Jacks, Marcy - Taken by the Alpha Wolf [DeWitt's Pack 9] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (13 page)

When Ryan had nothing to argue back with, he knew it was  finally starting to sink in.

Blasius and James were right. There was no way to involve  humans into this mess, even being careful to keep their secret from  them because, like Ryan, not every werewolf was capable of  controlling  their inner wolf, especially under stress, and the hunters  had apparently already thought of what to do in case any member of  the law were to come across them while they worked.

Keeping their catch in animal form would probably get them  slapped with a case of animal cruelty, but nothing more, and  disposing of dead wolf bodies wouldn’t bring about a life sentence in  prison either.

But if those hunters had some more people, who were not yet in  wolf form, then they were taking a risk by simply having them. They  would be trying to get them to make a transformation as soon as  possible so they could skin them and dispose of them.

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Ryan had just wasted all that time arguing with these people who

knew better than he did. “What do you want me to do?”

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Chapter Ten

Because of Isaac’s former occupation as a hunter, he was asked to go along for the journey to rescue the missing werewolves.

The alpha of the neighboring pack was rather suspicious of him,  Blasius noted, and more than once he’d growled at James if he wascertain the man could be trusted.

“He can,” James had grunted. “His knowledge on hunters has  helped us on more than one occasion.”

“I don’t like how he came about that knowledge,” Phillip said,  shooting Isaac another distrustful glare.

Blasius could hardly blame the man, considering his mate and  child had been taken from him. Blasius had fathered some pups after  Rhyan had been taken from him, mostly to further aggravate the male  who had ordered the killing. It had been Blasius’s way of showing the  man that not only would he not be producing pups with any female  from his pack, but he would produce as many as he possibly could  and that bastard alpha would have access to none of them.

Though Blasius could not recall the faces, or even the names of  any of the pups he’d sired, he could recall that he’d cared for them.  Had any hunters come for them, then Blasius would surely be in the  same state as the alpha before him.

That was the only reason why he did not come to Isaac’s defense.  Let the alpha be angry. He’d earned it, all things considered, and Isaac  was not so weak of heart and spirit that he would not handle the angry  growls that were directed at him.

“They’re watching their scent,” Isaac told the group. “More so  than usual, they aren’t just staying in the right side of the wind to you.

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They’re hiding their scent, and very well. Stop using your noses and start looking to the ground. You’re all trackers, so you’ll know what to look for.”

That they did. Broken twigs and pressed in earth, mostly. It was slow going compared to their usual way, but if it brought them closer to the remaining omegas and alphas, and hopefully they would still be alive, then they would use this route.

Blasius thought of Rhyan, whom he’d left back at DeWitt’s pack to guard the strange little black box. A radio, James and Rhyan had called it. Voices came out of it, apparently belonging to the very police the werewolves were attempting to avoid. Rhyan’s mission was to listen in and make certain that none of those humans came to close

to the battle that was about to be had, and if they did, he was to  contact Isaac through the radio that he carried with him and warn him  of the trouble.

Strange times these were.

Though it seemed a rather boring sort of mission to have, Blasius could hardly deny that it would be useful to their hunt.

Mostly, he was just grateful that Rhyan would be kept out of danger when everything finally happened.

Before they could take so much as another step in the direction of their prey, a lone wolf stepped into their path, blocking them.

It was a werewolf. Phillip growled at it. “Get out of our way.”

The wolf returned that growl, lifting his lips and showing its teeth.  Then no less than ten other werewolves, all transformed into their

wolf shapes, stepped out from the shadows of the shrubs, directly

behind their leader.

Male voices appeared in Blasius’s head.

“That’s him.”

“The leader is here!”

“Could he be a prisoner?”

“We could win this battle if we choose.”

Blasius blinked. He had not heard the voices of so many other

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werewolves inside of his mind since …

“What do you want?” James said, stepping forward. When the  wolves continued to growl at him, baring their teeth, he continued on,  clenching his neck and fists at the challenge that he could not yet  accept. “If we have stumbled onto your territory, then we apologize.  Hunters have taken the omegas and pups from another pack, and we  go to save them before any more of them can be skinned. If you wish  to fight, I will come back and do so, but we must save the others  first.”

That did get the attention of some of the wolves. Many of their heads cocked to the side as they listened to James’s words.

Then it dawned on Blasius. These were the wild werewolves that

Deacon had transformed. From what Blasius knew of that story, some had  been forcefully changed, while others had wanted the infection and the power it would give them.

This was not nearly the number of wild werewolves that Blasius had heard had been transformed. Either the others were dead,

captured by hunters, or had gone their separate ways.

This small group, however, was together, and they were looking  for their leading alpha.

He knew that they wanted him as their eyes darted between  Blasius and James. They were trying to decide whether or not to  release the pack without any sort of struggle.

“Does he speak the truth?”

“We need our leader!”

“We should allow them to pass.”

“Yes! And then we will follow them so he will take us with him.”

Blasius made the decision for them.

He marched to the front of the line where the wolves stood, and he

barked at them. “Get the bloody hell out of our way, you idiot  mongrels! Did you not hear a word he said? We go to rescue pups  from a skinning!”

