The Alpha
Almost immediately, Ben and I started lagging behind. Even with me pulling him forward, Ben's injured leg couldn't keep up.
"Go!" he forced out through his teeth, pain clear in his eyes. He tried pushing me forward, away from him but I refused to budge and it caused us to slow down even further.
"I am not leaving you, Ben," I snapped. "So, stop fighting me! Either we go home together or not at all."
We both knew that there was no way he could make in on his leg. Already Ben's strength was ebbing away, and I could smell his blood, even if I couldn't make myself look at his leg to see how bad it was bleeding. Ben wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer, I was surprised that he hadn't passed out yet.
"Tammy!" Ryan yelled, falling back towards us.
"Leave me," Ben said, begging me. "I won't drag you down with me."
"And I won't leave you to die," I asserted. The Lycans were closing in, toying with us when they could have caught us. I hated it.
"You don't have a choice," Ben replied, shoving me away. I fell into my brother's arms and they locked around me. "Get her out of here!" Ben demanded.
"No!" I screamed, struggled as my brother threw me over his shoulder and took off. I watched, desperate, as Ben stopped running and turned around, my glock in his hands. He was planning to fight, to hold out just long enough so we got away. I couldn't take it. My heart couldn't take it. I felt an episode waiting in the wings. "Ben!" Tears blurred my vision as Ryan ran, Ben shrinking and trees closing in on him. "Ryan, let me go!" I begged, still trying to get free. Unfortunately, my brother was stronger than I was. My hood kept bouncing up and down, occasionally covering my eyes. "Please," I cried hoarsely. My chest was burning, my heart straining and stressed.
"I'm sorry, Tamara," Ryan told me, worry in his voice. "But he'd never forgive me if I let you die with him and you know it."
Tears burned my eyes, I could no longer see Ben. "He won't die." I refused to believe that the boy who I was closer than anyone in the world would die. He simply wasn't allowed to.
Ryan skidded to a stop, unstable on his feet. I used it to knock him over and get free of his grasp, fully intending to run back and get Ben. I fell hard to the ground. I got up and got ready to run back. Then I saw why my brother stopped.
"It was a trap," I whispered solemnly. Foster, Ryan and I stared at a wall of Lycans waiting for us. "We were never going to make it."
"Trent," Foster said, cursing. "They've got Trent."
There, forced to his knees, was Trent, his face bloodied and eyes drooping. "They grabbed me," he wheezed out. "Before I could do anything, they grabbed me."
My chest felt tight. Dark spots skittered around the edges of my vision. They shoved Trent to us. The boys grabbed him and got him to his feet. We stood, shoulder to shoulder, unsure of what to do. Death ahead of us, dead behind us.
"We've got the last one," a voice said behind us. Two Lycan, toting Ben between them, came to join the others. They deposited him next to me and stepped back to join the circle the Lycan now formed around us. My chest loosened and my heart started to slow to a normal pace.
Not caring about any of that I dropped to my knees, grabbing Ben's face. "Ben," I whispered desperately. I checked his pulse. It was there, significantly weaker than normal, but there. "Ben? Come on, wake up?" I peeled back on of his eyelids back his pupil remained un-dilated. "Guys, he's not waking up." I could hear the panic in my voice.
Ryan put his hand on my shoulder, pulling me up, "He's still breathing for now." He didn't have to say that it wouldn't be something any of us would be doing for long.
"We were set up," I finally whispered, staring at the Lycans and wondering how many I could take down before they got me. "There's a traitor in the compound." Anger, hot and unchecked, swirled in my stomach.
"And no one there will ever know," Foster snarled. "If I ever get to find the bastard, I'm going to cut him into pieces."
"You'll have to wait in line," I hissed. Nobody messes with the people I love.
"I don't think you'll get the chance," Ryan said staring at the Lycans.
Just then I felt the temperature drop in the air around me. I've never known fear before, not like this. The Lycans in front of us stepped aside to allow a large wolf to stalk through into the circle. They closed ranks behind him.
"The Alpha." The words had escaped through my lips without warning, without explanation of how I knew who the wolf was. I just... knew. The boys, excluding Ben who was still out cold, looked at me in disbelief. "It's the Alpha," I confirmed for them, my voice was just the ghost of a whisper.
