My Ruthless Alpha

Red eyes

Ezra's pov

The wind and speed was exactly what I needed; I was much calmer and more focused on getting this mission done.

I caught movement in the woods surrounding the dirt road we'd taken about thirty minutes ago and they seemed to be following us.

“You see that?” I linked Max, who was driving behind me.

“Yeah, we crossed their border ten minutes ago” Max replied, making me frown.

Ten minutes is a long time for them to just notice us now; let alone let us get this far before they did something about it.

I wasn't happy about their reaction time; it was sloppy and it could be the reason they had such an increase in casualties.

They better thank my mother for the barrier; this pack would be dust without it.

“Looks like they need a few lessons on border control” Max sighed into to the group link.

“As if hunting isn't hard enough” Brody groaned and I couldn't agree more, this would only delay our return.

The pack house came into view, causing collective sighs to echo in my mind, and had I not been on a bike, I would have rolled my eyes.

“Is that a pack house or a hotel?” Dom asked, making me take proper notice of the five story building, painted in white, peach and gold.

And he was right, it's design did make it look like a hotel.

“Hope they have room service” Lexie said, sounding quite excited at the prospect of being served on a silver platter.

“A massage is all I need” added Matt, making me grunt as we rounded the overly large mermaid fountain on the front of the house.

Our welcome party stood at the bottom of the steps leading up to the flashy white and gold double doors of the pack house, all smiles I knew deep down were fake.

I got off the bike and took my helmet off, my eyes wandering over the packlands, as much as I could see anyway, and noticed way too many eyes on us.

“Looks like the pack came out in numbers to see the famous Black Ice Alpha” Max said, coming to stand next to me.

“Don't call me that nonsense name” I said with an annoyed sigh, hating the dumb nickname.

“Come on man, it's a compliment” he said, tapping on my shoulder before moving forward to greet our welcome party and introduce us.

“Prince Ezra, it's an honour to have your highness come to our aid personally” Alpha Derrick, a big man well into fifties, bowed his head.

“We were expecting a few warriors, but when we heard the Prince himself was coming, we were ecstatic” his Luna, who looked around the same age bowed as well, her gentle smile wrinkling her face a bit.

“The number of attacks caught my attention” I said, my tone far from the warmth I had recieved from the couple before me.

“Yes, it is growing into a problem too big for us to handle” a younger version of the Alpha standing beside them said, turning my attention to the rest of the group.

“Benjamin Grey, Alpha Derrick's son and heir” Max said and I nodded in his direction, to which he bowed.

My eyes moved from him to the girl standing next to him, slightly shorter than him and didn't look much younger than him.

“Alexis Grey, Benjamin's younger sister” Max introduced her.

“Your highness” she said, her head already bowed, a little too deeply, and she stayed that way, her neck turning a shade of pink.

What was that about?

Faint growls echoed behind me, but before I could turn and see who it was, Alexis whimpered, nervously playing with her fingers, unaware of all the eyes on her.

“Oh my…” Lexie's whisper made me turn to see Dom and Matt Black eyed and staring squarely at Alexis.

A look I knew all too well.

A deep emptiness echoed in my chest at the memory of when I first laid my eyes on Rowena, on her eighteenth birthday.

The fearful twinkle in her eyes when our eyes met was forever ingrained in my memory.

“Oh Goddess! Alexis found her mate… mates?” Benjamin said, a mixture of surprise, joy and confusion dancing in his eyes as they went from his sister to the guys.

“Oh how wonderful! We can host a party to celebrate! Ben, Alexis, please show our guests inside, dinner will be served in an hour” her mother said excitedly, making her nod with her head still down.

They led us into the over the top, luxurious hotel pack house and to the top floor where our rooms were prepared.

The rooms were luxury apartments, elegant and quite appealing; I liked it. Had everything in it.

I took my time to shower and get my mind straight, bury my grief deep. I have to be happy for my friends, after two whole years, they finally found their mate. And that's a good thing, a great thing.

“Am I the ass hole for being jealous they found their mate and I still haven't?” Max sighed into the link and I honestly didn't know what to tell him,I was jealous too.

“It's starting to feel like the Goddess doesn't like me” he continued, without a care that I wasn't responding.

His words reminded of what my mother had said before we left, and I still didn't know what to say.

