Page 12 of Alpha Wolf (Return To Fate Mountain #6)

Chapter

Eleven

Dom parked his SUV directly across a small patch of woods behind Becca Matthews’s burned house.

Days of investigation had yielded fragments and theories, but no solid proof of Steel Protection’s innocence.

He needed something concrete, something the police had missed during their initial sweep of the crime scene.

He approached on foot through the cover of the forest. The acrid smell of charred wood and melted plastic still lingered in the air, mixed with something else that made his wolf stir uneasily. Something felt wrong.

He spotted the first sniper’s nest across the street from the house. Dom froze, his special forces training immediately recognizing the tactical setup. Another scope reflection flickered from the ridge to his north. Then a third from the top of an abandoned barn.

Dom crouched behind the skeletal remains of Becca’s back porch as a car approached on the main road. Through the trees, he spotted the distinctive black and white of Valeria’s cruiser cutting through the morning shadows. His mate was driving straight into a kill zone.

He couldn’t shout a warning without alerting the shooters and getting them both killed.

No time to call for backup or coordinate a proper response.

His mate was about to die, and he was the only thing standing between her and professional killers.

Velaria got out of her car and slammed her door closed.

The first shot rang out just as Dom launched himself from behind the burned porch.

He hit Valeria at a dead run, his 220 pounds of muscle slamming into her smaller frame and driving them both behind her patrol car as bullets sparked off metal and shattered glass around them. She cried out in shock and pain as they crashed to the gravel, his body covering hers protectively.

“Get off me!” Valeria struggled beneath him, trying to reach for her service weapon. “What are you doing?”

More gunshots erupted around them. Dom’s alpha energy flooded out instinctively, wolf dominance asserting itself to control her panicked response. He needed her compliant and moving, not fighting him while they were under fire.

The effect was immediate and devastating.

Valeria’s bear submitted involuntarily to his superior alpha presence, her struggles becoming weak and ineffective as her shifter biology overrode her human will.

She couldn’t access her bear strength or enhanced reflexes while his dominance suppressed her animal completely.

“You’re trying to kill me,” she gasped, her voice filled with terror.

“Stay down!” Dom grabbed her service weapon from its holster.

Bullets continued to pepper their position as Dom assessed their tactical situation. Three, maybe four shooters with high-powered rifles. Professional spacing and discipline. Whatever Valeria had discovered had triggered an elimination order.

He scooped Valeria up despite her weak protests.

She felt like a rag doll in his arms, her normal bear strength completely suppressed by his overwhelming presence.

The mate bond roared with protective fury as he carried her behind the house.

Bullets nipped at his heels as he used any available cover.

He rushed through the small clump of trees to where his SUV was parked on a back street.

“Get in.” Dom shoved her into the passenger seat and then dove behind the wheel as more shots blasted through the trees. Dom grabbed her phone and radio and stowed them with her service weapon. He gunned the engine and tore away, tires spraying gravel and dirt.

Valeria’s hands shook as she tried to grab for the door handle, but his alpha energy filled the confined space of the vehicle, making coordinated movement almost impossible. “I can’t... why can’t I shift?”

“Because you’re mine,” Dom said grimly, taking a sharp turn onto a mountain road as headlights appeared in his rearview mirror. “Your bear knows it even if you don’t.”

The pursuit vehicles moved with professional coordination. Dom’s special forces driving training kicked in as he navigated the winding mountain roads, using terrain and elevation changes to break visual contact.

“Who the hell are those people?” Valeria stared at the vehicles gaining on them through the back window, finally understanding that someone other than Dom wanted her dead.

“Same people who killed Becca,” Dom replied, taking a hairpin turn that sent gravel flying over a cliff edge.

His SUV’s engine roared as they climbed higher into the mountains, the pursuit falling behind as Dom’s shifter senses gave them the advantage they needed. But Valeria was trembling in the passenger seat, her bear still completely suppressed by his presence.

“You’ve cut off all my communications.” Her voice carried a note of desperation.

“Because I don’t know who we can trust,” Dom said, checking his mirrors as the last pursuit vehicle disappeared around a bend below them. “Someone knew you’d be there. Could be anyone in your department.”

Two hours later, Dom pulled up to a cabin hidden deep in the mountain wilderness, a place he’d prepared for exactly this type of emergency scenario. The structure was small but defensible, stocked with supplies and communication equipment that couldn’t be easily traced.

Valeria stumbled out of the SUV on unsteady legs. She looked around at the isolated location, finally understanding the full scope of her situation.

“This is a safe house,” Dom said, watching her carefully as she swayed on her feet. “We can figure out what’s happening from here.”

“You murdered Becca,” Valeria said, her voice shaking with adrenaline and fear. “You lied about everything. Now you’ve kidnapped a police officer. My father’s the police chief. You’re going to use me to control him, aren’t you?”

Dom met her eyes across the small clearing, his wolf finally settling now that his mate was safe. “I didn’t kill Becca,” he said, his voice carrying absolute conviction. “But I’ll kill anyone who tries to hurt you.”

The words hung in the mountain air between them, a promise and a threat and a declaration all at once. Dom watched her face carefully, seeing the conflict there as she struggled to reconcile his actions with her assumptions about his guilt.

Dom could see her bear responding to his continued dominance, the way her body trembled with conflicting instincts.

The mate bond pulled at him with increasing strength, his wolf demanding he claim and protect what was his.

But he could see the wariness in her eyes, the cop’s training that wouldn’t let her trust him despite everything that had just happened.

She was still afraid of him, still convinced he was a killer. That was probably smart, considering she was completely at his mercy in the middle of nowhere.