Designated Alpha

by Crissy Smith

  Like they were really going to believe him. “Forget it,” Piper snapped.

  “Fine, have it your way, but remember, I tried to be nice about this. I invited you here and answered your questions.”

  Jace pulled on her wrist and brought her forward. Piper braced her feet as the two men entered the small office.

  If she shifted, she would be vulnerable while in transformation. Plus, Vince would be able to change also. “What do we do?” she whispered to Jace.

  “We fight. God, Piper, I’m so sorry.”

  “Not your fault,” she assured him.

  “We’ll get out of this,” he promised.

  He was right. They had to get away.

  One of the large goons reached for Jace.

  “Now!” he shouted and kicked out. “Run!”

  She darted to the side as the big man went down on one knee, thanks to the foot in the balls Jace had landed. The boxer grabbed at her, but Piper was small enough to avoid him. Jace rushed forward, trying to tackle Piper’s attacker.

  Just before she reached the doorway, Vince’s arm caught her in the chest. She stumbled back as he pulled out a gun. Piper froze.

  “I’m sorry it came to this,” he said.

  “No!” Piper lunged, but Vince was able to pull the trigger. She whirled around and found that Jace had taken a dart in his leg.

  “Run!” Jace yelled again. She tried to turn but felt the sharp prick at the back of her neck.

  “Jace,” she called out as her vision swam.

  “Fuck!” Jace roared but she was already starting to lose control of her body. Her legs felt like jelly and she sank down. A strong arm wrapped around her waist.

  Blinking to try to clear her eyesight, she could barely make out Jace being held between the two large men. That meant it was Vince who held her. She turned her head. “Why?”

  “I’ve already told you, and I hate repeating myself. Besides, I promise this will all work out. You’ll see things my way soon.”

  She was going to kill him if it was the last thing she did. God, she hoped Bobby and Mitch got away. Hopefully when she and Jace didn’t return, Mitch would get Bobby as far away from this threat as possible.

  “Just stay calm,” Vince instructed. “I’ll take care of you.”

  Starting to tremble while her stomach was rolling, Piper gasped. “No.” She had to fight to stay awake. She couldn’t give in. Shit, she needed to throw up.

  * * * *

  Jace’s mouth felt like he’d drunk an entire bottle of whiskey, which was weird since he couldn’t remember drinking any alcohol the night before. But his head was pounding and his entire body ached like only a night out on the town could make him feel.

  God, what in the hell happened? He tried to roll over, only to find that he couldn’t move.

  He opened his eyes and hissed. The bright overhead lights burned.

  “Ah, you’re awake.”

  Turning his head, he saw Vince Blackwell.

  The bands across his chest, stomach and thighs tightened as he jerked his body, trying to loosen their hold. His wrists and ankles were also tied down. So very not good.

  “I will kill you if you’ve hurt Piper,” he warned with a growl.

  “Your mate is just fine,” Vince told him and motioned to beside Jace. “Take a look for yourself.”

  Jace moved his head slowly to look. Piper was laid out in much the same way as he, on a metal table next to him. Fury rushed through him and Jace once again tried to get loose.

  “Now calm down.” Vince grabbed his chin. “I haven’t hurt her. I told you both that I just wanted to run some tests. I already took your blood. The rest can remain just as painless. It’s really up to you.”

  Gritting his teeth, Jace glared at him but didn’t respond.

  “I’m really not a bad guy.”

  “Fine,” Jace mocked. “Then let us go.”

  Vince gave a heavy sigh before removing his hand. “Come on. You would do the same in my position.”

  “If you’re really already changed then why exactly are you doing this? What do you gain by holding us prisoner? Why do you need us?”

  “Everything I told you was true. Except for what happened to the man who made me. After I became a shape-shifter, I wanted to make more. He got upset and forbid me from turning anyone else. He wouldn’t even explain the entire ritual. So I made him disappear.”

  “You killed him,” Jace clarified.

