My Female Alpha

FIFTY EIGHT

tw: violence, blood

lenora

My pulse slams in my ears like a train soaring off the tracks. I take the curve going into town a bit too sharply and the Jeep groans with the effort it takes to keep the tires down. I don't slow down. Soon, the brick buildings of Lemley come into view. It's almost ten o'clock, which is like midnight in a small, southern town. The streets are deserted, the fluorescent street lamps burning annoyingly bright. My tongue writhes against the inside of my teeth and it tastes like blood. I must have bitten my cheek or something but it's already healed.

I know I should pause, take a breath, and think through what I'm about to do. I don't have a plan. I don't even know if I'll find Calla at that house again. If I hesitate, though, I'll remember the crushed look on Emery's face and turn right back around. I can't do that. I can't go running back to her because her feelings are hurt. She has to understand that the wolf community is not like the human world. If I don't destroy my enemies now, they'll come back to bite me in the ass—just like they have now.

I won't stand for my enemies to stay alive any longer. Emery's desire to keep this human and rogue alive has softened me to my standard procedure. It wasn't so long ago that I was a ruthless killer who decimated Alphas trying to steal my title or prevent me from attaining it.

I've grown soft.

Growling, I slam the pedal to the floor. The old white Victorian comes into view and I slow the Wrangler to survey the driveway. I roll down the windows and focus my hearing on the house.

It's dark—almost midnight now—but the soft peal of voices from inside brushes against my ears.

I park down the road by a neighbor's house, just in case this doesn't go the way I plan. Pulling my muscles together, I prowl through the woods between the houses until I reach the yard.

The house is mostly unlit in the late-night darkness except for a dim porch lamp. I tread silently across the stretch of yard to the porch and circle the house.

The rogue's rotten fruit stench stings at my nose until my eyes water. The softer smell of humans mingles with his, fresh.

My lucky day, I think with a grim smile. A two-for-one special.

After I've circled the house, I've determined that the voices are coming from a bedroom on the second floor. I position myself under it and listen closely.

"—Kansas town. They're just waiting for direction." The rogue's deeper, rumbling voice gives him away. "You can come with me. The longer you're here, the longer you risk that bitch coming after you."

My hands curl into fists. Oh, there will be no escaping me now. It'll be more difficult for me to capture them both by myself, but I can make do.

"But what about everyone else?" cries Calla. Her pitchy tone grates against my ears.

Everything about this pestilent girl makes me want to shift and rip her limb from limb. An old burning violence simmers in my bones, the beast in me beckoned. She's proven herself a threat to my mate and my pack, and that is all the justification I need to remove her existence from the planet.

"They'll be fine," he tries to assure her. "You hate it here anyway, right? You've been stuck in this fucking town for too long. You know it."

A quiet spell follows until she says, "I don't know. My parents will think I've lost my mind."

"Who gives a shit what they think? You outgrew this town and all the little minds in it. Come on."

"And what am I supposed to do?" she says, her voice a bit sharper now. "I'm not a . . . animal. I'm not like you. How the hell will I fit in or keep up?" There's quiet before she adds, "This is not the life I want. I don't want to do this."