“He was behind all those females disappearing then?”
“He was auctioning them off like cattle.”
“Son of a bitch,” Alarik curses loudly. He knows how much this meant to all the guys involved with taking Fernandez down. It was a long time coming.
“They have reason to believe the first female was a local from your area, Rayna Bennett—”
“No fucking way.” It’s the second time he’s heard that name today, and he’s sure it’s not a coincidence. “I remember when she went missing, I was a kid. A group of hunters killed her husband and they took her.”
“Yeah, well, Fernandez wasn’t above hiring out to do his dirty work.”
“What happened to her?” he asks, hoping like hell somehow the woman survived the monster. If she did, maybe she has some answers for Reaghan.
“Dead, I would assume, like many of the others he kidnapped. She wasn’t one of the seven they saved. They were all younger.”
“Damn,” Alarik mutters under his breath, but Colton catches it with his enhanced hearing.
“You think there’s a connection to this woman you’ve been telling me about?”
“Yeah. Seems about right but no one knows if the Bennett’s had a kid."
“If she is a dragon, it wouldn’t surprise me they kept her existence a secret on purpose. You know how rare their kind is, and only female dragons can sire more dragons.”
“How do I know if she’s their kid? They had no extended family and Reaghan has no memories of her life before her adopted parents found her,” Alarik explains, feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“Take her there—where they lived,” he offers. “If she is their kid, maybe returning will jog her memory and she’ll remember something.”
“You don’t think it’s too soon? She just learned about what she is.”
“The sooner she knows everything, the sooner you can figure out a way to make sure she stays safe. Right now, she’s a danger to everyone around her, including herself.” He has a point. Alarik didn’t want to throw everything at her at once, but the fact she’s a dragon meant he is going to have to. “If you want, I can send one of my guys out there to help.”
“Your guys?”
“Yeah, Paxton or Maxwell, my guys—among others.” Alarik hears a smirk in Colton’s voice.
“What’s that about?”
“You still tight with Red Dice?”
“Not really. I walked away when the Enforcers cut me loose. You know how they are about injuries and deformities,” he explains, feeling a burn in his chest. If he’s honest with him, he’s still pissed about how everything went down. Even though his hand only needed time to heal, time wasn’t something they could give him. They required all of their Enforcers to be at full health and strength all of the time.
“Well, you ever get the urge to kick some ass again, my cousin and I have established an Enforcer group of our own—off books and a secret to other shifters, especially Enforcers. We call ourselves Rogue Enforcers.” Alarik considers his offer for about a minute before his bear shuts it down.
Not this shit again, his grizzly growls.
“The head honchos at the Enforcer organization know about this?” he asks, ignoring his bear. The moment of Reaghan collapsing to the ground in front of him plays in his mind and he decides his Enforcer days are over. He can’t stand the idea of not being near her every day for the rest of their lives.
“Wouldn’t stop me if they did,” Colton admits, like he can’t give two shits what the Enforcers know about him. “You the alpha now?”
“Not yet, but I’m about to change all of that.” Alarik’s bear roars over his admittance.
“Good, but even as the alpha, we could use your connections,” Colton replies, leaving the offer on the table.
“I’ll think about it, man, but I don’t know if the elders will support associating the clan with a group of Enforcers. Rogue enforcers at that.”
“Ah, but that’s the beauty about being the alpha: Your word is law,” Colton reminds him, and even though Alarik knows that particular fact, no alpha has ever gone against the elders.
After his call with Colton ends, Alarik’s head is filled with his own words, making the wheels in his head turn. Reaghan was going to need protection and the only way Alarik knew how to give her it was to ascend to his rightful place as the clan’s alpha. But still, there will be reservations…unless he was to take her as his mate in the official capacity.
Only no alpha has taken a mate that wasn’t a bear. The others in the clan have taken mates that weren’t bears, but never an alpha. The intention was always to make sure the clan was led by one of their kind.
“There you are,” a high-pitched female voice interrupts his thoughts, a voice that makes his innards twist painfully. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
Fucking Thalia.
“I wish you should stop looking for me,” he clips as his body fills with annoyance. He walks past her and heads into his office, hoping she would either disappear or he can successfully ignore her. He hates when she drops by announced, which happens all too often.
She pouts. “Don’t be cross. I’ve missed seeing you.”
“I’m not cross. I’m annoyed.” He sits down in his chair and looks up at her. “I don’t want you here. Now leave.”
She ignores him and comes around the desk to perch herself on his right side, trapping him against the wall. “Don’t you want to know why I’m here?”
“Not really, but I have a feeling that doesn’t matter to you.”
“Alarik Murray, is this how you treat the woman you’re going to marry?”
“We aren’t getting married,” he states, repeating the same thing he’s been saying for the last few years. But it’s no use because she doesn’t get it—and she probably never will.
