Free A Beta's Haven by Carrie Ann Ryan Page A

to the death
to secure the position of Beta.
    A position that Samuel had held.
    A position Hunter had held before he’d been taken by the
demons and forced to serve.
    He knelt in front of his alpha, glaring at the others as he
did so.
    “My Alpha,” Hunter grumbled then turned his head to the side
to bare his neck. Others gasped around him, but he ignored them. They should have been the ones to bare their necks, but they’d become lax in their duties
and rituals.
    They’d thought the Pack was a democracy.
    They would soon be proven wrong.
    Josiah put his hand on Hunter’s shoulder and nodded. “You’re
a fine Beta, Hunter. You will make me proud. You make me proud.”
    Something warm started to fill him, piercing through the ice
at his Alpha’s words, then dissipated. His wolf howled within him and hardened
against the intrusion. No, it wouldn’t do any good to warm at his Alpha’s
words.
    Hunter wasn’t a warm man. He was a killer—his Alpha’s
killer. He’d been raised to be that wolf, and he’d fulfilled that promise in
hell. Now he was back within the confines of his Pack and ready to kill again.
    Or at least that’s what he told himself.
    “Hunter, good fight,” Alec Brennan, another of Hunter’s
one-time friends and council member, said as he slapped his shoulder. “You almost
killed that Lloyd wolf.” A vicious gleam entered Alec’s eyes, and Hunter
grunted.
    “Let the wolf live in his memory of defeat,” Hunter growled.
“I’m not in the mood to kill a useless slug who isn’t worthy of the title
Beta.”
    “Watch what you say about my son,” Gregory Lloyd snarled.
The older council member tried to come at him, his teeth bared, but Alistair
Jacobs—the remaining council member—held him back.
    “It would do no good to fight like animals,” Alistair
drawled. “We might have the wolves at our beck and call, but we will remain civilized.”
    Hunter snorted at that. There had to be over a hundred
wolves surrounding them in human form, each shirtless, ready to shift if
necessary. Each adult male—and some of the juveniles—were marred with scars and
tattoos that celebrated their victories in battle.
    At any moment, since the circle was over, they could break
out in brawls to release the tension.
    There were only two ways to release the tension riding
through their bodies—fighting and sex. As wolves, they didn’t care about
privacy and modesty. If there was a woman—or a man, if that was their
inclination—in front of them, they’d fuck them hard, letting the stress and
worries from the day seep away.
    Since there were no willing partners at the moment, Hunter was
sure a fight would break out soon. Blood and sweat would soon permeate through
the air, filling Hunter’s nostrils to override the stench of betrayal and anger
that poured from the wolves that had lost their hope today.
    Today, like most other days, fighting would rule over sex.
    The females were back in their homes—what few females they
had. Wolves were born, not bitten, in their world, unlike what the fandoms
believed. Though it was easy to get pregnant, it was hard as hell to keep that
baby and even harder to produce a girl.
    Their absence at the circle meeting had been the council’s
decision, not the Alpha’s. Their history had always held their women in deep
respect. Not only were they wolves in their own right, but strong fighters as
well. They were feared among the men if someone threatened their pup.
    Yet the council had declared them weak in Hunter’s four-year
absence. Apparently the women—and men—who had fought back against the council
taking over had been beaten or killed.
    Nothing was right in the Nocturne Pack.
    Hunter kept blaming the council for all of it, but he knew
it wasn’t the five of them. No, it was three of them who held the power—or at
least thought they did.
    For now.
    “Come on,” Liam whispered. “Let’s look at those cuts of
yours at my place.  It will rain soon anyway. I’d