Chapter 2: Alpha’s Secret: Chapter 2

Grizz

Augustine lives in a fancy neighborhood in Oro Valley, up against the Catalina Mountain range. I park my motorcycle, climb the wall, and scan the backyard. Huge pool, fancy patio. But beyond the stone bar and grill and deck furniture, there’s a regular door. It’ll be easy enough to kick it in.

I take a moment to slip past the cameras. No flood lights on the lawn—vampires can see in the dark. Luckily, so can shifters. I hunker down into the bushes and wait.

Vampires are at their strongest at night and I find they’re a bit sluggish closer to daybreak. Not Frangelico—he’s old enough that he can stay awake until the first ray of dawn. But even his oldest sired are well inside by the dark hour before sunrise.

So I crouch until soft light glows in the sky just beyond the mountains. After taking a swig from my flask, I amble to the back door and let myself in. It’s unlocked—you’d have to be crazy to steal from a vampire. Most save all their defenses and booby traps for their sleeping lairs, which is why I want to catch Augustine here awake. He won’t expect it. After a life of hunting vampires, I know what brings them down. Hubris. They’re the biggest, baddest predator on Earth, and they know it. They don’t realize otherwise—until I’m standing over them with a stake.

Of course, I don’t have orders to kill Augustine. Just question him. He might live if Frangelico likes his answers. Frangelico hates killing his sired because, according to him, it’s difficult to make new ones.

The house is cool, clean, and scented like lemon. I search the rooms, but they’re unused. Perfectly decorated but they smell empty. I open the fridge—a few decanters of blood, and a half drunk bottle of wine, but nothing else.

The vampire isn’t here. He probably sleeps elsewhere. Unless I want to catch him partying or fully awake, this is a dead end. Not that I expected it to be easy.

Beside the fridge is a bag of dog food. An expensive type—real wild caught meat or something. I take a moment and tune into the scent below the cold stone smell of the vampire. That’s when I catch the familiar musk.

Dog. Or something close. Not wolf.

Skin prickling, I head to the tiled pantry. In the corner, a colorful Mexican blanket covers a large structure. A cage.

The monster bear in my chest starts to rumble. Not a growl, but a low soothing sound.

I flip up the serape and there’s my little fox. Crumpled, still in human form. Naked but for the white collar. She’s shivering.

My bear rumbles louder.

I open the cage. She winces at the loud metal scrape, her eyes squeezing shut, her body contracting into the smallest point possible. There are still a few marks on her pale skin, though most have faded. Thank fuck she’s a shifter not a human. The dom really worked her over for her to still be healing.

And then he left her in a cage. My body shakes with my bear’s grumbling. I rip the blanket off the cage and cover her with it.

“Master?” she asks in the softest whisper. Her quavering voice touches me light as fingers. Fuck, I’m hard.

“I’m not your master,” I answer her gruffly. I’m so pissed, my bear is ready to burst from my skin and tear down this mansion room by room. What kind of asshole leaves his sub to go through sub drop alone? Not just alone, but trembling in a cage? With nothing but dog food to feed her?

“Come here,” I order. She responds instantly, crawling closer.

“Closer,” I encourage before I can think about what I’m doing. “Come to me. All the way, kit. Out of the cage.”

Eyes still closed, she crawls out of the cage, straight into my arms. “That’s it.” I automatically cradle her close. As soon as her small body tucks against my chest, my bear’s angry commentary quiets into a low bass note. He’s purring. I didn’t know he could do that.

The woman rubs her face against my t-shirt, burrowing. Still on autopilot, I rest a palm on her head, guiding her to settle.

With a sigh, the little submissive relaxes.

“Good girl,” I murmur. The words are right there on the tip of my tongue. I’ve watched enough scenes at the club to know what to say, but I spoke them easily, without thinking. Her breathing slows, her mouth grows lax. Her eyes are still closed, so I don’t know the exact moment she falls asleep.

All I know is I’m standing inside a mansion I broke into, my arms full of a vampire’s pet, and I can’t let go. For the first time in a long time, my bear has found someone to hold.

