Alpha Dragon: Alpha Bites Book 3 Page 15

  Katie’s heart raced. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  She heard the sudden racing of Derek’s heart. “Don’t tell Garret.”

  It was already too late for that. Jax was right outside listening to this and he would definitely tell Garret.

  “I promise nothing bad will happen to you for this. Okay? But you need to work with me here. Work with me and I’ll help you.”

  Derek shook his head. “I wasn’t even supposed to be in on the fight. He’ll be so mad at me.”

  “You mean Dennis?”

  Derek nodded.

  Interesting. Dennis had to have noticed Derek was gone. Why hadn’t he attacked the pack to get him back? Because he had his hands full keeping control?

  “Remember that I’m not guaranteeing you anything, but what I will promise you is a fair hearing. More than likely, if the alpha agrees to this, you still won’t be walking around here free, but I will do everything I can to get you a spot in the pack. Your father would want that.”

  Derek cringed. “What’s the point of talking then? If you can’t promise that I’ll even live, then why should I tell you anything?”

  “To give you a chance. If Garret’s going to keep you in the house, or anywhere else for that matter, he is going to watch you very closely. You’re still a stranger to this pack, the son of his biggest enemy, and you did try to attack us.”

  “I was defending myself.”

  He clearly didn’t know the difference between self-defense and just flat out picking a fight.

  “And your alpha kidnapped his little sister.”

  He had the decency to look away, as though he was ashamed. Maybe he was. “Weren’t gonna hurt her. We just wanted Garret to give Dennis what was his due.”

  “Tell me where Dennis is, and I will do everything I can to convince Garret to give you a better life. You said Dennis was on his way out anyway, right? So he won’t be able to protect you for much longer, and if you cooperate, Garret might also take it easy on him.”

  It was a shitty thing to promise the kid, something Katie definitely had no control over, but she was getting desperate.

  There was no way in hell Garret was going to just let Dennis off the hook, and the chances weren’t so great that Derek would have a place in this pack, but if Katie could convince Garret to take it easy on the both of them, then maybe it would be good enough. It might even help this young man reform.

  She was going to have to get Miranda to help her out on this. If Miranda buttered up her mate first, this might work out.

  Derek seemed to think about it. He kept Katie on the edge of her seat for a long while before he finally responded.

  “All right. You get me in on this pack, and no bullshit where Garret tries to hurt me or kill me, and I’ll tell him where Dennis is, after he’s promised not to kill him.”

  “That’s not how this works. Tell me what you know first.”

  “No fucking way.”

  “Okay.” Katie clenched her hands on her lap. “And if Anna is hurt or killed because we were busy negotiating with you, Garret’s not going to let you into the pack. He’s going to outright kill you. You could have the biggest bargaining chip in the world and it won’t matter. You will die and so will your father. Understand?”

  Derek said nothing. He stared hard at Katie, a low growl rumbling up from his throat and chest.

  Katie wouldn’t budge. She couldn’t, and she needed to make sure this man knew why. “If I go upstairs to Garret right now with a maybe, with just a possibility that you might tell him where his sister is, it’s going to infuriate him all the more, and I think you already know what happens when you piss off an alpha.”

  He nodded as he made a snorting sound. “Right. Wouldn’t want him to break a nail.”

  “It’s more likely he’ll break something of yours,” Katie countered. “I can already see he’s been down here a couple of times to see you. Tell me where they’re hiding, I will tell Garret, and then you will still have some leverage. You will have saved the life of an alpha’s baby sister, and he will owe you big time for that. He’ll be more willing to help you out, to let you into the pack, to teach you how to live as a proper wolf, really live and not just be an outcast, because he will feel he has to do it out of a sense of duty. If I go upstairs with nothing, just a vague promise, well, he might just fly into a rage and come down here to beat the hell out of you. Again.”

  The man’s throat worked in a hard swallow, but it was when he touched his swollen and bruised face that Katie knew she had him right where she wanted him, and it was a heady feeling to have.

  She had him. He was done.

  “Tell the alpha that I’ll talk.”

  Katie got up from her stool. “I’ll be right back.”

  She walked to the door, trying not to appear as if she was hurrying, though she didn’t think she was doing much of a good job on.

  Jax’s eyes were wide and dark when she saw him. It was as if he was just as much in shock as the man Katie had been speaking with.

  “Did you hear any of that?”

  He nodded, his body tense, as if he was getting ready to run. Or to change into his dragon shape. Hearing all that must have been as much of an adrenaline rush for him as it had been for her. “Heard all of it. Holy shit, you’re amazing.”

  Katie beamed, letting herself soak in the praise, as well as the pride in Jax’s eyes when he looked at her.

  “I am, aren’t I?”

  He nodded. “Hell yeah. Let’s go.”

  Chapter 17

  “There’s no way this is going to work.”

  “It will definitely work if you keep your mouth shut and don’t get in your own way.”

  Anna glared at Dennis, showing him her teeth. She would have growled, but she didn’t want to make any noise that would draw attention to them.

  “What? What’s that look for?”

  “For you being an enormous dick.”

  Dennis rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. “Christ, whatever, fine. Give me shit for it later. Right now, I need to make sure you get out of here alive.”

