Page 35 of Alpha Gray

I snap into the mind-link to alert the others.

‘Stay put, Fallon,’ Brock orders, and he puts so much alpha command behind his voice that I couldn’t move if I tried. That’s when I see it- a flash of movement out in the clearing. A wolf. Larger than a wild wolf, so it’s definitely a shifter. He’s scented me, too, and he’s looking in my direction.

‘I see him’, I call through the mind-link, and Casey is quick to respond.

‘On it!’ she replies, and I see her wolf bound into the clearing. The other wolf snaps around to look at her, turns tail, and runs. Casey gives chase, but there’s too much distance between the two- he disappears into the trees on the other side of the clearing. She follows, paws pounding the earth.

Brock snaps to Vienna to join me, then his huge wolf bounds out into the clearing after Casey, stopping to sniff the air.

Vienna trots over to me and we both look nervously to Brock, waiting.

‘I lost him,’ comes Casey’s voice through the mind link. ‘Damnit!’

‘Come back,’ Brock orders, and a minute later, I see Casey’s wolf slinking through the trees on the other side of the clearing. She and Brock make their way over to Vienna and I, and once they’re under the cover of the trees on our side, Brock lets us know that he’s already called for backup and leads the way back to the path.

We all shift and begin to put our clothes back on, the tension in the air hanging thick. A huge black wolf comes bounding up the path just as I’m pulling my t-shirt over my head and for a second, I freeze. I’m still so on edge that it doesn’t immediately register that he’s coming from the direction of the squad complex; this is clearly friend, not foe.

The air around the black wolf shimmers as he shifts, and I then see Gray’s muscular body crouching in his place. I’ve never seen Gray’s wolf before, but I’m struck by how beautiful he is. A beautiful wolf for a beautiful man. Brock’s already pulled his boxers on, but he tosses his gym shorts to a naked Gray. He slides them on so quickly that I can’t even really catch a proper glance at his manhood.Damn.

Our eyes meet, only for a moment, then Gray stalks over to Casey and Brock. The three of them take a few steps away from Vienna and me, speaking in hushed voices.

“He definitely wasn’t one of ours,” I hear Casey say.

“Could just be a rogue,” Brock adds.

“We can’t be too careful. We need to put a track on him.” Gray’s voice sounds pinched, like his throat is tight. Fear begins to creep in as I realize how seriously they’re taking the threat- and how much danger all of us could be in.

Gray

When I received word of the threat on the border, I shifted and ran out to meet Brock as fast as my paws could carry me. We haven’t had a border breach in a long time- and my thoughts immediately drift to the worst-case scenario. What if the shadow pack has found us? Are we prepared to go up against them this time? My anxiety is twisting my stomach into knots and making me feel physically ill.

“I’ve called up for Leo and Adrian to come out to track him,” I tell Brock and Casey, my voice low. Fallon and Vienna are nearby, and I’d rather leave them out of this. They’re just trainees and this is a real, tangible threat that the seasoned squad members need to deal with. Leo and Adrian are our best trackers, so if the other wolf is still out there, they’ll find him.

“Smelled like a rogue,” Casey grumbles. It’s obvious she’s a little sour that the guy got away from her.

Rogues are shifters without a pack. Our kind doesn’t do well in solidarity, and you can often tell a rogue from the way they smell. They have a foul odor, like meat that’s gone bad. Probably because most shifters that wind up as rogues have gone bad, too.

“I’d rather be sure,” I say, glancing sideways at Vienna and Fallon. Their eyes are thrown wide and I can smell the fear coming off of the two girls. Seeing the fear in Fallon’s eyes fucking guts me. Every instinct inside of me is screaming for me to go to her, to help her, to protect her.

Fuck. What are the odds that a rogue just wandered onto our territory? We haven’t seen one out this way in months. According to our IT unit, the shadow pack is still west of us, unless they missed something…fuck, I hope they didn’t miss something.

“You two head back,” I snap to the recruits, and Fallon flinches a little at my tone. My wolf whines in response, wanting to go to her, soothe her. I can’t. There’s work to be done.

“Yes, sir,” Vienna chips, turning to start down the path.

Fallon just stares at me for a long moment, a strange connection stretching between us.

Before I even decide to, my feet carry me toward her. I reach out to touch her arm and the now-familiar sparks warm me when our skin makes contact.

“Are you okay?” I murmur.

Fallon just looks up at me with her big blue eyes, biting her bottom lip. I can sense how scared she is; I feel the apprehension rolling off of her in waves. She nods quickly.

I drop my voice low so only she can hear me as I stroke her arm with my fingertips reassuringly. “You’re safe, baby, we have this handled. Go back and try to get some sleep.” My urge to soothe her is so strong.

Fallon nods her head again. “Okay.” Her voice comes out in a little squeak, but her shoulders relax slightly. I wrap my hand around her arm, give it a gentle squeeze, then force myself to withdraw my touch and turn away.

I hear Fallon’s footsteps retreating and steal a backwards glance to see that she’s joined up with Vienna and they’re hustling down the path to the complex.

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