CHAPTER NINE

The wave of anger hit Gerik while he, Alrik and Niel were completing routine administrative tasks for the Pack.

It was a small wave, but only because its originator was trying to keep it contained. Still, it lapped at the edges of his consciousness and told him that when said originator arrived, someone was in for a Grade A ass-kicking.

He gently probed the wave, trying to figure out at whom, or what, the anger was directed. Its gradual increase in intensity told him it was heading toward the Alpha's house, and he quickly reeled his own power in, both to minimize his presence as well as prepare himself for the inevitable confrontation.

There were only three people in the house at the moment; Brianna was off visiting Kit, and given the difference in her own power signature, the entire Pack would know where she was. So, unless she had done something and someone was coming here to complain to the Alpha, it was likely that the anger had anything to do with anyone in the house.

Unless someone else unrelated to the triumvirate or the three new females had done something wrong and the injured party was coming to complain. That was just as likely a possibility, and hardly uncommon.

Gerik forced himself to stop guessing and simply ready himself. Whatever it was, they'd find out soon enough. He looked toward the other two males, and was surprised to see that they didn't appear to detect anything. That was odd, and rather careless of them. He opened his mouth to warn them, but was too late.

The front door slammed open, and the wave's full power was at last unleashed. It rolled over the three males, wild and uncontained. It raked across their consciousness, expressing not simply pure anger, but indignation and, oddly enough, betrayal.

The signature was obvious enough now; Brianna was the source, and the Wild Child was pissed.

Gerik quickly made a mental inventory of everything he'd done over the past few days, and couldn't think of anything that would make her upset. She had been talking to Kit, but he'd avoided that female since their confrontation in the café. He glanced at the other two.

Niel? He'd been hard on Sarah during their lessons, but Gerik couldn't imagine he'd been so severe with the female that Brianna would take offense.

That left Alrik. Gerik couldn't imagine what he would have done to stir Brianna up this much, and though the Alpha could handle anything she threw at him, prepared to back him up, regardless.

Brianna stormed into the room. Her eyes blazed with fury, but her voice was steady.

"Good," she stated when she saw the three of them. "I have a formal complaint I'd like to register regarding the conduct of a member of this Pack." At Niel's nod, she continued. "I have been deceived—grievously deceived—as to the motivation of the recent edicts of the Alpha concerning my person, and I demand restitution."

Oh, damn. She was too flowery in her rhetoric; Gerik knew it was never a good sign when a female became so high-browed. On the flip side, it was unlikely this was going to turn into bloodshed. It sounded, and felt, more like she just wanted a bit of drama to soothe her wounded dignity.

"And what exactly do you accuse me of?" Alrik asked, obviously confused.

"You lied to me!" she shouted, her control finally breaking, and thrust an accusatory finger at him. "You said my living here was to protect everyone while I was learning how to deal with you all, but no, it's because you want to indulge your own lustful impulses."

"What?"

"Go ahead and try to deny it, but everyone's been talking about how you intend to take me as your mate," she snarled. "In fact, they say it's all but official now. So go on, tell me how you didn't use your position to get me alone so you could seduce me into submitting to your perversions!"

Gerik's jaw dropped. The possibility of Alrik having actual perversions never would have occurred to him. Lustful impulses, certainly; he was, after all, only nineteen. Lust went along with being nineteen, whether you wanted it to or not. But a closet deviant? Really?

Then again, the Alpha did spend a great deal of his time on the computer. Gerik shot a look at Niel, who appeared just as shocked by Brianna's accusation as the rest of them.

"Just what have the two of you been doing?" Niel wondered.

"I have no idea what she's talking about," Alrik sputtered, at a loss for words for what Gerik assumed had to be the first time in his life. To Brianna, he said, "I haven't laid a finger on you, and you damn well know it."

"Oh, really?" she shot back. "Then what was that about it being only natural that you reciprocate the 'affection' I showed you when you were oh-so-generously taking care of me? My God, no wonder everyone assumed I was your mate once you bragged about me crawling into your bed. Which, by the way, I still don't remember doing, as I was wacked out on Vicodin!"

