Alpha: A Rough Shifter Romance

by Sara Fields

  This man didn’t respond to any of that.

  He appeared human, but there was something more than that. Something wild, untamable, and entirely too dangerous, unnatural even. The longer I stared at him, the more I felt like something was undeniably wrong.

  The rest of the men turned toward me and the one carrying Dawn passed her off to another. He moved quickly, tossing her in the back of the SUV and hopping into the driver’s seat as fast as he could. The engine revved and I raced forward to try to stop him, but the others barked several quick orders. They turned toward me and prepared themselves to fight, blocking my path to the vehicle as it sped away down the road toward the gate.

  They weren’t ready for me. I was the alpha and that made me the ultimate predator. The men reached for the guns at their waists, but I had already begun to move. My claws tore into the ground, propelling my body forward toward the men. One of them managed to pull a semi-automatic from the holster. He popped off a shot and it went off in some wild direction, thudding into a nearby tree instead of me. I growled loudly and behind me, angry snarls echoed at my back.

  My pack had come. They were here to battle by my side.

  We would get our omega back, together.

  They howled behind me, furious as the SUV peeled off behind the human men. My wolves moved to follow but the team fired off a number of warning shots. One bullet grazed my paw and it burned hot. I snarled in pain as I realized what had happened.

  They had silver bullets. They knew our weakness.

  This was trouble.

  I paused, furious.

  “They have silver weapons,” I snarled. “Be wary. Circle around and do not engage unless you are close enough to take one of them down in a single blow.”

  A number of wolves stood at my back. Rebecca was one of them.

  “I will not leave your side, alpha. The omega is important to me too,” she snarled next to me, furious at what she’d seen so far.

  “I will not see you hurt, beta,” I replied harshly, and I could see her shudder at the gravity of my tone.

  “I’m not going to be,” she growled in return, and she crouched low to the ground, gathering her strength for the opportune moment to strike. The men spread outward into a pointed formation, training their weapons upon us and readying themselves to fire.

  Their irises were even more yellow then before, almost as if they were changing right before me. They had seemingly grown in size, filling out their combat gear even more than when I’d first laid eyes on them. I studied them more closely now, noticing that their beards seemed thicker, their noses longer, their nails sharper.

  They smelled distinctly of human but there was a very faint scent of wolf there. It felt like it didn’t belong together.

  I rolled my upper lip when the man in charge took a step toward me. He was careful to keep his gun aimed directly at my head. I took a step forward in challenge and he faltered just the slightest bit. I growled more loudly this time and a glimmer of fear crossed his features. He was scared and rightly so. Even though they were carrying silver bullets and weren’t entirely human, I was the alpha wolf and that carried with it a certain invincibility that none of the other shifters were privy to.

  Sure, silver was fatal to me, just like it was to my betas. There was one very important difference for me though. It took time and quite a bit of it to really hurt me. Eventually, it could take me down, but it would take a lot. A whole lot.

  He’d have to empty that entire clip into me before I was able to reach him and rip his head from his shoulders. The likelihood of that was slim to none. I crouched, readying myself to attack. Beside me, Rebecca trembled with eagerness. She wanted to fight, and I did too. The others were restless just like the two of us.

  “I don’t want to lose any wolves today,” I said carefully to them.

  “Our lives are yours, alpha. For the omega,” they all replied in unison.

  “For the omega,” I echoed. “Wait for my word.”

  I could feel the presence of my betas moving into position in the nearby woods, using the cover of the brush to hide their coats while the men’s attention was kept focused on me and the small group of wolves at my back. A second segment of my pack was circling around the soldiers, closing in on them from behind. Like a vise, we would close in on them from the front and the back until they were no more. They’d taken my mate and they were going to pay for that with their lives.

  “Hold,” I ordered.

  My wolves tensed, preparing themselves.

  The soldiers stilled, watching us closely with a sense of confidence that I couldn’t wait to destroy.

  “Hold,” I said once more. My betas moved in behind the men. They were so close that I could see the golden glimmer of their eyes amongst the dense brush.

  I took a single step forward, wanting to test the soldiers.

  All at once, the front line of men shrieked, a sound that reminded me of the yip of a young pup. In a flurry, I watched as they shifted right in front of me. I narrowed my eyes as I took in the sight of their bodies transforming, their fingers elongating and their nails lengthening into long claws. Their fur wasn’t as thick as ours though and their front paws didn’t descend all the way down to touch the ground. Instead, they remained upright on two feet.

  Their snouts were elongated. Their ears were pointed as ours were, but they didn’t turn into full wolves. Instead, there were elements of both human and wolves, as well as the presence of certain features that were distinctly werewolf in origin. It was as though someone had taken features from each of those three beasts and mixed them together as one.

  I snarled.

  These weren’t men. They weren’t shifter or werewolves either. These were monsters. Genetically engineered soldiers designed to fight for the people who ran this place. If I was a gambling man, I’d bet that they were created right here in a lab deep underground and I’d also wager that was exactly what Dawn had found before she’d been discovered and taken from me.

