Hidden Alpha [Alpha Mates] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (25 page)

The man in front’s eyes wandered past her toward the house. Even though she knew the children were safe, she wanted to keep the men’s attention on her.

“Did Devlin send you to meet me?”

“No ma’am. No one sent us. Devlin assigned us to watch over you. We saw you outside and wanted you to know we were around. We didn’t want you to be scared if you saw two wolves running around the property.”

But they obviously didn’t know who the pack alpha and beta were. If they had, they would have known that Chase was the head of the enforcers, and not Devlin.

She played stupid for a while. “Thank you. Devlin didn’t tell me there would be anyone around.” It wasn’t a lie. Chase was the one that told her about her real protectors. “Are there more out there than just you two?”

She watched as the man’s eyes shifted, as if looking for others before he answered, “No, just the two of us. I’m really embarrassed to ask this, but we’ve been out here for a while, and it’s kinda hot. Would you mind if maybe we could get a drink of water? If it isn’t too much trouble, that is.”

Before she could say no to him, he started walking toward her. She held up her hand and shouted, “Stop!”

He halted for a second before continuing toward her. She stood her ground until he was about three feet from her. When he stopped, he glared at her and said, “I think we both know I’m not an enforcer for your pack. If you come quietly, I will spare the life of the pups. If you fight me, I can promise you they will be killed right along with you. And don’t think your enforcers will be running in to save to day. I’m sure the threat to your alpha’s life has them all busy right about now.”

“Who are you? What did you do to Devlin? What do you want from me?”

“My name in John, as I told you already. I didn’t do anything to your fag alpha other than phone in a death threat. And if you haven’t figured it out by now, I want you dead.”

“But why? What did I ever do to you? I don’t even know you.” She was confused by why strangers would want her dead.

“Because you should have died the night I killed your good-for-nothing parents.”

Her eyes widened in realization that this was the assassin who was hired by her uncle to kill them because her mother had mated a human. She wasn’t sure who the other man was but knew she couldn’t fight them both off. She had to stall them and hope someone would come rescue her soon. She thought maybe he was one of those stupid bad guys like in the movies that would spill his whole plan if coaxed enough.

“But why come back after all these years? And how did you know I was here and alive?”

“I would like you to meet your cousin, Skye. He is a real alpha and should be the next alpha of his pack,” he said as he motioned to the man that had moved closer to them but was still scanning the area and watching for company to arrive.

“My cousin? I have nothing to do with him being alpha. I’m no threat to him or you.”

“You’re a half-breed,” he growled. The sneer he gave her told her she was nothing but gum on his shoe to him.

“You are worthless. All half-breeds should be put down. Besides, with you still alive, Skye cannot take over the alpha position. So again, I give you the choice. Come with us, or we will kill everyone you love. Including the two fags you live with. Who knows, I may just do that anyway. He’s a sorry excuse for an alpha if I ever saw one. Fucking other men is just wrong. It’s a sin. They should both burn in hell for what they do.”

Oh no he didn’t.
No one disrespected the love her men shared. He also obviously hadn’t seen Gavin around if he thought there were only two of them. Amalya watched the other one, Skye, he had been called, move closer as his nails started to lengthen into claws. She took a defensive stance and let her own claws drop from her fingertips. She also felt her canines slide down, forming sharp fangs. If they were going to attack her, she wasn’t going to make it easy on them. She knew the children were safe, but she still wasn’t going down without a fight.

The sky began to darken, and she watched both men look up. John seemed confused, but Skye smirked, and she thought she heard him whisper, “Here it comes,” under his breath. She didn’t have time to question, because John, if that was his real name, laughed before drawing a gun and pointing it at her head. Her mates had explained that it was harder to kill a shifter than a human, but she was pretty sure a bullet in her brain would end her life. The world seemed to slow down as she watched his finger start to squeeze the trigger. She lunged for his arm to try and knock the gun away. Before she reached him, she felt a searing heat in her shoulder just as she heard the gun fire. As she fell to the ground, she looked up to see Skye swiping his claws across John’s neck, severing his jugular just as she saw a bright white light flash across the sky. He dropped the man to the ground and rushed over to kneel next to her. She swiped her claws and gnashed her teeth at him to prevent him from touching her.

