Alpha Mate: BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance (14 page)

She sat down heavily, feeling slightly woozy from her
exertions. She was exhausted and hungry. When was the last time she
had eaten?

Instead of stars, she saw pizzas, burgers, chips,
chocolate bars and hot dogs fluttering around her head, beckoning to
her.

Her skin began to prickle, and the hairs at the back of
her neck rose. She frowned. Hunger had never affected her like this
before. But then, she was never this hungry before. Slowly, she
turned to fix her eyes on the door, her whole body tensed.

She could sense him.

He was here.

“
Lucas,” she whispered, scrambling up.

She smiled.

He had come for her.

Once Lucas and Jett stepped out of the mist, Lucas
turned around and said, “Go. Attend to Bryn. She needs you,
Glenn. We don't.”

The mist swirled for a moment around Lucas, then
dispersed.

Glenn had kept his word. The moment he could sense
Bryn, he had misted to her and retrieved her. Dropping her off at
the medical bay of the PAC Headquarters, the vampire had then misted
Lucas and Jett back to that broken barn at the edge of the woods just
at the periphery of New Moon City.

Lucas smiled at the four hooded vampires who had upended
their chairs and table, sending their cheap liquor and cards
scattering to the floor, upon their arrival.

“
Please, don't get up on our account. We're just
passing through,” Lucas smiled grimly.

“
A wolf, and a human,” the vamp in a gray
hoodie sniffed the air. “What do you want?”

“
You shouldn't touch what doesn't belong to you.
There are rules, PAC rules, to be obeyed and enforced. Do you know
what happens to rule breakers?” Lucas asked, the smile fading
very slowly from his face.

“
You're from the PAC?”

Lucas merely shrugged.

One of the vamps gasped and nudged the vamp in the gray
hoodie, “Lance, I recognize him! He...he's the PAC Alpha!”

Lance narrowed his yellow eyes. “No he's not.
The Alpha is a little old lady.”

Lucas couldn't help barking out a laugh. “If
Helen hears that, you'll be practically begging to meet the sun,
punk.”

Lance took a small step back, his eyes darting between
Jett and Lucas. Balling his fists, he swallowed hard and said, “So
the PAC has a new Alpha. Big deal.”

Lucas shook his head. “You really haven't been
keeping up with the news.”

“
We don't follow PAC rules and we don't follow PAC
news!” a vamp in a yellow hoodie shouted out from behind Lance.

“
Oh? Then what
do
you follow?”

“
We...none of your damn business!” It was a
vamp in a blue hoodie who blurted out.

Lucas studied the vampires in front of him as he strode
forward casually. Their fangs were long and sharp, but their eyes
looked strangely animal. Their eyes were yellow and their nails
seemed to be curling out of their gloves.
Like claws.
These
bunch of rogues weren't purely vampire.

They were hybrids, the mongrels of the paranormal
community.

Lucas stared at the claws sprouting from their hands and
the hoods covering their heads.

“
You're not pure vampires,” he said aloud,
for Jett's benefit. Jett was sharp, but as a human, he might not be
so attuned to the subtle differences between pure vamps, shifters and
hybrids. “You're hybrids. Specifically, you're
vampire-werewolf hybrids.”

Lance tore off his gloves, revealing his animal claws
and snarled, “So you know what we are.”

“
It's not what you are that matters, it's what you
do. And what you did was grab two young Enforcers off the street and
hold them against their will. You hurt them,” Lucas said
evenly but the menace in his eyes was unmistakable.

“
No!” Lance spat. “They. Hurt. Us!
Enforcers hunt us, and kill us!”

“
They hunt rogues, not hybrids.”

“
Rogues, hybrids—to
may
toes,
to
maah
toes,” the yellow hoodie interjected.

“
No. You can be a hybrid, without being a rogue.
Rogues have no respect for humans and paranormals. They take what
they want, what doesn't belong to them, and they kill innocent
civilians to satisfy their lust and hunger. Rogues are defined by
what they do, not what they are,” Lucas answered.

