Taken By The Alpha(16)

“Let’s talk about this outside,” he said. Katrina followed him outdoors.

“Heather’s asking for you,” he said. They’d still kept Heather with a family on the far end of the pack property, and Katrina hadn’t seen her again.

“What should I do?” She blinked back tears. “This sucks. It’s horrible. I’m furious at him, no matter how sad I am for him. Damn it, I want to punch someone.”

“I was going to wait to ask you this, but…” he took a deep breath and grabbed her hand. “I need to know if you’re going to stay here permanently.”

Her heart leaped in her chest. “You’re asking me…”

“I want you to stay here. Everyone wants you to stay here. I want you with me. In my room. Our room. Well, we’d move in to our own house, of course. Damn it, I’m not good at this.”

Katrina managed a shaky laugh. “No, you’re not.”

“What I’m doing is proposing. Not just because of Heather. Because I want you by my side for the rest of my life, and I want to have lots of beautiful cubs with you.”

“We better hope they take after their mother than, huh?”

“Hey.” Maddox pretended to look injured. “I am a very handsome man. My mother told me so.”

“She wore glasses, right?” Katrina threw her arms around him. “Yes. I accept. If you come up with a more romantic proposal, after the Death Match, the answer will be – odds are pretty good, if I were a betting person – I’d place all my money on yes.”

His grin was so huge it looked as if his face was going to split in two. “I’d be jumping up and down with joy and celebrating, if we didn’t have to go talk to Heather right now.”

It was a long, tear-filled day, and Heather fell asleep in Katrina’s arms. They moved her to the main house, along with Caroline, who was her aunt on her mother’s side, and did their best to keep her busy during the days that followed.





Chapter Eleven




Katrina strolled through the woods, struggling to keep the nagging worry inside her at bay. Two more days. Then this would finally be over.

She kept telling herself that as long as it was a fair fight, Maddox was sure to win. The problem was, she knew that her stepfather didn’t fight fair.

Despite the fact that she and Maddox were together, she still had security trailing after her – partly because of the attack on her from earlier that month. She didn’t bother to object; it wouldn’t have changed Maddox’s mind, and she understood that he had to make sure that she stayed on the property. Losing a hostage would mean losing respect and appearing weak.

“I need to find some more daisies for Heather’s hair, and then we can go back,” she told Michael.

“Suit yourself.” He shrugged. “Nice day. I’m in no hurry.”

She spotted a clump of daisies, knelt down to pick them, and as she did, she scented Lula in the area.

Whatever. She and Lula couldn’t avoid each other forever now that she was going to be living here.

She grabbed the daisies. As she brushed ants off them, she called out to Michael “Hey, I’m ready to head back.”

Her only answer was a thud on the ground, the sound of a body falling.

She shot to her feet. Lula was standing five feet away, holding a tranq gun. Michael lay sprawled out on the ground, unconscious.

“You crazy bitch!” Katrina hurried towards him. “If you killed him-”

“He’s fine. Tranquilizer.” Lula usually looked pretty intense, but she really had the crazy eyes today. “Let’s get you out of here. We’re going to shift and run for it, I have a car parked on one of our side roads, and you can duck down under some blankets I’ve got there so we can get off the property, but we’ve got to hurry.”

Going anywhere with Lula, especially when she was holding a gun, seemed like a very bad idea. “Why would you help me?” she asked suspiciously.

“Because as soon as you’re gone, I can reclaim my Alpha for good.” Lula’s eyes gleamed with a crazy light. “He’ll think he’s broken-hearted, and I’ll be there to comfort him.”

The thought of Lula with Maddox made her so angry that she had to fight to keep her wolf down.

“How do I know you won’t try to kill me?” she demanded.

Lula’s face fell. “If I did, Maddox would find out who killed you, and he’d never forgive me. Otherwise, believe me, I would.”

“You put cyanide in those tranqs before. You would have killed your own pack mates.”

