Reluctant Alpha (16 page)

“
I tried to explain about the claiming ceremony, but she kept…distracting me. It wasn’t right that she expected me to have any kind of grace and have her lick…she was distracting me.” He had the good sense to look embarrassed, she thought with a smile. She was a feisty one, his artist.

“
That would explain the seven thousand she kept muttering under her breath.” Sara turned to the door when Bradley stood, looking at the man in the open way.

“
They’ve lost his scent, Alpha. He’s on the loose again. The mistress says she can help.”

The first thing Sara noticed was that Airic was pale as death; the second was that she only had eyes for her mate.
Good,
she thought,
very good.

***

“
I don’t like this one bit. Why can’t she just tell you where the things are and you just pop yourself in and get them then out again?” Bradley had been saying that for the past twenty minutes. Sara was ready to hit him with another tray.

“
She’s told us and you ten times. She knows exactly where they are and it won’t take as long if she goes with him. He won’t let anything happen to her, Bradley.” She looked over at her mate, who was instructing Airic on how to lead him to the correct room in the house.

She had told them she had painted the man and she had something with his human and wolf scent on it. Aaron had suggested he take her rather than they drive. It was an excellent plan; he would materialize them in the room, get what they needed, and get back out again.

As they watched, they both disappeared. In five minutes, they were back. Airic handed the large canvas to Bradley without a word and the shirt covered in blood to Dom and walked up the stairs to the bedroom. When Bradley made to follow, Aaron stopped him with a shake of his head.

“
Wait here. I’ll be back.” He dematerialized again, but was only gone for a minute or two. When he returned, he had not one, but five more canvases in his hands. He asked them to follow him and went to his study. Sara had never seen him look so serious.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Christopher was pissed. It was all her fault. That damned girl. She was going to be very sorry when he caught up with her. He made her, the ungrateful bitch. She was to whelp his pups, his sons. And what was she doing anyway? Where was she?

“
Alpha, you asked to see me?” Christopher looked at Peter. His brother, not only in form, but by blood. He would like nothing more than to shift and tear something, someone apart, but he’d take his fun out on him instead. He smiled.

“
That woman, the friend, where is she? I told Simon to bring her to me and he claims she is gone. I want you to bring her to me now. Someone must suffer and since I can’t find my errant mate, she will have to do.” He sat back in his chair. He hated the chair almost as much as the man who had given it to him, but one did not throw out a gift from one’s own sire. It just wasn’t done.

“
Diana Lake, Alpha. Her name was Diana Lake. She’s dead. I’m afraid the wolves who took her were a bit too rough with her and they broke her neck.”

He looked down at Peter. Dead. This was her fault too. Her list of punishments was growing by leaps and bounds. “Where is she? I want to destroy her body beyond any recognition. Bring the bitch to me.” He leapt up so quickly that he knocked the chair back against the wall and two pictures fell over, crashing to the floor. Peter jumped, but not quick enough to catch the framed photos.

“
I’m sorry, Alpha, but she had been discovered already. That Printer person found her and returned her body this morning. It was on the news, another animal attack it was reported to be.” He watched as Peter meticulously set the pictures on the credenza.

Fury ripped through him. Christopher growled deep and swept the pictures, all ten of them, to the floor and crashing into the next wall. He shifted then and tore at the room, tearing the sofa seats apart, clawing the walls to the two-by-fours beneath. The carpet was ripped up in places and marked with his scent in others. The chair he hated so much was the only thing not touched. When his anger was spent, he shifted back and surveyed the damage.
Oh she was going to pay all right,
he thought,
and this was just the beginning.

***

“
These were hidden away with the one of the man. I didn’t get a chance to see them very well, but I could in her mind. Her pain nearly buckled me when I touched her. I could see what each canvas was depicting there and the horror she felt when she actually saw this happen.”

Aaron had set each picture up against the bookshelf in his study in the order she had placed them in her attic. Bradley looked at the church. He’d seen a few pictures of this one in a history book when he was a pup. The cemetery too. He ran his finger gently along one of the headstones and could almost feel the passion she had when she painted it.

The next three took his breath away. The detail was amazing. The terror on Diana’s face was horrific; a person could swear he or she could hear her screams coming from her mouth as she was being dragged away by two large wolves. The ones of her family tore him apart. Aaron had said that the paper told they had been attacked by animals, wild ones. But these were weres, there was no doubt about it. They were standing upright while they inflected their carnage. She witnessed this, all of this. He leaned closer to look at the one of her father and knew that the man had been alive as they disemboweled him. He could see the pain plainly written there.

“
He was alive. Her father, he was alive when they tore into him. She saw that. She witnessed all of this before she was taken.” He stared at them for a few minutes longer and looked at Sara. “Where is she?”

“
Bedroom, the one you were in with her. But, Bradley…”

He didn’t wait for the rest of what she had to say, but went up to her, taking the stairs three at a time. He knocked on the door this time before opening it. He glanced at Mac, Aaron and Sara’s son, who was sitting in the chair by the bed. He knocked on the bathroom door and opened it as well. She wasn’t in either of the rooms. He looked again at Mac.

“
Where did she go, Mac? Have you seen her?”

He nodded and thrust a sheet of paper at him. Bradley sat down on the floor. He knew before he even opened the primer paper that she was gone.

Bradley,

I have to find Diana; he has her and wants me in exchange. I can’t let him hurt another person because of me.

I love you. I know you are mad at me, but I can’t sit by and watch another person be destroyed by him.