“And if I'm the rare occasion of being born mateless, then bloody let me know so I can stop looking!” He'd gotten angry now and something about that made me realise we were kind of in the same boat, but different.

“The Goddess doesn't hate you, you'll find your mate” I finally said, after a few beats of silence.

“The when doesn't matter, what matters is you'll find her” I said quickly after to avoid him asking ‘when’

“And if it's a guy?” He asked, a bit of humour in his tone so I knew he wasn't serious.

“Then you'll give up the booty my friend, and your man will probably take your place as my beta since you'll be home baking us a pie” I teased, making him laugh.

“Ass” he cursed, causing a moment of silence before we both burst out laughing.

“You're an i***t” I said and closed the link.

I finished getting dressed with about twenty minutes to go before dinner and decided to find the Alpha and Luna, there was much to discuss.

I took the lift down to the ground floor, hoping to find someone that would lead me to them and to my luck, an omega had been waiting outside the lift when it opened.

“Prince Ezra” she bowed deeply, keeping her gaze down even as she stood.

“I'm looking for Alpha Derrick” I said, trying hard to not sound like I'm about to eat the poor girl, she looked nervous enough.

“He's in his office, this way” she said, leading me down a hallway that looked to head to the back.

She stopped at a door and knocked, opening the door for me as Alpha Derrick gave permission to enter.

“Prince Ezra” he stood the second he saw me, causing everyone else in there to stand as well.

“I hope I'm not disturbing you” I said, noting two new faces in there with him.

“Not at all” he smiled nervously.

“This is Raymond, my beta and Tony, my gamma” Alpha Derrick introduced them and they both bowed their heads.

“Pleasure to meet you gentlemen, and it's good that you are here, there's a few things I'd like to discuss with you” I said, making them look at each other in question…

But something in their eyes told me there was something they thought I knew that I'm not supposed to.

Looks like I need Miranda after all.

…

Time moved fast and there was still much to discuss. After dinner, we went back to the office, with my team in tow, discussing the details of our mission, looking over maps, reports of past attacks and their training regiment.

I have no idea how long we'd been working but everyone in there was showing clear signs of exhaustion; Lexie was even leaning on Brody's shoulder, looking like she was dosing off.

“Okay, we should call it a night, we'll get back to it first thing tomorrow” I said, causing a collective of sighs to echo around the room.

“Finally!! I was about to faint” Max said, making me smirk. I could tell from Alpha Derrick's expression that he felt the same way but wouldn't say it.

“Get rested, there's a lot more to do tomorrow” I said as we made to leave the office.

The door burst open just as I was about to open it and a guy, probably a year younger than me, fell forward on his knees into the office.

“Alpha…” he breathed deeply and grunted, he looked hurt.

“We're under attack” and he fell forward passing out.

The second his words registered in my head, I took off running, knowing my team was right behind me.

“There's a party at the river, That's their target” Alexis, who'd just appeared from Goddess knows where, said, looking like she was ready to fight.

“Okay just tell us where the river is and we'll go take care of the problem” Matt said, going for her hand; which she pulled back, looking angrily at the both of them.

“I'll take you there” she said, fire dancing in her eyes.

“Alexis!” Dom growled but she just turned around, dismissing their angry growls.

“Follow me” she said, moving towards the forest.

“Alexis!!!” Matt and Dom growled even louder but she just turned her sharp gaze to them, her furious expression quieting them down.

“I'm an Alpha and protecting my pack comes with the job” she said, and quickly took off, leading us to the fight.

“And that's why she should be the heir” Benjamin chuckled as we followed his sister.

…

The sound of screams and growls greeted us before we broke past the tree line to the river, where the fighting had already started.

I went to join but felt a pull back to the woods, making me turn my gaze in the direction.

Every bit of me wanted to follow that pull but the rage burning in my veins made me jump head first into the fight.

I couldn't get my mind right though, I'd been fighting for about five minutes when the pull became urgent and I looked back to see a pair red eyes starring menacingly… at a tree? Probably someone there.

“Lexi, over there!” I yelled into the link as two dead ones stood on either side of me.

“On it” she linked back and was gone in a flash, but that pull, it wouldn't go away, and it wouldn't let me do what I came here to do.

Nagging and clawing at the very fabric of my being… And so familiar.