Page 75 of Trust No Alpha

They dragged me toward a white van.

Thorne tried to follow but another man held him back. Thorne could have taken him, I knew he could, but the man wore police blues and carried a gun.

“Thorne!” I called over my shoulder. “I’ll come back. I swear I’ll come back. I’ll make Father listen!”

I was of age and an Alpha had chosen me. Father was going to get an earful when I saw him.

The two men on either side of me pushed me into the back seat of the van, strapping me in. One of them got in by my side as the other shoved the door closed.

“No sudden moves,” he warned me. “Or I’ll have to handcuff you.”

“Fuck you,” I snarled. I could have continued to fight, but it would get me nowhere. There were too many of them.

When the other men got into the van, I noticed there were four in all. Four men to come take a lowly Omega into custody? What a joke.

The drive to the mansion was short, of course, down Thorne’s long, curving drive and about half a block up the road to the entrance to Father’s property. A minute at most, and that was because the driver took it slow.

They pulled me from the van and escorted me up the flower-lined path, for even in winter Father had flowers imported and planted every time any batch died. I pushed away from the men and stood, then walked so they no longer had to carry me.

I wasn’t going to let these men or Father take my pride. I had Alpha genes and Father’s bloodline. I looked up when the front door opened.

Reilly, Father’s butler, stood in his usual formal suit looking down his nose at me.

“Reilly,” I said as if nothing were out of the ordinary. I shook the men off me and waltzed inside. “Nice to see you.”

“Hmph,” he replied.

I faced him. He was a smallish Alpha, never nice to me. “Was that a word?” I asked.

He did not reply.

“Where’s Father?” I asked.

“Here.”

I looked up to see him descending the palatial, curved staircase that dominated the front room.

He looked the same as he had before I left. The wounds I’d given him were healed. He held himself straight and tall, shoulders back, chin lifted.

I emulated that posture not only because he challenged me, but because I’d learned to stand and walk that way since early childhood.

“Father. Took you long enough to find me.” I glared at him.

He moved toward me, looking me up and down. “You are unharmed, then?”

“You know I am. You know I’ve been with our neighbor.”

“I didn’t know until this morning when Scard told me he smelled you all over that property! Hawthorne Mauresett! How could you? He is a dangerous Alpha. I didn’t know if you were dead or alive.”

“He’s my bondmate and you will let me go back to him at once!”

“Bondmate? You can’t form a mate-bond.”

I heard more footsteps on the stairs. I saw Trigg round the bend, his hand on the rail. He stopped when he saw me, eyes wide, but said nothing. I nodded at him but he did not respond.

Turning back to Father, I said, “Whether I can or not, he’s legally claimed me.” I was hot all over. I’d never been more enraged in my life.

“I have yet to see any legal paperwork. Believe me, I’ve checked,” Father said.