Feral Alphas (Feral Wolves of the Arctic Book 2)

by J. L. Wilder

  He had her. He would get her home. And everything was going to be all right now.

  Sophie allowed her thoughts to drift away as the alphas jogged through the forest. Perhaps when she opened her eyes next, she would be back home where she belonged. Back with her family. Her worries finally at an end.

  And now Josh has learned that no good can come of trying to interfere with us. He knows now that he can’t hope to disrupt my family.

  She just hoped that he had really learned that lesson, and that he would leave them alone from now on.

  Chapter Fourteen

  RYKER

  “All right,” Burton said quietly. “Bring her in here.”

  Ryker entered the motel room and Marco eased the door shut quietly behind him. They had been running for about an hour, but the events of the day were beginning to catch up with them, and Ryker had noticed that Marco was favoring his left arm, so he had called a halt.

  They’d doubled back to the highway and found this motel after only a few more miles. It had been easy enough to break into one of the rooms farthest from the main office. Now Ryker set Sophie gently on one of the beds as Burton put the chain on the door.

  “Burton, can you check on Marco’s shoulder, please?” Ryker asked.

  “My shoulder’s fine,” Marco insisted.

  “If you don’t let him look at it, I’m going to tie you to the headboard and make you sit still for an exam,” Ryker said. “We don’t have time for heroics right now, okay? I want to look Sophie over, and I could use help from both of you, and that will go more quickly if you man up and let Burton check your arm.”

  Marco rolled his eyes, but he sat down and submitted to Burton’s quick investigation.

  “He’s not bad,” Burton reported. “It’s just a flesh wound, like he said. We should probably clean it up.”

  “I’m sure there’s soap in the bathroom,” Ryker said. “Use your judgment about the towels.”

  Burton disappeared into the bathroom. A few minutes later, he emerged with a handful of washcloths. “These look okay,” he said, tearing them into strips.

  “All right,” Ryker said. “Save some of those for Sophie, okay? We don’t know exactly what’s wrong with her. She might need bandages too.”

  “She’s a mess,” Marco said. “We’ve got to get her out of those clothes.”

  “And into what?” Burton asked. “We don’t have anything else.”

  “Go see if you can find something,” Marco suggested as Burton tied the bandage around his arm.

  “We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Burton said. “There’s not exactly a department store I can go to.”

  “There are cars in the parking lot,” Ryker said.

  Burton raised an eyebrow. “You want me to steal something from a private citizen?”

  Ryker saw his point. It wasn’t something they had ever done before. He didn’t have a particular problem with theft himself, but he knew some of the others in the pack felt funny about it. Stealing from corporations seemed to bother them less than stealing from individuals.

  But this was a special case. “She just needs one outfit,” he said. “I’m sure there’s a woman at this motel with a suitcase full of them in her car. Or, failing that, a man who isn’t too big might have something she can wear. Just get out there and see what you can find, all right?”

  Burton finished tying Marco’s bandage. “We’re asking for trouble,” he pointed out. “Breaking into the hotel, breaking into cars on the lot, and then staying here all night anyway.”

  “You know how to avoid setting off alarms,” Marco said. “Stick to old cars. Nothing modern.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Burton said. “I’ll be back. Don’t lock me out of the room.” He opened the door and slipped out into the night.

  Marco looked over at Sophie. “How is she?” he asked.

  “She’s all right,” Ryker said. “Pretty out of it. Can you sit with her for just a minute while I see if I can find a vending machine?”

  “Yeah.” Marco moved over to Sophie’s bed.

  “If anything happens—”

  “Just come back quickly,” Marco said. “And then we won’t have to worry about that sort of thing.”

  Ryker nodded and ducked out into the darkened driveway.

  He kept to the shadows, avoiding the pools of light cast by the parking lot’s lighting, and followed the signs around the corner to the vending machines. They were the old-fashioned kind, with spiral rings holding bags of chips and bottles of soda, and for the first time in a long time, Ryker allowed himself to smile. He knew he would be able to shake a few snacks loose from these machines, and his family would have something to eat tonight.

