Page 52 of Impregnated By the Alpha

“But I know where she hasn’t been taken. We’ve already covered the trails to the east and south. The search for Diana is covering the west right now, so I’m heading north,” I explained.

I hung up the phone before she could try to talk me out of it. There was no way I was going to let my little girl be scared and alone for one second more than necessary.

I left the house at a sprint, heading for the clearing just outside of town where we had begun our sweep of the surrounding area. My legs were burning from the exertion, but I needed the pain. It made me focus on the task at hand and reminded me of what I was working for. I would burn a thousand times if it saved Nile’s daughter.

When Nile and I had run in the forest before, we had only gone a short distance from town, so I had no idea what lay in store for me beyond the trees to the north.

Let me run, Lavender offered.My senses are better than yours in the dark.

It will be light soon. And you’ve been running all night,I reminded her.

She needed to conserve what little energy she had left. If we managed to track down Penny’s kidnappers, I might need her to defend us.

When we track them down. Not if,Lavender corrected me.

Penny couldn’t have been gone long, or Jane would have recovered from her injury before I had gotten to her. Werewolves healed fast, and I imagined that whoever had taken Penny only had a thirty-minute lead at best. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, choosing the easiest route through the forest. Penny was either walking or being carried, and I couldn’t imagine carrying a scared child through the forest would have been a simple task. My best bet was the trails.

I couldn’t quite explain why I was so confident this was the right direction, but deep in my heart, I knew I was getting closer to her.

Soon, I reached an even wider trail, leading northeast through pine trees that appeared to get further and further apart. Within moments, the trees parted, and I saw a cabin peeking through them. I slowed my footsteps in case there was anyone inside, but it appeared to be abandoned.

After a moment, I realized it wasn’t just one cabin but a row of four. I kept to the trees, walking around them to get a good view. There were four more behind the first row, and a picnic area set in between. It would have been a good place for rogues to hide out.

I stepped closer to the cabins, hoping to find a clue that Penny had come through here, when a sudden twang sounded through the air. I lost my balance and fell to the side, causing my phone to slip out of my hand and skitter away. I twisted around and looked at my leg, realizing it had been caught in some kind of trap.

I had stepped on something, released a wire that wrapped around my ankle and held me in place. It looked like some kind of trap that hunters may have used to capture coyotes, but I didn’t have time to think about that now.

I pushed myself up to a sitting position and grabbed my leg to begin pulling the rope away from my ankle when I heard the sound of a door creak open. My head snapped up, and I saw Diana emerge from one of the cabins.

“Diana!” I exclaimed.

I hadn’t been expecting to see her here, and my excitement at finding one of the people we had been searching for all night superseded my concern for my own predicament.

“We’ve been looking everywhere for you,” I told her. “Nile and the rest of them are still out to the west. I dropped my phone over there. If you can help me with this rope, I can grab it and let them know you’re safe.”

“I wouldn’t bother with the rope,” Diana said.

She hadn’t moved from her position near the cabin door. Instead, she stood, looking at me with her head tilted to the side as if she was trying to solve a puzzle.

Ignoring the rope made no sense, and I wasn’t sure why she’d suggested it. I needed to release my leg so I could tell Nile where I was. I grabbed the rope to pull it away, and a burning sensation shot through my fingers.

I screamed in pain at the contact and looked at my hands in horror, unsure of what I had just experienced.

“See? I told you not to bother,” Diana repeated.

“Diana, I need your help,” I told her. “Penny was taken from the house tonight while we were all out looking for you. Someone has her, and we need to go get her back. Please, can you help me get my phone so I can call Nile?”

She continued staring at me, unmoving, and I was starting to feel like I was going crazy. I cursed and tried once again to remove the rope. The burning feeling shot through me once more, and I was unable to touch it, let alone pull it off me.

“DIANA, HELP ME!” I shouted, unsure of what game she was playing.

A slow smile spread over Diana’s face, and the realization of what had truly happened finally set in.

“You?” I gasped.

“Of course, me,” she said with glee. “I came here earlier today to get things ready for you. There’s a dozen more just like that set up all around the cabins. I wasn’t sure where exactly you’d step, you know. And I wassohoping you’d be the one to find me here.”

“I don’t understand,” I admitted. “Why did you run away just so you could catch me?”

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