The Alpha's Baby (20 page)

"I know." He sighed.

"Where are you, anyway?" she asked. "Are you still at Mary Lou's?"

"No, I'm waiting at your place," he said. "I thought you'd come home sooner or later."

"And Jake?" She shivered in fear. "What's happening with him?"

"My brother is tracking him," he said.

Both of them were silent for a moment. She stared down at her quivering hands.

"Sweetheart," he said.

"Uh-huh?"

"Can I come pick you up now?" Sebastian's voice was soft. "I want to bring you someplace where I can look after you."

Though she hesitated, she eventually said, "Yes."

"Where are you?"

"At my parents' house." And she knew it was time she left. "I'll drive back to you."

"I think it'll be better if I drive to you," Sebastian said.

For a horrifying moment, she imagined her dad with his gun. "Are you worried about bullet wounds?"

"Excuse me?" Sebastian choked.

"My dad might snap," she said. "When he found out I was pregnant, he didn't take it too well. He might see you and lose it."

"I think I can handle a gunshot wound."

Her eyebrow twitched. "I hate how it sounds like you've been shot before."

"Only twice," he said.

She gasped.

"Kidding," he said.

"I could kill you right now." Either that, or send him the world's dirtiest glare.

"Uh-huh," Sebastian said. "I'll make it easier for you to kill me by coming over. Give me the address."

Emmy rattled off the address, stunned that she was going to meet the man who both enthused and terrified her.

****

Emmy knew it took about an hour to reach her parents' house. And since two hours had gone by and Sebastian still hadn't arrived, she was horrified. Though the man had hidden the fact that he was a werewolf from her, she knew that he was prudent. He never would dawdle when he knew that she was waiting for him to pick her up. And that was a problem because that meant that something was really, seriously wrong.

As Emmy drummed her fingers on the table, her dad paced in front of her as her mom stirred the filling for a chocolate cream pie.

"I can see what you mean about this man being an unfit parent." Her dad checked his watch. "Can't he read a clock? It doesn't take this long to get back from Seattle."

"Maybe the traffic is bad." As her mom said the words, she cast a worried glance at the clock.

"Or he's messing around," her dad said.

"No, this isn't like him." She stood up. "I think something's wrong."

"Something's wrong, all right." Her dad groused.

Emmy didn't say anything and just stared out the window. As the ticking of the clock became louder, she thought,
Maybe I should go after him. He would do the same for me
. And yet she knew that would be sheer stupidity. It would be one thing to put herself in danger, but it would be another thing entirely to put her baby at risk. Right now, she had to play it safe as much as possible.

Even if it meant staying at her parents' house.

Still, as her mom turned on the mixer and made chocolate pudding, Emmy's frustration grew. And that was why, when she heard somebody knock on the door, she cried out in relief. Sebastian was here, after all. Maybe he'd had car trouble. Maybe he'd rescued a woman who was about to get squashed by a BMW. Hell, maybe an alien had stolen all of the wheels from his car. Hey, stranger things have happened, right?

Despite all of the mishaps that could have happened, her dad remained frustrated.

"About time," he muttered.

The man stomped over to the door, and Emmy followed behind him, frightened that the man might punch Sebastian instead of shake his hand. Unfortunately, when her dad opened the door, Sebastian wasn't standing on the welcome mat. It was Mary Lou instead, wearing a wrinkled blue tank top and a pair of skinny jeans three sizes too small. When her dad saw Mary Lou's outfit, he muttered a curse and clapped his hand to his head.

Emmy, too tired to care about her dad's way of greeting her friend, stepped onto the front porch. "What the heck are you doing here?"

"Some way to say hello," Mary Lou said.

"I told you to go hide somewhere." Emmy glanced warily at the street, her hair standing on end.

"I needed to speak with you." Mary Lou looked at her dad. "Can we talk somewhere private? You know, someplace where it's just the two of us."

"Just the two of us?" Emmy's heart raced. Mary Lou wasn't acting like herself. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, I found out that I have chlamydia," Mary Lou said quickly, as if she'd just thought of it.

Her dad's mouth dropped open.

"So you're the person who's been influencing my daughter to do sinful things." Her dad pointed at Mary Lou. "Aren't you old enough to know better?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Mary Lou scowled. "I'm twenty-six."

