McKenna POV.
I couldn’t stop my leg from shaking. I was terrified. All I could think of was all of the times that Blake had called me in. my only experience with Alpha’s was Blake, not exactly a confidence booster. Syn glanced at me from the driver’s seat. He looked worried. I can’t say I blame him. I probably look like a fucking corpse. He pulled up outside a fairly large, but unobtrusive house with a really nice garden. I felt a hand rest on my knee. I looked across at Syn, who smiled reassuringly at me.
“Mac, chill. Our Alpha is nothing like Blake. He’s a good man.” He tucked a stray strand of my fringe behind my ear and whispered. “He won’t hurt you.” His hand was resting gently on my neck, just over my racing pulse. I bit my lip and nodded. He smiled at me again and got out of the car. I followed him up the drive slowly. He took my shaking hand and knocked on the door. Inside, I could hear footsteps gradually getting louder. Syn quickly glanced at me and squeezed my hand, letting go of it as the door opened. The middle-aged woman who answered the door had the tiered and hassled look of housewives worldwide. Except, of course, that she was a werewolf. She smiled as she realised that it was Syn at the door.
“Brian! It’s been too long.” She exclaimed, hugging him. He laughed.
“It’s always nice to see you Karen.” She released him and took a step back. Her warm brown eyes flicked to me.
“Is this her?” Syn nodded. “Then come on in.” She stepped to one side, letting us in.
“Karen, this is McKenna Jenson. Mac, this is Karen.” I smiled nervously at her. She smiled kindly back at me.
“Nice to meet you.” I greeted nervously.
“It’s nice to meet you too dear.” She looked at Syn. “He’s waiting for the pair of you in his study.” Syn nodded and headed off further into the house. I followed close behind him. My nerves went up several gears. Syn stopped outside a large oak door and looked at me.
“You ready?” I nodded.
“Just knock already.” He did. A deep voice came from inside.
“Who is it?”
“Brian and McKenna.”
“Come in.” Syn pushed the door open to reveal a man who was probably a few years older than Karen sat at a desk, leafing through a pile of papers. He looked at and smiled warmly at the pair of us. I only just prevented myself from doing a double take. He looked so like Matt it was unbelievable.
“Brian, it’s wonderful to see you.” He greeted, rising from his chair.
“Alpha Sanders.” Replied Syn. I glanced sharply at him. Was this guy related to Matt? He ignored me.
“How many times must I ask you to call me Greg?” He scolded, smiling at him. Syn laughed. “And you must be McKenna.” I forced myself to smile back at him and shake his hand.
“I am. Nice to meet you sir.” He let go of my hand, waving his in the air.
“None of that, none of that! Call me Greg.” I nodded jerkily. “Take a seat, both of you.” He indicated at the two chairs in front of his desk. We both sat. Syn relaxed instantly, crossing his legs man style. I couldn’t relax. I sat upright in my chair and forced my leg not to shake. “Obviously, I have several reasons for you to be here today. First of all, I wanted to meet you, McKenna, and see how you’re settling in with Brian and the others.” I smiled genuinely.
“I’m doing ok. All of the guys have been absolutely amazing. I’ve made really good friends with them all.” Greg nodded happily.
“Good, good. I’m glad that you’ve adapted fairly quickly.” He hesitated, as if he was searching for the right words to continue. “I was talking to Matt earlier on this week, and he raised some … concerns about the agreement that your former Alpha and I have.” I froze. What? “He told me your story.” I closed my eyes. It took all of my strength not to start shaking again.
“Mac, you alright sweetheart?” I could hear the concern in Syn’s voice. I opened my eyes and nodded, trying not to notice the sympathetic looks that both men were sending me.
“Sorry. Please carry on Alp…Greg.” He paused, as if assessing me, before continuing.
“I understand that this is a difficult situation for me to put you in, McKenna, however, I need to hear the story from you.” He held up a hand, stalling Syn’s objections. “I wouldn’t do this unless it was absolutely necessary, Brian. I can see how much it affects McKenna. But you have to understand that I am now seriously concerned about the implications that this agreement between Blake Jenson and myself will have on the pack.” I reached over and put my hand on Syn’s arm. I felt his muscles start to relax under my touch.
