Taken By The Alpha (Timber Valley Pack) (9 page)

              The cheater and the official had both been put to death. Now an entire five person panel did the testing. There would be no magic, no steroids, no drugs, no way that Roman could cheat.

              “I thought I saw him moving a little stiffly a while back,” Katrina ventured. By telling Maddox that, she was stepping so far over into pack treason territory that there was no going back.

              “It had occurred to me that he might have some kind of injury, and he was giving it time to heal completely.”  Maddox didn’t look at all concerned.  “Although his healer really should be able to take care of most injuries. Anyway, it won’t help.”

              She sighed. She dreaded the Challenge and desperately wanted it to be over with, at the same time. 

              “Listen, if you want…and this is not what I want at all, but I’m telling you that I’d understand…if you want to move back to your room and wait until after the fight, I’d understand.” Maddox’s voice was pained as he said it, and he tensed, waiting for her answer.

              Katrina considered it. If she had any common sense that’s what she’d do. Then again, if she had any common sense, she would have resisted her overwhelming, burning attraction for Maddox. What kind of repercussions would there be for her if Maddox lost?

              She sighed and considered it.  To be away from Maddox…to wake up to an empty bed…

              “I’ll stay with you,” she said, and she felt the tension flow out of Maddox’s body.

              He bent down and swept her in his arms and kissed her passionately, a kiss that was hot and hungry, his tongue probing deeply.  She whimpered into his mouth and melted up against him. Her heart thudded in her chest, and her knees went weak and wobbly.

              When he finally released her, he looked down at her with a wide, satisfied grin.  “In case there was anyone on the entire property who didn’t know, I’m pretty sure they’re all clear now. And if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to brush up on my ass kicking skills, so I’m off to the training center. I pity that poor punching bag.”

              Katrina headed back inside to take a shower, and as she walked down the hall, she passed Carver.

              “Hey, I saw your cousin Virginia the other day,” he said.

              Katrina raised an eyebrow. “Really? How did that go?”

              “Violently.” Carter had a half baffled, half amused look on his face. “She’s got some quick reflexes, that girl.”

              Katrina through back her head and laughed. That sounded about right for Virginia, who was probably thoroughly cheesed off about Katrina’s abduction.

              “Serves you right. Where did you meet her?” she asked. Katrina didn’t see Virginia that often, since she lived two hours away.

              “She came to town to inquire after your welfare, shall we say. She must give her boyfriend absolute hell.”

              “She doesn’t have one,” Katrina said as she headed off to her room, and she was already getting ready for her shower when she suddenly realized that Carter had said that because he was fishing to find out if Virginia was single.

              Later that day, Teresa approached her in the kitchen at the rec center, as she rolled out pie dough for homemade apple pies they’d be making later.  “I hate to say I told you so, but no I don’t,” Teresa said, smiling. “Has he asked you yet?”

              “Who asked me what?”

              Teresa glanced around and lowered her voice. “You know. Maddox. To marry him. To be his mate.”

              “Oh, good God, no.” Katrina actually found herself blushing as she rolled the dough out. “It’s hardly the time for that. I mean…well, death challenge, and all that fun stuff coming up.”

              “Oh, well, after he wins, I’m sure he’ll ask you,” Teresa said confidently. Katrina could only pray that Teresa was right – about winning, at least. And, if she was being honest with herself, about the rest of it too.

              The longer she’d come to stay with Maddox, the more she’d realized that she’d grown up with a false image of him and his pack.  Most of his pack were decent, just like most of her pack was decent.  Maddox was known as a strong Alpha and a harsh disciplinarian, but she’d never seen him behave like the brutal, abusive bully that her parents had described. 

              Violet wandered by, holding a rolling pin and looking confused. “What am I supposed to be doing, again?” she asked Katrina.

              “You came to help me roll some dough, remember?” Katrina moved out of the way for her.

              “Oh, yes. Now I remember. We’re making pie for your baby shower. What are you and Maddox going to name her?” Violet settled in next to her and dumped some flour on her rolling pin.

              “Oh, uh…still thinking of names,” Katrina said, blushing again. Violet sure was eager to have her start pumping out those cubs.

              “I don’t remember your wedding at all,” Violet confided in her. “I must have been thoroughly sauced. Shame on me.” She let out a demure titter, hiding it behind her hand.

