My Female Alpha

FORTY THREE

lenora

"What the fuck did you do?" Ara yells at me. She crouches beside the girl I clawed.

Everyone else glares at me.

"I don't know," I say, feeling the faux earnestness harden my face. "I'm sorry."

"Fuck," Ara curses. "Can you stand up, Amelia?"

The woman huffs in frustration. "I don't know. It hurts like a bitch."

Ara and one of the men support Amelia under her armpits and lift her. She balances on her good foot, gently testing the other. As soon as she puts any weight on it, she screams.

"I can't!" she cries. "I can't walk on it."

"You're carrying her," Ara growls at me. "You're slowing us all way the fuck down, Lenny. You know that?"

"It was an accident," I mumble as I wrap an arm around Amelia's waist. She hisses at me but doesn't retaliate.

Everyone else shifts back but she and I. They walk at our human pace. I can feel the aggravation emanating from Ara. I bite my lip to stymie the smile at my success.

We walk for hours before the smell of smoke finds us. Ara shifts and calls one of the guys.

"Go check out the camp," she tells him before eyeing me with suspicion.

He takes off. We continue walking, Amelia grunting with each step. She's not heavy but she's clearly making me take the majority of her weight. I keep my grip tight around her so I don't get bitched at again. The closer we get to the camp, the heavier the smoke becomes. It starts to cloud the air and burn at my eyes.

The scout comes sprinting back. He shifts right away.

"It's all burnt down," he tells her. "There's nothing left."

"What?" Ara demands. "What the fuck do you mean there's nothing left? Were there bodies?"

My heart quickens. Is this Denver's handiwork? Did he get Emery out?

"No bodies," the scout says, "but I can't catch a scent trail from all the smoke. I can't track where everyone went."

As Ara snarls and gnashes her teeth, I find some sliver of satisfaction in her suffering. She deserves worse than this, but this will do for now.

"Emery is gone?" I ask.

"Everyone is gone," he repeats.

I could kill Ara now since there are so few to defend her, but, for all I know, this was caused by some asshole's cigarette and the rest of the rogues still have Emery. I can't risk it.

While I'm thinking through this, Ara marches over to me and shoves a finger in my face. I jerk back and Amelia cries out.

"If I find out you had anything to do with this," Ara growls, "I'll kill her."

"She's your mate now too," I spit back.

"You think that means anything to me?"

I lean forward now as she is, our noses almost touching. "I know it means something to you. You would've already killed her."

"I was using her, Lenny. I don't give a fuck about that right now. Not if she's gone and at the root of this." Her eyes flicker down to her lips. "If she is, then I'll kill you."

I just smile. I'd like to see her try. She twists away with more curses and orders three of the group to go scout. Amelia whimpers against me.

"We should take a break," I say. "Amelia needs to rest."

Arabella turns back on us. "I don't give a fuck! We can leave her here for all I care. We need to move now." She shifts and takes off.

Amelia grabs my shirt suddenly like she expects me to just drop her.

"I won't just leave you," I assure her. I also don't want to be left with her. "I'm going to shift and you can climb on. Okay? Then we can try to keep up."

She nods with teary eyes. I feel bad only in that moment for injuring her. If my mate is safe, I don't care who I have to hurt in the process. That being said, I'm not going to just leave Amelia out here alone. I'm not the monster that Arabella is.

Amelia painfully mounts my back and then we're off after the others. The wolves who lingered to make sure I didn't flee follow us. We trail behind Ara, hardly following her through the dense smoke. Our direction changes away from the camp and in a completely new way. I wonder if Arabella is just blindly running. She seems more than just frantic to find the others. She seems scared.

Who has the power to scare her?

I think about the man in the white Cadillac. He gave Arabella money for the food. He said he'd cut her off until the job was done.

What job? Was it to finish off the other packs? That seems unreasonable. There's no way Arabella and her rogue pack were the only ones attacking packs, anyway. There are many wolves under her control but not enough to wreak so much havoc. She's not working alone. I know it.

We stop running when the sun goes down. The scouts haven't found us and we haven't hooked on to any scents. We're all tired and hungry. Amelia's foot has mostly healed but she still doesn't like to walk on it. We eat out of two of the cans I got from the store of beans and corn. Split between the four of us, it's not enough to make anyone satisfied but Ara refuses to let us open any more cans.

The others shift to sleep in their wolf forms, but Ara moves away from them and leans against a tree. She stares up through an opening in the trees, looking at the stars. I move to stand beside her and cross my arms. She doesn't spare me a glance.

"What's the job you need to do?" I ask her.

"What?" She looks at me, her eyes clouded with over thoughts.

"That man in the Cadillac. What is it he's making you do?"

Her mouth pulls into a line. She looks more haggard right now than I have ever seen her. She looks weak. I'm certain I don't look any better, but I don't have wolves waiting on my command right now.

"Why should I tell you anything?" she says. "Everything has gotten so fucked up."

"Because I'm stuck here. I might as well know what's going on." I clear my throat. "And you know my background. I'm not useless."

Ara runs her tongue over her lips. "Let's take a walk, shall we?"