After Six Alphas Called Me Cheap, I Took Their Pack

I slipped through the rusted iron door of The Vault. The stone chamber felt just as freezing as last night.

Earlier in the corridor, Mason had stepped out of his room. He took one sniff of my neck, sneered at the heavy stench of cedar and bourbon radiating from Kade's bite, and retreated behind his door. The mark acted as a shield.

I marched straight toward the massive skeleton in the center of the room. Right before I passed out yesterday, I saw it. A small, leather-bound book wedged between the First Alpha's massive skeletal jaws. My father's journal.

I yanked the book free. Dust coated my fingers. I flipped the cover open.

"Ava," I read my father's messy scrawl aloud, my voice echoing off the damp walls. "If you read this, they caught you. I'm sorry."

I ran my finger over the ink.

"They don't want my life," I continued reading. "They want yours. You aren't a normal human, you are—"

The letters twisted. The black ink curled inward, writhing like dying insects on the parchment.

"What?" I muttered, wiping at the page. "Stop."

The words erased themselves. The paper rejected my eyes. I frantically flipped to the next page. Blank. The next. Blank.

"No, no, no. Tell me!" I yelled at the book. "What am I?"

Sentences materialized and instantly dissolved into gray ash. I shook the binding. Only two words flared bright red against the final page before vanishing entirely.

*Anchor Bloodline.*

The leather crumbled. The entire journal turned to dust, slipping through my fingers to the stone floor.

"You smell like Kade."

I spun around. Jax leaned against the heavy iron door, blocking my exit. His fiery red hair caught the dim light.

"And lies," Jax added, stepping into the chamber. "Lots of lies."

"Get out of my way, Jax," I demanded.

He didn't move. His golden eyes locked onto the angry, bruised bite mark on my collarbone. His nostrils flared. "He overwrote me. My mark was there first."

"I'm not a whiteboard," I snapped. "Move."

"He thinks he owns you now," Jax growled, closing the distance between us in two long strides. He backed me against the cold stone wall. "I found you first. You're my toy."

"Don't touch me," I warned, pressing my palms flat against the rock.

"Or what?" Jax taunted. He reached for my throat.

I ducked under his arm, shoved his hip hard, and bolted past him.

"Ava!" he barked.

I sprinted out of The Vault, tearing down the main hallway. My bare feet slapped against the hardwood. I grabbed the first brass handle I saw, shoved the door inward, and threw myself inside.

I slammed the heavy bolt shut.

My shoulders hit the wood. I sucked in a massive gulp of air. Safe.

Soft piano music drifted through the room. Classical. Debussy.

I turned my head.

A waterproof record player sat on the edge of a massive, claw-foot bathtub.

Kade lay submerged in the water. Fully clothed. A crisp white dress shirt clung to his chest, and black trousers darkened in the bath. He didn't even open his eyes.

But that wasn't the craziest part.

A massive, soaking wet black wolf tail hung over the porcelain edge, dripping onto the tile.

"What in the world are you doing?" I whispered.

"Listening to music," Kade replied, his voice entirely flat.

"You're fully clothed in a bathtub. With a tail."

"The water is calming."

Fists pounded against the door behind me. The wood rattled.

"Open the door, Ava!" Jax shouted from the hallway. "You can't hide in there forever!"

I pressed my hands against the panels, bracing my weight. "Leave me alone!"

"I'm breaking it down!" Jax yelled.

I looked at Kade. "Are you going to let him break the door?"

"He won't," Kade said.

"He sounds pretty determined."

Kade finally opened his eyes. Whiskey-colored irises fixed on the ceiling. He didn't raise his voice. He didn't even sit up.

"This is my territory," Kade stated.

The words carried a bizarre, low-frequency vibration. An infrasonic wave rolled through the air, rattling the mirror and vibrating against my teeth. The pressure pushed outward, slicing right through the solid wood door.

Outside, the pounding stopped instantly. A sharp gasp echoed in the hall. Footsteps scrambled backward, turning into a frantic, panicked sprint away from the bathroom.

Silence returned. Just the piano music and the sound of water lapping against porcelain.

Kade gripped the edges of the tub and pulled himself up. Water poured off his clothes in sheets. His black tail twitched, sending droplets flying across the room.

He stepped out, his wet shoes squelching on the tile. He grabbed a white hand towel from the rack and walked toward me.

"You're making a mess," I said, eyeing the puddle forming around his feet.

"You're bleeding," he countered.

He crouched down until we were eye-level. He pressed the soft towel against my collarbone. The fabric stung the fresh wound he had given me the night before.

"Jax broke the scab," I accused, wincing.

"Jax lacks discipline." Kade tossed the bloody towel into the sink.

"He lacks a muzzle. Keep him away from me."

He pressed his bare thumb directly against the pulse point on my neck. His skin felt like ice.

"Your heart is erratic," Kade noted.

"I just ran for my life. What's your excuse for the tail?"

"A side effect of the moon," he answered simply. "Hold still."

"Don't you dare bite me again," I ordered, putting my hands on his wet chest to push him away.

He didn't budge. "I'm not claiming you this time."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Fixing your panic."

He lowered his head. His lips brushed my skin, sending a violent shiver down my spine. Then, his teeth sank in.

It wasn't a sharp, brutal attack like the clearing. It was agonizingly slow. A deep, grinding pressure that bypassed my skin and dug straight into my nervous system.

I gasped, my fingers curling into his soaked shirt.

The metallic tether in my chest snapped tight. My heartbeat stuttered. Then, it shifted rhythm. *Thump-thump.* A pause. *Thump-thump.*

It wasn't my rhythm. It was his. He was forcing my heart to sync with his own.

A tidal wave of emotion crashed into my brain. It didn't belong to me. Starving hunger. Violent possessiveness. A dark, suffocating paranoia that demanded control over every living thing in the house.

"Stop," I choked out, tears stinging my eyes. "It's too much."

Kade pulled back.

His whiskey eyes were gone. I had never seen them do that before — no whiskey, no gold, nothing. Just solid, terrifying black filling his sclera from edge to edge.

He stared at me for a long, silent moment. The heavy emotion radiating from him slowly dialed back, retreating behind his usual cold mask.

"Sleep in the tub," Kade instructed, his voice entirely devoid of inflection.

"Why would I sleep in a wet tub?" I asked, my voice trembling.

"Because it's safer than your room."

He turned around and opened the bathroom door.

He walked out into the hallway, leaving a trail of water behind him. He didn't even try to hide the massive black tail dragging across the floorboards.

I stared at the empty doorway, my forced heartbeat hammering against my ribs.

My knees finally gave out. I sank onto the closed toilet lid, staring at the wet footprints fading on the tile.

I need a bigger spreadsheet.