Her second reference to her being Alrik's mate finally impacted Gerik's brain. Oh, that. Damn. Well, it was going to come out eventually. Still, it didn't look like he would be needed and, as he still was frustrated with his own predicament, Gerik leaned back to enjoy Alrik's turn at being raked over the coals.

"I never told anyone about that, because I knew it would embarrass you," Alrik gritted out. "And it would embarrass me."

Oh, now that was a mistake.

"Well I am just so sorry that you're humiliated by having to suffer the attentions of such a freak like me," Brianna replied, her face white with rage.

"Goddamnit, I told you already, no one thinks you're a freak!" Alrik yelled, his own temper finally snapping. "It's that very difference that makes you so valuable. Do you honestly think that I can take just any female as my mate? Why do you think you're even here in the first place?"

And there it was, all out on the table. Niel glared at Gerik when he recognized his perverse delight in the situation. Gerik ignored him.

Brianna's power, which had been flooding the room this whole while, snapped back into her so fast Gerik was momentarily disoriented. She drew herself up proudly, her mouth thinning into a hard, bitter line.

"When we were told we were coming here, we were assured that in spite of the fact that it appeared like we were being sold as broodmares, we would still have the freedom of choice," she stated coldly. "That is the Law. That I have been confined to your company alone at the behest of your will makes it appear to me that you never intended to allow me that freedom. I demand that you abide by the Law, and, further, that I be allowed to take up residence somewhere else where I will not be influenced against my will to choose you and only you." She looked at Niel and Gerik in turn before concluding. "As the Pack's Keeper and Beta, I expect you to assistthe Alpha in realizing that this is the correct, the Lawful thing, to do.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go kill something."

She spun on her heel and marched out of the house, slamming the door as she exited. Alrik snarled in frustration, thrust himself away from the table and stormed out of the room. They heard another door slam upstairs.

Gerik couldn't help himself; he burst out laughing.

"This isn't funny," Niel told him severely.

"Yes it is," Gerik replied. "God, you just don't get it, do you? Outside of this region, Alrik Ebsen is the most feared Alpha in the history of our kind, just because he's so powerful, and not because he's actually done anything to deserve it. The land has been singing of his coming for centuries now, did you know that? When I first realized the land was drawing me to Changer Island, I almost shit myself. Me, an Alpha, having to confront the one person who could destroy me without so much as twitching. I was convinced that I was going to my death. I figured out quick enough that I was wrong, but that's what I thought at the time.

"And here he is, in his own home, steamrollered by a female so tiny the top of her head barely reaches his shoulders—"

"She's not that tiny, and he's not that tall," Niel countered pedantically. Gerik ignored him.

"—And all because of the simple fact that she's a Wild Child and all he has to rely on to control her is his own charm. Which, obviously, hasn't worked. Who would have thought the Alpha of the Alphas, the Lord of the Moon himself, didn't know how to talk to girls?"

"And your track record has been so great up until this point?" Niel asked.

"Oh, I've screwed up plenty of times," Gerik replied, the sting of Niel's words not even registering. "But I don't think I've ever managed to slit my throat with my own tongue before."

Niel snorted and rolled his eyes. "Alrik is right, though. That is the reason she's here, and she's going to have to get used to it."

Now it was Gerik's turn to roll his eyes. "No wonder you're still single, Old Man," he retorted. Niel sniffed indignantly. "She's right, too. The female chooses. That is the Law, and Alrik is nothing if not fanatical about upholding the Law. She should have been told about why the land wanted her here in the first place, instead of hearing about it second-hand. Who knows how the whole thing's been screwed up by the time it got to her ears?"

Brianna hadn't had a destination in mind when she stormed out of the house. All she knew was that she had to get as far away from Alrik as she could. For a second, she entertained the idea of flipping and going hunting, but after a few minutes, she realized that wouldn't be fair to her prey. Killing without hunger was repulsive to her, although she knew many werewolves did just that simply for the joy of it.