Alastriona

“
Uncle Bradley, Daddy said to come downstairs. He says there is someone here he thinks you should talk to.” Mac had left him at some point, he realized, and came back to get him. He wiped at the tears running down his cheeks and rose.

“
Tell him I’ll be there shortly. I need a few minutes.” He walked to the bathroom and started crying in earnest when he realized that the tub they had been playing in was still full of water, and their clothes were thrown about the room. He picked up his shirt she had been wearing and raised it to his nose.
Mine.
And cried harder, soaking the shirt with his tears.

She hadn’t trusted him enough to get his help. No, that wasn’t it, he realized. She didn’t ask because she knew that he’d go after the man and she was afraid he’d be hurt or killed.
Well, that’s just too damned bad,
he thought, and stood up. He was her mate, his pack’s queen. She’d fucking well better not get herself hurt or he’d paddle her butt but good. With determination and confidence he hadn’t felt in years, he left the bedroom, but not before taking off the shirt he had on and putting on the one she had scented.

When he walked into the living room, there stood Peter Alistair, brother to the man who had terrorized his mate. Without thought to the reasons for him being there, Bradley walked up, grabbed the man by the throat, and lifted him ten inches off the floor. “Where the fuck is your brother and what has he done with my mate?”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

“
I’m afraid I’m going have to ask you to put him down now. I’d really hate to have to shoot you when you owe us so much money.”

He turned slowly without releasing the man. Diana Lake was standing there with a gun pointed directly at his heart.

“
She thinks you’ve been kidnapped by this man’s brother and is now going to exchange herself for you. Tell me again why I should let him, or you for that matter, live beyond the next thirty seconds.” He shook the man in his grasp before dropping him to the floor. It suddenly hit Bradley. He jerked back around to Peter.

“
You’re an alpha. That’s why you didn’t move when I commanded my people to move to Alastriona yesterday.” He advanced on the man and watched with disgust as he scrambled away from him.

Aaron loomed before him. “Back off, wolf, or I’ll step in.” Aaron’s eyes had changed and his fangs had dropped and lengthened in his strength and power to control him and not allow him to hurt the other wolf. He wasn’t sure he would, but he also didn’t know if he could stop himself once he started.

Bradley felt the power now, shimmering in the room. “She is my life! I need her.” He fell into the arms of the man in front of him. This was the second time he had taken comfort from this man and he couldn’t think of a better friend to have.

“
We know where he is. Peter…this is the second time that Peter has saved my life. He can be trusted.” Diana sat down on the chair and sobbed.

“
I don’t understand why you think I’m the alpha. I was born second; Christopher is the older of the two of us.” Peter was holding Diana in his arms, comforting her.

“
I’m a very powerful alpha; my lineage is very long and strong. The male alphas in the Wolff family have been the leader of the same pack for nearly two thousand years. My command can control a strong alpha and their bitches. You didn’t even flinch when I spoke the other day. You should have noticed, but you didn’t. You have the ability to control your brother. You are not a second born.” Bradley wasn’t being arrogant, but rather truthful.

“
Why? Why would he lie to me all these years?”

Bradley looked at the man and grinned. Some people were so stupid and prejudice about the dumbest things. “Your eyes are blue. A purebred has brown eyes. He probably took one look at your eye color and made the decision based on that. Tell me, is your mother still alive?” Bradley had an idea that she was not.

“
No, why? She died giving birth to me, I was told. That’s why my father has always hated me. What does that have to do with anything?” Peter stood now, a little straighter, he noticed.

“
I would image that your father thought that she had cheated on him and killed her. He killed her after your brother was born, not you.” Bradley didn’t care about this man’s problems with his family; he wanted his mate back. He had a great deal of groveling to do.

The alpha Peter stood before Bradley and dropped to his knees. In a sign of total submission and faith, he rubbed his neck along Bradley’s leg and then rolled to his back, exposing the most vulnerable part of the wolf, both neck and under belly. Peter had just paid the highest compliment that one wolf could give to another.

“
I need my mate, Peter. Will you please help me get her back?” Bradley helped the man to his feet and embraced him tight to his chest.

“
Yes. He is staying at the Blood Moon in the Merchant district. Do you know where that is?”

Bradley looked to Aaron and threw back his head and laughed. “Oh yes, I know the hotel very well. Very well indeed. I’m part owner in the thing, along with Aaron and two other vampire friends of mine.

“
You’re a vampire!” With a tiny squeal, Diana dropped to the floor in a dead faint. Peter simply leaned over and picked her up. When he carried her off, following a very flustered Duncan, Bradley turned to Aaron and Sara.

“
I think it’s high time we call in the troops,” he said with a grin.

“
Bradley, my dear pup, I do believe you are right. All the troops. How many can you gather of yours in this short of time?” Aaron sat down and pulled out his lists. He had twenty-five vampires that would call the next group of twenty-five who would call the next until he was well fortified.

“
It just so happens that I have seven thousand wolves here to see their queen be claimed by their alpha. I don’t think they’re going to be too happy to hear that she’s been kidnapped, not happy at all.” Bradley pulled out his cell phone. He would make three calls and within the next hour, they would all be notified. His system was a bit more primal, the Howling a system of a wolf howling to the next with the word would be much faster.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

She woke to the sound of screaming, loud and torturous screaming. It was several minutes before she realized it was her. He had her again. Christopher Alistair had grabbed her not ten feet beyond the gate at the MacManus mansion.

Well, he hadn’t. A wolf who said that he had been sent by Bradley to follow her had. He had hit her when she fought him and knocked her unconscious. When she woke the first time in this cave, Christopher had thrown his bloodied dead body at her feet.