The Loneliest Alpha (The MacKellen Alphas) (38 page)

The
last part he added softly, his eyes watering and tears beginning to flow down
his face. “I couldn’t take it back. Couldn’t. Just handed it to him and he
started doin’ it. I didn’t know what to say. I had no idea it’d come down to
that. I just thought…we’d beat him up…take some anger out on him for what he
did.” At that revelation he fell to his knees and started to sob. Great,
wracking sobs that shook his entire body.

Alicia
seized her chance at escape and sprinted passed him. With her hands tied behind
her back the action felt clumsy. Barely a moment later she heard his curse and
then booming steps pounded after her. She screamed as she pushed her legs
harder. A solid body barreled into her, slamming her to the ground.

Will
grabbed her by the hair and started backing her up, his breaths coming hard.

A
pained scream tore from her throat as she scrambled to step in time with him. “Stop,
stop it!”

“I
can’t even trust you,” he said, disgusted.

“Yes,
you can, but I just want to go home.”

He
dragged her past where they’d been and further into the warehouse, all by her
hair. Much farther from her exit. “Home…home. You know, that’s where I’ve been
trying to send you this whole time and now you want to go?”

“Yes,
I just want to go back to Gavin, please,” she said, her voice breaking into
incoherent sobs. The hair in his grip snapped and pulled like yanking grass out
of the ground.

“No,
no, no! You said you want to go
home.
And that’s where I want you to go
to. Your home isn’t here with us. Your home’s back in your own damned pack.”

She
cried softly. “I don’t understand.”

“He
needs to hurt for what he did,” he said, crying as well. “For every time they
look at me like I’m something to be ashamed of, something to look away from.
And I’m gonna make him hurt through you. I saw all that fight in you. Why
couldn’t you have just left? That would made this so much easier. He’d be
hurtin’ and I wouldn’t have to do this.”

She
struggled to fight through the terror gripping her. “I wanted to leave at first,
but then I grew to love him.”

He
shook her head, wringing a cry from her. “Well you didn’t leave, and now this
has been so much harder than I thought it would be. Doesn’t matter. You’re
gonna go, one way or the other. He’ll suffer. He’ll feel it then, understand
what it’s like.” He was sobbing now with abandon, sniffling from snot.

Sweating
with cold fear, Alicia eyes darted all around the warehouse. “W-what do you
mean?” For the first time since he’d taken her she knew…he’d kill her right
here in this dank warehouse. Tears streamed freely down her face.

A
metal boom echoed as he jerked, doing something she couldn’t see. She twisted
her head around to try to get a look but he held her tight by her hair. Then
something gave way and a metallic sound rang, like spinning a quarter on a
smooth surface…only much louder and much bigger. It reminded her…of a sewer
grate.

“No!
No! No! Don’t do this, Will!” She pulled hard against him, hair tearing in his
grasp.

It
worked and she broke away, scrambling forward and landing on her knees, crying
hysterically. She clumsily stood up and started to run, but he got to her.
Wrapping her in a bear hug, he dragged her backward screaming and kicking. She
was a fighter but he was the grim reaper sent to put her down. No matter how
hard she fought, she was going to lose this battle.

And
then they struggled over a black hole in the ground. He pushed and kicked at
her, trying to push her in and she fought back. But then, he cheated. One solid
punch landed across her already swollen cheek. Pain exploded across her face,
stunning her with its power. Everything went foggy. She couldn’t even hold her
neck up. Her body sagged.

And
then he dropped her into the hole like a sack of trash into a garbage can.

She
fell for several breathless seconds before landing in something wet and gooey…something
soft. It smelled like earth and stale water. Eyes watering, she squinted up at
the hole. The light looked remarkably bright behind his tear-streaked face.

“I’m
sorry. I’m sorry.” He kept saying it, like a record on repeat. He kept saying
it even as he grabbed the lid to the hole and entombed her.

The
light vanished save for a tiny circle in the center of the metal lid. She
screamed his name, begged and pleaded and made promises she couldn’t possibly
ever hold. And still, there was no answer. No one was there. He’d left her
alone in this cold, wet place to die.

She
screamed and screamed until her voice turned hoarse. But no one heard her. No
one came.

As
that tiny light above grew dimmer and dimmer, she fought to free her hands from
the binds. The rope was too tight. There was nothing she could do. Her
fingertips bled from scratches. Foul-smelling muck covered her hands and
clothes.

She’d
couldn’t reach the grate so many feet above her head even if she had use of her
arms.

Will
had placed her in the grave where she’d die.

CHAPTER 24

Twenty
hours.

Twenty
of the longest hours of his whole fucking life. Alicia had been taken yesterday
around 3:30 in the afternoon. Gavin had never been a failure in his life—until
now. He couldn’t find her.

Will
was still missing. Every available man and woman was searching. They’d long
since extended their search outside of the pack into neighboring human areas.
No one could find a trace of their scents. Nothing.

It’s
like she’d disappeared.

“Why
don’t you go back to the house and get some rest, big brother?”

Gavin
blinked at Kaity’s request. She didn’t understand. None of them did, except for
Hanna. None of them had mates, were in love and had their cherished one taken
from them in a violent act. Not one of them.

And
Kaity wanted him to go home…
to sleep
. It took every ounce of willpower
inside of him not to scream at her about her stupidity. His hands curled into
fists and he clenched them to keep from roaring at her. It wasn’t her fault.
She didn’t understand.

So
he said nothing and eventually she walked away, leaving him alone. It was so
hard to think when everyone was in his face every other minute asking him
questions: have you searched here or what about here? Have you eaten anything?
Here, eat this.

He
wanted to scream at them and lash out but he knew that was just the agony
talking. The pain inside him needed an outlet and it took every ounce of his
strength not give it an easy out.

