Read Owned By The Alphas - The Prequel Online
Authors: Faleena Hopkins
Owned By The Alphas - The Prequel (9 page)
H
e pulled out of Tawny
, slapped her ass, and walked to the jagged doorway leading to the passageway. She was still trying to catch her breath when she called out, “What’s your hurry?”
“I need a run. Something. I don’t know.” He headed for the main cavern and found all of the wolves there save for Lorn, Lucin, Rait and of course, Tawny. Shaynah turned as he asked, “Where is my father?”
Dak answered, “He left early to search the perimeter. Said he wanted a run.”
Calt nodded on a smile. “I know the feeling. I will join him.”
Calus called after him, “Want company?”
At the doorway, Calt turned. “No. You stay here. Or explore. Whatever you want. But I want to go alone. I need the fresh air and some time to think.”
In the passageway, he shifted and headed for the mouth of the cave at a slow jog. As he left their den and entered the night, he picked up speed and headed down the mountain, wondering at the uneasy feeling that gnawed at him. He felt incomplete somehow. Like he wanted more than what he had, like something, or someone was missing.
Rait had alluded to his preferring Tawny over Bloo and Lorn, as lover, but Calt always told him the same thing, he did not see mating with Tawny, not for good. Coupling with her was entertaining, and they were friends, but she did not make him feel truly fulfilled. He did not ache for her. He did not look forward to seeing her when she was out hunting and due to return. When she appeared, he was as pleased to see her as he was to see any of them. And it was not true that he preferred her. He took Bloo and Lorn just as often. Well…almost.
The air was cooler than it had been for awhile and it felt good as it stroked his fur. Small animals scurried to safety as he approached and he toyed with them, chasing squirrels to trees, and rabbits to their holes whenever he spotted them. It was amusing, though they were safe tonight. It was not his turn to hunt, and he was not in the mood. Running was enough.
He got all the way down the mountain before he heard it.
A loud shot rang out, echoing through the forest like a distant cannon. Calt screeched to a halt in shock. He heard another shot and ran toward the sound. There were none after, and so it took him time to find where it had come from. Racing this way and that, he nearly gave up. But then he saw a man’s body lying naked on the ground in the distance and he ran toward it, not believing his eyes as his father’s face came into view.
Mid-run, Calt shifted and fell to his father’s side, checking for life. He listened in earnest for a heartbeat and found none. His father’s eyes were open, staring, frozen forever. Calt bent over in agony, covering the gunshot wound with his hand and pressing down into cooling skin. Tears raced to his eyes and he wracked with sobs, picking up his father’s body and rocking with it in his arms. “No! Dear God, no!” He threw his head back and howled.
Shifting into his wolf, he ran in a wide circle picking up the scent of the murderer. It was a human, he could tell. Locking onto the scent tainted with cigarettes and bourbon, Calt went back to his father. He would never forget that smell. Vengeance would have to wait. He would not let his father’s body lay there, disrespected. He carried him on foot all the way back to the den. The scent of death blew into the caves and the wolves appeared one after the other. Shaynah ran forward and broke down in sobs, clinging to her lover’s body. All eyes were liquid as Calt laid their pack master onto the granite floor just inside the mouth of the cave. Shaynah kneeled beside Rait’s body, crying with sorrow and abandon, and Calt rose up and locked eyes with Borhan, then Dak and Calus.
“I will have his head,” he growled.
“Who did this?” Dak snarled. “The other alpha?”
“No. A hunter. Human. I have his scent. I will not rest until he is…” Calt could not finish speaking, the lump in his throat too big.
Lorn ran to him and threw her arms around his waist. “Oh, Calt!”
Calt looked to Lucin, the young wolf’s sobs filled with the loss. Bloo kneeled by Shaynah and put her arms around the healer, staring at their alpha they all loved so dearly. Tawny’s head was held high, but tears streamed down her cheeks.
Borhan was the only one close to calm, his voice clear and unshaking. “You are now pack master.”
Calt shot him a look. “He is not even cold! Do not say such things.”
“But it is true.” Borhan insisted. “I am sorry, but it is.”