              “See, Miss Violet called it from the beginning,” Teresa said, winking at her. “She knew Maddox was sweet on you. Speaking of Maddox…” Teresa looked through the big picture window. Maddox was striding towards the kitchen, and he didn’t look happy.

              “What?” Katrina said as soon as he walked in the door. “What’s happened?”

              “Heather’s father. Hit a tree while drunk, last night. Didn’t survive.”

              There were exclamations of dismay throughout the room.

“Oh.” Katrina went pale. She felt mingled pity and fury for Heather’s father. Of course he was heartbroken.  She got that. Now that she’d started to have real feelings for Maddox, she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose a mate – but how could he abandon a perfect little girl like Heather?

              “Let’s talk about this outside,” he said. Katrina followed him outdoors.

              “Heather’s asking for you,” he said. They’d still kept Heather with a family on the far end of the pack property, and Katrina hadn’t seen her again. 

              “What should I do?” She blinked back tears. “This sucks. It’s horrible. I’m furious at him, no matter how sad I am for him. Damn it, I want to punch someone.”

              “I was going to wait to ask you this, but…” he took a deep breath and grabbed her hand. “I need to know if you’re going to stay here permanently.”

              Her heart leaped in her chest. “You’re asking me…”

              “I want you to stay here. Everyone wants you to stay here. I want you with me. In my room. Our room. Well, we’d move in to our own house, of course. Damn it, I’m not good at this.”

              Katrina managed a shaky laugh. “No, you’re not.”

              “What I’m doing is proposing. Not just because of Heather. Because I want you by my side for the rest of my life, and I want to have lots of beautiful cubs with you.”

              “We better hope they take after their mother than, huh?”

              “Hey.” Maddox pretended to look injured. “I am a very handsome man. My mother told me so.”

              “She wore glasses, right?” Katrina threw her arms around him. “Yes. I accept. If you come up with a more romantic proposal, after the Death Match, the answer will be – odds are pretty good, if I were a betting person – I’d place all my money on yes.”

              His grin was so huge it looked as if his face was going to split in two. “I’d be jumping up and down with joy and celebrating, if we didn’t have to go talk to Heather right now.”

              It was a long, tear-filled day, and Heather fell asleep in Katrina’s arms. They moved her to the main house, along with Caroline, who was her aunt on her mother’s side, and did their best to keep her busy during the days that followed.

              Katrina strolled through the woods, struggling to keep the nagging worry inside her at bay.  Two more days. Then this would finally be over.

              She kept telling herself that as long as it was a fair fight, Maddox was sure to win. The problem was, she knew that her stepfather didn’t fight fair.

              Despite the fact that she and Maddox were together, she still had security trailing after her – partly because of the attack on her from earlier that month.  She didn’t bother to object; it wouldn’t have changed Maddox’s mind, and she understood that he had to make sure that she stayed on the property.  Losing a hostage would mean losing respect and appearing weak.

              “I need to find some more daisies for Heather’s hair, and then we can go back,” she told Michael.

              “Suit yourself.” He shrugged. “Nice day. I’m in no hurry.” 

              She spotted a clump of daisies, knelt down to pick them, and as she did, she scented Lula in the area.

              Whatever.  She and Lula couldn’t avoid each other forever now that she was going to be living here.

              She grabbed the daisies. As she brushed ants off them, she called out to Michael “Hey, I’m ready to head back.”

              Her only answer was a thud on the ground, the sound of a body falling.

              She shot to her feet. Lula was standing five feet away, holding a tranq gun.  Michael lay sprawled out on the ground, unconscious.

              “You crazy bitch!” Katrina hurried towards him. “If you killed him-”

              “He’s fine. Tranquilizer.” Lula usually looked pretty intense, but she really had the crazy eyes today.  “Let’s get you out of here. We’re going to shift and run for it, I have a car parked on one of our side roads, and you can duck down under some blankets I’ve got there so we can get off the property, but we’ve got to hurry.”

              Going anywhere with Lula, especially when she was holding a gun, seemed like a very bad idea. “Why would you help me?” she asked suspiciously.

              “Because as soon as you’re gone, I can reclaim my Alpha for good.” Lula’s eyes gleamed with a crazy light. “He’ll think he’s broken-hearted, and I’ll be there to comfort him.”

              The thought of Lula with Maddox made her so angry that she had to fight to keep her wolf down.

              “How do I know you won’t try to kill me?” she demanded.

