Page 4 of Alphas Never Hide (Willow Lake Supernaturals #5)

Chapter Four

HAYDEN

Ryley was wrong about me, but I didn’t have to explain myself to him, even if part of me wanted to.

“ What is that?” Ryley shrieked suddenly. His gaze darted from side to side and up and down.

My head was still fuzzy, so I hadn’t seen what had alarmed him. I shot to my feet and braced for a fight. Had Robbie tracked Ryley here? If I was going to deal with my brother, I wished Ryley hadn’t tried to leave a crater in my head. But tonight was not my night.

A massive black shadow blocked out the starry sky and I looked up. Oh . Now I understood. Thank Magic we weren’t under attack. Now that I knew the threat wasn’t a threat, I wobbled almost as much as Ryley , but pretended I was just moving to lean against a tree. I shouldn’t have stood so quickly, because now I was dizzy on top of having a throbbing headache .

“ Hi , Ogden ,” I called out to the newcomer. “ We’re down here.”

I hadn’t expected Van to show up with a posse, but I should have known better. I yanked my blood-stained shirt back on and waited for him to make his way to us. The leaves in the trees fluttered as the dragon’s small wings stirred the air and sent a few of them spiraling to the ground.

“ You know that ? What is it? A dragon?” Ryley gestured to Ogden , whose long snake-like body was weaving between the trees as he descended to us.

As soon as Ogden was on the ground, the dragon sniffed the air.

“ You’re bleeding. Do I need to eat him?” Ogden asked me. His intense dragon’s eyes blinked slowly as he eyed Ryley . Ryley let out a faint “meep” as he hobbled to safety behind me.

“ Don’t eat him,” I said. “ Is Van coming?”

“ Soon ,” Ogden agreed. He pointed at Ryley with the tip of his tail. “ Are you sure you can trust this one?”

I shrugged. “ We’ll know more when Van and Dillon get here, but my gut says yes.”

“ Of course I can be trusted,” Ryley said indignantly. “ The question is: Can I trust you?”

I didn’t bother replying. We’d been over this already.

“ They sent me ahead to check things out since they have to drive all the way around the lake and that’ll take a few,” Ogden said, ignoring Ryley’s outburst. He’d obviously dismissed Ryley as a threat. He wrapped his long body into a coil, as if settling in to wait. “ Can you text Simon and let him know we’re safe? My little kitty cat worries.”

“ You don’t have to stay.”

But before I could finish the words, he was already shaking his head. “ We’ll wait together, Alpha .”

Ogden had only moved to Willow Lake recently, but the other Willow Lakers had already brainwashed him into thinking I was the local alpha.

“ I’m not the alpha,” I muttered, for the billionth time in my life. Actually , that would only work out to about a couple hundred thousand times a day for the last twelve years, so that number might be a bit light.

“ Whatever you say, Alpha .” Ogden batted his reptilian-like eyes at me.

I didn’t bother correcting him again. My head hurt too much to argue. I sent the text to Simon , Ogden’s mate, and got an immediate thumbs-up in response. “ There . Simon knows you are with me.”

I sat down and leaned against a tree trunk. Ryley sank down behind me and huddled against my back, keeping me squarely between himself and the dragon. It almost made me smile. Apparently he was now trusting me to keep him safe.

But I was too tired to manage even that. My muscles burned. My head ached. And a bone-deep weariness had me closing my eyes. Just for a minute. Was I exhausted because I’d been running all night, because I’d been hunting for Robbie for months, or because Van was going to demand answers to questions I didn’t want to answer? I didn’t know. It was probably all three.

At least with Ryley , we finally knew one thing for certain. Robbie was still in the area. I’d figured as much, but Ryley was proof my gut was right.

I should shift and start tracking Ryley’s route back to Robbie’s hideout. Fuck , I was tired though. Maybe I’d rest a bit. Then , when I knew Ryley was safe with Van , I’d follow the faun’s path through the woods. I could have Robbie in custody by morning.

That should make me happy, and it did, but it also…

There was a lot of shit going on in my head right now.

“ Would he actually eat me?” Ryley whispered in my ear.

“ Not tonight,” I promised.

“ It’s for the best,” Ogden agreed. “ Simon would be mad if I was stuck in my dragon form for however long it took to digest you.”