He held up his hands and tilted his head back and to the side in what she had learned was a submissive gesture.

“Cousin, I will not harm you. Please let me help you, and I will explain everything.”

She was becoming weaker by the second, and even though she didn’t trust him, she had no choice but to let him help her. She retracted her claws and lay still. He stripped his shirt off and held it to her shoulder. She couldn’t help snapping her fangs at him when he put pressure on her wound. He prodded the back of her shoulder and then cursed.

“The bullet is still lodged in your shoulder. I’m sure he used silver bullets. I have to dig it out so you can shift and heal. It’s going to hurt like hell, but I have no choice. You are losing too much blood. We don’t have time to wait for a doctor. If we don’t get the silver out now, it will poison your blood. Once I get it out, you can shift and start the healing process, and you will be fine. I promise to be as gentle as I can. Will you let me help you, blood of my blood?”

Devlin had told her about the dangers of silver and knew if Skye was telling the truth, she would die before her mates could get there and help her. She nodded and turned her head to face away from him. She didn’t want to risk biting him if he was going to help her. She could still see out of the corner of her eye as he lengthened his claw and moved closer. She closed her eyes and prayed she would pass out when his razor sharp claw started cutting into her flesh. She tried not to scream, but the pain from him cutting into her and digging around was worse than the pain the bullet caused when if first entered her.

He kept chanting, “I’m sorry” over and over again until she finally felt him pull free of the wound. She opened her eyes and saw him drop the bullet on the ground a few feet away from them. Gently, he rolled her onto her uninjured side and told her it was time to shift. She tried to let the change flow over her, but nothing happened. When she began hyperventilating, thinking she wouldn’t be able to shift, he smoothed her hair back away from her sweat-covered face and told her to slow her breathing and concentrate.

His breathing slowed as he said, “Just breathe with me. You can do it. With me. Ready. In and out. Good, that’s good.” Her breathing slowed to match his. “Now concentrate. See your wolf. Be her. She will heal you. Shift, cousin.”

She closed her eyes and concentrated on her wolf. When she shifted, the pain was excruciating at first, but as the healing started, the pain began to subside. Soon her breathing was back to normal, and she could feel the bleeding had slowed. While she knew she wasn’t fully healed, she knew now, thanks to her cousin, she would live.

He was still petting her side and whispering to her when his words were cut off by an unearthly howl. One second he was kneeling next to her, and the next, he was pinned to the ground by an impossibly large pure-black wolf she knew to be Chase. Skye was not fighting back and was trying to talk, but Chase’s jaws were clamped around his throat. She knew it would be only a matter of seconds before he killed him. She tried to shift back to tell him to stop, but she was too weak, and her wolf wouldn’t cooperate and give her back her human body. She started to panic until she remembered she could talk to him in his mind.

She mentally shouted, “
Chase, stop! He saved me. Don’t kill him.”

Chase’s body froze, but he didn’t release the man. “
If he saved you, why is your blood covering his body?”

“Because the other one shot me, and Skye had to dig the silver bullet out. He killed the other guy, too. He really did save me. He says he’s my cousin. Please don’t kill him until we know what’s going on. He will know if there are more coming to look for me. The other man was the one that killed my parents. Please, Chase. Let him go, and let’s talk to him.”

“I will let him go, but if he makes a move toward you or anyone else in this family, I don’t care who he says he is. I will kill him!”

She watched as Chase removed his teeth from the man’s neck. There were bleeding marks on both sides of his neck, but nothing that looked life threatening. He must have been smart, because he didn’t even try to get up as Chase backed away from him, placing himself between Skye and Amalya.

