Page 36 of Ruthless Alpha
I found neither, but I eventually emerged by a winding stream. When I dipped my muzzle into the water, it was cold, crisp, and perfect. The mountain, which must have been its source, loomed in the distance, imposing against the clear sky and blanketed by the same dark trees that surrounded me. The mountain might look stark and dangerous, but the water that ran off it was sweet and cool. Perhaps the people of Ensign were like that, too; the women I’d met in the laundry had been hard-edged, but they’d helped me.
I was so lost in thought that I didn’t register the rustling behind me until it was too late. A grizzled brown wolf burst out of the trees, landing almost on top of me, its teeth bared. Instinctively, I showed him my neck, trying to convince him that I wasn’t a threat, but he seemed to know that already, because he shifted almost instantly.
The man looked no friendlier than the wolf; his body was littered with scars, his hair tangled and unkempt, and there was a sneer on his face as he regarded me.
“Shift,” he ordered.
I didn’t want to. If I shifted back, I would be as naked as he was, exposed and vulnerable.
“Shift,” he growled again. His canines lengthened with the command, and he was far from an Alpha, but he was still big enough to take me out without a second thought. My wolf could do nothing to protect herself but run, and I was certain he’d catch us in a matter of moments. My only chance was to shift and—what? Try to convince him to leave me alone?
My wolf retreated with enormous reluctance, leaving me in my human skin again, shivering in the cold and horribly aware of the new male’s eyes on my body.
“I’m not a stranger, I promise!” I cried the moment language returned to me. “I’m—”
“I know who you are,” he interrupted. He didn’t meet my gaze or even raise his eyes from where they were fixed on my bare breasts. “You’re the Alpha’s little live-in whore. Does he know you’re out here all alone?”
“I—yes, yes, he knows,” I replied immediately, but the male only smiled, showing his yellowing teeth.
“You need to get better at lying, pretty girl.”
He took a step toward me, and my legs turned to lead.
“Please,” I begged, “just let me go and I won’t tell—”
“Oh, I want him to know. He took my prize from me, so I’m going to take his right back.”
His hands were on me before I knew what was happening, and my nose was assaulted by his awful dirt and meat scent. I tried to push him away, to create enough space to shift again and try to run, but he was holding my arms to my sides and shoving a leg between my thighs. I could feel his excitement against my stomach, and it made me feel sick.
My magic, like my wolf, was out of reach—I didn’t have my sword, didn’t know how to channel my magic without it. I tried to reach down to find it within myself, but my mind was panicked and frantic. As a last-ditch effort, I bit him hard on the bicep. I tasted blood, but the man only laughed as he tried to force my legs further apart. I was going to die out here. Xander was going to find my ruined body polluting this stream, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Then my vision went gray. My attacker was torn away from me, grappling with a huge ball of gray fur and teeth that shifted in mid-air to become a man: Cole.
“What the fuck, Harris?” Cole shouted, standing over the now bloodied form of my attacker.
“She’s out here unprotected. What’s your problem?” Harris spat back, cradling one torn-up arm with the other. “Finders keepers.”
“You think you’re entitled to touch the Alpha’s property? You want the shit kicked out of you again, huh?” Cole taunted, and Harris’s lip curled in a snarl.
“I just wanted to show him—”
“You can show him your neck next training and maybe he’ll take pity on you,” Cole snapped. “Get out of here.”
My heart was still in my throat as I watched Harris limp from the clearing, bleeding profusely from the ragged wound on his arm and another on his upper thigh. He shot me a poisonous look as he left, and I wished that Cole had killed him.
“Get up,” Cole barked, and I scrambled to my feet. I tried to thank him, but he hardly let me get a word in.
“Shift now and we’ll go back to the Alpha’s residence,” he said. “I bet you’ll stay there from now on, won’t you, you stupid bitch.”
Then he was a wolf again, his yellow eyes fixed on me. I was still shaking as I called my wolf, relieved to let her take our skin and carry us back through the forest, back toward our prison.
Chapter 17 - Xander
I was frantic by the time I saw Cole and Rosie padding up to the front door. The house had been cold and empty when I returned from training, and I was riddled with guilt for leaving Rosie without so much as a goodbye that morning. I’d imagined we might talk, I might sit her down and gently guide her through confessing an issue that was easily solved. I pictured taking her in my arms again and cherishing the softness of her body where it pressed against my own.
I’d been stupid to even imagine it. I knew she was gone the moment I stepped inside: she’d left the back door open, and a chill wind was blowing through the house. Her clothes were left in a pile on the back porch, and her scent was all over the bushes that encircled the yard. She’d clearly left of her own free will, but even if she never wanted to see me again, I had to know she was safe. My wolf was snarling and snapping inside me, demanding the return of his mate, and I couldn’t have agreed more.
I hurtled back through the house and out the front; I wouldn’t be able to track her exact path, but surely I could pick up her scent if I went around to the other side of the thicket that surrounded my yard. If I could find her exit point, that would besomething.
