Page 6 of Search for the Alpha

Before she could open her mouth, the dialling tone rang through her ear. The bastard had hung up.

Tossing the phone onto the bed, Lacey closed her eyes and cradled her head in her hands. Shit. She’d recognised that tone before. Sam wanted results.

And what Sam wanted, Sam got.

Whether it was the easy way or the hard way, it didn’t matter to him. Only the results did.

Which meant if she wanted to save her skin, she needed to as well.

Swallowing down all her emotions, Lacey rose to her feet, slipped onto her shoes, and grabbed her bag. Her gut had never been wrong before, it wouldn’t be now. She knew exactly where she needed to go.

* * *

“Why, hello there, doll. Back again so soon?”

Lacey offered a big smile to the skeletal-faced woman behind the counter as she placed a bottle of water in front of her, along with a packet of chips. She really couldn’t afford to waste money on snacks, but still, a girl had to eat. “Sure am. I’m really sorry to bother you again but you’re the best person I can think of that could help me.”

The old woman rose to her feet, her bones creaking as she started ringing up Lacey’s purchase. “How so?”

Lacey handed her a five-dollar bill. “Are there any brothers and sisters around here? Without parents around?”

Handing back the change, the other woman paused, a contemplative expression painting her features. “Maybe,” she said, drawing out the word slowly. “There’s the Forest siblings.”

“Forest?”

“A rather handsome young man and his sister. Outsiders. They moved into Deepcut a few months ago,” she said, mentioning the name of a town maybe ten, fifteen miles east of Whiteridge. “A polite young man and girl, if a little standoffish. I never got their names though, and I only saw them once at the grocery store with my sister who works there.”

Hope swam in Lacey’s gut as she pocketed her change. Thank goodness for nosey small town gossips. And there was nowhere better to start finding them than at the nearest convenience store. “You wouldn’t happen to know where they live by any chance?”

The older woman seemed to think for a long moment and then shrugged, making the baggy shirt slip several inches down her arm. She hitched it back up again. “Somewhere out in the woods I think, but I couldn’t tell you where exactly. There are a dozen cabins throughout, miles apart from each other. That’s why I call them the Forest siblings – because they live in the forest.”

That’s a good place to start! Werewolves wouldn’t stand to be in town. They needed the scents of the forest in their noses, the wind flowing through their fur, and the feel of the earth beneath their paws. No self-respecting werewolf would be caught dead in the city, not with its endless pollution, the reek of car fumes and oil, greasy food, and the constant din of traffic and human noise. She, on the other hand, freaking loved every part of it. Especially after living in a boring old mining town in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by painful memories.“No problem. Thanks for the help.”

Just as Lacey turned to go, the woman behind the counter grabbed her wrist. Emotion pulled her mouth tight, but Lacey couldn’t identify it. “Be careful,” she said in a loud whisper. “It’s dangerous in them woods for townies like yourself.”

For a split second, all Lacey could do was stand there, her mouth slightly agape. The woman’s eyes blazed with hidden meaning, but what, Lacey couldn’t put her finger on.

Gently pulling her wrist free from the woman’s grasp, her face still begging for her to understand what she was trying to say, Lacey inhaled and stepped back. Those blue eyes followed her, never losing their fix on Lacey’s face as she backed down the aisle. Every cell in her body screamed for her to get the hell out of that place, to get in her broken, rusted-ass vehicle, and leave, the job be damned. Her blood ran cold in her veins as she turned and stepped through the door, her hand clinging to the bag containing her chips and water, the bell overhead ringing, as she gave into that urge, that need to get away from the woman overwhelming.

The sun poured down upon her, the rays stroking her arms, like a parent trying to warm up a child just in from the cold.

But no matter how long Lacey stood there, standing beneath the sun, it couldn’t chase away the chill in her veins, nor did it settle the churning nausea in the pit of her stomach.

Something told her the old woman was right.

This place really was bad news for her.

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