Alpha's Strength (Fallen Alpha) (6 page)

BOOK: Alpha's Strength (Fallen Alpha)
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Cyrus nodded. This was always a problem. The human police carried fingerprints, not scent ones. “Did you try their authorities? Maybe there is some kind of forensic evidence.”

Lake raised an eyebrow. “Been watching
CSI
again?”

“Don’t undermine him. He’s making a good point.” Betsy stepped forward, and his heart stuttered. Had she stood up for him? For a second, he forgot to breathe. When had that ever happened? His father had thought he had to toughen him up practically from birth, his mother never contradicted the man, and he’d always been an Alpha in training.
Put up or shut up and don’t whine when you don’t get your way.

“I’m sorry, my Alpha.” Lake glanced down. He would comfort her, except he wasn’t going to undo Betsy’s lovely gesture by making it appear less than it was. Lake should probably be sorry.

He’d let her handle that emotion for a while.

Alexei tapped his nose. “We did try to use the human police. There aren’t any fingerprints in the system.”

Of course not. That would be too simple.

“But it told us that we are dealing with humans. I had heard that you faced similar problems, and I came a day early to see how you had handled it. However, I’m now wondering, as I sit here, if we aren’t dealing with something more nefarious than I originally thought. Do you think it’s possible that there is a conspiracy happening?”

“What kind of conspiracy could there be? Humans setting out to steal werewolf babies? That would be…”

He trailed off and turned to look at Betsy. Her eyes were huge as she stared back at him. Alexei wanted to know if it was possible for humans to be stealing werewolf babies, and the answer was yes; it was
very possible
. Only he couldn’t tell the other man that because the only people he knew who were stealing babies were his mate’s parents. His little mate had stood up for him in a room with another Alpha. She’d defended him from his sister, a woman with considerable dominance of her own.

And to reveal that crucial piece of information about her parents to a vengeance-seeking Alexei would be a betrayal. He would die first.

Fantastic. He was about to ask the man to enter into a treaty with him, and he was going to start the negotiations by lying to him. Or, at the very least, and it wasn’t much better, by omitting a very big piece of information.

Alexei turned left and right, watching all of them. “There are some amazingly hard to decipher emotions happening in this room right now. Would someone like to tell me what’s going on?’

Cyrus shook his head. “I’ve been considering the implications of your suggestion, and clearly my mate is doing the same. It’s a big, broad idea, and one we’ll have to dwell on another time.”

The most important thing for him to do at that moment was to get Alexei sent to his hotel and keep him distracted while Cyrus worked things out with Betsy. Then, once he knew what he could do for her parents, he would figure out how to undo this moment with Alexei. The other Alpha would never understand. Alexei had lost females and babies. He’d want revenge. Only he wasn’t going to be getting any off Betsy’s parents. Not if Cyrus could help it.

“I don’t believe you. Something else—”

Cyrus shrugged. “It’s really not my problem if you can’t decipher smells anymore. I can loan you my Healer if you’re in need of one. Otherwise, perhaps you can chalk it up to old age.”

“I am exactly two years older than you. Do you expect to lose your senses anytime soon?”

“I’m not you.” Cyrus shrugged again. Irritating the other Alpha would also distract him. Petty—but effective. “I don’t know when members of your family start to head toward the grave.”

Alexei stood up and then rolled his eyes. “I know that you’re baiting me. It’s easy to do, and I’m working on controlling my temper. I wouldn’t want to scar up your other cheek in anger.”

At the reminder, Cyrus rubbed the long mark that marred his left cheek from next to his ear all the way to the middle of his chin. He hadn’t thought about it in years. He’d had it such a long time. The battle that had taken his parents had also left him with that mark. The scar hadn’t bothered him in so long, he didn’t notice it anymore.

Did Betsy hate it? Did it bother her to look at it?

Shit.
Maybe she was right. Maybe he was
insecure
and pathetic to boot.

He turned his attention back to Alexei. Easier to handle the ego-driven werewolf than whatever was happening to him. “If you think you’d ever get close enough to me to scar me, you’re sadly mistaken. I’d eat you alive before I dropped what was left of your body in the Hudson.”

“You’re funny. It’s a good thing I find you amusing, or I’d have to kill you.”