“
We take what we want, what we need, to satisfy
our lust and hunger. That's called surviving,” Lance said.

Jett stepped forward. “No. That's called
robbing, raping and murdering.”

“
It speaks!” Lance clutched his chest in an
exaggerated show of shock and amazement. “And who are you,
human?” he sneered.

Jett smirked. “Who am I? I'm...the Man. The
Hu-Man.”

Lucas sighed. Jett had been watching too many superhero
movies. He turned back to Lance. “Now, release the girl.”

“
What girl?” Lance asked, throwing out his
hands.

“
Yeah, what girl?”

“
We don't know what you're talking about!”

“
There's no girl. Do you see any girl here?”

Lance's minions began speaking up at once, backing their
leader up.

“
You're getting senile, old man!” one of the
hybrids challenged.

At that, Lucas arched a brow. Old man? How young were
these hybrids? They may have existed for centuries as pure vamps or
shifters before they were turned into hybrids. And judging from
their insecurities and anger, they must have been turned pretty
recently.

“
Who turned you?” Lucas asked, studying the
four hybrids quietly. They must have been pure vamps before their
turning. If they had been werewolves, they would be exhibiting more
pronounced wolf traits as hybrids. Vamps, turned into hybrids by a
rogue werewolf.

“
Were you turned against your will?”

“
Yeah,” a scrawny hybrid in a tattered
maroon hoodie mumbled from his corner.

“
Shut up, Timmy!” Lance snarled over his
shoulder.

Timmy lowered his head, making himself even smaller than
he already was. He was smaller than the rest, scrawnier and shorter.
But Lucas saw that they were all scared, even Lance.

“
Tell me who did this to you,” Lucas said.
Timmy shook his head. Lance glowered, and the other two glanced at
each other. Lucas saw the uncanny resemblance between the two
hybrids, even with their blue and yellow hoods pulled over their
heads. They had the same build, the same posture and mannerisms, and
reacted the same way.

“
You're twins, aren't you?” he addressed
them over Lance's shoulder.

One of them nodded quickly. “I'm Kev. He's my
brother, Ken.”

Lance scowled. “Won't the lot of you just shut
up?”

“
Just give me the girl, and nobody gets hurt,”
Lucas said reasonably.

“
We're not scared...of you!” Timmy squeaked.

“
No. You're not scared of me. You're scared
of...him. The one who turned you. He's controlling you, isn't he?
Tell us who he is, where he is. We can help you. The PAC will help
you,” Lucas said. Jett gave a curt nod at his side.

“
No one can help us,” Lance spat. “So
just beat it. Go away. He wants her. He wants her hurt, but alive.
Too bad that weak female vampire couldn't do the job. So later,
when we feel like a little fun—” He cracked his knuckles
loudly and smirked. “We'll make her scream, nice and long.
Then...we'll make like good delivery boys and deliver that plump,
fleshy human to him. And maybe after he eats her heart, we get to
drain her. And nobody gets hurt,” he mimicked Lucas.

Lucas stayed perfectly still, but at his side, his
fingers silently curled into claws. His eyes flicked to the small
door at the corner. They were standing in the middle of an old,
disused barn. There used to be a large farm out here, but the farmer
and his family had long gone, and the forest had slowly encroached
upon the farm, overrunning it with weeds, shrubs and young trees
until only the barn was left standing at the edge of the woods.
There was only the entrance, and that small door which led to a
storeroom in the back. Charlotte was in there.

Lucas moved so fast that the hybrids fell over
themselves trying to stop him. But Jett covered him. While Jett
engaged the hybrids, felling the twins with two high powered kicks
and taking on Lance and Timmy together, Lucas rammed his shoulder
against the door and splintered it under his weight.

He barged into the storeroom, and saw the cage
immediately. Charlotte was crouched in a corner, the gun in her hand
pointing straight at the door.

She fired and a silver bullet lodged itself in the door
frame.