I spared another look at Ben, memorizing his face. If he had been conscious, I would have asked is we were still on for those milkshakes. He would have said yes, he would have lied to me and said that we would all be okay. He would lie to me so I wouldn't have to spend my final moments in fear.
I slipped my hand into Ryan's, squeezing it tightly. "I love you," I told him. I would not make the mistake of not saying it a second time.
My brother smiled sadly at me. "I love you, too." He hugged me close to his side. We were both pretending that the Alpha wasn't watching us with dark eyes. "I should have sent you back home."
I snorted delicately. Not mentioning how he'd tried, more than once. "I don't regret coming. I would do it again in a heartbeat and you know it."
I meant every word. I wouldn't have survived hearing that I'd lost the four of them all in one go. I knew their families. I knew Trent's girlfriend. She would be a wreck with him gone. They had planned to marry the moment she turned nineteen next month. Foster's mom had lost two kids already. I don't think she could handle losing a third, losing her youngest. And my father. Ryan and I were all he had left. And Ben's family, his little sisters...
It was for the best that I would not be among the grieving this time. At least this would be a far better death than the one that would have awaited me at the Compound. I would go out fighting. I would also do everything I could to make sure that one of the boys got out. The Compound had to know that we had a traitor.
The Alpha must have decided that we'd had enough time. His body began to tremble, tufts of fur receding and bones shifting, some growing longer while others shrunk. No more than three seconds had passed when suddenly the Alpha stood, as a man, in place of where the wolf had been.
I squeak, forgetting my training, and quickly shielded my eyes. "Could you please put on some clothes?" I requested.
"Now is not the time!" Ryan hissed angrily in my ear.
I pulled my hand away from my face just enough to shoot my brother an icy glare. "Then you can perv on him," I shot back. "But I would like my eyes to remain unsullied. Especially if we're going to die." Seriously, how awkward is it to watch someone kill you whilst naked?
Foster, being who he is, couldn't help himself and scoffed, "Please, we all know what a naughty girl you are!"
The Alpha let out a low growl at the same time that my brother yelled, "That is my little sister, you useless piece of trash!"
I knew that I should have just stayed silent but I couldn't let Foster have the last word. I mean, if we're about to die I simply can't let Foster have the last word. I just couldn't. "He only wishes he had some firsthand proof," I blurted how, disregarding the Lycans that surrounded us.
"You bet I do," Foster smirked, giving me a flirtatious wink.
The Alpha let out a second growl, this one was thunderously loud and spine straightening. It didn't fail to silence us. I was tempted to lower my hand to look at the Alpha in confusion. I mean, I know that Foster is pretty annoying, but yeesh, that was a bit of an overreaction. Foster would probably be the first one to die.
"Gee thanks," Foster said sarcastically.
I glanced at him. "Did I say that out loud?"
"Little bit," he grumbled, shooting me the bird. "I am not annoying."
"You kind of are," I replied with a shrug.
Trent, is a rare slip up from his normally calm state, exclaimed, "How is it that we are all about to die and you two are still playing around?!"
I grinned. "It's a talent."
"Focus," Ryan murmured. "And put your hand down, your eyes are safe from being sullied." I didn't miss the exasperation in his voice.
I lowered my hand to make sure he was telling the truth. The Alpha was now wearing rumpled tan pants, though his upper body was still bare. He was also a lot closer to me than I had thought he was, his eyes trained on mine. I flinched back in surprise, my hand dropping and going for my glock before I remembered that I'd given it to Ben. I swallowed. The mutts definitely had it now.
I took a second to size the Alpha up, debating if I could take him. He was tall, nearly a foot taller than my 5'5". He had as much muscle as any of the boys, though not as much as the average male Hunter. His muscles were supernaturally wired with a lot more strength. I might have found him attractive, if he were human. He had a chiseled jaw, perfectly tousled dark locks of hair, and smoldering dark eyes.
Ryan shifted, trying to pull me behind him. He didn't like the way the Alpha stared at me. I was caught in the trance of the Alpha's eyes, my ears buzzing and my body frozen in place. I couldn't move, couldn't even go for my hidden dagger, when two Lycans, in human form, stepped forward and pulled Ryan away from me. He cursed but my mind didn't process any of the words.
The Alpha stalked forward, entirely focused on me and nothing else. His expression was careful, calculating. He reached up with measured movements, his hand going towards my face, no my hood.
