Page 190 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

“Don’t you remember? The one that my momma was telling us last night? The one that had the monsters with feathers?”

“Oh.” A tiny tremor ran through Samuel. “Yeah, I remember. But it wasn’t feather monsters, it was shadow monsters with talons for fingers.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Trevor shrugged off the correction. “Remember it? She said the monsters came on nights like this, when there was a full moon above and no stars in the sky.”

Samuel looked up at the sky, which was like a blanket of black aside from the silvery light of the moon.

“You’re looking a little scared, Sammy.”

Samuel sputtered at the taunt. “No, I’m not! The monster’s probably just a giant bird, and I’ve helped my daddy catch all sorts of those.”

“Oh, yeah? Then do you wanna go deeper?”

“I-into the forest?” Samuel glanced behind them. To him, the forest seemed to stretch on and on forever. “I dunno, Trevor, maybe we should just go home? I’m sure our moms are gonna notice we left home—”

“No!” Trevor zoomed past him and leapt onto the fallen trunk. He pointed to the forest, and in Samuel’s eyes, he looked dazzling in the moonlight. “Let’s try exploring! We might see something really cool.”

Samuel ran to the trunk and put his hands on the wood as if he were going to jump up there, too, but he stopped short.

“What’s wrong?” Trevor asked.

He stared at the bark, watching a beetle trundle across the surface. “But what about the boys who went into the forest and never came back?” he asked. “Michael has been missing for two weeks, and Charlotte’s brother hasn’t been seen in months.”

“Oh.” Suddenly, Trevor didn’t look so dazzling up there; he looked like a little kid. “Maybe we should go home after all. I…I don’t want to end up like them.”

“Okay. Do you need help getting down?”

Trevor shook his head, then both boys jumped as the leaves rustled.

Samuel stared with wide eyes as a dark figure stepped out from between the trees.

Trevor yelped and fell off the trunk in his haste to get away.

But all Samuel could do was stare as the figure got closer and closer.

Finally, the figure started to look less like something dragging itself out of the shadows and more like a person.

“Hey, what are you two doing out here?” The figure pulled back its hood, revealing Troy’s face.

Seeing Troy as a young teenager punched me in the chest. I recoiled from the memories of him yanking my hair and pushing me down. The gray film over the vision grew thicker as the shock rolled over me.

Get it together, Bryn, I coached myself. Just get through it. You can’t lose it now. It took a couple of seconds to recover, but when I felt stronger, I opened my eyes, and the vision was stable again.

“Wh-what are you doing here?” Samuel retorted, his tone defensive and petulant.

“Y-yeah.” Trevor had pushed himself to his feet after his fall. And, like Samuel, he was probably terrified that they’d just been caught away from home after curfew by the alpha’s son.

“Well, of course, I’m just taking a walk.” Troy’s tone was innocent, but he stalked toward the boys like the predator he was. “And you two? Sneaking chocolates to eat?”

The boys gasped and glanced at each other. I could see Samuel’s disbelief and worry that Troy had caught them reflected in Trevor’s eyes.

“Actually,” Troy went on, “I’m not really going out for a walk. I’m on a hunt. A monster hunt.”

“Really?” Trevor stepped forward. “Are you protecting the pack from the talon monster?”

Troy blinked. “Uh, yeah, sure. I’m out here protecting the pack while you pups are misbehaving.”

“We’re not misbehaving,” Samuel protested at the same time that Trevor burst out, “We’re not pups!”

Troy smirked. “Oh no? Then prove it. Let’s hunt monsters together.”

Both boys froze.

“You want our help?”

“But you’re so much bigger than us…”

“Even older guys like me need help from time to time. And you two are closer to the ground. You’ll see monster tracks much easier than I can.”

Samuel looked at Trevor, and the excitement from earlier was in his friend’s eyes again.

“Okay, sure!” He bounced on the balls of his feet. “I wanna be a monster hunter. What about you, Sammy?”

“Um…yeah, me too.” Samuel didn’t sound as confident. My heart broke for the poor shy boy.

“Great.” Troy grinned. “Follow me.”

He took the boys deep into the forest, starting on the path that led to Wargs’ territory.

About a mile into the walk, he veered off.

The forest grew less and less familiar as they moved between the trees.