              Lula’s face fell.  “If I did, Maddox would find out who killed you, and he’d never forgive me. Otherwise, believe me, I would.”

              “You put cyanide in those tranqs before. You would have killed your own pack mates.”

              Lula sneered. “No, you would have, and Maddox would have hated you for it.”

              Katrina was horrified. She couldn’t believe how far Lula was willing to go to try to trap a man who clearly wasn’t interested in her.

              Maddox needed to know how crazy, and dangerous, Lula was. And Heather needed her there.  She couldn’t handle another abandonment. And…Katrina couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Maddox.

              “Let’s go,” Lula snapped, gesturing impatiently with her gun. “Unless you want to be known as a traitor to your own pack.”

              “In two days that won’t be an issue. And no. I’m not going.”

              She turned to run back to the compound, and felt a sharp sting between her shoulder blades.

              “Fine. We’ll do it the hard way.” Those were the last words she heard before the world faded away from her.

              She woke up inside a car trunk, bumping down the road. It was dark and stuffy and her head hurt.

              How the hell did Lula think that she could get away with this? She wondered furiously. And what was she even planning? She could hardly drive up to the Mordhaus Pack’s front door and deliver her. Or would she? Lula might be that crazy.

              She fumbled around the inside of the car.  The cable release for the car trunk latch should be there somewhere. Her father had taught her that trick. Her mother had hated how her father taught her self defense and lock picking and all those other skills that were horrifyingly unladylike. Her father had insisted that an Alpha’s daughter always needed to be able take care of herself.

              She kept fumbling until she found the cable, yanked it, and the trunk popped open. She quickly shifted, and leaped out of the car.  She hit the asphalt with a painful thud, rolling over several times before scrambling to her feet.  She could feel her sides and shoulder aching, but she shook it off.

              She heard the car screech to a stop, looked up ahead…and to her shock, saw Teresa climbing out of the car.

              Lula and Teresa, working together? Teresa had been pushing her to get together with Maddox from the beginning, and now she was kidnapping her?

              She didn’t have time to try to figure it out. She just needed to get back to the Killingworth grounds, and warn Maddox. He’d sort it all out.

              She shot into the woods. She doubted Teresa would try to follow her; Katrina could take her out.

              As she ran, she realized she was near the gophers’ territory. This was her chance. If she found one of the gophers, she could ask them what the hell was going on with her stepfather, and then she could bring that information back to Maddox as well.

              She quickly came up to a giant barbed wire fence, and halted, surprised. It looked as if it ran on and on. She’d never seen that fence there before. Her stepfather’s doing, she was sure.

              Far off in the distance, she could see a wolf pacing by the barbed wire. He was a wolf who’d come over with her stepfather when he’d taken over her pack. Her stepfather’s men were guarding the property – from what? It wasn’t even his property.

              Suddenly, deep inside her, she started to feel panic and fear swelling up – somebody, no, lots of people, were terrified and trapped. For her to sense the emotions, it had to be people who she’d met before – she was betting on the gophers.

              She’d be taking a risk staying here, but she couldn’t run away from the fear. She needed to help. Needed to find the people. The need welled up inside her, nearly choking her.

              She quickly began pawing at the ground, and within a few minutes had made enough of a hole to wriggle under it.

              She raced away from the wolf who was patrolling, and realized she was running away from the source of the fear and panic.  She forced herself to keep going; she’d find a way to circle back around.  She couldn’t let him spot her.

              She was heading towards the gopher’s home area, where most of their houses were gathered around a common area similar to a pack’s. Somebody was hurrying through the woods – Stacey!

              She dashed over, quickly shifted and called out to her. Stacey swung around and started back, looking terrified.

“You’ve got to get out of here! He’ll kill them!” she pleaded, her head swiveling around as she frantically scanned the forest.

              “Kill who? What are you talking about?” Katrina demanded.

              “Our families.” Her friend was thin and pale and had dark circles under her eyes.

              “Stacey.  Please. I know everyone seems to think that I know what Roman’s up to, but I swear on my late father’s honor that I do not.  Roman keeps us all far away from here, miles away from here, and he said it’s because of all the construction.”

              Stacey spoke in lowered tones, still looking around her as if expecting Roman to pop out from behind a tree.

              “He’d kill me himself if he knew I was talking to you.”

              “There aren’t any of his men near us right now. I’d scent them.”

