Page 32 of The Billionaire Alpha's Surprise Baby

I release my sister, and she slides down the wall, landing on all fours as she heaves to fill her lungs. I give her a moment to collect herself, but when she looks up with that familiar defiant expression, something inside me snaps.

“Hyacinthe,” I growl, throwing the alpha command into my voice to force my sister to answer. “What did you do to Ava?”

“N-nothing,” she rasps, clutching her throat. She drags in an unsteady breath, bent double as she tries to fill her lungs. “I asked Robert — to take her. I thought you’d be grateful that I cleaned up your mess.”

At those words, cold unbridled terror seeps into my stomach, and my wolf snarls inside me. “What do you mean —”

But I already know.

Robert has worked for our family since he was a teenager. He’s been in love with my sister for as long as I can remember, and he’d do anything for her.

Panic rises in my chest, making it hard to draw a full breath.

Here’s the thing about owning an oil empire: You don’t get to be a multibillion-dollar corporation without doing some pretty awful shit. The trick to surviving as long as my family has is to never get your hands dirty.

That’s why my family employs people like Robert.

A furious howl rips through me as I grab my sister’s wine bottle off the night stand and hurl it against the wall. It hits her vanity mirror in a spray of red, and the glass shatters in a million pieces.

“I’ll deal with you later,” I spit, staring down at my sister in disgust.

There’s no time to deliver her punishment now. Robert has Ava.

If he’s harmed one hair on my beloved’s head, I’ll fucking kill him and my sister.

I don’t bother moving at normal human speed as I fly down the stairs and into the garage. I can’t take the Roadster for this. I need something fast.

I jump into the front seat of the Bugatti and push to start the ignition. I barely remember to raise the garage door before throwing the car in reverse and sliding out onto the road.

I bring the phone to my ear as I press down on the gas. Robert’s cell goes straight to voicemail.

“Fuck!”

I figured Hyacinthe would have told him not to take my call, but I’d hoped I was wrong. Alpha command doesn’t always work perfectly over the phone, but it would’ve worked on a spineless leech like Robert.

By shifter or human standards, Robert is a beta. His singular value to the Von Horton clan is his willingness to do the unthinkable and keep his mouth shut.

I start praying to every known entity as I dial Ava’s number, blowing through a two-way stop without even bothering to check for traffic.

By some miracle, my mate picks up, and I feel my heart soar with relief.

“Ava!”

She’s alive.

“Hey,” she says, her tone upbeat if a bit shifty, as if there’s something she doesn’t want to tell me. “I’m sorry I left. But I spoke to your sister, and I really think we need to talk.”

My heart thuds against my ribs. What the fuck did Hyacinthe tell her? I can’t think about that now.

“It’s okay, angel. I just need you to listen. Robert is going to kill you.”

“What?”

I know my sister’s puppet is picking up every word with his super shifter hearing, which means I don’t have much time.

“Where are you?”

“W-we’re passing Larimer Square,” Ava stammers, sounding terrified and confused.

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