Ryley pressed close enough to me that I could feel him shiver in disgust. “ You shouldn’t say shit like that to people. I promise I’m leaving the area as soon as I figure out how. You don’t need to threaten me.”

A strange pang shot through my chest at his words. Fuck . What was that? I must be hungry. I hadn’t eaten since I didn’t know when.

I opened my eyes to see what Ogden’s reaction would be to Ryley’s words, but he ignored the faun’s protest. Instead , he looked like he was admiring his long, sharp claws under the starlight. They were sparkly, like something had coated them with glitter.

“ I’m so glad Willow Lake has a nail technician who is a supe,” he said, as he held out his paw for me to admire. “ This gel treatment is brilliant, don’t you agree?”

Ryley snorted, but I felt the tension ease from his body. I wanted to tell him not to underestimate Ogden , but admittedly it would probably be difficult to feel too threatened by a dragon who was busy praising his manicure. Or would it be a pedicure? Either way, I’d never bothered with either. A wolf’s claws were his weapons. I wouldn’t let anyone else touch them, especially not to cover them in fingernail polish.

Ogden dropped his gaze down to Ryley’s feet. “ You know, they do hooves too. Yours look like they’ve been through a grinder.”

Ryley tucked his feet behind me and out of Ogden’s sight.

“ You’d be surprised how pretty they could make them look,” Ogden continued, as if Ryley hadn’t hidden his hooves. “ Levi and Isaac didn’t believe me either until I made them go with me.”

Ryley smacked me on the arm. “ You told me you didn’t know any fauns.”

“ Ouch .” He hadn’t hit me hard enough to hurt me, but I cringed and rubbed my arm to tease him.

Ogden’s gaze snapped over to us and a curl of smoke rolled out of his mouth.

“ There is no way that hurt you,” Ryley said. “ Tell the dragon I didn’t hurt you.”

“ This time,” I agreed. “ You didn’t hurt me this time.”

He folded his arms across his chest. “ We’ve been over this. How was I supposed to know you weren’t like the others? Now , answer my question. Were you lying about the whole faun thing?”

“ I don’t know any others,” I said. “ Levi and Isaac aren’t fauns. ”

“ A minotaur and a centaur,” Ogden said, filling Ryley in. He’d relaxed again, after deciding Ryley hadn’t injured me by hitting me. “ And now, we have a faun. We’ll have a little herd of hoofed supes soon.”

“ What the fuck? Do you realize how species-ist you sound when you group us together like that? Like we’re livestock?” Ryley scowled and crossed his arms. “ And for the record, you don’t have me.”

Ogden dipped his big dragon head. “ Of course. I’m sorry. I misspoke. It’s just you supes with hooves are quite rare. It seems notable that so many have come to Willow Lake .”

Ryley tilted his head. “ Fine . I guess that is unusual.”

“ Willow Lake is a special place,” I said quietly, because it was true. My father had once said the Eternal Magic herself blessed Willow Lake and the supes who lived there. Not every supe was welcome, though. The Eternal Magic had a way of driving those unwanted supes away.

I’d often wondered if the Eternal Magic had driven Robbie to create a situation where he’d had no choice but to leave. It made as much sense as anything else.

I’d heard someone once describe Willow Lake as a Supernatural Utopia , but I didn’t think that was it. Willow Lake had problems just like everywhere else, and we’d certainly had a lot of them over the last few months. But I’d always suspected what made us special was an enduring collective desire to respect the Eternal Magic and live harmoniously with different supes. That was the true magic of Willow Lake —its people. And , as a reward for embracing so many of her supernatural beings, the Eternal Magic blessed us with more gifts, like fated mates and guardians.

The sound of a vehicle in the distance had both Ogden and me turning our heads.

“ What ? What’s happening?” Ryley asked. He looked around, trying to see an invisible threat. Interesting . Ryley’s hearing must be as dull as a human’s.

Car doors slammed. A cacophony of chatter and footsteps tumbled toward us. I rubbed my forehead. If Robbie had been tracking Ryley here before, he wouldn’t need to now. My would-be rescuers were making enough noise to wake every creature in the forest and scare everyone else away.

Ogden opened his mouth and flicked his tongue through the air.

“ They’re ours,” he said, like I needed the confirmation.

“ Yours ?” Ryley asked. “ You have a thing about ownership, don’t you? Do you hoard people?”

