Alpha Alexandre Brutus's Point of View

"Are you coming or not" I said with faux calmness and happiness. In reality, my heart was beating a mile a minute. I had just used up every ounce of my self control to pull away from her. She was a vixen and a pain in the *ss but I couldn't help but like her. Her strength, her determination, her sweet innocence. And her eyes, those orbs that others might consider unsettling made my chest tighten with emotion. Good emotion. Happy emotion.

But she wanted to torture me by denying me what is technically mine, so I'm going to torture her...and myself at the time.

"But..." She whispered quietly to herself. I could tell she was short of breath. Good.

"Shut it" She growled to herself and then I heard her footsteps following me. I noticed that she had a tendency to talk to herself, or her panther, out loud.

Since no one was in the kitchen or living room, I headed straight outside. I found the group members in the final steps of transition, except for Nate.

"I thought you were in a hurry?" I asked him, allowing some of my bitter frustration to seethe into the comment. He glared at me then turned to Terri. Of course she went straight to him to coddle him. They began to converse quietly and although I could eavesdrop, I decided not to. No need to lose my temper, she hates when I do that.

I began to strip down to my boxers so I could shift. I callously threw them to the side and shifted quickly, destroying my boxers in the process. I looked up to find that Terri and Nate had finished their little pow-wow and Terri was standing rigidly, mind obviously elsewhere. But suddenly, a decisive expression over came her face and she quickly ripped her shirt off to reveal a plain black bra. Of course she looked amazing in the C-cup garment, and I instantly realized she was exposing herself in front of other males. A guttural growl ripped from my body and she turned to me.

"What? I'm not losing my clothes" was her only response.

See? Vixen.

She quickly removed her pants to reveal matching black underwear and I almost lost my sh*t. The urge to cover her in a burlap bag so that no one else would be interested in her was so overwhelming. She closed her eyes and seemed as if she was really focusing on something.

"I wish she would see me as someone other than the 'other twin'. I could be perfect for her. And the things I would do to her body" Brett's thoughts filtered into my head.

The temper I had been doing a great job of controlling snapped instantaneously. I moved like lightening and plowed through his wolf like he was a piece of paper. He whined as his body slammed against the ground twenty feet from me.

"What did you just say?" I snarled in my head. He came to his senses and hopped up, staring me defiantly in the eyes but still lowering his body in submission to my Alpha status.

"Nothing" he replied.

"That will never happen again" I ordered in my Alpha tone. I turned to see Nate standing as a huge bear next to Terri. "Let's go Winnie the Pooh, lead the way" I thought to Nate and ran side by side with him when he took off to the south. I shut out everyone but Nate, and only because I wanted him to be able to communicate with me if he sensed the rogue girl.

"I'm surprised..." Nate thought, trailing off.

I mentally rolled my eyes, "Why? You know I have anger management issues, that shouldn't have surprised you" I responded heatedly.

"Actually, I'm surprised you didn't kill him. I would have if he had thought that about my mate" Nate stated matter-of-factly.

I stopped running and looked at him. Or tried to. He ran past me a few feet then turned back to me, but he was so massive I had to crane my wolf neck up to meet his eyes.

"You're saying I should have killed one of my own pack mates?" I thought.

"No, I'm saying that with the short temper that comes with being a wolf, especially an Alpha wolf, you could have punished him far worse than that and no one would have thought it unnecessary. I used to be so good at controlling my anger, but now that I've shifted, I can't control anything. And no offense, but you have a bad temper even for an Alpha. I think it's good that you're learning control for her" he finished.

"She's my mate, I want her to like me. To want to be with me" I thought with honestly.

"Good. Because if you mess up and hurt her I'll be there to knock sense into you" the threat was obvious in his tone and yet, instead of taking it with anger, I felt myself a little pleased that he cares for her well being so much. It was nice to know that I wouldn't be the only one trying to keep her safe. But I couldn't let him now that.

"Don't threaten me cub, I take care of my own" I growled lightly. By then, Sophie and Jason caught up to us, followed a little while later by Brett, Sienna, and William. Terri brought up the rear and I could tell she was panicking about something. I could feel her confusion and discomfort.

