Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
“They’re torturing the wolves they find–even the rogues–for information on her.
Weaknesses, rumors, any information they can, they want her. Silas thinks her power can put him at the top of the food chain, give him what he needs to run the realm, overthrow the balance enough to take it over.” She shivered, and I swallowed.
He might be right.
“She has the border magic inside her,” I admitted.
Heather’s eyes went wide. “Then he won’t let her go until she has agreed to be his.
If he binds them in a magic oath, this realm is done,” she cried, tears wavering in her eyes, and I nodded.
“Which is why I have to go and figure out how to get her out,” I said, knowing how urgent it was.
Heather stopped me, her small hand falling on my wrist. Normally, my shadows would have hissed, but they didn’t; her touch soothed them as if they recognized her as the family she claimed.
I frowned at that and looked down at the touch before pulling my arm back. I didn’t trust easily, and maybe she was who she said she was; it didn’t change the fact that I was an alpha and she shouldn’t touch me.
“I’ll help. I don’t know what I can do since I have no doubt Silas is doing worse to her than what I had to endure, but I’ll do what I can. Then I want that conversation, Braxton,” she said, and I nodded.
“Help her and my brother get out, and you’ll get it. With Tabitha and Cain, my mate and our shadows so we know if you’re telling the truth or not,” I said, and she didn’t even flinch, just nodded.
“I’ll pass that test, Braxton. I know you don’t believe me yet, but you will. I want to be a part of the wolf pack; I’ll do anything.”
“I don’t doubt that, Heather. I can feel that you’re telling me the truth when you say that. What isn’t clear is your intentions once you’re inside those walls because that is going to be what affects our answer,” I said before leaving her there, taking off into the city and nodding to the wolves who shut the gate behind me.
I ordered them to gather some supplies and leave them outside for the rogues, and they didn’t argue, but I didn’t expect them to.
The link was taut, the heaviness in the pack making them slaves to my commands because trying to resist would unleash the savagery within, and none of them were risking that.
I ran into the mansion, taking the stairs two at a time, going straight to the twins’
room, pausing when I got in there, grinning at Derik with the twins. He was lying on the floor with them around him, all snoring.
I closed the door and went forward, sitting down next to them, reaching out with my shadows to touch Zale’s that always leaked out when he was sleeping, always checking that someone was there.
Usually looking for Enzi, but he felt my shadows as soon as I touched his with mine.
His eyes fluttered open, and I lifted him into my arms.
“Mommy needs us, buddy. Think we can find her?” I asked, and Zale grabbed my finger, his shadows reacting with mine. They wrapped around mine, flooding me with comfort and love, then the feeling of…her.
Everything she was suffocated me, her essence, her soul infecting me, making her feel so damn close. It was everything Zale felt around her and made it hard to take.
A sob choked at my throat as the pain in missing her collapsed in on me. I held Zale tighter.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I whispered against him.
“You thought of a way to help,” Derik said quietly, slowly sitting up, adjusting Enzi so she was between his legs sleeping in the bow of them, her blanket tucked in around her. She was always colder than her brother.
“Yeah, and I need the twins’ help.”
“How?” Derik demanded, and I looked down at Zale.
“Their shadows. They found her once, they pulled her back, and I’m going to use them to uncuff her. If I can get her restraints off, she can get them out,” I said, and Derik narrowed his eyes on me then the twins.
“Is that safe for them? Sending any extension of them near Silas?”
“They can’t see our shadows. And mine will be with them the whole time,” I promised to them and Derik.
“You’ve never stretched your shadows that far before. You think you can?”
“I’m going to make it happen, D. She won’t survive what she is going through in there, neither will Kai if I don’t,” I said, and Derik hesitated for a second before he nodded. And that was all the permission I needed.
I knew it would be hard, training my shadows to stretch with Zale and Enzi’s, and teaching them to find her from so far away, so weak, but I was going to do it. We had no other choice.
14. The Chase
KAI
Pain. It was the only thing I could comprehend, that and hatred. It polluted me with every minute that passed in the dungeons with Silas. He made sure I was restrained before using every old trick in the book to get me to crack, but I wouldn’t.
He should remember that from last time. I was splayed out against the brick wall, my arms chained, my chest bare and bleeding as he whipped it. I planted my feet, roaring as I bucked against the restraints. My teeth gnashed; my wolf, enraged, tried to shift, but he kept me pinned so I couldn’t.
