Taken By The Alpha(6)

“He just can’t get enough of you!” one of the other females exclaimed loudly. “What’s his favorite position again?”

As the woman began loudly describing various sex acts, the other females at the table glanced at each other in annoyance.

Good lord, Katrina got it. The female was with Maddox, she was a jealous bitch, and for some reason she thought Katrina was a threat.

The idea of Maddox with such a crude, tactless female disturbed her for some reason. Maddox deserved better.

Now where the hell had that thought come from?

One of the older women slammed her palm down on the table. “Enough, Lula,” she said. “There are cubs approaching.” Lula and her friends let out threatening growls. The women responded with snarls and menacing glowers. Lula glared at them for a few seconds, then stood up.

“Let’s go find somewhere a little classier to hang out,” Lula sniffed, and she and her two friends flounced off.

“Cookie, dear?” Violet said, holding out a plate of sugar cookies to Katrina. Katrina took one.

“So where are you and Maddox going on your honeymoon?” Violet asked. Katrina choked on her cookie, spewing crumbs on the table. Without waiting for Katrina to answer, Violet said to Caroline “I think she and Maddox make the loveliest couple, don’t you?”

“Oh, yes, perfect,” Caroline said, and when Violet looked away she glanced at Katrina and made a little circle at her temple with her finger. Violet was senile. She’d have to be, to imagine that Katrina and Maddox were together.

“When do you think you will bless us with grandcubs?” the older woman asked.

Katrina struggled for a diplomatic answer. Finally she said “Oh, well, it’s all so new, we just want to spend some time together first.”

“Good decision, dear. Are you hoping for a boy or a girl first? I’m partial to girls, myself. I can make you some clothing. Oh, I’ll start sewing a little onesie right away, I have a lovely pattern. What are you naming her?”

One of the other women patted her on the arm. “Enough, Violet, we don’t want to put so much pressure on the new bride,” she said, with a wink at Katrina. “Let the newlyweds enjoy themselves.”

Violet stared at her in puzzlement. “Newlyweds? Who got married? Why doesn’t anybody tell me these things?”

A little while later, they wrapped up their party favors and made Katrina promise to meet them tomorrow morning at the same spot to do some planning for the bridal feast.

She got up to take a stroll, and Michael scrambled to his feet to follow her. She wondered how far he’d let her wander before steering her back to her room. She might as well find out. It was all recon.

Even though she was being treated well, she still needed to make every effort to escape. Her pack’s pride was at stake.

Had her stepfather issued a Death Challenge yet? Wouldn’t Maddox have mentioned something like that?

She paused, standing and soaking in the sunlight, listening to the parrot-like squawk of the acorn woodpeckers and the high, shrill chirp of the sparrows.

As she stood there, a sudden wave of terror rolled over her. Heather. Heather was terrified. Heather needed help.

It was her mutant gene as a sensitive, flaring up and making Heather’s panic echo inside her. It called out to her like a blaring beacon, drowning out everything else in the world

Without thinking, she shifted. Her clothes shredded off of her, she dropped to all fours, and took off like a shot. She ran towards the fear. All of her senses blazed to life, and the wind carried the faintest scent of Heather towards her, as well as several other, oddly familiar wolf scents. Where did she know those scents from?

She raced through the woods and leaped over underbrush, dodging around trees, legs churning, ears flat back against her head.

Behind her she heard shouts and then howls. She kept running.

Something flew through the air and knocked her off her feet with a thud, and then she was staring up into the eyes of the most massive gray wolf she’d ever seen. Maddox. That son of a bitch.

She snapped wildly as he pinned her down with his paws. Three of his pack-mates paced nearby, growling loudly.

Then she shifted back to human form. She needed to be able to talk. He shifted too, and all of a sudden she was pinned down on soft, loamy forest floor under his naked bulk. She could feel his muscles rippling as he grabbed her flailing hands and pinned them above her head. His brown hair hung down, and he was panting hard and grinning fiercely.

