Alpha Wyler
Like an arrow cutting right through my heart, I needed the news they had got there safe and waiting for it had become unbearable. I had been staring at the open laptop on the granite island for far too long. I had been too hopeful to believe occupying my thoughts with answering emails would work at all. The browser pinged as another email came in, this time from a timber buyer I'd been waiting to hear back from. Suddenly, with my house empty and mate gone, the business venture didn't seem so dire. I closed the laptop shut and succumbed to the need to bow my head into my hands and worry. It wasn't sitting right, even though I had felt it had been the right thing to do with Lara and Olivia. Johnathan had agreed removing them from Alpha house was best. That cabin, once secured, would be safe and I would go see them tomorrow if nothing had developed.
The front door took a series of loud pounds. I lifted my head and took a long deep breath, smelling the faintness of my patrol members outside the house. “Fuck...” I walked for the front door and the closer I got, the harder my heart beat. This fear response from myself tipped me off and I pulled the door open as two young males stood on the other side.
The smallest one gulped. “Alpha. There's been a problem.”
“What sort of problem?”
“Beta Johnathan radioed for help five minutes ago, the Luna's been taken.”
My brain needed a moment to catch up through the way my vision had narrowed. “Where did this happen!” I had limited time to act, information became imperative if I was to track her.
“We've got patrol shifted and headed out.”
“That's not what I asked.” I snatched him by his faded blue polo shirt and pulled him close with a snarl. “Where did it happen!”
His teeth chattered together. “Along the north star logging road.”
“Get out of my way!” I shoved past them and shifted. It had been the easiest shift of my life and so was the running. I caught up to the patrol heading out to find Johnathan and pulled far ahead. they had a hard time keeping up with me, and this made it so I was first to find the wrecked patrol vehicle that had gone head first into a tree.
I shifted mid flight off the gravel road and into the embankment, my shoulder bouncing off the crushed frame of the truck. I took the passenger door and threw it open, finding Tyler dead and Johnathan, staring at me with glassy eyes. I watched him blink at me and then I moved around the car in a hurry to get him out.
“John!” The driver's door wouldn't open from the tug I gave it but a good pull got the bent metal apart. I dislodged the door and helped him sit back in the seat. The blood seeped from between his fingers as he held his slashed throat together.
“John, don't quit on me.” I reached for the radio set and pushed the button. “This is Alpha Wyler. Send the medical crew up the North Star Road, now. It's life or death at the moment.”
I threw the set back into the console and ducked back out to look at John.
'On their way, Alpha.' The radio reply came back moments later.
He winced through his shallow breaths. “It's white....”
“What is?” I creased my brow.
“White... van...” He lifted his other hand and pointed north.
“A white van?” I repeated. “Is that what they put her in?”
He closed his eyes with his nod and I shook his shoulder to wake him back up. “John, you're not dying today.”
“Caleb, go... find her.” He took his hand from his bloody throat and shoved me away, be it weak but I got the point.
“Don't die, that's an order.” I told him and he gave me a pained smile. It took me a lot to leave him there, unsure if I'd ever talk to him again but chasing after Olivia was the most important thing and my Beta had stayed alive long enough to make sure I had a chance to find her.
I owed him everything if we both saw this through.
Shifted, I ran down the gravel road at top speed. it didn't matter how much my lungs hurt or how my legs wanted to buckle as I ran. My muscles would recover another day and it would be with my mate in my arms.
I felt the rumble of the road beneath and knew a logging truck was approaching around the next bend. I couldn't stop my momentum though, in fear of my body giving up and so I ran blindly into the corner and the semi blew it's horn. If I'd been wildlife, it would have spooked me but the driver hit the brakes while I kept running. briefly, we looked at each other in the passing and then I was back on my trail for the white van.
I wondered how this had happened. How had Jackson known what road, at what time, and which vehicle.. My brother's stalking skills could not be that good, it just made no sense to me no matter how hard I tried to wrap my head around it. Someone had betrayed me.
The back end of a white van veered off the road and caught my attention. Adrenaline punched my heart. If I had found them, I had beat all odds. I tracked the van where it had turned off the road. Fifty miles hadn't seemed as long as I'd thought but my heavy breathing was a sure sign of the onset of exhaustion. The shadowed forest around the condemned office building allowed me to sink into the underbrush and there I witnessed Olivia being pulled from the back of the van like a rag doll.
My claws punctured the frozen moss beneath my feet. Was waiting to attack with backup smarter? Perhaps. Was taking a chance I had that time to do so? No.
I waited while they went inside and fought the way my heart told me to go get her. Like daggers, the seconds passed with unbearable slowness and pain. The stripe of fur on my back had stood on end for far too long, and I walked out of the bush with my muzzle low and my teeth barred. The smell of Olivia masked any doubts I had. My brother would pay for this... all of this.
