Alpha Defender Read online

  Alpha Defender

  Terry Bolryder

  Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  Also by Terry Bolryder

  Copyright © 2015 by Terry Bolryder

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Design by Melody Simmons of eBookindiecovers

  Created with Vellum

  For all the fans who asked about Matt and Thor. This is for you. <3

  1

  For the first time in her life, Lacey Matthias Wolford the Third, known to most shifters as simply Matt, was not going to be a good little wolf.

  She hadn’t complained when she’d been raised as a boy in order to hide the fact that her father, the leader of the Tribunal and therefore of all werewolves, had had only daughters. She hadn’t complained when she’d been sent for him to spy on alpha challenges and mate claimings and had to report back on what she’d seen. She hadn’t complained as she’d seen her sisters happily mated, knowing such a life would never be for her, because she was destined to lead their kind one day.

  She hadn’t complained because she’d thought there was a plan for her. And knowing what it was, always knowing what the future held, had given her a kind of control that she had desperately needed over the years as she pushed everything real about her down and played the part her father needed her to play.

  But now he’d decided that one of his son-in-laws was trustworthy enough to lead the wolves, and he planned to marry her off in a political marriage to hide her from view and let the son everyone knew about quietly disappear.

  Well, she’d be damned if she let him.

  He’d dictated her whole life, and he’d not dictate another moment.

  She shoved supplies into the backpack she’d borrowed from her sister’s room. She put in extra pairs of breast wraps, since she didn’t know how long she’d need to keep posing as a boy to stay safe. She put in bras just in case she had to go that way to stay undercover.

  In her heart, she’d tried to be the man her father had needed. She’d felt useful, grounded. Special.

  But it didn’t matter any longer.

  That future was gone, and along with it went the frail sense of superiority she’d clung to as she’d watched other females live a life she’d never know.

  And now she had a chance at a life like that, if she could just find a place to hide from her father and his power. And she knew just who could help her.

  It had been three years since she’d seen Thornton Wilder. Three years since he’d bullied her during the massive alpha games that had been held at a mansion for an unclaimed alpha female. She’d gone as a male to make sure things went okay, and for the most part they had.

  Aside from Thornton, also known as Thor, being a tremendous bully. Back then she’d looked down on him. He’d been everything she didn’t want. Huge, brutish, rough, an alpha without parents who had no regard for rules.

  And he was exactly what she needed now.

  He’d help her because he owed her big time. For his brother’s life. When his brother had been caught by the Tribunal and charged with treason, Thor had come to her, begging. It had been odd to see the huge man on his knees before her, head lowered as he begged for his brother’s life. Her father had been away on business. She had the key to the holding cell.

  After Thor promised that Lock (his twin) wouldn’t hurt anyone if freed, she’d had to let him go. She tried to be hard, like her father, but in reality, her heart was soft. Too soft. So Lock had been freed and Thor had looked at her with a look in those warm amber eyes that was unlike anything she’d seen before. And he’d promised if he could ever return the favor, that he would.

  She hoped he hadn’t forgotten.

  She finished packing and peeked out the door of her bedroom for anyone watching. She pulled the hood of the dark sweatshirt she was wearing up over her shiny blonde hair and started down the hall. It was nighttime and no one should notice. Her father would never guess she was running.

  She hadn’t yelled, hadn’t screamed, hadn’t thrown a tantrum like everyone might have expected. No, she was too smart for that. If she’d protested, they’d have locked her up. One thing she’d learned from growing up with the Tribunal as family was that the best thing to do was pretend you were loyal to them up until the moment you turned.

  She padded quietly down the stairs, looked both ways in the huge, marble-floored foyer, noted for the last time how the moonlight looked blue across the pretty tiles, and then crossed silently over the floor and out into the night, leaving the door open behind her.

  * * *

  Thornton Wilder, known to his friends as Thor, stretched and looked out the window at the tree line in the distance. An odd thrill of excitement moved through him, and he wasn’t sure why. He thought about taking a run, but even though it was nearly midnight, the pack business he’d been working on wasn’t even close to finished.

  He’d taken over as alpha when he’d inherited his parent’s fortune and finally been able to throw his uncle out of the pack.

  When his parents had died, leaving him and his twin Lock orphaned, his uncle had taken the chance to turn the pack against them. He was bitter that the pure alpha blood in their veins meant that they would grow up and take leadership of the pack from him. Unless he destroyed them, which he had tried to do.

  Beatings. Isolation. Hunger. All the punishments that would feel worst for a young animal who should be part of a pack.

  And Thor had closed off for a long time as a result. Holed up deep inside himself and tried not to let anyone touch him. Became mean and strong, the type who wouldn’t let anyone mess with him. Lock, his twin, his salvation, had been the one to protect him. The one to never lose his smile, even when he came back to their shack with bruises, the punishment for stealing the food he brought for them.