Cyrus walked forward like the wolf whose soul he had inside of him, with sheer and purposeful intent. “You came into my city a day early, uninvited. I get why you did it—I don’t trust phones any more than you do. We have business to conduct together tomorrow. A treaty to agree to in blood, if you’re willing.” Another agreement that would burn in his belly, but anything to keep his pack safe during this tumultuous time—until another Alpha Prime could be found…

“But you’re not ready to talk terms tonight. Is that it?” Alexei raised an eyebrow. The man liked to play game.

Cyrus wasn’t in the mood. “Tomorrow. As agreed.”

“I need to find my pregnant females. Dead or alive, they have to come home. To their mates and lovers. I came here to keep our appointment but I can’t talk treaty until something is done about this. How do you do it? How do you manage to handle all of it at the same time in a human world?” Did Alexei really want an answer? Cyrus wasn’t used to the other Alpha wanting to really
talk
about anything.

He sighed. “Call upon your strength. You wouldn’t be Alpha if you didn’t have deep resources.” Truth was, he understood Alexei completely. He wouldn’t want to focus on anything other than the search too. His cell phone beeped, and he glanced at the device. Travis had arrived in the building and, unlike Alexei, had done him the courtesy of informing him of his arrival. Unfortunately, Travis and Alexei hated each other. “We’ll talk treaty tomorrow because we must.”

They couldn’t be allowed in the same room, even if he couldn’t prevent them scenting each other.

His nose itched. A quick look at his mate told him what he’d smelled. She was in distress. All the color had vanished from her cheeks.

This day wasn’t getting any better. Philadelphia and Boston couldn’t go to war in the penthouse of his New York pack’s headquarters. Not when he had to go to Montana to rescue his mate’s criminal parents. She’d never even told him where she was from but Jensen’s investigation of the house had given him at least that much information. Everything was so complicated. Shouldn’t mating be simple?

Cyrus had never missed Lucian so much in his life.

Chapter Six

 

 

If she could have turned into a puddle and been absorbed into the wood floor beneath her feet, Betsy would have gladly done so. She knew what Cyrus had to be thinking. Her parents. Stolen babies. And the fact that she was a werewolf and hadn’t known. She’d have to be a giant moron not to know what he thought.

She wasn’t educated like she wanted to be. Her home schooling had been a necessity. They’d lived too far from the main road to get her to school and back every day while still running the home properly. But she could read, and she could do arithmetic, more or less. One and one always added up to two.

In this case, the numbers all pointed in the direction of her folks. How much worse could any of this get? Only her parents were locked away, so unless they’d arranged a bunch of kidnappings months ago before they were found out, they hadn’t done this.

Betsy had a bad moment when she thought Cyrus was about to share his theory with Alexei. Only he hadn’t. Instead, he seemed to be trying to get the other wolf out the door.

“Alexei. I need you to leave.” Cyrus motioned toward the door.

The other Alpha laughed, a long, hard sound that rattled the pictures on the wall. She winced. He took up all the space in the room with his personality, at least to her. She was so glad that Cyrus wasn’t like that

Only Alexei didn’t go, and his pack mates had been willing to throw themselves into a fight to protect him. That kind loyalty impressed her.

Alexei snorted. “You need to work on your subtlety. Ask me nicely. Convince me to share a meal with you and then we’ll see if I feel like leaving.”

Cyrus shook his head. “Not having dinner with you. You need to go. Travis is here on another matter, and I won’t have the two of you stinking up the place with your pissing contest. Get in the elevator. Get out. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

All joviality fled Alexei’s features. His eyes turned feral, a wolf in human form. She shuddered and took a step backward. Betsy never wanted to find herself on the other side of that gaze. She turned to Cyrus, instinct pointing to him as the safe harbor in the room. What would he do if Alexei refused to leave?

“I don’t know how you can have a positive relationship with that poser. He has no business being Alpha. He runs Philadelphia like it’s a democracy.”

Again, Cyrus only shook his head. “There are ranges between democracy and autocracy. You know what Lucian taught us. To each his own. If it works for Travis, I have no comment. I don’t want war, not again.”

She squirmed in her seat. Cyrus rubbed at his cheek, and she wondered if his scar had come from some sort of battle. Betsy sighed. It was hard enough navigating human politics. What kinds of things did wolves do to each other, and why did the idea of watching Cyrus in battle make her so hot and bothered?

She really needed to have her head examined.

“I’ll leave, but only because I need you to give me what I want tomorrow. I need you to help me find them. Pissing you off tonight is only going to make you more obnoxious.” Who was Alexei trying to convince? Cyrus or himself?