“It’s ok Syn.” I looked away from him and locked my attention firmly on Greg. “Where would you like me to start?” I could tell that my question surprised him, but he quickly regained his calm demeanour.
“Wherever you consider to be the beginning would probably be best.” I nodded and began to take my hand off Syn’s arm, only for him to twine his fingers through mine. I smiled gratefully at him.
“Ok. I don’t know how much Blake told you about me, but I never knew my father. My mom never told me much about him, to be honest I don’t think she knew anything about him either, other than he wasn’t a were or human. I lived with mom in Kowrowa until I was five. She was killed in a car wreck during a cyclone. My Gran took me in after then. Mom’s house was sold and I moved out to Gran’s ranch. She taught me how to break horses and train dogs. She home-schooled me until I was 11 and she put me into the local secondary. She died of a heart attack when I was twelve. She’d never made a will, so the pack took over my care. They sold all of her horses and the ranch. I was passed from relative to relative. My Gran’s friend ran a local dojo and taught me Aikido and a couple of other forms of martial arts since I was about nine. Blake knew that and decided that I could be of use to him. He’s always looking for ways to get money. He’ll claim that it’s for the pack, but the pack will very rarely see any of it. Queensland has quite a large underground were-fighting circuit. Blake had been putting his wolves into fights for years. He took my experience and expanded it slightly, then he began putting me into beginners fights. I did alright. As I got older and stronger, I got a lot better. He pulled me out of high school, told the authorities that I was being home schooled. I wasn’t. He had all of his best fighters train me. Before long I was his best fighter. I was fighting twice a week. I hated it, but I knew nothing else.” I paused, the next part was so hard for me even to think about. But, I couldn’t lie to Greg. Lying to your new Alpha is not a good way to start a relationship “Then I met Mark.” I could feel Syn’s gaze on me. Maybe this would explain a few things to him too. “He was from a neighbouring pack. He was the first guy, the first wolf, that was nice to me. That actually wanted to get to know me. He made realise that what Blake was making me do wasn’t right. It wasn’t what a good Alpha would do. He changed the way that I saw the world. Slowly I began to rebel against Blake. I’d skip out of training sessions, show up late to fights. Blake knew that he was losing control. So he kidnapped both of us after a date. He had his sons beat Mark to within an inch of his life, in front of me. Then, when he was barely conscious, he put a gun in my hand and made me pull the trigger.” By now tears were flowing freely down my cheeks. Syn had a death grip on my hand. This was what I couldn’t tell the guys before. How could you tell anyone that you were a murderer at the age of fifteen? “It was after that, that I attempted suicide by self-harm. I just couldn’t…” Greg held up a hand.
“I think that we both understand your motivations McKenna. May I?” He held his hand out. I nodded and stood. I passed him both of my wrists. The scars extended from my palm up to my elbow on both of my arms. Greg gently ran his fingers over them, as if he were unable to believe what he was seeing. “How old were you McKenna?”
“I was fifteen.” He took that in for a few minutes before releasing my wrists.
“Please, continue.” I nodded and took a deep breath, forcing myself to carry on with the horror story that was my life. Syn took hold of my hand again. That helped.
“Obviously, they found me in time. Then things got a whole lot worse. Blake started using me as his assassin. He’s made a lot of enemies. And none of them expect a sixteen year old to have a 9mm Berretta hand pistol in their back pocket.” I paused again. There were some things that I just couldn’t tell Greg. New Alpha or not. Things had happened to me that I wasn’t ready to talk about. I didn’t know if I ever would be able to face them. “That part of my life in the pack was living hell. I didn’t even know who I was. Eventually he realised that I couldn’t be his best fighter and assassin. He chose fighter. I still rebelled against him. He was so angry as he realised that nothing he had done to me had given him the control over me that he wanted. He broke two of my ribs and my collarbone in front of the whole pack. Nothing, no-one, could stop him. Not that anyone tried. Not even my own family. Two weeks after that, even though I wasn’t fully healed, he put me into a fight with a werebear. I almost died. The scars down my back are a result of that fight.” Greg stopped me.
