Page 32 of Ruthless Alpha Beast

Our imminent threat alarm sounded this morning, indicating that someone has spottedsomething. I’m not going to assume what that thing is, but I’ve got some ideas.

We’ve been searching for that something for a whole day, and all we’ve found are more and more patches of decaying forest.

That’s all.

I instructed my men to spread out, some of us in our wolf forms, others in our human forms. We’ve all noticed the increasing decay, but no one’s said anything. Not even those who are in their human forms—it’s just something that hangs over us as we soldier on.

But I can tell that morale is getting low.

As the sun begins to set, I instruct everyone to stop.

“We’ll find a place to camp for the night. I see a higher, shielded area a dozen trees to the right, we’ll go there.”

“Yes, Alpha”,I hear them respond in unison as they follow behind me.

“I’ll coordinate nightwatch,” Dylan says, frowning beneath the moonlight. He almost looks as tired as I feel, butnightwatch is something we need to coordinate if there’s a threat still lurking around.

“Good,” I tell him. “I’ll go first.”

“Are you sure?”

I nod. “Just make sure that we set up camp properly, the usual way, with all the correct vantage points. We’re not taking any chances.”

When we talk about setting up camp, all that entails is making a fire and positioning ourselves in a spot that is hidden but has a view of all our surroundings.

We like sleeping outdoors, heck, I prefer it to cabin life sometimes. To sleeping on the couch,definitely.

But I’m not thinking about that right now.

Dylan helps out as promised, and soon most of my men are asleep, their snores mingling in with the rest of the night-time wildlife in these woods.

I feel the heat from the flames warm my bare back as I gaze out at the sleeping forest. It’s so dark, so vast, and who knows what’s hiding among the trees. But at least, here, there’s healthy land.

It’s nice to be reminded of the good.

I have hope.

Somehow, after a little while, my mind begins to drift to Tara. I wonder what she’s doing, and I wonder whether she’s afraid.

I didn’t like the look on her face when the alarm went off.

But why should I care?

Because she’s my alibi for this whole marrying-a-witch thing. Still, it’s not like Iwanther to be scared.

Rationally, I know that she’s safe at the pack, safer than she’d be out here anyway. But she’s still just a human, and she’s with my packmates who don’t know or particularly like her yet.

I consider doing something, but then realize that there’s nothing I can do.

Once we find out exactly what this threat is, everyone will be a whole lot safer. Tara included. She’ll be less anxious, and that’ll be better for us both.

I’ve never liked seeing her anxious. Frustrated, maybe a little flustered, yes, but actually worried, no.

“Alpha?”

“Yes?” I turn to one of my shifters who’s interrupting my train of thought. The way he said Alpha made it sound like he’d been saying it a few times.

“It’s my turn to nightwatch.”