Betrayed by Blood

LIANA

I feel like a coward hiding behind Lucian like this. I didn’t expect to feel threatened by my own pack. Lucian always makes me feel so safe and protected.

My father looks between the males and then to me with a frown, and I know my eyes are still wide with fear in this moment.

“You swore to me, Alpha!” Zeke calls to my father.

I frown at my father as I peek around from behind Lucian’s large frame. Zeke’s eyes meet mine and they seem to glow expectantly. I expect to feel nothing now that I’m mated but a small twinge of lust flickers in me at the way he looks at me. It’s confusing. I hadn’t planned on what happened with Lucian and I know I was a coward for not telling Zeke who Lucian really was once I found out.

“My princess,” he whispers sweetly, and dips his head in a bow for me.

Lucian looks down at me beside his shoulder and across to Zeke. Having felt my emotions, he seems as confused as I am—although that soon turns to anger as he growls at Zeke, who still eyes me expectantly.

I hide myself behind Lucian once more, my fear intensifying. This is such a tense situation, and I’m dreading an eruption of violence. I knew Zeke’s feelings for me were strong, even though he never seemed to want to make a commitment. I didn’t treat him honestly, and that was a mistake. I don’t want this getting out of hand, or either of them getting hurt.

“SILENCE!” My father’s voice booms across the grounds. “Zeke! I will pay you a visit later!”

I peek around Lucian once again. Zeke looks between me and my father, then grunts resentfully. With a final lustful look at me, he shifts again. His wolf was never the nicest but, with that final look, it seems almost as if the wolf part of his nature has seeped into his human nature. He whines before taking off back down to the pack house with his gang in tow.

Once they are out of sight, I move from behind Lucian to face my father with a set face, my arms firmly crossed over my chest.

He turns his attention from the now empty patch of grass to me and sighs, plastering on a fake smile. “Come in, love.”

I scowl at him while Lucian’s hand moves to the small of my back, stroking gently.

“Let’s go inside, baby.” I look up at him and nod, sighing. With a small answering smile, he nudges me gently toward the door, and I make my way up the steps and inside.

We follow my father down the hallway toward the kitchen. Lucian’s hand slips into mine, keeping me close. We’re followed by Kia and his security, Dylan and Trevor, who post themselves on either side of the door as we step into the kitchen.

My father walks over to the stove and flicks on the kettle. I stand once again with my arms crossed, impatiently waiting for him to give me an explanation.

“Father!” I snap as he tries to ignore the situation by making some fucking coffee. He never makes coffee. He has Emily to do that.

He sighs and turns around, abandoning his attempt at distraction.

“What the fuck was that about?!” I snap, finally losing my patience. Lucian releases my hand, feeling the anger radiating off me, and gives me a little space.

My father sighs and finally looks at me.

“Liana, I can exp—” His eyes reach my neck and his sentence stops, his shoulders sagging in defeat as he sighs. “You’re mated…”

I lift a hand to my neck and cover over my scars.

“Shit…” he mumbles, and runs a hand down his face as he blows out a deep breath.

“Alpha Zayne.” Lucian’s voice is a deep vibration of authority and my father shrinks into himself slightly at the sound.

“You were promised to Zeke,” my father finally says.

My heart sinks in my chest and my throat becomes tight. “Wha—?” I look up at Lucian, whose eyes are boring into my father with rage.

“You fucking did what?!” Lucian spits as his shoulders start to heave with every growling breath he takes.

“My king, I—I never intended for this. I had no idea Liana was your fated… I was securing the future of my pack! The pup’s always been in love with her. It made sense!” My father is almost shouting, and Lucian snarls.

“By pimping out your daughter!” Lucian spits back.

My initial pain is turning back to anger, and I can feel the heat bubbling under my skin. “ENOUGH!” I scream, and Lucian turns to me, his eyes softening into worry immediately.

“Liana…baby. Calm down…” He holds his hands up calmly, like I’m a cornered beast. My shoulders start to heave, and I stumble back, the blood thumping with force in my ears.

“Liana…” My father inches closer, concerned, and Lucian holds his hand up to him.

“Don’t!” Lucian shouts.

I can feel my claws piercing through my skin, and I’m unable to stop them.

“Baby…shhh. Breathe… Calm down, my love.” His voice is quiet and calm, but I can already feel myself changing.

I try to focus on Lucian as he inches closer to me before quickly wrapping me up in his arms and holding me tightly to his body to restrict my movements. “Breathe, baby. Deep breaths, Liana. Relax,” he whispers calmly into my ear. I take a few deep breaths and feel myself beginning to calm down.

He opens up his connection and pushes through his calming energy, helping me to bring down the anger in me. My claws start to pull back and recede into my skin once again, and my breathing begins to slow once more.

“You okay, angel?” Lucian whispers, and I nod, taking another deep breath as he releases me slowly.

