Page 49 of Cruel Alpha Beast
“There she is,” Sawyer says as I approach the cluster of cat-o’-nine-tails poking up from the water.
The smile on his face feels inappropriate for the situation, but so does the fluttering in my stomach when I see him in all of his handsome glory. I have such a crush on my husband; it’s unreal.
I squeeze his hand as I walk past him, giving him a smile, then I throw my arms around both Monroe and Danielle, feeling them shake against me. When they finally let go, I sat down next to Greg on the grass.
“Okay, so what happened?” I ask.
Monroe heaves a sigh. “What didn’t happen?”
“After Violet left us in the forest yesterday,” Danielle starts, “she went out somewhere in the wilderness and… Well, she hurt herself, like I told you she would.”
“She came back into the village and, of course, what you’d hope would happen if you’re covered in bruises like that, happened,” Monroe cuts in. “Everyonewas concerned, and you could see on her face that she was really loving it.”
“Thisbitch—” Danielle throws the last word out toward the trees in case she’s out there, listening. “—starts doing what she threatened she would. She tells everyone that one of thealphas from the valley saw her innocently picking flowers in the forest and accused her of making some sort of anti-wolf potion to get rid of you guys.”
Monroe rolls her eyes. “She said that your husband attacked her unprovoked. But then she said that Dani and I walked in on it—you, too, of course. She even said that you told your husband to attack her because you’re atraitor.”
“I’m getting sick of her using that word to describe me,” I sigh.
“Tell me about it,” Danielle grumbles. “While everyone’s fawning all over her, making sure she’s okay, she starts really smearing all of our names, trying to turn everyone against us. And it was working. I mean, I don’t think they all fell for it, but enough were convinced.”
“We kept hearing footsteps outside of our house all night,” Monroe says, shivering. “Whispers outside of our windows, too. We spent all night in fear that someone would hurt us for covering for one wolf.”
I see Sawyer looking down at the ground from the corner of my eye. I can tell he feels terrible for making me bring him, but how could we have expected our visit to have such a catastrophic outcome?
Monroe notices his response, as well. She steps forward and looks at Sawyer. “We don’t blame you for this.”
“No, this is one hundred percent on that absolute lunatic,” Danielle adds. “I mean, I stand by what I said to you, Lacey—bringing him into the coven was a risky move—but at its worst, it shouldn’t have ended like this.”
“Anyway, after the human footsteps left,” Monroe continues, “we heard something…inhuman, pacing aroundoutside. It sounded like an animal, but not like anything we’ve heard out here before.”
Sawyer’s eyebrows perk up at this. “Did you see it?”
“It was staring at me through the window.” Monroe shakes her head, her eyes closed shut at the memory. “It was like it was made out of smoke, but it was sofearsome. It had sharper fangs than you guys in your wolf forms. And it walked on all fours.”
“Not quite a wolf, not quite a bear, either?” Sawyer asks.
Monroe’s eyes widen, and she nods fervently. “That’s exactly what it was like!”
“Before it could do anything, Penelope came out of nowhere and shot her radiant light at the thing, and it practically imploded,” Danielle says. “Apparently, there were a bunch more around, and she was able to take care of them all.”
“She was so tired, so weak,” Monroe mutters. “She had to lie down before she could answer us.”
“Your Penelope is one formidable witch,” Sawyer says, looking genuinely impressed with the older lady. “I’m glad she’s getting rest. She fucking needed it, last I saw her.”
“I hope she feels better soon. We need her more than ever, now.” Tears leak from Monroe’s eyes. “Still, she was able to give us some literature before she fell asleep. She said there might be some vital information inside of these that will help.”
Just then, she crouches down by the backpack and unzips it, pulling out three large tomes, one at a time, handing one to me, another to Danielle, keeping the third to herself.
I look up at Sawyer and offer him a hopeful smile. “We’ll keep doing some research, while you guys figure out a game plan?”
Sawyer turns to look at Jasper, Ellis, and then back around to find Greg at my side. “Yeah, you can count on us. We’ll figure something out.”
***
The walk home is heavier, both emotionally and physically, now that I’m carrying this large book. As much as Jasper and Ellis wanted to shift and run back to our house, they decided to use their human legs with the rest of us, but didn’t complain as much as I thought they would.
Probably because they have the future on their minds as much as the rest of us do.