  Anna nodded. “You’re lucky you’re saving me. It’s the only reason why I would forgive you for being a douche.”

  Dennis actually smiled at her. “So, me saving you also cancels out how I kidnapped you?”

  Anna swatted him on the arm. “Shut up.”

  He seemed to like playing around with her. That was a better, more welcome change compared to earlier when he’d seemed so hollow and depressed. He’d honestly looked like the sort of person who was getting ready to slit his wrists.

  Anna still hated him—sort of—but she didn’t want Dennis offing himself. She didn’t want him to die.

  Huh, strange. There was definitely a time when she wouldn’t have cared one way or the other. Hell, she would have hoped for Dennis to get hit by the nearest bus on the highway and put everyone out of their misery. It would have made Anna’s childhood a lot easier. Garret wouldn’t constantly be walking around with a metal rod up his ass, and her father might still be alive.

  Now it was almost as if she was flirting with him, and Anna absolutely had to shake that thought out of her head.

  No fucking way.

  “Tell me you remember the plan?” Dennis took her by the wrist, gripping it tightly as he stared into her eyes, as if that was supposed to impose on her how serious this was.

  She already knew how serious it was and didn’t need a hard stare to drive it home.

  “I remember.”

  “Not risking it. Repeat it to me so I know I won’t have to worry about you.”

  Anna struggled to keep from rolling her eyes. She was so antsy to get moving that she shivered where she stood. She needed this to happen, and every small delay was starting to get to her. She lifted her hands for him to see. “I pretend these are locked,” she said, referring, of course, to the silver handcuffs he’d put on her. “And you’re going to pretend to be a gross perv and take me out of this place.”


  “And?”

  He was really serious. Anna supposed that was a good thing. “When they try to stop us, I’ll take off the handcuffs and make a run for it.” She had the key in her hand, but even if she didn’t, the cuffs were loose enough that she could probably slip her wrists through them. She just had to make sure no one else noticed how loose they were.

  “And you remember which direction to run in?”

  “Towards the long gate, but keep in the trees and follow that path until I hit the road. Can we just do this already?”

  Now that freedom was so close, Anna was suddenly overcome with the seriousness of her situation. Not that she hadn’t known it was serious already, but this was different. Anna could have been raped and killed by the people who were here. Dennis had lost virtually all control of his pack and the only reason he still had the title of alpha at all was most likely because none of the betas wanted to start a fight with him to take him out until the odds were monumentally in their favor. It would be the entire pack against Dennis. They would probably kill him to take the last of his control and give it to Laurence, and if that happened, Anna was dead.

  She really wanted to see her big brother in that moment. Anna had never felt more like a little girl than she did right then, and she was forced to squash down that feeling, put it away, lock the key, and put on her big girl shorts because this was about to get even more real than it had already been a minute ago.

  “We won’t have much time.” Dennis lifted his hand and checked his watch. “Laurence will be back from the hunt in about an hour, but there’s a better chance we’ll still be stopped and questioned.” Dennis’ mouth twisted, as if the thought of being scrutinized by the people he used to lead vastly annoyed him.

  Anna watched him carefully, searching for a sign that they were still going to be all right, that everything wasn’t as bad as all that. “If they try to fight you or stop you, you’re still stronger than the lot of them, right?”

  Dennis scratched his chin. “Those motherfuckers better not try to stop us.”

  Yeah, clearly it galled him to know he no longer had any form of control. He was entirely at the mercy of the whims of the betas outside. He was stronger than betas, but they still outnumbered him.

  Dennis was relying on the pack’s habit of letting him have his way to get them through. Anna hoped it worked, but she was still aware of how it might not.

  “What if they won’t let you take me outside? This plan isn’t too solid. Shouldn’t we have a backup?”

  She’d almost told Dennis how Garret always made sure to have a backup plan, but luckily, she caught herself before that could seep out.

  “There is no backup. This is it. Get your claws and teeth out the second those cuffs are off you in case you need to defend yourself.”

  Anna felt cold all over. She shivered. “Really? That’s your advice?”

  Her complaint made sense. It wasn’t a solid plan in the least. There was literally no reason to take her outside and definitely no reason for the betas to believe Dennis wasn’t acting shady. Dennis’ plan to tell the guys out there that he just wanted to have his way with Anna seemed far-fetched even to her. What if they wanted to join him? What if they saw through his bullshit and stropped them from leaving? Not to mention the fact that Anna was a young omega surrounded by people who were faster and stronger than she was. If she couldn’t outrun them, then she was still going to be royally effed in the A.

  “Stop that. You’re hyperventilating.” Dennis’ hands were hard on her shoulders. He gripped her tight enough that it hurt. “Look at me. This will work. The betas will figure us out anyway, but we’ll be outside before we get questioned. Just keep running home, don’t look back, and I’ll buy you the time you need to get to the highway, understand?”

  Anna nodded, and despite how utterly fucked up all this was, she couldn’t help but feel grateful to Dennis in this moment.

  He was risking everything he had left in this pack, the trust and loyalty he still had as a member of the pack, even if he was no longer their leader. That was a big thing. Packs looked out for each other, and a betrayal the likes of which Dennis was planning was beyond huge.