“What in the hells have you done to my daughter?” my father whispers angrily, and Lucian turns to look over his shoulder.

“She’s a new lycan; she can’t control her transitions yet,” he tells him curtly before turning back to me and looking into my eyes. “Maybe this was a bad idea, love. We should go home.”

I nod, feeling defeated. I don’t know why I ever thought this would work out.

“You are not taking my daughter anywhere. She needs to be here with family! We had a deal, Your Majesty!” My father’s voice rises with anger as he takes a firm step toward us.

“Liana is your queen! You need to learn some respect!” Lucian bites back, and I sigh.

“She is a princess. A princess to this pack! And she has a responsibility to fulfill here.” My father does have a point, although right now it’s the last thing I want to hear.

“Take me home please, Lucian,” I whisper, and he nods, wrapping his arm around me as he steps back toward the door.

“Hey!” my father shouts, but Kia moves into the space between us, not allowing my father to get closer.

“Word of warning, Alpha? Whatever you’re planning…don’t. It is too late,” Kia advises calmly, although even I can pick up on his authoritative tone. As the king’s beta, Kia has great authority, even over the alphas.

“Liana!” my father calls, and I look back over my shoulder. “I was only doing what was right. Zeke is the best! I made sure of that. He’s been waiting for you, Liana. Don’t do this to him!”

“Father, please…” I croak, my pain becoming harder to ignore.

“You were supposed to come back! It’s not too late, Liana! You’re not married yet! He’ll still have you!” he calls after me as Lucian rushes me back down the hallway.

Checking the empty grounds quickly, Lucian leads me to the car and ushers me in before getting into the driver’s seat and pulling away at speed, our security in tow. I sink into the seat and bring my knees up to my chest, clutching at my mother’s necklace as if it holds the answers I need. What am I supposed to do now?

ALPHA ZAYNE

The second Liana leaves, I lose my temper completely. I told Zeke I would handle this. Admittedly, things will be more difficult now that Liana is mated, but I still have to come up with a plan. I can’t let her get away. She means too much to the pack. Without her here when I die, all hell will break loose.

Besides, this pack belongs to ~my~ family. I am not having some other bloodline take over the leadership. I’ll do anything to prevent that.

Shifting quickly and ripping through my clothes, I thunder down to the pack house. No point in linking him. I want to sort this out, now.

I find him pacing the grounds, surrounded by his posse. He turns to face me but I don’t stop. I lunge toward him, crashing into his body and tackling him to the ground, snapping my teeth around his body. I throw him off me and stand, shifting in a second.

“What the fuck were you playing at!” I snap at him, and he stands, growling and brushing off the dirt from his skin.

“I could smell her contaminated scent from down here!” he snarls. “We had a deal, Alpha! She was supposed to be mine! She was supposed to come back; she was only going to ‘advise’ the king. You lied to me!”

Admittedly, he doesn’t just look angry. He also looks hurt. Not that he has the right to be; he never took the time to get to know Liana properly, to court her like he was supposed to. It was like he was always distracted by some other sweet-smelling she-wolf. Sometimes I even thought he might be ashamed to be seen with her. Maybe if he had done a better job being her boyfriend, she would have chosen him before finding her fated.

“Don’t you dare! If you had taken a second to even know my daughter, you’d have had her in the palm of your hand, and you know it! But instead, you preferred fucking anything that walked—just because Liana wasn’t the skinny girl!”

Zeke actually chuckles a little at that and looks around at his friends before shrugging. “I did fuck Liana. Quite often actually,” he states proudly and crosses his arms over his thick chest.

“You did? Well, why the fuck isn’t she here?! Clearly, you were not wolf enough to keep a leash on her!”

That wipes the smile off his face in a second. “You have no idea what your daughter is like!” he bites back cockily. “I had her howling for more! And wasn’t it your job to keep your daughter with her pack?”

I growl back in frustration and run a hand down my face. “Enough! This is getting us nowhere.”

“We need to bring her home, Alpha. Now I’ve seen her—with the scent of that lycan all over her—I want her back. More now than ever. To get that ~scent~ off her. I ~have~ to claim her! It’s killing me, to know she’s had another that should have been me!” He steps away from his posse for a moment and I frown, grinding my teeth together, trying to think.

“I will get her here. Somehow…but you will have limited time to make this work.” He nods, standing straighter and looking hopeful. “I mean it, Zeke. We get one chance at this. If you fuck up? You can kiss your chance of becoming alpha goodbye.”

“Yes, sir,” he barks back at the order like the good follower he is. I sigh and nod, turning on my heel and marching back up toward the house.

Now I just have to find an excuse to get Liana back here, to give Zeke his opening to get close to her again. Her place is here with me and this pack, and the sooner she understands that, the better. I need to get her here at the full moon… She won’t be able to be alone, she’ll have to take a wolf. I just have to find a way to lure her home and make her stay a while. Looks like I have some planning to do…