The Alpha's Heart (Wilde Creek Two) (7 page)

“Well, well,” a man she didn’t know chuckled darkly.  “You’re just the female we’ve been looking for.”

His hand clamped around her throat and squeezed tightly, cutting off her oxygen.  She struggled against his tight grip, clawing at his skin and hitting and kicking him, but he only laughed.  What did this guy want?  Who was he?

Her vision darkened and her body went limp as she slipped into unconsciousness.  The last thing she saw was the glint of a knife.  She felt a tug on her hair, and then…nothing.

* * * * *

Acksel had a bad case of nerves.  He felt like a teenager asking a girl out for the first time.  And maybe he was kind of like that in a way. He’d never had to ask a woman for anything since he first shifted and started working out and moving up the ranks.  All young males started out in the pack as omegas, and if they weren’t willing to fight for a higher rank they stayed there.  But Acksel had never planned to remain one of the omegas, who cared more about caretaking than keeping the pack safe.  Many female wolves had fallen to their knees at his feet once he’d proven himself to be a male that could hold his own in a fight and moved out of the omegas into the protectors.  Female wolves, for the most part, were very interested in a male’s ability to protect them.  They wanted to be with the strongest wolves, the ones that they viewed as best able to keep them safe.  He’d never dated outside of some group activities he’d done later in high school with other wolves.  He’d been too busy working to become the best wolf he could be so he could rise up in the ranks, so he’d never taken the time to actually romance a woman.  What the hell did he know about romance, anyway?  He could snap his fingers and a she-wolf would appear on his doorstep ready for whatever he wanted at any time.

But this situation with Brynn was different.  Not only was she human and therefore didn’t necessarily care about his hunting prowess or rank within the pack, but she was pregnant with his child and he’d basically abandoned her.  According to Mia, Brynn had pretty much given up on him being part of her life.  He wasn’t just starting something new with her; he was already on her shit list for his behavior.

From his position at the end of her street, he looked through the windshield and watched her house.  It was dark inside.  Only the porch light that came on automatically at dusk was on.  He glanced at the clock on the dashboard and reached for his phone.  He had called at four o’clock and the phone had gone straight to voicemail.  He didn’t leave a message then.  Or when he called at four-thirty.  Or again at five.  Now it was seven and he had left two messages for her.  He was aware of the irony of his actions.  He’d spent six weeks not calling her back, and now that he wanted to talk to her she wasn’t answering the phone, which completely served him right.

Grinding his teeth, he decided to go knock on the door.  It was a weeknight, so he didn’t think she would be out, but perhaps she’d worked late.  He drove slowly down the street and parked in front of her house.

What would he say to her?  Mia had asked him not to share that she’d filled him in on the situation, but Brynn was smart.  She would know that he hadn’t just decided to show up without a reason.  He’d never been filled with such indecision.  When he was young, the only goal he had was to become alpha.  He had never wavered.  But now he didn’t know what would happen when he talked to Brynn.  Would she believe that he cared for her before he found out about the baby?  Would she understand why he had kept his distance before, and why now — with the baby — he could no longer stay away?

He stared at the front door.  It looked like there was a note on the door.  Had someone left a note for her?  Calling her cell once more, and getting her voice mail again, he hung up and tossed the phone onto the passenger seat and got out of the car.  If she was asleep, he’d wake her up.  If she wasn’t home, he’d wait for her.  And then he’d do whatever it took to prove to her that he cared about her — that he’d always cared — even if it took the rest of his life.

Scrubbing his hands through his hair, he took a deep breath and exhaled loudly.  Then he walked up the sidewalk to the porch and stopped in front of her door.  He caught the scent of Brynn’s blood and snarled when he saw his name on the folded piece of paper taped to the front door.

Snatching the paper from the door, he opened it.  Taped inside was a lock of brown hair and a smear of blood that he knew belonged to Brynn.  Written in block print were the words: 
We have your woman and your baby.  Meet us at the Danver Lake Boat House at midnight or she dies.

He lifted his head and howled in rage, the sound echoing in the night.  They had taken his woman.  Whoever they were, they didn’t have very long to live.