              Stacey briefly met her gaze, chewing her lip. “A year ago, he took over our property.  He sells our timber off our land. He’s got us working around the clock for him, for nothing. He’s holding our families, the older gophers and the young ones who can’t work hard enough, prisoner. He moves them to different hiding spots every few days.”

              “But I saw you in town,” Katrina protested.

              “He sends some of us in from time to time so nobody will know anything’s wrong, but he always has one of his men with us.” Her eyes glittered with tears. “It feels like it will never end. It feels like we’ll die like this. I haven’t seen my parents in weeks, I don’t know if they’re alive.”

              Katrina thought she might vomit.  This was horrifying, and it had happened on her property, right under her nose.

              “Dear God, I am so sorry.  I swear to you I didn’t know. I would never have stood for this.”

              “I believe you.” Stacey’s voice was dull and hopeless.

              “I can sense where your families are, because I picked up on their feelings,” she said. “That’s why Roman wouldn’t let me anywhere near here – I would have sensed it. They’re about a quarter of a mile northwest of here.” She pointed. “We can get Maddox and he will make sure they’re rescued. Then we can report my stepfather to the Council.”

              She felt relief wash over her. If her stepfather were in trouble with the council, maybe the Death Challenge wouldn’t need to happen.

              “You really think so?” Stacey asked anxiously.

              “I know so. I’ve been staying with him almost a month now. I know what he’s like, he’d never put up with this if he knew. Do you have a phone with you? We can call him right now.”

              Stacey shook her head. “None of us are allowed phones here. Your stepfather’s afraid we’ll call and alert somebody.” She leaned in furtively. “We managed to stash a few phones. I can get to one, but it might be a little later today. I have to report back to the construction site. They just sent me to deliver a message to a construction foreman, and I’ve already taken too long.”

              Katrina froze, tipped her head back, and sniffed at the air. “Wolf. I smell wolf. One of my stepfather’s nephews. I’ve got to go before I’m spotted. Tell Maddox that I told you Teresa and Lula are traitors and they’re collaborating.” She recited Maddox’s number to Stacey and made her recite it back three times, and then she shifted and ran.

              She found the same spot that she’d dug under earlier and wriggled back through. Dirt clumped in her fur, and she shook it off as she ran.

When she reached the main road, she hesitated as she saw a car heading towards her. She scented…yes. It was Reese, from her pack. Distant cousin on her father’s side.

              She stepped out into the road and waved frantically at him. She needed to call her mother, to tell her what was happening and alert her to get off the property.  She didn’t want her mother there when the Elders sent in the Wardens; her mother might end up getting arrested right along with him, and who knows how long she’d be in jail before everything was straightened out.

              She ran out into the road and waved at him. He pulled over quickly.  “Katrina, what are you doing here? You escaped! Jeez, we thought you’d never get out of there. Hold on a minute.” He climbed out, shed his denim jacket, and handed it to her.  She quickly put it on; she wasn’t cold, but there was no need to stand around naked. Fortunately, he was a big guy; the jacket went down mid-thigh.

              He started to talk, but she held up her hand.

              “Reese, I need to borrow your cell phone. Actually I need to keep it for now because I need to make a few phone calls,” she said. “Just, uh, head on back to the pack property and I’ll get it to you later.”

              “But I can give you a ride.” He looked confused as he dug in his pocket, pulled out his phone and handed it to her. “Aren’t you coming with me? The Killingworth Pack might find you out here.”

              She hesitated for a minute. Could she trust him? She truly didn’t know. Who in her pack knew about the gophers, and whatever else Roman had been up to? Right now, she couldn’t risk it.

              “I need you to go,” she said. “I am going to have someone pick me up. I’ll be fine.”

              “Uh…Roman’s probably going to be pretty pissed if I just leave you here.” Reese looked worried.

              “Tell him you asked me to go with you and I refused. He knows how stubborn I am.”

              “All right…I guess.” With a worried glance back at her, he climbed in the truck and drove off.

              She quickly dialed her mother.

              “Mother, just listen,” she said the moment her mother answered. “Is Roman with you? I need to talk to you alone.”

              “No. He’s not here. Where are you?”

              Katrina headed to the other side of the road and into the woods as she talked, back in the direction of the Killingworth pack.  She had a good seven or eight miles to go from here, and she didn’t want to risk any of the Mordhaus pack driving by right now