Stealing the Alpha’s Heart

“What the hell is going on?” Mahlan asked from the driver’s seat. I could hear the fear and anger in his voice just as well as I could my own in my answer.

“There’s an attack on Emma’s shop. Three witches.”

“What?”

The van lurched forward as Mahlan hit the gas, and I didn’t stop him. The vehicle could go far faster than we could for a greater distance. The best thing to do would be to push it to its limits, then all pile out when we hit the edge of the city to shift. While we couldn’t beat out a vehicle on the highway, we certainly could in city traffic. Sure, it would be difficult for five wolves to move incognito, but at the moment, I didn’t particularly care about stealth.

Screw our vows of secrecy, screw the council’s mandate that subterfuge came above all else. Emma and Lyssa were in trouble; that was all that mattered.

“The guards are with her. I could pick up them fighting over the phone,” I said, pushing down the panic, the urge to throw myself against the side of the van as if that would make us go faster.

“Did she say if anyone was hurt?” Jacobian asked, already beginning to pull his long, dark hair back from his face as if preparing for battle. Which, I supposed, he was. Sure, he wasn’t going to have a ponytail in wolf form, but I noticed it was a thing he did when he wanted to clear his head.

“She didn’t. Just that she had two humans there as well. Her new hires.”

Parker let out a whistle. “Wow, that’s one hell of a first day.”

“You’re telling me,” Kaleb agreed.

“Just get ready for a fight, everyone. Hopefully, by the time we arrive, they’ll have already subdued or killed the witches, but we should be prepared for anything.”

“Exactly.”

“Should…should we call the council about this?” Parker asked quietly from the back. “I know we shouldn’t bother them with petty grievances, but this seems to be escalating.”

I didn’t answer that, anger lancing through me as I remembered the conversation Mahlan and I had behind closed doors the previous night.

I wanted to inform them, figuring we could use all the help we could get and that we should also see if other packs in other countries were suffering similar attacks. But Mahlan was completely against it in a way I just didn’t understand. He said we needed to figure it out on our own, which sure, I could kind of get with, but also…we weren’t figuring it out on our own. And if that weren’t enough, I wanted to see why the council had been so lackadaisical in their response to what had happened with Lyssa’s family. What if there was something else going on, but I would never find that puzzle piece because Mahlan was stubbornly insisting that we needed to solo our enemies?

Infuriating. As his best friend, I’d disagreed with Mahlan plenty of times, but never so vehemently about such an important issue. And since I would most likely end up being his beta, his right-hand man, I wasn’t going to rat him out to the rest of our circle.

But I also wasn’t going to lie for him.

So instead of answering, I pressed my l!ps together and gave Mahlan the metaphorical floor.

“Not yet,” he answered simply. “It’s not the right time yet.”

I wanted to snap at him, asking what would be the right time and what exactly we were waiting for, but I wasn’t going to confront him like that in front of our entire inner circle. Once we got back and took care of the attack on Emma’s shop, he and I were going to have a long, long talk.

But first we had to get there. And that couldn’t happen soon enough.

I kept looking down at my phone while Mahlan pushed the pedal to the metal. I was honestly surprised that we didn’t have any cops on our tail by the time we pulled off on the last exit before the city.

“Wait, what’s happening?” Sam asked as we pulled down a side road that was popular with hunters.

“We’re shifting to get there faster,” I answered frankly. “City traffic and speed limits will slow us down way too much.”

“But what about me?”

Mahlan responded by throwing him the keys, with Sam barely caught. “Ride’s all yours.”

“What?! I haven’t driven a car in like…ever!”

“Best time to start is now.”

“That’s absolutely not true at all! The best time would have been at least a week ago!”

Mahlan shrugged and I gave the green witch a pat on the shoulder. “You’ll kill it.”

“I don’t want to kill anything while driving!”

“You’ll be fine.”

