Alphas are all about being over the top. They have more confidence than fifty men. They're huge compared to almost all other men, as both human and wolf. They're faster than other men, no contest. They're utterly assured and in control in all situations. In fact, the more threatening the situation, the better they are. They thrive on being challenged, being in charge and caring for their pack members.

And in cases where they've fucked up with their mates, they're the biggest babies in the world.

Sad eyes? The very saddest and droopiest.

Hang dog look? The hang doggiest.

Pathetic? The most pitiful in the world.

The morning after Night bit me against my will, I slowly came awake in his arms. I last remembered crying on the floor, my back against the wall, Night's monster wolf huddled beside me. I'd almost jumped out of my skin when I'd first felt the lick of his wolf's tongue against my bite mark, then quickly settled down as he continued his healing ministrations on my mark.

The bite mark I hadn't wanted.

Had refused, in fact. Several times.

But not much other than a bigger, scarier force of nature could stop an Alpha wolf from Taking the Blood with his Destined One. And even then, the Alpha wolf would fight to his death to get through whatever was keeping him from his Howl. It was part of our most basic natures, a biological imperative that could not be denied. An Alpha could not resist his Howl, and vice versa.

So how had I denied him? How had I fought and protested the bite? Nothing should have stopped me, not even Raevyn's words of warning to me not to let Night bite me, and if he did, to not bite him back.

Thinking back to the morning of my twenty-first birthday, I thought about how happy I'd been when I looked in the mirror and realized I was the Howl. My Destined One was known to me -- I wouldn't have to wait for the Forces to bring us together since I knew exactly where to find him. On my run over to Night's house, I'd been planning our future and children together. Of course he'd give up Lindsay Morgan now that his Destined One was revealed. He'd have no other choice. In a word, I would be irresistible to him.

Or I should have been impossible to resist.

Now, after the pain of him rejecting me, then me rejecting him, through the pain of running away from my Destined One not once, but twice, through the helplessness of him Taking my Blood without my consent, I was waking up, cradled in his arms. He was sitting on the floor, clearly having taken my place there, his back against the wall, and his eyes were on me.

Focused on me with startling intensity.

After behaving so horribly to me, after biting me without my consent, he'd held me all night long and I'd slept in his arms peacefully, like a baby. I'd fucking slept in the arms of the man who had Taken my Blood against my will.

Not liking what that implied, with a yelp, I jumped out of his arms, too fast for even his amazing reflexes to stop me and I quickly put the bed between us. Slowly, carefully, not making any fast moves, he got to his feet, not wanting to freak me out any more than I was.

"Neera, we need to talk," he said calmly, making no move to pursue me as he had last night. Would I be safe over here?

Don't think about that.

"I'm not going to come after you, so yes, you're safe over there. I know you're scared of me right now, but I need to tell you about things that have been happening, about magic, about some recent deaths in our pack and the Luniere pack, about why I Took your Blood last night without your permission."

OK, that one sentence alone could take a while to unpack. Of course, my mind focused on the most inane thing out of all of that he'd said.

"How did you know I was worried about being safe over here?"

"Because I know your thoughts now. Apparently, even though our bond is half-formed, it still allows me to hear what you're thinking. You can't get my feelings yet, and you won't until you Take my Blood."

"Well, don't hold your breath on that happening after what you put me through last night."

The look on his face. Total hang dog. He was devastated, and his wolf even whined a bit, enough for me to hear. No male would ever hurt his female, and what Night had done to me was about the worst thing a Destined One could do to his other half. What was supposed to be a beautiful moment filled with desire and longing had been sheer terror for me.

"I'm sorry, Neera, I'm so sorry you were terrified of me, but I did what I had to do, and you'd understand if you'd listen."

Seriously? This apology was right up there with his inability to think about his brutal rejection of me because it would cause him pain.

"I'm sorry for that, too," he said, reading my thoughts once again. This could be really problematic. "I'll try to apologize for it, but it really wasn't my fault --"

This again!

"You rejected me, Night. You rejected me by screwing Lindsay Morgan, a three-year girlfriend of yours that you shouldn't even have had. And you can't even say sorry for letting your dick follow the yellow brick road to Lindsay's Munchkinland -- right in front of me no less? And just to say, the guys I've been with lasted a lot longer than you did with Lindsay."

"Were they in our pack?"

"What?"

"The guys you were with," he growled at me, or his wolf did. "Were. They. In. Our. Pack?"

"As if I'd tell you," I scoffed at him, trying not to think of the two guys I'd dated from the Luniere pack when I was eighteen and nineteen.

Obviously forgetting, once again, that one of us could read the other's thoughts.

"Perfect. I'll ask around and have a chat so they know there won't be any future with you. And to steer clear of me if I ever have reason to enter Luniere pack lands. You won't be going to their lands ever again."

"Seriously, Night? But it's OK that you had a live-in girlfriend for three years and then you rejected me?"

"That wasn't me doing it," he said, trying to remain calm but I could see his nose twitching and his canines lengthening. "And stay away from Lindsay. I don't want you anywhere near her."