Jordy

The rumbling under my ears fills my world. Cool air hits my face and then I’m tucked into a seat and strapped in. Two doors slam, one after another, and a big presence fills the space beside me.

I say the first word that’s usually on my lips. “Master?”

“I’m not your master,” the voice growls and my eyes fly open.

A scarred face greets me. He’s glowering at me and I lower my eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” he snarls and I duck my head. “No, fuck, don’t do that.”

I peer at him.

He’s rubbing his chest. “You’re all right. You’re safe with me.” He puts the truck in gear and pulls from the curb.

My fingers creep up and check for my collar. It’s still buckled snug around my throat. I sigh, sinking further into the passenger seat.

I do what I do best and stay meek and quiet for the first few minutes of the ride. I should be frantic leaving my master’s neighborhood with a strange shifter. A huge, angry shifter who hasn’t stopped growling since he unlocked my cage, scooped me into his arms and carried me from the house to the truck.

The road flies by before I have the courage to speak up. “Are you okay?”

“What?” He looks startled.

I shrink deeper into my seat. “You’re growling.”

He grimaces and rubs his chest. “Yeah. My bear didn’t like how you were being kept.”

I almost agree with him out loud, but a twinge of guilt keeps me from speaking against my master.

“Did my master send you to get me?”

The big guy looks away and I know his answer before he tells me. “No.”

I chew on this for the next few miles. I’m pretty calm, all things considered. But then, I’ve always rolled with life’s punches. When you’re a submissive shifter, there’s not much else you can do. The world is big and bad and the animal inside me likes to hide.

Now she’s alert, taking stock of our surroundings without the usual fearful edge. The truck is big and loud but doesn’t smell like the big shifter bear beside me.

“This is a nice truck,” I say.

“Not mine,” he grunts. After changing lanes, he offers more. “I stole it. I only had my bike and didn’t want to wake you.”

I glance out the window at the exit signs flying by. “Where are you taking me?”

“Somewhere safe.”

Safe. The magic word. My fox relaxes. She doesn’t retreat, but I’m filled with the happy drowsiness that I rarely feel and always seek. My fox is usually on such high alert watching for predators, it takes the controlled pain to quiet her, to let me sleep. Even in subspace, she’s silently watching and waiting, filled with disappointment for a master that won’t appear. A good master. Someone who will protect us and keep us safe.

The sun cresting over the mountains means it’s morning.

“How long did I sleep?”

“Fuck if I know,” he sounds angry, but my fox is tuned into the loud rumble in his chest, and she knows the anger isn’t directed at her. “I arrived and you were alone. Why the fuck did your master leave you after a scene? Not just alone, but in a fucking cage?”

“My fox doesn’t always do well when I’m asleep. She’s scared.” Scaredy fox, I call her.

“You don’t belong in a fucking cage,” the male says, his voice mixing with his bear’s in a nearly unintelligible growl.

I bow my head and the rumbling in his chest subsides.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he mutters. He spares me a quick glance. His eyes are a mix of brown and gold, his bear making his presence known.

“You don’t scare me,” I assure him, my heart light and free when I realize it’s true.

“Here.” The bear hands me a bottle of water. “You need to drink something.”

I recognize the bottle as one of Augustine’s fancy imported waters. My vampire master wouldn’t waste something so fancy on me. I don’t know if I can tell the bear that.

With a grunt, the bear pushes the water on me, and I don’t protest. I’m parched. The water is cool, almost sweet, and I drain the whole bottle.

“He shouldn’t have left you,” the big man mutters. I gnaw my lip, studying him out of the corner of my eye so he won’t notice. He’s a big guy with a battered face and scars like I’ve never seen on a shifter before. His scent is large and in charge—a sign his bear is close to the surface, and super dominant.

Despite the tension in his giant body, he smells…safe. My fox leans into the smell, savors it. Either she’s clueless, or she’s reading him as someone who will protect us. I really, really hope it’s the latter.

“Is that why you took me?” I venture. “Because I was in the cage?”