I jerked back, snapping out of the trance as if ice cold water had been injected into my veins. I wish I could say if was out of disgust at the thought of a Lycan touching me, but it wasn't. It was out of fear of him pushing back that hood and seeing my face, my shame on full display in the moonlight.
Two more Lycans stepped forward, probably to restrain me, but the Alpha motioned them back. "You won't lay a hand on her," he ordered them, his voice was deep and smooth and it did something odd to my stomach. The Alpha gestured to Foster, who had been slowly edging closer to me. The Lycans restrained him instead. Foster didn't dare to fight them, nor did Ryan or Trent, not when I was so close to the Alpha. Not when he could kill me before they could take a step.
The boys were tense, they wanted the Alpha to get away from me. If Ben were conscious, he would try to murder the Alpha for being so close to me. Ben! What was I doing? Ben was right there! Why was there an urge for me to go to the Alpha and bare my soul to him? This man, this beast, could kill us all in the blink of an eye.
The Alpha reached for me again, this time I was unable to move back. A simply nudge sent my hood falling down, revealing my face. I watched the surprise register in his face, saw if on the faces of the human-Lycans that could see mine. I knew what they saw. I knew how the moonlight would bounce how the ridges of my scars, highlighting them for everyone to see.
I met the Alpha's eyes, unblinking, finding some part of myself once more. I lifted my chin slightly. "Do you see why we hunt down your kind?" I whispered darkly.
The Alpha didn't respond to my words. Instead he touched a finger to my ruined cheek. His next words were impossible for me to comprehend even though they were clear as a bell. "I have found my mate."
I stumbled back, unable to cope. He's insane, I thought. He had to be lying. But I could see into his eyes. There was no lie, no doubt. He knew for certain that I was his mate.
Ryan was the first of us to find his voice after a long minute of echoing silence. He words were more frightening than the Alpha's declaration. "Dad is going to kill us if we ever get home."
In that moment, I almost wished that the Lycans had just killed us.
†††
"He's got to be wrong," I said, not for the first time. "I mean really, me, the mate of one of them?" I said the last word with as much venom as I could muster, which was quite a bit.
After the Alpha's big, and very wrong, declaration, the Lycans blindfolded us and dragged us to their base of operations, the Alpha serving as my personal escort. The blindfolds weren't removed until they tossed us into cells tucked in the corner of a concrete basement. The boys were put in the larger of the two cells, I was placed in the smaller one.
"I don't think it is the sort of thing that they get wrong," Trent replied. He sat against the wall, his knees up and head leaning back as if he were sleeping.
I felt pressure on my hand. Ben. Once we were placed in the cells, they had a Lycan come and tend to our wounds. It was a small woman with weathered, tawny skin. She had white-brown hair that had bun put into a bun not unlike my own, though hers achieved a level of tight neatness that I couldn't, and didn't really bother to, get with my own. She had soft brown eyes with small wrinkled breaking out from the corners.
She'd looked over me first, her eyes narrowing on the black wrist monitor. The blinking numbers were holding steady at 107, no great but it was the best I could manage given the situation. I knew that the woman knew what the monitor was for but she simply gave me a long, hard look before turning the sound back on and leaving it at that. I hated her a little because it had started beeping almost immediately. I knew why she did it though. One glance at the fresh worry on my brother's face and I forced myself to calm down until my pulse was below 100 and the beeping had subsided.
The woman nodded once moved on to the boys, starting with Ben.
I winced was she cut back the fabric of his pants leg, my heart shooting up when I say how... messy things were. I felt nauseous as the woman washed away blood revealing several jagged holes in my best friend's leg. This time when my monitor beeped no one said anything. It wasn't hard to figure out what happened. Some mutt had the audacity to bite down on Ben's leg. From the look of the wounds, it wasn't a clean bite.
"I'm going to kill it," I said quietly. My voice was oddly empty, it actually frightened me a little to hear how cold I sounded. "Whichever one of those mutts who did this to him, I'm going to kill it."
Foster made a sound that was akin to agreement but other than that the basement had gone completely silent excluding the sound of the woman as she finished cleaning, stitching and bandaging Ben's leg.
Ryan and Foster were free of any harm that required attention and even Trent didn't look half as bad once the blood had been cleaned away. I almost thanked the woman before I remembered what she was, and that the only reason she'd tended to us was due to the Alpha's claims about me being his mate.
