Page 36 of Alphas Never Hide (Willow Lake Supernaturals #5)

Chapter Thirty-Six

RYLEY

I watched in shocked disbelief as a tree slammed down on the car Hayden had been in. Then the car was lost from sight behind a wall of quaking yellow leaves and twisted branches.

“ Did you do that?” I pointed at the tree and turned my narrowed gaze to Conny .

He shook his head. “ Not me. They took away my flute.”

“ What’s that got to do with anything?”

“ The flute is where the magic is,” Conny said slowly, like I was a child.

“ No , it isn’t. I can do magic without a fucking flute.”

Conny’s forehead squished up in confusion. “ You’re a hybrid—no, don’t take offense at the word— I’m just saying that you don’t have magic like that.”

“ The herd was wrong. As long as one parent is a supe, the kid will be a supe.” I hadn’t believed that a day earlier, but the people in Willow Lake had convinced me. I crossed my arms over my chest. “ And for the record, calling someone a hybrid is offensive.” Even if I’d called myself the same thing more times that I could count.

Conny gaped. “ But that means my baby will be a supe.” He shook his head. “ No way. Not possible. Junior is human. Weak . Not magical. Mundane .”

“ They will be a faun, like their daddy.”

“ But that means those asshole wolves will keep them.”

“ Yeah . Or sell them to someone else.” I grimaced.

“ I … I thought… I thought they’d eventually let Gretchen and the baby go when they realized I wasn’t fighting them. I told them I’d do anything for them if they let her go.” Conny clamped a hand over his mouth. His face had gone white.

I doubted they would have let her go regardless. She knew too much. But I didn’t say that to Conny .

Conny lunged for me and grabbed my hand, clutching at it. His eyes were wide and frantic as he squeezed hard. “ We’ve got to get to her. We’ve got to save them. Oh Magic , what if I’m already too late?”

Before I could answer, tires squealed over the asphalt. The truck fishtailed, sending us rolling to the right in a tangle of limbs.

“ What in the Magic happened?” I muttered as I righted myself.

Conny rubbed his head. “ I think we turned around.”

“ Look , there is a roadblock! It’s about time something went my way.” I grinned. “ If you want to help Gretchen and the baby, you need to trust me. Help me stop Robbie and his asshole friends. The first step is getting away from him so he can’t use us as hostages anymore.”

“ What if they hurt her? What if Rob tells them to?”

“ Robbie has other shit on his mind right now. He is thinking about how to save himself. He isn’t worrying about one pregnant human.”

“ Is that a gamble you’d take with your mate?” Conny challenged.

“ Yeah . I would,” I said. I didn’t have to think about it. “ This is the best chance you’ll get to have a better life for all of you. My mate and his friends are the only ones who can stop him.”

Conny looked green, but he nodded. “ I hope I’m making the right decision.”

“ Can we get out of here now?”

He swallowed hard, but didn’t protest when I reached for the handle on the canopy.

HAYDEN

The strange wolf I had pinned to the ground whimpered. I tightened my teeth around his neck, letting my saliva drench his skin and my tongue flick across the spot in his throat where his pulse was pounding.

“ I swear, I don’t know anything. Rob didn’t say where he was going.” He swallowed and whimpered again. “ He just said to knock the tree over.”

With a mouthful of asshole, I couldn’t ask him questions, so I growled, throwing all my power as alpha into the deep, menacing rumble.

The scent of tears and piss and sweat bloomed stronger. He whined. His body was slack. Everything about his body language said he surrendered, but I couldn’t trust him. I couldn’t trust anyone connected to Robbie . I hoped this guy wouldn’t want to die, but Robbie also attracted a lot of zealots. Over the years, people had willingly sacrificed themselves to Robbie’s cause time and again. Was this guy the same?

He didn’t smell much like Robbie , so he must be a newer recruit. Which meant Robbie might not have indoctrinated him as thoroughly as someone who’d been with him longer, but I couldn’t bank on that.

I couldn’t let him go. But it also went against everything I believed in to kill a defenseless man, particularly one who was going through the motions, at least, of surrendering to me. So , what should I do with him?

My teeth dug in a little deeper. He gasped. His body went limp. I dropped his neck and sniffed at him. He’d passed out. Okay , then. That worked too.

I lifted my nose to the sky. I couldn’t smell any other wolves in the area, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. If Robbie had a faun, they could hide right in front of me, and I’d never know. But I doubted he was close. The truck he’d been in had sped away.

Where would he go? We’d been so sure he had more tunnels out on his pack lands, but what if he didn’t?

There was only one way to find out.

I looked down at the unconscious shifter. He’d shifted into his more vulnerable human form as soon as I’d pounced on him, but I didn’t trust him to stay here once he woke up. I could leave him, but the world had too many assholes wandering free as it was.

In a flurry of feathers, a raven dropped to the ground beside me.

“ I found you,” Mercer said. His long black wing stretched out to point toward the road. “ Robbie’s turned around. He hit a roadblock. He’s coming back.”

I looked toward the road, ready to meet my brother halfway. Then the unconscious man stirred. Son of a?—

“ Don’t worry about him, Alpha ,” Mercer said. “ I’ve got him.”

“ Are you sure?”

“ Oak will stay with me,” he said, just as a massive wolf crashed through the trees.

“ Don’t let him get away,” I said.

Then I bolted toward the highway.