Lula sneered. “No, you would have, and Maddox would have hated you for it.”

Katrina was horrified. She couldn’t believe how far Lula was willing to go to try to trap a man who clearly wasn’t interested in her.

Maddox needed to know how crazy, and dangerous, Lula was. And Heather needed her there. She couldn’t handle another abandonment. And…Katrina couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Maddox.

“Let’s go,” Lula snapped, gesturing impatiently with her gun. “Unless you want to be known as a traitor to your own pack.”

“In two days that won’t be an issue. And no. I’m not going.”

She turned to run back to the compound, and felt a sharp sting between her shoulder blades.

“Fine. We’ll do it the hard way.” Those were the last words she heard before the world faded away from her.

She woke up inside a car trunk, bumping down the road. It was dark and stuffy and her head hurt.

How the hell did Lula think that she could get away with this? She wondered furiously. And what was she even planning? She could hardly drive up to the Mordhaus Pack’s front door and deliver her. Or would she? Lula might be that crazy.

She fumbled around the inside of the car. The cable release for the car trunk latch should be there somewhere. Her father had taught her that trick. Her mother had hated how her father taught her self defense and lock picking and all those other skills that were horrifyingly unladylike. Her father had insisted that an Alpha’s daughter always needed to be able take care of herself.

She kept fumbling until she found the cable, yanked it, and the trunk popped open. She quickly shifted, and leaped out of the car. She hit the asphalt with a painful thud, rolling over several times before scrambling to her feet. She could feel her sides and shoulder aching, but she shook it off.

She heard the car screech to a stop, looked up ahead…and to her shock, saw Teresa climbing out of the car.

Lula and Teresa, working together? Teresa had been pushing her to get together with Maddox from the beginning, and now she was kidnapping her?

She didn’t have time to try to figure it out. She just needed to get back to the Killingworth grounds, and warn Maddox. He’d sort it all out.

She shot into the woods. She doubted Teresa would try to follow her; Katrina could take her out.

As she ran, she realized she was near the gophers’ territory. This was her chance. If she found one of the gophers, she could ask them what the hell was going on with her stepfather, and then she could bring that information back to Maddox as well.

She quickly came up to a giant barbed wire fence, and halted, surprised. It looked as if it ran on and on. She’d never seen that fence there before. Her stepfather’s doing, she was sure.

Far off in the distance, she could see a wolf pacing by the barbed wire. He was a wolf who’d come over with her stepfather when he’d taken over her pack. Her stepfather’s men were guarding the property – from what? It wasn’t even his property.

Suddenly, deep inside her, she started to feel panic and fear swelling up – somebody, no, lots of people, were terrified and trapped. For her to sense the emotions, it had to be people who she’d met before – she was betting on the gophers.

She’d be taking a risk staying here, but she couldn’t run away from the fear. She needed to help. Needed to find the people. The need welled up inside her, nearly choking her.

She quickly began pawing at the ground, and within a few minutes had made enough of a hole to wriggle under it.

She raced away from the wolf who was patrolling, and realized she was running away from the source of the fear and panic. She forced herself to keep going; she’d find a way to circle back around. She couldn’t let him spot her.

She was heading towards the gopher’s home area, where most of their houses were gathered around a common area similar to a pack’s. Somebody was hurrying through the woods – Stacey!

She dashed over, quickly shifted and called out to her. Stacey swung around and started back, looking terrified.

“You’ve got to get out of here! He’ll kill them!” she pleaded, her head swiveling around as she frantically scanned the forest.

“Kill who? What are you talking about?” Katrina demanded.

“Our families.” Her friend was thin and pale and had dark circles under her eyes.

“Stacey. Please. I know everyone seems to think that I know what Roman’s up to, but I swear on my late father’s honor that I do not. Roman keeps us all far away from here, miles away from here, and he said it’s because of all the construction.”

Stacey spoke in lowered tones, still looking around her as if expecting Roman to pop out from behind a tree.