The Love of a Mate (3 page)

Chapter Two

“What do you think you’re all looking at?” Alfred demanded as every wolf in the work party turned to stare at him at the same time. They’d obviously already been out there for some time, hard at work since first light.

Alfred didn’t try to hold their gazes or stare anyone down, but he made a point of looking away from his pack mates rather than towards the ground. He was in no mood to display his submission towards anyone that morning.

Even after he’d left
Caden’s
room in the early hours, he hadn’t managed to sleep for more than a few minutes in a row. A night spent tossing and turning and trying to ignore both the ache in his cock and the pounding in his head hadn’t helped his temper. But it was the uncomfortable feeling in the unexplored recesses of his mind that had his hand forming into a fist at his side.

There was something there, just out of sight, lurking in the deepest shadows. He could sense it creeping around, prowling in the darkness like a predator waiting for the perfect chance to pounce. If he dropped his guard for a moment, Alfred had no doubt it would launch itself into the front of his mind, then… And that was the problem. He had no idea what would happen then.

Alfred looked around the work party full of wolves once more, desperate to…to howl, to bite, to lash out at the whole world. He longed to sink his teeth into his nameless, faceless nemesis and shake it until it finally gave in and left him the hell alone.

He wanted nothing more than to land punch after punch on whatever the hell it was that made his whole body ache like the changing of a season that never actually came. He yearned for the chance to keep pummelling, clawing,
biting
until long after there was any way a reasonable wolf could expect anything to be achieved by hurting the world.

Alfred wanted…

He growled. Not knowing what he really wanted didn’t make him feel any friendlier towards the universe.

Picking up the last shovel leaning against the tree nearest the river project, he threw himself into their work digging the new channel with more determination than all the previous days he’d been assigned there put together. Every ounce of anger and frustration streamed through his body and into his task as if he couldn’t think of anything he’d enjoy more than helping his pack divert the course of the river running through their lands.

By the time he looked up, perspiration dripping into his eyes, the sun was high overhead. Right on cue, the alphas had arrived to inspect their work. Leaning on his shovel handle for a moment, Alfred wiped the sweat and the dirt from his face with his discarded shirt before tossing the grubby garment back onto the bank. Glancing over to where his leaders were speaking to Francis and
Steffan
, he noticed that the other gammas were smeared with dust and mud, too.

The alphas looked impossibly clean and fresh standing next to them, not to mention too bloody perfect by half.
Lording
it over the lower-ranking wolves as if they were something special, just because someone had looked at them when they were pups and decided they were going to be alphas when they grew up.

As if he could sense the angry glare burning into the back of his neck, Bennett suddenly looked over his shoulder. His eyes met Alfred’s. Reluctantly lowering his gaze, Alfred forced himself to show due deference to the other wolf’s rank in public, whatever his private feelings might be.

By the time he looked back up, the alpha was right in front of him. Bennett jumped easily down into the ditch alongside Alfred, handed him a cold bottle of water and casually took a seat on the muddy edge of the gouge being created in the landscape.

“
Steffan
tells us you’ve been working hard all morning.”

Alfred shrugged well aware that no one really gave a damn what he said anyway. He glanced across at
Steffan
as he took a deep swig from the bottle of water. Perhaps if he’d been born that size, Alfred might have been the one whom the alphas had put in charge of the working party. Or perhaps if he’d been born growling, like Gunnar, he’d have been the one who had the beta role in the pack handed to him on a sodding plate.

If
he’d
been given that rank, he wouldn’t have wasted it. He wouldn’t have disobeyed his alphas and fallen for Talbot, of all people. Cold water spilled over Alfred’s hand as his grip tightened and crushed the fragile plastic.

Very carefully, he eased his hold on it. The bottle sprang back into shape. The level of the water within receded. Would a wrist recover that easily?

“It seems
Caden
is proving to be a good influence on you.”

Alfred jerked back his head and met his alpha’s eyes.

Bennett smiled slightly. “Neither of us had realised that you had feelings for each other…”

“We don’t. I mean, I don’t…” Alfred frowned down at the bottle. It hadn’t actually sprung back into shape as perfectly as he’d first believed. The damage was easily visible once a wolf thought to look for it.

A gentle, teasing chuckle brought his attention back to his alpha, but Alfred’s mood didn’t change.

“There’s no rush to work out exactly how you feel,” the other wolf reassured him, as if he was nothing more than a silly little pup to be humoured. “Such things take time.”

Alfred said nothing. It was the only way he could be sure to keep back the growl that threatened to escape from the back of his throat.

“But, if you keep working like this, I’m sure you’ll soon be a mate that
Caden
could be proud to call his own.” Without waiting for a response, Bennett jumped easily onto the bank alongside the ditch. “In a few days I’ll speak to Gunnar and see if we can arrange for you and
Caden
to share the same duties. That should let you spend some more time together.”