Amalya finally got up enough energy to stand and limp to over to Chase. She nuzzled his neck. He nuzzled back and licked at her shoulder, which was still matted with her blood. He ran his muzzle over her neck and head, over and over again. He was making sure the other wolf knew who she belonged to. By the time she got Chase calmed down enough so she thought he wasn’t going to kill Skye, Devlin came running toward them in wolf form. He was a brilliant white, the color of freshly fallen snow. She moved in front of him and thought, “
I’m fine. He saved me. Don’t kill him. Let’s let him explain what’s going on and why he’s here. Please.”

Devlin hesitated and then walked around her and stalked Skye. When she went to move toward them, Chase cut her off and thought, “
Baby girl, he isn’t going to kill him. He is the alpha, and this wolf is on his land, covered in our mate’s blood. Just let him do what he needs to. Everything will be fine. I think.”

She didn’t think she was supposed to hear the last two words, but Chase let them slip. She nipped his neck and could have sworn she heard him chuckle. She rolled her eyes and watched as Devlin moved in on Skye. Her cousin, if that’s who he really was, didn’t move to defend himself or try to get away. The only movement he made was to tilt his head back, exposing his neck to Devlin. When Devlin clamped his teeth down on his neck, Amalya took a step forward. Chase stepped in front of her again, “
Just watch, baby girl. He’s not hurting him. Just letting him know who’s in charge around here. Your cousin is not challenging him, and is submitting, so there won’t be a problem.”

“
See
?” Devlin released Skye’s neck and slowly walked backward to her side. He rubbed his scent all over her, just as Chase had. Devlin thought to her, “
Sugar, are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Skye saved me. He killed the assassin that killed my parents the night I was born. They somehow found out that I was alive and came for me, too.”

“Where are the children?”
Devlin asked.

“I had the boys take the babies into the safe room. I knew that would trigger the security system, and you would come save me.”

“Very smart, sweetie. I’m sorry it took us so long to get here. Someone called in a death threat against me, and my office was on lockdown. When Chase discovered that the enforcers had all left the woods around our house to come protect me, we we’re worried that something would happen to you. We had already headed this way when we got the calls saying the safe room had locked down. We had hoped that you were in there, too. Why didn’t you lock yourself in, too?”

“Because I knew somehow that if I had run with the children, they would have chased us down, and I needed to make sure the children were safe. I knew you and Chase would come and rescue me.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner, my love. If I had never left you home alone, this never would have happened. I will find a way to do all pack business from home or make sure that one of us is with you at all times.”

“Devlin, I don’t need a babysitter. Hopefully this will be the last crazy man that comes trying to kill me.”

As if reading her mind, Skye spoke up. “You are all safe. The only other person who knew you are alive was my father, and I killed him before I followed John here. I’m sorry. I had no idea that my father had hired him to kill your parents all those years ago. I was only a child when it happened and was just told that they died in a tragic accident. I had always held out hope that you were still alive somewhere. When your mates claimed you and you shifted for the first time, I felt a connection to you and knew you lived. I was so excited that I made the mistake of telling my father, who went ballistic over the idea that John hadn’t completed his job as he had reported. He called John and told him to find you and finish his mission. I wasn’t sure what he meant, so I asked. When he explained what happened all those years ago, I was sick over what I had done. I killed my father that night and tried to beat John here. He arrived first, but I watched him from a distance for the last few days until today, when I realized he was ready to approach you. I wanted to come to you and explain everything so he could be stopped, but I wasn’t sure how you would take a lone wolf showing up at your door with this wild story. I also didn’t want him to see me speaking with you and rush in hurting anyone. I told him that father had sent me to make sure he did the job right this time. He believed me because he assumed I was just like my father and would do anything to be alpha. I played along with him until he pulled the gun on you. I’m sorry that I hadn’t realized he had it until he already had it pointed at you, pulling the trigger. If I had known his plan, I would have killed him before he had the chance to get close to you. I kept looking around, hoping the enforcers would come, but when he told you about the death threat to the alpha, I knew no one was coming. I’m sorry, cousin. If I had been quicker, you wouldn’t have been hurt. Please forgive me. You are safe now. I didn’t tell anyone else about our connection, and your only other living family is your grandfather. He is a good man, and if you would like to meet him I can arrange it, but I will not tell him that you live unless you want me to.”