  “Can I help you?”

  He turned. A man in a name tag was standing behind him, frowning. “Don’t recall seeing you around here,” he said.

  “Nah,” Ryker lied smoothly. “I’m here with my family. I wasn’t here when they checked in, though, so I wouldn’t have seen anyone.”

  “What room are you staying in?” the man asked.

  Ryker chuckled. “Tell you the truth, I can never remember the numbers,” he admitted. “We’re on a family vacation, you see, and it’s been a lot of motel rooms. A different one every night, practically! We’re in one of the rooms down at the end,” he added, waving his hand in the general direction of the opposite end of the motel from where his family was actually staying.

  “Just arrived today?” the man asked.

  Ryker nodded. “We’re just here for a few hours, and then we’ll be pressing on. The kids are so excited to see the ocean.”

  “You’ve got kids?” the man asked.

  Ryker nodded, hoping he was selling the lie. “Two little ones,” he said. “They’re asleep, and my wife and I are just starving from the full day of driving and dealing with them in the car, so I came out here looking for some snacks. You know how it is.”

  The man nodded. “Well, I’ll be at the desk all night,” he said. “Don’t hesitate to let me know if there’s something I can do for you or the family.”

  Ryker nodded his thanks and then turned back to the vending machine, pretending to ponder the choices in front of him. He waited until the man’s footsteps had faded away to nothing.

  He glanced over his shoulder, making sure he was completely alone. Then he gave each machine a good hard shake. A few bags of chips, a sleeve of cookies, and two bottles of soda dislodged and fell down. Ryker bent down, scooped them up, and hurried back to the room where he had left Marco and Sophie.

  He went inside and locked the door behind him.

  Marco looked up. “Burton didn’t want us to lock that.”

  “Yeah, but the hotel receptionist is out there asking questions.” He dumped the snacks on the table. “Sophie, you’re awake.”

  She was sitting up in bed looking disheveled, a glass of tap water clutched in her hands. “How long was I out?” she asked.

  “About an hour,” Ryker said. “Maybe a little bit longer. You should really try to get some more sleep.”

  She showed no sign of listening. A part of Ryker wanted to give her an order, to compel her to go to sleep, but he knew that wasn’t for the best. She had just regained her freedom. He didn’t want to mark that occasion by pushing her around.

  He sat down on the bed beside her and handed her one of the sodas and a bag of chips. “This isn’t the best meal in the world, but it’s something,” he said. “Do you think you could eat?”

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “They weren’t feeding you, were they?”

  “They were,” she said. “But it wasn’t...very good.”

  Marco’s arm tightened around her shoulders.

  Ryker took her hand. “Tell us what happened,” he said.

  “It really wasn’t much,” she told him. “They kept me in that barn. You know that already. There was enough food to keep a person alive.”

  “You weren’t tied up or anything when we found you,” R
yker said. “Why not?”

  “They felt confident that I wouldn’t try to escape,” Sophie said. “They had all the guns.”

  Marco nodded. “That’s good,” he said. “You did the right thing, keeping yourself safe. I’m glad you didn’t risk your life.”

  “I couldn’t,” she said. “I thought so many times about trying to escape. But I couldn’t risk any harm to the babies.”

  Marco blinked. “The babies?”

  “She’s pregnant after all,” Ryker said, remembering suddenly what she had said when he and Burton had first found her. Now that they were out of immediate danger, he allowed the words to sink in. “We’re going to be parents again.”

  Marco pulled Sophie into an embrace. “That’s wonderful,” he murmured.

  “I would never have left,” Sophie said. “Josh told me what they did to you. He told me that they left a note claiming I’d run away, to try to trick you. I never would.”

  “I know that now,” Marco said quietly.