"Take off" I told Nate and he nodded his large head, soon speeding off in the direction we had been heading. I fell back and aligned myself with Terri in the back. In order to make things more private, I closed our link off to only the two of us.

"What's wrong?" I thought, trying to express my concern.

"I-Nothing" she thought with a shake of her head.

"Don't lie to me" I persisted.

"I said nothing!" she yelled mentally, but on the outside she made a loud, cat cry that caught me off guard because of the unusual sound.

"Fine. Suffer alone" I growled mentally and sped up to the front of the group.

When I was side by side with Nate, I realized he was heading toward a thick cluster of trees that had a cliff side towering behind it. He sprinted completely through the shrubbery and we all followed suit. The view that spread before me caught me off guard.

Nate, who had barreled through a few seconds before me was on top of a wolf I had never seen before. He was slashing and ripping away at the dog without mercy. To my right was a girl laying on the ground with chains running from her hands and feet and a collar that had massive spikes inside of it. I had heard of collars like that. If you shifted, the spikes would be shoved into your neck from all sides when your body expanded. She was crying and pleading for help, but before I could take a step to her I was side swiped by another wolf. Only.... it wasn't a wolf, it was a hyena. He was snapping at my face but I clawed his underbelly with my rear claws and rolled away. I hopped to my feet and quickly scanned the area to find at least a dozen hyena's attacking our group. Three were attacking Nate alone. Terri had two but she seemed to be handling her own as she pinned and killed one that tried to attack her. I turned my attention back to the one in front of me and charged him. It was easy to pin him and rip his throat out, but by the time I did, another one had jumped me from behind. The fighting seemed to go on forever until I killed one and another failed to attack me. I looked in the direction of where the girl had been, but she was gone. Just as I turned to check on Terri, I heard a massive roar, almost lionesque, and then an angry hiss and cry that made my heart hurt. I felt immense pain in my side as I quickly searched for Terri for reassurance that she was ok.

Except she wasn't ok.

A lion twice my size had his jaws clamped onto her side just below her ribs. She hissed again and brought her head up to clamp her teeth onto the lions shoulder, which caused him to rip away from her. A pained scream rang through the air as the lion took a large chunk out of her side. All this took place in the split second it took me to reach the two of them and jump on the wounded lion. He never saw me coming and I went straight for his neck, biting deep into his jugular. I used my momentum to rip his neck sideways, effectively breaking his neck and destroying his jugular I simultaneously. I dropped his body and whipped my head to see Terri laying on the ground in human form. Nate was human and kneeling by her side, holding his hands over her side. Blood seeped through his fingers and her body was covered in it. She was looking straight at me, her left hand weakly reaching out I my direction. I sprinted to her, shifting as I did. I fell to me knees by her shoulder and looked in her eyes. They were panicked and I could tell she was having a hard time focusing on me. She was coughing and sputtering, her teeth dyed red with the blood she was coughing up.

I was trying to contain my panic but my heart was pounding so hard I couldn't hear anything. I tried to calm down, taking deep breaths. I began to hear muffled voices.

".... happened?!" Sophie screamed.

"Alex! Alex focus!" Nate was still applying pressure to her wound but he was facing me yelling.

I realized that the whole time I had been mumbling "no, no, no". I shut my mouth and reached out to touch her face with shaking hands.

"N-n-n- de-de-d-g" she mumbled quietly looking at me intently. She touched my face with her bloody hand and I almost lost my composure. Her eyes kept drooping shut but she was fighting to stay awake.

"Alex!" I finally broke eye contact with her and look at Nate.

"What?" I growled, hearing the raw emotion in my voice.

"Her wound is deep, she needs to sleep so she won't be in pain" he told me.

I nodded and turned back to her. "Don't fight it. Go to sleep. Please" I said quietly grabbing her face with both of my hands. Her face was cold and clammy and she was shaking gently. Her eyes dropped one last time and she let them stay closed.