For his part, Cyrus raised an eyebrow. “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”

Alexei nodded and stalked from the room. A few seconds later, the elevator dinged. She sniffed the air to see if she could confirm his departure, but his scent remained too prevalent in the room to determine if Alexei was there or not. Maybe others could tell, but her skills weren’t there yet. Processing what had happened would have to wait—she needed to survive all these changes and freak out about them later.

“Cyrus.” She needed to say something about how he had kept her parents’ illegal activities to himself. His protection of her family deserved recognition.

“Not yet, princess.” Cyrus cut her off.

Lake looked left and right. “What is going on? Is someone going to fill me in? I only know the smallest amount.”

“Not yet to you too, sister.” Cyrus walked to his desk. His face gave her no indication of his mood; neither did his scent. The man who’d consumed her thoughts since they’d met retreated behind an unreadable mask.

She didn’t like the feeling. It made her want to claw at something—to howl. Instead, she cleared her throat. “When can we talk about it?”

“Later.” He didn’t look up when he addressed her, and the sound of the elevator dinging again caught her attention. She didn’t like Cyrus ignoring her—how he avoided her as though she wasn’t in the room. Whoever was getting off that elevator—Travis, he’d called him—had thrown him.

She sniffed the air. He was regrouping. How did she know that so clearly?

Because he was just…perfection to her. She bit her lip. How was she going to survive if they ever slept together? Hell, if he affected her this way and she’d never seen him naked… She swallowed hard. What would happen when she did? And why was she thinking
when
—shouldn’t it be if?

A couple entered the room and Betsy transferred her attention to them. The man was tall with brown hair and dark eyes. His arms, where they were visible, showed ink. He had a stern visage, his eyebrows furrowed and his jaw line hard. His smell spoke of Alpha, the same way Cyrus’s and Alexei’s did. Power tasted like fire in her mouth. It demanded attention.

She shifted her gaze to his companion and sucked in her breath. The woman she regarded must have noticed her at the same time because she had a similar reaction, covering her mouth with her hand. They stared silently for a moment. Or maybe it was longer than that. Time ceased to have any particular meaning when she gazed at the impossible—her mirror image in living, breathing, and smelling-of-wolf form.

Tears pooled and then fell from her eyes. Betsy had known this person before, had dreamed about her, asked after her, and mourned her when her parents had told her, eventually, that her twin sister had passed from the earth. It had seemed excessive to weep as she had, considering she’d never really known her sister. Yet, she had. They’d shared a womb, and Betsy had felt her absence like a wound that festered and wouldn’t heal no matter how many salves she put on it.

Her twin pointed at her. “I knew you were somewhere…” The other woman’s voice hitched. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Tears slid from Betsy’s eyes. “Me too.” Her voice sounded hoarse.

The other woman walked toward her slowly. “How did this happen? How did Cyrus find you?”

The other male in the room growled. “Cyrus, I think you’d better explain yourself.”

“Gladly. But later. Why don’t we let our mates catch up?”

“Mates? As in you have one too?”

Betsy tuned out the rest of what they said. They could growl, hiss, or pee on each other for all she cared at that moment. Her world had become solely focused on the woman who shared her face. Well, almost shared it. On closer inspection, it appeared as though her twin sister had not been cursed with the abundance of freckles across her nose that Betsy had to live with. She hated the way they appeared. Yes, it was settled; her sister was gorgeous. Much prettier than Betsy, and it didn’t bother her. She was so darn glad to see her.

Cyrus had promised he’d bring her twin to her. And he’d delivered.

“Well.” The woman laughed, taking her hand. “Are you going to tell me? How did he find you?”

Betsy laughed. “In a coffee shop.”

“Really?” The woman she’d been waiting to find raised a blonde eyebrow. “I need to hear this story. I’m Lilliana, by the way.”

She knew the name. Cyrus had said it several times, particularly in the first few minutes when he’d thought that was who she was. “I’m Betsy.” She smiled. “It’s so lovely to finally find you.”

Lilliana’s arms came around her, pulling her into a tight embrace.

Betsy sniffed. “Oh thank goodness you’re a hugger too. I didn’t want to weird you out by grabbing you if you didn’t like it.”

Her sister laughed. “If you didn’t like hugging, I was going to force you to embrace me anyway. I knew you existed. I just did.”

Betsy closed her eyes. This was a small miracle in the midst of a hellish day.

 

****

 

It amazed Betsy how fast Cyrus could get things done. Someone, maybe Lilliana’s mate, Travis, had suggested food, and the next thing she knew they were all seated in a conference room with people delivering a huge meal. Was it having money that made this happen or being the Alpha of Manhattan? Maybe both?