  Ryker nodded. “We’ll never be able to apologize enough, Sophie, for believing that lie as long as we did. If we hadn’t been taken in by it, we might have been able to find you and bring you home much sooner.”

  “The important thing is that we’re back together now,” Sophie said quietly. “No matter what happened while we were apart, we can set it aside and go back to being a family.” She looked anxiously from one of them to the other. “Right?”

  Ryker’s heart sank. “They also told you about the women, didn’t they?” he guessed.

  “They sent them to tempt you,” Sophie said, and Ryker felt a shudder pass through her body. “To split you up. To fracture our family.”

  “Wait a minute,” Marco interrupted. “What women are these?”

  “Burton and I both met strange women in the woods this past week,” Ryker said. “Seductresses. We wondered if one might target you too.”

  Marco looked stunned. “One did,” he admitted. “I thought it was just a random happenstance.”

  “No, it was an attack,” Sophie said. “Josh believed that if he could turn your heads, if he could get you to forget me by falling into the temptations of these other women, that he could weaken our pack.”

  “Well, it didn’t work,” Marco said. “She definitely tried to seduce me, but she didn’t get anywhere. I turned her down.” He pulled Sophie into his body, his arms wrapped tightly around her. “You’re the only one I want.”

  Ryker nodded. “Burton and I felt the same way,” he said. “I actually had to help him fight his girl off. She was a little...aggressive.”

  “I wish I’d gotten to fight her,” Sophie said, her voice a menacing growl.”

  “I wouldn’t have minded seeing that,” Marco said. “I bet you’d have kicked her ass.”

  “She wouldn’t have known which way was up by the time I finished with her,” Sophie promised. “I’d fight anyone who tried to come for the three of you like that. It’s disrespectful.”

  Ryker didn’t love the thought of Sophie in a fight, but he couldn’t deny that it felt nice to know that she would defend him like that. He felt doubly proud, now, of the fact that he hadn’t given in to the pressure Rachel had put on him.

  “You never have to worry about us,” he told Sophie, rubbing her shoulders gently. “We love you. All three of us. We’re devoted to you. There’s no other woman in the world who could turn us away from you.”

  She smiled. “I know that,” she said. “I told Josh that, but he thought I was wrong.” She shook her head. “Or maybe he was just lying, to try to freak me out. He said he was getting daily reports from his girls, and that they had told him they were having success.”

  “Definitely a lie,” Ryker said. “Unless success means practically getting thrown in the river.”

  Sophie laughed a little. “You’re too harsh, you know,” she told him.

  “I am the perfect amount of harsh.”

  The door rattled in its frame. They all looked up, alarmed, and then there came a light knock.”

  “Get her into the shower,” Ryker hissed. “Turn it on. Don’t come out.” If that was the man he had met at the vending machine, the one from the front desk...if he had discovered that Ryker was in a room he shouldn’t be in and had come to investigate...

  He grabbed two pillows and stuffed them side by side under the covers in one of the beds. In the dimly lit room, they could almost pass for two toddlers, if you didn’t look too closely.

  He would have to hope the man wouldn’t be looking too closely.

  The knock came again. “Coming,” Ryker said. He heard the water start up in the bathroom. Gritting his teeth, he went to the door, unchained it, and eased it open.

  Burton pushed past him and into the room. “What the hell?” he demanded. “Take longer to answer the door, why don’t you? Someone could have seen me out there, knocking to get into the room that we broke into.”

  Ryker felt weak with relief. “I thought you were someone else.”

  “Who the hell else would I be?” He looked around. “Are they in the shower?”

  “Not really.” Ryker went to the bathroom and opened the door. Marco came out with Sophie clinging to his arm and looking badly frightened.

  Burton dumped a pile of clothes on the bed. “New duds for everyone,” he said.

  “How much did you take?” Sophie asked, looking positively heartbroken. “These belong to people, Burton.”

