Page 28 of Claimed By Two Alphas

I sighed. This was on me. I had to be the one to apologize for taking my anger out on him. Shane hadn’t deserved that. “I’m sorry for being short with you.”

He looked up at me, surprised. “Are you apologizing to me?”

“That’s what I’m sorry means.” I smiled, determined to get him out of his funk. “My fault. My bad.” I frowned. “Does anyone say my bad anymore?”

Shane completely ignored what I’d just said to him. “You know, I’m already dealing with enough, Joshua.” He finally sat back and tossed an arm over the back of the wooden bench, and then he stared up at the sky. “I’m mated to two stubborn alpha wolf shifters. Now I’m pretty sure I’m knocked up. I know I haven’t been the best coworker because of my headaches.” He made quote signs with his fingers. “Now Delvin is in there probably reading Janie the right act, again, all because of me.”

“We both know she did that shit on purpose, both times,” I said, not ready to let that go. “She could have just talked to you about what was going on in her head.”

“I don’t need the added stress,” Shane went on, mowing right over my words. “I don’t need the people I work with hating me, even if the countdown to my leave of absence has already started and I won’t be here to help them. You and Delvin own the place, so you guys don’t care, but I have to work side by side with them.”

“What do you mean we don’t care?” I finally sat down next to him, and Shane pulled his arm from behind me, placing it in his lap. “We care about our employees. Didn’t you hear me tell Janie that she takes an hour for her breaks or that I know she’s on her phone when she’s working? Hell, we even paid her when she took leave for her sick mom.”

“But no one sees that,” Shane argued. “No one thinks about that when they see how you and Delvin treat me on a daily basis.” His face scrunched up. “It’s glaringly obvious, Joshua. You two hover near me all the time. You were doing it even before this thing between us happened.”

This thing between us? I wasn’t sure how to take that. What we shared was so profound to me, sacred. With the way Shane phrased it, as if this thing was nothing more than us dating, I wasn’t sure how to take that. “What we have runs deep.”

Shane nodded. “I know, but you two have to remember that I have to work with these people, that I don’t want to be a pariah at work. Janie’s never been easy to work with, but I was dealing with it.”

“She knocked you into a table, Shane. She made you hit your stomach.” I placed a hand over his abdomen. “Right where our baby is nestled. Do you know how badly I wanted to rip her fucking heart out for that? My wolf tried to break free, tried to attack her. I had to fight it back to keep it leashed.”

His head jerked up, his eyes rounded, as he stared at me. “I swear I was fine. I wouldn’t have lied to you about that.”

“That’s not the point, babe.” I moved my hand away. “My wolf saw it as an attack on our pregnant mate. It wanted to destroy her. Then she dumped a pitcher of beer all over you. Tell me that’s not petty. Tell me she wasn’t acting childish.” I cupped his face. “You mean the world to me and my brother. Don’t you get that?”

The door opened, and a few people walked out, chatting and laughing and not paying any attention to us. After they drove off in separate cars, the night seemed darker, more eerie. I wasn’t sure why, either. The hairs along my arm prickled. My wolf snarled low and deep.

“We need to get inside.”

“I just need a few more minutes,” Shane said.

“We need to get inside,” I repeated as I stood.

Shane looked up at me, probably saw the stress on my face, and stood. “What’s going on, Joshua?”

I didn’t have time to answer him. Something hard hit the back of my head. Right before I went down, I heard Shane screaming.

* * * *

Shane

I was downright livid. The handsome bastard had once again hijacked me. Only this time he hadn’t sent someone else to grab me. He’d done it himself. Nezat.

I could admit to myself that he was gorgeous.

For a demon.

But his heart was as black as the night surrounding us. You could see the evilness bleeding from those amazing blue eyes. They were cold and empty as he walked toward me. “You’re my last hope, Shane.”

“For what?” I asked. He hadn’t even bothered to restrain me. I stood in the middle of some bedroom, which was nice, by the way. Gauzy curtains slightly billowing. A huge Victorian bed in the middle of the room. Soft-looking carpet under my feet. There were also hundreds of lit candles on every flat surface.

Was he…was he trying to be romantic? Was Nezat trying to set the mood? I wanted to laugh and hurl in both measures. He terrified the crap out of me, and I wasn’t foolish enough to mouth off to him, but this was downright ridiculous. Only a crazy person kidnapped someone against their will and brought them to a romantic setting. Did he think this atmosphere would change my mind about sleeping with him? I knew what Nezat wanted from me.

To make babies with me so he could form some kind of army to take over mankind. I’d met some pretty zealous people in my day. Guys who thought the world of themselves, others who wanted to fight for every cause out there. Of course, I’d heard those plans in people’s thoughts. No one had ever said them out loud around me.

But Nezat had to take the cake. He had enough bats in his belfry, flapping their wings and making bat noises, to prove this guy was insane.

“You’re my last hope to enact my plans.” Nezat stopped pacing and stood in front of me. I could feel his wickedness seeping all over me, like some black oil, sticky and nauseating. I’d never been a religious man, to my parents’ disappointment. But Nezat’s appearance was making me rethink my stance on religion because I was praying like hell to get out of this alive.

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