Owned by the Alphas: Owned by the Winterborn
Autor:in
Jen Cooper
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The blood moon ritual was the night that started it all for Lorelai. It was the same for the three alphas she claimed. Find out what Nikolai, Braxton, and Derik thought during that first fateful night in this short story.
Chapter 1
An Owned by the Alphas Short Story: Owned by the Winterborn
NIKOLAI
âThis ritual will be different from the others, Nikolai. Can you feel it?â Tabby asked, her wide, wise eyes smiling from her rocking chair on the deck. She faced the swamp, and I sat on the steps leading down into the grimy water.
The night air was cold, a warning on my skin that raised the hair on my body.
I nodded. âI can feel it.â I threw a chunk of meat from the bucket next to me into the water for Ruby, the alligator. She snapped it up, thrashing happily.
âDifferent, how?â Derik frowned, his arms folded as he leaned against the wall of Tabbyâs home.
She smiled softly, adjusting her knitted blankets over her legs. âTime will tell,â she said. I didnât have to reach into the link to know that answer would royally piss Derik off.
Sure enough, the taint of his frustration filtered through.
I eyed Brax, who was glaring from the treeline. He stood there by the carriage, scowling, refusing to come closer.
Tabby didnât hold it against him, but I couldnât help how much it annoyed me. What happened in his past needed to stay there. But he still punished Tabby for it.
I didnât. I sensed her. I knew her heart better than mostâmy wolf gave me a keener understanding of emotions. Her heart was pure. If it wasnât, she wouldnât have been able to carry a child like she had. No witch could. And yet, Cain was born.
That told me all I needed to know.
âI donât like different,â Derik murmured. âDifferent means trouble. We canât afford trouble when it comes to the border.â
âA bit of trouble never scared me,â I smirked, winding Derik up. âIâm bored with fighting rogues every now and then or scaring the humans for fun. Give me a virgin who knows how to suck my cock better than the females in our pack. Thatâll mean trouble.â
Tabby smacked the back of my head lightly, and I grimaced, chucking Ruby another chunk of meat.
âCute becomes crass in a sentence, Nikolai. However, I do warn you, be careful what you wish for.â She eyed me, her brow raising.
I smirked and shrugged. âWhen am I ever careful, Tab?â
She chuckled, her eyes wrinkling as she looked out over her swamp with a sigh. âThat is true. Now you three better get going, hmm? You have a ritual to prepare for.â
Derik came away from the house and took our teacups in as I stood up and dumped the last of the meat for Ruby into the swamp.
Tabby stood slowly and wrapped her blanket around her shoulders like a shawl. âNikolai,â she said softly as I grabbed her arm and helped her hobble inside. âTrust your instincts this ritual, you hear me? Theyâll guide you on your path.â
âMy path? You think this blood moon will be some kind of defining moment?â I said with a hint of sarcasm. Her fate talk usually didnât alter whatever I planned to do.
She smiled like she knew exactly what I was thinking and patted my arm. âYes. You donât have to believe it for it to be true. But youâll feel it. The difference will hit you and youâll know. Once it does, listenâas hard as that is for you to do. Your instincts are the most honed and they will help you and the other Alphas follow the right path.â
I nodded, half brushing off what she was saying, half hoping she was right because I was sick of this ritual.
Humans were a boring layâespecially virgins.
All they did was lie there. Some cried, and I had to pretend that it affected meâsoothe them. Putting on a face wasnât my strong suit.
Brax had it easy. When we left here, he could plaster on a smile, and the humans thought he was friendly. It was a pretty lie he told. He could be just as savage as the rest of us.
Derik was all business. He told them the rulesâthat we were doing it for themâand made them feel like they had a choice. But they didnât. And neither did we.
We needed to sleep with the virgins to keep the magic in the border alive. It was the only thing keeping the vampires from us and locked in their territory. The humans didnât appreciate that, but we still did itâfor them.
Derik would do anything for them, even at his own expense. Brax didnât care what we didâhe was just along for the ride. But me? I would opt out if I could.
Sleeping with females was a fun pastime and something I enjoyed on the regularâwith wolves. Humansâvirginsânot so much. Especially humans who were not experienced and just wanted a cock to fill them so they could say they had sacrificed for their village and then marry their own kind.
Wasnât really my style, but I did my duty as an Alpha.
And if what Tabby said was true and this ritual was going to be different, then as much as it went against my nature, I was inclined to listen.
I took Tabby inside and put her in her worn armchair, placing her blanket back over her. Derik brought over a fresh brew of tea for her, then straightened. âThanks for having us, Tabitha. Weâll take our leave.â
Tabby nodded. âOf course. Go,â she said, shooing us. I bent to kiss her on the cheek, then left the small cabin with Derik.
We moved down the ramp, a few steps through the shallow part of the swamp, then climbed into the carriage that Brax had already gotten into.
He sat in the far left corner, arms crossed, hood up as he glared out the window.
âWrong window, youâre glaring at the forest. If youâre aiming for Tabbyâs, youâll want the other side of the seats,â I taunted.