  Anna felt as if she should thank him, but as she opened her mouth, nothing but air came out. She couldn’t speak. The words wouldn’t come.

  Maybe it made sense. Why should she thank the man who was responsible for her being here in the first place?

  But then he said something that really sucker-punched her. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Trust me on that. I’ll get you home.”

  It was the “I won’t let anything happen to you” part that really caught her off guard. Not just the words, but the conviction he said them with.

  “Come on. We have to go.”

  Of course there was no time to dwell on what he’d said, or what he could have meant, and Anna was brought back into the present, and reminded that she still had a shit ton to fear if this didn’t work.

  Dennis opened the door, and this time, instead of trying to escape, she walked out with him.

  She should have known they wouldn’t make it far.

  Garret’s claws dug deep into the earth as he launched himself through the trees and bushes. He ignored it when the branches seemed to reach out and slap at his face, scratching sometimes, pulling at his fur at others.

  He didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop.

  The abandoned meat plant. Why did he never think of that? He’d forgotten the thing had ever been there at all. It had been so many years since it had shut down. It hadn’t even been on the maps he’d looked at online.

  He supposed that, in his haste, in his terror for what horrors his baby sister was going through at the hands of those savages, he’d allowed himself to make a stupid mistake. A mistake that could have been fatal.

  Sloppy. Sloppy and stupid. If anything happened to her… If Dennis touched her, if he put his filthy, disgusting hands on her, it would be entirely his fault.

  He hadn’t looked hard enough, and she had only been a couple of hours away by running. With a drive down the highway before running the rest of the way on the closed off roads, it was just a little less than thirty minutes.

  Good thing he and the others hadn’t been pulled over for speeding so heavily down the highway. Garret absolutely didn’t have the patience to deal with anyone who got in his way, and his wolf was just itching for a fight…

  Dane barked and growled his bear noises from behind. Any normal person who saw him in the shape he was in now might think he looked more like a monster from a nightmare than an actual bear, but even in this secondary shape, he was having trouble keeping up with Garret. So was Jax, who ran behind him on his right-hand side.

  Jax would be a little farther back from Dane. He was a dragon, but he wouldn’t be as fast as Garret or Dane, not even in his full dragon form. It might even slow him down because of the size.

  Not that it mattered. Garret could be going up against an Olympic gold medalist who also happened to be a cheetah shifter and he would still outrun them. He was slowing down for nothing and no one.

  I’m coming, Anna. Just hang on a little longer. I’m almost there!

  He nearly howled when he spotted the old building in the distance. It became clearer when he made it through the trees and shrubs. The only reason he didn’t howl was because he didn’t want to give the alphas and betas who were in Dennis’ pack a head start, which didn’t make much sense because now he was out running in the open, away from the trees that would have covered him and across the flat field of weeds that used to be where the animals would have grazed.

  Garret growled. He got off all fours and started running on his hind legs, shifting just enough that he was now both wolf and man at the same time.

  Anna’s scent was here. He could smell her. She’d been brought here against her will. The kid in the basement hadn’t lied. Garret was going to murder all of them for this! He was going to rip them limb from limb, especially De
nnis! Maybe he’d even kill that kid just to piss Dennis off before he killed him, too. This ends today!

  Garret no longer heard the shouts behind him from Jax and Dane. He no longer saw anything other than that building, and the possibility of his sister in some room, cold, scared, and bloody.

  It didn’t matter how old she was now. She was still just a baby. She was still the little girl he’d held on his knee and read bedtime stories to when their father wasn’t around anymore to do it himself. The little girl he’d let eat ice cream until she’d thrown up after having her first major fever, and the little girl who’d held his hand so tightly when he took her to the dentist.

  In his head, Garret didn’t picture Anna as an adult, tied up and scared, he pictured her when she was three years old, crying because some of the other pups had changed into their wolf forms and had eaten one of her dolls. Her pigtails were a sloppy mess as he comforted her and tried to make it better, and the thought of anyone hurting her made his head swim.

  Garret barreled through the door, snapping the metal hinges and falling into the first room of the abandoned building.

  He didn’t shake off when he pushed himself to his feet. He just roared a noise so powerful that it made the walls around him shake as it echoed through the factory.

  When no one attacked him, Garret held his breath.

  He didn’t move. He couldn’t. Not when his ears twitched and he was too busy listening for what might be out there, waiting for Dennis’ pack to ambush him.

  Garret panted for breath. He listened hard, waiting through the thick silence, but there was nothing. No one shouted a command to attack, there were no sounds of breathing or even heartbeats. None that were close by, but a proper pack should be guarding the front entrance. Was this not the front entrance?

  “Garret!”

  Garret turned. Dane and Jax were standing just inside the ruined doorway. In fact, they were standing on the metal door that Garret had knocked over. Both were mostly human, but Jax was nearly covered in scales, his eyes bright like a snake’s. Dane was a giant fur ball.

  “You ran ahead without us,” Dane said, growling the words as he came to stand next to Dane. He looked around the wide, empty space, the metal walls. The damp air smelled of rust.