Page 191 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“Where’s Ashton?” I screamed.

“Fuck if I know.”

Ashton screamed again, and I ran to the front door, throwing it open and rushing out into a store. The hardware store where I’d met Kyle the first time. The smells of oil, metal, and sawdust stung my nose as I ran down the aisles, each one a hundred yards long and so tall, I couldn’t even see the top. Nothing buthundreds of hammers, millions of cans of paint, and an infinite number of rolls of copper wire.

Ashton’s voice grew more fervent and panicked as I ran, but I was getting closer.

“MOMMY!”

My legs burned from the exertion, urging my body to run faster than was humanly possible, though it felt like running in wet sand.

“I’m coming, baby!” I shouted. “Mommy’s coming.”

Rounding a corner, Kyle stood smirking at me, and I slid to a stop, falling on my ass. Kyle raised a small handsaw that was coated in blood to his mouth. His lips parted. Instead of a human tongue, a forked snake tongue slid forth along the metal blade, gliding through the blood.

“Mmm,” Kyle murmured. “He tastes just like you. A real momma’s boy.”

“Avery? Jesus, Avery, calm down.”

I was screaming Ashton’s name over and over. Hands clutched at me, trying to grab my arms and hands. In my frenzy, I slapped them away.

“Where is he?” I shouted. “Where’s my baby? What did you do to him?”

“Avery, it’s me. It’s Cole. Calm down.”

Gasping, I sagged backward onto a hard wooden surface. Through the light of the moon, I saw I was in Cole’s bedroom, myback pressed up against the door, and Cole kneeling beside me. I was pressed up against the door.

A nightmare. It had all been a nightmare.

“Cole?” My lips trembled, and tears streamed down my face.

“Yeah.” He wrapped me in his arms, his warmth grounding me. “It’s okay. I’ve got you. You were having a nightmare.”

The vestiges of the dream still clung to me. I could still see Kyle’s face and the blood on his lips. Shuddering, I dug my fingers into Cole’s back, pulling myself even closer to him. Ashton was almost a man, but he would always be my baby, and I needed him back. Cole already had enough pressure on him without me adding to it, but the words tumbled from my mouth before I could stop them.

“Cole, bring my baby home.Please.I don’t think I can survive without him much longer.”

45

COLE

It took nearly an hour to get Avery calm enough for her to drift back to sleep. I lay beside her, listening to her slow, calm breathing. Even when he wasn’t around, Kyle was still damaging her mind and well-being, and that pissed me off. The one good thing about her nightmare was that it helped stoke my rage. If there’d been any hesitation on my part about killing that fucker, it was gone.

I took my phone from the nightstand and texted the guys who’d gone with us to North Crest. I told them to meet me in the morning. We had things to discuss. After that, I shot Langston and Trent a similar message.

I dozed for an hour, then slipped out of bed so as not to wake Avery. After the stress of that dream, she needed all the rest she could get.

The clock in the kitchen read 5:45 in the morning, and the horizon was the faint gray that indicated the sun would soon be rising. I glanced down at the responses from the texts I’d sent earlier. Everyone had agreed to be at my house at six. I waitedin the living room, sipping a cup of coffee, until I saw the first set of headlights turn into my driveway. It was followed by more headlights.

Marshall Lundy, one of the pack members, hopped out of his truck and closed the door. “Well, Cole, what’s up?”

I glanced around at all the pack members who’d already gone into battle with me once and grinned. “I’m going to be honest with you. I need to polish up my skills. I need to get better, andweneed to get better. I want to get us all on the same page and ready to take this bastard down. I plan on challenging Kyle for the pack.”

“A challenge?”a man at the back of the group called out. “Are you serious?”

Before I could respond, another set of headlights turned onto the driveway. Langston’s car. When he pulled up to the group and climbed from the cab, he grinned at the others.

“Is this what I think it is?” he asked.

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