Normally, I would like to think that I would stick around longer to assure and comfort the young man, but normally, my mate wasn’t fighting for her life with three witches. I could feel her adrenaline and occasional pain spiking through our bond, making me crave battle. Or was it a craving to protect her? I supposed it didn’t matter, because either way, I needed to get to her as quickly as possible.

Sam looked like he was going to say something, but I already was half turned around and exploding out of my skin. Rapid transformation was always more draining than more cautious shifts, but I wasn’t taking another second that I didn’t have to. I was aiming for speed, and everything else came second.

Because what if that extra second was when a witch was able to get the drop on Emma? Or run her through with some cursed spell of theirs? Or drag her away? I knew that she had security with her, but even with ten other shifters, bad things could always happen.

At least I would likely feel if she was grievously wounded through our bond. Although it wasn’t anything like the psychic link most shifters shared in our animal forms, it did allow strong occurrences like that to travel through our connection. And while I was feeling a lot of things from her, none of them were remotely close to lethal injury.

She was getting hurt, however. I could feel it squeezing my heart. I should be there. I should be protecting her, not running at a full sprint to try to make it before the worst could happen.

But what was done was done. We needed to travel to Lyssa’s family to try to get all the info we could, and hopefully we’d found a couple of things that would help out once I could go through everything again and physically map it in connection to everything else.

The only thing we could do was run, and so we ran. And ran. And ran. We tried our best to stick to back alleys and places we wouldn’t be spotted, but I wasn’t willing to lose time by only sticking along abandoned routes. So yeah, maybe there would be a news story about a pack of wild, oversized wolves traveling through the city, but whatever.

We didn’t slow until we were nearly to Emma’s shop, and we only shifted back into our human form to cross the last street. We were all covered in sweat and rumpled, but that wasn’t anything a shower couldn’t fix. And if we were drawn into battle, we were going to end up a lot dirtier, I was sure.

Running across the street, I was disheartened to see that all the windows were shattered. Dammit. Emma had just finished setting up that half the shop. I knew how proud she was for her business and how hard she’d worked to make it viable in an increasingly difficult economy. It was bad enough that the witches were trying to hunt her down and hurt her pack, but why did they have to keep going after her baby, too?

I would do whatever she needed to get it cleaned up and fixed. It would be my third greatest priority after protecting her and figuring out the mystery that was plaguing our lives.

At least as we approached, I didn’t hear the sounds of battle. Or even of humans crying. No…the whole place was strangely still.

I burst through the front door with Mahlan right behind me. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the sheer chaos in the store was definitely it. The surprise was Emma sitting on the only intact chair in the shop, crying quietly while the security busied themselves with cleaning up so they weren’t just staring at Emma while she mourned.

“Emma?” I asked, crossing to her immediately. She moved much faster than I expected, leaping off the stool.

“Theo!” she cried, hugging me for all she was worth. Even without her inner wolf, Emma was quite a strong woman, making my ribs creak. But I appreciated the demi-pain and hugged her back. And maybe I subtly looked her over for wounds as well. I could smell what seemed to be a healing potion on her breath, which made me feel better that she had at least been treated, though I didn’t see Savvy anywhere. “You’re here!”

“Of course I am. But where’s Lyssa? And the Alma?”

“Savannah treated everyone, then went back home for her own safety,” Emma answered wearily. “As for Lyssa, she went home and wanted to call Ashlee to make sure she was okay.” Mahlan drew in a sharp breath behind me and Emma leaned to the side to give him an understanding look. “Don’t worry, she has her own security detail. Ricky made sure to call some reinforcement, including some of our guys on the police force.”

“Thank you,” Mahlan breathed. “Are you alright?”

Emma let out a soft chuckle. “I’m fine. You don’t have to stick around if you want to go to her. I’m sure she’d be relieved to see you.”

“Thanks again,” Mahlan said, stepping forward to k!ss the top of his sister’s head. I was glad we were in the pack where our alpha had healthy family relationships. Too many times, I’d seen packs torn apart by sibling rivalry or straight-up attrition. “We’ll talk tomorrow?”

