The Wanted Alpha

Chapter 32 - Graves

Ethan

I tore through the tree line heading north. I could feel my connection to April starting to wane, she was passing out and I could feel she was injured. This just further fuelled my adrenaline, my fear, my anger and my determination.

'Just hang on April, I'm coming' I pushed out into our mind-link, praying she could hear just a whisper of it.

I knew she was about to be taken...taken away from me. False hope of her being there, at my destination, waiting for me, would do me no favours. But I had found her once, I would find her again. If Greer was the leak within our pack, had he been the one to inform Monkshood Moon where April was? If that was the case, it would only seal his fate further. Had that pack just been waiting for her to leave our borders to snatch her? That thought made my stomach churn with that familiar feeling of guilt...I should've never allowed this...another addition to the list of things I 'should've' done for my mate.

'We'll wallow in self pity when we have her back. Right now, focus' Ezra bit out, the words felt as though they were as much for him as they were for me.

My muscles burned as I continued my pace, only pausing a coupling of times to check the map on my phone to make sure I was heading in the right direction. As I drew closer to the site, I could smell the death in the air; blood, gasoline, smoke and the faint scent of nitrocellulose, firearms had been used and recently. I could see three vehicles up ahead with slight wisps of smoke coming from one of them. A black SUV had ploughed into the side of the one my mate would have been in. I headed round to the open passenger door on the other side, sniffing the interior. I could smell her blood, a small amount, mostly likely a minor flesh wound. The scent of my Beta's blood, though, dominated the small area. He must have been closest to the point of impact and taken the brunt of the blow. I could smell the scent of multiple individuals around, fading, as the scene was now around two hours old. I could smell the scents of eight other wolves around, not rogue but definitely pack, along with four quite bizarre scents...and that of a human? The other two SUVs were empty, doors open. I searched into the forest lining the road, just into the trees, finding the first body. A wolf and not one of mine, as my eyes focused in the diminishing light I spotted seven more, also wolves. Some looked as though they had been slashed, one looked as though they had been shot, the remaining looked to have been mauled. 

Where in the hell were my pack members?

And what the fuck were these four scents?

They didn't have the musky edge wolves had, or the simple scent of a human. It smelt almost, energising? Like if electricity had a scent.

Shifting back to human form I checked the bodies, looking for any clue as to who they were or what pack. I was certain these were Monkshood Moon pack, but I had to be certain. Only two of them had phones, luckily they opened with the fingerprint of the bodies I found them on. The first thing I did was change the passwords so I could access them later to properly go through the contents. The cells were new, and had no personal information, just some messages to and from an unknown number. The messages spoke about them finding their target, having eyes on her and following to intercept. I could work out the recipient, but not here, I would need my computer at home. I added the phones to the pouch that contained my own, these were the only physical evidence I had found here.

I needed more people to search.

I quickly phoned Carrick to tell him to send more trackers to my location to scour the area and vehicles to find as much information as possible.

I couldn't smell my pack's scent leaving the area, so they couldn't have gone on foot, was another vehicle here? Maybe it belonged to the owners of these weird scents and the human scent.

I closed my eyes and focused on my bond with my mate, trying to sense a direction. I could feel she was unconscious but our bond was there, faint, but there. 

... Northeast...my wolf felt as though he was being pulled towards something, our mate.

The team that was heading to me currently were less than an hour behind. I instructed them to stay at the site till I had coordinates for them; I had no clue where I was going, just a vague direction.

I shifted and followed the pull. 

Three hours further northeast, I came to a house in the woods. A human town lay further up the road, so this wasn't an isolated location to bring hostages. Lights shone brightly from the lower and upper levels into the night, so they were hardly being inconspicuous either. My mate was definitely inside, my bond was practically vibrating with intensity. I focused on my hearing, I could hear the sounds of many people inside, over a dozen, but mainly on the upper storey. I took a deep breath of the air; my pack members were inside that house, along with those four strange scents and several belonging to humans. 

These fuckers wouldn't be expecting an Alpha to burst through the door right now. I sent the location to my team so that they could make their way here, I wouldn't need their backup to fight, I could take these people. But I would need them to help with the clean up afterwards and transport my mate safely if she was injured. 

