by Grey, Aspen
Officer Brady smiled, knowing full well I was right. But he was a small cop in a small town and had nothing better to do. I also suspected he didn’t particularly like me, as the suit I was wearing probably cost more than his monthly salary. I’d done my best to be courteous to him, but he’d never liked me and I doubted he ever would.
“I’ll be right back, Alex.”
I sighed and leaned back in my seat as he went back to his cruiser and took his sweet time running my insurance and registration. I took the opportunity to call Tyrese. He answered after one ring.
“See anything?” he asked with concern.
“Nada,” I replied. “Nothing but trees.”
“I swear I saw him! A beta, up on the ridge, looking like a scout.”
“I believe you,” I told him. “But I went all the way around to the base of their compound and didn’t see a soul.”
“Hmmm,” Tyrese replied. “I don’t like it. They’re up to something.”
“I agree. Listen, I just got pulled over by Brady on my way into town. I’m gonna grab a drink and then head home and we can discuss what to do.”
“Looking for something sweet to take home?” Tyrese joked, knowing full well there wasn’t a single shifter in Sleepy Hills that wasn’t either a Webber or a Kurren.
“You know me and those human boys,” I joked. “Talk to you later.”
“Later.”
I hung up and sighed again. Tyrese had only been kidding, but he’d touched on a sore spot without knowing it.
I was single, and unlike the rest of the guys in the pack, I wasn’t content being so. I yearned for a mate, someone I could get close to, share my secrets with and spend the rest of my life with. I was wounded, deeply, but had vowed to myself that I would never allow that to stop me from being able to love. But so far that special feeling had eluded me.
I’d met a few omegas in my life, of course, from some of the surrounding towns or when I took trips to Denver or Boulder, but none of them had stuck. They’d been fun, sexy and delicious, but the spark simply hadn’t been there.
What will it take? I thought as I glanced up at the rearview as Officer Brady came back over and handed me my things.
“Gonna have to give you a ticket, Alex,” he said happily. “You know the drill on how to pay it, and make sure you do so you don’t get a court summons. And watch your speed from now on.”
“Yes, sir,” I replied with just enough sarcasm to let him know I thought he was a dick but not enough to start a confrontation. “Thank you, sir.”
I watched him go but didn’t bother waiting for him to get back into his car before driving off.
“Prick,” I muttered as I came into town. There were really only two spots in Sleepy Hills to relax in the afternoon—either the bar, which everyone called ‘The Bar’ due to its lack of a sign, or the Big Dog Coffee Shop. But I wasn’t feeling like a mocha latte, so I pulled into the parking lot of The Bar and hopped out. I walked up to the door and tugged it open, and as I did, two scents slammed into my nose.
The first one I recognized and it almost made me sick. It belonged to Larcon Kurren, the leader of the Kurren pack. But the second one was so sweet, so incredible and delicious, that it almost made me forget my name.
Peaches…peaches from Heaven that hit my brain like a thousand watts of electricity and almost took my legs out from under me. My mouth hung open.
“No,” I said to myself. “It can’t be.”
Chapter Four
Alexander
“It—it can’t be,” I repeated as I stared into the dimly lit dive bar, the sweet scent of ripe peaches filling my nose.
But it was. As I inhaled more deeply, I understood immediately: it was the scent of my fated-mate!
Holy guacamole!
An overwhelming joy swept through me, only to be met with a terrifying realization; Larcon was in there with him.
As far as sons of bitches went, Larcon was one of the top in the world. If a medal was given out each year for being the world’s biggest cunt, he’d win every time, and that was putting it mildly. Not only was he brash, uncultured and uncouth, and full of himself with that jacked-up truck of his, but he was also an evil bastard who had no qualms about kidnapping omegas and holding them against their will for as long as they amused him and the rest of his alphas. If my fated-mate was in there with him, that meant one thing; he was in danger.