The wolves whined, their heads bending under the verbal assault.

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Some tails bent between legs, and that was when Blasius knew that not every member in this small pack was an alpha. Were any of them alphas? Or had they all been faking it in order to survive?

Out in the wild, even omegas had to become hunters if they wanted to eat.

One of the wolves shifted into a man. Despite the darker color of his wolf, his hair was blond, and his eyes were such a glowing shade of hazel that for a moment, Blasius thought they were still the eyes of the wolf.

His eyes held sorrow for the way they held up the search party, but he still approached Blasius.

Then he got to his knees before him, bending his head to the side just enough to expose his neck. “Deacon, we’re lost without you.  Please, sometimes we can’t control ourselves. Most of the alphas have left or were killed and now it’s just me and Cole and we don’t know what to do anymore.”

“I am not Deacon,” Blasius said, stunning the wild werewolves.

It would seem, from the way the pack of alphas from James’s and  Phillip’s pack stared at him, that he had a captivated audience all around.

“But …but,” the frightened alpha on his knees sputtered. “You

have to be. You are! I can tell.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Phillip said, marching on ahead.  “I’m going without you. Fix your personal problems later!”

A good idea if there  ever was one.

Oddly enough, the man at Blasius’s feet turned his stare to Phillip  after he heard the other man’s voice. His bright eyes went wide, and  he hardly dared to blink or look away from the angry alpha.

Blasius reached down and helped the man to his feet. “I’m sorry  for what Deacon did to you, but I am not him, even if I did steal his  body.”

The werewolves stiffened.

“But you are more than free to come with us and help if that is

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your wish.”

“We need our leader,” the man said stubbornly, his back

becoming stiff and straight.

“Then you shall have one, but I take my orders from him,” Blasius  pointed at James, who watched the exchange curiously. The Blasius  pointed his finger back at the alpha’s nose, projecting to the man his  sincerity with his hard voice. “You shall obey him, too.”

“I … yes, anything.” The alpha looked to James. “Anything you  want. My name is Trevor, and we’ll all do whatever you want if  you’ll help us.”

Blasius wondered what these poor souls had gone through to so  quickly agree to following another alpha from a pack that was not  their own. Clearly they were a least partially wild, otherwise the man  wouldn’t be speaking with such uncertainty in his voice.

He would think on that later. James accepted their help and  offered them all a task, and they moved on out.

“You’re close to their camp,” Trevor said, walking as closely to  Blasius as he could, though he was still shooting glances at Phillip.

Blasius looked down at the smaller man and noted the light blush  on the boy’s face as they walked closely. He was perhaps in his early  or middle twenties. Phillip was a decent sort of fellow to look at but  he was mated, and his mate was missing. Blasius would have to set  the boy straight on this as soon as he was able. Most mated males did  not always  appreciate attention received from another.

“Have you seen them?” James asked. “The hunters, I mean?”

Trevor looked away from Phillip and shook his head, that  multicolored blond hair swirling about his shoulders. “No, but we  scented the blood and heard the screams, so we ran. There are only  three alphas out of the lot of us. We never would’ve won a challenge  against a group of hunters.”

James nodded. “Understandable, but now I want you to take us to  where you heard those screams.”

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* * * *

Ryan tapped his  pencil on the table as he listened to the police scanner then marked on the map with it the spot where the cruiser announced he was.

So far, from the updates Isaac had been sending him, none were going near where James’s pack and those other alphas were traveling.

That was a good thing, he told himself. But then the pack had apparently come across another dead, skinless wolf.

That was not a good thing.

It made him angry, that he had to stay here and couldn’t join in with the others, which was stupid because he’d done this sort of work before. Surveillance, paperwork, being at the desk. None of it was very stimulating, but he’d done it before and still been glad for it, knowing that it led to something bigger.

Right now, he couldn’t explain the itch to get out there and participate in ways that didn’t involve sitting here listening to the

scanner.

“Why the scowl on your face?”

Ryan jumped at the voice of Old Maggie, the pack’s wise woman.  He quickly turned down the volume on the scanner as she entered the  office where Ryan was working.

He was in James’s house and sitting at the man’s desk. Ryan had  been told by the other members of the pack that their wise woman  also lived in this house, so he should’ve known she’d be coming to  pay him a visit.

Ryan couldn’t recall if he’d ever seen her before while he’d been  spending the first two weeks of his time at this pack in that cage,  almost insane with anger as well as fighting off his wolf from trying  to rip its way out of his body. Maybe she’d come to see him then and he couldn’t remember it.

Having her look at him right now, as though she were studying

him, he really hoped that it wasn’t the case.

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Ryan cleared his throat. “Was just thinking, ma’am,” he said. He wasn’t sure how he should be addressing her. She was clearly respected by the other members of the pack, as well as their leader, yet she wasn’t in charge. Not really. Should he stand up from his seat for her as she came into the office?

He was halfway up when she waved him back down impatiently and then took one of the chairs in front of James’s desk and arranged it so that she was sitting on the same side of the desk as he was, facing him.

She did all that quickly as well, considering the large hump in her back and the cane she carried. It made Ryan think that the cane might just be for show.