Alpha Vaughan

Chapter 53 (AKC)

MALCOLM BLAINE.

_

The resigned voice of one of the four elders in my council floats through the room, stirring my wolf. "Alpha, you need to take a step back and view this matter from a distance. This is not wise."

I eye the wide panorama glass stretching the entire east wall before me, scoping out the boisterous city of Manhattan down below. Humans flit around, bundled up in thick wool from the early November chill. My voice is low. "There is no time."

Another speaks then, louder and with more conviction, "Your Highness, Eugene is right. Going down to South Carolina is a bad idea. You'll be offering yourself up to the Hunters on a silver platter. Yes, they have your brother but they'll be lying in wait for you. This is a trap. With Prince Bowen being the bait."

When I turn around, three of them take a step back at the sight of my wolf's glowing eyes, except the stooped Elder standing in a secluded corner. Elias has known me since I was a little boy, practically raised me, and knows something I am not telling anyone.

"My mind is made," I say. "I won't allow any discussions on the subject. Rhon," I call my first Commander. "Get the jet ready, along with a few men. We leave in a few hours. The rest of you, out."

I turn my attention back to the glass, feeling my insides knot with a feeling I've become accustomed to for the past month. Expectation. Excitement.

Want.

When the door closes shut, I scrub a hand down my face. I become aware of a still lingering presence.

"I just gave an order," I say, adding, "Elias."

"That you did," comes his frail croak.

I face him. "Alright, let's hear it. Convince me to stay back. Tell me I'm going on a fool's errand."

"And why would I do that?"

My eyes narrow. "Should have known you'd resort to your mind tricks. You want me to say the Hunters are going to attack once I land. But you forget. They're just humans. Weak, pathetic humans."

He shrugs slight shoulders. "Last I heard, they've gotten creative. The bear shifters are one of the strongest species in the world, yet it was reported just last week they captured six. They didn't manage that by being weak and pathetic."

"Or maybe the six were just careless."

"Like you're about to be."

Silence settles in the air. I turn back around, my mind whirring.

He takes a step closer, his voice quiet. "Malcolm, I've never known you for a fool. What's in South Carolina?"

At his question, I stiffen. Though he may be old, his senses are quick. He picks up on the small movement almost instantly.

"Your restraint is legendary, your levelheadedness known throughout the clans. You've never had any trouble leashing your wolf, but I can count how many times in the past month you've let it take over. There's only one thing that can make a man act so carelessly."

I wait.

"Your mate. You sense her in South Carolina."

When I face him, I pass a cold look over him. "My beta has just been taken in by Hunters. Do you think I'll jeopardize any chances of his rescue because I'm impatient to meet a female that might not even exist?"

He doesn't reply, but a gleam enters his eyes. I could almost say it is... Satisfaction.

He heads toward the entrance, then disappears behind the door but not before saying happily, "Patience has never been your virtue, My King."

GWEN

__

Gooseflesh breaks over my entire body. I try to draw comfort from the guards flanking my sides, but the mere act only makes me painfully aware of all the things that could go wrong.

I hate this part of the job.

I'd be testing the intakes. While they are awake.

Several cases have been reported of immortals going off the rails completely and critically injuring scientists.

Hunters mill about the great white space. I make my way past them, entering into the elevator with the two fighters on either side of me. We begin a slow ascent.

The elevator doors slide open to reveal chaos. The Hunters flanking me instantly tense, drawing up their weapons. Confusion pounds through me as I take in countless Hunters filing into the ward.

"What's going on?" I scream over the noise and start moving.

"Apparently one of the test subjects has gone berserk."

A knot forms in my throat when I see the room they're going into. Room 207.

Malcolm.

Before I can think better of it I'm rushing into the ward. Fear and worry become a living thing in me. "Don't hurt him!" I find myself screaming. It goes unheard.

I am jostled around by moving Hunters. Then that's when they begin. The bloodcurdling roars. My stomach bottoms out when screams from the Hunters erupt.

"Hold him down!"

"I'm trying--f*ck!"

Another bone-chilling roar. My insides twist.

Finally, I burst through the mass of bodies blockading the entrance. Once my eyes lock with his glowing blue ones, he instantly falls silent.

His wild eyes run down my body as if checking for injuries, growing angrier and more frantic by the second.

He thinks I've been taken in by the Hunters, too.

The warriors immediately capitalize on this brief distraction and clamp new cuffs around his hands and legs. Dread knots my stomach. When he lifts those frightening blue eyes to mine, I freeze.

"Mate," he growls.

A slow blink. My mouth gradually falls open. The Hunters all stiffen and stare from me to the Alpha. I shrink backward and before I know it, I'm slinking away, rushing through the doors and away from the ward, my heart racing with the weight of a thousand probabilities. But only one sticks out.

My life is about to get messy.