Page 61 of Wolf Unleashed
“You can’t,” Rafe said. “We’re a family. You and me, Maddox, Tiernan. We love you.”
“I don’t know what we had, Rafe, but it wasn’t normal. You have animals inside of you. Maybe after my parents get rid of my wolf, they can do the same for you.”
“Never,” Maddox said, his anger startling her. She backed away from the bars, too far for Rafe to reach her now. He needed that contact. His wolf craved it, enough that he knew they were meant to be together despite her words.
“I want to be normal again. My dad got rid of my mother’s wolf, and once he gets rid of mine, we can be a family again. I haven’t had that for a long time. I’m not asking for much. Just my family.”
“I understand they’re your parents, Alyssa,” Tiernan said, “But you can’t destroy your wolf. She’s a part of you. It will change you.”
She shook her head. “It didn’t change my mother. I never wanted this thing inside of me. I’m sorry, Tiernan. I don’t want to be like you, with a wolf influencing my decisions, driving me to do things I wouldn’t otherwise do. I want to be normal.”
“Having a wolf is part of you, but they trapped her, babe. That’s why you’ve felt off your whole life. They did this to you, and they’ll make it worse by killing your wolf. Don’t let them do this. Don’t listen to their lies.”
“My mother would never lie to me. And my father…” Her smile filled her face when she talked about Woodrow Monroe. “I never realized he’s just been trying to save me all along. Once my wolf is gone, they’ll free you. I told them how you saved me at the DSA, how I owe you.”
“You’re buying their lies,” Maddox said, a low growl coming through with his words. “Think for yourself, angel. This isn’t you.”
She leaned into the bars again and reached through, caressing Maddox’s cheek. “This is me, Maddox. They told me everything. They’re not bad people. They’re just trying to help shifters get rid of the beasts controlling them. You’ll see. I’ll be a better person, a full human, when this is over. Cheer up, guys. This is really for the best. For everyone.”
As Alyssa walked away, Maddox and Tiernan shouted after her to resist, to not buy into their lies. Rafe sank to the floor and thrust his head into his hands, too shocked to think straight. He had to find a way to stop her before she let them destroy her wolf.
Cement. Iron bars. Guards. It seemed impossible, but there had to be a way out.
“I don’t believe what she just said,” Tiernan said. “It was an act. It had to be.”
“Believe it,” Maddox said. “I felt what she was feeling through the bond. Hatred, fear. She said it from the beginning that she had a shifter in her and she feared it. It was the only reason she agreed to blood-bond you, Tiernan. She told me she hoped blood-bonding you would quiet her wolf. She didn’t know what she was doing, but she knew what she wanted. To be rid of her wolf.”
“How the fuck can you say that about her? How could you turn on her like this?” Tiernan said.
Rafe watched the two shifters. Muscles began to move on their backs. If they shifted and fought, Maddox would shred Tiernan. For as fast and light on his feet as Tiernan’s wolf was, he would not maneuver well in this small space, and Maddox’s wolf was larger, a trained fighter.
“Enough!” Rafe roared.
When both of the shifters faced him, silent, as if waiting for guidance, Rafe knew what he had to do. He grabbed Maddox from behind in a neck lock, so he’d be in position the second Maddox tried to shift. And he would try to shift.
“What the fuck, Rafe?” Maddox protested as he struggled against his hold. Maddox hadn’t seen it coming. He had trusted Rafe, which amazed Rafe, but still, it didn’t alter what had to be done.
“Tiernan,” Rafe ordered. “Shift and kill Maddox.”
* * *
ALYSSA
Alyssa’s stomachknotted as the guards led her to her father’s office in the last building. The emotions coming across the bond were erratic. She understood Maddox’s feeling of betrayal. Lying to them had been beyond hard, but she’d schooled her features to fool them and the guards. The hurt she’d felt along with the sense of betrayal had left her shaking. She didn’t want to hurt them, but she had to make them believe, to put on a show for the guards and everyone else who was watching. Rafe, Tiernan, and Maddox were a part of that show. If they didn’t believe her, then her parents wouldn’t either. And she needed the humans here to believe her, especially her parents.
“You look pale,” her mother greeted her when the guard held the door open for Alyssa to enter.
“I’m fine,” she said, sinking onto the green leather sofa across from the desk. “Where’s Father?”
“Tending to an issue in the lab with a shifter. When they don’t cooperate, he has to sedate them and some of them don’t tolerate the anesthesia well. Their wolves counter the drugs, necessitating high and higher doses.” Her mother talked as if they were lab rats.
“You’re color isn’t good. Didn’t you sleep well?”
“Nightmares,” Alyssa lied. “About wolves. One wolf. Silver.” She hadn’t had the means to research her mom’s pack in Louisiana, but the odds were they were silver wolves, or so she assumed from the majority of the wolves she’d seen in both Rafe’s and Tiernan’s packs.
“Did you know this wolf?”
“She felt familiar,” she replied, using ‘she’ intentionally. “I kept trying to get past her, but she blocked me every time.”
