Page 51 of Alpha Scorned

She managed to give her son a weak smile, but my bear rumbled, sensing her weakness. If my suspicions were correct, she’d shifted for the first time in a long while, and it would take one hell of a lot to get over that, not to mention the miles that she’d covered. “No, Selina. We’ll go and fetch Owen, you need to rest. Zander? Take Selina and Devon back to their house, and ensure their safety. I’ll join you when I’ve had a chance to talk to our brothers…”

Zander’s brows drew down, and I realised I’d just taken over, slipping into my past Alpha mode. Owen had named Zander his Beta, and I’d just overstepped. I waited for the inevitable challenge. Except, it didn’t come. He merely nodded. “As you wish. I’ll leave Owen’s retrieval in your hands and stay with Devon just in case he sees anything else that might be of use to us.”

I relaxed and nodded my thanks to Zander. He had just given me permission to do what I needed, and told me he wouldn’t challenge me for my slip up.

“But I promised Owen…” Selina said, her voice slightly slurred.

“It’s okay. Stay with your son. There are others who can show us where he is.” I moved closer to her and peered down, using my Alpha compulsion. She wasn’t a mate match for me, so she would have to listen, or at least her wolf would, unless she fought me, which we both knew she was too exhausted to do. “Go home, eat, then rest. We’ll find Owen and bring him back to you.” She blinked and her top lip curled. I didn’t care if she wanted to defy me or even hated me for making her stay behind when she wanted to find Owen, she was my brother’s mate, and I would make sure she and her son were cared for until he could do it himself.

Zander threw me a small smile as Selina huffed and turned around, my shirt hanging down just enough to cover her buttocks from view.

Once she was gone, I eyed the Count. “How many can you scent around the compound?”

He cocked his head and disappeared, or at least that’s what it looked like. I knew he was using his supernatural speed to search the town. Within seconds he was back, his hair a little ruffled, but otherwise there was no evidence of him having moved off his spot next to the Prince Heir of Faerie.

B’nar eyed him calmly, waiting on the Count’s response.

“Thirty. That I can scent. But with the ones you know you killed…” He slowly looked around, eyeing Lucas’s blood stained wolf as it prowled closer. “... and the ones he and the other pack members have killed, that leaves twenty or less.”

“Can you track the ones who escaped the town to where they might be holed up?” We hadn’t found Shane yet, so I wasn’t convinced these vamps were the only ones.

Balthazar inclined his head. His lack of verbal response wasn’t a surprise, the Count spoke only when necessary.

“Good. Brothers, let’s make a quick stop at Shane's. We’ll grab more ammo.” I turned to Lucas. “You know where the guard hut is?”

The large wolf growled low and dipped his head.

“When they are ready, I will open a portal and you will take us there,” said B’nar. It wasn’t a suggestion or a question.

Lucas regarded him with his predatory eyes but once again dipped his head in agreement.

I addressed the alphas who’d been out to the guard hut with Lionel and me. “Take care of your pack. Set up a medic station in the cave and start getting the worst of the injured there.” I flipped open my phone. The signal dropped in and out. I hid my frustration. Drake needed to install a better communications system for this pack when this was over. I wrote Connor a quick email and hoped it would go soon.

“I will leave you to fetch your brother. I will go hunting,” Balthazar informed me, pulling at his pristine shirt sleeves. His face was devoid of emotion, but the red glint in his eyes hinted at his anger. “I will find you when I have answers.” And he disappeared.

I had no doubt that he would indeed find us when he’d hunted down the vampire coven. It was also clear to me that the Count would only bring us in if he couldn’t wipe out the coven alone.

We walked at a brisk pace to Shane’s house. As I approached the steps with my brothers at my back, my phone rang.

“Send B’nar back, right now,” ordered Connor. “I’m coming with medical supplies and a fucking army.”

“I don’t think an army will be necessary, Con.”

“Yes it fucking will. They’ve got Owen.”

My footsteps stilled. “Selina said she left him tranqued but alive. She said she and Owen had killed the bastards that had him.”

“She may have, but they’ve got him anyway. I’ll send the video while I wait for the portal. You, or someone there, might recognise the place they’re holding him. It doesn’t look like the prison. If you do, you go get our brother before I get there. No prisoners. You feel me?”

“You got it, Prime.” The phone went dead. Stretching my neck, and rolling my shoulders, I looked at B’nar. “Connor needs a portal to get him back here?” I posed it as a question. B’nar wasn’t under Connor’s rule, he was the Prince Regent of Faerie while his father’s curse kept him out of their lands. B’nar could choose to help us or not. I needn't have worried, B’nar nodded.

“Of course. Any reason why the King of Shifters wants to bring an annihilation squad here instead of leaving it to you?”

My brows dipped as my phone pinged. I opened the message and pressed play.

“Holy fuck,” muttered Stone.

Owen was strung up in what looked like a cave. His body was bruised, his face a mess. He growled at the camera before it panned over to another figure. Shane. Blood trickled from multiple puncture wounds on his neck, and the rest of his body. A growl escaped me. They’d used him to feed, using his blood and shifter power to boost their own. An eloquent voice began to talk.

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