Her Alpha

Chapter 22 - Man Down

ALEXIS’S P.O.V.

I was getting more and more nervous as the time went by on Friday. I had set a week’s deadline, and it was close to the end. I would finally finish the only secret I hadn’t shared with my mate in less than 24 hours. I was still afraid to lose him because of that, but the situation was reaching the breaking point. I couldn’t stall any more.

I took a deep breath, knowing he had spent the whole day watching me very carefully, and turned on my seat to face Tony. “Hey… do you want to go to my place tomorrow? Just show up at any time.”

He nodded, and I could see he was tensed up with that as much as I was. “Sure. Around two’s all right? Mom doesn’t like it when I don’t have lunch at home on weekends.”

I nodded. “Sure. Told you… any time.” That was it.

PETER’S P.O.V.

I heard Fred howl and shot in the direction of the sound. I knew it wasn’t a false alarm that time. There really was a Hunter in our lands. I howled as well, calling the rest of the patrol team to help. His next howl was much more urgent, because it wasn’t of warning. It was a howl of pain. His thoughts wet into turmoil, and the only comprehensible thing I could get from them was *MY LEG!*

I forced my paws to go faster, pushing my exhausted body to its limit. The painful howls got more frequent, and I did what I could to tune out his chaotic thoughts. And then they stopped altogether. My breath got stuck in my throat as I neared the spot. He was just unconscious. Not…”

I heard the sound of flesh being torn, and froze for a second, when the constant presence of Fred’s mind suddenly disappeared. I stumbled forward anyway, having to be sure. And kill the Hunter, of course. I couldn’t let him walk with what he did.

When I reached the spot, Brad was already there. I didn’t think anything of it at first. Actually, I didn’t give myself time for that, as I lunged at the Hunter, ripping his head off before he even realized I was on top of him. Only then did I actually look around. Fred’s human body was carelessly thrown against a tree, a bloody hole in his chest where his heart had been. I hissed when I realized his head was still that of a wolf, and looked away from the body, just to find out the tiny clearing was soaked in my friend’s blood. That hadn’t been a fight. It had been a slaughter.

I looked away again, not sure I’d be able to restrain my stomach after seeing that. It was then that I realized two things. One: the Hunters knew too well how to kill us. There were only three ways to do that for sure. I had never heard of a being living long without its head, so that was one. Other way was using Wolfsbane. It was an instantaneous death for us. Other than that, the only thing we couldn’t heal was our heart. That Hunter had ripped Fred’s right off. And two: Brad had been there all along, and he had done nothing to help.

I turned to face him, growling and showing my teeth. I could see the shock in his eyes. He hadn’t moved a single muscle. Accusing him of willingly not killing the Hunter, thus making it easier for him to kill Fred would be sentencing  him to death, so I chose to assume he had been frozen by the shock. I called the guys and told them to take him to Sylvia, but the suspicion never left my mind.

“Peter.” I looked up at Kate. She had been healing a few broken fingers I had gotten from the fight the night before. I had put my guard up, knowing there was no way I’d be able to not think about all that, to not relive that scene; so she couldn’t have heard my thoughts. Either way, there was a lot of concern in her voice.

I had always thought that girl saw way too much. Even when I thought she was just human. I was sure she was worried because she suspected of everything that was going through my mind. I didn’t even have to be in her mind to understand the question in her eyes. I sighed. “Me being right would be really bad Kate. So don’t think too much about whatever conclusion you reached. And let’s just hope I’m wrong.”

She nodded, and I knew she understood more than she should, as always. I tried to convince myself that I was actually wrong, but the fact that she knew I was thinking about Brad made it that much harder. It had me even more worried. Derek had always said there was something off about that guy. I needed to talk to him. In private. Crap, I didn’t want to ruin things for him and Alexis. But duty calls.

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Bit of a tense chapter, huh?

So, here's the thing: I have the two next chapters ready in my computer, just waiting to be published, and I'll probably write another one today. So, I'll post the next one tomorrow... maybe even today, because the comments and fans I'm getting make me really really really happy.

So, you know. COMMENT, vote, fan, anything, if you want me to write faster. :)

And thanks a lot to everyone who's done that... you don't know how much it means to me!