“Of course.”

With a nod to me, Mahlan quickly hurried out. I didn’t blame him one iota, knowing I would do the same if Emma had gone home.

“The security feed is set up here, right?” Jacobian asked, stern face somehow even sterner. And people thought I was the icy one. Honestly, it was probably because I had a white wolf form and his was gray with umber streaks in his coat.

“Yeah, they finished it up yesterday,” Emma answered.

“I’m going to check that.”

Jacobian headed to the back while the rest of our circle spread out a bit, clearly not sure of what to do.

“Is Sam almost here?” Kaleb asked as he pulled a garbage bag out of the closest bin. “We should have him scan this place?”

“Oh, Sam!” Emma blurted, looking past me for the witch. “Where is he? You didn’t leave him in the backwaters, did you?”

“No, he’s driving our van here after we all bailed at the city limits. He should be here soon.”

Emma let out a breath as if he was the one who needed to be worried about and not her. Goodness, I just wanted to swaddle her in blankets, feed her blue-rare steak and venison, and rub her feet until she forgot about all the trauma the past weeks had brought.

But it couldn’t be that easy, could it? There were always details to wrap up and things to do to make sure everyone was safe and that no detail was lost in the rush of after-battle.

“Okay, that’s good.” She chewed her l!p for a moment. I desperately wanted to stop her with a k!ss, but I could sense that it wasn’t the time. “I have something to tell you. It’s not good.”

My mind went into a very sudden overdrive, thinking that somehow she had a missing limb under her clothes or had somehow been cursed in a way I couldn’t sense. But then she kept talking, saving me from giving myself a heart attack.

“We lost one of the guards,” she said, shame dripping from her every word. Once more. I wanted to embrace her, to shield her from all the evil in our situation, but I knew she cared far too much about our pack to ever accept that.

“I’m so sorry,” I murmured. “We’ll make sure his final arrangements—”

“No, he’s not dead. The witches took him.”

Oh. Well, that certainly wasn’t good. Understandable, but not good. “They had time to do that?”

“He was knocked unconscious earlier in the fight. We think they snagged his unconscious body on their way out.”

“How did they escape, by the way?”

“Some sort of teleportation spell. It was instantaneous. I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

My thoughts clouded at that. Violent, kidnapping witches who could teleport were not something that boded well for our pack. But it would explain why we had such issues tracking them and how they seemed to get in and out of places so quickly.

Emma’s expression brightened suddenly, making me feel whiplash from the conversation. “Wait, you’re all here! That means that there’s enough wolfpower to spare to try to find the missing guard!”

“I can help with that,” Parker said, Kaleb quickly hurrying to stand beside him. “I don’t think I’ll be of much use here.”

“Thank you,” I said. “And I’m going to escort Emma home. Ricky, if you want to delegate your men to go with Parker and Kaleb, I’ll take about half your men to Emma’s home. I also would like you to double the overnight shift that’s set to replace them.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll get right on that.”

“Emma, I’m going to go talk to Jacobian since he’s the one who’s gonna be here when Sam arrives, then we can go home. Is there anything you want to bring?”

“Uh…my laptop.”

“Alright, you go get that and we’ll meet back here.”

“Yeah, okay. I can do that.”

I was loath to leave her, but I knew I needed to sort some details out so I wouldn’t be on the phone the entire evening. I was dead-set on getting her home and pampering her however she needed.

“Hey,” I said once I reached the back of the store where Jacobian was, already scrutinizing the security feed screen with furrowed brows.Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

“I heard you. Yeah, I’ll make sure I’m here until Sam arrives and have him scan for magical signatures.”

“Thanks. Do you need me to send anything else your way?”

“Uh, yeah. I could use Brayden and Philip to watch my back while I concentrate, and maybe some food from Del Mergio’s.”

