Hungry Wolf - Aidy Award Page 0,2

Helena told him to, even if she was his new manager.

Fine. She was back to the gravy plan. She’d sign up to provide very hot, like boiling, gravy for the dinner and spill it right on any guy she didn’t recognize who walked through the door on Thursday evening.

“Helena,” Daphine’s tone was much too close to parental. “What are you plotting?”

“Nothing. Only thinking about what dish to bring.” Which was one-hundred percent true.

“I think we’d better relegate you to rolls, otherwise you’re liable to spill a perfectly good green bean casserole on some poor unsuspecting schmoe.”

“I would never...” She was so busted, and totally screwed.

Not even in the fun way. Not that she even remembered what that felt like.

Whatever. She had a couple of days to figure out how to get out of this blind date. No way was she going to let her Friendsgiving be ruined by a random dude.

The Set Up

Aleksei sat in the dark of his small cabin on the edge of Troika land, sipping on a tumbler of vodka. It wasn’t like the alcohol had enough punch to get him drunk. He simply liked the burn.

Nothing torched his gut like the knowledge that he alone had let his entire pack down. He should have died that day protecting his Alpha. Not run back home like a scared puppy with his tail tucked between his legs.

The bastards had almost killed him. The taste of the poison fed both to him and Piotr by those fucking Crescent one-bloods lingered with every bite of food he ate, every sip of drink he took. If Niko hadn’t already destroyed the bastards and taken over their pack, the need for revenge would still ache in Aleksei’s soul.

Now that pain and darkness had nowhere to go. He sat, day after day, waiting for an assignment from any of the Troikas that would make him feel useful again, show them that he wasn’t a liability to the pack. None came.

Not that long ago, Aleksei was the greatest Enforcer the Troika pack had. Now he was their weakest link. They thought him so fragile they didn’t even assign him the simplest of jobs. Ever since Kosta had discovered the ring trafficking human women for the benefit of one-bloods, he had enforcers acting as bouncers at The Naughty Wolf. Security beefed up their presence all over Rogue, and the surrounding areas that were controlled by the Troikas.

They told Aleksei to rest up, but he knew what was really going on. They didn’t trust him anymore. He was the one wolf who could have saved their father and he’d failed. Failed them all. Failed himself.

Now he was nothing more than a burden on the pack.

That, he couldn’t allow. Tonight, he would go lone. A wolf without a pack was the lowest of their society. It was exactly where he belonged.

Aleksei tossed back the remaining vodka and smashed the glass against the cold fireplace. He stood and shook out his limbs that were sore and tired from doing nothing for far too long. Slowly he unbuttoned his flannel shirt and let it drop to the ground.

He barely felt as if he had the right to take on his true wolf form, but it was his only remaining solace.

His pants followed his shirt onto the ground, then his socks, and finally his t-shirt. His wolf was always near the surface these days and Aleksei welcomed the snap of bones and the painful reforming of his shape that came with the transformation. His claws burst from the end of his fingers first, then his fangs dropped from his gums.

The wolf inside growled low at a noise outside the cabin and wanted nothing more than to tear the intruder apart.

“Who is there?” His voice came out more beast than man and he sniffed the air.

He caught the scent of the last person on the face of the Earth he wanted to see. Selena, Piotr’s widow and the pack’s former matriarch. She had been too kind to him in the months since her mate died, but she hadn’t ever dared to visit him in his own home before.

Not that she didn’t have the right. She could rip his throat out and no one would blame her, Aleksei least of all.

“Hello, Aleksei? Are you home?” Her melodic voice called through the door, being polite since she’d be able to scent that he was inside.

What was she doing here? If she wanted to see him, she could summon him to the pack house.