Page 72 of The Alpha Wolf's Pregnant Bride

“Now…” Alpha Flynn instructs, making a gesture with two fingers that point at the door. Simon spins and kicks the door down, and we file in with barrels aimed into the enclave of darkness.

“You found me…” A seething dark and menacing voice rings out and echoes off the empty walls.

The group is catapulted into action as we point our weapons and stand in the formation we’d rehearsed earlier tonight. Flynn and I are back to back, guns ready at the side, withTheodore and Simon at the frontline and Damian watching our backs.

“Show yourself!” I demand, focusing my vision on the eerie darkness that hangs all around. The room is cold and sinister as it sends a chill down my spine, and I’m reminded of the night I’d been hurt in battle.

The reminder sends an acidic taste rising in my throat, the residual dread of the past trauma surfacing now to have me on high alert and ready to take this beast down.

A screeching whir bleats through the air from somewhere behind, and I spin around to aim my rifle at the source of the sound. A mighty, ominous howl rings out before the floor quakes when the hybrid monster lands on the wooden floorboards.

Our group of Alphas operates like special ops soldiers; thanks to Alpha Flynn, we’re able to dodge the incoming attack of the hybrid’s vile claws as it flies toward us in a swift swoop. Blackened by the effects of the Alpha blood he’d been consuming, the preternatural powers innate to a wolf have been too strong for a human, turning him into the most hideous creature we’ve ever seen.

With greasy fur spread across its disfigured body, it rises on hind legs that have him towering above us, peeling back begrimed lips to reveal a set of foul, sharp teeth like yellowing blades.

A shot blazes through the air, hitting the hybrid in the arm and sending him flying back. He crashes into the shelved wall, sending a single item skittering to the floor when the beast falls in a heap from the impact.

Jackson is knocked down, and I catch the moment his eyes flit to the picture frame with broken shards of glass lying beside his disfigured wolf face. It’s like the moonlightfiltering through the cracks of the window shines directly on the photograph, illuminating whatever is pictured there to cause the hybrid to whimper slightly. He loses the dark glint of rage in his eyes, and instead, those dark depths turn sad.

The Alphas stay alert, our weapons pointed at him in warning. But instead of getting back to his feet to fight us, he scampers to the wall, lifting a gruesome arm that slowly morphs into a human one.

“Wait!” he calls out, this time revealing his human form to us, speaking softly with his human voice. “Don’t shoot!” he pleads. “I am done fighting.”

Each of the Alphas exchanges confused glances, but Simon is the first to rush forward and extract a silver set of cuffs with his gloved hand. He moves in quickly to cuff the man whose brown eyes watch him appreciatively.

I’m not sure what just happened, but it’s almost as if the Moon Goddess herself lent us a helping hand tonight. Walking forward cautiously, I look at the photograph to see four smiling faces staring back at me.

A man, a woman, and two children with equal shades of dark hair and brown eyes. Lifting my gaze while Simon drags Jackson to his feet, I realize that the little boy in the photograph is the younger image of the hybrid wolf.

Family.

That’s what snapped him out of his mania and saved our lives tonight. It’s why he just surrendered and allowed us to take him into custody without squeaking another word.

It all seemed too easy, and our mission was a success, though we had no reason to doubt that tonight was going to go exactly as planned. Without a single tragedy tonight, wehead back to Simon’s territory in Edmond to throw Jackson in solitary confinement in the dungeons underneath the laboratory building. With all of the resources at Simon’s fingertips, thanks to the pharmaceutical company he owns, he’ll be able to run tests on the hybrid until we’ve decided what to do with him.

All I can think about is the power of family as the night blithers on. Another meeting takes place, and Dorian is in attendance. He seems relieved that Jackson is captured and unharmed, though I’m confused by this since Jackson is the reason Sorian can barely stand without help.

It doesn’t matter, I decide as I make my way home. Now that the threat is taken care of, I can finally take care of my personal life.

My family.

Myhome.

I often wondered why Mysthaven didn’t feel like home without Cassandra there. As I enter the forest outlining the small town and bid my soldiers goodnight, I’m filled with a deep sense of longing that doesn’t feel empty anymore. It’s that feeling of familiarity, knowing that one is returning home.

Except now my home is complete because Cassandra is there, and someone is waiting there for me.Homewas never a place but rather a person. A special she-wolf who makes everything in my life complete and fills it with peace and tranquility that only she can bring.

That wholeness exists on the other side of the woods when I approach the clearing where the trees open up to the meadow covered by the silver rays of the moon’s gentle glow. My “home” smiles broadly at me, running forward with feather light steps and open arms that get flung around my furry neck.

I shift into human form to scoop her into my arms, peppering her face with kisses as I swing her around, relief washing over me in waves of contentment and pure happiness.

“You waited for me…” I whisper in awe as I set her on her feet, pulling back only to stare into her eyes full of wonder and holding a mountain of love in their warm, earthly depths.

She nods shyly, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth. Groaning, I lean in to kiss her hungrily. She’s flustered and light-headed when I break away, only to give her a moment to catch her breath. With the way I’m feeling, I don’t want to stop. With a hand possessively on her nape, I’m about to pull her back in when she stops me with a firm hand on my chest.

“I have something to tell you…” she begins, her eyelids dancing open with the wings of long, dark lashes.

Goddess… She’s beautiful…

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