Gavin
stood in a rush. He needed to move, couldn’t sit still for long. Not when she
was out there. His fist clenched until bones snapped and popped.

The
situation was made uglier by the fact his own little brother had taken her.
This whole time he found himself asking what would he do once he found Will? He
could administer pack justice or send him over to the Justicars where he’d likely
be found guilty of attempted murders and sent to rot behind bars with other
lykaens and vampires.

Could
he really do that to his own blood? To the boy he’d watch grow from smiling
chubby cheeks into a tall, grinning young man?

He
knew the answer which only further cemented his tension. The only question left
was: would he administer pack justice or send him to the Justicars? No doubt
about it, Will would pay for this. And it would hurt them both.

An
idea skittered through his brain. A small thought, one that would probably lead
nowhere. Ignoring the looks people gave him, he headed down the hall of the
main office building and into the cellar to the jailhouse. The two Graham
brothers looked up at him from their separate cells.

Gavin
cracked his neck with a cock of his head. “One of you is gonna talk right now.
I’ll let you choose who it is.”

They
exchanged tense glances. Marcus stood, his handcuffed wrists making the action
clumsy. “I’ll talk.”

Gavin’s
grin looked like the devil’s. “Harry it is.”

The
men had only a moment to panic before Gavin entered Harry’s cell. He grabbed
the man’s wrist then linked the cuffs up to a chain that held him in place
against the wall.

Rolling
his shoulders, Gavin pretended to work some of the kinks out of his muscles. It
was a joke. Nothing could make his muscles loosen up. And then he let his fist
fly.
BAM!
He caught Harry across the mouth.

His
lip busted open into a bloody mess and his head kicked backward from the
motion.

“What
the fuck!” Marcus roared, running for the bars separating their cells. “I said
I’d talk! Let him go, you motherfucker!”

“No,
I don’t think so. I distinctly heard Harry say he wanted to talk. Well, Harry,
talk.” He let loose with an uppercut that clipped Harry’s chin. A tooth snapped
and flew out of his mouth as his chin tried to go up into his face.

“Tell
me what you want to know!” Marcus screamed.

Gavin
might have smiled if he had the energy to do so. He’d gotten just the reaction
he wanted out of him. “Will’s taken Alicia and they’re not in the pack. I want
to know where he is.”

“How
the fuck should I know where your goddamn brother is, MacKellen?”

Gavin
shrugged. “Not the answer I was lookin’ for.” He plowed his fist into Harry’s
stomach in a series of blows meant to make the man piss his pants. It worked.

Marcus
shoved his face into the bars as if he could will himself into the other cell.
He mewled. “I don’t know where he is, but I hope he guts her.”

Wrong.
Answer.

Gavin
finally let himself go, taking out all his anger and frustration into Harry
Graham. There was no guilt at his actions. No remorse, no willpower to even
stop himself. He knew deep inside that Harry, along with Marcus, had something
to do with the death of those two kids. He used that little bit of reasoning to
assuage his guilt.

Harry
sagged against the wall, no longer able to keep himself upright. Gavin’s fists
were covered in the man’s filthy blood.

Marcus
stared down at his brother with horror. “I’m going to kill you.”

“You’ve
wanted to kill me for a long time now. I’m surprised you haven’t managed to do
it.”

His
eye twitched.

When
he didn’t say anything else, Gavin shrugged and locked Harry in the cell and
moved toward Marcus’ cell. “Looks like I did go at the wrong brother. Harry, I’m
going to pay a little visit to Marcus here. Only, I’m not gonna hold myself
back this time. I got a lead pipe in the other room. What do you think I could
make his body look like after I beat him with it?”

Harry
let out a gargled shout. “No! D-don’t do it. Please don’t do it.” He started
sobbing.

Gavin
almost cringed at the horrific sound. Almost.

“I’ll
tell you any-anything you want.” He spit out a wad of bloody mucous.

“Where
did Will take Alicia?”

Panting,
Harry spoke through bloodied lips. “Try the Tin Can.”

Every
muscle in Gavin’s body went on alert. “What’s that?”

“Young…hangout.
Teens like to go there to drink, sometimes with humans. Or…other lykaens.”

“Where
is it?”

“About
twenty…minutes northwest of here. An old warehouse. Lots of fence wire.”

Gavin’s
eyes narrowed. This could be a hoax. He wasn’t going to get his hopes up. “How
do you know about this?”

“They
all do it. Just ask. Overheard Will mention it before at work.”

“Since
I’m finally getting some cooperation out of you, answer me about this. Did you
poison the meat?”

“No,”
he cried on a ragged moan.

“Were
you in the car that hit Alicia?”

He
shook his head wildly. “No!”

Marcus
glared at him with hate-filled yes. “You’ve beaten an innocent man. Are you
happy with yourself now,
alpha
?”

“Yeah,
I am. Since we’re all being honest here, why don’t you fess up now, Marcus? Did
you do this to my face?”

Marcus
leaned into the bars, so close Gavin could have reached through and ripped out
his throat. “Yes,” he hissed. “I’d do it again, only worse if I had the chance.
And Will was kind enough to lend me his knife to do it.”

Stunned,
for a moment, Gavin couldn’t say word. Will had helped him to do this to him?
He forced himself to snap out of it. Now wasn’t the time to focus on anything
else but finding Alicia.

“So
what did those little kids do to deserve what they got?” Gavin asked.

In
an instant, Marcus went from livid with anger to docile and calm.

“What,
got nothing to say about those two dead kids?”

Only
Harry’s panting breaths filled the silence.

“Yeah,
that’s what I thought. You’re a coward, always have been. Even now, you can’t
stand up and take responsibility for what you did.”