good. Warm, strong; like he could lean into them and Taegan would take care of everything. He heard the sigh and felt the warm puff of air ghost his cheeks. He was close, so close. The crawling in his skin soothed and Caleb relaxed. The faint smoky smell he had come to associate with the big man washed over him. Caleb marveled. For a tiny second and for the first time in many years, he was content.

  “I have no intention of killing you,” Taegan said quietly. The rich bass voice rumbled out of him and Taegan’s arm slid to his shoulders. Caleb’s eyes shot open to see the deep blue ones that he was fast getting so attached to. Taegan shuffled closer and smiled ruefully. “I am of a mind that you are just as much a victim of your uncle as we are and I am not going to send you back. I do, however, need your help.”

  Caleb stared at Taegan, barely able to hear his words over the thunder of his hea
rt. “Anything,” he said softly.

  They both glanced up as Silas came back in with his tea, and Taegan’s arm dropped to his side and he felt bereft. He didn’t want the cup that Silas passed him, he wanted Taegan. Not that he said any of that.

  He smiled at the wolf as he took it. “I will be drowning in the stuff.”

  Silas chuckled. “This one has Reishi and Nettle. You need them for strength.”

  Caleb wrapped his hands around the cup and settled a little closer to Taegan as he didn’t seem to be objecting. They were almost touching. If he moved, just a fraction…

  “Drink your tea,” Taegan ordered.

  He sipped obediently, appreciating the warmth. “You need my help,” he prompted.

  Taegan nodded. “We have just heard that our two missing kids are at Aldred’s pack house.”

  Caleb’s eyes widened. “Aldred’s? That surprises me. Mason usually wants first choice of any slaves, unless I suppose he feels they are too young.”

  “He’s not keeping them as slaves. He intends to hunt them.”

  Caleb hissed in a breath and shot a look at Silas. “When is the Darkest Day?”

  “So, the rumors are true,” Silas confirmed. “We have ten days.”

  Taegan glanced at Silas and back to Caleb’s pained face. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Do you know the legend of the twin suns?” Silas asked. Taegan shrugged. “Surya and Sorin were twins, while Aylin was their younger sister. Surya was jealous of Sorin’s temperament and Aylin’s beauty. She killed both her sisters in a jealous rage one night when the boys she loved spurned her and declared their love for Sorin and Aylin. They became goddesses. Sorin lit the whole planet every day, and Aylin lit it every night. Surya, as you know, only ever shines over the barren desert, while Aylin and Sorin travel all over Askara.”

  “What has that got to do with first-blood?” Taegan asked.

  “Nothing exactly,” Caleb said before Silas could. “The servants were forbidden to touch or speak to me while I was being held, but they often talked amongst themselves in my presence, some deliberately kind, some deliberately cruel. Over the years, Mason has hunted some human prisoners to death. The prisoners, faced with either certain execution or a miniscule chance of escape usually give the wolves good sport.” Caleb looked up. “I have never heard of children being involved, but in ten days, it will be the only time Sorin is ever eclipsed by her sister, Aylin. The Darkest Day. There are human followers of Surya and for a minute she will be the only sun to shine and supposedly at her most powerful.” Caleb sighed at the look of skepticism on Taegan’s face.

  “We have come across them before, Taegan,” Silas said.

  “And they do what?” Taegan huffed. “Dance around a fire and slit a rabbit’s throat. They have no magical powers. They are simply desperate people clutching at any straw no matter how flimsy.”

  “Yes,” Caleb said. “But they are human followers. Have you ever known a wolf to do that?”

  Taegan brushed a hand over tired looking eyes. “This is something to do with the witch, isn’t it?”

  Silas nodded. “If I am guessing correctly, Warwick and Mason under Jacind-aa’s influence have taken their sport to a new level. They mean to sacrifice the children after making them run. Traditionally the blood of an innocent contains the most power.”

  “Power for what?” Taegan asked. “I mean, isn’t being Alpha power enough for anyone?”

  Silas sipped his tea. “Did your father name his brother as Alpha-heir?”

  Caleb was taken aback at the change in subject. “No, he named Mason, when I was nineteen and they decided I wasn’t going to shift.”

  “So, when did Warwick become Alpha?”

  Caleb sighed. “When Mason was named my father’s heir I ran. I said vicious, hateful, words to my father and spent two days sulking in the forest. When I eventually returned, I was arrested immediately and told my father had been accused of treason and lost the challenge. All I ever knew of my mom was that she died at my birth and came originally from Solonara, and as I said before, my aunt recognized her as a hybrid and my inability to shift was taken as her guilt. Warwick accused my father of treason because he must have known about us both.”

