Claimed by fate the alph.., p.1
Claimed by Fate (The Alpha Territories Book 3), page 1
Claimed By Fate, The Alpha Territories #3
Copyright © 2023 by Shannon Mayer
All rights reserved.
Published by Hijinks Ink Publishing
www.shannonmayer.com
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To that one person who thought
I should write newspaper articles,
because writing books would never
be anything more than a hobby at best...
thanks for the motivation to keep going,
if for nothing else than to prove you wrong.
Contents
1. Sienna
2. Dominic
3. Sienna
4. Sienna
5. Dominic
6. Sienna
7. Dominic
8. Sienna
9. Sienna
10. Dominic
11. Sienna
12. Dominic
13. Sienna
14. Dominic
15. Sienna
16. Dominic
17. Sienna
18. Dominic
19. Sienna
20. Dominic
21. Sienna
22. Dominic
23. Sienna
24. Dominic
25. Sienna
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Sienna
Grief flowed in and out of me, like the edge of the ocean that pulled at the sand of the beach, drawing my feet forward with each brush of the icy water against my ankles. There were no tears, though my heart had cracked in half.
There had been no time for anything. The last two days had been a blur. Dominic had a plan, one that should have been foolproof. The plan? His captain of the guard, Scarlett, had secretly arranged for the Vanators to take out Edmund the Vile.
Scarlett was to have brought Edmund out to the North Fort, where the Vanators—human vampire hunters—would ambush him, take his head and end his reign. William, Dominic’s younger brother, would then sweep in and ‘drive out’ the Vanators, and take his place as king of the Vampire Territory.
Nothing had gone right.
Scarlett had turned on Dominic.
Edmund had killed the one insider Dominic had in Frank Eleazar.
The Vanators had been scattered, and worst of all…Jordan had been killed.
My Jordan.
The boy I’d come to rescue, the boy who was like a brother to me, had been shot down by Scarlett herself.
Eyes closed, I could see Jordan clearly as he took his last breath in my arms, the light from his eyes gone so quickly there was no chance of healing him.
Goodbye, CeeCee.
I swallowed hard and drew in a slow breath, unable to cry. There were so many fractures in my heart that if I started, there would be no stopping the flood. The funeral would begin shortly, but I needed…something. Maybe just a moment to think. The fog of pain was wrapped so tightly around me, I just knew that I couldn’t face anyone else. Not yet.
A thin, light blue tentacle slid out of the water, the tip of it touching my bare calf.
The kraken's own grief added to mine, but still the dam of tears didn’t break, the pressure building in my chest until it felt like I was wrapped in metal bands, tightening with each breath.
I had come all this way for Jordan, fought to get to him, schemed my way to get close, only to have him ripped away.
Would he ever have agreed to come with you?
Did you even truly want to leave?
My own thoughts were traitorous, driving wedges between what was true and what I wanted to be true. The fantasy of saving Jordan and us going home to the mainland. Home to a place where at least I fully understood the dangers and could navigate them.
But would he have been happy? He died here, a hero. With a family that loved him.
A horn blew softly behind me, a mournful bugle call signaling the beginning of the funeral and cutting off my thoughts.
I bent and touched the kraken’s tentacle briefly before heading back up the beach. In a numb haze, I dusted off my feet and tugged my socks and boots on.
Lochlin was about thirty feet away from me, giving me space, but also shadowing me. After the attacks on me—two now, in case anyone was counting—Diana was not taking any chances. I refused to think that Dominic had anything to do with me being watched over.
He’d been leading the army that Jordan had joined. He should’ve known. He should have done… something.
Rational? Nope, not one bit. But grief knew no sense when it filled every cell of your body and mind.
The clouds above us dusted the sky, hiding the stars and the swelling moon. Not full yet, but we were close. I turned my face to the heavens, wishing for rain, and thunder, and lightning. Wishing for the weather to reflect my pain.
I made my way to where the funeral was set to take place. The burial mounds were set to the north of the keep, the entrance of it planted with a tree I didn’t know, and that I had to step through. The trees most similarly matched a weeping willow, only the trunks, leaves, and branches were inky black. Dark, and yet shimmering with iridescence across every part, even by the dim light of the stars. The trees looked as if they had burned to a crisp and then somehow still lived on and grew. I watched them move and sway gently in the wind.
Only there was no wind.
I lifted a hand to part the black leaf curtain and gasped. The trees were moving on their own. The whip-slim branches slid over me, the leaves brushing across my face like velvet fingers, stroking my cheeks. If I’d been crying, they would have brushed the tears away.
This place could be so cruel—so terrible at times, and then something magical…miraculous, even, would happen, making my head spin.