Now that was more like Mary Lou. Still, when Emmy examined her friend, she knew that something was off. Yeah, the woman was wearing an outfit that looked like it had been purchased at Hookers-R-Us, but she hadn't applied any mascara. For an ordinary woman, that wouldn't have meant anything. But this was Mary Lou. Mary Lou wouldn't have gone without mascara even during a full-fledged zombie apocalypse. There was something wrong—maybe it even had to do with why Sebastian had not shown up yet—and Emmy was determined to find out what.

"Dad, can you give us some privacy?" Emmy glanced at her dad.

The man hesitated. Though he'd met Mary Lou before, the woman had been much less expressive during their last conversation. And on top of that, Emmy hadn't been pregnant then either. 

"Of course, you can stay if you have something to add to the conversation." Mary Lou batted her eyes at him. "I'm always surprised by the number of people who know tidbits about chlamydia."

Her dad's face became the color of oatmeal. Without saying a word, he stepped inside and closed the door. The moment that the door was shut, Emmy turned toward her friend, her heart thundering.

"Okay, what's really going on?" Emmy asked.

Mary Lou stared at her sadly.

"Mary Lou?" Emmy persisted.

"I'm sorry, Emmy," Mary Lou said. "I didn't have another choice. He said he was going to kill me."

"What are you talking about?" Emmy's eyes widened in horror. "Who said they were going to kill you?"

"Me," Jake said from behind her.

Something hard slammed against her head and then everything went black.

Groaning, Emmy's eyes fluttered open. The first thing she thought was,
God, my head hurts like a bitch. This is the worst migraine I've ever had.
And that was saying something. She'd been getting up at the crack of dawn for years. There had been times when she'd felt like somebody had spent all night sawing at her skull. Now, as her brain throbbed, she felt ten times worse. And that was before she realized where she was.

But then she did.

She was in some sort of dark basement with her hands tied behind her back.

Gasping in horror, Emmy looked around the dreary room. Suddenly, she remembered everything. Mary Lou had shown up at her front door, and then Jake had knocked her out. But what about her baby? In panic, Emmy glanced down at her stomach. Luckily, she felt no pain in her abdomen. Call it mother's instinct or sheer craziness, but somehow she knew that her child was alive and well.

"Thank God," she said.

"I wouldn't be thanking him just yet, if I were you," Jake said from somewhere out of sight.

She went rigid. Though she hadn't realized it until that moment, the only door to the basement had been ajar. Jake opened the door the rest of the way and stepped into the room. She shivered in horror, startled by the amount of fear she felt just looking into his eyes. This man was cruel. No, he was beyond cruel. He was
evil
. She wouldn't have been surprised if he'd been born in the depths of hell itself.

"You," Emmy said.

Jake walked over to her. "Were you expecting somebody else?"

"No," she said through clenched teeth. "Only you would be evil enough to do this, you heartless maniac."

To her shock, the man chuckled.

"You're laughing now, but you won't be for long." She squirmed, fighting her bindings. "Sebastian is going to come for me, you know."

"Oh, I know." Jake's grin widened. "I'm counting on it."

The words stunned her into silence. "Huh?"

"You didn't think I kept you alive for no reason, did you?" Jake asked. "Trust me, if I had the choice, I would have killed you ages ago. No, I'm using you to lure Sebastian here. It was the only way."

Despite the fact it was a warm day, cold crept into her core. Her teeth chattered as she stared at the maniac standing in front of her.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I was hoping you'd ask me that." Jake walked around her like a predatory beast. "I'm going to lure Sebastian here and make him bow to me…then I'm going to murder you and his baby right before his eyes. I'll sink my teeth into him as he screams your name."

"You can't." Emmy was sick. Not Sebastian. Not her baby.

"I can and I will." He drew nearer, drinking up her fear as if it was an elixir. "And I'm going to enjoy every minute of it."

Emmy flinched as Jake drew nearer, yet that only made him lean in closer and sniff her hair. After he breathed in her scent, he released her.

"But why?" She didn't understand how anyone could be so cruel.

The grin on Jake's face became twisted. Repulsive. She didn't want to look at him, yet she feared that if she looked away, he might strike her down.