Stalking to the car, he called Ren and told him to meet him at Acksel’s home and to call the top-ranked men and the council.  He needed everyone to help him get his woman back safely.

Guilt crashed over him as he raced home.  He’d stayed away from her to keep her safe, but his actions had somehow resulted in her being vulnerable and being kidnapped.  He hoped that she wasn’t being hurt, that the blood was done not to injure her but to prove a point to him, but he had no way of knowing.  He didn’t know anything right now except that she was gone.  Who had her?  What was happening to her?  Was she okay?  It was all a mystery to him.  But he and his wolf were of one accord.  They would do whatever it took to get Brynn to safety and then they sure as hell were not letting her go around unprotected again.

Storming around to the backyard, he was heartened to see his beta, Ren, Sam his theto, all of the protectors, and the council.

Quickly, he shared the news.  He looked at his dad as he said that she was pregnant; his dad’s brows lowered and he frowned.  Acksel could practically feel his disappointment.

“Can I see the note, Acksel?”  Sam asked.

Acksel handed the note to his theto, and Sam didn’t read it, but lowered his head until his nose was almost touching it and inhaled several times.  Sam snarled angrily.  “It’s Barry Ayers.  I can smell him.”

Ren took the paper from Sam carefully and inhaled as well, echoing Sam’s angry snarl with his own.  Acksel hadn’t thought to scent the paper; he’d been so overwhelmed with the scent of Brynn’s blood.

“Barry’s too much of an idiot to work alone.  I’m guessing that Rufus is pulling the strings and Taylor is probably with them, too,” Ren said.

Acksel took the note back and held it between his palms.  He was so filled with rage he couldn’t think straight.

Inhaling deeply, he cracked his neck and looked at his people.  “Even if I haven’t claimed Brynn in front of the pack, that she carries my child makes her mine by right.  The banished wolves not only broke our laws by coming into Wilde Creek to take her, but they admitted they knew she carried my pup.  We must find her and bring her home safely, and ensure that these three suffer the full justice of our people.”

His words ended with a growl and his people echoed it, until the night was filled with the angry snarls of three dozen males.

“Ren, find out where Rufus, Barry, and Taylor have been hiding out since they were banished.  Instead of moving on with their lives, they’ve clearly been planning something with the pack that involves me.  I’m betting they didn’t go far.”  Vince had been their leader, and he’d planned to use Acksel’s grief at his sister’s injury or death to unseat him from his alpha position.  Rufus was probably going to use Brynn to get Acksel to step down from his place in the pack.

Ren nodded and pulled his cell from his back pocket, jogging a few yards away to make calls.

“Sam, take a group of protectors and go into the woods and start searching.”

Sam asked, “Do you think they’ve been watching us?”

Acksel nodded.  “They’ve either been spying on us from the woods and hiding their scent well or they’ve been fed information from someone in the pack.”

Sam snarled at the mention of betrayal.  Acksel wasn’t too happy about it, but the only person in the pack who knew about Brynn’s pregnancy was Mia, and she had only told him the night before.  There was no way on earth that Mia would betray Brynn to Rufus or anyone else.  Brynn had most likely sworn her best friend to secrecy anyway.  Which meant that someone was listening and had overheard Mia’s confession and Acksel hadn’t realized anyone was around.

As Sam called out the names of six protectors who followed him as he strode toward the woods where he stripped and shifted, Acksel said, “I want four protectors to come with me to Brynn’s office.  I think she was taken from there.  Dad, you come, too.”

Nodding, his dad and four males stepped forward.  He divvied up duties to the remainder of the pack members, ranging from patrolling around town to alerting the other pack members of the situation.

“Wait.  Don’t tell the females.”

Hollis, one of the council members who was in his seventies, arched a gray brow.  “Do you think you were betrayed by a female, Alpha?”

“I don’t know, but my gut is telling me that the females should be kept in the dark.  Any males that are mated are to keep the news to themselves for now.”

Nodding, the members moved into action and he, the four protectors, and his dad headed for the clinic in town in two vehicles.

Acksel sat in the passenger seat of his dad’s pickup.  The protectors were following them in a Jeep.  The silence was heavy between him and his dad.