Ben had woken up about an hour after the woman left us, he was surprised to have woken up at all, not to mention his injuries had been taken care of.
"Are you okay?" I asked him, also not for the first time. He was still scary pale and I saw his eyes drift every now and then as he fought the urge to pass out again.
He stretched his lip into a smile, his thumb stroking circled on the back of my hand. We sat as closed together as we could with the bars that separated our two cells in the way. I'd slipped my arm through the bars to hold onto his hand, a reassurance that he was still here, still okay.
"I'm fine, really." A lie. "You shouldn't worry so much."
Yeah, sure, you first though. I sighed. "What are we going to do?" I asked. "Our families have to be worried sick. My father..." I couldn't finish the thought.
"At least they aren't going to kill us," Foster said. He stood, well leaned, against the back wall of the cell.
Ryan shook his head, taking a break from his pacing back and forth in front of their cell door. "They aren't going to kill Tammy. She's the Alpha's mate. The rest of us are just a bunch of Hunters. We're fair game."
Part of me wanted to ask why the Lycans would patch them up if they were going to kill them but a larger part recoiled at my brother's words. "I am not his mate," I bit out. "I refuse to be the mate of a Lycan."
"I don't think you actually get a choice in the matter," Ryan sighed.
The story of my life¸ that nasty little voice in my head said. For once it and I were on the same page. "The hell I don't," I muttered darkly without any real power behind the words. I knew he was right, that I was the Alpha's mate whether I liked it or not. I had to verbally deny it though, because I did not like it.
"Can we all agree this mission has gone to hell and just be quiet?" Trent requested from his little corner.
"Yeah," Foster sighed. He was completely and totally serious for once in his life. "Jesus, we should have never taken you with us. We all knew better." That was directed at me.
"Don't," I interrupted, that dangerous edge returning to my voice. "I have every right to be here, to go out on missions. I am as much a Hunter as the rest of you."
"She's right," Trent said, lifting his head up. His tone sound more like he was saying the words to himself and not the others. The next sentence was definitely for us though. "If it weren't for her, we would all be dead right now."
There was no doubt in his voice and that sent a new wave of anger through me. "If that dog gets within three feet of me, I will kill him," I commented aggressively.
"Only three feet then?"
The five of us all snapped to attention, turning to the base of the stairs that led into the basement. The Alpha now stood there, his dark hair was wet, probably from a shower. He wore fresh, unrumpled clothes. A plain grey shirt and blue jeans. I could smell the soap on his skin from across the room. It reminded me of rain and fresh salad. An odd combination but it was oddly appealing.
"Speak of the devil," I muttered under my breath, carefully pulling my hand away from Ben's and slipping my arm back inside my cell. The last thing I wanted was to put Ben in the Alpha's crosshairs for touching his mate. Not that I'm owning up to that bit.
The Alpha's eyes had caught the movement and he fixed Ben with a menacing glare. "She. Is. Mine," he growled.
"I am not a possession," I spat, standing up in the hopes of pulling the Alpha's focus away from Ben. "And I am not yours. I am not the mate of one of your kind. Not now. Not ever." I suddenly found myself at the front of my cell, my hands curled tightly around the bars. "If I had my gun right now, I would put a bullet in between your eyes."
They had taken my rifle, and, after a quick pat down, my boot dagger. I still had the hairpin because guys don't think about girls' accessories. I was tempted to pull it out and throw to concealed knife into the Alpha's neck.
"Maybe don't threaten the Alpha Lycan," Ryan cautioned, edging closer to my cell. "Especially when he has us locked in cages."
"It was a promise, not a threat," I replied, my eyes still locked on the Alpha's in a challenge.
"Look away," Ben murmured, reaching through the bars to pry loose the fingers of my left hand, he couldn't reach my right. "Don't challenge him."
I gritted my teeth and used every bit of will I had to force my eyes away. The moment I looked at the Alpha was at my cell, unlocking the door and stepping inside the small space. In that moment, the Alpha looked every bit the predator that his kind were.
Ben yanked violently at the bars that separated us. "Leave her alone!" he demanded.
I felt my chin lift in defiance. I was a Hunter. I would not be cowed by some dog. I took advantage of the opportunity, ducking around the Lycan and stealing out of the cell. "If you have any intelligence, you won't touch me," I warned him. "Not if you enjoy having all of your limbs."
I almost laughed. I had made a similar threat to Foster not long ago. The levels of menace between the two were so very different, though.