Calt turned away, overcome and impatient. “Gather wood. Gather all you can.” The pack nodded, all but Shaynah who had grown quiet and was staring off, her hands on Rait’s wound. “We will have a proper funereal fire to send him to the heavens with. His ashes will float on the air and he will be as one with the forest as it will be for all of us one day.” Lorn buried her face into Calt’s chest. He tightened an arm around her and wiped his cheek. “Go.”
C
alt became obsessed with vengeance
. It took him fifteen days to track the hunter down to a home outside the park. A rental, it was on a plot of land untended, the grass overgrown. A large hedge acted as a fence and while it was brown and dead, it still hid the house from view. That was perfect for his purpose. At the hour of eleven o’clock at night, Calt walked up to the door and knocked on it with a human hand.
“Who is it,” the murderer asked, his voice sleepy and scratchy from a lifetime of smoking.
In a voice he struggled to tame, Calt said through the door, “Sorry to bother you. My name is Mark. I broke down on the side of the road. Just looking to see if I can use a phone?”
He heard the chain open, the still-drunk fingers fumbling with the metal for an aggravatingly long time. Calt shifted into his wolf. As the door opened a crack, he crushed it and leapt inside. He killed the man with his bare teeth. It had felt good to kill him. It felt like justice.
Calus and Dak waited in a stolen truck parked a few doors down. When Calt returned they didn’t ask, “Is it done?” The fact that he was wearing the man’s clothes was enough.
A
couple weeks later
, he smelled the scent of the other pack in his territory. They were over-stepping their bound on purpose. Their alpha was young and reckless, and now he had gone too far. If a hunter had found them, had come for them, he knew it was the other pack’s fault. They must have been careless and revealed their existence in the park. There was no other logical explanation.
He would show them their place. Since he rarely slept now, after his father’s death, he planned to wake early the next night and see just how far their insolence had taken them.
If they wanted a fight, he would bring it.
Calt was ready for war.
S
itting at a diner’s booth
, Ali searched through her backpack one last time. “I should have brought stuff.” She fingered a balance bar and some water, her map, and a change of underwear, along with her jacket. “This isn’t enough. Well, done, Ali.”
“You ready to order?”
Ali looked up at the waitress, an older woman in her forties. “Yeah, can I have some eggs and bacon, please? And coffee?”
Writing it down in her pad, she nodded. “How do you want your eggs?”
“Poached?” At the raised eyebrow, Ali corrected, “Scrambled, please.”
“Comin’ right up.”
When the waitress walked out of hearing, Ali mumbled, “Poached is too much to ask for?”
Brown eyes twinkled as a six year old peeked over the orange seat of the booth in front of her.
Ali smiled, “Hi!” waving her fingers at him.
The mom laughed, “Anthony! Turn around. Stop bothering the lady.”
“It’s okay,” Ali said, just as the waitress returned with coffee and a plate of creamers. “Thanks.”
The family rose up from the table, and little Anthony crawled out of the booth, grinning shyly at Ali. The mom stopped to put his jacket on. The father waited for his wife, a pleasant smile on his face as he held his keys at the ready. She glanced over to Ali as she zipped. “You going hiking in Yosemite?”
Ali nodded. “Yeah. I’ve never been. Is that where you guys are going?”
Anthony ran toward the exit and they went to follow, but the mom turned and answered quickly, “No, we’re on our way home. It’s gorgeous. Have fun!” She ran out.
The father hesitated. “You’re not hiking alone, are you? It’s not safe.”
“I’ll be okay. Thanks though.”
He frowned like he didn’t agree, but turned to leave anyway since it wasn’t his place to tell a stranger what to do. Before he went out the door, he called back, “Just be careful. There are wild animals out there.”
Ali nodded and picked up her coffee cup, watching them through the window, thinking how lucky that little kid was that he had a family who cared for him…
T
he End of The Prequel
.
T
ired
of the life that society shoves down her throat as ‘normal,’ Ali's escaped the city for a solo hike in Yosemite National Park, and she finds more than she was looking for. She finds magic.
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uy
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F
aleena Hopkins is
a BIG fan of werewolves, vampires, redemption, and drinking a glass of red wine while howling under the moon, any moon, full or not. She lives in Los Angeles where
all
the crazies live…and feels right at home among them. Did you know she’s an actress and director, too? You can find out more about these
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