Page 37 of Alphas Never Hide (Willow Lake Supernaturals #5)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

HAYDEN

Robbie had nowhere to go. He’d taken care of this end of the road with that tree, and I had the other covered with a blockade. He was trapped, so I waited for him to come to me. In the distance, I heard an engine. It had to be Robbie . I stopped on the centerline of the road and waited. The downed tree was about a mile behind me.

My heart should be thundering so hard it bruised my ribs. Sweat should be pouring over me like a waterfall. But none of that happened. Sure , resignation warred with a deep desire for retribution. Bitter determination vied with reluctance. But in the end, my love for my mate overwhelmed any lingering sense of familial obligation I felt for my brother. An eerie calm settled over me.

How many times had I envisioned confronting Robbie ? Too many to count. Now that the moment was finally here, all I felt was relief.

Predictably , as the truck neared where I was standing, the engine revved. The pickup might look like a piece of shit that was more rust than body, but it could still do a fair bit of damage if it hit me. Luckily , I didn’t plan on letting that happen.

As the truck shot toward me, I caught more and more details. The bent grille guard. The crunched bumper. The excited grin on Robbie’s face as he stared at me from his spot in the passenger seat.

The driver tried to steer around me, but Robbie grabbed the steering wheel and pointed the nose of the truck at me again. The driver looked horrified— I guessed it wasn’t every day someone asked you to mow down a person in the middle of the road—but he didn’t fight Robbie for control.

There was nothing quite like playing chicken with a six-thousand-pound truck.

My muscles tensed as the truck got within kissing distance. I pounced. My paws slammed into the hood, caving it in with a satisfying crunch, before I landed on the top of the cab with another crunch. Windows shattered. Someone screamed. The truck lurched to the side, nearly throwing me off. I leaped to the camper shell next. This time, though, I dug my claws into the fiberglass. The rear door was up and shuddering against the wind.

“ I’m coming, Ry . I’ve almost got you,” I shouted.

I ripped and pulled at the camper shell until it cracked and buckled under my determination. The truck rocked wildly down the road. Robbie , the bastard, was trying to dislodge me, but I wasn’t going anywhere without my mate. As soon as the hole was big enough, I poked my head inside .

It was empty.

Where was my mate?

I spun around, ready to break into the cab and demand answers from Robbie , except the toppled tree was right in front of us. The driver hit the brakes. I went flying.

This was going to hurt.

Then I was scooped out of the air.

“ I’ve got you, Alpha ,” Ogden said. He flipped around with dizzying speed. Before I knew it, he was lowering me to the ground right beside the passenger door of the truck.

“ Find Ryley ,” I shouted after him.

“ On it, Alpha ,” Simon said. He sounded anxious and a little tremulous, which I expected, but I’d never heard the cat shifter speak so loudly. And the fact that he hadn’t shifted into his house cat form and scurried off to hide in the trees was shocking. Finding your fated mate did strange things to people.

I shifted quickly as I marched over to Robbie’s door. I wrenched it open. Robbie leaned away, so I reached in and grabbed him. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. Did the guy think he was invincible? I yanked him out and threw him to the ground. His cohorts scampered out of the truck on the opposite side.

“ Where is my mate?” I roared at him.

“ What are you talking about?” He squinted at me like I wasn’t making any sense, then his gaze caught on the lock of green hair at my temple. I expected him to outline conditions for my mate’s release, gloat about how easy it’d been to take him from me, or demean my mating altogether. He didn’t do any of those things. In fact, he shook his head like I was confusing him. Did he not know what that green mark in my hair meant?

“ Don’t lie to me, Robbie . What did you do with my mate? Do not mess with me right now.”

“ Don’t be so uncivilized, brother,” Robbie said with a scowl as he pushed himself up. He brushed the bits of rock and dust from his jeans as he straightened. “ You’d think you were the one forced to live in the woods all summer. Oh , that’s right, you like living rough. Still living in that trailer, isn’t that right?”

I fisted his T -shirt and swung him around. His back slammed against the truck, making it rock. Robbie rolled his eyes at me, like he used to when he was younger. For a moment, memories of us growing up together tumbled over me: watching over him during his first run with the pack, teaching him how to jump into the lake from the tire swing Dad had hung up, letting him crawl into my bed when he’d had a nightmare. But this man, he was no longer my family. He’d become my nightmare. We might share blood, but he’d severed any familial links the moment he hurt— killed —our parents.

“ I will not ask you again,” I bit out. “ What have you done with my mate?”

“ I . Do . Not . Know . What . You . Are . Talking . About ,” he shouted, pausing between each word to draw out the sentence.

I yanked him away from the truck, then slammed him against it again.