So, instead, she wandered the island, letting her feet carry her where they may, and stewed in her own thoughts.

The entire situation was such a violation of everything she had been taught, she didn't know how she would deal with it. The idea for moving out had come to her in a flash, and seemed like the appropriate recourse to demand.

Unfortunately, she was regretting it now, as she was forced to acknowledge that she actually didn't want to change residences. The past five days were, strangely enough, the happiest she'd ever been. For the first time, she felt as if she were able to actually be herself, without worrying about what anyone else would think. Brianna had been secure in the knowledge that Alrik was both strong and perceptive enough to stop her from getting to the point where she would hurt anyone. On the few occasions where she said something out of turn, he corrected her with enough tact that she hadn't felt stung by it.

And, to be completely fair, in spite of waking up in his bed, he had been the perfect gentleman. Her accusations of him attempting to seduce her had been nothing but the product of her tongue running away from her.

In fact, the only discordant note of her staying with him had been the knowledge that it was temporary because she and the others would be leaving as soon as they could. It seemed like such a natural thing, to escape from a situation that wasn't of her making. However, more and more, every time she thought about it, it felt as if it were merely a reflex prompted by the nature of her departing Wolf Lake. A reflex that simply didn't mesh with what she was experiencing here on Changer Island.

Brianna kicked a stone in frustration. The whole thing was just so confusing! How was she supposed to figure it out? Nothing she had experienced or been taught had prepared her for this. In all honesty, it felt like she was the main character in some crappy Romance novel.

Smart, beautiful, plucky heroine is forced to endure the attentions of the seemingly evil, but definitely sexy, Lord of the Island, only to find out he is merely a tortured, lonely soul who needs the love of a good woman.

It was enough to make her want to shake her fist at the sky and demand an explanation for why God—or whomever was supposed to be in charge—with thousands of years of history and culture at His disposal, couldn't come up with something better.

Brianna plopped down on a boulder overlooking the Sound, shoved her hands in her coat pockets, and brooded.

Escape really was the best thing for them all. Brianna and Kit had been kicked around and forced to pretend to be something they weren't for long enough. Being sent here and forced to mate complete strangers was beyond intolerable. And Sarah? She'd never fit in with any Pack. Best to take her out of the system entirely, where she could . . . do . . . something. What, Brianna wasn't sure, but in spite of how annoying the weaker female was, she owed it to her as her better.

When they were gone, they could go anywhere they wanted, do anything they wanted, and be anything they wanted.

Well, so long as they made sure no one realized they were werewolves.

And that, there, was the rub. They'd have to pretend to be humans, all the way. There were other Packs, but Brianna didn't know where they were, and was sure the others didn't, either. It was more than likely those Packs wouldn't welcome strangers moving into their territories. Or, even worse, that they'd be more than happy to take in three females on their own, whether those females liked it or not. Which meant they'd be in the exact same position as they were now.

So, they would have to be very, very careful.

The more she thought about it, the more hopeless the situation seemed to Brianna. They might always be on the run, constantly looking over their shoulder. A quiet, peaceful existence where they were the controllers of their own destinies seemed just as far out of reach as it did here. Maybe even more so.

This sucked.

"Hello," said a voice behind her. Brianna whipped around in time to see an old male approach. She tensed as he dropped down onto the boulder next to her. "Enjoying the view?" he asked.

He seemed unconcerned by her manner, instead busying himself with settling in and making himself comfortable.

"It's nice," she replied lamely when it became obvious he expected some kind of response.

"Nothing quite like salty sea air to clean you out," he remarked, and drew in a great lungful of air, which he expelled comically with an audible whoosh. Who was this geezer?

"I'm Ben," he introduced himself. "You may not remember it, but we met not too long ago at Elise's. You were a bit agitated at the time. Understandable, of course."