"Do you know who my father was?" Jake's crazy eyes remained trained on her.

"No." How would she know that?

His eyes hardened as he ran his hand down her shoulder. "The pack Alpha. I always knew that it was my destiny to follow in his footsteps. It's not unusual for the Alpha's child to gain control over the pack."

She noted that Jake's gaze dropped to her stomach as he spoke, and she wrapped her hands around her waist to protect her baby. "Still, that doesn't explain why you're going to kill me."

"Oh, but it does. You see, Sebastian was chosen to lead the pack instead of me." Jake grabbed a fistful of her hair. "He went behind my back and stole the Alpha position. The spot was supposed to be mine and nobody else's. But no, he had to be a conniving ass."

Jake yanked at her hair, making her scream in pain.

"You're hurting me." Tears filled her eyes.

In his insanity, Jake ignored her pain. "The Alpha position is still destined to be mine. All I have to do is take down Sebastian. That's why I'm doing this."

"No." Her eyes widened.

"Yes." He yanked at her hair again. "Unfortunately, killing him is harder than I imagined. The little shit has many allies, and I can't seem to touch him. But then I found out about you and you're pregnancy. At that moment, I put my plan in action. All I had to do was distract him long enough to kidnap you. Then after I lure him here, you know what happens next."

Jake's eyes glistened maniacally as he looked down at her stomach.

Her eyes narrowed in fury. "Don't you dare hurt my baby."

"Whether you like it or not, the Alpha's baby has to die," Jake said. "And so do you."

The words were enough to make her weak in the knees from terror. If Jake hadn't been holding her from behind, she would have toppled to the cement.

"How can you be so heartless?" She was desperate to save her baby, and at that moment, she would have done anything to convince Jake to let her go. "I'm carrying an innocent child."

"I don't give a rat's ass about your baby," Jake said.

The man spoke so callously that she knew he was telling the truth. Jake wouldn't feel remorse if the blood of an innocent was spilled.

At the thought of his heartlessness, vomit crawled up her throat. She squeezed her eyes shut and hacked. Finally, Jake released her hair, allowing her to fall to the floor. Puke spilled from her lips, causing a slimy lake to flood the floor. Though Jake wrinkled his nose, he grinned at the sight of her trembling form.

"I love how scared you are." Jake bent over her, grinning.

"You're sick." Emmy spit in his face.

Despite Jake's fast reflexes, he wasn't expecting her to spit at him. Howling, the man recoiled as if she'd doused him with acid. When he blinked the spit away, he narrowed his eyes in rage and she knew she'd made a mistake. The man seized her by her hair and dragged her to her feet.

"If I wasn't saving the show for Sebastian, I'd beat that baby out of you," he growled. "I guess I'll just have to settle for a little less for now."

Snarling, Jake slapped her across the face. When his palm struck her cheek, she saw white and her skin stung. She screamed, falling to the floor for the second time.

As she lay on the cool cement, Jake seized her by her shirt and hauled her up to face him once more. The smell of his breath was foul as if he spent his evenings chewing on rotting flesh. Even though his features didn't change, her stomach twisted with disgust. He was a monster, even while in his human form. At that moment, she remembered what Sebastian had said:
"There are bad humans who want to hurt people. There are also bad werewolves. The shift doesn't change who we are inside. Jake is always a monster no matter what form he's in."
And she realized that Sebastian had been right. Jake was a monster no matter what he looked like. At the same time, that meant that Sebastian had never been her enemy. Even when they first met, he'd gone out of his way to protect her.

Too bad she hadn't realized that sooner and stuck by Sebastian's side. If she had, then she might not be in this situation now.

"Shit," she said, still clutching her face.

"Soon you'll be cursing a lot more than that." In his rage, Jake kicked her leg and then whirled around.

She watched him walk out the door—and then began to cry.

****

After spending what felt like ages bawling her eyes out, Emmy's eyes were raw. Still, as she trembled on the floor, she was filled with the same fierce, protective urge to protect her baby. Because of that, she knew she had to find a way to escape. And hopefully by getting free, she'd be able to save Sebastian from being murdered too. After all, if something happened to him because of her, she'd never forgive herself.