Page 76 of Alpha Brock

I wince as the needle pokes into my skin and she depresses the syringe to inject me with whatever’s inside. As she does, it feels like fire is shooting straight from the needle into my veins, and I suddenly know exactly what it is that she’s injected me with: wolfsbane. She’s using it to keep me weak and keep my wolf at bay. Butwhy?

Once all of the liquid has been expressed from the syringe and into my arm, she pulls it out roughly. A bead of red blood rises from the spot where the needle penetrated my skin, and I watch it for a moment before turning my attention back to the girl crouching in front of me. “It’s your lucky day, sweetheart,” she drawls when our eyes meet, flashing me two rows of straight, white teeth as her lips pull into a menacing smile. “Our Alpha’s on his way here to meet you.”

I peel my dry lips apart, swallowing past the rawness in my throat to form words. “Your… who?” I manage, blinking up at her. I try to wet my lips with my tongue, but it’s just as dry as they are.

She throws her head back, letting out a cruel laugh as she rises to her feet in front of me. “Are you fucking stupid or something?”

“Please…” I croak, reaching out for her, brushing her leg with my fingertips.

It’s a mistake for me to think that this girl may have even an ounce of kindness within her. She recoils from my touch, winding back the same leg that I touched and kicking it forward, her big black combat boot connecting with my ribs.

I cry out, falling sideways as pain radiates out from my ribs. She kicked me with enough force to crack them, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she did; that’s how much it hurts.

“Leave her alone, Kara,” comes another voice- a man’s voice this time. My face is pressed against the concrete floor, but I see a pair of brown workboots approach, stopping beside the black combat boots of the mean girl, who is evidently called Kara. A bottle of water hits the floor in front of me, rolling right into my face.

I reach for it eagerly with my bound hands, struggling to sit up again.

“I was just playing with her a little,” Kara snickers.

“Yeah? Well, Alpha won’t be happy if you break his new toy before he has a chance to play with her himself,” the guy replies.

My eyes drift up to him- he looks like he’s in his early twenties, casually attired in jeans and a thermal and sporting shaggy brown hair and a scruffy beard. For a moment I think his eyes look kind, but they narrow on me, his expression cold.

“Drink up, sweetheart,” he says, gesturing to the water bottle in my hands with a nod of his head.

“You’re no fun, Jake,” Kara pouts, folding her arms across her chest.

He says something back to her, but I don’t hear it- I’m too busy trying to get the top off of the water bottle. It isn’t easy with my hands tied together, but I manage it, bringing the bottle to my lips. I almost sigh in delight as the water hits my lips and throat, and I suck down the whole bottle in quick, greedy gulps, before they can change their minds and take it away.

Once I’ve got the water down, I feel like the fog in my mind clears a little bit- and it’s a good thing, because I need to figure out where I am and how I got here.What the hell happened?I rack my brain trying to remember. One minute I was at the battle, and the next, everything went dark. It’s all just black. The shadow pack wolves were attacking, and I was fighting back. Then I was knocked down, and someone was dragging me to safety… who was it?

Chris. I distinctly remember seeing Chris. He was helping me, wasn’t he? Taking me somewhere safe? I remember looking up and seeing him as I was pulled away from the fight, but everything after that is blank.

I suck in a breath, taking in my surroundings. The mean girl- Kara- and the other guy- Jake, apparently- are still bickering as they walk away. Jake plops down on a ripped-up couch a few yards away and Kara sinks onto a rickety old folding chair. She pulls a small knife out of her pocket and flicks it open, using it to clean underneath her fingernails.

My hands are bound, so I must be a prisoner, which would make these two my guards. We’re in a large space; it looks like a warehouse of some kind. I don’t see any windows, so the room we’re in must be somewhere in the interior. But the question remains-why am I here and how did I get here?

I turn my head, still taking stock of everything around me, when my eyes land on another person sitting a few feet away beside me, leaning up against the wall. His hands are also bound, and he’s… “Chris?”

The poor guy looks like hell- I guess we’re both prisoners. Now I wish I hadn’t greedily downed all of that water, so I could’ve offered him some.

Slowly, Chris turns his head toward me. It looks like they gave him clothes, too- just a pair of sweatpants- and he doesn’t have any visible wounds, but there’s enough blood on his face to tell the story of what he’s endured. My heart clenches as I realize that he must’ve been trying to protect me when we were both taken.

“Chris…” I repeat, gentler this time. His eyes lock with mine, and as soon as they do, I’m smacked with a vision.

It’s dark in the forest, and Chris looks agitated- he’s pacing back and forth, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. He’s jumpy when someone approaches him; someone I don’t recognize. They’re definitely not part of our pack.

“You’re late,” Chris snaps. “I don’t have much time.”

“Better get talking, then,” the other man sneers.

“I overheard my alpha and beta talking the other day,” Chris says, fidgeting. “She’s starting to have visions. Your alpha was right, she’s a seer like her grandmother.”

The man chuckles menacingly. “Well, how about that. Looks like we may not have to kill you after all.”

I see spots, almost like static, as the vision fades away. Suddenly I’m back in this godforsaken warehouse, my heart beating so hard and fast that it feels as if it’s going to fly out of my chest. “It… it wasyou…” I rasp, completely shaken. Bile crawls up my throat, the sour sting of Chris’ betrayal making my guts churn.

His brows draw together in confusion. “What do you mean?”

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