"Oh, my Forces! You're protecting her now?"

"No, I'm protecting you," he said, and his voice was guttural, as if he was fighting the shift. "She's one of the things we need to talk about. I don't want you near her because she's dangerous, we think."

And then he proceeded to explain about the scraps of paper they found about magic and the magicks in the ancient texts, about the deaths of both Aibek and Luniere pack members, about what they suspected had happened over the last three years with Lindsay Morgan enchanting Night and using her magic to take control of his body and words the day he'd rejected me. He also told me about the Alpha Dreams he'd been having, after cautioning me not to tell anyone about the sacred visions sent by the Forces.

"All that said, I'm sorry about the misunderstandings, but again, it wasn't me doing any of that. I couldn't have resisted you had I been in control of my senses. Everything about you reaches out to me, Neera, like a siren's song. You're mine, into eternity, and I want you to Take the Blood, now, so I can protect you."

Swallowing, I shook my head. "I can't."

At my words, Night snarled at me, one hundred percent pissed off Alpha who wasn't being obeyed.

"I need to protect you; this is the only way." Then he thought a minute. "Is this about the trunk thing?"

"The trunk -- oh, you mean when you kidnapped me?"

"I didn't kidnap you," he protested firmly.

"What would you call throwing someone in your trunk against her will?"

"I relocated you. From the hotel to pack lands, where --"

"Once again, against my will, so by definition, it's a kidnapping!"

"I needed to protect you!" he shouted at me. "And you need to bite me, right now, so I can protect you as an Alpha protects his Howl."

Try as I might, I could not bring myself to do it. My canines weren't lengthening and without those, I couldn't bite him. Something must be holding me back for a reason.

Night cocked his head, trying to puzzle out my refusal. "Let's go for a run," he finally suggested. "That will help you clear your head and think logically. We'll let our wolves out to play and then talk some more afterward."

No. If I let my wolf out, she'd bite him in a heartbeat. I might not have the desire to bite him, but she was practically forcing herself out of me to get at him. Night and his wolf were everything a fur-girl could want, strong, handsome and supremely Alpha, and she wanted more than anything to complete the bond.

But no way was I going to let that happen without my consent this time. Night took the control out of my hands last night and I wasn't ready to let that go, whatever his reasons. He would just have to wait until I had the desire to complete the bond and Take his Blood.

Suddenly smiling, Night pushed and I realized -- too late, once again -- that the man could hear my thoughts. "Good to know one of you is in your right mind. Let her out, Neera. Just let her out to play."

If seduction had a voice, it would be Night's -- low and deep, coaxing, raspy with desire and want. Need.

Even though he hadn't taken a step toward me, I backed away. "Stop it! I said no, and this time I hope you'll honor my wishes instead of doing something against my will."

He looked like I'd slapped him, his eyes immediately stricken, his wolf peeping through mournfully. Hang dog expression in place.

See? Pathetic and pitiful.

"I'll give you until tonight," he said, as if he were a king granting me a boon, "but it will happen before the day is over. In the meantime, Aymeric will be with you every moment."

He stepped past me and opened the door, and called for Aymeric, giving him strict instructions.

"I'm hungry," I snapped at him as Night started to walk off.

"Aymeric will take you to the Den for breakfast. Eat and drink only what he hands you himself."

Snapping a salute at him, I agreed to follow that rule.

Ten minutes later, as Aymeric was walking me to the Den, Lindsay Morgan came toward me with her two sidekicks, Cindy and Courtney, and blocked our path. Aymeric told her to move, but she held her ground.

"I need to say something quick to Neera," she told him. "And sweetie, I just wanted to say, you're welcome to my leftovers. But be with him knowing that he loved me for three years, he fucked me for three years, and he rejected you for me. So maybe you have the Alpha-Howl vibe going, but it's only because of the bond. Not because he truly cares for you. I'm the one he loves. You may be his Destined One, but you'll never be the one he loves."

With a last look at me, she walked away, her two minions following, all of them laughing softly as they distanced themselves from me.

Aymeric shot me a look, then motioned toward the Den, where I ran into Owena and Echo. We hugged and talked and ate breakfast together, and I filled them in on how I'd come to be back on pack lands (they agreed I'd been kidnapped) and how Night had Taken my Blood against my will. Echo looked like she was about to cry when I told her that and Owena, surprisingly, looked like she wanted to join her.

We talked for almost two hours, catching up on the last three weeks before Aymeric grunted that it was time to go.

"Good chatting with you, Meri," Echo taunted him as she got up from the table. "Next time let a girl get a word in edgewise."

He bared his teeth at her but otherwise said nothing. With a wave, she and Owena walked away and Aymeric took me back to my prison.

We walked into the house, and when he closed and locked the door behind us, Lindsay Morgan and Raevyn appeared from the hallway.

Before Aymeric or I could move or react, Lindsay Morgan had blown a light purple powder at both of us from the palm of her hand, right into our faces.

"Sleep," Raevyn intoned as Lindsay kept blowing the powder at us. "Sleep deep. Sleep."

I don't know which one of us hit the floor first.