  The hideous monsters growled in return, holding the front line while a number of men still pointed guns at us stood in back of them.

  My betas were in full position behind them.

  “Those in the woods, take out the humans with the guns first. We will deal with the beasts,” I ordered. “Hold for a moment longer. You will attack on my word.”

  “Yes, alpha,” my pack responded as one.

  The engineered beasts dug at the dirt with their claws, ready for battle. They had no idea what was coming for them though. My pack was strong, and these monsters were going to find out exactly how fierce and tough we were, even if they had silver bullets.

  “Now.”

  The clearing exploded into a flurry of fur, claws, and bullets. My betas tore in from their positions in the woods behind them and attacked the men holding the back line, ripping into wrists and throats without pause while I and the others burst forward toward the beasts at the front. Our attack surrounded them in moments and the look in their eyes went wild. The sound of men screaming echoed as we shredded into their numbers, but I heard the distinct yelp of my betas in pain too. Our attack had not gone without sacrifice.

  We fought onward. One of the monsters and I slammed into each other, while he tried to use his claws to tear into my flesh. He failed though. His claws weren’t going to slash at me, not ever. I used his momentary surprise at his botched attack and used my full body weight to slam him down to the ground hard. Without hesitation, I pressed myself onto him, biting into his throat and tearing through his jugular vein with my teeth. Blood spurted into my mouth and onto the dirt around me, but I didn’t care.

  I moved onto the next. Quickly.

  My pack worked in concert, taking out one man after the next. The copper scent of blood hung heavy on the air as we decimated their numbers. We ripped each one apart, limb by limb, until all their guns fell to the earth.

  A shrill alarm began to ring, so loud that it made my ears flatten to my head.

 
More men poured out of the building, exiting through the same door that they’d carried Dawn out of. These men had a similar scent to the soldiers we’d already encountered, although it was weaker. The men were large, and though they appeared quite strong, they were no match for us.

  My pack took care of them as though their deaths were simply child’s play.

  After all that was over, a single man strode out from that door. He was bigger than all the rest and he had his gaze trained right on me. He was older, with long white hair and eyes flecked with yellow. He was wearing a pristine white lab coat and the hair on the back of my neck rose in alarm.

  His scent was different. Stronger. More intense. He smelled of human and wolf and werewolf in a combination that was much more potent than the rest. It felt instinctually more dangerous than the men that we had already faced.

  “I take it that you’re the leader,” he observed.

  I growled low, warning the man that he was skating on thin ice. I wouldn’t hesitate to rip out his throat just as I had done to the abominations behind me. I had to end this and soon. The more time that passed, the farther away that black SUV would travel and the harder it would be to get my mate back.

  “I’m going to take you alive. You would be the final ingredient for my perfect soldier. Your DNA is the answer that I’ve been waiting for. I’m sure of it,” the man whispered. His eyes opened just a hair too wide and I got the distinct impression that this man was insane.

  “This one is mine,” I told my betas.

  They continued to fight, taking down the rest of the men who had joined this one. They circled around me in a wide ring, using their presence simply to intimidate this man who had challenged their alpha.

  “My work will be complete when I have your samples. You’ll make me famous,” the man whispered, his voice breaking with a distinctly unhinged tremor. His gaze remained trained on me, a certain deranged madness behind those wide eyes. He reached into the pocket of his lab coat and pulled out what looked like a small dart gun. Without hesitation, he aimed at me and engaged the trigger. Instinctively, I rolled to the side and the feathered dart landed in the dirt, directly in the spot where I’d been standing before.

  His upper lip rolled and the feral insanity in his eyes intensified into fury. In a rush, his clothes were torn into shreds as his body increased in size, his muscles ripping through the threads of cloth as though they were sheets of paper. His canines and his claws lengthened, as did the thickness of his white hair. Coarse fur sprouted through his pale skin and he roared as he stared me down. His wolf features were stronger, but there were still elements of werewolf in his makeup. He still stood upright at nearly eight feet tall, long arms and legs flexing as he readied himself to attack. While his fur was denser than the others had been, it was still stringy and not nearly as thick as mine. His irises were flecked with both golden yellow and bright red. They were the eyes of an overzealous madman.

  He burst toward me, his movement brash. I reared up on my hind legs and snarled as his body collided with mine, but I was still bigger and stronger. I was the top predator here on Earth, the ultimate design in natural perfection. Even with all his engineered traits, he would still end up being no match for me.

  His insanity brought with it a certain ferocity though that made him the fiercest competition that I’d ever encountered thus far. I roared as he bit at my flesh, his sharp canines hard enough to just puncture through my skin. The sound of my growls thundered through the forest, deeper and far more ominous than his. My betas yipped and barked, having destroyed what was left of the soldiers.

  Now they were watching me and cheering me on.

  The ultimate showdown had begun. They knew better than to intervene. This was between me and this mad scientist.

