Page 5 of Alpha's Second Chance

I went straight to the police station. I’d served with one of the guys overseas.He’d let me use his patrol car, no questions asked. I put in a call to the state police, and within ten minutes I had a location on Eve. I hit the road immediately. She was headed west on I-70.

Any first-year yahoo right out of training could track a license plate. This wasn’t the kind of work I’d usually be doing, but I wouldn’t stop, not even if they did take me off the case. I had to deliberately loosen my grip on the steering wheel. Thanks to the extra strength from being a shifter, if I held on any harder, I’d rip the wheel right out of the patrol car.

I wouldn’t trust anyone else with Eve, even though I knew I’d be dealing with the fallout for a long time. I had spent years getting her out of my head. And with one glossy photo, all the emotions I’d worked hard to put aside came rushing back. I couldn’t stop thinking about her, and I found myself missing her presence in my life again, just as I had ten years ago.

I followed her for well over an hour before her destination became clear. She was heading toward Avon. Toward home.

It wasn’t her home anymore. It hadn’t been for well over a decade.

Finally. Right in front of me, I spotted her car. I checked the license number. Yep. That was Eve, directly in front of me on the freeway.

I hit the button to turn on the patrol car lights. It was time to catch up with Eve and have a little chat with her.

Eve

Iwas going well over the speed limit, so the flashing blue lights weren’t a surprise. I’d just accept the ticket and move on. I could hardly explain to a human police officer why I was so desperate to get out of Denver.

I spotted a side road and put my signal on, turning off the freeway onto a small two-lane road.

I parked on the side of the road near some trees, well off the pavement. I fiddled with the middle button of my shirt, where it pulled tight across my chest. This shirt was clearly made for a man, and the buttons were strained to the max. The last thing I needed was some young officer thinking I was trying to seduce him by showing my breasts.

Not that it hadn’t worked for my friend Melanie.

I stared straight ahead, both hands on the wheel until the officer reached my car. In the unlikely event that this officer was a shifter, he wouldn't be able to smell even an omega over all the pungent body spray I’d doused myself with.

I turned my head as the officer approached.

No. This wasn’t possible.

I sucked in air. My heart hammered. This was no police officer. Owen stood at my window. He’d been sent to find me, and he’d used a patrol car as part of his scheme.

I could press the pedal down, and go. I could try and outrun Owen. However, I wouldn’t get far. He’d call in other shifters as back up. At least if it were just the two of us, I might convince him to let me go.

Owen had been less of a neanderthal than the others. He could be reasoned with.

Unless he was here on orders. Owen didn’t break rules. He followed orders, because that was the way things went. He thought the clan was best, for anyone and everyone.

I rolled down my window. “I will not go back to the clan. I’d rather die fighting you,” I said. He was even more gorgeous than he’d been ten years ago. He’d lost the look of youth, and looked like a fully-grown shifter male.

“You haven’t lost your flair for the dramatic,” he said.

“Who’s the one that needed a police car to chase me down?” I quirked an eyebrow at him. “Guess you needed the humans to help after all, huh?”

“I have no issues with humans. I protect and serve them just as I do shifters.”

“Right.” This wasn’t going anywhere. Driving away it was. I pressed the gas. The car lurched forward, tires spinning in the loose gravel on the side of the road. The car bumped as I hit a few scrubby bushes.

Owen roared, and raced after me. The side of the car thunked, and there he was, grabbing onto the car with both hands.

I took my foot off the gas. “What are you, a dog? You’re going to get killed chasing a car.” Heart pounding, I shoved the car into park. I was terrified, and pissed off, but I didn’t want Owen to die.

I scrambled into the passenger seat and crawled out the door. I ran over scrubby brush and sandy dirt. There wasn’t a lot of cover out there. I twisted my head -- he was close now.

I should’ve run more. When Melanie begged me to run that half-marathon, I should have done it, instead of laughing at her. My human body was not happy.

My body longed to shift. In my bear form, running came easily. It had been ten years since I’d shifted. I missed it so much.

His hand closed around my arm.

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