  He strode across the room and rested his hands on her shoulders. “I know,” he said. “And I know how you feel about it, and I respect that. But this is a different situation. Marco has nothing to wear. All you have are those dirty things that are probably growing bacteria by now. This is a matter of health and safety. We need to get you home, and we need clean clothes to do that.”

  Sophie sighed. “You’re right,” she said quietly. “I just wish it didn’t have to be this way.”

  “We’ll do something about it,” Ryker spoke up.

  Everyone turned to look at him. “What do you mean?” Marco asked.

  “The way our lifestyle is set up has us stealing a lot more than I think any of us would really like,” Ryker said. “We need to come up with something positive we can do to make up for all the negativity we bring to the world. Some way we can help people and make the world a better place.”

  Burton’s expression was skeptical, but his response wasn’t the one that interested Ryker. He looked over at Sophie. “What do you think?” he asked. “Would that make you feel better?”

  “Yes,” she said, her eyes shining. “Do you think we could really do it?”

  “There are a lot of us in our pack,” Ryker said. “There are about to be a lot more. Yes, I think if we work together, we can figure out a way to give back to the world.”

  “I think that’s a great idea,” Marco said with a grin.

  “Well, I think Sophie should get in the shower for real,” Burton said. “You’re a mess.”

  She swatted him on the arm and headed back into the bathroom to clean herself up.

  Chapter Fifteen

  SOPHIE

  Sophie had expected that returning home would be a relief unlike anything she had ever experienced. Even her first kidnapping hadn’t been as intensely frightening as this one had, because she hadn’t left any of her children behind, and because she had been sure the whole time that her pack would try to save her. This time, that hadn’t been the case.

  And at first, coming home was exactly as much of a relief as she had expected it to be. The betas came pouring out of the cave to welcome her, and even Chrissy, usually the most standoffish of them all, gave her a hug.

  “The babies,” Sophie said. “I need to see them.” It was a physical need, like food or water. Like oxygen. She couldn’t survive another moment without seeing her children, not now that they were this close.

  She was hustled into the cave. There they were, all laid out along a blanket. Sophie hurried to their side and fell to her kn
ees, touching each face, each little hand, reassuring herself that they were there and that they were all right.

  “We can’t afford to waste any time,” Marco said.

  Sophie turned. What did he mean? The nightmare was over. They were home now.

  “Waste time?” Cam asked, clearly just as confused as she was.

  “Everybody, pay attention,” Ryker said. “We need to put together a plan. The south is going to attack.”

  Sophie felt her insides freeze over. “What?” she asked. “They won’t. Not now that they’ve seen how strong you all are for themselves. They won’t dare.”

  “Yes, they will,” Ryker said. “We talked about it at the motel, Sophie, while you were in the shower.”

  “That long ago? That was hours. And you didn’t say anything?”

  “We wanted to get home,” Burton said. “We couldn’t stop for a conversation. We had to get you to safety. But we’re talking about it now.”

  “I can’t believe this,” Sophie breathed.

  Robby held up a hand. “Hang on a minute,” he said. “Let me understand what’s happening here. You left them alive?”

  “We couldn’t fight them,” Ryker explained. “There were too many of them. They’ve pulled several packs together. And they have guns.”

  “Guns?” Petra demanded, her voice rather shrill. “What are we supposed to do against guns?”

  “We’re going to figure it out,” Marco said soothingly. “We already have the beginning of a plan.”

  “We have to leave here,” Chrissy said. “Right away. Tonight. They obviously already know where we live. We can’t make it easier for them if they decide to come looking for us.”

  But Ryker shook his head. “No,” he said. “A group as large as ours can’t possibly go into hiding. Now that they know we exist, the only thing to do is to stand and fight. If we try to run, they’ll just track our scent and find us again.”

  “I don’t understand,” Cam said. “Why are they so determined to come after us? Do they want Sophie that badly?”

  “No,” Burton spoke up. “It’s not Sophie they want, not really. They’re threatened by us. They’re afraid of our strength, and of the way we’ve managed to band together. It scares them.”