Her Forbidden Alpha (12 page)

She slowly sat up, disentangling herself from him. He lay on his side and had had his arms and one leg wrapped around her. As she shifted, he rolled onto his back, one arm flung wide while the other rested on his bare abs.

How could she leave him? She didn’t know how this was supposed to work for humans who were werewolves’ mates. Was it normal for her to feel so attached to him? Was he right about the magic that bound him to her—did it also bind her to him? Because even though she knew she had to go, she couldn’t make herself leave the bed.

She tore her eyes from him. From where she sat, she couldn’t see through the window to the lights twinkling in the forest, but she could imagine them. They weren’t her salvation or her rescue. They were her one hope for avoiding bloodshed. She had to go.

Without looking at him again—if she did, she might not leave—Aislinn climbed out of bed and gathered her clothes from where they’d been strewn across the room. She slipped into them, then carried her shoes to the door, grabbing a book with a map of the castle along the way.

When she turned the lock, the click reverberated through the quiet. She held her breath, but Darius didn’t move. She must have worn him out.

She didn’t breathe again until she had stepped into the hall and closed the door as silently as she could. Still carrying her shoes, she headed down the hall in what the book told her was the direction of the front door.

***

Darius floated in a haze of bliss. He had his mate in his arms, his mark on her shoulder, and everything was right with the world.

Soon, he’d push himself to full consciousness and wake his little woman for another round. If she thought they were done for the night, she’d better think again. But for now, he’d content himself with a light nap while he gathered his strength.

He’d drifted for a while, how long he didn’t know, when Aislinn stirred. She sat up and gazed at him. Not quite ready to start making love again, he rolled to his back and let her look her fill. He concentrated on keeping his breathing slow and steady, wondering what she’d do. Try to seduce him? If she looked much longer, his cock would rise to the occasion sooner than he’d planned.

Then she got out of bed. He cracked his eyes to see her dressing. Where did she think she was going?

Out, apparently. He feigned sleep while she opened the door and slipped into the hallway. The pain that stabbed through his heart nearly stopped him cold.

She was leaving. How could she leave after the night they’d had together? And the guard…she’d specifically asked him to get rid of the guard. At the time, he’d thought it sweet, but now he understood. She’d had a plan all along. The pain that shuddered through him felt so strong he had no choice but to shove it deep, as deep as he could get it.

Once the door had shut behind her, he swung to his feet and grabbed his pants off a nearby chair. Ignoring the sick feeling in his stomach, he yanked his pants on. Then, forgoing a shirt or shoes, he opened the door and peeked outside. His little mate rounded the corner at the end of the hallway. As soon as she left his sight, he left the room and headed after her.

Aislinn wouldn’t escape.

***

Aislinn headed down one hallway after another, trying to keep her bearings. Even with the map, the place was confusing as all get-out. She wasn’t half bad at navigation but with no compass, she knew she could easily get turned around. She tried not to picture herself lost for days in the maze of stone-lined hallways, finally being found shuddering in a corner, weak from dehydration. And the harder she tried not to picture it, the more unsuccessful she was.

All the same, she couldn’t let herself get caught. There was still a chance she might find her way out. She reached another cross-corridor and peered around the corner, seeing only another long, empty hallway dimly lit with moonlight coming in the high windows. If she wasn’t mistaken, this hall went in the direction of the front of the Holding.

She rounded the corner and continued on her way, moving as quickly as she could. If someone else entered the hallway, she’d be caught—there wasn’t a single place to hide.

The stone felt cold against her bare feet, but she didn’t want to put her shoes on and make a lot of noise as she hurried through the castle.

A few minutes later, she reached yet another cross-corridor. This one was different, though. A wall lay dead ahead. The corridor stretched to both sides but to the left it opened wider into an area punctuated by columns holding up the ceiling. And by one of the columns, she saw a dark shadow moving.

A man.

She pulled back a little, holding her breath. He was too far away to actually hear her breathe, even if he was one of the wolves, but nevertheless she didn’t want to make a sound. Still she watched him. If she wasn’t mistaken, the front hall had those same kinds of columns in it. If she was lucky, she’d found the front door. She just had to wait until the man left.

