Page 17 of The Alpha

He growled again and looked around. He was surrounded by men, each with an article of clothing hanging from his belt.Herclothing, no doubt.

Melvale closed his eyes. They’d laid a trap for him, and he’d walked right into it. The nagging he ignored earlier had been a warning.

“Oh, stab me,” he whispered. “You and I, Mr. Alpha, are going to… have a…” he swallowed hard. “Talk.”

The men in black surrounding him looked at each other in confusion.

“Wait for it…” one of them said.

Melvale followed the sound of the voice and looked at a man with dark hair and eyes, wearing a pair of glasses. Melvale narrowed his eyes at him as dizziness took hold, forcing him down. Then everything went black.

“What was that?!”Shona screeched. She spun to Dallan. “He jumped out the window?!”

Dallan ran to the bay window and looked out. The open middle window was larger than the other two. Big enough for one such as Melvale to jump through. He looked down, saw people gathering in front of the building and cursed. “He didna go unnoticed.” Dallan closed the window and turned to Kwaku. “We’ve got to go after him. Hurry.”

“Oh, great, who knows what else he’ll do,” Shona lamented and followed Dallan.

Kwaku and Zara were right behind them as they hurried out the apartment’s door. Halden and Raina must have heard the four coming down the stairs. Halden poked his head out of a door on the first floor. “What happened?”

Dallan was the first to reach him. “Melvale jumped. He’s trying to find her.” He hurried out the building’s front door, the others right behind him. He ignored the people pointing at the fourth-floor window and let his heart search. As soon as Shona, Kwaku and Zara joined him, he nodded at the street corner to his right. “He went this way.”

“Did you see him jump?” a bystander asked. “He landed like a superhero and ran off!”

A woman took a picture of Pari’s building with her phone. “Who can survive that?”

Dallan ignored them and took off at a fast walk. As soon as he crossed the street, he broke into a run. He got halfway down the block and stopped, letting his heart search again. Kwaku came alongside him. “I sense great ill intent, Boyeee.”

Dallan opened his eyes and looked at him. It was the same thing Dallan sensed in Hawaii when they matched Prince Vale and Makama. “This isna good. We canna let them take him!” He took off at a run, his heart searching for Melvale. But he sensed nothing now and stopped at the end of the block.

Zara and Shona were at his side, their expressions grim. “Where is he?” Shona asked.

They heard a siren, saw an ambulance traveling up the next block through stopped traffic, and disappear out of sight. Dallan looked at Kwaku in horror. “I canna sense him at all. It’s as if he just disappeared.”

“Den Melvale and de Alpha in him have been subdued.” Kwaku gazed at the street. “Dis is my fault. I never should have let him come.”

“But we took precautions,” Zara said.

He looked his mate in the eyes. “Not enough. He got away from us and is now gone. Unconscious. It is de only explanation. De drug I gave him was strong, but not enough to knock him out, not even after his chasing after the scent of his mate.” He studied his surroundings. “No doubt whomever took her, has also taken Melvale.”

Dallan’s eyes went wide. “Say it isna so, heathen.”

Kwaku gave him a grave look. “We must get dem back, Boyeee.”

Shona’s hands flew to her mouth to stifle a gasp. “This is terrible. How are we to find them?”

Zara put an arm around her. “We found Princess Raina and Captain Kolbeck. We will find Melvale and his mate. But if they keep him drugged, it will make it more difficult.” She looked down the street. “This way.” She began walking.

Dallan noticed the small group of people that followed them. Some were pointing phones their way, taking pictures. “Kwaku…”

Kwaku followed his gaze and shook his head. “Dis is not good.”

“Let’s not give them anything to look at,” Shona suggested. She wrapped her arm around one of Dallan’s and followed Zara.

They walked another block, and it wasn’t long before their followers wandered elsewhere. Zara crossed the street to the next block and stopped halfway down in front of a three-storyresidence. It was smaller than the building where Pari lived, and Dallan could sense Melvale had been here. “Let’s go.” He went up the stairs to the heavy leaded glass door and opened it. The second door opened as well, and he looked over his shoulder at the others. Halden told them the second door of such buildings were always locked.

The four filed inside, and Shona looked up the stairs in front of them. “This is a brownstone with apartments. Do you think he’s in one of them?”

Kwaku closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them. “Dis way.” He went down a hall to a door at the end. “He was here. Der were odars as well.”

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