  Lock had always been the sensitive one. The one who couldn’t stand to see his twin suffer, and as they grew, the strength in Thor made him want to become the truly protective one. Where Lock solved problems with his smile, Thor solved problems with his fist. He was fast, strong, a true alpha, and he wouldn’t let them hurt the one person in his life who had done something for him.

  Thor sighed and looked out at the forest, wondering where Lock was now. He hadn’t seen him since he’d gone to the Tribunal and groveled to that brat Matt to free his brother. Matt, as the youngest pup and only son of the head of the Tribunal, was everything Thor hated. Privileged, born to wealth and protection, thinking himself superior to everyone around him. He’d made that plain in the short amount of time Thor had gotten to know him when they’d shared a mansion during a huge alpha challenge involving eight other males.

  He didn’t know why Matt got under his skin so easily, why he kept wanting to pick the tiny male up and shake him. Why he couldn’t help teasing him.

  He was pretty. Of course he would be. All of the Tribunal leader’s daughters were gorgeous. The type of female Thor would have been destined for i
f his parents hadn’t been murdered and his pack hadn’t fallen into disrepute after his uncle took over.

  Things were recovering now. There was much more money, thanks to some savvy investments, and multiple pack members were running clean, honest businesses that brought in revenue. And Thor had slowly tried to lower the walls around him to be a fair and more approachable leader, though he still heard subordinates refer to him as “Thorns” occasionally.

  He couldn’t help that his guard defaulted to being up. He’d learned too often that if you lowered it, people beat you. Hurt you.

  He clenched his fist and set down the pen he’d been signing forms with so he didn’t break it. From the two-story lodge where he lived and performed administrative duties for the pack, he could see a beautiful, grassy valley stretching out into a thick forest at the foot of high mountains. His pack made up most of a small town nestled in a remote area, and didn’t bother the humans who did have the guts to settle there, despite the rumors of wolves.

  The few males he’d had trouble with had left, and the other males were happy to have a strong leader who had good resources thanks to the work of his relatives. He’d make sure what was left to him increased, and he’d leave it to the next generation. Once he found a suitable alpha female.

  But that wouldn’t be easy. The last one he’d known of that was available to claim had been the one in the alpha challenge three years ago. Misty. And the fact that ten full alphas had shown up to compete just proved how scarce alpha females really were. When they were born to a pack, they were usually affianced from a young age to keep a bloodline going, and they had their pick of males.

  But Thor could wait. He’d make sure whomever he chose was strong and a full-blooded wolf so that they could have shifter offspring. And if not, he wasn’t in any hurry to get mated. He had enough to do already.

  So when a loud knock sounded on the front door on the story below him, he rubbed his head and let out a deep sigh. Whoever it was should know better than to bother him at this time of night, when he could be sleeping. He wasn’t, but he could be, and they didn’t know any better.

  He pushed himself out of his chair with a groan and slid his arms into his bathrobe, tying the sash around him as he went. He was wearing pajama bottoms but he didn’t think whoever was knocking would appreciate him coming to the door bare chested. Well, maybe some of the pack females wouldn’t mind, but their males would.

  He crossed the wood floor of his lodge and over the large rug in front of the door.

  He swung the door open and looked at the figure standing in the moonlight. Thin, soaking wet. Small, at least compared to him.

  He took a step forward, toward the figure, which was drenched by rain and trembling slightly in the cold wind. Thor reached for the hood and pulled it off to reveal the face of the person he’d already identified by scent and stature.

  “Matt?” he asked, astonished.

  Pale blue eyes with long lashes looked up at him with determination glowing in their depths. “Thor. That favor you spoke of? I need you to return it.”

  Thor took a step back, allowing Matt to come into the lodge. Matt looked behind him briefly and then shut the door and leaned against it, letting out a huge sigh of relief in that high, feminine voice he tended to have. Even when he tried to sound gruff, it just didn’t sound quite right.

  “I’m safe,” Matt said, sinking against the door.

  Thor pulled his robe tighter around him and tried to figure out why exactly this man of all people would be here, now, in the middle of the night. And also, why the sight of him bothered him in ways that didn’t make any sense.

  Matt stretched with a loud yawn and then slumped over to the nearest couch and curled up in it. Thor watched curiously, wondering at how small the thin man could be when curled up. With the hood back, Matt’s blond hair shone softly around his face. His features were truly beautiful, as beautiful or more beautiful than his sisters when Thor had seen them. A thin, slightly upturned nose, pale, flushed skin, long lashes over his cheeks.

  Thor felt blood rush to areas of his body it had no business rushing to and turned away from Matt with a hand over his mouth.

  What to do? He knew he owed Matt big time, had promised to repay the debt he owed him for saving the one person who meant more to him than anything in the world. But he’d forgotten how confusing it could be to be around Matt. How it made Thor feel things he’d never felt. Made the mean part of him defensive, made the other part of him feel…protective?