He nearly blended into the shadows at times, but it wasn’t until he turned in her direction that she saw that his face was covered in grease paint.

Her heart beat a little faster. Why was a man all in black with his face camouflaged skulking around the front hall of the Holding? He looked like a commando or something…and she’d seen plenty of them in her time at the compound.

The man leaned down and placed something at the foot of the column. As he straightened up, she got her best look at his face as he passed momentarily into moonlight.

She knew him. Aislinn jerked back, out of sight. She knew him—didn’t know his name, but she’d seen him at the Humans First compound. She closed her eyes as she realized what was happening. That gray box he’d put at the base of the column…it was a charge.

He was trying to blow up the Holding.

She had to stop him. And she couldn’t do it by herself.

Without a thought, she turned and ran in the direction she’d come. Darius would know what to do. She just had to get back to her room and tell him.

No longer trying for stealth, she catapulted around the next corner and ran smack into a hard body. Hands strong as steel wrapped around her arms as she flailed, trying to get away and trying to stay upright at the same time.

Only a second later, she realized she wasn’t being held by some random wolf. This was Darius. She put her hand over his mouth and leaned in. “I saw a Humans Firster back there in the lobby. You have to stop him. He has a bomb.”

***

A bomb? Darius found that hard to believe. How could Humans Firsters make it into the Holding anyway?

Yet Aislinn seemed earnest. And he didn’t want to believe the alternative–that this was part of her ploy to escape. He’d better check things out and see if she was telling the truth or not.

He put his mouth against her ear, knowing she didn’t have his wolfish hearing. “Stay here.” Once she nodded, he turned the corner and crept down the hall to the last turn before the front hall.

Though the moonlight shone only dimly through the windows, his werewolf vision showed him the front hall almost as brightly lit as it looked in daytime. So he had no problem seeing the figure in black skulking by one of the columns on the far side of the hall. He watched for a few moments, long enough to verify that this wasn’t one of his own men, then returned to Aislinn, his mind spinning as he figured out what to do.

Aislinn remained where he’d left her. Finding her still there eased a little of his tension. She might have been trying to escape–and they’d have to deal with that–but at least at the moment, she seemed to have his back.

“Go back to your room,” he whispered against her ear. He doubted the Humans Firster would be able to hear him from one hallway over even if he’d spoken in a normal voice, but he liked being able to get so close to her.

She shook her head vigorously. “I’m safer with you.”

Darius cupped her cheeks, leaning in close. “You’re safer far away from the explosives. Now go.”

“No.”

He’d never seen that look on her face before. All her soft edges hardened, her jaw tight, her eyes focused and clear. His little mate had a stubborn streak. A big one.

She wasn’t wrong, either. If there was one Humans Firster, there could be more. In sending her back to her room, he might be sending her toward even worse danger. She would be safer with him. He’d never let anything happen to her. “Fine,” he whispered, their foreheads nearly touching. “But stay close.”

He pulled his cell out of his pocket and sent a quick text to all the guards plus his council to alert them to the threat.
Intruders. Everyone on duty
, he typed.
Search for HF and bombs.
“HF” was their short-hand for Humans Firsters.
Subdue/defuse. I’m in front hall.

As soon as he hit ‘send’ he headed back toward the front hall, Aislinn on his heels. Two guards ran up to them from a side corridor. Darius motioned them to follow but stay quiet.

When they reached the front hall, the Humans Firster was at the far end, facing away from them. Darius waited until he headed down one of the side corridors before moving. As much as Darius wanted to catch the guy, he also wanted to make sure the charges were the extent of what he was doing there. Following him a little bit wouldn’t hurt, as long as Darius kept him in his sights.

As they passed into the hall, Aislinn motioned toward one of the columns. A small gray charge sat at the base. Darius used hand signals to instruct one of the guards to defuse it, while the other guard continued to follow Darius and Aislinn. When they reached the column farther in where Darius had seen the man place a second charge, he pointed that one out to the remaining guard. Then Darius and Aislinn continued down the side hall after the Humans Firster.