Leaving the pouch containing the phones by the tree I was behind; I moved to the house, running at full pelt at the door, splintering it to shreds under my strength. The screams from two women rang out while the voices of two men shouted out in surprise. I grabbed the tallest one by the neck and slammed him up the wall.

"WHERE IS SHE?! WHERE'S MY MATE?!" I roared, practically shaking the entire house.

I felt a sharp blade placed near my head.

"Put him down, now, Alpha. I don't want to take your head, but I will if you don't put down my coven peer" he spoke with a deep baritone voice in an accent I couldn't place, that radiated power.

Coven peer?...vampires, that was the strange scent.

I turned my head slowly, glaring at the man. 

He was almost my height, with long, jet black hair, piercing golden hazel eyes and peculiar pale skin with a sleeve tattoo on his left arm. He held a chokutō in his hand and from the looks of it, he knew how to wield it expertly...unfortunately for him, I did too. 

I released the vampire in my hand, hearing him gasp for air and faced the vampire standing in front of me. Before he could register my movement I flicked the blade, catching the handle and aimed it at its previous handler. His shocked expression told me he had not expected me to also be an expert swordsman, as he raised his hands as a sign of surrender. I had been taking fencing since I was 8 years old and could handle any blade with ease.

"I won't ask again. Give. Me. My. Mate" my voice mixed with the growls of my wolf's, in a very real threat.

I heard footsteps hurry down the steps, Greer, followed by others.

"Alpha, wait…" but I cut off his words.

"You, don't get to say a damn thing!"

"A-Alpha Ethan?" one of the women timidly spoke out "we helped your pack, we didn't take anyone."

I noticed the other vampire male standing protectively in front of the woman speaking.

"Alpha, it's true. They didn't attack us, they helped us" Janine's voice spoke out, gaining my attention "some unknown pack wolves hit our car off the road. Another pulled up and tried to take our Luna but we stopped them, these guys helped and brought us here. We only just arrived a few minutes ago."

I looked back to the black haired vampire male in front of me, who had lowered his hands with an expectant look on his face. 

"Your Luna is still unconscious and so is your Beta...he was pretty badly injured" he looked down to the hallway with a curious expression "but he's healing well. The Luna just had a head injury."

I lowered the sword "take me to her, now!" I commanded.

"Of course. Can we also interest you in some pants? I feel like you could take someone's eye out with that thing" he said, indicating my lower half with his hand "and we do have children in the home. You wolves may be accustomed to walking around naked, but we are not" he said curtly, raising a brow.

"Here, Alpha" Greer said, holding some shorts out for me.

I snatched them out of his hand with a hard glare, putting them on. I would deal with him when I had my mate safe in my arms. 

"Why didn't you tell anyone where you were or that you were safe?!" I asked the three members of my pack with barely contained hostility.

"Like my sister said, we only just got here. All our phones were lost or damaged in all the commotion and none of these guys had a phone on them in their car. I just called Gamma Carrick now, just before you came" Jaime spoke.

"A-Alpha? She's just this way" one of the women pointed out, the one with bright green eyes.

I dropped the sword in my hand, letting it clatter to the floor as I strode past the tall vampire, sending a final hard stare his way and followed the woman. 

"Let's try and find something to block the doorway before we all freeze" I heard one of the other vampire males speak as I left the room.

The closer I came to the end of the hall, the stronger my mate's scent became. As did my heart rate and my wolf's whimpering for our mate. As the woman opened the door, April's meadow scent hit me like a slap to my face. I pushed past the woman and door, falling to my knees at my mate's side as she slept on the simple single bed. I leaned over her, holding her face in my hands, rubbing my forehead over hers and nuzzling her deeply. I hadn't even realised how my breathing had become so ragged or how my eyes stung. My greatest fear was never seeing my April's beautiful face again and that had almost happened today. The more I breathed in her scent, the calmer my wolf and I became. I placed gentle kisses on her lips and cheeks, smiling at the soft contented murmurs that escaped those perfect, red lips. I was loosely aware that we were alone now, I had no idea when the woman had left or closed the door. My mate started to stir, those mesmerising glacial blue eyes fluttering open, trying to focus on me.

"Ethan?" her voice was a strained whisper.

"It's ok, sweet. I'm here."

Chapter 33 - The Wanted Alpha