The Alpha turned around, his eyes pitch black. Shit. The boys fell silent, knowing that I was in deep trouble if I pissed the Alpha off any further. I could feel them mentally telling me to can my stubborn defiance.
"Do not test me, my mate," the Alpha warned as he stalked towards me, his voice was a cross between honey and gravel.
I ignored my fear. I wouldn't let him frighten me into being quiet and docile. My heart didn't agree. My wrist monitor beeped, reminding me that I had much more to fear than a mere dog.
"Do not touch me," I snarled, every letter was dripping with venom.
"Behind you!" Ryan warned as two Lycans came rushing down the stairs.
I let my instincts take control, dropping to the ground as the first grabbed at me. I spun around, kicking the Lycan's feet out from beneath him. I popped back up and dug the heel of my foot into the dog's neck as the other one lunged at me as well. I struck her hard in the chest with the side of my arm, using my other hand to shove her hard into the floor.
She hit the ground with a loud, and assumable painful if the sound of a bone or two cracking was anything to go on, thunk. I glanced down at her. "Let me guess, you're his bitch."
As soon as the last word left my mouth, I was thrown off balance. The Lycan had thrown my off him, shoving my away. My back hit the nearby wall, my head snapping back to bang into it rather painfully. I blinked, seeing spots. My vision didn't really clear as much as it focused in on the Lycan.
I could taste the fresh danger on my tongue. The Lycan's bones had started to jut out at unnatural angles. His jaw popped out of place, elongating, and fur was worming its way through the surface of his skin. His clothes were started to stretch and tear as well. Seconds passed and then I was looking at a very pissed off, snarling wolf. I watched with strange fascination as drool dripped from razor sharp fangs. I would need to avoid those in the fight.
"I don't think he liked you calling his girl that," Foster whispered, any joking tone he might have had was stolen by the severity of the situation.
I could feel the boys' eyes on me. They were trapped and unable to help. I felt defenseless, longing for the weight of my gun, or of my knife. The hairpin? It might not be much use, though it had to be better than nothing.
The air shifted and suddenly I was staring at the Alpha's back, my internal dilemma muted. Another one started in its place. Would I ever get a better shot at killing an Alpha? How long would I survive if I succeeded?
I could see Ben in the corner of my eye, he was shaking his head at me. Of course, he would know exactly what I'd been thinking about. A good Hunter would do it, regardless of the risk to her own life. I would do it, it no for the sick feeling that settled in my stomach at the thought.
"You will not touch her," the Alpha growled to the snarling wolf. "If you threaten her further, I will put you down." A promise, not a threat.
We, the Hunters we, bristled with shock. "And here we thought that you were, at the very least, loyal to your own kind," I whispered without thinking.
"I am loyal to my mate," the Alpha replied without turning around, turning away from the danger. "That's you, sweetheart."
My hand twitched, wanting nothing more than for my glock to magically appear in its holster. "Call me sweetheart again and I will cut your tongue out. Furthermore, I am not your Goddamn mate, but I'll do you a favor. When I meet her, I'll kill her."
The Alpha growled, his body starting to shake. "You're testing my patience, sweetheart." He straightened out from the protective crouch he'd been in. "Get out!" he ordered, authority rising in his voice.
The two Lycans immediately stiffened, then like marionettes, they walked out of the basement. The Alpha had forced his will onto them, forcing them to comply. It was uncomfortable to watch.
Once the Lycan's were gone, the tension left the Alpha's shoulders. He turned around to look at me, something unreadable and almost... soft in his eyes. "Are you injured?" It sounded closer to a demand that it did a question.
I stepped to the side, the wall preventing me from stepping back, in hopes of putting space between us. I tried to get around the Alpha and back to the cells with the boys but I'd barely gotten two steps before a wave of dizziness struck me, stealing my balance. I would have gone to the ground by a very strong set of arms caught me, pulling me back up.
I swallowed back a touch of nausea. Dammit. I'd had enough concussions to recognize the signs. They always hit me fast and clear.
Ryan banged on the bars of the cell. "Tams!"
I blinked, swallowed again and took a deep breath. "I'm okay. Really."
"No, you aren't. You hit your head pretty hard," Ben insisted, though his eyes were trained on the Alpha instead of me. "She's probably got a concussion."