  “I couldn’t. What your mate managed was something I couldn’t. I had to have help.”

  Jace really wasn’t liking this.

  “That’s why I’m so interested in Piper. How did she accomplish such a feat?”

  “She…”

  “She did it to protect you. Her mate. I have to find out more.”

  “Now you plan to torture us?”

  “Such strong words.” Vince lifted his nose in the air as if insulted. “Once my maker was out of the way, I found others like me. We’ve dedicated ourselves to research. I would like for you and Piper to join us.”

  “Not going to happen,” Jace growled.

  “It already has—with or without your consent. I think you both will come around, though. Things can get much worse.”

  Jace grunted. Out of all the people they could have encountered, it was just their luck that they’d met a crazy werewolf.

  “You plan to experiment on your kind?”

  “Research,” Vince said with a smile. “Only an evil bastard would experiment on people.”

  Jace wasn’t amused. “Call it what you want. It won’t change a thing. And I’m human, so what are you going to learn from me?”

  “I really am interested in seeing how the bond between you and your mate works. That’s all. Can she feel your pain? What will she do to insure your safety?”

  “She’ll never agree to joining you,” Jace said with conviction.

  “Maybe, maybe not. You’re a trained soldier. Just how much do you think it will take to get you to bend to my will? It might be tough but you’re human, after all.”

  Sucking in a sharp breath made his head spin. “I thought you weren’t going to hurt us?”

  “All you have to do is cooperate.”

  Beside him, Piper groaned.

  “And there is your mate waking up. We can finally get started.”

  Jace struggled to lift his head and look back over at Piper.

  She was thrashing on the table against her restraints, making a panicked sound.

  “Untie her!” Jace ordered. He knew Piper wouldn’t be able to handle being held down, not after what had happened with Joe.

  “Jace!” Piper cried, and he fought once again to get free.

  “Stop! Both of you!” Vince yelled.

  Piper’s breath was coming out too fast as her terror built. She began to scream, and Jace felt his tears start to fall. He couldn’t help her. He had let her down and now they would both pay.

  Crying his name, Piper thrashed.

  “Shit!” Vince ran to the door and pounded on it. “Get Dr. Grace in here now.”

  Jace didn’t care who this doctor was. When he got free, he was going to slaughter everyone in the building. Fuck, he hoped Mitch and Bobby had got away. They were the only ones who would be able to help. Mitch would be able to think of a way to break in and get both him and Piper free.

  If Vince got his hands on Bobby, there was no telling what he would do. Two shifters under his control would be even worse. Bobby wouldn’t be able to handle the situation any better than Piper.

  The door slammed open and a woman in her early forties rushed in. “What’s going on?”

  “Give her something to calm her down.”

  “She’s going to go into shock,” the doctor informed him. The woman dressed in a white lab coat with her dark hair pulled back approached Piper and drew out a syringe.

  “Don’t you fucking touch her!” Jace yelled.

  She didn’t even look at him. Just clamped one hand down o
n Piper’s arm and started to insert the needle under Piper’s skin.

  Jace bellowed.

  The woman finished injecting Piper and turned to him. “Him too?”

  “Yeah. We’ll have to wait until the woman is stable enough or my results will be skewed.”

  Piper whimpered.

  “Lady, if you come any closer, I swear to God I will take you down,” Jace threatened.

  “I’m impressed with your selection.” The woman spoke to Vince. “And a mated pair… How fabulous.”

  “Yes, I believe we’ll learn a lot.”

  Even though he knew he couldn’t stop her Jace tried to jerk his arm away from the woman’s hand.

  “Hush now. This will just put you to sleep. Nothing that will harm you.”

  He really, really wished they would stop saying that. Jace bared his teeth at her.

  Shaking her head, she injected his arm. “Sleep now.”

  As hard as he tried to fight the lull of sleep, Jace found his eyelids growing heavy. He could hear speaking around him but couldn’t make out the words.

  He floated, unable to concentrate.

