His gaze fell on the pretty little redhead as she followed Jessica toward him. Her hands were clenched together, and he saw her knuckles were white. She was nervous.
“This is Cassie Sanders. Recently expelled from her pack.”
She looked terrified, and he imagined a weakling didn’t hold any place in a pack.
“Did you cause trouble?” Abel asked.
Finally, Cassie’s gaze was on him, and her green eyes had to be the most beautiful he’d ever seen. They were so expressive, giving him a glimpse of the pain inside her.
“No.”
“How long have you been expelled from your pack?” he asked. The longer they’d been outside of a pack, the higher risk of their being feral, and he liked to guard his pack from any potential threats.
“A week.”
“That’s not long at all.”
“I didn’t want to risk going feral and being killed. I have no wish to die.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-three, sir.”
Being forty years old, Abel stared at the young woman, noticing her abundant curves. All of his pack had something wrong with them, or something their previous pack had deemed wrong.
Jessica’s eyes were different colors, and Carl had the ability to heal. There was even someone who didn’t like group sex and seeing as their pack was all over that, they’d expelled him. So many different reasons, but within his own pack, Abel had brought them together as a family.
“Why did they expel you?” he asked.
“I’m too fat,” she said.
Abel tilted his head to the side to stare at her. She said the words as if they didn’t have any meaning to her, and yet the moment she said “fat,” he felt his wolf rise up as if to protect her. Her sadness affected him deeply, and he didn’t like that.
She was a new woman, and each woman had to go through the same rigorous testing as the others. He didn’t play favorites.
“I need to know if you can take care of yourself,” he said. “It’s part of my rules. You must stay here for over a month, even two, as you’ve already missed the last full moon. I don’t like getting into conflict with other packs because one of my men or women has gone feral.” He hated having to deal with other pack alphas and the way they looked at him as if he was the reason everything had gone fucked-up in the world.
“What do I do?” Cassie said.
“It’s simple. Attack me.”
She rubbed her arms, and he waited as she shook her head.
“No.”
“I demand my pack be fit for war in case it ever arises between packs. We’re expelled because they deem us weak. We may be weak, but I want to know my men and my women can fight for themselves and for the pack. You will attack me.” He stood there waiting. Normally, his demands were always met, so when she still shook her head, he was pissed. He didn’t want to deal with this right now.
His pack was watching, so he stormed up toward her, and she didn’t take a step back.
“You will fight me.”
She gritted her teeth and shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Do you think you’re too special to fight? That you’ve got a fucking gift? Wise up, woman. You got kicked out of your pack, and you will follow my rules, or your ass is on the feral line. Now, fight.” He didn’t like to hit women, but in order to be prepared and ready, he needed them to be able to fight. He would never have a person too weak to defend themselves, and even if they were unable to fight, he found ways for them to defend themselves long enough to get away. He had no wish to hurt a woman, but he would make them stronger.
He watched as Jessica urged her forward, and when he had finally had enough, with her back toward him, he moved toward her.
This was the first time he’d done this, but his wolf was pacing at the surface, and he had to prove to her the value of her actions. As he was about to shove her, and not very hard either, Cassie suddenly spun and caught his arm.
The moment she touched him, pleasure rushed through every single part of his body. Everyone in his gym fell away, and the only two that mattered were him and her. He didn’t even know if Jessica was there.
“Don’t … touch … me,” Cassie said.
He felt the power within her touch, and even his own wolf was shocked by the sheer force of it. He was an alpha.
Abel didn’t submit.
It was one of the many reasons he’d left his pack.
Whenever his alpha asked him to submit, he couldn’t do it.
He’d tried for so long, often fought with himself, but he couldn’t do it. Kneeling before an alpha was something he couldn’t do for anyone.