“Alright, I’ll get all that set up for you. Do you want us to stick around until those two can show up?”

“No, just leave a single guard. That should suffice to make sure no one gets the drop on me. This security system is good, so all the files are pretty lengthy to download and archive.”

“Understood. I’ll make the calls before we leave, however.”

Jacobian nodded and that seemed to be the end of the conversation, but he called my name right before I could exit. “Theo?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re gonna make an excellent beta.”

“Oh, uh, thanks.”

He dismissed me with a nod, like that was the most normal thing to say. Oh well, I would take a genuine compliment when it was given, especially if it was from someone who thought about his words as much as Jacobian. Especially since I didn’t feel like I was doing a particularly great job. Especially not with another guard being spirited away.

But I didn’t let myself worry about it too much, instead hurrying back into the devastated part of the store. While there wasn’t much structural damage, most of the racks and displays were utterly destroyed. I didn’t know if the stock on them was salvageable or not, but I imagined at least a little was most likely going straight to shrink.

Jeez, it sucked. I was glad that Emma was okay, and that technically, our casualties were low, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit devastated and angry when I looked at the havoc wrought on Emma’s shop. She worked so hard for it, and the witches repeatedly going for it seemed sort of needlessly cruel. Like they’d moved beyond being evil in the shadows to openly antagonizing her for daring to survive their first attempt.

“You ready?” I asked her, my body aching to hold her close. But if I did that now, we’d never get home and just end up standing in the mess of her ruined shop.

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

I held out my hand to her and she took it, those delicate fingers of hers intertwining with mine. It was an innocent enough gesture, but it still made my heart jump in my chest. It never ceased to amaze me how her powerful wolf form came from such a tiny casing compared to mine. My own hand was nearly double the size of hers.

Wordlessly, we headed out to the street. I didn’t exactly have a car considering I’d literally ran to her shop, but I’d called John to come pick us up. I knew he would likely already be on his way considering Mahlan had gone home ahead of us on foot. Or on paw, rather.

Sure enough, the older beta arrived about seven minutes later. As we slid into the car, Emma shifted and pulled her phone out. I noticed it was now cracked in several places and resolved to have that fixed immediately, too.

“Wow, how is it only six pm?” she murmured, looking so thoroughly exhausted. “It feels like…I dunno. Midnight or something.”

“Battle can do that to you,” I answered. I knew she was well-aware of that, but I felt like I should respond.

“Yeah, I’d say so.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it. It’s like my normal closing time.”

“It doesn’t feel like it to me, either.”

She nodded, still staring at her phone before shifting so that she was leaning against my side. She did it so nonchalantly, like it was the most natural thing to do, and I cautiously rested my arm over her shoulders.

But even if I didn’t react overtly, my heart soared at the contact. It meant so much to me that she trusted me to comfort her. That she would directly seek solace with my presence. Sure, our mating journey hadn’t started off great, but I couldn’t help but be hopeful about where it was going.

We were quiet the rest of the ride, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable sort of quiet. I did probe our bond occasionally, worried that there was something I was missing, but mostly came up empty. It was probably just my paranoia, but I felt like we all got off too easily. Well, not the guard who was missing, but everyone else.

I wasn’t going to share that qualm with Emma, however. It was obvious that she was dealing with a lot and needed help. And that was the least I could do for her.

Once we arrived, I carried her bag in and herded her towards the kitchen. “How about some Gatorade and a sandwich? I feel like a protein boost would do you good.”

She nodded dully, half-melting onto one of her kitchen stools. “Could you make me one of Mahlan’s breakfast shakes? I’ve got the vitamin powder in the cabinet left of the sink.”

“Yeah, of course.”

I hurried through making all that for her, trying to keep her in my peripheral vision while also not seem like I was staring at her uncomfortably. I didn’t want her to feel like she was being creepily watched or babysat. I was just…worried.