Alfred shrugged, just to make it perfectly clear he couldn’t care less one way or the other, but Bennett merely smiled all the more, as if he thought there was something amusing about that.

As Bennett re-joined Marsdon and
Steffan
, Alfred caught the other alpha’s eyes. At least there was one wolf he was sure wouldn’t be amused by the idea of him and
Caden
. There was no way in hell Marsdon was ever going to do anything that involved smiling in Alfred’s direction—that ship hadn’t sailed so much as sunk without a trace a long time ago.

Quickly tossing back the rest of his water, Alfred flung the bottle aside and launched himself into his work with a fresh wave of anger to fuel him. There was no point in thinking anything was actually going to happen between him and Caden. Marsdon was never going to forgive him for causing trouble for Bennett all those months ago, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to give his permission for him to be mated to a wolf like Caden.

Alfred’s shovel cut deep into the earth. He wasn’t sure who he was imagining tossing into the hole after he’d dug it so deep that they’d never be able to clamber up the steep sides, but he had the horrible feeling that, whatever he did, the only wolf who would end up at the bottom of it was him.

Hands that weren’t used to being put to work with enthusiasm or for more than a few minutes at a time protested at the sudden onslaught against his palms, but Alfred wasn’t in the mood to listen to them. There wasn’t enough work in the world to allow him to vent all his anger right then.

* * * *

If he’d had the energy, Alfred would have sighed. Of all the times for him to actually be proved right about something, it had to be today, it had to be about this. Just as he’d suspected, there was no less fury burning through his veins as he slowly made his way back into the pack’s old farmhouse that evening. The work hadn’t eased his desire to lash out at the whole world one little
bit,
it had just added a hell of a lot of pain into the mix of feelings swirling through him.

His whole body ached. His feet were too heavy to lift off the ground. His steps were more a shuffle than a stride as he crossed the courtyard. His hands burned where the handle of the shovel had bitten back in revenge for the rough treatment Alfred had levelled upon both it and the ground that day.

Apparently, whoever said hard work never killed anyone was right—apparently, it just made you
wish
you were dead.

“You’re back!”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Alfred muttered, not even bothering to look over his shoulder as he made his way across the kitchen to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of cold milk. His hand screamed in protest as he tore the top off it, but the cool liquid soothed his dusty throat as he drank down big mouthfuls. It let him hope that his next words wouldn’t sound so much like a death rattle.

Apparently as oblivious towards polite hints to piss off as his older brother had ever been, Caden joined him by the fridge. Turning pointedly away from him, Alfred left the half-empty bottle of milk on the counter and attempted a painful retreat towards the living room.

“I heard that you’ve made much more progress on the river works than Gunnar thought you would,” Caden said, as if it was the most wonderful news he had ever heard in his life. “You guys are almost a day ahead now!”

“Yay,” Alfred muttered.
Another feather in Gunnar’s cap.
Bully for him. The idea of needing to go back out there and do another day of the same was almost enough to make him want to cry.

Without any warning, Caden reached up and stroked his fingers through his dusty hair.

Alfred waited impatiently for his own arm to swing up and push the other man’s hand aside in annoyance, but somehow it stayed by his side. The energy for that kind of reaction simply wasn’t there. He had little choice but to let the other gamma fuss over him and pet him any way he chose.

“You must be so sore after working hard all day,” Caden cooed.

Alfred shrugged, and tried not to flinch as his shoulders promptly reminded him why a noncommittal noise would have been a much better option.

“Let me make you feel better?” Caden
requested,
his voice dropping into an intimate, flirtatious tone.

“And how do you intend to do that?” Alfred snapped.

He was pretty sure the only thing that was going to make him feel any less like he’d been run over was a whole body transplant, and while there were a hell of a lot of things he’d have been happy to do with
Caden’s
body, complicated medical procedures weren’t at the top of his list.

A smooth palm slid against Alfred’s sore hand. Caden stepped back and tugged gently at his arm, encouraging Alfred to follow him up the stairs. Too curious to protest, too knackered to resist, Alfred let the pretty blond have his way, just this once.

He had no idea how he actually convinced his legs to carry him up the stairs, but within a few minutes he was standing in
Caden’s
bedroom, facing the other wolf.

“Take off your clothes and jump in the shower,” the other gamma ordered, with an enticing little smile. “When you’re done, make yourself comfortable on the bed.”

There was only one part of his body Alfred hadn’t worked to exhaustion that day. Within a fraction of a second, his cock was hard and making an obvious outline in his jeans. Alfred automatically ran his gaze over the other wolf’s frame. Perhaps there was a way Caden could make him
feel
better after all…

Peeling off his clothes, Alfred dropped them carelessly on the floor just outside the bathroom door. Stepping under the spray he quickly rinsed the worst of the earth and grit off his body.