They walked for at least two hours, and then the trees gave way to a large cliff.

A cavern opened at the base of the tall formation.

It reminded me of the cliff from my dream, but in the darkness, it was hard to tell if it was the same one.

Troy led them into the cavern, and they stuck close to him as they wound through a long tunnel.

It was much darker in there without the moonlight, and Samuel hugged himself as he shivered in the damp cold.

He peered around Trevor and saw firelight.

His shoulders began to relax as they got closer to the fire…

until he saw four other boys sitting at the fire with their backs to him.

“Hey,” Trevor said as he and Samuel walked toward the other boys. “What’s going on?”

What they saw stopped them both in their tracks. The boys weren’t simply sitting by the fire; they were tied tightly with rope, their mouths bound with duct tape.

Trevor screamed first, then Samuel. They shot back toward the tunnel, only for a hulking, dark figure to cut them off.

This figure lifted them by the front of their jackets and tossed them back to where Troy now held a rope.

They screamed and cried and struggled, but they were powerless against Troy’s strength.

When Troy was finished, he dragged Samuel and Trevor to the fire next to the other boys.

Samuel was crying heavily now. Through his eyes, I saw symbols carved into the wall. I recognized some of them. I wanted to shut my eyes and look away but knew I shouldn’t. It was easier to control this vision than the one with my mom, but if I wasn’t careful, I would leave this vision behind.

The figure moved out of the shadows, but it didn’t help to identify his large form. He was dressed from head to toe in black, and his hood obscured his features when he avoided the firelight. But I knew who he was the minute he started speaking.

“I asked you to bring more pups,” Gregor growled to Troy. “You only managed two?”

Troy avoided looking directly at his father’s face as he answered. “It’s more difficult now that the pack’s wising up. I can’t exactly sneak into their homes and take them from their beds, can I?”

Gregor clicked his tongue and stared at Troy. Samuel trembled. Even he felt the weight of the alpha’s glare, though he couldn’t see his face.

Troy lowered his eyes to the ground and bowed his head. “I…I’m sorry for talking back. I’ll do better next time.”

“That’s exactly what I expect of you. If we want this to happen, you need to do better.”

Troy said nothing, just bowed his head lower.

It was surreal to see him so demure. He and his father had shared a strong, if somewhat cold relationship in public, but that wasn’t the case in private.

Troy had said as much when he’d held me captive in that cave, but seeing it was different than just hearing him talk about it.

What was equally alarming was how unreasonable Gregor was being. Troy was right; there was no way to increase the number of boys he could kidnap other than sneaking them from their homes. What did Gregor expect?

“Let’s begin.” He held out his hand toward his son. “Bring me the knife.”

Troy nodded and went to a duffle bag in the corner of the room. He pulled out a surprisingly plain-looking dagger and brought it back. Gregor took the blade and raised it, chanting in a language I didn’t understand. The cavern filled with static electricity, like a storm was about to touch down.

He flourished the blade as he slowly moved behind the boys, still chanting. They were all trembling; some had even wet themselves. If either Troy or Gregor noticed, they didn’t care, but the pungent stench heightened the horror of what was about to happen.

Gregor stood behind a boy whose red hair glowed orange in the firelight.

After speaking a few more words, his hand lashed out, gripping the boy by his chin.

He whimpered through the duct tape as Gregor lowered the blade to his throat.

In one quick stroke, he dragged the blade across the boy’s throat, and blood spurted forward, sizzling as it hit the fire.

I would have gasped if I could. The boys started to scream in earnest. Trevor tried to squirm toward the exit, and Samuel started to do the same, but Troy gripped them by their hair and dragged them back toward the fire.

Gregor already had the next boy by the chin. The first had slumped backward, crying as he bled out on the ground. The symbols written on the walls began to glow pale yellow, and at the same time, the flames began to die down. It was as if the symbols were consuming the light from the fire.

With another quick swipe, blood once again spurted into the fire.

The light dimmed more, and the yellow of the symbols brightened to a sickly green.

As Gregor reached the third boy, the first boy started to seize on the ground.

Froth foamed at his lips, dripping onto the ground.

The remaining boys stared, trembling as tufts of fur started to sprout across the first boy’s body.

Clothes tore, and small paws slipped free of the rope.