A woman entered the room, smiling at all of them. She smelled like roses, and she carried another plate of food. How many sandwiches did Cyrus think they needed?

“I’ll set this down.” The woman with brown hair grinned at her. “Do you need anything else? I can go get anything you need.”

It took Betsy a moment to realize she spoke to her. “Oh no, we’re fine.”

“Wonderful. I’m Kyra, by the way.”

“Hi, I’m Betsy.”

“I know.”

The other woman did something Betsy did not anticipate, crossing to her quickly to give her a hug. Betsy wasn’t used to being embraced, particularly by people she didn’t know. Jensen had done it earlier and it had freaked her out, and consequently stayed stiff as a board through the whole thing. Her discomfort didn’t seem to bother the other woman, though.

Finally, Kyra let go and stepped back. “It’s wonderful to have you, Betsy.”

With that wonderfully weird exchange, Kyra left the room. Betsy turned to look at Travis and Lilliana, they both ate their food like nothing strange had happened. Why would they have thought it odd? She was the only fish out of water in the room, the only one struggling to find her way in her constantly shifting world.

Cyrus had stepped out. She had no idea what for. He hadn’t told her. In fact, he hadn’t regarded her very much since Alexei had left. What was that about? Her skin itched, and she wanted to claw at the table. Had she done something wrong?

It couldn’t be Travis. He and Cyrus had been downright cordial in comparison to how he’d reacted to Alexei.

“Where were you living before today?”

Betsy turned her attention to Travis, who was eating a bag of potato chips as though he had no cares in the world. It had to be an act. He was an Alpha like Cyrus. Even if she didn’t fully understand it, her nose knew the difference between pretending to be calm and actually being that way.

“Brooklyn. In a brownstone.” She drummed her fingers on the table trying to do something with her nervous energy. Where had Cyrus gone?

“Well, that must have cost a pretty penny.”

Lilliana elbowed her mate. “It’s not polite to talk about money. Don’t mind him. Werewolves never have a clue on niceties like that.”

“Oh, I don’t mind. I don’t know what it cost. Nathan handled all of that. He told me where to go, and that’s what I did.” She picked up her water and took a sip. Had it suddenly gotten hot it the room?

“Nathan?” He crunched his chip. “Who’s that?”

Lilliana growled. “Stop interrogating my sister.”

“We’ve just met her. I’m trying to get a sense of her history, my love. I’m not interrogating her. I’m asking questions so she can tell me about herself.” He crunched again and his gaze didn’t waver from her. So much for thinking he lacked intensity.

“Nathan is the human”— she squirmed when she used the word. When had she started adopting the language of werewolves?—“who has been blackmailing me for some time. I suppose that is going to stop now that Cyrus has him locked up in the basement.”

Travis jumped to his feet. She could smell the surge of adrenaline in the room. “Cyrus has a human in the basement? And he didn’t think to share that news?”

“Oh, sit down, Travis.” Cyrus reentered the room. He’d taken off his tie, and his collar hung open. He’d decided to get comfortable? Why? “We’ll get to the details. You need to know them too. Oh good, it smells like they got the chicken I ordered correct. Last time there was too much garlic.”

He grinned, and it took Betsy a moment to realize he’d made a joke. Or attempted to. “Isn’t garlic a vampire thing?”

Travis clapped his hands slowly before sinking back down in his seat. “Look who’s trying to be amusing.”

Cyrus’ smile fled, and she missed it. If it wouldn’t have been weird, she would have reached out and tried to smooth the lines away from his eyes.

“You have a human locked in the basement?” Travis continued speaking, this time with one eyebrow raised.

“Yes. Don’t you? We should all have at least one human locked in our basement at all times, don’t you think?”

“Why do you have this man locked up?” Travis played with a strand of Lilliana’s hair. “I’m sure there had to be another way to get your mate’s attention without kidnapping her boyfriend, lover, or husband.”

“Oh, he’s not any of those things.” Betsy spooned some rice, anything to handle her nervous energy. Travis would be great at interrogating prisoners. She might confess her every sin to him, if he asked. What was it? His tone? His eye contact? Were all male wolves like this? “He was going to be my husband because he’s holding my parents hostage. I had no choice.”

“I think you’d better start from the beginning, Cyrus.” All the humor fled Travis’s voice and he leaned forward.

BOOK: Alpha's Strength (Fallen Alpha)
2.23Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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