Page 38 of Alphas Never Hide (Willow Lake Supernaturals #5)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

RYLEY

As Hayden led most of the shifters through the trees in pursuit of Robbie , the two-footed supes trailed after them. As a faun, I apparently was adept at escaping, but I’d never be a hunter. That was fine. I didn’t need to crush Robbie’s neck between my teeth. I could just wait until he surrendered and then kick him in the balls a couple dozen times.

Because he would surrender. My badass mate would make him.

We made a strange group hiking through the forest. There were several of us, but the ones nearest to me were part of Hayden’s closest group of friends. Ash had sparks shooting from his fingers, Jeremy was muttering as he scribbled in a notebook, and Jake was worrying his hands like he wished he hadn’t left the inn. And then there, at my side, was Conny .

“ We need to hurry,” he said. We were already hoofing it, but Conny pulled me along to get me moving faster. We were following the obvious trail of footprints, broken saplings, and crushed groundcover. “ They can’t kill him. Not before he tells me where Gretchen is.”

“ They won’t kill him.” I was at least sixty percent certain of that. Ish . Although Hayden wasn’t the only one who looked pissed. Okay . Yeah . Maybe we should pick up our pace.

Once Conny was satisfied with my speed, he moved closer. “ Was that your mate?” He shook his head. “ I guess he couldn’t be. Never mind.”

“ What are you talking about? Of course he’s my mate.” I frowned at him.

“ But he’s not a faun.”

“ I thought you said you met your mate. You should know our mates don’t have to be fauns.”

“ Right .” He nodded. “ I know, it’s just he’s a wolf. Like a massively enormous wolf. I thought he was the one Rob had me play tricks on in the woods, but that guy wasn’t nearly that big.”

Yeah . I didn’t know what’d happened there either, but it didn’t change how I felt about him. “ Him being big means he’s the best one to put an end to all this.”

Jeremy came alongside us. He glanced up from his notebook and eyed my brother.

“ Can I help you?” Conny said. He sounded as snooty as The Ass Pimple .

Jeremy didn’t take offense at my brother’s tone. “ Are you working for the forces of good or evil?”

Conny grimaced, and his face paled .

“ You see, Adrian told me a faun helped Robbie abduct Ryley earlier. That was you, wasn’t it?”

My first impulse was to step in and defend Conny . He was still so young as a faun; he shouldn’t even be away from the herd. But the fauns might have that wrong too, because he was old enough to get a woman pregnant. So he clearly wasn’t a kid any longer; he was going to be a dad. My baby brother, a father.

Conny looked at me for guidance. I nodded. Hayden trusted these people, so I did too. And wasn’t that bizarre? Me , trusting a bunch of supes.

“ He’s holding my mate hostage,” Conny said.

“ Seriously ?” A fierce look contorted Jeremy’s face. “ It looks like we’re going on another rescue mission, boys!”

“ Another one?” Ash grumbled. “ We just finished one. That’s already two this week.”

“ What’s your name?” Jeremy asked Conny .

Jeremy then asked about his mate’s name. After that, he started muttering. “ Hmm … Conny and Gretchen , Conny and Gretchen . Operation : Rescue Gretchen . That’s kind of boring. What other information do you have? What can you tell me about her?”

Conny was eyeing Jeremy warily, but he still answered. “ She’s pregnant?”

“ You’re having a baby?” Jeremy smiled and clapped Conny on the back. “ That’s awesome! We need more babies around here.”

“ Oh , I don’t…” Conny stammered. “ I’m not from here.”

Jeremy talked right over my brother’s protest. “ With magical werewolf jizz off the table, all you straight supes need to pull your weight. Although , there are lots of ways to get around the same sex thing. Adrian and I have been talking about surrogacy, but we aren’t there yet. And it isn’t like we need to rush since we literally have forever to do this. And who knows, a hundred or two hundred years from now, when we are ready, mpreg might be possible.”

Jeremy continued to ramble about Magic knew what, as Conny shot a look my way. I knew how he felt. I didn’t know what the guy was talking about, either. What was important, though, was how Jeremy was treating Conny , like he’d already accepted him as someone who belonged in Willow Lake , someone they would fight for.