Brianna reddened when she realized what he meant. She turned away, and didn't say anything. The logical thing would be to get up and leave, but her mood was still bad enough that she was struck by the puerile urge to force him to abandon the spot. Never mind that he was her elder; she had been here first, and she was the stronger, so, technically, he was supposed to cede to her.

Old Ben crossed his ankles in front of him, appearing to have no real desire to cede anything.

"You seem a bit agitated now," he commented. "Can't be the same reason, though. It's been over a week."

Her face deepened in shade until it was almost purple. Were people so bored here that they had nothing better to talk about than her estrous cycle? Would she get more of the same if she were still here in a year? Would total strangers come up to her and say, "better get inside, Brianna! Heat's coming on, and you know what you're like then. Here's some AAA batteries. Billy Bob Joe Smith down at the general store said he thought you might be running out."

"Care to talk about it?" Ben offered.

"No," she snapped, then forced herself to relax and assume some semblance of dignity. "No, thank you," she amended.

"The boy made you mad, didn't he?"

"The boy?"

"The Alpha. Alrik. Yep, he said the wrong thing, I'll bet," Ben nodded sagely. "Of course he did. You're out here looking at the sea. C'est l'amour. That's the only thing that could make you so unhappy you would sit on a rock on a cold day and look out at the sea. Well, and la vie, too, but they go hand in hand, don't they?"

"I'm not in love with him," she retorted angrily. "I hate him. He's a pompous ass that someone needs to kick to the curb."

"I didn't say you loved him. Did I say you loved him? No, I said that is Love. Love with a capital 'l.' The idea of it. It always makes things snarly. And look, here you are. Snarly."

"I'm not going to be his mate," she snarled. "No matter what he says. And just what did he mean, that I'm the only female who can be his mate? What kind of stupid romantic bullshit is that?"

"He said you were the only female who could be his mate? Interesting. What else did he say?" Ben prodded.

"He said it was the only reason why I was here in the first place," she told him, not caring that the old male had tricked her into talking, despite her intentions. It felt good to vent at someone without wanting to cave their skull in at the same time. "It's complete crap, and totally against the Law. I won't stand for it."

Ben was silent for a while, lost in thought. "What if I were to tell you that your coming here and mating with our Alpha was foretold ages ago, by the most powerful Keeper our kind has ever had, on his deathbed. And, furthermore, that your union would produce a child that would save our people from destruction by humanity?"

"Oh, please, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," she replied and turned her attention back to the sea. Her eyes widened. "It's not true, is it?"

"No," Ben assured her. "I just made it up. Sometimes, though, young people like that sort of thing. But our Alrik, now, his coming was foretold. We have been waiting a long time for the Lord of the Moon to be born."

Brianna rolled her eyes. Lord of the Moon? That was just as tacky as "Lord of the Island." Actually, it was worse. Who thought up these kinds of things?

"And let me guess—he's supposed to lead us to the Promised Land, or something similar, right?" she said, not bothering to hide her sarcasm.

"Nope," Ben refuted. "He's just supposed to be born, is all. I suppose it would be more poetic if there was some big danger he needed to save us all from, but the Keeper who saw his coming made no mention of it."

"Well, if he was on his deathbed, maybe he died before he could tell everyone."

"Wrong again. He is supposed to have made the vision in his youth—that's how everyone knew he needed to be trained. Lived for quite a long time after that, too. No, Destiny is not nearly so tidy as we would have her be."

"So, big deal. He's a great leader," Brianna said. "I'm still not going to be his mate just because he says so."

"Oh, no, the Lord of the Moon is more than just a leader of his people," Ben told her. "He's the Alpha of the Alphas. The strongest of the strongest caste we have."

Brianna's brow furrowed. Something about that statement felt off to her.

"Why does everyone keep talking about Alphas like they're different from the rest of us?" she finally asked. Ben peered at her, obviously surprised.

"Because they are," he said. "Not anyone can be an Alpha. You have to be born one."