“Could you describe these scars for me? For obvious reasons, I won’t ask you to show them to me.”
“They run from my left shoulder diagonally down to my right hip.” I touched the spots on my back to show him how big they were. “They never healed over properly, probably because Blake didn’t let them heal fully before throwing me back in the ring. After that particular decision I began to try and break my way out of the circuit. To try and resume a normal life. I began to deliberately lose some of my fights. Not enough to make him suspicious. Things started to go to plan. Gradually I increased the number of fights I lost. Eventually he figured out what I was doing. His answer to my ‘insubordination’ was to only enter me in fights that went to the death. I was still fighting death fights when my Aunt and Uncle broke the news to me that I was to move to this pack and marry Syn.” Both Syn and Greg were silent. They remained silent for a while until Greg spoke.
“Thank you, McKenna. I didn’t fully appreciate before how hard it is for you to relive some of the events that you have experienced. You have suffered unthinkable cruelty at the hands of the people that should have been there to protect you. To have survived, as you have, is amazing enough, but you manage to live a normal life, to feel happiness and love. That is nothing short of a miracle.” I smiled through the last of my tears. “I want you to know, McKenna, that despite what I decide about my agreement with Blake, I will never send you back to your old pack. Your place is in my pack now.” I choked back fresh tears. I didn’t have the words to speak. Syn’s grip on my hand tightened, if that was remotely possible. He smiled gently at me as he got to his feet. In several, quick strides he reached the door.
“Karen?” He called, as he opened the door. Within a few seconds she appeared. “Darling, could you take McKenna to the kitchen and get her a coffee please? Or perhaps something a bit stronger.” I wriggled my fingers out of Syn’s killer grip, smiling at him. He smiled back weakly as I walked to the door.
“Alpha Sanders?” I called weakly. He turned to look at me.
“Yes McKenna?”
“I don’t know what type of agreement you made with Blake, but whatever it is, you can’t trust him as far as you can spit. If this agreement is anything like his previous agreements with other packs then he won’t abide by it. All he cares about is the power that having international allies gives him among the Australian Packs. If you were on fire and he had a glass of water, he’d drink it.” And with that, I followed Karen out of the study and down the hallway.

~*~

Syn POV.
Greg closed the door quietly behind Mac. I was in so much shock that I actually felt numb. How the hell could an Alpha put a kid through that? I was vaguely aware of Greg opening one of his cabinets behind me. Glass clinked. He pushed a glass of whiskey into my hand. He had one of his own and the open bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand. He set the bottle on the desk and swallowed his whiskey in one go. It didn’t take me long to do the same. He sank into his chair and poured us both another. We sat in silence for a while. Greg with his head in his hands, me staring at mine. Eventually Greg stirred.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know how ghastly her past really was.” I waved his apology off.
“Neither did i.”
“I was going to talk to the pair of you about your wedding today, but that will have to wait for another day.” I looked up sharply.
“You still want that to go ahead?” He nodded.
“It was agreed in a separate agreement. Also it will help to cement her place within the pack. And I don’t need to remind you of the benefits of having fresh blood in our pack.” He was referring to a pack further up in California that had refused to let its members mate with anyone from another pack. As a result, they had become inbred and very strange.
“Fair enough.”
“I need some time to consider what to do about my other agreement with Blake, and any actions that we might take. Until I make my decisions, I want you to concentrate on your relationship with McKenna. You two are obviously close, but in order for this to work, you need to become closer. I understand from Matt that you have been sleeping on a sofa bed in Zacky’s room while McKenna settles in.” I nodded. “You two need to get used to sharing a room together. I want you to move back into your own room.” I nodded again, I’d guessed that something like this might happen sooner or later. “Ok, I’d better let the pair of you go. I know how busy the life of a rock star can be.” We both smiled and got to our feet. “Oh and Brian.” I turned.
“Yes?”
“It wasn’t my idea for you to return to your own room.” Again, I nodded.
“I understand Greg.”
“Good. I’ll see you both at the full moon.”