  My claws tore at him, our bodies tangled together as we fought. My movements were more precise and each time I bit at him or used my body to throw him to the ground, it started becoming more and more clear that I was the stronger out of the two of us. Almost imperceptibly, his kicks and punches began to weaken, and I began to take advantage of that. Using my entire weight, I threw him backwards and he stumbled, slamming into a tree directly behind him. The sound of his skull cracking against the trunk was sickeningly loud and the scent of his mutant blood was a bitter tang on the air.

  He looked dazed for a long moment and I acted swiftly, throwing myself into him again and knocking his head against the tree once more. His eyes rolled back into his head for a second before he grinned in my direction, his crooked teeth reminding me of a rabid hyena. He screamed, the sound high pitched and eerie. In a last-ditch effort, he sprinted right at me, but I was ready for him.

  I leapt up, using every ounce of my strength to propel myself off the ground. I opened my jaws and roared, colliding with him with full force. My front paws slammed into his chest and knocked him to the ground. I didn’t hesitate, not even for a moment. I ripped into his throat using every single bit of my strength. I tasted mutant flesh and blood, but I didn’t stop.

  Not until he stopped moving. Not until he was dead beneath me.

  When I was finally sure it was over, I pushed myself off of him and stared out at my pack. The alarm was still blaring, and Nikita’s voice echoed in my head.

  “They know we’re here and security is on lockdown. We’ve managed to open the gate, but we’re going to need help,” she told me.

  “The pack will answer,” I replied. I looked out at the wolves surrounding me, looking to their leader for direction. “Three of you will come with me. The four of us will rescue the omega and then we will return to help the others and ensure that the rest of the pack is set free.”

  “I will come with you,” Rebecca volunteered, stepping forward and boldly leveling her gaze at me. Two other wolves moved by her side and I nodded. There was no time to be selective. We had to move.

  “Let’s go. To the rest of you, let chaos become you,” I ordered, and my pack scattered, leaving me, Rebecca, and the other two volunteers, Luna and Jack.

  I burst forward, sprinting down the dirt road and following the tracks that the SUV had left behind. We ran hard and fast in silence, knowing that time was of the essence. In less than ten minutes, I could hear the gentle rumble of the vehicle up ahead. It could only move so fast on this uneven terrain and we could run faster.

  The four of us ran together and once we caught sight of the car, we moved outward in a rectangular formation. Knowing that my mate was inside that vehicle fueled me to run even harder than before and once I reached the driver’s side door, I leapt forward and sank my teeth into the front tire. I pulled away as quickly as I had bitten it, watching as the wheel began to deflate. The air escaping through the holes let out a high-pitched whooshing sound and my wolves followed suit with the other three tires.

  The SUV shook dangerously, and I leapt up, slamming down onto the hood of the car. The metal crushed under my weight and it nose-dived into the ground, screeching to a halt as the car embedded its front end into the dirt road. The groan of twisting metal was deafening as it finally came to a complete stop and the ensuing silence felt just as loud. I turned my head, staring into the windshield at the two soldiers inside and the looks of terror on their faces were in stark contrast to the false arrogance that had been there when they’d sped away with my mate.

  Luna and Jack guarded each door while Rebecca shifted back into her human form, opening the back and reaching inside for Dawn. She lifted my mate’s small body from the seat and strode away a good distance, looking to me for instruction as to what to do next.

  Dawn was entirely still.

  I bounded off the car and shifted myself, leaping toward Rebecca and my mate’s motionless body. I took her into my arms, breathing a sigh of relief as I watched her ribcage move with the timing of her breath. She was still alive. I pressed a kiss to the center of her forehead and she finally moved a little bit, groaning quietly as she did so.

  Her eyes fluttered open and met mine. She was still
slightly dazed and out of it, but as she blinked, they slowly cleared.

  “You’re in a lot of trouble, little omega,” I whispered, and her lips opened just slightly in recognition of the meaning of my words.

  “Kiba,” she whispered, her small form curling into my arms. I brushed my palm against the back of her head, feeling the dried blood in her hair. None of it appeared to be fresh, indicating that the wound had closed at least. It had left a healthy bump on the back of her head though, which was likely very sore.

  “How do you feel, sweet mate?” I asked her softly, taking any and all threat out of my voice. I was just happy to see that she was alive and that she was now safe in my arms once more. Now was not the time to deal with her disobedience. There would plenty more of that later after we successfully freed the rest of the betas.

  “I’ve got a nasty headache,” she murmured. “But it could be worse, I suppose.”

  I nuzzled my forehead into her shoulder.

  “I’m so relieved that you’re okay,” I said quietly.

  “I’m sorry I worried you,” she answered, hiding her face in my shoulder.

  “I know. We’ll handle that when the time comes, but there are more important matters at hand right now, aren’t there, little mate,” I replied calmly, lifting her chin with my finger and making her look at me.

  “Yes, alpha,” she whispered softly.

  “Good girl. Can you stand and climb up on my back?” I asked her, knowing that the rest of my betas were awaiting my return at the black site.

  “I think so,” she answered, and I carefully helped her climb to her feet. She moved rather sluggishly as she found her footing and I hesitated, watching her closely.