  Powerless to stop what was happening.

  Chapter Ten

  Piper rubbed her face against her pillow, not wanting to wake up. She felt dehydrated and sick. Jace was breathing hard next to her and she cuddled into his warmth.

  The bedroom was colder than they normally kept it. As she reached down for the comforter, her hand brushed over a rough blanket instead. She raised her feet while squinting down the bed.

  They weren’t in their bedroom. In fact, they weren’t in their house. Piper sat up quickly and her stomach rolled when she realized that they’d been kidnapped. She gagged and put her hand over her mouth.

  “Piper?” Jace said sleepily.

  “Jace.” She shook him hard. “Jace wake up!”

  “What?” he asked as he opened his eyes. “Where are we?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He sat up a lot slower than she had but still looked just a sick. “You okay, baby?” he asked.

  Piper pressed up close to him, relieved when he wrapped her in his arms, making her feel safer. She didn’t know how she would have survived if she’d been all alone. “I think so.”

  “I wonder why he moved us?” Jace whispered.

  Looking around the room, she was far from impressed by the stark walls. They were lying on a mattress that had been placed on the floor. And there was no other furniture in the room. Both the walls and carpet were a light gray.

  “Let me see you.” Jace turned her and started to run his hands over her. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

  Her body ached and her head throbbed but overall she was uninjured. She’d been through worse. “I’m okay.”

  “Thank God.” Jace embraced her, cupping the back of her head. She lifted her face to brush her lips over his.

  Resting her cheek on his chest, she listened to him breathe. Just being in his presence helped her contain some of her fear. Jace was home to her and wherever he was, she knew that he’d always watch over her.

  She shivered and pressed harder into him when the door opened. Vince stepped into the room with his two goons right behind him, holding the tranq guns on them.

  “I trust you both are well?” Vince asked smiling at them.

  She felt Jace tense against her and clamped her hand over his. “Now what are you going to do to us?” she asked.

  “Nothing. Dr. Grace has finished running your blood work. You’ll be happy to know that it came back completely normal.”

  “Both of ours?” Piper would have expected hers to be different. That was why she had avoided going to the doctor.

  “Well, as normal as can be expected. Nothing we didn’t expect. Jace is still one hundred percent human. His DNA hasn’t changed. And, Piper, while your DNA has marks of a wolf, we expected that.”

  “Oh,” Piper sighed.

  “So you’re letting us go?” Jace spoke up.

  “Not yet,” Vince replied. “We still have some questions we would like answered. Plus, more data for my research—the mate bond and all that.”

  “And how do you plan to test that?” Jace asked sharply.

  “Oh, nothing for you to worry about,” Vince assured. “Right now, anyway. I want the bond between the two of you in full control when we get started.”

  Piper didn’t think that sounded like a good idea at all. “Just release us,” she pleaded.

  “I can’t. Now, I brought you some food.”

  Piper glanced over her shoulder at Jace. She didn’t want to eat anything they brought her. What if it was drugged and poisoned them?

  Vince set two bags down beside the door and started to back out. “And just so you know, we found your friend. He was at the hotel waiting on you two to come back. We have him in another room. If you cooperate instead of fighting, we’ll make sure that he remains unharmed.”

  Piper whirled around to Jace.

  “Enjoy your dinner,” Vince said then the door closed.

  “What about—?”

  Jace’s mouth slammed down on hers. Surprised, she jerked back, but he caught her face in his hands and kissed her again.

  Piper relaxed in his hold. When he pulled back slightly, he whispered right against her lips, “He only mentioned one person. And he said friend, not another shifter. I don’t know if they are listening. Don’t say any other name.”

  “Oh.” She licked Jace’s bottom lip. “Gotcha.”

  “He’s still suspicious about how you killed Joe. He can’t find out about our friend. I don’t think our friend could handle this.”

  “You think he got away?” She shook with fear.

  “I don’t know, but I hope so.”