I moved past the trees, reluctantly leaving their embrace, and stared at the scene that spilled out in front of me. The black willows had given way to a massive clearing that had to be two football fields in size, and yet only a small section of it was taken up.
The wolf packs were gathered around a single body laid out on a waist-high platform.
I moved on autopilot straight for Jordan. He was gone, his body just a shell now. I knew it in every part of my heart and soul and yet there was this stupid hope that he was playing. That he would sit up and tell me it was a joke, that he wasn’t really gone.
I reached his side and looked down at his face. He looked so peaceful; he could have been sleeping. A soft smile touched his lips, and his eyes were shut tight. His hands had been set on his chest, holding a sword.
Was it the one he’d carried into battle with him? The battle he never should have been in. A battle he’d joined in secret so he could prove to his new family that he was worthy of becoming one of them.
My jaw trembled as the emotions swelled along with memories that cut me through and through.
Finding Jordan on the street, nearly frozen to death when he’d been barely eight. How brilliant he’d been, surviving on his own for years. Smarter than me by far, and yet he’d looked to me for protection. The accident that had stolen so much from him, the head injury that should have never happened. Nursing him through that, knowing that he was the only family I had through the last five years.
I touched the spot where the arrow had pierced his heart. How he’d survived long enough to get back to the keep, to say his goodbye was beyond me. Maybe it was some twist of fate to push me in the direction that I needed to go.
Or needed to stay, as the case was.
I tugged the bracelet off my wrist, not even counting how many beads were left. I’d threaded them to track the days until we were supposed to meet our ship and make our escape. But that didn’t matter.
Not anymore.
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you,” I whispered, bending over his upper body and pressing my lips to his forehead. “Little brother, I will find a way to make her pay. I swear it on my life.”
With great care, I slipped the bracelet onto his wrist and then laid his hand back gently.
A woman I didn’t know stepped forward. Her dark chestnut hair was streaked with gray on one side, her deep brown eyes were on me. She said nothing as she stepped closer to Jordan, across from me.
“My boy…” Her voice caught on those two words, and she fell forward onto Jordan’s upper body, holding him. One last time.
I swallowed a moan before it could slide out of me and stepped back. One by one, his new family stepped up to say their goodbyes.
Each of them shed tears without any shame that I could see.
Each of them made sure to put their nose to Jordan’s. A goodbye that shouldn’t have been for any of them.
I stepped back further and further, until I was nearly to the black willows again. The werewolves ranged around the platform that Jordan lay on, torches lit, flicking and casting light over the night.
A large bear of a man stepped up, his grizzled face giving away his age if the white in his dark hair had not.
“This night, the clan Killian bid
My lower lip trembled, and my body shook, but I held it together. Barely.
“He went to prove himself a warrior, a fighter, for the glory of clan Killian. Not because he was asked to, but because he wanted to become one of us. I can only hope that he knew, in our hearts, he already was.”
The woman with the white streak through her hair let out a sob that rippled the air.
I bit my lower lip and found myself staring across the circle at Dominic. His eyes were locked on me, and, for a moment I could see my pain reflected in them before I looked away. Bee was standing not far from Will, her head bowed, and her arms wrapped around her middle. She barely knew Jordan, but I had no doubt she’d grieve on my behalf. That was the kind of friend she was.
The best kind.
“And this night, we bid Jordan a safe journey from this world into the next, lifted up by our voices, held safe always, in our hearts.” The alpha of clan Killian took the closest torch, turned it upside down and snuffed it on the ground.
One by one, like a rippling wave from his left, the torches were put out all around the circle until the clearing was a dark and shadowy place.
Silence, absolute silence.
Until a single voice broke it, a low mournful howl that was barely there, then grew in volume and strength. Joined by another wolf’s howl, then another and another. It was not a cacophony, but a blending and harmonizing of voices that spoke to me even though I didn’t understand it.
Grief, pain, love, hope. A goodbye that Jordan deserved, one that he never would have had if he’d died on the mainland. There we’d be lucky for a shallow grave.
The song of the wolves cut through me, unlocking the last of the hold I had on my emotions.
They loved him. They loved him fiercely even though he’d been with them a short time. If I’d never come here, he’d never have gone to battle. He’d still be alive. The sob caught me unawares, the need to howl my own pain to the sky, to join in with the wolves was overpowering. I slapped my hand over my mouth as the sobs erupted out of me, tears spilling down my cheeks as the song of Jordan’s family tore away the last shred of control I had.
Stumbling back, eyes wide as my tears fell, I backed right up to the edge of the black willows. The trees shivered and danced, the velvet soft petals sweeping away the moisture from my cheeks as fast as it appeared.
I went to one knee, feeling the howls to my bones, aching in my very soul. Jordan should never have died, but…he deserved this mourning and more from the ones who loved him. The song ended as softly as it had begun, trailing away to nothing, leaving the clearing in silence once more.