"Wolf Lake has an Alpha, and she wasn't born one," she pointed out. Ben shook his head.

"No, Wolf Lake has a leader who calls herself Alpha," he stated. "Calling yourself something doesn't make it so. It's not like humans, who, when a king dies, just find a likely looking fellow and stick a crown on his head."

"It's not quite that simple," she refuted, but he ignored her and went on.

"To be an Alpha, there's no real recipe for it. It either happens or it doesn't. Well, that's not entirely true. Breeding strength to strength seems to produce more Alphas than not. Anyway. It doesn't matter. It's not like bees; you can't just feed one special jelly and it grows up to be an Alpha."

"So what is an Alpha, then?" Brianna interrupted, not knowing if she could stand one more goofy analogy. The question seemed to phase Ben, though.

"Hm. What is an Alpha?" he mused. "I don't think there's words to describe it, really. Let me show you."

His mind reached out toward hers, and after a brief hesitation, she made the connection. Immediately, her mind was flooded . . .

A male moving across the landscape, the one merging with the other, as wolves dance around him and through him. Gossamer threads extending from all parts of him, connecting to the wolves, taking from them and giving back. Sometimes the threads merged, joining two wolves together briefly, and the male took parts of them and gave them to the other. They would separate then, and go on their way, sometimes to join with other wolves, sometimes to remain apart, yet always, always they were connected to the male.

And then she saw a wolf whose thread was not connected to the male before her, but shot off into the distance. Still he danced, until the male gently pushed him away, and he ran off into the night. She noticed a thread that extended deep into the darkness around them, not connected to any wolves that she could see. Eventually, a wolf did appear out of the darkness, connected to the end of that thread, and joined the dance. For a second, he faltered, colliding with the other wolves, but soon enough, the male untangled him and he matched his steps to the dancers around him.

*That is an Alpha,* Ben told her. *And this is Alrik.*

The male was suddenly joined by other males, all with their own packs of dancing wolves, all moving through the landscape in the same way. Then, from out of the land itself, arose another male, again, with his own wolves. He seemed the same, and yet he was different. Brighter, somehow. Stronger. More beautiful.

Males and their wolves clashed together, and threads sprang out from the one male to seize them. He forced them apart, forced them to resume their own intricate dance around one another. Sometimes, a male and his wolves would try to take on the one, and upon impact, he and his wolves would shatter against the might of the one. The glittering shards of them blew away, light as dried leaves, fluttering on the breeze, until they touched the landscape and were absorbed.

Eventually, all the males had threads connecting them to the one male, and he took away part of them and gave back. They became his dancers, as much as the wolves at his feet. They fed him until he shone, brighter than the full moon on a cold, clear winter night. Until he was the only thing that she could see. Could, in fact, feel.

Ben broke the connection. He reached out to steady Brianna, who was so dazed from the vision she was in danger of tumbling off the boulder.

"You see now?" he said. "No words to describe an Alpha. Just clumsy images and feelings. It is overwhelming, I know, to come from a Pack with no Alpha to a Pack that has the greatest of all Alphas. But, here you are now. Nothing else to do but live with it."

But how did she live with it? Nowhere in the vision had Brianna recognized a wolf that might be a Wild Child.

"How do I fit in?" she asked out loud, suddenly depressed at the thought that, in spite of this Pack's seemingly good intentions, she might not have a place anywhere.

"Interesting question," Ben replied. "And one that I, unfortunately, cannot answer. I'm just a simple wolf, dancing for the pleasure of his Alpha. I expect Alrik would be able to tell you that."

"Still doesn't mean I want to be his mate," she grumped, returning to the point of their conversation. Ben sighed.

"Let me tell you something about Alrik—like most great leaders who manage to remain sensible at the same time, he doesn't want to be different," he explained. "It's no fun being at tippy-top of the mountain. There isn't room for anyone else. For the Alpha of Alphas, being at the tippy-top means he can make the rest of the mountain dance to his tune. He can even grind it to powder if he so feels like it, and there's nothing the mountain can do to stop him.