  “There is a possibility because you only are a quarter human that he hoped you would shift,” Silas added.

  “I was told that Warwick and my father had fought, and that Warwick had killed him and therefore became Alpha.” Caleb hesitated. Even to his own ears it sounded wrong.

  “But something in you doubts that?” Silas prompted.

  “My father was a strong Alpha and Warwick was anything but. He was a coward, and I cannot believe that in a fair fight he would have beaten my father.”

  “What if it wasn’t a fair fight?” Taegan asked. Caleb took a breath. It was odd to finally hear the words that had been in his heart for so long on someone else’s lips.

  “If it wasn’t a fair fight then Warwick wasn’t the true Alpha,” Silas said slowly.

  Caleb glanced at him. “Do you think that is possible?”

  “What do you mean?” Taegan butted in.

  “Alpha powers vary in intensity and ability, but the common thread is control. A true Alpha can bend the will of his pack, and can only be defeated or replaced by his heir or a rightful challenge. There is a pack in Caedra I believe that is run by the ruling council as the Alpha died and his heir wasn’t old enough to participate in the choosing yet,” Silas explained.

  “But, there you go then,” Taegan. “All packs don’t need an Alpha.”

  “But all ruling packs do.” Caleb mused and glanced at Silas.

  “Yes,” Silas agreed. “A minor pack — such as the one in Caedra — could exist temporarily with a ruling council, but the ruling pack is always the one with the strongest Alpha. He has to run his own pack which is usually the biggest, but he also has to bend the other Alphas to his word. Wolf packs, as you know, are not a democracy.”

  “The day of the choosing I was shocked at how ill my uncle looked. It explains a lot. The inability to control the pack would destroy him eventually.”

  “You mean like a sickness?” Taegan asked, enthralled.

  Silas looked at Caleb. “How old are you?”

  “I’m twenty-five.” Caleb’s lips twisted. “Had I a wolf, it would have been my choosing. Mason and I were barely three months apart. I was actually the oldest.”

  Silas looked at Taegan as if something was important.

  “So, what are you saying?” Taegan said.

  “This is guesswork,” Silas cautioned. “But if Warwick did cheat, the Alpha powers would not transfer to him.”

  “But Mason is Alpha now, and he was the named heir.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Silas was definite. “The chain of power was broken and the Alpha power will not transfer until the true Alpha takes control.”

  “But I thought that’s why they mated omegas,” Taegan said.

  “No, mating an omega would only bring the Alpha his or her particular gifts, not control of the pack,” Silas answered. “Control of the pack is a living thing almost. It is hard to explain to someone that has never felt it, but it’s a feeling of rightness, belonging. The Alpha can often sense what the pack is feeling; although I am told that takes experience and maturity.” Silas shrugged. “And like I said, control. The pack’s greatest wish is to keep their Alpha happy and vice versa. Only an Alpha Heir would be able to make this happen.”

  “But there aren’t any other heirs,” Caleb said. “My father never had any other pups.”

  Silas smiled. “You are your father’s rightful heir.”

  Caleb scoffed. “I have no wolf.”

  “No, you don’t shift into your wolf, but that isn’t the same as not having one,” Silas said. “I think you are the rightful heir and I think that’s why the witch is sacrificing the children.”

  The tea that Caleb had drunk threatened to make an appearance. “Because of me?” he asked, appalle
d.

  “I have studied every book I have ever managed to get my hands on in the last fifty years, and a few years ago, there were some old diaries found in a chest in one of the caves. I was given them because they are written in Askaran, and they are incredibly old, some chronicling the start of the great wars when the wolves defeated the humans. They tell of how depraved the humans had become. Most think the wars started because of the damage the humans were doing to the planet. There was no respect for natural resources, or the protection of the world they lived in. Weapons had been built that could destroy many, many people at once. All that was true, but not just that. From what I’ve read the humans had little care for their own lives at that point, especially their children. Certain groups of humans foretelling the end of the world took to black arts and sacrifices to Surya. Human sacrifices, and in ten days it is the feast of Surya.”

  “When Aylin covers Sorin,” Caleb answered.

  “Which is fascinating,” Taegan said impatiently, “and I get they’re all weirdos and we have to get the kids, but what has any of that to do with Caleb and his Alpha status?”

  “Because the power hasn’t transferred,” Silas said flatly. “Because while ever Caleb was under twenty-five, bullying and intimidation would have controlled the pack but the second that threshold was crossed the wolves would have started to rebel, even if they were unaware of it or the reason why. Warwick’s inability to control the pack would have been more noticeable every day.”

  “And you hadn’t seen Warwick for all that time?” Taegan asked.

  Caleb tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice. “I hadn’t seen him in at least six months.”