Brax turned his scowl to me. âI told you to leave me behind.â
Derik sighed as he sat down, closing the door behind us. âAnd I told you, it would be disrespectful. We all go. Those are Tabbyâs rules for now.â
Brax said nothing but continued scowling out of the window. I relaxed back in my seat as the carriage started to move back toward the city.
The blood moon had already broken over the horizon, and I peered out of the carriage window to stare at it.
And I swore it was staring back. Whispering. A prickle ran over my skin.
âTabby is right.â I swallowed. âThereâs something different this time.â
âIâm not trusting anything that witch says,â Brax muttered. âIf itâs different, itâs because she made it so.â
I rolled my eyes.
Derik pinched the bridge of his nose. âGet your mood in order. We have a duty to do tonight. We all know the border is at its weakest. It wonât get stronger if you both donât treat this as the ritual it is meant to be.â
âYou and your rules, D.â I smirked.
âTheyâre not my rules,â he stated.
It was something I knew but still taunted him about. There werenât many rules that I followed blindly, but the blood moon ritual was something none of us wanted to mess with.
Our parents had given everything to get the border up, to stop the vampires in the war. We had to honor that by completing the ritual to keep the magic in that border.
It wasnât so bad anyway. Fucking all night had its advantages. Like not being on patrol.
That was about it.
Humans didnât have what it took to satisfy us, but the night wasnât about satisfaction. Thatâs why there were rules.
Ones I had never broken.
A tightness pulled in my chest at the thought, and I frowned. Is that what Tabby had meant by different? Was tonight the night I broke the rules?
As much as that thought excited me, I shoved it down. I wasnât going to fuck this up. We couldnât afford the consequences.
Every human virgin of age needed to sacrifice their purity. There were no exceptions.
We got back to the city and all of the wolves were on edge. The pack knew humans were coming, and that always tested their control.
Most of them were either fucking, staying in wolf form, or just staying out of sight.
The virgins were not to be touched by any wolf that wasnât an alphaâor Galen, the oldest wolf in our city and the one who didnât seem to have the same rules as the rest of us.
But he never came out of his hut during these times. He only stayed close instead of in the forest in case one of us decided to do more than fuck the humans.
And there was a slight chance of that.
Previous alphas had been known to let their wolves take over and kill the virgins. But Derik, Brax, and I were more in control of our wolves than our parents had been. Weâd never had an accident like they had.
We went to the mansion to prepare, going straight to the human holding rooms. We had given them all the luxuries we could think of, as we did every year. It was easier if they were as relaxed as possible.
âRecite the rules,â Derik said as we checked that the punch was full and spiked. The oath goblets were ready. The bathing rooms were prepared.
âDo we have to do this every time?â I said, picking up a cup and taste-testing the punch. Derik spun from stoking the fire and glared at me.
That was a yes then.
âNo kissing the sacrifices. No touching the sacrifices,â Brax started, knowing better than to start an argument with Derik about rules.
I smirked. âI donât see why. Itâd be more fun if we could give them the full experience.â
Derik did not find it funny.
Brax copied my smirk, though. âImagine their faces. Showing them what a wolf can do and then sending them back to have mediocre human dick for the rest of their lives. The disappointment.â Brax laughed, shaking his head. He was back to normal now that we werenât near Tabby.
I laughed and grabbed another cup of punch, leaning against the table. âTheyâd be back at our door the next day, begging for the orgasm their human lover couldnât give.â The idea made me grin. A buzzing excitement started to build for the night.
âItâs against the rules, both for our ritual and their contract,â Derik sighed. âBut I admit, the starfish fuck is rather dull.â He let a small smirk play on his lips as he stared into the fire. I grinned and put the punch downâit quenched my thirst but didnât give me any of the drunken feelings a human would get from it.
âAnd the truth comes out,â I teased.
âI never said it wasnât the truth or that I didnât share your sentiments, only that it doesnât matter what we want out of tonight. We take the humansâ purity, we give it back to the realm. Those are the rules. We follow them.â
Suddenly my skin started to buzz as if the punch had affected me. I frowned and turned to look at it like it would give me answers, then cleared my throat, putting my hands on my waist.
âOr we wonât. Tabby said tonight would be different.â As I said it, something really did feel different. I usually wanted more from the sex I had under the blood moon ritual, but something in my chest, tight and excited, hinted that I might just get it tonight.
âIt canât be. Itâs a ritual. It must beââ
âI get it, D. Iâll follow the rules,â I interrupted him. I didnât want to hear about our duty again.
âHow about we get going before the humans think we have abandoned them, hmm?â Brax said, coming over to clap me and Derik on the back.
Derik nodded and headed for the door. âI sent our outfit choices to the villages earlier.â
I licked my lips. Whiteâthat was the only specification. Something about tradition and honoring the purity they were sacrificing.
I didnât care what color they wore. I didnât really care what they wore at all.
But the less, the better.
As cold as it was for them, it made it easier to get the job done quicker. Usually, they left their clothes on anyway.
âThanks, D,â Brax said, heading out the door behind him. I left last and shut the door behind me. I wasnât sure how tonight was going to go, but now more than ever, I was convinced Tabby was right. It was going to be different.
The question remained, thoughâwas that difference going to be good or bad?