I set the shake, a Gatorade, and a truly loaded ham and cheese sandwich in front of her. I was quite grateful when she ate it without protest. I’d been through plenty of battles myself and while some had left me ravenous, some had turned my stomach so much that the thought of food was nauseating.

Thankfully, she didn’t have any trouble, making short work of the snack and both drinks.

“Do you want more?” I asked, trying to make my voice as gentle as possible. It wasn’t hard. Something about Emma always made me want to be soft, to be the kindest and best man I could possibly be.

“No, I think I’m good for now.”

“Alright then.” I busied myself with putting the plate and smoothie cup into the dishwasher.

“I was wrong.”

I stood up and turned, her concern almost like a bullhorn to me. “Pardon?”

“About being the bait. I was wrong. It’s…it’s awful.”

My heart squeezed so hard in my chest, I was surprised I wasn’t forced into a shift. I could hear just how much she was broken up about it, and I hated it. Basically, she was telling me that I was right, but I didn’t care that I was right. What I cared about was her health and happiness.

“Hey, hey, It’s okay.” I quickly rounded the counter and drew her into my arms. “You didn’t do anything wrong. We’re all in this mystery together, and we’re all just trying our best.”

She turned fully into my chest, wrapping her arms around my shoulder and pressing her face into me. She wasn’t quite crying, but I could feel her pain pouring through our bond. My poor beloved. She deserved so much more, and I was failing at protecting her as a good mate should.

“I just…I know I killed Sarah, but it was because I needed to. When it comes to this other witch, it’s not just that, you know? It’s not just the need to survive. I want to hurt her. I want her to bleed out while I stand over her corpse, and I want her to know that it was me.”

Her voice shook terribly. I felt deeply for her. While Emma was a capable fighter, it was true that she’d never had much bloodlust. She hunted and killed out of necessity, not for joy or glory or status. It made sense that the sudden murderous drive in her would scare her.

But it also made sense why she would want to tear that witch apart. The woman had wreaked total havoc on Emma’s life, taken away her personal freedom for her future, and had hurt countless people in our pack. And not to mention her best friend, Lyssa.

“Hey, it’s okay to feel whatever you feel. And it’s okay to be overwhelmed by it, too. This whole situation is more than should be asked of anyone, and you’re handling it as best you can.”

“You really think that?” Emma asked, looking up at me with those beautiful eyes of hers. Even red-rimmed and teary, she was breathtaking to me. I was pretty sure I could go my whole life without ever meeting a woman as strong, resilient, and empathetic as her. Mahlan and Lyssa talked a lot about being fated mates, but I couldn’t help but feel that way about Emma.

I knew that technically we weren’t, considering that she was in love with someone else and I’d been the one pining over her for decades. And because our mating bond hadn’t been nearly as volatile as Lyssa and Mahlan’s had been.

But to me, not being fated made our relationship that much better. We were both choosing to make it work despite the fraught circumstances. And I treasured that. Sure, we weren’t head over heels, sappy romantics spending our days sipping wine at fancy restaurants, but I knew she cared deeply for me. And it was okay that she wasn’t as in love with me as I was with her. I didn’t need that. I just needed her to be happy and safe.

“I do, without a doubt.”

“Thank you.” But she just pressed her face harder into my chest and I knew there was something else that she wanted to say.

“What’s on your mind?”

“I…I wish you were there. I know I handled it, but I really, really wish you were there.”

And there went my heart again, squeezing tightly with guilt and worry. “I’m sorry. And I promise I’ll never leave you again.”

“That’s not realistic.”

“I don’t care. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen.”

She chuckled gently against my shirt. While I felt good that I helped improve her mood at least a little, I couldn’t help but feel like something else was wrong. Something I was missing.

But what?

I didn’t know, so I just held Emma. Held her and poured as much comfort as I could into our bond.

“I promise I’ll keep you as safe as possible, and I’m sorry today happened. It never should have.”