"Because we know Alrik, we are confident that he wouldn't be so capricious. Nevertheless, there is always a tiny part of us that fears he might forget himself, and he knows this. It's not very nice, knowing that the people who watched you grow up, who taught you right from wrong, and who love you dearly, are afraid of you in spite of themselves. It's also very lonely. And our Alrik is very, very lonely.

"So what is a lonely Lord of the Moon supposed to do? He can take whatever mate he wants, and she will be more than pleased to be his companion and bear him children. But she, like the rest of us, will always be a little afraid of him. And what if he loses his temper, lashes out with his power? He's not a god. He has little moments here and there, where his control slips away from him. The best that would happen would he might scare her. The worst? That he would destroy her. It's not fair to her, nor is it fair to him, to have to worry all the time. To never really be himself, because it might hurt someone."

"So I'm the one who gets thrown on the grenade so everyone else can survive?" Brianna asked, suddenly angry again. Ben patted her arm in an attempt to sooth her.

"No, no," he assured her. "That's what is so wonderful about Wild Children, don't you see?" When it was evident that she didn't see, he chuffed, expressing his annoyance. "Pay attention! Put it together! What do you know about Wild Children? What makes you so special, eh?"

Brianna struggled to remember what, exactly it was that marked her apart, other than a short temper and the descended-from-a-true-wolf thing.

"Something about power," she said. Alrik had crammed her head with so many new things these past few days, she couldn't— "I'm resistant to his power. That's why Packs don't like us. Alphas can't control us."

"Eh, not necessarily true," Ben said. "There's no little thread the Alpha can jerk to make a Wild Child dance to his tune. But that doesn't mean a Wild Child doesn't want an Alpha. Whatever it is that makes them obey, it's something different. But, you are right about the power thing. An Alpha cannot use his power against a Wild Child the same way he can against a normal werewolf. Do you see now?"

"No, I don't 'see now.' You've spent all this time telling me that Alrik's a different kind of Alpha, so why would the normal rules of Alphas apply?"

"Because no matter what, when it comes to Wild Children, he's still an Alpha." Ben started to grow excited. "With you, if he loses his temper, you'll feel his power, but it'll probably just make you angry. It won't hurt you. At least, not physically. And I think, given the type of female you are, you'd just hit him, rather than run away and cry. I am right, am I not?"

Brianna grudgingly conceded that he probably was. She didn't like to think she was so undisciplined she would actually strike an Alpha, but, if it was as Ben supposed, that Alpha pushed first, and for no good reason, she'd push right back. Hopefully his skull would hit the wall just hard enough so he'd get the message the first time.

"It is a very lucky thing that you came along while Alrik was so young," Ben added. "The loneliness hasn't made him brittle and cold. That happens sometimes, you know. Very sad when it does. It's not easy to undo that kind of damage."

"Look, it's great that Alrik can be normal around me," she said. "But in normal matings, the individuals like each other. And I don't particularly like Alrik."

"Not right now, no," conceded Ben. "But that's because he said the wrong thing to you. And that's just because he's never courted a female before. I've bet you've been courted plenty, right?"

Brianna shrugged noncommittally. It seemed inappropriate to brag about how many boyfriends she'd had to someone who wanted her to commit to his Alpha. At the same time, she hadn't had as many boyfriends as other females, so there was a bit of pride mixed in there, too.

"You have come to expect a certain level of expertise," Ben continued. "I'm not saying that's a bad thing. That's normal. But you can't expect it from Alrik. He's going to mess up, and it's up to you to be the bigger person and forgive him for it. He'll get better as time goes on. You'll see."

Ben stood up and dusted off the seat of his pants.

"And the last thing you need to remember," he added, "is that no matter what, you do have a say. The Pack would like it very much if you stayed here and made our Alpha happy, but we understand that it may not work that way. Alrik understands that, too, though it may not seem like that right now. All we ask is that you give it a chance before making up your mind."