Page 49 of The Denver Alpha

“You girls ready?” Kylie asks, approaching the rest of us with her shopping bag in hand.

We all mumble in the affirmative and head toward the exit. As we pass through, a beeping alarm sounds, the sensors positioned on either side of the door flashing red. I sigh in annoyance as I realize that the salesgirl must’ve forgotten to remove the alarm tag from one of our swimsuits. We all stop, looking back toward the clerk as she heads in our direction.

“Ladies, mind if I check your bags?” she asks with a friendly lilt to her voice, and we murmur our agreement.

She checks Kylie’s bag first, then Shay’s. My stomach grumbles in protest as I begrudgingly wait for her to finish so we can continue on to the coffee shop. I tap my foot impatiently while the salesgirl checks my bags, taking me by surprise when she suddenly pulls out two expensive looking bracelets that I swear I’ve never seen before in my life.

“You’ll need to come with me, Miss,” she says sternly, reaching out for my arm.

“What? No…” I breathe in shock, taking a step back before she can grab onto me. “I didn’t put those in there, I swear…”

The clerk frowns, clearly not believing a word coming out of my mouth. “We’ll see what the police have to say about that.” She catches me by the arm and begins towing me back into the store. I stumble as I follow, blinking at the other girls, completely caught off guard and at a loss for words.

“She said she didn’t do it!” Shay cuts in, jumping to my defense as she starts after us. “Can’t you just take those back and let her go? She paid for the swimsuits, she had no reason to steal anything…”

“Sorry, store policy,” the clerk chirps, brokering no room for argument.

This whole thing is such a shock that I have no idea what to do. I’ve never had a run-in with the law before. If this happened back home, it would be dealt with internally. Here, where the Denver pack blends in with the human population, a different set of rules applies- and I still don’t know what all of them are. I’m going to go ahead and assume that I can’t make a scene right now, though. I just need to cooperate until this is sorted out.

I’m sure that when the police get here, they’ll ask for my side of the story and realize this was all a big misunderstanding. That’s their job, right? To investigate crimes and find the truth? I’ve seen enough cop shows on TV. There’s no way they’ll arrest me for something I didn’t do.

But then the police arrive, and they don’t listen, either. They secure handcuffs around my wrists and lead me out to a squad car, tucking me in the back seat and driving me to the station. Tears prick the backs of my eyes as they lead me inside, because I still can’t believe this is happening. I feel so helpless for the first time in my life, scared and completely unprepared.

I knew the shift in our group’s dynamic this afternoon was too good to be true. Looks like Tayla might’ve found a way to get rid of me after all.

19

The police chief greets me as soon as I step into the station as if he’s been waiting on pins and needles for me to arrive. His loafers squeak against the linoleum floor as he rushes over, looking a bit frazzled and panting for breath. The man is in his mid-fifties, a little thick around the beltline and sporting a combover that gets sparser each time I see him, a telltale sign that he’s struggling to come to terms with the fact that he’s balding. He’s a little squirrely and high-strung, but the two of us have developed a good rapport over the years.

“Cole, nice to see you,” he breathes, sticking out a hand for me to shake. His palm is sweaty when I do. It’s probably my fault- the chief is anxious by nature, and I’m sure it didn’t help that I was a little harsher than normal when I got him on the phone. He also knows I don’t typically call in favors, which I assume is why he’s seeing to this one personally.

I knew something was wrong by the tone of Sam’s voice when he picked up Shay’s panicked phone call this afternoon, and my suspicions were confirmed when he passed his phone to me and she explained what happened. I’m not sure what snapped me into action quicker- my personal relationship with Juliet or needing to keep her out of trouble for the sake of the alliance- but either way, I didn’t waste any time in exploiting my connections to get ahold of the police chief to ask for a favor.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t quick enough to prevent Juliet from getting hauled into the station, though.

“I stepped in as soon as I got your call,” the chief provides, waving for me to follow him through the double-doors leading away from the lobby. “She hasn’t been booked, they just put her in an interview room to wait for you to get here. You said she was a friend’s sister?”

“Yeah, she’s not from around here,” I grumble as the chief leads me through a meandering series of hallways within the precinct.

“Just visiting?”

This is why I keep business and my personal life separate. I don’t like how many questions he’s asking, and I’m not sure if he’s just making conversation or if he’s genuinely curious. It wouldn’t be the first time Juliet has garnered unwanted attention. The last thing us shifters need is to draw the attention of outsiders.

“Starting classes at the U,” I reply, nearly running into the chief’s back when he stops abruptly outside of a door. Twisting the handle, he pushes it open.

“Miss Anderson, you’re free to go,” he says smoothly as he enters the room ahead of me.

As soon as I step inside behind him, Juliet’s eyes ping over his shoulder to meet mine, our gazes magnetized to one another’s. I hear the rush of breath as a sigh leaves her lips, see the relief written all over her face- she must not have known who was about to step through that door or that she was even being released rather than booked. The fact that they left her to sit in here by herself and worry pisses me the fuck off, but that’s not what’s important right now- my only priority is getting her out of here.

Juliet springs to her feet, stepping around the metal table situated in the center of the room and rushing toward us. I’m overcome with an urge to grab her, hold her, comfort her- but I’ve already shown too many of my cards by calling in this favor with the chief. All I offer her is a flick of my head to beckon her to follow as I back out of the room, allowing the chief to lead the two of us back through the station and to the lobby.

“Thanks,” I mutter to him when we reach the exit. “I trust this’ll all be taken care of?”

“Like it never happened,” the chief confirms.

I nod, then turn away and push the door open, signaling for Juliet to follow me out.

I stay a pace ahead of her as I cross the parking lot to my Camaro, leaving her to scamper behind to keep up. Neither of us say a word as we get in the car and pull away from the station. Not until we’re at least a block away, when it feels like some of the tension finally dissipates.

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