I doubted Conny understood that. I wouldn’t have in his position.

“ You’re my brother, Conny . Of course you and your family will be welcome in my mate’s pack.”

“ After everything I did?”

“ Did you hurt anyone? Kill anyone? Maim them? Traffic them to some other asshole?”

“ Well , no, but…”

“ There is no but, Conny . This is all on Robbie ,” I said. “ He coerced you into doing things. And if anyone says any differently, they’ll get to meet my hooves, up close and personal.”

Conny wiped tears from his face as he averted his eyes.

Shouts ahead of us spurred us to move faster, because those shouts could only mean one thing. They’d found Robbie .

We stepped into a strange clearing in the woods. It didn’t look or feel natural. In fact, the area reminded me a lot of the place where Hayden and I had found that other tunnel opening. I pushed up my glasses and wished I could see better through the shattered lens, but I could still see we’d arrived at another hatch on the forest floor.

But Robbie hadn’t had time to jump down it like a rabbit diving into its den. Instead , Hayden and Robbie , both still in their shifted forms, were circling one another, while all the other shifters formed a ring around them. Hayden had a gash in his side that was dripping blood and Robbie was limping. They snarled, baring their sharp, lethal teeth at each other.

It was like one of those old documentaries about wild animals that families used to watch every week on prime-time television. You know the ones. Animals were always getting killed and eaten by other animals. As a faun, I was not a predatory supe, so that show was fuel for nightmares that woke me in the middle of the night for weeks after. I couldn’t understand how humans enjoyed watching that with their children.

Seeing my mate in one of those fight-to-the-death situations, I wondered if I’d ever sleep again.

I wanted him to win, of course. But how would he cope if he killed his brother?

“ Surrender . I don’t want to hurt you,” Hayden said.

“ Like you tried last night? Screw you.”

“ If someone tried to hurt you last night, it must have been one of your own people.”

“ I felt it,” Robbie screamed. “ When you tried to take more of my power from me last night.”

“ I can’t take power from you or anyone,” Hayden growled. “ If you were a true alpha, you’d know that.”

“ Is that what you think? That you are a true alpha? All you do is hide in your little dumpy trailer behind your dumpy business.” Robbie sneered. “ And you can’t lie to me. I felt it. You sent your magic after me. You thought you could trick me and make me submit to you. Well , who is the smart one now? You can’t fool me like that.”

Hayden stumbled. “ No , I never.”

That must have been when Hayden accepted his role as alpha. Some part of Hayden had still considered his brother part of his pack. My mate had too soft a heart. Of course, I would do the same for my brother, but that was easier to justify. Mine wasn’t a murderous nostril dildo. But now what? I couldn’t let him kill Robbie now. How was I going to stop this?

Robbie lunged for Hayden . Hayden met him halfway. They collided in a blur of teeth and claws and fur. The smell of blood infected the air. Hayden was incredibly large now, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t vulnerable, particularly since he was holding back. Robbie could kill him. More blood splattered across the ground. Hayden roared in pain.

Why hadn’t teleportation been invented yet so I could zap Hayden out of there?

“ He’ll win,” Ash said, rubbing my back.

Jeremy nodded. “ I think if he was truly in danger, my magic would try to shield him in my personal brand of magical bubble wrap.”

I’d have believed him more if his words hadn’t sounded so tremulous. And based on how wonky his magic had been in the mage competition earlier, I wasn’t ready to trust his magic to do what he wanted either.

Hayden swiped at his brother, slicing along Robbie’s belly, but Robbie rolled away before the thick, razor-sharp claws went too deep. Robbie whimpered and shook his head.

“ Surrender ,” Hayden growled. “ We don’t have to do this.”

Robbie’s frantic gaze bounced around the people surrounding him, as if noticing them for the first time. All of us were there for Hayden . Every single one of us.

“ When I win,” Robbie choked out between panting breaths, “you’ll all answer to me. You’ll be mine to do with what I want.”

“ It doesn’t work that way,” Hayden said. “ The SC will never allow you to have a pack again.”

“ Fuck the SC .” His words were full of bravado, but his quick gasps took on a panicked rhythm.