“I was thinking we could plan something for the spring,” she starts babbling. “Something small and simple, but of course we’ll have the clan there to witness our union—"
“Damn it, Thalia,” he shouts, losing his temper and making her jump off the desk to stare at him wide-eyed. He knows he shouldn’t take his irritation out on her, but she needs to get it in her head already. “I’ve tried being nice about this more times than I care to count—”
“So, stop being nice,” she challenges narrowing her eyes on him. It’s the first time she’s ever shown him any kind of backbone—not that it changes anything between them. “When are you going to accept this is happening?”
“We’re never getting married, Thalia,” he grits between his teeth, reigning in his anger. “I don’t care what our parents decided for us back when we were kids, but this isn’t happening.”
“You plan to dishonor me then?” Her voice raises an octave as she puts both of her hands on her hips and straightens her spine.
“No, we aren’t married. I haven’t taken you as my mate. You don’t carry my mark on your body. There is no dishonor if none of that has happened,” he argues as he stand from his chair.
“The betrothal ceremony—”
“I don’t give a flying fuck about some damn ceremony that was done as I sucked on my mom’s teat—”
“Why do you fight this so hard?” She takes a step forward. “I’m a good woman, Alarik. I will make a good wife.” Alarik watches the pain burn bright in her sky-blue eyes as she lays it all out for him. “I was raised to be the alpha’s wife. I trained my entire life for it.”
“I’m sorry, you’re right, Thalia.” He sighs with a harsh breath, expelling the anger in his body with it. This isn’t her fault. She’s only doing what she was raised to do. It’s him who has let her down. “You’re a good woman and you’ll make an excellent wife—but not for me.”
“Give me one good reason—other than the fact you didn’t choose this. Why am I not good enough for you?” It’s a valid question, one he had never had a good enough answer for, until now.
“Because you’re not his mate.
” Reaghan’s voice slices into the room, making Thalia jump again. Alarik catches her iridescent green eyes from across the room and shakes his head, but they shift from him to Thalia, pinning her in place.
“Who in the hell are you?” Thalia demands with a shaky voice.
“She is my mate.” Alarik straightens, saying the words before Reaghan can respond, and finally admitting what the raven-haired goddess means to him. His bear roars once again and ripples close to the surface of Alarik’s skin.
“I’m your mate,” Thalia insists, but her declaration is filled with doubt, and as her eyes fill with unshed tears, Alarik can’t help feeling sorry for her. He didn’t want to hurt her but knows this for the best. She can move on now and find someone who will treasure her. Thalia knows shifter tradition, and what it means in their clan for him to declare Reaghan his mate. Finding a true mate is a rare thing in the shifter world, one Alarik never thought would happen for him. The last thing he expected when he pulled up behind her car was finding her.
“Thalia.” He pauses a moment, trying to decide the best way to explain what’s happened in the last twenty-four hours. But there’s nothing he can do to lessen the blow that has struck her, or the pain it’s already begun to cause. There’s only one thing he can think to say. “I’m sorry—"
“No. Just don’t.” She cuts him off one last time, her voice barely holding it together. She tries tried to sidestep Reaghan to leave, but Reaghan doesn’t move. He can tell by the way she watches Thalia, like she’s hunting her, that her dragon is in control. And she is pissed.
“Reaghan,” he calls out to her with a gentle tone. Reaghan’s attention snaps from Thalia to him, making his cock stir. She blinks and he sees the struggle happening between woman and her dragon. She was ready to tear Thalia to pieces for him. Damn, that’s sexy as fuck. “Come here, mate.”
She moves out of the doorway a second later and Alarik barely catches sight of Thalia’s blonde hair as she flees the room. His mate continues to close the distance between them, stopping just short of pressing herself against him. He smirks down at her, proud to witness a deepening connection between them. She trusted him to guide her.
“Do you feel this too?” she asks, placing a hand on his chest, directly over his heart. She’s referring to the natural pull between them.
He nods, relishing the feeling of her hand touching him. The electricity flows through their connection, causing the air to grow thick around them. He wants more. No, he needs it.
“I see you’ve acquainted yourself with your dragon.” He chuckles and brings a hand to her cheek, lifting her to face to his and strengthening their connection.
“Yes, you could say that,” she replies softly as a slight blush floods her pale cheeks. “She’s pretty intense and—er—territorial it seems.”
“How are you doing?” he asks, lowering his voice for her ears only and pulling her closer with his free hand. She moves willingly until their bodies are a hairsbreadth away from touching. It’s beautiful torture, being so close but still so far.
“I’m okay, I guess. It’s a lot to take in.” She closes her eyes and sighs. “I wish I didn’t have so many unanswered questions and holes to fill in.”
“About that.” His brow furrows, and she sees the sadness in his eyes. “I might have a way to help you with that.”
“Why do you look worried?”
“Ma said you were looking for something,” he replies with a shrug, unable to express the worry he’s holding in his heart for her. If she is the Bennett’s daughter, he doesn’t know how she’ll react to what happened to them.
“I have coordinates.” She steps out of his arms and reaches into her front pocket for a folded piece of paper. She hands it to him.
“Where did you get this?” he asks, opening it and glancing down at it.
“That’s the weird thing. There was a call, from a restricted line. There was woman on the other end, and she gave me this.”
“Do you know who she was?”