I burst in through the front door and scanned the room. It was completely empty, but my nose pointed me towards a table in the back, sitting in the shadows away from prying eyes. I saw two figures there, one was Larcon, who was standing, and the other, slumped over the table, was a boy, my fated-mate.
I’m too late, I realized. The omega wasn’t moving. Larcon had drugged him, most likely by slipping something in his drink. When he woke up next, he’d be at the Kurren compound, chained up or locked in a room or whatever diabolical shit they did up there, with no means of escape. But I wasn’t about to let that happen.
“LARCON!” I bellowed, seconds away from taking wolf form and tearing him to pieces. Larcon, who was doing something on his phone, looked up and smiled when he saw me.
“Alexander. What a pleasant and unexpected surprise!”
“Get away from him,” I snarled, curling my lip to expose my fangs. “Now.”
“Whoa, buddy. What crawled up your ass and died?”
“I’m not going to say it again. Get away from him.”
“You really don’t want to start with me, Alex,” Larcon replied, shaking his head like he was the toughest alpha in the world. “And you know it. So why don’t you turn around, and take your three-thousand-dollar suit and your little cuck ass back up the peak where you belong?”
That’s it, I thought as I looked at the poor omega lying with his head down on the table.
I stepped forward threateningly and growled. Larcon’s eyes narrowed as he realized that I wasn’t just messing around—I was serious. He cocked his head to the side.
“The fuck you doing, Alex?” he asked. “What do you care about this guy?”
“For the sake of peace between our packs, I’ll say it once more,” I told him. “Step away from the omega and get the fuck out of here. I don’t want to have to kill you.”
“You know what, Alex? I don’t want to fight you either—at least right now. Which is why I’m not going to!”
My senses were on high alert, and I was already shifting when the attack came from behind me. I smelled his stench as I burst out of my suit, shredding it into expensive rags, and dodged out of the way as one of Larcon’s alphas streaked through the air past me and slammed into a table and chairs, smashing them to bits.
I leapt forward and snapped at his hind legs, but he was quick and managed to scramble away before I could get my teeth around him. He spun and gnashed his teeth at me, growling in a defensive posture, the hair on his back standing straight up.
He was a big bastard, with a dark brown coat salted with white flecks. His eyes were angry with loyalty to his pack. I recognized him as Tyson, one of the least classy of the Kurrens—and that was saying something.
It was a standoff, each of us waiting for the other to move. But behind him, I saw Larcon round the table, wrap his arm around the omega—my fated-mate—and lift him over his shoulder and head for the back door.
No!
I let out a ferocious roar and sprang forward.
Tyson was fast, and I knew he would be ready for my attack, so I feinted right to bait out his counterattack, dodged his claw as it came up towards my eye, then snapped forward and clamped my jaws around his neck. I sank my teeth as deep as they would go and drove them home until I tasted blood. His jugular vein snapped beneath my incisors and he cried out with a desperate whimper. Larcon spun around in shock.
“Tyson!” he exclaimed. I guess he thought his alpha would handle me easily, but he’d underestimated me. Then again, I was fueled by a fire that he could not understand—the fire of protectiveness
for my fated-mate. “No!”
He released the omega, who still had enough presence of mind to have some strength in his legs and fought to stand before he began to topple over. I instantly shifted back to my human form and dashed over to him, sliding on my knees and catching him before he fell. I cradled him and stared down at the most beautiful face I’d ever seen in my life.
Don’t worry. I’ve got you.
Larcon raced past me and slapped a hand over Tyson’s neck, doing his best to stop the flow of blood from the severed jugular I’d given him.
“I’d hurry if I were you,” I called out over my shoulder as I kicked open the back door. “He might make it if you get him to a doctor in time. Clarice might even stitch him up if you are nice to her!”
“You son of a bitch!” Larcon screamed at me. “You’re gonna pay for this!”
His words were nothing but noise in my ears as I raced quickly out the back and through the parking lot over to my car. Thankfully, it was raining and the humans were inside. It wouldn’t have been good for them to see a naked man carrying a young man over to his car and speeding away.
