Page 12 of Bound By My Alpha Mate

“Are you going to stay here, with us, at least?” asked Billie.

“No,” I said. “I’m going to keep trying to find my mom. With or without you.”

Billie’s lips parted in protest, but Aislin was quick to grab her arm. “There’s no point arguing. Trust me,” she muttered to Billie, then turned her eyes to me. “I know, the moment you have a chance, you’re going to run off. I would do the same thing. But if you’re going to do that, just know that Colt and everyone he’s associated with won’t show you any mercy. If you think, for some reason, that you can trust him…you’re wrong. Don’t fall into his trap just because he’s your fated mate. Stay as far away from him as possible. If you’re going to try to rescue Muriel, you’re going to have to do it without his help.”

Her advice was…surprising but appreciated.

“And if you ever need anyone to fall back on, we’ll be here. Okay?”

I snorted. “Sure.” I had gleaned all the information I needed from these two women. I stood up and once again made my way to the front door.

But then, behind me, I heard Aislin speak with reassurance to Billie. “If she doesn’t get killed, she’ll appreciate our offer more than if we force her to stay. Besides, we’re trying to rescue Muriel. If Kiara gets caught, we’ll rescue her, too. It’ll be okay, Billie.”

Maybe Aislin was right. But if I did get captured, and if they cared about Muriel as much as they claimed, then maybe I wouldn’t be totally doomed. Not that I was counting on these wolves to succeed.

Time would tell whether they would be of any use to me.

Chapter 8

Colt

In the office that day, my boss commented, “Those circles under your eyes are getting darker, Colt. What’s with the sleepless nights?” Then he leaned over my desk and spoke privately to me. “Is everything alright?”

I looked up from my computer, and the screen reflected in my glasses that I only wore in the office. Five other brokers seated at their desks all glanced sidelong at me, trying to hide their nosiness. “Everything’s fine,” I said, forcing a smile. “A new video game came out recently. I hate to admit that I’ve been staying up past my bedtime for it.” Tactful chuckle.

My boss crinkled his eyes and straightened up. “Ah, you young people and your Nintendos and Master Chiefs.”

“Surprised you even know those names,” I commented as he started to walk away.

“I’m hip,” scoffed my boss. “I see what my kids get up to, you know?”

I watched my boss return to his office but knew I would remain under the scrutiny of my coworkers, who would have far longer to observe me during these quiet, tense working hours. I minded my business and didn’t talk much. It was nice to have something other than Moondreams to think about, and I kept myself busy setting up a string of new accounts until the end of the day.

After work, instead of returning to the silver mine, I parked my car on Hedge Road, pulling off on a section close to where Everett’s late Beta, Taylor, had once camped out for—at the time—reasons unknown. We later discovered that they had been monitoring a bug they had somehow gotten planted in the Manor. It still rattled me to think about them spying on us. My anger had made me feel that Taylor’s death was justified, and I’d even argued that Everett should be taken out, too, for the invasion of privacy, but mercy and logic later reasoned that they had only done it to protect themselves. I wasn’t sure I even supported the decision to kill Taylor in the end.

Trekking into the forest, I found a hollow in a tree trunk where two low limbs split off from one another. There, I stored my clothes in a garbage bag. The overcast sky tonight suggested a strong chance of rain, and I didn’t want to come back from my hunt to a soggy outfit. I underwent the familiar transformation, black fur rippling across my body, teeth sharpening with predatory prowess. I wondered if she could sense it any time I transformed. What could I feel from her? Just the occasional ache and flares of indignant fury that I wasn’t sure belonged to her or me. She hid her feelings well, and I guessed not just from me.

I drifted through the forest, making my way toward the border with Eastpeak. If she had been taken in by Mythguard, then chances were she was with Everett. I wasn’t stupid enough to go right to Everett’s house to investigate, although partly, I wondered what I’d be risking by doing that.

As summer ebbed closer to autumn, the ferns began to lose their color, fading from vibrant and supple green to a brittle copper. The leaves darkened into brown and paled into yellow. The stench of decay rose from under the dirt, decomposing leaf litter giving the ground a certain unappetizing squelch that made it difficult to travel silently. I kept my eyes on everything around me, my nose to the ground in search of smells, but as I crossed the neutral zone between Dalesbloom and Eastpeak and approached the mountainous pack’s territory, I found their scents to be lacking. They hadn’t refreshed their borders in a couple of days.

The pack hadn’t vacated their territory, had they? Probably be wisest if they did.

The lack of their scent inspired confidence in me to push past the perimeter. My thoughts clung to Kiara and what I might do when I found her. Right now, I wasn’t well prepared. I hadn’t considered my game plan beyond finding her and convincing her to come with me to the Manor. But what if I had to bring her by force? I strongly considered laying a trap.

My plan only gained complexity when I felt a pang in my stomach. I was hungry, but it didn’t feel wholly like my own hunger. There was an emptiness within me, an inability to be satiated, and while I suffered these feelings on my own, I knew from the dissociating resonance of them that they belonged to somebody else, too. Like me, Kiara was hungry. The interesting thing was that despite being a wolf, she couldn’t kill. Her unicorn blood wouldn’t allow her to ingest fresh meat. How did she cope with that? Did she struggle? Did it leave her feeling unfulfilled?

An idea was born.

Licking my nose, I changed trajectory, searching now for prey. It didn’t take long before the scent of deer crossed my path. They weren’t hard to find in these mountains. And with the sun sinking into the trees, casting long shadows, the terrain would be perfectly mottled to disguise my presence in it. I crept low and bolted through the twilight, following the trail until I spotted my quarry: a young doe born this past spring, somehow separated from her herd.

For minutes, I hid among the bushes and watched, discerning the route she was likely to run once I exposed myself. I waited for the wind to toss my scent her way and for her to detect me and then decide in the stillness that I wasn’t a threat. I would catch her off guard once she trusted the silence of the forest.

Guilt nagged me every now and then. The doe’s elegant, stilt-like legs reminded me of the hybrid. But my hunger reminded me of her, too.

When waiting became no longer bearable, I burst from the bushes and charged toward the doe. She immediately whirled around and soared through the trees, fleeing me. I had enough motivation to move even faster, though. My paws evaded the dips and upturned roots that might have tripped a more careless predator. I was focused, my determination bred from envisioning the doe as the creature I wanted to capture and sink my teeth into. As she juked sideways, I peeled after her, following each stride with razor accuracy until I reached her flank. Craning my neck, I grabbed the flesh on her side and got a mouthful. The doe bleated in alarm. I squeezed, tasted blood, and wrenched my head to the right. Her movements became erratic as she tried to kick me off, but this animal could have been my fated mate and I wasn’t going to let up. I threw my weight into my feet, skidding in the dirt. The doe slowed with me. I only let go to lunge forward and grab the junction of her neck and shoulder instead, and this time, my canines made purchase at the bottom of her throat.

It didn’t take long before her struggle to breathe impaired her ability to run. The doe stumbled and then crumpled. I stood over her, victorious. Finally.

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