  He rubbed a hand over his face with a groan. It made no sense for him to be feeling all alpha over another male. Some males did prefer males, but he never had. Just this one, obnoxious troublemaker of a kid that seemed to get under his skin like no one else could.

  He heard soft breathing and realized the kid had fallen asleep. He took a step toward him and looked down to make sure.

  Yup.

  He felt an urge to touch the other wolf’s hair, to grab a towel and dry the drops on his cheeks. But he didn’t. He just stood there, wondering if he should wake him and demand an explanation or just let him sleep and hope answers would be forthcoming when he woke up. He settled in a chair that faced the window.

  Matt had said he was safe now and Thor would make sure that was the case. Whatever weird thing was going on between them, he had a debt, and he would repay it.

  No matter how much his urge to put his hands on the other wolf made his eye twitch.

  2

  Matt woke to see amber eyes the color of rich brandy staring at her warily.

  It wasn’t an emotion she was used to seeing from Thor Wilder. The man practically lived in overconfident-alpha mode, and she’d only seen him drop that facade once in her life, and that was when he’d begged for his brother’s life.

  She didn’t know why he was so eager to save his brother. Lock had kidnapped Misty and almost handed her over to a criminal syndicate. It didn’t matter that he had changed his mind, or that the criminals had been threatening Thor. In her mind, Lock had dug his own grave.

  Except, she hadn’t felt he deserved to die for it. And the Tribunal had gotten oddly harsh in dealing with alpha males. Perhaps something to do with the dearth of alpha females and the intense competitions to win them? Would she face that now, if she revealed herself as an alpha female, or would the Tribunal find her first, and silence her?

  She shuddered at the thought.

  “Penny for your thoughts?” Thor asked quietly, perching on the edge of his couch. Through his somewhat open robe she could see an intimidating, naturally bronzed chest with muscles only seen on Greek statues. He was impressively tall at a few inches over six feet, much higher than her own height of 5’9” which was tall by human standards for females. His hair completed his exotic coloring. It was a deep, rich red, almost a blackened brown, the color of black cherries in the shade. It was cut in a short, severe style that revealed the sides of his head and his forehead and stood in tousled tufts at the top. Utterly masculine. Perfect for putting her hands into it…

  She froze, realizing that she needed to re-dose on the artificial male pheromones she was using. Otherwise, he’d scent her arousal at his body, his presence. She excused herself quietly, grabbed her bag and bolted for the nearest room with a door, shutting it behind her. She pulled out the vial and quickly dabbed it liberally on.

  When she was satisfied that all traces of her alpha female pheromones were masked, she went back out to face Thor.

  He was still studying her with that quiet, thoughtful expression. So unlike the Thor she’d known. That Thor was brusque, harsh, and more likely to start a fight or put his foot in his mouth than to get pensive or broody about something.

  “You’re different,” she said, keeping her voice low and neutral as she sat back on the couch she’d slept on. The cabin around her was sparsely but nicely furnished, with carved wood furniture and generous cushions in a pine green color. A wide, woven rug sprawled over the wood floors, and a painting of a lake hung ov
er the hearth, where a large fireplace stood encased in stone.

  “How so?” he asked.

  “Just… Quieter,” she said.

  “And you aren’t,” he retorted with a snort. “Just as obnoxious as always. Showing up in the middle of the night? It’s not like I needed to sleep.”

  She yawned. “You owe me.”

  He folded his arms and she averted her eyes from the bulging muscles in his forearms and biceps. “I get the feeling you’re going to keep reminding me. So why me?” he asked. “I mean, I know I owe you a favor, but you’re with the Tribunal. Get them to help you. Surely you know they have infinitely more power than me.”

  She hesitated, resisting the urge to bite her lip at the nerves that rose in her at his words. Of course they did. This wasn’t a great plan, she had to admit that, but it was the only one she had. She hadn’t exactly made a lot of friends as a spy for the Tribunal, so the only option she had for help was someone who owed her.

  “Don’t look all worried about it. Of course I’ll help you. Not only do I owe you, but I’m not afraid of the Tribunal.” He raised up to his full, impressive height. “I’m not afraid of anyone, actually.”

  Now that was the Thor she remembered. “Hm.”

  “I’m just trying to figure out what we’re dealing with. I have a pack here, a small one, but we’re doing well. If I seem different, maybe it’s just that I have people depending on me now, and I have to focus on that more than just fighting the whole damn world.”

  That sounded oddly mature. Perhaps there was a whole side to him that she’d never seen.

  But could she tell him everything?

  “So what are you looking for now?” Thor asked. “A new pack? A new start? I can’t imagine living here would be great after the way you’ve become accustomed to having things. Actually, I can’t think why you’ve left at all. Maybe you should start with that.”