Hayden and Robbie circled one another. Why didn’t Gage or Van or anyone jump in and grab Robbie now? Fuck it. I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to act. I shifted into my faun form and waited for an opportunity.

My plan wasn’t a plan at all. I just wanted to distract Robbie long enough that others could pin him down. If it involved kicking the jerk beetle in the nuts, well, that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. When Robbie turned so his tail was right in front of me, I stepped forward. Jeremy and Ash tugged me back.

“ Let me go,” I shouted at them.

At the commotion, Hayden took his eyes off Robbie to look at me. Robbie seized the opportunity and lunged. I screamed. Everything was a blur of motion and limbs and fur.

When things settled, Robbie was sprawled across the dirt. He was limp. His eyes were closed. His chest barely moved.

Hayden stood over him with his teeth clamped on his brother’s neck. Then he whimpered, like he just realized what’d happened. He tore his bloody mouth away. His shift rolled over him faster than my eyes could track. One moment he was a massive badass wolf and the next he was human.

He dropped to his knees beside his brother and pulled him into his arms.

“ Robbie ,” he sobbed and pressed his face into the bloody fur at his brother’s injured throat. “ Why didn’t you surrender?”

I rushed forward and wrapped my arms around Hayden . I didn’t know what to say, so I simply held him.

“ Is Xander here? Teague ? Someone , help!” Hayden shouted at his pack.

Then my brother was there with us. “ Where is Gretchen ? Wake him up. Please . He has to tell me where Gretchen is. Don’t let him die. He can’t die.” Conny leaned over and put his face right up to Robbie’s . “ Where is Gretchen ?”

Robbie’s eyelashes fluttered, almost like he was opening them just enough to see through his lashes. Was I imagining that? Then his mouth twitched. Almost like he was fighting off a smile. That sweaty piece of toe lint was up to something.

“ Don’t get too close, Conny , he’s?—”

Robbie whipped his head around before I could finish. I yanked Hayden back, but not fast enough. Robbie’s teeth grazed Hayden’s jaw .

“ No !” I shouted.

Before Robbie could try again, my chest exploded with fiery heat, almost like I was shifting, but it was so much more. Green burst through the yellowy leaves around us as shrubs and trees shot to life, knocking us to our asses. In a flurry of rustling leaves, a bunch of twigs, branches, and roots descended upon Robbie . When the whirl of activity slowed, Robbie was gone. Had the forest consumed him? Had I killed Hayden’s brother? I scrambled forward and pushed at the leaves. There , encased in a cage of twigs and roots, was Robbie . He was unconscious, but alive.

Only then did the heat inside me ebb away. I fell back on my ass. What had I done?

“ How did that happen?” Conny gaped at me for a moment, then he crawled toward Robbie . “ Is he alive? He can’t die. Please say he’s alive.”

Van stepped forward. From one step to the next, he shed his fiery hellhound form to take on his human one. “ He’s still alive. I can hear him breathing. We might need a hacksaw to get him out, though.” He glanced at me. “ Unless you can back this up a little?”

“ That wasn’t… I didn’t…” I stared at the tangled cage. “ Fauns can’t…”

“ You saved me.” Hayden tugged me into his arms. “ I didn’t think he’d try to kill me.”

“ How did that happen?” I swallowed hard, unable to pull my gaze from the leafy cage. “ I didn’t mean to do that. I don’t know what happened.”

“ You saved me,” Hayden repeated.

Huh . Maybe I had. It was like my magic, which until recently had done little more than allow me to shift, was on steroids. Was this because I’d met my fated mate? Was it because Hayden had been super-sized by the Eternal Magic , so she’d super-sized me too? Fuck if I knew. But the important thing was Hayden was here. He was alive. And Robbie had been caught.

“ I love you, Hayden .” I hugged him as tight as I could.

The leafy mound by our feet shook. Robbie was awake.

“ They cheated.” The flora muffled Robbie’s words, but they were still loud enough that everyone could hear he was still very much alive. Leaves jiggled as he squirmed within his living prison. “ I demand Hayden surrender to me. His life is forfeit now. I am alpha.”

“ Real life doesn’t work that way,” Van muttered. He pulled the leaves away to expose Robbie’s face. “ There you are. Robert Walker , you are under arrest for crimes against supernatural beings.”