He shrugged. “I don’t even know what snapped him into this,” he pointed out.
“Well, I suppose we’ll fix this like I fix a broken TV,” I suggested.
He raised an eyebrow. “And that’s what?”
I slapped my hand across his face. Stevens’ eyes widened and he sputtered to his feet. “Why the hell did you-” Luke slapped his hand over the other lord’s face and pulled him against himself.
Stevens ripped Luke’s hand off him and glared at Luke. “Don’t you dare-” Luke covered his mouth again and gave Stevens such a warning glare that it shut the old man up.
“Speak again and I’ll tear off your lips,” Luke warned him. Stevens frowned, but didn’t pull his hand off. Luke slipped his hand off himself and separated them. “You’ve been under Cranston’s power for the last few days. We’re here to take you out of here so he can’t use you as his pawn.”
Stevens scowled at him. “I know what’s been going on. I haven’t been blind these past days, just unable to act on my own.”
Luke and I glanced at each other, then back to Stevens. “So you could see what was happening?” I guessed.
Stevens pursed his lips together, but nodded. “Yes, but if you want me to tell you what Cranston is up to then I can’t oblige. He said nothing about his plans in this room.”
“What we want is for you to follow us so we can get you safely to Stacy, so let’s go,” I ordered him. Stevens opened his mouth to complain, but a noise above us told us the guards were on the move.
“Hurry!” Luke hissed. He grabbed Stevens’ arm and dragged him to the door with me behind them. We sped out of the hall and disappeared down the passage to the cell room, but not in time to miss being seen by a group of guards who came to investigate Stevens’ yells.
“Stop!” the lead one yelled. That only made us go faster. We sprinted down the hall and into the cell room. Luke slammed the door behind us and we stepped over the unconscious guards to climb down the ladder. Luke pushed Stevens ahead of us, but the old lord hesitated at the top of the ladder.
He wrinkled his nose and stepped back. “I know where this leads, and I won’t-” The footsteps of our pursuers grew louder.
I whipped my head from the door to our stubborn and ungrateful rescuee. “You’ll thank me for this later,” I told him. I grabbed his arm and shoved him head-first down the hole. He screamed like a girl before a splash garbled his cry. Luke pushed me down and followed close behind me. He was one step ahead of the door bursting open and the guys rushing inside the room.
27
Down in the sewer Stevens picked himself up and his face was beet red, and not just because he had rotten beet on his face. “Don’t you dare do that to me again,” he warned me.
“You’ll thank me later than this,” I corrected myself.
“Run!” Luke ordered us. He pushed us forward and jumped back.
The three guards crashed down where we just stood. They hunkered down low to the water and growled at us. Luke growled back and jumped them. One of them avoided his grasp and lunged for Stevens. I pushed Stevens to the side and enjoyed watching him fall into the water just before I was myself dunked by the guard. He wrapped his hands around my neck and shoved my face into the filthy water. I struggled to lift my head, but he wouldn’t let me up.
An anger arose inside me. To die in this filthy place by this stupid thug was not my idea of a heroic death. I felt the Beast inside me howl in rage and my body transformed. My neck thickened and my clawed hands reached out from the water to grab his own throat. I pulled him into the water with me and rolled us over so I was on top. My face elongated and a sick grin slipped onto my thick, sharp fangs. The Beast inside me reveled in the feeling of him thrashing beneath me and his pulse weakening.
A hand shot out and grabbed one of my wrists. The person pulled my hand away and the guard floated up to the surface, unconscious but alive. He whipped my face to the interloper and found it was Stevens. “Control the Beast before it controls you,” he ordered me.
My eyes widened and I shook my head. “I-I didn’t know,” I stuttered.
He tossed my wrist to the side and sneered at me. “Now you don’t, so learn from it,” he shot back. He glanced over his shoulder and I followed his gaze. Luke tossed aside the last of the guards and stumbled over to us.
“I think I’ve had enough of the sewers,” he commented.
“And I’ve had enough of this city,” I returned.
Luke noticed my transformation and frowned. “What happened?”
