Page 14 of Claimed By the Alpha Wolves

Faye

My feet are flying, carrying me up the stairs faster than I’ve ever gone. Tears stream down my face, but I can’t stop to dry them. I just need to get out of here.I’m not safe here. Not in these halls, or in this castle. The man who killed Miles is here, and he’s never going to let me go.

“I’ll never forget, Faye. Watch your back.”His words haunt me with every step I take.

After Kurt disappeared down the end of the hallway, I only sat there for a moment before pulling myself to my feet and running in the opposite direction. I know I’m not supposed to be out here, but I can’t stand to go back into that room with all the people, dancing and laughing and looking at me while I’m breaking into even smaller pieces. I need to be alone, with a solid door between me and the man who wants to hurt me. The murderer.

Not that a door could stop him.A sob explodes from my lips.

I thought the worst thing that could happen to me was finding an alpha, but no, this is so much worse. This is the stuff that only a cruel fate could construct. A monster with a thirst for suffering and pain.

Turning the corner, I reach the landing on the stairs, thinking of nothing more than getting to my room, when I suddenly bounce off of something hard.

Big hands reach out to grab me and I blink, righting myself as I meet the eyes of yet another strange man with dark hair and the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen in my life. He looks intense, focused, and in control. It radiates through every inch of him.

I realize that his hands are resting on my biceps, and I take a shaky breath, lowering my eyes immediately. He is an alpha. And here I am, in the hallway, clearly running away from the ball, which I am not allowed to do. Some part of me hopes he’ll just let me go and leave me to go to my room, but my experience with alphas suggests this will end far differently. Like with me being hauled back to the dance, regardless of my protests.

“Why are you crying?” he asks, his voice low and dangerous.

A shiver runs through me as his voice slides over my skin, and I suck in a breath, breathing in the delicious scent of cardamom. He sounds exactly the way he looks, and there’s something about his voice that I like, which is completely unexpected.Since when do I like people’s voices?

I internally shake myself. The thing is, I don’t understand why he’s talking to me, why he hasn’t already called for someone to escort me back to the ballroom.Is he going to play with me first? Turn this into a game?

“I’m sorry,” I say shakily. “I?—”

Kurt’s face flashes in my mind again, and a sob rips out of me. I put both of my hands to my mouth, mortified, but the man just leads me away, up the stairs, eventually sitting me down on a bench and handing me a tissue from his pocket. I take it, but I can’t seem to fight my terror.What’s he going to do to me? Why’s he pretending to help me right now?

I try to catch my breath and dry my eyes. The alpha puts his hand on my back, rubbing in soothing circles. I fight not to flinchaway from him in surprise. I was unaware alphas were capable of comfort. After knowing Kurt, I’d started to assume they only took advantage of people. That they were only capable of causing pain, especially to an omega like me.

When I look around, I realize he’s led me up into one of the castle’s towers. If I glance past him, I can see through one of the windows and into the courtyard, which is eerily empty and dark. It’s a more private place than I like, but it’s better than being trapped in a room with him.

I take deep breaths, trying to calm myself down and managing to slow the fall of tears. All along I’m aware of his hand on my back, and his body so close to me as he sits beside me.Alphas cause pain. They cause death, I remind myself. Even if this one isn’t showing that side of himself yet.

“What happened to you?” he asks me, and his voice is even gentler. Like he thinks I’m something fragile that could be broken with simple words. But maybe I am. Maybe that’s how broken I am.

The alpha is staring at me intently with those piercing blue eyes, and it takes everything in me to glance at him for even a moment, to fight my natural instinct to look away from him, but I do. He’s handsome, in an understated way. His hair is so dark it’s practically black, and he has a five o’ clock shadow that defines his jaw, even though everything about the rest of him is clean cut.

He keeps staring, waiting for an answer, so I swallow around the lump in my throat and try to form an answer. “Nothing,” I say, my voice coming out no louder than a whisper.

I can feel the alpha staring at me, and my body fights against the lie, but I also can’t forget Kurt’s words in the hallway. The reason he’s doing this at all is because I told someone about him killing Miles, so it stands to reason that if I tell this alpha whathe’s done, the same thing will happen again. Nobody will believe me, and Kurt will have more incentive to hurt me.

This needs to stay with me. Because there’s no one and nothing that can protect me from Kurt if I speak up.

Maybe even if I stay silent.

“There are bruises on your neck,” the alpha says, reaching forward, the tips of his fingers skimming my neck so gently, I almost don’t feel them. But I can feel the pain, pulsing just below my skin, and I know it will be hard to turn my neck tomorrow. I’ll have to borrow some makeup from Addilyn to try and cover the marks, because no one can know about this.

I blink, looking down at my lap, terrified that if I open my mouth, Kurt’s name might come out. The alpha sighs, pulling back his fingers and balling his hands into fists in his lap. I can’t tell if he’s frustrated with me, but I stay silent, wondering what he’ll do next. What he’ll say.

“Any alpha that would put his hands on an omega is a coward.”

I jolt with surprise and look up at him. Unexpectedly, he looks completely sincere. More than sincere, he looks angry that someone hurt me. A gentle heat pools in my belly at the thought that there’s an alpha who wouldn’t use his power just to control and abuse me. When our eyes meet, his widen for just a second, and a wave of rage passes over his features. Then he seems to compose himself again.

“Who did this to you?”

Damn it. That’s what I didn’t want him to ask, because now it means I have to lie. No one can ever know that Kurt did this to me, least of all some alpha who can’t possibly understand how dangerous it could be for me to be caught in the middle of this.

“I don’t know,” I lie, finally feeling my voice come back to me. I practically sag with relief that I didn’t give up Kurt’s name, andI wonder if the alpha can tell that I’m lying. “I didn’t get a good look at him.”

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