Owned By The Alphas: Part Three Read Free Page B

anything.
    “I don’t want them to hurt you!” she hissed.
    “Do you think you could protect me, Ali?” He let her pass him and then he ran up ahead, stifling a laugh.
    “Are you seriously amused right now?”
    He grabbed her arm and stopped her. “I don’t think they’re here. I can’t hear anything. Even if they were hiding, now that I’m this close, I could hear at least one heartbeat, if not all. I just hear yours, which is much slower than ours, even when it’s freaked out, like right now. There are no others.”
    Her pretty eyebrows rose up. “You can hear heartbeats? Really?” He loved it when she looked at him like he was a god.
    He walked into the cave, standing taller. Turning, he got very still and listened again. Ali froze and waited; her head turned as if she could hear what he could if she tried hard enough. It was fucking adorable and he wanted to laugh again, but the question of where they could be suddenly overtook him. He felt his heart stop.
    “I know where they are.”
    “Where?” Her worry echoed off the walls.
    He walked out of the cave with long angry strides. “Come! We’ve no time! They’ve gone to my territory to find you. My pack is in danger.”
    “Oh my God!” She rushed after him, stumbling. “I’ll only slow you down! Go without me!”
    He considered it, his blood racing as images of his pack flashed before him. Kyren. Motis. All of them. How could I have been so reckless with their lives?
    “What do you know of your pack, Ali? Would they slaughter them without asking questions?”
    Ali was horrified, and she croaked, “No! I don’t think they’d do that!”
    He stared down the mountain, emotions warring inside him. “Come with me. They will need to see you’re alive. If I show up with your scent on me, and you aren’t there…”
    She moaned and walked toward him, her hands out to feel for where he was. “Okay. Let’s go.”
    He shifted again and backed up until he touched her. She climbed on. As soon as she had a strong hold, he raced down the mountain to his home.
    I can’t believe I didn’t think of them and what could happen. After all they’ve done for me! Of course Calt would have gone there the moment he found Ali gone. He wouldn’t have waited like some fool! The only fool here is me.



Chapter 3
    W ith Calt leading the way , Dak and Calus not far behind, they sniffed out the other pack in just over an hour, the distance their only delay. The scent grew stronger until they knew they’d found exactly what they were looking for, and Calt stopped, turning toward his family. Borhan was far behind the pack, his leg impeding him. None treated him differently. Everyone knew Borhan, of all werewolves, was not to be coddled. His pride was too great, but still Calt checked on him with a quick glance, proud of him for making the journey despite his pain.
    Paws clawed the grass in pacing, impatient steps as they waited for their next move.
    When he and his father had met with Red, they had done so at the neutral territory east, down the Tuolumne River. This was the first time he’d been to his home, had seen the fallen sequoia tree they resided in, for himself. It, like many sequoias, had grown obscenely large over the centuries. It had to be almost two hundred feet long, the width twenty-five feet in diameter, its roots at the far end sticking out in all directions. They had done a good job of concealing the entrance. It looked simply as though a large boulder had hit the tree after falling in a landslide, lots of smaller rocks close by enough to make the ruse plausible. The tree itself had no other holes or openings. At least from where he could see. He considered that unwise, because it gave his pack an advantage.
    Tawny…
    He would have never imagined fighting her, and yet here he was thinking of advantages and strategies. It sickened him.
    Voices burst from inside.
    “We have company!”
    “I thought I smelled something foul.”
    “What should we