Page 18 of Alpha's Claim

“Yeah. I’ll call her.” I said softly. “We can’t meet again today, it would be too risky. We said we were gonna talk tonight anyways.” I said, leaning back and brushing my hair out of my eyes.

“Yeah. I’m gonna get out of here so you can make that call and I can get a leg up on dinner.” She said, standing and patting my shoulder awkwardly. “I’ll see you later. Preferably tonight, I want to know everything.” She smiled. I nodded at her as she left.

“See you,” I said, my voice sounding distracted even to me.

Once I was alone I took a little tour around my house to make sure that I was truly alone before I went to my office to settle in and make the call. Before I dialed her number I got out some paper and a pen so I could write down anything I might need to.

“Cora,” I said, feeling lighter once I got her on the phone. “Oh my God I need to talk to you.”

“I need to talk to you too. I just found some stuff out and I really need to talk to you about it.” She replied. Her voice was a little faster than usual. “What do you need to talk about?” She sounded like she actually cared about what I was saying.

“When I got back here there was another Alpha here wanting to talk to me. She said there’s an alliance forming to take out the Onyxfang pack. They wanted me to join, but I don’t know what to do. Like on one hand, I can’t fight you. I won’t. On the other hand, I don’t want my pack to be servants for your father either. I can’t stand the idea of forcing my pack to be less than and give up money we could use to better our own lives to your father.” She was silent on the other end of the phone and I felt my stomach sinking in the face of her wordlessness on the other side of the phone. I had almost gotten to the point of repeating her name to see if she was still there.

“Okay.” She said simply, waiting a brief moment before I heard her breathe in sharply. “I can’t deal with that right at this moment. We should talk face-to-face tomorrow.” She finished. I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding.

“For sure.” Talking face to face felt like the best thing to do so nothing got twisted without facial expressions- especially about this. I knew she had issues with her family and her pack but they were still hers. She would have some kind of attachment to them.

“Alright, I really need to go through this with you right now while I can. It’s really important for a few reasons.” She said, her voice soft and breathy. She didn’t want anyone to overhear her. That set me on edge- with someone from her pack attacking her and now this secrecy I was very sure that something was wrong over there. I had to fight my urge to run to her and keep her safe.

“What’s going on? Are you safe?” I asked. “Because to be honest I’m really trying over here to not rush to you right now. I just need to know you’re safe.”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll come to you tomorrow. But listen- you remember that weird grove?” Of course I did. How could I forget a moment with her? “That place has actual, real magic. Some kind of magic that my pack has been using for who knows how long to maintain their power. I overheard my father talking about it to Preston. I’ve got it all down on a memory card and I want you to keep it until I confront my father.” She swallowed audibly. “There’s a curse that might be triggered if we aren’t careful and my attack was too close to it. The power can turn on whoever is using it. It could turn on me.”

“What do you need from me?” I asked softly.

“Just be there tomorrow when I come to you.” She said.

“I will be.” I looked down at the notepad, blank in front of me. “I promise.”

Chapter eighteen

Cora

ThenextmorningIfound myself anxious and off-kilter. I was still in pain from the attack- I would heal in a shorter time than a human would, but I couldn’t heal from the damage done to me in a matter of two days. It was a major concern for me trying to just leave the house to see my mate. The fact that I couldn’t feel safe even at my own home, couldn’t even leave without wondering if I would be followed and ambushed again, absolutely killed me. There was nobody I could trust around me right now- not with total certainty. As I prepared to leave with the card to go to Weston I felt watched.

I had attempted to leave several times but pivoted back due to that feeling of the hair standing up on the back of my neck. After an hour of trying to leave, I steeled myself against the feeling and headed out the door. I didn’t make it far.

It seemed like the moment I was out of sight of the estate I was hit. He hit me in the ribs, the injured ribs, and I went down heavily. I gasped and grabbed myself around the middle, trying to cradle the pain away. When I forced my head up I locked eyes with Preston Banks and the fury inside me raged into an inferno. How dare he- how dare this sniveling little asshole attack me? Twice. The worst part was when he dragged me up by my arm there was nothing that I could do to fight him off and I knew that. I was injured. He had injured me. Preston was the reason that I was vulnerable and afraid. I had never hated him as much as I did in that moment.

“Where are you off to again, you little bitch?” He hissed, yanking me toward him. I pushed him off me with my free arm, but I wasn’t able to get away. Even if I had he would catch me before I got away fully. I wasn’t stupid. Weak, for the moment, but not stupid.

“Why would I tell you, you pathetic little man? How strong you must feel, ambushing someone half your size twice.” I sneered at him. Wit was really the only thing I could fight with at this point, but I refused to go down without at least insulting him one last time.

“Go. Walk.” He said. I could see that in his free hand, he held a knife. A chill ran down my spine, but I didn’t let on that I was afraid. As we walked in silence I thought hard about what my options were. What he might do to me. There were so many outcomes I could envision and so many more I was sure I couldn’t. I wasn’t the type of person to kidnap someone and drag them into the forest. Apparently Preston was. It was a terrifying to know that this man had watched me grow up and now he was leading me to what I could only assume was my death.

I didn’t speak up much as we walked. There was nothing I could say that would change his mind so I had to focus on how to get out of this situation. Physically he was larger and stronger than me, even when fully shifted. I was injured in the ribs, so running wasn’t much of an option. Without being able to breathe I wouldn’t be able to make it far enough away from him to get away. He would be able to smell me to track me so I couldn’t blitz him and run away effectively either. My phone was in the bag I had over my shoulder but I couldn’t reach it to call anyone. My father wouldn’t expect me to be out so it would be hours before he realized I was gone. He probably would have noticed Preston being gone before me.

“What’s the point of this, Preston?” I asked, my voice coming out sounding exhausted and listless. “Why not just kill me and be done with it?” I asked, keeping my eyes forward. His grip on my bicep tightened and I did my best not to flinch from the pain.

“What’s the point? Honestly, Cora. I always thought you were pretty smart.” He crowed. I could hear the victory in his voice. “It’s for all the obvious reasons.” That wasn’t surprising. Preston was nothing if not basic.

“I thought maybe for once you had an original thought in your head, that’s all.” I said back, sighing heavily. “You know, something other than a blatant power grab. Exactly how are you going to explain my absence to my father?” I was genuinely curious about that part. My father may not notice my absence for a few hours, but he’d certainly know if I vanished forever. Just before he answered it dawned on me that he was going to blame Weston.

“I know you have a connection with the Silverstreak pack. I don’t know what it is. I can guess, but I honestly don’t care.” He replied. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that your connection will work quite well in my favor. I know you’ve been sneaking off to see them- that Alpha, what’s his name? Wesley?” I didn’t answer to correct him. He didn’t deserve my time or responses. He didn’t deserve to speak Weston’s name. “It doesn’t matter. You’ve been spending time with him- that’s what matters. Your father will be all too willing to let the consequences fall on him.”

“I’m sure you’ve set up plenty of evidence, Preston.” I said, keeping pace with him as painful as it was. I was weak but I didn’t want to seem it.

“I think, if I’m not wrong, this little boy is your mate.” Preston was looking to get a rise out of me and I just couldn’t give him the pleasure. I just rolled my eyes at him.

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