A creaking of the door made me stop dead in the blowing snow and Jackson stepped out. Wicked grin to accompany his shirtless attire.
“Caleb, you surprised me. I thought it would take you longer.”
I went to propel myself into mid-flight when he held out his hand to stop me.
“I have your mate, you idiot, don't jump me.” He stepped out onto the ice and snow. “One word from me and she'll be dead before you make it in this door.”
I growled at him in response.
“Can't you give me a bit of credit, Caleb?” He tilted his head with a cockiness I wished to kill him for. “I did outsmart you.”
I'd had enough of the conversation and leapt forward, only to be thrown on my side by a group of four attacking wolves that appeared from the surrounding forest. They pinned me to the ground in front of Jackson and my brother smiled down at me with a shake of his head. “We're playing by my rules now, brother. Shift or the boys will rip you up right now and you won't ever see that unborn pup. Now, that would be tragic.”
The pain in my heart drove me to listen and I shifted under the weight of his minions. The ice melted and stuck to my human skin as I lay flat to my stomach. More men appeared and they walked around, grabbing me from under the wolves and securing my wrists behind my back with cable ties. Several to be exact. I tested the hold they had on me. I wasn't quite angry enough to bust out of them and I had to see her before I got that angry.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
Jackson stood in front of me. “Want to see her?”
My nostrils flared. “I want to rip your face off.”
“Now, now, Caleb. That sort of thing makes me want to kill you right now.”
I shut my mouth with a growl.
“That's better.” Jackson nodded to the men and they hauled me toward the door with my toes dragging the ground beneath. As soon as I was brought inside, there in the corner I saw her. Her eyes widened when she saw me and she cried my name through her streaming tears. The state she was in was vile and made me sick to my stomach. She was covered in bruises, blood, and she'd been stripped to her underwear, leaving her legs and pregnant stomach exposed. Her shivering was a testament to her fear and cold limbs. I might have deserved this, but she didn't.
I struggled against them, managing to trip one of the men but Jackson took my shoulder and chucked me against a near wall. The trailer board broke around me. I'd become a prisoner with my mate.
“One more out of line step, Caleb...” My brother walked slowly toward me. “And I will cut that pup out of her in front of you.”
My eyes stayed locked on him because I couldn't bear to look at her after hearing the way she'd started to cry after that was said aloud.
“Take him over there and chain him up.” Jackson nodded his head to the opposite end of the stripped down trailer. They had to shove me to get me there and once they had, Jackson inspected the chains and locks.
“You must be afraid of me,” I growled at him.
He tilted his head with a glint of amusement. “Why would I be afraid of my little brother?”
“Because you wouldn't chain me up like this otherwise and you wouldn't have taken my mate in the first place to hurt me.”
“Look at it like this, that little slut was running away from you. I'm helping you, brother.”
“Lies.” My jaw clenched as the topic surfaced.
He turned his cheek as he stood, “Lara!”
I stiffened as Lara walked from a back room with the most placid expression.
“Yes?” She said in the softest, sweetest voice.
Jackson walked toward her, taking her by the waist and pulling her into him. “Tell him what Olivia agreed to do.”
Lara's easy breathing accompanied her dead eyes on me. “She agreed to run away with me once we got to the cabin.”
Jackson perked his brow when his grin appeared. “What do you make of that, Caleb?”
I wreathed. “You're lying.”
Jackson let Lara go and approached me again. “At least my mate does as she's told and this time, she's done good.”
My eyes lifted to the submissive she-wolf who didn't appear so calm anymore. “You're the traitor,” I growled as my previous suspicions unfolded.
She stared at me as I glared back with an inferno of anger. I'd felt my blood boil many times in my life but nothing like this, nothing as strong and evil as this moment.
“You deceived me!” I shouted at her.
Jackson grabbed a fistful of my hair and shoved my neck as far back as it would go, forcing me to look at him. “You've always had a bleeding heart, brother.” His breath splayed my face with the smells of blood and uncooked flesh. “I told you it would bite you in the ass one day.”
My muscles bulged from the blazing, inconceivable anger and I felt the cable ties testing before I even went to break them. The plastic snapped, freeing my hands and I threw my head into Jackson's. My brother fell onto his back as I stood against the chains, yelling as the bolts broke free from the studs in the walls. These poor excuses for chains wouldn't stop me on a normal day, never mind in a blind rage. My brother's lack of tactics showed through. The links of the heavy chains fell to my feet and I moved, throwing myself on top of Jackson to strangle the life from him. Lara fell to the ground with panic.
“No!” She screamed which made my brother's men flood in from the other rooms. They yanked me off Jackson and slammed me to the wall, believing they'd gotten the situation under control.
I growled as the thoughts flooded my mind... how Lara had used me, used Krissy, used my own mate against me- all for Jackson. It made it easy to start fighting. “So,” I paused before I threw the first punch, “who wants to die first then?”