“Lass,” Lochlin’s voice was thick, and he crouched beside me but didn’t touch me. “The Killian alpha and his mate would like to meet you proper.”
A shiver of exhaustion rolled through me, but I nodded and pushed to my feet once more.
Lochlin motioned for me to follow him, and again I found myself staring across at Dominic. Diana and Will were still by his side, but Bethany was gone.
Dominic never looked away from me as I followed Lochlin to the man who was Killian’s pack alpha.
“You be Jordan’s sister, CeeCee. I be Kavan.” He thrust out a hand to grip my forearm.
I blinked and tried to find my voice, but it was scratchy and still full of tears. “Found family. We weren’t biological—”
“Bah, blood is blood, but choosing your family, there be strength and true bonds in that too. Sometimes more. Jordan spoke of you often. Said you protected him. Said he expected you to show up any day to be with him.” He chuckled. “‘O’ course, we never dissuaded him of that dream. Though we knew it be impossible.” Kavan squinted at me. “But then again, I hear you do the impossible, so he knew more than we did.”
I just nodded; I had no words. Jordan had known I would come. The thought only made the tears fall more.
Kavan brushed rough fingers over both of my cheeks. “No more tears, not for Jordan. He’s safe now. No one can hurt him anymore. And we will have that murderess’s blood for the pain she caused us all.”
I blinked up and took hold of both his hands, feeling a powerful bond growing between myself and this man I’d only just met. I squeezed them as tight as I could. “I will kill her myself, if it is the last thing I do.”
He growled his approval. “I believe you. Welcome to the clan, little one.”
I tipped my head sideways as he pinned Jordan’s clan badge, still covered in dried blood, to the front of my leather vest. Then he pulled me into a bear hug and handed me off to his mate who—smelling distinctly of whiskey—did the same.
“I be Maya, Jordan’s mum. Welcome to the clan, CeeCee.” She squeezed me tight, and I hugged her back, letting myself sob with her. I didn’t know why they were making me a member of their clan, but I could not deny that it meant something to me. To have Jordan’s found family accept me, too.
I was passed around to each member of the Killian clan until they’d all bear hugged—or maybe wolf hugged—me to the point of my ribs aching in time with my heart. I was offered drinks but turned them all down.
This was not the time, not for me.
I made my way back toward Jordan, but his body had been removed and laid in the ground while the clan had welcomed me.
His body was covered in a fine coating of dirt, I could just see his hands through it.
The final image broke me, and I turned and ran from the clearing, through the black willows and toward the ocean once more.
“Sienna,” Dominic’s voice dragged me to a stop like no other could have.
I turned around to face him in silence.
“I’m…so sorry, Sienna. I didn’t know he was there in the battle. If I had known, I would have made him stay behind. I would have gotten him out of there or found a way to keep him safe. I know what he meant to you.” He held a hand to me, asking for my forgiveness. Asking for me to step toward him.
Did I believe him? Yes, I suppose I did. I knew Dominic would never have just let Jordan die. But it didn’t change the fact that Jordan was dead. Nothing of what happened could be changed by a few words or an apology. It wasn’t like he was saying he was sorry for hurting my feelings, or for eating the last tart. Dominic was the General, in charge of that army, and he missed it. He missed the fact that Jordan had joined them, and it had cost me my best friend. I just couldn’t forgive that. Not today. I needed time.
In the end, there was nothing for me to say, so I did the only thing I could do without shattering.
I turned and walked away.
Chapter 2
Dominic
Sienna walked away from me, toward the ocean, and I could sense the pain coming off her in waves.
“Fuck me,” I growled under my breath, raking both hands through my hair. I’d rather she rage at me, tell me I was an asshole, scream to the heavens. But she wasn’t doing any of those things.
I smelled Lochlin before he joined me to watch Sienna make her way along the ocean’s edge, the kraken following in her wake, then turn toward the keep.
“Come on, she can’t be that far away from me,” he said.
My jaw ticked, possessiveness rolling hard through me. “She’s not yours to protect.”
“Aye, well, even if that were true before, it isn’t anymore. Clan Killian just made her part of the family,” Lochlin said without breaking stride.
I, on the other hand, felt my feet go leaden.
“Wait, what?”
“Jordan vouched for her before the battle, the clan had already voted to bring her in so he wouldn’t feel like he had to choose. I vouched for her of course, and I knew that it would give her added protection from the attacks from within the community.” Lochlin stared ahead, never looking at me. “This is where you say thank you.”
By taking her into their clan, he was right, Sienna was far more protected. And it wasn’t like any vampire household would take her on as an adoptive member. I knew this. Yet it still gutted me like a fish on a line to think of Sienna staying here once the war was over.