  “Okay.” She had to agree. Jace probably had a point. There was even more that she was hiding, though. With Bobby in danger, how could she handle it if she really was an Alpha?

  Her stomach was tight with worry for him already. She might have been able to keep her secret from Jace and Mitch, but Vince knew more about her kind. Vince might just figure out what she’d been hiding from her mate.

  If Vince was this nuts over their bond and he found out she was also possibly an Alpha, she might not survive the night, or day, or whatever.

  Glancing over at Jace, she wanted to confess to him. Her heart actually ached, knowing that she hadn’t been completely honest with him. But she couldn’t take the chance that Vince could overhear. As soon as they got out, though, she’d find a way to bring up her concern about being an Alpha and how Bobby responded to her.

  “Let’s see what they brought us to eat,” Jace said and climbed out of the bed. His jeans and T-shirt were rumpled but damn, he still looked good.

  He bent and picked up the two bags before opening one of them. “Huh. Sandwiches and chips. I would have expected that they would feed a werewolf some real meat or something.”

  Piper snorted. “Are you sure we should eat it?”

  “We know they have no problem shooting us up, so I doubt they’ll put anything in the food. But no matter what, if we want to escape, we need to keep up our strength.”

  Jace strolled over to her while she settled her back against the wall. He tossed her one of the bags before rejoining her. Sitting side by side, they opened the sacks and divided the food.

  “It doesn’t suck,” Piper commented, after taking a big bite from the ham and turkey on wheat bread.

  Chuckling, Jace nodded. “I had worse in the service.”

  There were also a couple of bottle of waters and they finished them off quickly. Jace gathered the trash and stuffed them in one of the bags.

  “Now what?” Piper asked as she tucked herself under Jace’s arm.

  “We play along,” Jace said softly, turning his head so he was speaking in her ear. “They’ll eventually want to take us out of this room again and when they do, we’ll make our move. Plus we have Mitch on our side. He won’t be just sitting waiting for a rescue.”
>
  “I hope everyone is okay,” she told him. She was so worried about Bobby. It didn’t look like Vince had found out about him but how was that possible? Mitch wouldn’t have left Bobby. So if Bobby had gotten away, was Mitch really alive? “We need to make sure they haven’t hurt Mitch.”

  “Yeah, we’ll demand to see him.”

  “Good.” She closed her eyes. “And we will get out of here.”

  “We will and make sure that Vince and his friends don’t get their hands on anyone else.”

  * * * *

  A sharp pain accompanied him the next time Jace floated to the surface of consciousness. His stomach felt sour while every muscle in his body hurt. Surely one or two didn’t though. He’d laugh at his own joke but waking up on the same table as earlier Jace was pissed. “Stop fucking shooting us up.”

  They hadn’t gotten the chance to try to escape the next time the door had opened. Vince had walked in with the same two men and darted them before either Jace or Piper had been able to move. Jace had tried to fight the drug but once again he hadn’t been able to.

  He’d tightened his grip on Piper. God damn, he hated this.

  He didn’t want to open his eyes and have his head split open. He refused to turn even attempt to turn his head and look around. Soon, very soon, he was going to get out of the restraints and get his revenge. A chill traveled up his spine as he heard footsteps coming closer.

  “Mr. Anderson,” a woman’s voice sounded above him. “Please refrain from using such harsh words.”

  It was the woman from earlier. He recognized her voice. Cracking his lids open, he glared. “I’ll make sure to watch my language if you just fucking release me.”

  “Sorry. I can’t do that,” she said, patting his arm. “I’m trying to monitor your vitals, so why don’t you just hold still for me.”

  “Sure, I’ll just lie here,” he drawled. Did this lady actually think Jace wanted to be here? Tied and restrained. What the hell was wrong with her? He turned his head both ways. “Where’s Piper?”

  “You’re mate is perfectly safe. Vince is sitting with her.”

  “Why? Where is she?” He struggled, but the bands held him down so it didn’t make much of a difference.