“Could we talk about this in a cleaner spot? Say a soap factory?” I pleaded.
Luke pursed his lips, but nodded. He led the way back to the truck where Rick and Steve still waited for us. They jumped out of the vehicle to greet us, but got a whiff of our stench and stopped short of the welcome hug. Rick noticed Stevens and smiled. “So ya actually got him,” he commented.
Stevens frowned. “Yes, I have been got,” he agreed.
Rick bowed at the waist and gestured to the cab. “There’s just enough room to squeeze yer lordly ass in the cab,” he invited.
“I’m not riding in that,” Stevens argued.
Rick shrugged and jerked his head toward the bed. “Then ya ride back there.”
Stevens shuddered and slipped into the truck. Steve and Rick sat on either side of him, and Luke and I took our spot in the bed. Rick started the truck and glanced over his shoulder at us. “Where to?” he wondered.
“Head south out of the city. We need to get to Scientia to meet up with the others,” Luke told him.
“Got ya.” Rick hit the gas and we zoomed out of there.
A few blocks down Luke turned to me. “So what happened back there?” he wondered.
I looked away and shrugged. “I guess I got carried away.”
“With what?” he persisted.
I cringed. “With almost killing a guy,” I muttered. I expected outrage, shame, and a lot of yelling from him. All I got was silence, so I risked a glance. Luke looked at me with a mix of worry and regret. “Aren’t you going to tell me to control the Beast?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “I think you learned that when you realized what you’d almost done.”
“And will I. . .will I do it again?” I wondered.
“Only if you don’t control it, and if you try to hide your difficulties with it,” he told me.
“So no secrets?” I rephrased.
“No secrets,” he repeated. I narrowed my eyes and leaned toward him. He frowned and leaned back. “What? Do I have sewer on my face?”
“No, but you’ve been keeping secrets,” I told him.
He cringed. “I was meaning to tell you about Lance and me.”
I leaned away and crossed my arms. “Uh-huh, and that time was going to be when? After you killed him?” I guessed.
“When the time was right,” he reassured me. I wasn’t reassured.
“Telling your mate you have a brother that’s trying to kill us both is kind of important,” I persisted. I leaned toward him. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
He sighed. “Would you want to admit to anyone that your brother is insane and causes so much suffering?” he countered.
It was my turn to cringe. “I guess not, but how did he turn out crazy while you’re just crazy handsome?”
“We were born brothers, and were adopted by the previous Lord Laughton. I appreciated the gift our father gave us, but Lance enjoyed the scent of blood. He would start fights to smell it. After several years our father banished him from the estates and the Wildlands region. Lance showed up a few decades later as the adopted son of the Connor pack.” He snarled. “They were always known for their love of blood.”
“So you’re twins?” I guessed.
He nodded. “Yes, alike in scent, but different in everything else.”
I leaned my head against the cab and sighed. “As if all this wasn’t complicated enough.”
“It’ll only get worse if we don’t stop Lance and his intentions,” Luke replied.
I turned my head toward him. “You don’t really intend to kill him, do you?” I asked him.
He sighed and glanced up at the dark sky. The horizon in the west was lighting up with a new sun. The towering skyscrapers of the city became silhouettes in the distance as Rick drove us beyond the borders of the metropolis. Our long night of adventure was over, and more excitement lay in store for us in the south. We had our friends to reunite with, and the de-scenter to find and destroy. It was going to be a hell of a journey, but I had my mate by my side.
“We have to do what needs to be done to save everyone, but I hope not,” he whispered.
I slid against his shoulder and leaned my head in the crux of his neck. “So do I.”
Alpha Resolution
Alpha Blood, Book 3
1
“Are we there yet?”
The whiner was me, Becky, werewolf initiate extraordinaire. Right then I felt like a werewolf shaken and stirred. The place was a dusty road in the middle of nowhere. The vehicle was an old pickup truck just short of being an antique and well on its way to being scrap yard material. The time, some hours past lunch. The company was a few bricks shy of a load, or, to fit my hunger, a few fries short of a Happy Meal.