Page 18 of Crossed Fates

I tried to shake the sensation by rolling down my window to inhale fresh air.

“I can feel it.” Alaric’s words came out in a rumble of sound that vibrated through the car. “The turmoil. The pain. The danger.”

“From your pack?”

“Yes.”

Shit. Nathan could do that, too. Well, to an extent. He could speak telepathically to packmates within a certain distance of him. He could also control his wolves, but that wasn’t an ability he regularly used.

“Is it your alpha?” I wondered. “Is he calling to you?”

“Something like that,” he muttered. “More like my wolf is reacting to a disturbance.” He cut me a sideways glance. “Bitten wolves aren’t telepathic. We adhere to a hierarchy with an alpha at the top, and we’re bonded in a way, but nothing on the mental hive-mind level.”

I tried to ignore his knowing stare, but I felt it engraving a hot path along my cheek and my neck. “What?” I demanded after a beat, not liking the way he kept staring at me. The intensity in the car was overwhelming enough without his incessantlooks.

“Your questions tell me you don’t know much about Bitten wolves. And yet, you know where Silver Lake is located. That’s very interesting, Makayla. Very interesting indeed.”

“It just means I haven’t studied your kind. I wouldn’t read too much into it.”

“Oh, but I am,” he drawled. “Did you know we can be killed from things like, say, a knife wound?”

“Most wolves can die from that,” I pointed out. “Especially when strategically placed. But yes, I’m aware your kind is more susceptible than others.”

“And yet you didn’t know about our alpha structure.” The taunt in his tone had my grip tightening on the steering wheel. Was he trying to piss me off?

“I didn’t say that, did I?” I countered. “I just asked if you could sense your alpha.”

“Hmm,” he hummed, his body less tense than before. It seemed talking to me had calmed him down. Or perhaps having both windows open helped.

I decided to keep the fresh air flowing as I drove, but the tension licked the air again as I turned off the highway toward Silver Lake.

And it mounted even more with each passing mile.

My stomach churned beneath the weight of Alaric’s growing aggression. “What is it?” I finally asked, my tone breathless. We were maybe thirty minutes out now, and I was ready to pull over and just wish him luck. He could still shift while injured. Then he could run home. Wouldn’t be too hard with all the woods around here.

“He’s dying,” Alaric whispered, the words killing my idea to pull over and instead having me press harder on the gas. “Fuck, I can feel it. He’s… his wolf… he’sseeking.” The word came out on a pant, his head falling back against the headrest.

Damn, had he been driving, he would have crashed or stomped on the brakes by now. Knife wound or not, he couldn’t seem to move.

“Faster.” His voice broke on the word. “Please. Go. Faster.”

I didn’t hesitate, just did exactly what he asked, putting all my skill and supernatural ability into navigating his sporty little car at highly illegal speeds. Fortunately, it was too late for anyone to be out and too early for cops to be lying in wait.

The path came easily to me, years of driving similar roads in another version of this world paving a trail that wasn’t difficult for me to follow.

Until we entered the primary grounds, littered with trees and dotted with homes throughout a sprawling woodsy landscape.

“I need to know what house,” I said quietly, although I suspected that I already knew.

So when he gave me the same location of Nathan’s main residence, those suspicions were confirmed.

Alaric really was an alpha. Perhaps notthealpha of Silver Lake, but the brother of one.

Which meant he’d be the alpha’s successor unless he had a strong beta nearby.

Thatwas what had Alaric’s wolf all up in arms—he could sense his pack’s need for him. Their leader was dying, and the animal souls were calling for their heir, begging him to come home, to make everything whole for them.

I stabbed an alpha,I realized.An alpha who thinks I’m his mate.