Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by his Brother

Luis might shy away from trying again if I created a ruckus about his little improvements, he might not want to try again.

"Right?!" I said instead, throwing my hands up. "And it just gets better, bro. Hold onto your nonexistent popcorn."

I inhaled deeply, the air tasting damp and musty, like mildew, had invited all its stinky cousins over for a family reunion.

I shook my head, forcing myself to focus through the exhaustion weighing down my limbs.

"The bodies, Luis," I said, voice going low. "There were bodies. Boys. Young. Barely older than nineteen and twenty."

A shiver rippled through me. My fists clenched against my thighs.

"Dead," I said hollowly. "Their heads..." I broke off as my throat went tight, then pushed through. "Gone. Just...gone. Like something tore them clean off."

The memory flickered to life behind my eyes: twisted bodies crumpled in the mud, their faces gone, blood soaking into the earth like grotesque flowers.

I rubbed my face again, feeling the stubble scrape against my palms.

"And it wasn’t clean, either," I muttered. "It wasn’t surgical. It was savage. Like whatever did it wasn’t just trying to kill—they were trying to send a message."

Luis’s eyes remained glassy, but something in the room shifted. Maybe just my own paranoia ratcheting up another notch.