He grunted, but he still didn’t seem to appreciate the position he was in. He grinned at me. “ Temper , temper, brother. ”

“ He was in your truck. Where is he now?”

He glanced at the camper shell, then back at me. His gaze popped up to my mating mark again. I wanted to shout at him to avert his eyes, that he didn’t deserve to look at it. Then I saw the moment he realized what I was talking about.

“ My pet? He’s your mate?” He laughed, slapping his leg in obvious mirth.

“ Who are you calling a pet, you shit-filled diaper?”

That question was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard. I whipped around, letting go of Robbie .

“ Ryley …” I let out his name on a shaky breath as I hauled him into my arms. “ When you weren’t in the back of the truck, I was so scared.”

He pressed his face into my neck. “ I’m okay.”

The tremulous way he spoke had me pulling back to look at him. His glasses hung lopsided on his face, and one lens was shattered. Little bits of grass and twigs littered his dark hair. His clothing was dusty, but with no obvious damage. He must have spent most of his time in his faun form.

“ Are you sure you’re okay?”

He nodded. “ Better than okay, now that you’re here.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement. Robbie was slipping around the back of the truck.

“ Get your ass back here, Robbie .”

He bolted for the trees. I raced after him. I couldn’t let him get away. Not again. I called on my magic to shift. Nothing happened.

I tugged at it again. A little flutter, but nothing more.

Son of a fucking fuck .

Don’t mess with me right now, Eternal Magic . Not now. Not when I finally have him.

Robbie’s change rolled over him between one step and the next. Matted fur hung in clumps from his too-thin body. He was not a healthy wolf.

Good . I hoped he’d suffered.

But an unhealthy wolf was still faster than a shifter stuck in his human body. He disappeared between the trees. I followed, but he outpaced me. I tried to shift again, but still it eluded me.

“ No !”

Where was the Eternal Magic ? I needed to stop Robbie to protect my pack and my mate. Why wasn’t I shifting? I’d done what she wanted. I had become the alpha. I had accepted my mate. What more did she want from me?

“ Please ,” I begged. “ Just , please…”

The air became unnaturally still, as if the Eternal Magic herself had hushed everything else so she could listen to me. I glanced down. My hands were still hands. No fur in sight.

“ I am sorry,” I said. “ I need your help. I can’t do this without you. Please .”

I lifted my face toward the sky to scream my frustration, but what came out was a howl. A deep, earth-shaking howl. All those shimmering golden threads that I’d only seen on the night I’d accepted I was Alpha of Willow Lake glowed around me once more.

I fell to my knees. Magic zinged through the air as footsteps raced in my direction. My mate called my name as he flung his arms around me. I glanced down at my hands again, only this time, they were paws .

As people—my pack—broke through the surrounding trees, they stumbled to a halt. It looked like our reinforcements had arrived, and every single one of them was gaping at me.

“ Holy Magic ,” Mercer muttered. “ Alpha just got super-sized.”

Awed murmurs of “ Alpha ” filled the forest. I sought my mate. His eyes were full of wonder.

“ Why are you looking at me like that?”

“ You’re beautiful, Hayden ,” he said. “ You always have been, but you’re, uh, bigger than I remember.”

“ That’s what he said,” someone joked. It might have been Isaac .

“ You think so?” I looked at my paws again. They seemed a little larger than usual.

“ Oh yeah,” Ryley agreed.

Ogden stepped forward. “ I haven’t seen one of your kind in a long time.”

“ Yes ,” Gage agreed. “ The first time I saw Oak I thought he might be, but now that I’ve seen you…”

“ Now that you’ve seen me what? What are you talking about?”

“ You’re a dire wolf, Alpha ,” the demon said.

“ Where is my notebook?” Jeremy said, as he patted his pockets.

“ That’s impossible,” I said, shaking my paw as if that could make it return to normal.

I looked at the others who’d gathered around me to see if they had answers. They all tilted their heads to the side, exposing their necks to me, and murmured “ Alpha ”. For fuck’s sake, not that again. I mean, I got it. This was probably an important development. But we, me in particular, had other shit to do right now. I pushed my nose against Ryley’s neck to inhale his scent, making sure he was really okay. He smelled healthy and, surprisingly, a little turned on.

“ You’re amazing,” he whispered against my fur.

I stepped back. “ Stay here. Stay safe. I need to get Robbie before he escapes.”

Ryley nodded. “ I need you to be safe too.”

I had no intention of letting anything happen to me. I had too much to live for.

“ We’ll be right behind you, Alpha ,” Van said. His gaze was full of flames as he transformed into his hellhound form. All around me, the shifters did the same.

“ Let’s go,” I said, bounding through the woods after the man who’d chosen to be my enemy instead of my brother.