"Snitch," I hissed as I pushed myself out of the Alpha's arms. "I'm fine. It'd be a mild one at best."
"You should have your head checked out," Trent said, joining Ben in snitching on me. "We all know how dangerous concussions are, even mild ones."
He was right, of course. It was the first thing we learned about before we started any serious training. Knowing about broken bones, concussions and internal bleeding was required when you spent most of your time beating each other up. We didn't want to accidently kill someone. And concussions were a biggie, harder to diagnose if the symptoms didn't show up right away.
"It's mild," I insisted again. I was a quick healer and my concussions always faded swiftly.
The Alpha turned my face towards him. His eyes studied my face, looking for something. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, uncomfortable. It was then that I realized my hood had fallen back in all of the commotion. I tried to step back and lifted my hand to yank my hood back up.
"Don't," the Alpha murmured in a velvety voice. "I'm not looking at your scars, though I would like to have a conversation about those later." Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. "Your pupils don't look right."
"I'm fine." I'd intended the words to sound strong and defiant but he was so close, his scent, trees and something distinctly male, surrounded me. It was oddly alluring as it mixed with the smell of his soap. My words had come out in a breathy whisper as a result.
He dropped his hand. "I'll have my doctor take another look at you."
"Why?" I blurted out. My walls had fallen due to the stress and his proximity. I was speaking without thinking of the consequences. "Why would you go through the trouble over a Hunter? If I still had my knife, I would bury it in your chest." Though I did have the hairpin.
There was a distinct paused. I could feel the guys waiting to see how he Alpha would react. I wasn't sure how I expect him to react myself, smiling was definitely not on my list of possibilities. He actually grinned, and, for a second, I forgot what he was and found it incredibly attractive. "I guess it's a good thing that you don't have your knife, sweetheart."
"If you're going to flirt with my little sister, could you kill me first?" Ryan groaned. I glanced over and saw that he'd actually turned a little green. "Please?"
"He isn't going to kill you," I stated.
"I'm not?" the Alpha questioned, his tone seemed almost amused.
"No, you're not," I confirmed.
Ben recognized something in my voice and he immediately jumped into the conversation. "Whatever it is that you're thinking of doing, don't. Just don't do it."
"Sorry, Ben," I replied, knowing that my voice lacked any sincerity. This was a choice that I knew without a doubt that I would never regret. I turned my attention back to the Alpha, meeting his eyes. "If you let the go," I gestured to the boys in their cell, "I'll stay here."
The Alpha crossed his arms over his chest, expression clearly unimpressed. "You'll stay either way," he replied rather coldly. "So what incentive do I have to let them go."
I had to swallow my pride as a Hunter, something that was far from an easy feat for me. "I will stay here willingly. You let them go and I'll stay and..." I had to force the words out, almost choking on them as I finished my sentence, "be your mate." It was impossible to hide how revolting the idea was for me. This time I wasn't sure if my nausea was from the concussion of from the thought of being a Lycan's mate.
"No!" Ryan snarled, white-knuckling the cell bars.
"Not a chance in hell!" Ben agreed angrily.
"We are not leaving you here," Foster added on.
I shot them an icy glare. Their protests silenced almost immediately. I turned my eyes to the Alpha. "Do we have a deal?"
"Not quite, members of my pack are dead tonight by their hands," the Alpha replied darkly.
"By my hands as well," I rebutted. "I'm as guilty as they are."
"Idiot," Trent hissed under his breath.
"You are my mate," the Alpha replied, disregarding Trent's commentary. "Your life has more value than theirs."
You would not be the only one to think that about my life¸ I thought darkly. "Their lives hold value as well. You kill them and you'll bring Hell's fury down on yourself and your pack." It would happen either way. My father would rally the entire Compound to get me back.
"You expect me to release four Hunters who have killed my people," the Alpha reiterated. "I still need something in return, sweetheart."
I gritted my teeth, then curled my hands into fists when I saw him smirk at my reaction. "There is nothing very sweet about me," I said, forcing myself to remain calm instead of punching him in the nose.
The Alpha went quiet, his face becoming serious as he thought. After a long minute of contemplation, he leaned closer to me. "You will not try to escape," he whispered almost seductively. "You will not fight me. You will not attack my pack. And one of them will remain here as collateral."
"No!" I objected instantly. "Absolutely not! You want my corporation, fine, but you have to let all of them go!"