I managed to get the passenger side door open and slid the beautiful boy inside, then hopped in the driver’s seat and threw the car into gear. I’d have to pass Officer Brady on the way out of town, but I didn’t care. Nothing mattered right now besides getting this omega home and making sure he was safe. Who knew who Larcon had been talking to on his phone when I came in—he could have his whole pack on the way into town right now.
I floored it and roared, my voice lost beneath the roar of the engine as it howled, propelling the car to high speed and sending me screaming out of town. I blew past the police cruiser doing at least sixty, but by the time Brady would be able to get his cruiser in gear and head after me, I was already halfway home.
The rain poured from the sky as I hit eighty before I had to slow down on the curve up into the hills, drifted around the corner and floored it again, pushing the classic Ferrari for all it was worth. The tires squealed against the wet pavement as I tore up the base of the mountain towards our compound.
I slowed at our private road and sped down the driveway to the house. The Ferrari’s tires screeched to a halt at the front steps and I was on the other side pulling open the passenger side door before I could blink twice.
Rain pelted down on us as I snatched the poor omega up in my arms and took the steps two at a time up to the house. I was about to shoulder the door down when Jasper pulled it open for me.
“What happened?” he practically shouted.
“Clarice!” I roared. “Is she here?”
“I think so—”
“I’m here!” Clarice’s voice rang out from upstairs and she appeared on the second-floor balcony.
“Help! Larcon drugged him—put something in his drink, I think!”
Clarice rushed down the stairs, her messy hair twisted up in a bun, looking more like a stylish New York magazine editor than a shifter nurse living in the woods in Colorado. But Clarice’s skills as a healer were unmatched. She worked at the hospital for the humans during the day, but tended to any and all shifter injuries when needed—even treating the Kurrens since the peace had begun.
She won’t be treating Tyson, though, I thought as I set the omega down on the couch. She raced over to his side and placed a hand on his neck to feel his pulse.
My own heart was racing as I waited, feeling helpless as she examined him. She pulled back his eyelids and looked into his eyes, then leaned close and sniffed his body up and down. Finally, she placed a hand on his forehead and closed her eyes.
“Well?” I snapped. “Is he going to live?”
Clarice opened her eyes. “He’s going to be fine.”
“Oh, thank God,” I exclaimed as I sat back and placed a hand on the boy’s leg. “Thank God for that.”
“What the fuck is this?” I looked up to see Eric coming in from the kitchen. He was the pack’s de facto leader since Hector disappeared. No one had really elected him, but he’d decided we should all listen to what he had to say. His decisions were questionable, and I was growing tired of it.
“Listen—” I started to say, but he cut me right off.
“I just got a call from Marco.” Marco was another one of the Kurrens’ alphas. “He told me you tried to kill Tyson?”
“No,” I shook my head. “Tyson tried to kill me after I walked into The Bar and saw Larcon drugging this omega, ready to drag him off to their compound and keep him as part of his harem!”
“And you intervened?”
“You’re goddamn right I did!” I snarled, getting to my feet as I felt that old wound open again ever so slightly. “And I won’t apologize for it either!”
“Alex,” Eric said firmly as he stepped up right in front of me. “We have peace with the Kurrens. We don’t interfere in their affairs and they don’t interfere with ours. Now, I understand what you must be feeling because of your—”
“Don’t you dare!” I snapped. “You don’t have any idea how I’m feeling right now! Don’t even try to pretend you do!”
Eric wanted to say something, but held his tongue. I kept my eyes locked on his, showing him I wasn’t about to back down, when Jasper, who was standing by the piano, finally spoke.
“Why did you bring him back here though, Alex? I mean—what’s so special about this omega that you’d risk the peace for him?”
I broke my glare and turned around to gaze at the beautiful boy who was lying so peacefully on the couch.
“Because,” I said to the room, “he’s my fated-mate.”
Afterword
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