Page 31 of Alpha's Second Chance

I never passed out completely. When I pushed myself onto my back, Bull was leaning over me.

I bared my teeth, fully aware it didn’t have the same effect when I was human.

A bullet whizzed by. It struck Bull in the shoulder. He fell backward and hit the ground, but it didn’t slow him for long.

“Stay down!” Owen shouted at me.

Bull got to his knees. Blood rushed down his arm, but a slow grin stretched across his face. “Eve. We’ll be together soon,” he said. Then he shifted into his bear.

Owen ran straight at him, firing his gun, but Bull didn’t stop. He had to be jacked up on a massive amount of drugs. In human form, even armed, Owen was no match for a five-hundred pound bear who wasn’t feeling pain.

And neither was I. I had no weapons with me, but I got up and trudged toward them. We couldn’t stop until Bull was dead.

Bull roared in Owen’s face before swiping his claws across his chest. Owen toppled backward, and I lurched forward, trying to grab him. We fell together.

I got my hand in his back pocket and grabbed the shot he’d stashed there. With me in the way, Bull didn’t attack Owen, but as soon as I moved away, Bull was so busy trying to rip Owen’s head off that he didn’t notice me get close to his ribs. I raised my arm and rammed the needle full of medicine into his skin.

Within seconds, Bull was back to human. Blood rushed from his mouth, but he kept grinning at me. “Eve,” he said.

I jumped on him, pinning his shoulders down with my hands. Owen crawled forward. He sank his knife into Bull’s neck, right over his throat.

Then Owen passed out.

Bull was dead.

I should be thrilled, except I wasn’t, because Owen was lying on the ground covered in blood. I ran my hand over his forehead. There was so much blood that I couldn't tell where he was injured.

“Hey Owen, Bull’s dead. You killed him,” I said, scared to touch him in any of the places where Bull had mauled him.

I hoped he could hear me. One of his soldiers dropped a thick blanket over my shoulders, and another blanket over Owen. I looked up to see that it was John. “Thanks,” I mumbled. The night air would be chilly soon.

Owen didn’t move.

“Eve, you know Brian is a medic,” John said. “He can help if it’s okay with you. He can give Owen something for the pain, and we can get him inside.” They waited, obviously anxious to save their Alpha, but unwilling to go against my wishes.

They were already deferring to me as if I were his mate. Had he said something to them? Or was this just based on their observations of what they thought he’d want?

“Yes.” I pulled the blanket tighter around my shoulders. “Please. Do whatever you can to help him.”

In a flurry of motion, three of Owen’s teammates knelt beside him. I crawled back and sat on the ground, still wearing the blanket. My clothes were somewhere close by, but I didn’t care.

If Owen could survive this, then we were free. The chaos was over. Without their master, Bull’s followers would scatter. The ones we could find would be arrested, and charged. Others would escape, but none had his ability to pull the strings of a massive criminal organization. They’d only been able to obey his orders.

I could go back home. To Denver. I absolutely would not be taking the job in Chicago. It was a no-brainer at this point. I wouldn’t leave Owen, and I wouldn’t ask him to give up his entire life to live in a place he’d loathe.

If they truly needed me in Chicago, I could fly out for a few weeks and then work on the research from Colorado. It had taken me thirty years to accept having Owen in my life. I wasn’t going to screw that up now because of a job.

I only hoped I’d get the chance to tell him that.

Owen

With great effort, I forced my eyes to open. I was lying on the ground, in human form, with my teammates bent over me. They were all talking, to each other and to me, but I couldn’t make out the words. I felt the prick of a needle in my arm several times, the scrape of scissors, the rattle of packages being opened.

Eve. Where was Eve? I tried to roll to my side, but I couldn’t make any part of my body cooperate. One of my teammates pushed me back down. I couldn’t focus well enough to see who it was. “Alpha, don’t move,” he said.

“Eve,” I said. I wanted to shout, but my voice was a hoarse whisper. “Where is she?”

They still didn’t answer me. I got one arm up and grabbed my teammate around the neck. He swatted my hand away and pressed my arm back down. “Sorry Alpha. But you have to be still while they do these stitches.”

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