Ogden rolled his eyes like Ryley was being ridiculous, but he still deigned to clarify by adding, “ Our friends.”

Light flickered through the trees as the others drew closer, so Van and Dillon must have been in their hellhound forms. My suspicions were confirmed when they burst through the last few trees separating us. Magical fire lapped over their inky black fur, but nothing around them caught fire. The fire from their hellhound forms filled the air with the scent of ash and smoke, so I couldn’t distinguish between them based on their scents. Ash , the fire mage, clung to the back of one, though, so that must be Dillon . Ash wouldn’t be able to touch Van’s fires without injuring himself .

A few steps behind them was Adrian , a wolf who’d recently moved to town. He carried his mate, Jeremy , on his back.

Was riding each other like horses a mate thing? I couldn’t imagine what it’d feel like, say, if Ryley climbed on my back, but I wished I had thought of that earlier. I could have carried Ryley out of here on my own and Van never would have needed to know about what’d happened.

Jeremy was busy talking to Ash , and neither of them had noticed us sitting in the shadows yet. Ryley , on the other hand, definitely noticed them. With each new arrival, he hunched lower and pressed harder against me.

“ I didn’t think I’d like riding on Adrian’s back, but I’m changing my mind. It’s pretty wild, and I bet we look amazing. Maybe this should be one of the competitions?” Jeremy suggested. “ We should take a selfie and use it for promotion.”

“ I still don’t understand how a discussion about hockey changed into Willow Lake holding its own Supernatural Track and Field Day ,” Ash muttered.

“ Well , count me out of that riding competition. Centaurs aren’t horses,” Isaac said as he came last. In his centaur form, he towered over the others.

I didn’t hear anyone else. Good . I didn’t need everyone in the whole town out here. There were already too many people making way too much noise. When Dillon and Adrian quit walking, their mates sat up straighter and glanced around the area. They both had weak eyesight and probably couldn’t see much past Van and Dillon’s fiery fur. Ash waved his hand through the air and a glowing fireball appeared above us, bathing the area in its warm glow .

“ Alpha !” Jeremy slid off his mate’s back and dashed to me.

“ Not the alpha,” I corrected him.

Adrian shifted and grabbed for his mate as he scowled at Ryley , but Jeremy was too quick. I hadn’t known Jeremy for more than a few months, but he treated me like he’d known me his whole life. He dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around me.

For a guy who was mostly human, he had quite the bear hug. And he was definitely a hugger. I’d been on this side of one of his hugs a few times now. I still didn’t like them.

“ When Van got your call, we were all so worried,” Jeremy said.

He pulled back and looked at me. “ You look like shit, and you smell worse,” he said. “ What happened to your face? And your shirt? Shit . That’s a lot of blood. Were you stabbed?”

Ryley huddled closer to my side, as if worried about what my friends might do to him when they found out he was the one who’d hurt me.

“ Move away from them,” Van commanded as he shifted into his human form.

“ Who ? Me ?” Jeremy asked. “ Or that guy?” Jeremy’s gaze drifted over Ryley’s body. “ So cool. I have so many questions. Like , how do you balance on two hind legs like that? I know trick dogs can walk around a bit on their back legs, but not like always, right? They usually go around on four when they aren’t performing. So I’m curious?—”

“ Jeremy ,” Adrian barked out.

“ Fine , fine.” Jeremy huffed .

“ Now’s not the time.” The wolf tugged his mate away.

Jeremy frowned as he took out his notebook and started scribbling in it. Yeah . That was more like him. As Van approached us, he inhaled deeply, not bothering to hide what he was doing. Ryley swallowed.

“ You smell like Robbie ,” Van said.

“ He said the same thing.” Ryley pointed at me. “ But I never caught the guy’s name. He was too busy gnawing on me for introductions. Like , seriously, who does that? I’m implementing a strict no-gnawing policy from here on out.”

“ Are you working with the wolves?” Van’s gaze drifted over the faun, cataloguing the injuries. There were a lot of them, but they were mostly superficial. It was as if Robbie had wanted the injuries to look worse than they were, so Van’s question didn’t surprise me.

“ Did you see this?” Ryley waved his hands over his chest. “ Do you think I did this for fun?”

“ Well ?” Van prodded.