Silas laughed, his tall, pale frame making me murderous–more murderous than I already was. But I laughed wickedly, spitting blood at him, flashing my red eyes at him as he twirled the whip in his hands.
“Nikolai, you’re going to give in. You might as well do it now.”
“C’mon, Silas, you know it’s the chase you love. So keep chasing, and I’ll keep running.”
He laughed at that, a cynical laugh that was not humorous at all.
He whipped me again, and I absorbed the pain, grinning at him. “Again, Daddy.” I winked at him.
“Disgusting!” he snarled before whipping the leather across my cheek. It opened instantly, the sting piercing my flesh as it leaked warm liquid.
“Just like old times,” I taunted breathily, the edges of my vision breaking. I hadn’t eaten in a long time since we had arrived. My healing had been nullified by the weakened state he kept me in.
The wolfsbane he drowned me in daily kept me constantly at his mercy, but I’d take it because I knew the longer he was in my cell with me, the less he was in my Little Luna’s.
“Oh no, Nikolai. That is where you are wrong because this time is different, and that difference is going to break you.”
“Hate to break it to you, Si, but you’re not stronger than last time. Maybe it’s that old age getting to you.” I smirked through the haze in my head. He just shook his head, smirking back, leaning close enough to make me want to gag, his stench polluting me as heavily as the wolfsbane.
“But I did not have your mate last time, and I have a feeling you won’t be so smug when I use her to make you break.” He grinned, and the red-hot anger froze in my veins. My glare turned icy on him, my entire body shaking as I tugged at my restraints.
“You won’t touch her,” I warned, but that made him laugh.
“Yes, I will. And I will hurt her in every way my imagination can come up with until you concede to me. Give me the wolves, surrender, and it all ends. I’ll take her hand in marriage, the realm will be mine, and we can pretend this never happened.” He grinned, but I snarled.
“You hurt her, and when I get my chance to end your fucking life, I will do it in the most painful way possible.”
“When you’re as old as I am, Nikolai, pain does not register as easily as you’d think.”
“So that wolf bite isn’t giving you trouble?” I targeted this because he had been weaker when using that side for whipping.
He shrugged. “A minor inconvenience. It’ll heal.”
“Maybe, but so will I, and you better hope I am not uncuffed when that happens,” I threatened, but he just went to the cell door and knocked on it. It opened, and a vamp came in, dragging Lorelai in unconscious, in her underwear.
The vampire strung her up next to me, and that anger returned tenfold. I roared so loud it shook the concrete cell, almost breaking free from the chains, trying to get at the vamp who dared to touch her. He just grinned and clamped her cuffs to the wall like I was.
He was not as strong as Silas, though, and naive to what a mate would do to protect the other. I was more than happy to show him that, though. I kicked my leg out, swiping at his feet, and the second he went down, I leaned forward with my canines out and caught him before he fell with my teeth in his neck.
I clamped down, ripping through every tendon and windpipe of his throat before launching him to the other side of the cell, all before Silas could get to me and shove my head into the concrete. My head rocked painfully, and I reeled as his hand went around my throat, his long fingers closing my airways, his teeth baring next to my jaw, but I met his eyes with a glare of my own.
“Kill my vampires, and I will pierce every part of her skin with my teeth. Then I’ll watch the poison slowly kill her,” Silas warned, and I snapped my teeth at him. He moved back before my teeth could catch him, and I smirked, spitting his vamp’s blood from my mouth, the warm liquid dripping down my chin.
“No, you won’t. Because you want her and her power, and to get her, you have to go through me. Which we both know is going to be harder than last time because, as you pointed out, I have something to lose now.”
“Oh, I know, Nikolai, and I am going to exploit that fact every minute of every day until one of you caves.”
“We won’t,” I bit out, but he just shrugged as if he knew better.
“Maybe you won’t. Maybe watching your mate be tortured for your decision won’t be enough, but can you say the same for her? Will she be able to watch that happen to you without giving in?” He smirked.
He left me with those thoughts, leaving the room, and I hated that I didn’t know the answer to his question.
“Little Luna, you’ve got to wake up. Mate,” I said to her, shaking my chains, trying to get her to wake up. She stirred, and I moved my leg against hers. She jolted awake, then winced as her head hit the wall and the shackles clanged.
She tugged on them, then freaked out, trying to get free, her heart racing.
“Little Luna,” I said, and her head snapped to me, her eyes filling.
“Kai,” she whispered.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?