Her Renegade Wolf

Alphas
didn’t follow the rules. Alphas broke the rules.

Try
telling my brothers that.

“You’re
fucking crazy, dude,” Shea scoffed. Like he should talk. He wore the souvenirs
of his latest fight with the same pride a more civilized man would wear a tux;
black eye, torn skin, and the satisfaction of walking away under his own power.
Wounds healed a lot faster than pride. “If you go through with this, they’ll
kill you.”

“Yeah,”
Xavier added. Technically my second in command, he never spoke out of turn. It
was my favorite thing about him. “They won’t bother dragging out the torture
next time. Your last meal will be your own ball sack.”

“Ryker’s
dead,” I reminded them with a growl. If these two weren’t my brothers, I’d
never indulge them in this line of reasoning. I didn’t need to explain myself
to anyone. “Now’s the time for real change. You don’t like the way things are?
You make them the way you want them. It’s that simple.”

“Ryker’s
dead because Shadow killed him.” Shea didn’t bother to hide his chuckle. He
already sported a shiner, so I didn’t punch him. I needed him to have one good
eye. “No one in the forest cares what the circumstances were. He’s dead, and
all they hear is you whining that you didn’t get to him first.”

“He’s
building his new house on Ryker’s land,” X said. “If you go through with this
suicide mission, it’ll look like a pissing contest. You’ve said it yourself a
million times—you need to do your own thing.”

“This
is my thing!” I slammed my hand against the wall, barely stopping myself from
kicking down a row of bikes. We’d finally been able to get the motorcycle shop
up and running after six months of being in chains and a month of total human
fuckery. “Get out of here. Do something fucking useful with yourselves. There’s
a bunch of half-built bikes out back that can’t put themselves together. While
you work, think about how you’re going to help me, or go ask Shadow if he’s
hiring.”

X
picked up a wrench and glowered at me.

“I’m
out of here.” Shea put his arms up like he was under arrest. That was a drill
he was familiar with. He didn’t work with us in the shop. My youngest brother
didn’t have the patience required for the precision work the bikes demanded.
Instead he’d worked on the ranches that surrounded Granger Falls. “I need to
find a job before you drag our name through the fucking mud.”

What.
The. Fuck.

Ryker
had been gunning for me my whole life. When I was younger, I reveled in it. I
was a giant middle finger fucking up his grand plan. The wealthy wolves didn’t
have any contact with the working class wolves anymore, unless one of them gave
birth to a baby girl. Then they’d line up with their fancy leather wallets open
to claim her for their son; someone who would grow into a man without knowing
what it was like to fight for anything. Including his mate.

No
working-class wolf ever had the balls to question this system. They were all
too desperate for the payday to realize the ramifications of what they were
doing. But even as a kid, I knew it was bullshit. Not because I was in love
with a woman I could never have, but because I realized it meant I was going to
die alone.

Ryker
claimed Cass for his son, expecting the good little girl to later be a good
little wife. There was a reason Cass and I were soulmates. She didn’t take
anyone’s shit. But in the end, she still married Walter.

I
was the one who got us captured. Ryker might’ve been older than dirt, but no
one got that rich by being stupid. He was pissed that his son’s wife would
never look at him the way she looked at me. Cass regretted her decision every
day, but like my brothers, she couldn’t see that change started with her. Now
Cass had a daughter of her own, promised away before she could talk. The woman
I knew who used to stand up for herself might have been subdued, but she had to
want something more for Emma.

Ryker
didn’t give a fuck that I planned to sell his livestock out from under him. He
captured us to keep me away from his daughter-in-law. My brothers and the
goddamn Channings were collateral damage. With Ryker dead and Shadow taking
control of his goons, anything could happen.

I
couldn’t let Shadow get too much control. He was a fool; thinking with his dick
now that he was in love with the woman who saved us from Ryker’s dogfighting
ring, using it as an excuse to taint our bloodlines by mating with humans.
They’d give birth to monsters, if they survived. A simple thank you would’ve sufficed. He needed to leave Trina alone.

Shadow
wasn’t a leader. Channings had kept peace for generations, making sure everyone
in the forest was happy. It wasn’t the time for that shit. We couldn’t placate
these rich assholes anymore. There were no working-class wolves under the age
of ten anywhere in the forest. Soon, there’d be no one to fight their battles
and like the Channings, they’d be relying on humans to survive.

It
pissed me off.

X
had done as he was told, wrenching a bolt into place on a new motorcycle. His
work was meticulous, and someone would be damn lucky to get this bike, if they
could afford it.

“Hey,”
he said as I approached him, sinking to my knees and getting back to work. Six
months in Hell and we had a backlog of orders.

“Hey.”
It was as good as an apology in our family. “You know this isn’t just about me
and Cass.”

“Yeah.”
He sealed his work with a blowtorch, then lifted his goggles. “And it’s not
about Shadow, either.”

“Fuck
him.” His name made my blood run hot. “I need you, man. We can’t count on Shea,
you know that. I want to go to your mating ceremony, and not watch you hook up
with some dipshit human who has no sense of our traditions. Who will never
understand what it feels like to have an animal inside her. I want to watch
your sons grow up to be stronger and fiercer than you. That’s why I’m doing
this.”

“I
know that.” X smiled absentmindedly while he worked, daydreaming of pups
playing on the lawn. I knew it because I’d had the same vision a million times.
“The rich rely on us for everything. We need their respect. It’s time for them
to say thank you.”