He glares at the road. Yellow eyes, glowing with his bear. “I’m taking you somewhere to clean you up and let you heal and rest.”

I swallow. Not sanctioned then. Augustine won’t be pleased. I’ll be lucky if he doesn’t blame me, or take out his displeasure on my ass.

My captor gives me a sharp look as if he knows my thoughts. “You know Frangelico?”

“Yes,” I whisper, shrinking in my seat at the name of the vampire king.

“I work with him. He wants me to look into your master.”

This doesn’t reassure me a bit, but I know better than to ask about the affairs of vampires. “Don’t you mean for him? You work for the vampire king?”

“That’s what I said.”

“You said with.” Implying they were equals.

“For, with, what the fuck difference does it make?” He shrugs. I should be frightened out of my mind that I’ve annoyed him, but instead I want to giggle. I duck my head to hide my grin behind the thin fall of my hair.

If he notices my amusement, he doesn’t comment on it. Instead he brushes a big hand over my hair. I still, letting him pet me.

“Red,” he says.

“What?” I never question dominants, but I can’t help it. His tone was deep and growly, with a touch of something more. Reverence. Or longing.

He doesn’t explain the ‘red’ comment. Instead he says, “I watched you last night.”

“Oh.” I scan my memory of the past night’s events. My fox helpfully supplies what she noticed—a dark, brown gold shape just outside of the spotlight, waiting in the shadows. A big, strong presence. Safe. “I remember you. Or at least, my fox does. She likes you.”

Something in his shoulders relaxes. “Good. I’m glad.”

I want to ask where we’re going, but instead I yawn.

“Sleep, kit,” he says. I love that he calls me by the name for a baby fox. It makes me feel babied. Protected. There’s a dominant push in his voice that’s impossible to disobey, even if I wanted to.

“Okay.” I snuggle against the seat. The last thing I see is his big hand checking to make sure the heat vents are on and directing them toward me, then dropping to tug the blanket tighter around me.

“Thank you,” I murmur. “Feels nice.”

His bear rumbles again. Go to sleep. It says. I’m going to take care of you. Just relax and let go.

So I do.

Grizz

Stupid. So fucking stupid.

I’m not in the business of collecting liabilities. I’m a hunter. I learned my lessons young. A hunter never leaves tracks. Not if he’s hunting a predator, and I hunt the most dangerous predators in existence.

But the second she dragged herself from the cage into my arms, she became too important to leave behind.

Besides, she’s my best link to Augustine. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself, although how the hell I’m going to hunt a vampire when I have to babysit his pet fox, I have no idea. I wasn’t thinking when I stole her from the vampire’s home. Not with my head at least.

The blanket slips off her shoulder and I can’t concentrate. I wonder how that creamy skin would feel under my lips. I’ll bet it’s so damn soft. I brush the back of my knuckles over it.

Fuck—she’s chilly! I tug the blanket back over her. The heat is on full force in the cab, but the poor female’s body is small and frail. Damn vampire locking her up like that. She’s too fragile to handle that sort of neglect. Too pale, too thin.

While I fiddle with the blanket like a girl with her dolly, the truck drifts outta its lane into the path of an eighteen wheeler. The driver honks and I bite back a roar. Don’t wanna wake my sleeping beauty. Instead, I glare at the driver with mad bear eyes.

Fates, the kit isn’t even awake and the bear is fighting to protect her. Keep it up and she’s gonna think I’m her knight in shining armor. That’ll be a mistake. I’m no one’s hero.

I don’t sit easy until I pull into my hidden drive. My den is tucked into the side of a mountain. Nothing fancy, one of those nuclear bunker type places, except the side sticking outta the hill has a few windows. I don’t sleep exposed. Too dangerous. I learned that the hard way a couple hunts ago.

When I crack open the truck door, my little fox doesn’t stir. The walk to the house is easy with such a light bundle. I stash her in my bedroom and my bear finally relaxes, seeing her tucked up tight in the dark, warm cave of my bed. She curls right up like she’s in animal form, her little fist resting against her lips. She wasn’t sleeping so deeply when I opened her cage, but then I remember—I gave her an order. A dominant push, without meaning to. I’m so used to being the biggest, baddest alpha around other dominant predators, I forgot to temper my power. She took my order to heart, like a good little submissive.