Ryley’s jaw dropped open, and he crossed his arms. “ What kind of question is that?”

“ One I’d like the answer to,” Van pressed.

“ No ,” Ryley snapped. He stank of fear, but his hands were balled into fists and his leg was twitching like he was getting ready to kick again. “ I’m not working with those ass-blankets. They abducted me. A while ago, I guess. It’s definitely been longer than a week, but I lost track of time. But I finally escaped tonight and ran into this guy.” He pointed at me.

“ Thank you,” Van said. His body visibly relaxed, so Ryley must have been telling the truth. Van would have known if he wasn’t. It was one of the perks of being a hellhound. I’d thought as much, but it was reassuring to have it confirmed. “ We’re going to take you into town, okay? Get your injuries looked at. You’ll be safe.”

A shiver rolled through Ryley . “ I’m only trusting you because you and your friend over there are hellhounds.”

“ I know,” Van said. “ Now , let’s get you and Hayden out of here.”

“ Who are the rest of these people?” Ryley asked. His gaze darted from person to person. He pressed closer to me again.

I did a round of introductions. I ended with, “ You can trust them.”

Ryley frowned. “ Or not. Supes and I , we don’t get along.”

“ What does that mean? I swear they aren’t like Robbie .”

“ Yeah . Robbie’s an asshole,” Ryley agreed. “ But most supes are.”

Who the hell had hurt him? I growled low in my throat. He patted me on the arm.

“ It’s okay,” Ryley said. “ You’ve grown on me. I’ve decided you aren’t like those other supes.”

Considering earlier he’d been moaning about how he hadn’t managed to kill me, that was practically a declaration of love. A warm sensation flowed through me, leaving a feeling of lightness in its wake. I don’t know why I was so happy to have gained his trust, but I was.

“ Hey !” Jeremy said. “ I’m not an asshole and neither is Adrian .”

“ Thanks , bestie,” Ash muttered .

“ I mean, none of us are,” Jeremy quickly amended.

“ I guess we’ll see,” Ryley said. “ It’s not like I have a choice. Not if I want to get out of here.”

“ Speaking of which, can we finally leave?” Van asked. “ Doc is waiting for Ryley and Hayden .”

I straightened when he said my name. “ What ? No . I’m not returning to Willow Lake now. I’ll find my own way back later.”

“ You’re going to go see Doc Roberts .” Van narrowed his flame-filled eyes at me as if daring me to disagree.

“ No .” I shook my head. “ I’m fine. I’ll shift and all this,” I motioned at my face, “all of it will heal.”

Van lifted an eyebrow.

I tried to lift one too, but my face was too swollen to move the way I wanted. I winced. Van’s lips twitched as if he was trying not to smile because he thought I’d just proven his point.

“ Fuck off,” I muttered, but there wasn’t any heat behind my words.

“ Doc Roberts would have my head if I let you go running off with a head injury.”

“ This is the first lead we’ve had in months,” I explained. “ Robbie is out here. I need to find him.”

“ Dillon , Adrian , and I will follow the faun’s scent.”

I shook my head. “ It needs to be me. He’ll listen to me.”

“ Bullshit ,” Van said. “ Robbie has never listened to you. He won’t start now.”

“ But …”

“ The three of us will assess the situation. If we need backup, we’ll call for it, unlike you. ”

“ I called you, didn’t I ?” I scowled.

“ Only because you are both injured and couldn’t get out of here on your own. I bet you hated calling me.”

“ Oh , he’s got you there,” Ryley said. “ Although , to be clear, I was the one who called, not ‘ Mr . I’m a Lone Wolf ’ over here.” He dropped his voice again, like he was trying to mimic me, but I’d never sounded like that a day in my life.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Ash’s jaw drop open in surprise at Ryley’s jab. Yeah . Only a select few supes dared to disagree with me, and they certainly didn’t sass me. Not because I demanded obedience, but because of the alpha power thing. It made people uncomfortable to contradict the person they deemed to be their alpha.

I wasn’t sure why Ryley wasn’t intimidated by me or awed by my alpha power. But I think I kind of liked it.

Meanwhile , Van was staring at me, so I stared right back at him. To look away would mean I was submitting. My eyes watered. It didn’t help that my face and the back of my head were throbbing, and my body ached from all the running I’d done after a long, busy day at the garage.

I blinked.

Damn it.