The Gift chronicles novel Chapter 2

Book 2 Chapter 2

"Did I fucking stutter, pup?" The man asked rhetorically, his voice dripping in annoyance. "Yes, my mate. As in, if you don't take your hands off of my mate, I will rip your arms off of your body." The man's time was casual, and his face almost looked bored, if not slightly irritated that he had to deal with the minor inconvenience.

Greyson grated his teeth. "She's not going anywhere with you, fucker." Nevertheless, Grey released my wrist, but stood in front of me protectively, sinking into a fighting stance. His eyes were dark, and I had only seen him this angry a few other times while facing off against other rogues.

The man raised an eyebrow, seeming almost amused. "You dare to challenge an Alpha,

pup?"

Greyson snarled at being called a pup. It must have been a derogatory term to wolves, because I could see that it only fueled his fury.

My stomach turned at the man's words. An Alpha. Just like the Alpha that had kicked me out of the pack 14 years ago.

The man turned his gaze on to me, suddenly piercing his eyes into my soul with concern. "You're distressing my mate, pup. If the next step you take isn't away from her, it will be the last step you ever take." The Alpha promised, never removing his gaze from mine. His attitude was so blasé, it almost scared me more than if he were livid and seething.

"I'm not scared of you," Grey spoke calmly, and his body shook as he resisted the urge to shift into his wolf.

The Alpha smiled emotionlessly. "You should be." With that, the apathetic Alpha began walking towards Greyson and I. I stood, too frozen to move or react.

Greyson however, was more than ready for the Alpha's advancements towards us. He snarled, and shifted into his wolf. Greyson was huge for an unranked wolf, at least from what I had seen from when we came across other rogues.

The Alpha grinned evilly, seemingly pleased that he successfully baited Greyson into shifting. He continued walking towards the wolf, as his men hung back. I suspected he gave them the order to not interfere.

The Alpha still was wearing his black slacks and navy blue button up, and he even rolled the sleeves up so that they were just underneath his elbow. Why wasn't he shifting?

"Stop!" I cried out as they nearly collided, finally finding my voice. They both hesitated before turning towards me. "Please don't hurt each other," I begged, not wanting to witness any bloodshed.

The Alpha spoke up first. "He challenged me, little one. I will kill him quickly out of respect for you."

My mouth dropped open. He wouldn't actually kill Greyson, would he? How violent do these Alphas actually get?

"Please don't," I whimpered, my voice cracking. As strong as Grey is, he was no match for an Alpha.

For the first time, I thought I saw an emotion in the Alpha's eyes. Pity.

"Oh, little one. There's so much you have to learn about packs," His tone wasn't condescending or patronizing, simply speaking his words as fact.

Greyson snarled, making me break eye contact with the Alpha. "You see, love? He wants to die for you, and I'm happy to oblige. I'm nothing if not reasonable," The Alpha drily said, and a few of his men's mouths quirked up into a smile. They appreciated their Alpha's demented sense of humor.

"Nobody is dying today," I harshly responded, my voice strengthening with resolve.

His perfect eyebrow raised, as did a corner of his mouth as he gave me a crooked smile. "Feisty, I like it. Unfortunately, I'm still going to enjoy killing your little boyfriend."

At his words, I lifted my arms from my sides, extracting energy from all of the surrounding grass. Knowing I would need way more of an energy bank for what I had planned, I also took the life force of a few nearby trees. Even though they can't really feel emotions like humans, I always feel guilty for killing them for my own selfish purposes.

The influx of energy was so great, my body was levitating as black energy coursed through my veins, begging me to expel it.

I hovered about 6 feet off of the ground, my arms still raised at my sides so that I looked like Jesus Christ on the cross, and felt the energy cackling all around me.