What will she need when she wakes up?

I head back into the kitchen. My last grocery run, I grabbed a couple bottles of orange juice. Must have been trying to look normal, add some basic items to my cart full of meat. I don’t really drink the stuff.

A few minutes later, there’s a glass of juice waiting on the bedside table for when my guest wakes up. I unscrew two of the three light bulbs outta my bedside lamp and click it on, a sorta makeshift night light. In case she wakes up and gets scared.

I stand at the foot of the bed and watch her sleep, barely daring to breathe. Her red hair fans out on the pillow, copper lashes rest on her porcelain skin. The beautiful fox looks good in my bed. Feels right.

Her little nose scrunches. A toe twitches, dislodging the blanket. Immediately, I tuck the comforter more tightly around her.

Fuck. I am so fucked.

I get the hell outta there before I spend a half hour sitting beside her, watching her sleep. I knew my bear would fall for a girl one day. Never figured it’d be this bad.

Back in the kitchen, I pull out a couple packs of meat from the freezer so they’ll be ready for breakfast. Or at the rate she’s sleeping, lunch. No worries, it does me good to see her resting like that.

I could use some shut-eye, in a minute I’m gonna slip back in there and join her. First I gotta tie up some loose ends. I pull out my burner phone and dial a memorized number.

“Jay-sus, Grizz, it’s before seven in the mornin’.” The chipper Irish accent has a murderous edge.

I glance at the clock. “Seven’s not that early.”

“It is if ya went tae bed three hours ago. We had a fight last night. Nix the Kid against this big bruisin’ gorilla brawler. Not as good as ya, but still, went twelve rounds—”

I clear my throat as a signal that I’m interrupting. Declan will go on forever when he’s worked up, and his accent gets so thick I can’t understand him anyway. “Gotta job for you.”

“What am I, a handyman?”

“A favor then.”

The Irishman sighs. “All right then.” He owes me more than a few.

“I was on a job this morning, and I had to stash my bike and ‘borrow’ a truck. Need you to pick up my bike and meet me.”

“Let me guess, we’ll take the truck in trade, while it’s hot.”

“I’ll put new plates on it. You can take them off before you leave it for the cops.”

“I know, I know, this isn’t my first rodeo. Fine. How soon do ya need it done?”

Another glance at the clock to calculate sleeping time, waking time, making breakfast. “Four-thirty. Fight Club.”

Declan sucks in a breath. “Is that wise? Word on the street is the wolves consider you their enemy.”

The wolves. Sooner or later I’m going to have to deal with them. “I’m not. Not unless they make one of me. And they don’t wanna do that.” Trey might, but his alpha, Garrett, is smarter.

“Word on the street is you’re working for the vampires. Not just any vampire. The king of the vampires.”

I growl in answer. I don’t like people knowing my business.

“Is it true? You’re employed by the king?”

“The king and I have an arrangement,” I tell him. I don’t know why—I don’t answer to him. But I need Declan as an ally.

“The wolves aren’t likin’ it,” Declan goes on lecturing me about vampire/shifter politics. “The treaty’s still new but some shifters feel you’ve chosen sides. And anyone sidin’ with the vampires isn’t tae be trusted—”

“You gonna meet me at the Fight Club or not?”

Silence.

“Declan…”

“Sure, sure. I’ll see ya then. Keep your panties on.”

I growl again and hang up. Head to the door to lock up and check my security system. Vampires don’t hunt during the day, but they have money and money buys lackeys. When I’m satisfied everything’s locked down tight, I head back to bed. Day’s shaping up to be full, even without dealing with my rescue. The thought of her makes me soften, and I tread lighter so I won’t wake her. I’m not gonna touch her, just lie beside her.

But when I get to my bedroom, the blankets are on the floor. The glass of juice is drained, empty like my bed. My fox is gone.