The man was just turning a corner much farther down when Darius and Aislinn passed into the hall. They hurried to catch up. All the while, Darius kept an eye out for more explosives. Who knew how many the guy would set? And did he really think he could bring down the Holding or was this the opening volley of an attack–set off explosives to create panic and chaos, then let the ground troops pour in through the destroyed defenses?

They again reached the corner just to see the man turning another one in the distance. But this time, as they reached the hall he’d gone down, Darius could hear the man softly speaking.

“Two down, four to go,” the man said.

There was a pause. Darius assumed the man was listening to someone through an earbud.

He spoke again. “Good. Found the girl yet?”

Darius stiffened. ‘The girl’ could only be Aislinn. Thank Bendis she’d convinced him to let her come along. If she’d gone to her room, they might have captured her.

“Keep looking,” the man said. “But if you can’t find her in time, remember she’s expendable.”

Darius felt heat flash over him, his hands sprouting claws. Expendable? What kind of father would blow up a building knowing his daughter was inside?

Aislinn didn’t react, so Darius figured she couldn’t hear the man, and he was glad for that. She didn’t need to know what a class-A asshole her father was. Then again, from what she’d said it sounded like she already knew.

It didn’t matter. Aislinn was his now, and Darius took care of his own.

The man didn’t say anything else, so Darius peeked around the corner. The man was facing him and glanced up just as Darius stuck his head out. Their eyes met.

Immediately, the man yanked his gun out of its holster. Darius couldn’t pause. He leapt toward the man, tackling him just before he could get his gun into position to fire.

But that didn’t stop him. The Humans Firster fought back, kicking and hitting him. He rolled Darius onto his back, but Darius quickly rolled him another turn so that the man’s back slammed against the stone wall. He let out his air with a loud ‘whooof.’

Darius yanked the man toward him a few inches then thrust him toward the wall again. The man’s head hit it with a crack. His eyes remained open but unfocused, and his body grew limp.

Darius staggered to his feet. He called the head guard on his cell and gave his position. While they waited for help, Aislinn came up beside him and put her arm around his waist. “Are you all right?”

She cared. He knew she cared. But he couldn’t forget that she’d tried to leave. “I’m fine. Just a few bruises.”

“I’ve seen him at the compound,” she said. “I don’t know his name, but I’m sure he’s with Humans First.”

“Yeah, I figured that out. He was talking on a mic and he mentioned you. Could you hear him?” He was pretty sure she hadn’t but it didn’t hurt to ask.

“No. Is that why you stopped for so long?”

“Yeah. I was listening to him. He said, ‘two down, four to go’ and then asked if they’d found you yet.”

“‘Two down, four to go’–do you think he meant charges?”

Darius knelt to grab the man’s pack just as two of Darius’ warriors appeared down the hall and jogged toward them. Darius opened the pack. “Four charges. I think you’re right.”

When the warriors reached them, Darius said, “Take care of him. And make sure these aren’t armed.” He handed the pack to one of the warriors. “Have any others been found?”

“Two,” one of the warriors, Xavier, said. “They’re being taken to the war room. And we’ve found three more charges besides the two you discovered.”

That’s what he figured. And he kind of doubted there were only three Humans Firsters, so there were probably more still roaming the halls. “We’ll keep looking,” Darius said. “Who’s in charge in the war room?”

“Cael,” Xavier said.

“Tell Cael to text me updates when he’s got them. I’ll come to the war room in a little while.”

“Will do.”

Darius and Aislinn headed down the hall, keeping an eye out for more Humans Firsters and more charges. Darius felt a weight on him like never before. With the castle so large, the charges could be anywhere. And if they missed even one, it could be a disaster.

Chapter 12

Aislinn stood in the war room where a couple of days before she’d talked to Gideon on the speaker phone. Five men in black clothes with grease paint smeared on their faces sat on the floor next to the wall, their hands and feet bound. She looked and looked at them, but still only recognized one of them. The other four were strangers. New recruits, maybe?