“In the mood for a jog? You should have just said so. I’d have laced up my sneakers,” Maddox taunted.

“It’s Heather! She’s in the woods, and something’s happening to her!” she cried out, squirming and struggling underneath him. She could feel the hard length of his cock pressing in to her stomach. The scent of his musky arousal rolled over her.

“That’s the best you got? I thought you Mordhaus shifters were good at lying.”

“You stupid son of a bitch! Do you think I’d try to escape in front of everyone, in broad daylight?”

“Just because you’re beautiful doesn’t mean you’re smart.”

Off in the distance, she felt Heather’s panic growing, screaming out to her.

“Get off me!” she howled, trying without success to knee him in the balls.

Instead, he bent down and sniffed her hair. “But you smell so pretty.” Then he stopped and his expression went from taunting to serious. “Fear. I smell fear. You’re not lying.”

“North east of here! Help her!” she cried out.

He scrambled to his feet and shouted out to his pack mates, and then shifted. Katrina shifted too. They all raced northeast, easily outrunning her, and she fell behind, following them.

It occurred to her as she ran that she could possibly escape now, because they were all distracted – but no. She had to help Heather. She couldn’t leave until she knew the little girl was all right.

Ahead, she heard shouts of rage, followed by howls and terrible gurgling noises that she recognized. Wolves were dying.

By the time she got there, it was all over.

Three shifters lay dead on the forest floor. Maddox and his men had already shifted back into human form. Carver was kneeling and comforting Heather, who was crying into his shoulder.

“Heather! Did they hurt you?” Katrina cried out. Good God, hadn’t this cub been through enough already?

Heather rushed over to Katrina, who wrapped her arms around her protectively. “Those men tried to take me!” she wailed. “Why did they try to take me? I didn’t want to go with them!”

“What were you doing out here?” Maddox asked her.

She wiped at her face with her arm. “My daddy drank his medicine from the bottle and fell asleep, and I couldn’t wake him up, and I got bored,” she sniffled. “I just wanted to go for a run.” A very common cub thing to do, and on her pack land, she should have been safe.

Maddox’s face went dark with anger. “Take Heather to Caroline,” he said to Carver. “And alert everybody, nobody goes in the woods alone until this is resolved. Double up on security. Meeting in one hour with everyone on the pack council.”

“Wait, isn’t Katrina coming too?” Heather asked anxiously. “I need her to protect me.”

“I’ll see you later today, and this time we’ll do two French braids. With ribbons. But only if you go with Carver right now with no arguing,” Katrina said. Heather perked up immediately, and let Carver scoop her up and carry her off without complaint.

As Carver headed back towards the common area, Maddox glanced over at Katrina. “How did you know Heather was in trouble?”

“I’m a Sensitive. I have a natural tendency to pick up on very strong emotions of anyone around me. I’m surprised I picked up on Heather being this far away from me; I must have really formed an emotional bond with her. And then again, her panic was really strong and I tend to pick up on negative emotions the most, unfortunately.”

Maddox nodded curtly. “Good talent to have.”

“What will happen with her father?”

“He’s out of the pack. He’d been warned before.”

“Ouch.” Katrina winced. “Rehab?”

“We offered before, he turned it down. When we escort him off the property, we’ll offer it again. He can do it or not, his choice. Unless he can prove to us that he’s rehabilitated, he’s lost his cub and his pack.”

She sighed. It was sad for Heather; she wished there were an alternative.

“You think I’m being overly harsh?” Maddox asked, surprising her. He actually cared what she thought?

“Well, I…No. I just wish circumstances were different, but they’re not. I understand why you’re laying down the law. You’ve given him plenty of chances. He’s not supervising his own child, and being raised by a binge-drinking alcoholic is terrible for her. I hope he decides to accept help.”

Maddox turned his attention back to the three dead shifters. “I need to know who sent them.”

“I swear they smell familiar,” Katrina said.

She walked closer, peering at the three dead men, their blood staining the forest floor, their lifeless eyes staring at the sky.

A shock ran all the way through her body. “I know them,” she says.