“Her name was Kennedy, but I don’t know more, and she didn’t say anything else. Just repeated this series of numbers.”
“Are you sure they’re coordinates?”
She nods. “I looked them up on a map. They point to a location a few miles from where my parents found me.”
Alarik reaches for his phone and pulls up a map to check them himself. As the page loads, he realizes this is not a coincidence. The numbers are coordinates, and they happened to be the center of Bennett land.
Son of a bitch.
Chapter Six
The moment Reaghan opened the door of Alarik’s truck and her foot hit the ground, she knew she was home. It had nothing to do with her gift either, but rather her instinct.
Despite the crumbling shell of a burnt building that was once what she was sure had been her home, two oak trees stood tall and untouched on the front lawn. She looked at them with unshed tears as a rush of memories, locked in the back of her mind for years, bubble to the surface. They hit her hard and she falls to her knees with a loud cry, as visions of a man and woman skittered across her mind.
Her mother and father.
She could hear their laughter.
She could hear their voices.
She could even smell them.
Her father was a loving man who told her stories and filled her life with adventure. He always had a book in his hand and a smile on his lips. She remembered the way his dark hair curled around his ears. Her mother always complained he needed a haircut, but she secretly loved the length.
Her mother had the most beautiful singing voice. Late at night when Reaghan would wake from a nightmare, it was her mother would sit at the side of her bed and sing until she fell asleep. Her father adored the woman and spent every moment he could dancing under the oak trees with her.
Reaghan could see them clear as day, like they walked the land still, waiting for her to return.
And then she remembered that night. The one when she ran, leaving her parents and everything she knew and held dear behind.
Her mother begged her to go—but why? Closing her eyes, she dug her bare hands into the soil, trying to remember what happened.
Are you sure you want to remember? her dragon asks. Not a moment of hesitation went by before Reaghan nodded. She needed to know.
As her dragon releases the memory, Reaghan releases a blood curdling cry of anguish.
Her father dead at the front door, and then a group of men. She’d been hiding in the coat closet, but she’d seen it all. They entered the house, scattering instantly in search of…her mother.
“You know our instructions. Take her alive,” one of the men said. Reaghan didn’t know who the man was, and his face was covered, but deep down in her soul, she knew they were going to do to her mother what they did to her father, and she couldn’t let that happen.
Present Reaghan vaguely felt Alarik’s arms envelope her, allowing her to keep her connection to the land while offering comfort as she worked through the memory.
Past Reaghan quietly and carefully made her way through the house until she found her mother in the basement, waiting at their secret exit. The fear in her mother’s eyes, the heartbreak in her voice, Reaghan couldn’t shake off or pretend didn’t exist.
But she ran like her mother instructed, and her dragon guided her through the night and the wild.
When she heard a scream at her back, she knew it was her mother. She tried to stop but her dragon wouldn’t let her. The little girl needed to survive and that wouldn’t have been possible if she returned home.
“No,” Reaghan wails as the memory and heartache returned to her in full force. “Why didn’t you let me go back?”
You needed to survive.
You should’ve let me go back, she growls, trying to find something other than the eternal sadness inside of herself. Deep down she knows her dragon is right, but that doesn’t make it any better. I could’ve saved her.
You would’ve died.
> Reaghan climbs into Alarik’s lap, searching for solace from the pain, but continues her inner battle as he strokes her hair.
Why did you repress my memories? All this time, I could’ve had them. I could’ve had you.
You weren’t ready, her dragon whispers softly. I did it for your protection. We couldn’t risk others finding out what you are.
Janice and Robert would’ve understood.
There are still things you haven’t learned. Dangerous things.
“So, tell me,” Reaghan demands, but her dragon grows quiet. She’s done talking. “Stop playing games.”
“It’s going to be all right,” Alarik murmurs against her hair, pulling Reaghan from the inner turmoil happening inside of her. How could her dragon keep this from her?
“What happened to her?” She asks, referring to her mother, because she understood finally the pieces of his past life she saw before passing out this morning. Their connect had been the strongest she’d ever experienced through it, she learned many things about him. She witnessed her father’s fate, but felt his spirit tied to the land under her. She couldn’t feel her mother though, and it frightened her.
“I was told she died,” he answers, and Reaghan feels the world crack beneath her and she wishes for it to swallow her whole.
“That night?” The words come out without conscious thought, and she wishes she could call them back, immediately regretting them as she remembers her mother screams from that night.
“No, but I’m not sure how it happened. She was kidnapped by a group of hired hunters.”
“Hunters?” She leans back to look him in the eyes.
“Yes,” he answers tentatively, before explaining more of the world kept from her. “There are shifters who hate what we are—what they are. They spend their lives hunting down and killing our kind. To them we are an abomination.”
“If they hunt us, why did they take her?”
“Rea, baby.” He tips her chin with a single finger before tracing the line of her jaw. “They took her because she was a female and someone paid them a lot of money to do it. Your kind is rare and only females can produce more dragons. The man who paid to have your mother taken was also a dragon. He wanted her because he wanted her to sire his children.”
Alarik (A Rogue Enforcers Novella) Page 5
