Page 44 of Cruel Alpha Daddy

“Fire?”

“Just be careful! It could be a trap.”

Understanding dawns in her eyes, and she pulls free of my grip to run to the hall. I jog down the street, seeing Donny and Ryan rushing to join me.

“What’s going on?” Donny asks.

I shake my head. “Something bad.”

“It’s got to be Tobias and his gang,” Ryan says. “Everyone else is accounted for.”

“Whoever is coming down those hills, they are not in good shape,” I mutter. The howls I’m hearing are not of triumph or glory—it’s the sound of wolves in horrible pain. The scent of fresh blood gets stronger, and it feels like the air itself is alive with fear.

When we reach the back of the old schoolhouse, I stop and stare. I’ve seen some pretty bad shit in my time, but it feels like I just stumbled into a warzone.

A bright lamp run by a noisy generator is glowing from the tall roof of the old building, showing the scene in shocking detail. Wounded wolves and dying young men—fresh blood pouring from ragged wounds, exposed organs, and broken bones. Some of them yelp and whine in their wolf forms while others scream and cry, stuck in their human shapes.

Donny recovers from the shock of the scene quicker than I do, hurrying across to the nearest boy and assessing his wounds. Ryan runs to get help, and hopefully some medical supplies.

I walk through the hellscape, forcing myself to look at the carnage.

Well, boys, you wanted to follow Tobias. Look where it has led you.

As I get closer to the building, I can see the man himself, sitting with his back propped up against the wall. He has a nasty gash across his stomach and a wound on his leg that looks bone-deep. Gage hands him a bottle of Kentucky bourbon, and Tobias gulps it down gratefully, groaning in pain as Russ puts a tourniquet on his leg.

“Tobias,” I say softly but clearly.

He looks up at me. His slate-blue eyes look dull, yet full of hatred at the same time.

“You,” he grunts, almost choking on his words. “You are the reason this happened.”

Fury burns inside me as I take slow strides towards him. My fingers twitch, desperate to wrap around his throat and squeeze until the last breath leaves his body.

“Ready?” Russ asks, giving Tobias a light slap on the cheek. He takes his attention away from me to nod to his friend. Russ yanks on the edges of the tourniquet, and Tobias screams as it closes off the blood flow. He downs another few gulps of bourbon as he recovers from the pain.

“Just keep pressure on it,” Russ says. “As soon as the bleeding settles down, it will heal. You’ll be on your feet in no time, boss.”

Tobias looks back up at me as Russ leans in to apply pressure against the wound on Tobias’s belly. Behind me, I hear a sharp scream and turn around to see Ryan and Tucker setting the leg of a poor young man.

Most of our men and some of the women have come to help. It looks like Fiona has stayed in the hall with the children and most of the other girls. For that, I’m grateful.

She shouldn’t have to see this. No one should.

Not far away, I see Luke and his mate tending to an injured boy. He turns blue in the face as he tries to draw breath, with Luke desperately trying to stop the bleeding from a wound under the young man’s lungs. While I watch, he struggles, chokes, and dies. His blood soaks the ground in a crimson flood.

Luke swears and then grabs a med pack, running towards the next wounded kid.

“Tobias,” I say, turning back to him, his name on my lips like a curse. “What the fuck have you done?”

“What have I done?!” he yells. “You did this. All of it.”

“I didn’t even know where you were most of today!” I roar, my voice echoing through the clearing. “How is this my fault.?”

“This is exactly what I’m talking about,” Tobias pants, holding his side while his body desperately tries to knit the wound back together. “If you cared about us, about the pack, you would have been with us. None of this had to happen!”

A chill runs up my spine as I realize that because his plan—whatever it was—failed, he’s now going to blame it all on me.

“Explain to me, very carefully, what happened,” I say, standing over him and crossing my arms.

---