“
Put that thing away, for God's sake!” Lucas
shouted.

Charlotte's eyes widened and she lowered her gun
immediately. “Lucas, don't touch the cage,” she yelled
quickly as Lucas lunged forward. “It's silver!”

Lucas pulled away just before his fingers wrapped around
the bars. He was about to grab those bars and rip them apart, but
what the hell? They had to be made of silver.

“
Jett!” Lucas roared. “You had your
fun, now get your ass in here! It's my turn to have at them.”

Lucas's fangs and claws elongated as Jett came crashing
into the room, with four hybrids hot on his heels. Lucas jerked his
head towards the cage, and Jett nodded, flicking out a small pocket
knife.

Lucas gave Charlotte one long look before he turned to
face the hybrids. As Jett stabbed his knife into the lock and worked
quickly, Lucas fought the four hybrids off with ease and restraint.
A part of him wanted to rip their heads right off their shoulders for
daring to touch his mate, but a larger part of him held back. They
were being manipulated and intimidated by someone else, someone more
dangerous and powerful. Lucas scaled back on the violence and force
he used on these hybrids. His claws slashed through their hoodies
and cut across their chests and faces, but the wounds weren't as deep
as they should be.

Had he unleashed his full fury and power on them, none
of them would still be standing. They would be spewing their blood
and organs from every orifice as they writhed on the floor right now.

Lucas heard a click, and knew that Jett had done his
work. Jett could pick any lock, even magically enhanced ones.
Before joining the police force, Jett had been in street gangs and
had even risen to the upper echelons of the gang hierarchy. He had
been on both sides of the law, and had walked the thin strip of gray
between good and evil.

Charlotte tumbled out of the cage, her gun waving in all
directions as the injured hybrids spun around the room, trying to
dodge Lucas's blows.

“
Get down!” she yelled to Lucas. “I'm
gonna shoot!”

Ah hell.

“
Don't!” Lucas barely managed to get the
word out before she fired. He crouched and watched her squeeze off
two shots in rapid succession.

One silver bullet ricocheted off the edge of the metal
cage and slammed into the wall above Lucas's head. Lucas jerked away
in time to see Ken drop to the ground, a bullet wound in his chest.
His body spasmed and twitched violently, and exploded into a pile of
ashes. Lucas gaped at Charlotte. She had shot Ken right in the
heart with a silver bullet.

Charlotte pointed the gun at Lance, her finger
tightening on the trigger. Lance snarled at her, as his face
contorted and elongated. His blond hair became a tuft of golden fur
as his facial features changed from human to wolf. His body was
still largely human, and his hoodie and jeans remained intact. But
his canines were unusually long. Vampire fangs in a werewolf's
mouth.

Lance lurched towards Charlotte's neck, and she shot him
point blank in the head. He jerked back with a smoking hole between
his eyes, but still he pushed himself up and growled, his yellow eyes
churning with wrath and want. Charlotte aimed her gun at his heart,
and said, “For Bryn.” Then she fired.

Lance disintegrated into ashes the moment the silver
bullet pierced his heart. Lucas stood and watched the remaining two
hybrids stagger back, inching their way towards the door as Charlotte
swiveled round and took aim with her gun.

Jett moved to stand at the door to cut off their escape.
He spun his pocket knife casually through his fingers, the silver
glinting and moving so quickly it was almost impossible to tell if he
was playing with a coin or a knife.

There was an audible gulp as the two hybrids were forced
to the middle of the room.

Charlotte sauntered towards them, still holding her gun.
“You two can't mist away?” She quirked a brow. “So
who misted Bryn and me here?”

“
Lance and Ken were the stronger ones, of the four
of us. They can mist without us, but we can only mist with them.
Lance and Timmy took the vamp, while Ken and I misted you,” Kev
answered in a strained voice. “Kenny...he...” Kev's
voice began to break. Fur began to sprout on the back of Kev's hands
as he screamed at Charlotte, “You—you shot Kenny! I will
avenge my brother! I will kill you!”