Dark Fates (A Paranormal Anthology)(56)

“When I was living on the street at sixteen, we used to steal boxes of wine from convenience stores.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Boxed?”

“The part of what I just said that bothers you is the boxed part? Not the stealing?”

“Chelsea.” He shook his head. “I used to torture people for a werewolf who, when he died, had managed to convince the majority of Alphas in the world that he was, in fact, so deified he might as well have been the Moon herself. I can assure you a little theft isn’t going to throw me for a loop.”

“What about drugs? Drinking?” If he was going to hold to the whole mating thing—which really should be freaking her out, but the idea hadn’t yet made her want to panic—he should know what he was getting in the bargain.

He shrugged. “I’m deeply in favor of drinking, obviously. In moderation, I hope. But that’s really not my business. Drugs? I don’t smell them on you, not even whatever the True Believers were giving you. Whatever you did, that’s your business. We all have pasts.”

Now that was interesting. Was it possible he could really be that accepting of her? And what did he mean torture? She wanted to ask, but she also did not want to know. None of this made any sense. Chelsea didn’t have that much experience with men, except the ones who always wanted to f*ck her when she’d been sixteen and on her own. Before that, it had all been teenage boys, and they were nothing to go by. Television made men seem really dumb, with intentions the female characters could never work out. Unless they weren’t good looking, and then they were passed over.

She stared at Hayden. He definitely fell into the handsome category. Striking. Big. Male. Hot…

“What if I was a stripper? A hooker?”

He sucked in his breath, his dark gaze piercing hers. “Did you do those things to survive? How was there no one in the universe to take care of you? The Moon should have done better for my mate. If I ever meet her, I’ll let her know.”

Chelsea sighed loudly. “All right, I didn’t strip or work the streets. We were more like punks. There were ten of us. We slept in abandoned houses, stole. I got good at picking pockets. Shoplifted. Fortunately, it never gets really cold in Southern California. But my stomach was always growling.”

She wasn’t usually one to share, but she wanted to tell Hayden who she was. He was a werewolf, or so he claimed, and they were standing in what could very possibly be the most beautiful place she’d ever been, hundreds of miles from her childhood home, and yet still considered the same state—she wanted him to know who she was. The true nitty-gritty that made up Chelsea Steefle.

“How did the True Believers find you?”

“I had my first episode about six months into my homelessness. Someone saw it. Rumors about it flew around. A few of the kids that were with me left. They didn’t want to be with the freak. I guess eventually the True Believers heard about me and came investigating. By then I was basically alone. I went with them, knowing it might be a bad idea. I had no other options. And they promised to feed me.”

He took her hand in his. “I tortured people for the Alpha Prime. But now I’m a farmer, basically. I live for my pack and my grapes.”

“Back up and explain all of that.” She’d gone so long thinking of weird, possibly pretend, monsters that the True Believers obsessed about. Now one stood in front of her, and all she wanted to do was caress the hard edges of his arm muscles. Would he think that was really weird?

“We have a system of laws in the werewolf world. All Wolves are loyal to an Alpha wolf. Usually, the Alpha of their pack. Here, in Napa, I’m the Alpha. Although how and why that happened is complicated. It’s questionable whether I should be.”

“Why? You seem to be doing a good job. Look at this place. You’re clearly loaded, and you’re making a vineyard work. That can’t be easy.” She touched one of the plants, running her hand across the hard branch.

“That’s the human part. Yes, I do that just fine. Whether or not I should be Alpha of a pack remains to be seen.”

He needed to finish his explanation. She still didn’t know what an Alpha Prime was. “Finish what you were saying. We can debate whether or not you should be an Alpha after.”

Hayden rubbed his hands together. “Maybe you should be the Alpha. You certainly do like to give orders.”

“No one ever does what I say. I give them directions but no one listens.” She smiled, her cheeks heating up. Maybe she could be a little less forceful in the way she spoke to him.

“You keep ordering. I kind of like it.” He stared off into the distance. Where was his mind? She knew it had travelled far away from where they stood. “Until recently, all the Alphas were loyal to the same man. His name was Lucian, and he was called the Alpha Prime. Over the years, Lucian ran what were essentially elite Alpha training camps at his home in North Carolina. Savage, that’s my older brother, and I were both invited to go the first year. After that, just Savage. I thought I was done. It was the kiss of death when Lucian didn’t pick you. It meant that all those Alpha instincts weren’t going to go to leading a pack.”

Chelsea crossed her arms. She’d always hated bullies. “Who died and appointed him the wolf god?”

“Well, actually, the Alpha Prime in front of him. I think his name was Prentice, but that was a long time ago…”