"I'll stay," Ben said calmly once I'd finished.
I turned on him full of fury. "Ben, I swear to every God that there has ever been, if you try to stay here, I will kill you myself!"
What he said in reply drained every ounce of my anger because there was no argument that I could make against it. "I'm not leaving you either."
Ignoring the Alpha, I walked over to the cell, the dizziness pushing at me. I grabbed the bars to stabilize myself. The stress was definitely not helping my head which had begun to throb. My monitor beeped, almost sounding unhappy but maybe it was just me. "Please Ben," I begged softly. "Don't do this."
He gave me a soft smile. "Yeah, I do. I wouldn't be okay if I left you here."
I sniffed. I would not cry in front of one of them. Especially not an Alpha. I wouldn't. "Fine." I composed myself and turned around. "You have your collateral." I spat the last word out like it was poison.
The Alpha looked just as unhappy about it as I did, but her didn't argue. He summoned a few more Lycans into the basement, causing me to swiftly yank up my hood before they came down. I stepped to the side to allow the three Lycans to enter the cell and pull Trent, Foster, and Ryan from the cell. They used zip cords to tie their wrists together behind their backs, I winced when they tightened them until the plastic dug into the boys' wrists, almost cutting it.
"Wait," I said, asked, before they could haul the boys off. Without any more of a warning I threw my arms around Ryan's neck. "I love you," I reminded him. If this was the last time I saw him then I didn't want my last words to him to be about an argument. "Tell Father that I love him as well."
Ryan, unable to hug me back, turned his face and pressed a kiss to my temple. "I love you too. I think you're stupid for doing this, but I love you."
I tightened my hold before releasing him altogether. I hugged Foster next. "This is the only time I will ever hug you, and if we ever see each other again I will deny it."
"I can feel your boobs," Foster smarted off.
"Watch it," the Alpha growled. "I can still kill you."
I sighed to myself. "This is why I thought you would be killed first back in the forest."
I shook my head at Foster and moved onto Trent. When I hugged him I pulled him down so I could whisper in his ear. "Find the traitor and kill the bastard." I pulled back and meet his steady eyes.
"I will," he promised me. He looked over my shoulder at Ben who was still in the cell. "Make sure she doesn't do something else stupid and get herself killed."
"Hey!" I exclaimed. "That's offensive."
Someone chuckled behind me. Ben or the Alpha?
"I'll look after her," Ben assured him, though he was looking at my brother and not Trent.
"If you mate with that dog, I'm bringing you up on bestiality charges," Foster threatened as the Lycans began to blindfold the boys.
I let out a noise that was something akin to choked laughter. "I'm actually going to miss our little spats."
"You'll be back in no time," Foster replied, his tone almost kind. "And then I'll have my favorite person to annoy around again." That ruined it.
I flicked him in the forehead, almost laughing at his confused face around the blindfold. "I take it back. Now I don't feel so bad about putting that snake in your room."
"The what?" His voice came out in a panicked squeak. He paused, mouth turning down. "Wait, we don't have snakes..." At least not that Foster allowed himself to believe. The rest of us agreed to let him keep that fantasy for a few more years.
I bit back a sad smile. "Stay safe," I murmured, backing away from them. The Lycans grabbed the boys and led them up the stairs and out of the basement. "I want proof that you're actually letting them go," I said, my voice turning cold as I addressed the Alpha. "Proof that you aren't just killing them the moment that they're out of earshot."
"Fine," the Alpha agreed dismissively. "Come along, sweetheart."
I scowled, turning to look at the Alpha. "Don't call me sweetheart."
"Then what's your name?" he asked, leaning too close for comfort.
"You first," I replied, raising an eyebrow in challenge. With as close as he was, I was sure the Alpha could see it.
Ben made a noise of disapproval. "You know his name."
I shot him a nasty look. Of course, I knew the Alpha's name but that wasn't the point. I turned back to the Alpha. "Elijah Micah Greyson. 22 years of age. Alpha of the Shadow Moon pack," I recited as I pulled up a mental picture of his Hunter file. We had files on all the major players. Know thy enemy and all that.
"I'm flattered," the Alpha remarked, he raised his own eyebrows, searching for why I knew these things. "I believe it's your turn."
"Pass," I said snidely.
"Could you hold off on angering him until after you've gotten your head checked out?" Ben requested.
I gave him another nasty look. "Snitch."