“I’m talking to you as your father right now, Acksel, not as a member of your pack,” his dad said, and Acksel’s chest tightened.

“Alright,” he said, knowing his dad was probably going to say some not-so-nice things about his behavior.  Which he couldn’t deny.

But instead of berating him, his dad told him that he was proud of him.  Acksel had remained quiet for several moments, unsure of what to say.

“I fucked up,” Acksel said finally.  “If I’d just had half an ounce of courage to admit my feelings for Brynn in the first place, she would be by my side and safe and not kidnapped, terrified, and hurt.”

“You stayed away because you believed it would keep her safe.  I can’t say I would have done the same thing, but I’m a pretty selfish guy.  If I was in your position with your mother, I don’t know if I would have had the strength to walk away.”

Acksel’s hands clenched into fists.  “Mia said that I should have changed the laws about the alpha female immediately so that Brynn would have been safe from the females.”

His dad hummed in his throat.  “That would only have changed one issue.  Regardless of whether Brynn is a wolf or not, clearly Rufus and his friends have been plotting some kind of revenge for the banishment.  Even a she-wolf couldn’t go up against three males intent on taking her.”  He felt his dad glance at him.  “You think female wolves are better at protecting themselves because they’re naturally stronger and faster than humans and can shift.  But a female caught off-guard, overwhelmed by three males intent on taking her?  It wouldn’t matter if she was a bear shifter.  So yes, you made some mistakes, but your heart was in the right place and when the time comes, you can tell Brynn why you walked away and she’ll forgive you.”

Acksel snorted.  He highly doubted that Brynn would be so easily forgiving.  She probably hated his guts.  And if she hadn’t before she’d been kidnapped, then she most certainly would afterwards when she was safe once more.

His dad pulled into the clinic parking lot next to Brynn’s car and the protectors joined them.  Acksel circled the car slowly and then squatted down in front of the driver’s door.  Leaning forward on his fingertips, he looked under the car and reached for two small objects.  One was a cell phone and the other was a package of cinnamon gum.  The cell was locked with a code, but he could smell her scent on it and knew it was hers.  Either Rufus and his men had kicked it away so she couldn’t be tracked with it, or it had fallen out of her purse.  Judging from the gum that was with it, he was guessing it had fallen out when she was grabbed.

Straightening, he put the phone and gum in his pocket.

A woman and man walked out of the clinic and froze.  Acksel quickly explained that he was Brynn’s mate and that he believed she had been kidnapped.  The woman gasped in alarm but the male’s face tightened in anger.  “My name is Dr. Frank Channing and I’m in charge of this practice.  I have security cameras all around the building, come with me.”

Within minutes, they were standing around a computer monitor, watching as the doctor located Brynn’s car on one of the cameras and began to forward through the recording.

He slowed down as Brynn left the building.  Acksel’s heart ached at seeing her, even on the black and white screen.  She tensed suddenly before she reached her car as Rufus and the others stalked behind her.  She seemed to realize something was wrong, because she spun and ran right into Rufus.  He gripped her throat and Acksel snarled loudly as he watched her being choked into unconsciousness.  Taylor pulled a knife from his pocket and cut off a lock of her hair and then nicked her arm, wiping her blood on a piece of paper.

The whole scene took only two minutes, as she slumped to the ground unconscious before Barry tossed her over his shoulder.  They walked off-screen and Acksel lowered his head.  No clues, just more fury at what had happened to her.  He’d imagined that they just snatched her and left.  But being choked into unconsciousness must have terrified her.

Dr. Frank looked at Acksel.  “What do those men want with Brynn?”

Acksel rubbed at the back of his neck.  “She’s my mate and they took her to get to me because I’m alpha of the pack.”

The female doctor snapped, “She said she was all alone.  What is this mate bullshit you’re trying to pull?”

Dr. Frank stood quickly and pushed the woman away from Acksel.  “Calm down,” he hissed softly, “this isn’t our business.”

“She’s my friend and our employee; that makes it my business and yours, too.”

Dr. Frank looked over his shoulder at Acksel.  “You’ll find her and bring her home safely?”

Acksel nodded.

“I wish we could have been more help.”