Marked by the Alphas

Chapter 71: Chapter 71

Katie POV

My breath hitches in my throat when I look at the three men. When the strangers look at me, their eyes darken and flash with their wolves.

Who the hell are they, and why are they fighting with Mason?

The strangers’ fists flex as their claws shoot from their fingertips. They are about to shift.

My breathing becomes shallow, and fear clenches my heart. Are they here to attack me and Stella? I held Stella closer, shielding her face and ears from the wind that had picked up.

The two shifters are flexing their wolves and advancing towards me. Oh, shit, they are here for me. I must run; I must protect Stella. I cannot fight them while holding her.

“That will never happen,” Lily paws at me persistently. “You can trust them.”

“you’re just horny for every big bad wolf that crosses your path these days,” I argue. She has been this way with Mason, too.

However, my fear subsides as they come closer, and I cannot shake the feeling of familiarity. I look at them intensely, and it strikes me that the strangers look a lot like the men of my vision at the gathering.

I look from Mason to the men, and gasp softly. Not only do they look like my vision, but they look like Mason. Those three can be triplets. They look so much alike, it is uncanny. We covered the doppelganger with me and Elara, but these three? What the fuck? Is there a cloning factory close by or something? This is weird.

“That’s close enough,” Mason warns, stepping between me and the strangers.

“Who is she?” the bigger shifter asks.

“She’s not your concern,” Mason snarls.

“My name is Katie,” I say quietly, stepping out from Mason’s back.

“What are you doing?” Mason hisses, swinging around and looking at me with shock and irritation. I love that he is protective towards me and Stella, but the fact is, I am a single mother and must learn to fight for myself and my daughter.

“Standing my ground,” I reply, pushing my hair away that the wind keeps blowing in my face.

“Looks like she wants to get to know us after all,” the other shifter says.

Another rumbling growl tears through Mason’s chest, and his claws extend. The three men stand in a face-off, their bodies humming with anticipation. freeweɓnovel.cøm

“Hey, that’s enough!” Hank, the café owner, runs towards us and stands between them, facing the two strangers. Hank is normally friendly and smiling, but right now, there is nothing pleasant in his demeanour.

“This isn’t how we do things in Stillwood. We don’t pick fights in the street.” His voice is even but dripping with anger.

“And you.” Hank turns to Mason. “You should know better than to engage with assholes like this.”

“Excuse me?” One of the men snarls. “I’m Kane Constantine, and this is Axel. We are ...”

“The Alphas, we’re all well aware of that,” Hank cuts him off bitterly. “Which makes your behaviour even worse. You’d never tolerate a couple of strangers coming into your pack land and behaving like idiots.”

Alphas, huh? So, these guys are a big deal.

“Finally,” Mason sighs, fixing his hair when the wind calms down.

Kane and Axel share a dark look, and for a moment, it seems like they are not going to back down, but then they close their eyes, and their claws retract.

“Sorry for the disturbance,” Axel apologises, but he does not look sorry at all.

“We’ll be on our way,” Kane says, looking at me, and my breath catches in my throat. “But not without Katie.”

Mason POV

“Over my dead body,” I roar.

“Mason,” Hank warns with a growl. “That’s enough.” freewebnøvel.com

“They will not take her!” I protest.

Kane and Axel’s wolves retreat, but mine is not going anywhere. And neither is Katie, especially not with these two assholes.

She and Stella will not leave my sight. Not with Kane in town. The way they are looking at Katie ... it is like they want to devour her. I know I cannot trust them. Not with someone as precious as her.

From the second I laid eyes on her at the regional gathering, I knew there was something different about her. It was a shock how much she looks like Elara, but that is not why I am attracted to her. I cannot lay my finger on it, but her scent is intoxicating. My wolf wanted her, too. He would not leave me alone, practically begging me to get closer, to stay with her when she needed me.

But he does not need to beg. I need to be near Katie all the time. So I can protect her. I also want to claim her, kiss her, touch her, but I do not dare push it. I want her to want me as much as I want her before I touch her.

I am not going to repeat what happened between me and Alice. I had already lost her to Kane and Axel, but even I had to admit it was not totally their fault. Alice was playing with me, twisting my emotions to get what she wanted. I told her I loved her, then made the mistake of confiding the biggest secret of my life: I was Orion’s son. At the time, I thought she would realise I was as much an Alpha as Kane and Axel, and that she would finally leave him and Axel for good. But she did not.

She already confronted Orion about who I was. There I was, thinking I had confessed my deepest secret to her, but she already knew. I stupidly convinced myself that it was complicated, that she kept seeing me because she loved me. But the truth was, Alice just wanted to be Luna. She wanted to be the mother of the next Alpha. She was covering all her bases by fucking me and the twins. She never really loved me, even though my love for her was so real it nearly drove me mad.

I did not think that kind of love was possible again, not so soon after Alice, but then I saw Katie.

“She’s not going with any of you,” Hank growls, pointing towards me, Kane and Axel. “She’s not a possession. And until you three testosterone-filled assholes can sort out your shit, none of you will see her.”

“Katie and I ...”

“I said nobody,” Hank cuts me off. “You three will meet me this afternoon at my house, and then we’ll sort this out, understand?”

“Agreed,” Kane nods, looks intensely at Katie before he turns around and walks away with Axel.

“Are you okay with that?” I ask, turning to Katie.

“Yes,” she nods. “Hank is right. You need to work this out with ... whoever they are.”

“My brothers,” I admit.

“Interesting,” she nods. “Good luck.”

She smiles at me, turns around and leaves. An all-consuming warmth blooms in my chest and travels through my body as I watch her walk away.

Hell, no way are these arrogant bastards going to take that away from me ... not again.