“You couldn’t have prevented that,” Emma murmured, her voice muffled by my tear-soaked shirt.

“We don’t know that. I’m sure the witches knew we weren’t here and took advantage of the situation.”

“Yeah, but you can’t babysit me forever. I’d smother under the attention.” Emma pulled away from me and wiped her face. “But thank you. I appreciate that you care enough to make that promise.”

“Of course I do.” I gently stroked her face, and she brought her own hand up to rest against the back of mine. It was a sweet moment between us. I just wished that it wasn’t borne out of someone attacking my mate.

We stood like that for a bit before Emma cleared her throat. “I’m gonna hit the bathroom, okay? My adrenaline is wearing off and my body’s suddenly reminding me that I am, in fact, mortal.”

“Ha, alright then.”

I took a step away so that she could slide off the stool, but as she dropped her hand, I noticed something strange.

“What’s that?” I asked, catching her wrist and pulling it into the light underneath the kitchen island.

“What’s what?”

I bent over, taking a closer look at what was absolutely a ring around her pack brand. “This,” I said, trying not to sound shocked. But my mind was already shooting through a thousand and one different things that it could be. The most obvious was that it was a spell by the witches. The question was, what was it supposed to do?

“Oh my God, what is that?!” Emma cried, leaning over as well. “Did I get cursed?”

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly, phone already halfway out of my pocket. “I’ll call Savannah and Mahlan to meet us here.”

“Ask if Lyssa can come, too!”

“Of course.” Emma could ask for me to get Santa to drop by and I would do my best to make that happen.

I dialed up Savvy first as I figured she would take longer to arrive. Thankfully, she answered as quickly as she usually did.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Theo. I need you to come look over Emma.”

“Oh, did something happened since I last saw her? I looked her over and she seemed alright. No harmful magical signatures lingering in her or anything.”

“She’s got a strange mark around her pack brand and we don’t know what it is, but I get a bad feeling.”

“A mark? What’s it shaped like?”

“A circle.”

“Huh, alright. I’ll be there asap and I’ll bring my full kit.”

“Thanks. Mahlan and Lyssa will be here, too.”

“That’s good. It’ll give me a chance to reexamine Lyssa and make sure I didn’t miss anything on her, either.”

“Sounds good.”

I called Mahlan and the call was equally efficient. After just a few moments, I returned to Emma, drawing her into my arms yet again.

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay. Savvy, Mahlan, and Lyssa are on their way.”

She nodded and I could feel the panic leaking through our bond. I felt like I was sensing way more than I ever had before, and I couldn’t help but wonder if we were growing stronger in our mating or if Emma was just becoming truly overwhelmed with her emotional load.

“Okay. What about Sam? Should we have him look me over too? He’s a green witch, right? Isn’t most of their focus on healing, growing, and breaking curses?”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll call him, too. He’s probably at the shop by now.”

“Thank you,” Emma breathed, clinging to me even more tightly for a moment before releasing me to make the call.

Which I did expediently, taking only a step away to bring my phone up to my ear. For once, Sam answered on the second ring. Maybe Savvy was wearing off on him.

“Sam?”

“In the flesh. Just finished up scanning the store, logged everything in my notepad. I’m gonna head home and sleep in my own bed if you don’t mind.”

“Actually, something’s up with Emma and we want you to come look at her?”

At that, Sam’s easy nature dropped. “Something wrong? Like what? Is she okay? Have you called your Alma lady?”

“We have. She’s alright for the moment, but we would really appreciate you being here.”

“Well, I guess I can drive this van a bit more since I made it to the shop in one piece. I’ll let Jacobian know that I’m going and be right there.”

“Thank you, Sam. I appreciate it.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just remember it on my birthday.”

“Will do.”

He hung up and I returned to my mate. “It’s gonna be alright, okay?” I comforted her, running my hand through her hair. And yet again, I was pleased when she pressed into the touch.

“From your words to God’s ears.”

I couldn’t agree more.