Page 48 of Unexpected Alpha's Claim

Just as he tilted his head down and our lips were almost touching, he whipped his head to the right. He stared at the wall, as if he were attempting to look through it. In a flash, he spun around and ran towards the window in the corner.

Fear and suspicion spoiled the mood and ruined the plans I had only begun to form for that night. I followed him through the living room. My heart pounded faster for an entirely different reason now. He motioned for me to stay away from the window, so I mimicked him, pressing myself against the wall beside it.

When I peeked out, I discovered that neither of us had to rely on seeing anything because a howl ripped through the wilderness. I may not have understood what the actual message was, but the heartbreaking sound communicated enough. And I saw the effect it had on Raul as it called to his second nature.

“I’ve got to go,” he said, bursting away from his spot. “Don’t go anywhere. It’s not safe for you out there tonight.”

I shouted his name as he stormed towards the door. He didn’t even pause, though, bursting out of the house leaving a trail of clothing as he ran. The sounds of his transformation rang in my ears. That distinct noise which sounded like a firing machine gun spitting needed no explanation. He was going straight into the jaws of peril. Again.

Without so much as a by your leave. This is what life with him would be. This isn’t a one-time event, it’s a preview.

Heart heavy, I shut the door and went to the kitchen. I needed a drink. Maybe two.

30

RAUL

Those howls were the song of loss. One of us had fallen. Somewhere, somehow, an enemy had bested them in battle. They were one of mine and as Alpha, I had to track them down. It was on me to not only look into this tragedy, but to see it set to rights.

I ran through the dead of night, letting the sounds of my pack guide me. They didn’t rest after their initial call. The lament kept going on and on. Not as loud as the sounds that had sent me thundering through the woods, but not much subtler.

As I got closer, I heard frantic breathing, sharp cries and the quick pacing of massive paws across the dirt, squashing anything unfortunate enough to be in their wake. Less than a mile east of me and up a steep embankment were two of my kind. They were going round and round the body of our dead comrade.

Surrounded by small bushes, the dark hillside as the backdrop, Stones and Collins’s beasts were safeguarding what they had been unable to save in the first place. Our fallen one was Kenny. Lying on his side, he had smudges of dirt across his white fur.The three black patches across his back, his key feature, had shrunk. There was a deep gap in the middle of his ribcage, two inches wide, with whatever had made the wound leaving flattened hair on that part of his body. I paced around his corpse, sniffing the ground, the body, and taking in every clue.

“Meeting. Joe’s. Fifteen minutes.”I sent to Collins and Stones, flashing each an angry glance.

I wished I could have stayed there a while longer. I wished I could just stand between them and request more details about Kenny’s demise. Yet, the wolf was not built for this. He could state his intentions in brief messages. He could express himself through body language, but that was it. Conversations and narratives were beyond his capabilities.

Striding back through the undergrowth, I came to a disturbing and painful conclusion. We were not done with that vampire clan. It had to be them. Only one or more of those vile creatures could have squeezed Kenny to death like that. They had slipped past our defenses and paid us back for the death of their own Alpha. Or was he really the Alpha?

I couldn’t be sure. He had said so, sure, but candor isn’t a defining trait in any vampire. Whether he was or not, they had not let their loss go unpunished. This was retaliation, pure and simple and now the prospect of war was back on the table. There wasn’t much I could do to prevent it now that they had killed one of ours. Even if I was to head back to Louisville, it wouldn’t win me or my pack anything.

The pack had gathered at Joe’s bar by the time I arrived, leaving their normal flamboyance aside. There were no silly games and the laughter that would normally be roaring throughout the barroom was absent. In place of the normal rambunctious funwas an air of fear. They exchanged scared glances, and nobody would open their mouth. If a few of them hadn’t been tapping their fingers on their tables, I would have been able to hear a pin drop.

I squared my shoulders and kept my chin high. I was their Alpha, no matter my own thoughts or feelings, I had to exude confidence and control. They depended on me, and I would not let them down. I stopped in the middle of the bar, within view of all of them.

“Collins, Stones…” I said, “What the hell went down out there?”

“Bloodsuckers,” Collins said in a voice riddled with indignation. “We were patrolling the eastern border like normal when we were ambushed. There were five of them. We fought, but they seemed to have one goal. Kill one of us and get the fuck out.”

“How could you tell that?”

“Well…” he huffed, shifting his feet and looking around the room as if trying to find his confidence. “Three of them jumped Kenny. Right off, they went right for him. One on one? We can handle them. Three against one? No. No way in hell, man.”

“What about the other two?” I asked, my voice faster. “Did you take care of them?”

“I wish,” Collins murmured, pursing his lips. “We fought and wrestled with them. I managed to pin one of them down on time, but he broke free. Fuck, even the one that attacked Stones wasn’t strong enough to have done that.”

“It’s true,” Stones confirmed. “The son of a bitch was too fast and too agile.”

“Soon as they’d killed Kenny, they disappeared into the forest,” Collins added. “Why did they do that? I mean, they could have stayed and tried to finish us off. They had the numbers. We would have been fucked.”

“Because they’d done what they’d come for. A death,” I said quietly. “Look at you. All of you. You’re frightened. This is what they wanted. To take our heart.”

“Well said,” I recognized Helena’s voice immediately but would swear she wasn’t here when I walked in.

Eyes widened with disbelief I turned towards her voice and there she was rising of murmurs from a table in the lower left corner. She threw her dark-brown overcoat aside, revealing the familiar figure in her black cloak, holding her staff loosely before herself. Of course, not everybody in the bar was impressed by this stunt. Gasps and exclamations of shock flew out of their mouths, the moment they realized that a human had slipped past them unnoticed.

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