Page 50 of Alpha Scorned

“You knew we’d come for you?” she asked, her voice trembling.

Devon nodded. “Yes, Momma. You and your wolf.”

Tears lined Selina’s eyes. “Sweetheart, did you know the town would be attacked?”

Devon seemed to understand his mother’s distress. He shook his head. “No, Momma, not ‘til before they broke our door. I napping and saw you and your wolf save me from the monster man. I tell Zanner and Stone not to fight when the monsters come. That it okay.” He looked down and scuffed his feet on the ground. “Are you friends with your wolf again now, Momma?”

Her eyes shone wetly as she flung her arms around him and gathered him close. My chest hurt at the sight of the little boy in his mother’s arms. I battled the pain, clenching my jaw. Now wasn’t the time for such useless thoughts.

“Yes,” she whispered into his hair and I could see it, the reason she had pushed Owen away. Gods, we were blind fools. Even Connor hadn’t sensed it.

There was a growl behind me.

“Hey, asshole, you took your damn time getting here, didn’t you?” asked Stone, though the relief on his face and the way he slapped my shoulder belied his words.

I shrugged, noting that my brother still had the pack contained and protected. “I wanted to give you time to get yourself outta that shit you were in and not need to be rescued like a little girl.”

His lips twitched, even though he scowled. “Yeah? Well, blame him.” He nodded at Zander who was talking quietly with Selina and Devon. “He told me not to fight. Said there was something important that needed to happen for the boy and his mother.”

I stared at Devon in disbelief, or maybe awe. He’d seen the future, or at least some of it. To hide my reaction I huffed and shook my head. “Yeah, likely story. You just got your arses kicked by the vamps…”

Stone’s scowl deepened, but before he could speak the air around us turned into a raging storm, kicking dust and debris everywhere. A portal appeared, the air in the center of it collapsing to create a doorway between places.

B’nar and Balthazar stepped from the portal. B’nar was dressed in elaborate fae armour and Balthazar in his usual pristine suit and shirt. Their faces hard, they inhaled, and in unison their gazes fell on the bloodied corpse Selina had left.

Selina’s attention shifted to them, but she stayed on the ground, holding her son close. I frowned as it occurred to me why. My brothers and I had all been gifted with enough power by Connor that we could push our clothes away and pull them back to us when we shifted, but other shifters couldn’t. I quickly pulled off my t-shirt and held it out towards her. “Here.”

She gave me a nod as she quickly slipped her arms through it and pulled it over her head. The stinking blood that covered her smeared on the material, but I didn’t care. She stood, holding tightly to Devon's hand. Satisfied that she was covered enough to appease Owen when he returned, I faced B’nar and Balthazar.

“You got Owen’s messages then?”

B’nar cocked his head and raised a brow. “Of course. Why else would we come?”

I grinned at his predictable response to my unnecessary question.

Balthazar inhaled deeply, his eyes flashing garnet before returning to their almost colourless state. “Mades. How many?”

My lip culled into a half-snarl, half-smirk. We would struggle to hunt down the remaining vamps in the vast forest, but the Count? He’d find them easily and the end result wouldn’t be pretty.

“We took out seven in total. There are far more, but I don’t know exactly how many. They ran.”

“Owen and I killed at least six,” Selina said, watching Balthazar warily. I didn’t blame her. He was one scary-assed motherfucker with his waist length black hair, pale, cold eyes and smooth ageless skin. He was just a little shorter than me, but that still put him at nearly six and a half feet. He wasn’t stacked with muscle, but he exuded an air of power and danger that was enough to make anyone wary. And his perfectly tailored dark suit and crisp white shirt only added to that air of danger. It was so out of place in the Canadian wilds, it was laughable—until you knew what Count Balthazar Rossi really was.

Dread coiled in my belly as I faced Selina. “What the hell do you mean? Owen is supposed to be at the other guard hut.”

Her chin tilted up in defiance of my tone and her wolf shone in her eyes. It dawned on me she was an alpha, quite rare in females, but not unheard of. I hid a smile. Owen would have his work cut out for him; just like I’d had with Lyss. A bolt of pain hit my heart at a memory of Lyss pushing me against a wall and kissing the hell out of me after our first full on argument. Fuck, it hurt. I quickly shoved away the image of her beautiful face and long blonde hair, and fixed Selina with an expectant stare. I’d tried to stop memories of Lyss from overwhelming my emotions for months, but it seemed everything about this entire situation was doomed to dredge up even more memories of her.

“He still is. I left here last night to find Owen at the other guard hut. I didn’t like the idea of him being there alone. When I got there the vamps had already tranqed him.” She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. “We fought them, hard.”

“What happened to Owen?” I growled, trying to keep my cool even as I wanted to shake the information from her. He wouldn’t willingly have left her side.

“I had to leave him,” she answered, her voice trembling. “He was so drugged he couldn’t even stand, let alone shift or walk.”

I swore under my breath. Owen had shown me where the hut was, but it would be easier if one of the pack or Selina took us there.

“It's only a few hours away.” Selina swayed on her feet, her face losing all colour. “I could take you...”

“Momma? You ‘kay?”

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