Alpha's Second Chance

by Jade Alters

  “Defrosting’s fine.” I raised one eyebrow. “This time.”

  He flashed a big grin at me, and in that moment, he looked exactly like the boy he’d been at twelve, when we planned a fishing trip without permission. “I have elk, deer, duck and rabbit,” he said. “What’s your pleasure?”

  “Deer,” I said, recalling a very similar conversation when we’d been fourteen and gone camping together in a group. Nostalgia for the boy he’d been and the home I’d given up struck me hard. I decided to wade in. “I’ve been wanting to ask about my family.” I bit my lip. “Do you ever see my parents? I mean, other than in large groups?”

  “Yes. I see them frequently. At least once a month.” He laid the deer meat on a plate and we headed back out to the fire pit. “They ask about you. I think they’d love to see you.”

  I wasn’t so sure. I needed more information, but I wasn’t ready to hear the details yet. We roasted the meat over the open fire, avoiding the topic of my family. Once the meat was cooked just a little, we dug in, relishing our deer steaks when a rap sounded on the front door. We both jumped. “Stay here,” Owen said.

  Of course I didn’t stay there. I trailed Owen through the cabin to the front door, where one of his MASK Team members was standing on the front porch.

  “We’ve got chatter that Bull is in Keystone,” the shifter said, handing Owen a paper mat with a location marked map.

  “What the hell?” Owen held the map up. “Did he stop to ski? Get a hot chocolate? Maybe a fucking massage?” Owen kicked the railing of his cabin, but his teammate didn’t flinch. “Probably wants to blend in with the crowds there.” He dropped the map. “Thank you. Check in with me in four hours, even if there’s nothing new to report.”

  “Yes, Alpha,” his teammate said.

  Once he was gone, I didn’t try to pretend like I hadn’t listened in. “They call you Alpha?”

  “Yes. It’s my title, and a good call sign.”

  “I think I might give it a try too. Maybe a little later.” I sauntered over to him and raised up on my tiptoes. I whispered, “Alpha.”

  “Eve.” He pulled my hand to the front of his pants. “Feel what you do to me.”.

  “I feel it. And I like it.” I gave him a quick kiss. “I need to shift and go out again. Ever since the heat, I’ve been craving time as a bear.”

  I could have seen the glint in his eyes a mountain away. “Owen. Come on, don’t be an ass. You don’t have to rub it in that I am actually enjoying this a little!”

  “I’m not saying a word.” Owen fought the grin that pushed his lips up at the corner. “I’m glad you’re wanting to do thing shifters like again. There’s a creek just down the road. Let me just notify the team that we’re heading out.”

  At the creek, I shed my clothes as soon as the fast-moving water was in sight. “Race you,” I shouted to Owen right before I shifted and jumped into the stream.

  After a long swim, we sat on the bank to drip dry. “I’m ready to go after Bull. Either I’m going after him, or we’re both going to Fort Carson. We can’t keep waiting here,” Owen said.

  “I agree that we can’t keep waiting. But he’s after me. So I am going to be involved in this.”

  Owen nodded, although I could tell he wanted to argue with me. “We know Bull’s probably on the move. But I don’t want to go to Fort Carson. I want to try to get him here,” I said.

  “Draw him out, you mean, before he attacks.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “He’s after me. So he’ll end up here if I lure him out.”

  Owen placed both palms on the ground. “No fucking way are you using yourself as bait.”

  “I know it’s hard, but you don’t get to decide that.” I willed myself to stay calm and not start shouting. “Remember, I’m here because I choose to be.” The stone-faced look Owen was giving me did not encourage me to remain calm. Not one bit. I tapped him with my leg. “If you’ll chill out and listen to me, I’ll listen to you too.”

  Owen growled. “I like it better when I can just give orders.”

  “So does everyone else, buddy.” I scooted closer to him. “My scent is still strong, isn’t it? From my heat?”

  “Yes. It’s very noticeable.”

  “So let’s use it. Bull was after me because I’m an omega. Let’s use my scent to lure him in.”

  “On what planet do you think I’d agree to that?”

  I scoffed at his nerve. “The one where it will work.”

  “I’m not comfortable with this, at all. I think we’d do better to try and lure him in with a decoy. We could trick him, using your scent. I’ve seen it done in the Army.”

  “I won’t be sidelined for this.” I put my hands on his shoulders and stared him directly in the eye. “You promised.”

  He was silent for a long time. “Okay, fine,” he said after a drawn out few minutes of quiet. He held his hands up. “But we work with my team, and you let me take the lead on defending you.”

  “I can do that.”

  “Good. Now first order of business. I assume your boss is bugged, and that he’s being followed,” Owen said.

  He wiped his hands on the towel and picked up one of the secure phones he kept. “Call him. Make it obvious where you are. Tell him you’ve heard that Bull is headed to Arizona. Tell him your phone is secure, and then describe this awesome little town where you’re staying. Don’t name it; that might be too obvious.”

  “While you’re doing that, I’ll update my team,” he said as he laid the phone in my palm.

  My mouth opened as my hand closed around the phone.

  I threw my arms around his neck and jumped on him in a hug so strong it knocked him backwards. “Thank you.” I kissed him hard on the mouth. “Thank you so much for getting this. Thank you for understanding what it means to me.”

  Was it possible that I’d finally have a partner who saw me as an equal?

  Owen

  Much to my extreme displeasure, the plans were laid out. Eve had called her boss. My entire MASK team was up to date, and our security detail was ready to roll. Now all we had to do was wait for someone to get visuals on Bull.

  Behind the cabin, Eve and I were going through drills. First we’d practiced shooting with a rifle, then with a shotgun, and then a handgun. Next we’d practiced grappling, and shifting quickly. Now we’d moved onto knife throwing.

  Eve sharpened the blade she had before aiming it at the nearest tree. I didn’t practice with targets for knives -- in an actual fight, no one was going to hold a piece of specially crafted Cottonwood for you to aim at.

  “Last week, before all of this had happened, I got a job offer,” she said. Her knife sank flawlessly into the tree.

  She kept practicing, and on an outdoor table, I laid out all the firearms and ammunition I’d stocked in the cabin. In the woods nearby, my team was doing the same thing.

  I had fourteen guns and twenty knives. I also had a supply of flashbangs and smoke grenades, and three drones. Two of my teammates already had drones in the air. One was searching the woods from the sky, while one was searching the roads. “Oh yeah? What kind of job?”

  Eve laid the knife down on my table. “A district attorney’s office in Chicago. I met one of their elected officials at a conference, and they liked an article I wrote.”

  Chicago? She was thinking of moving to Illinois and she hadn’t mentioned it at any time in the last few days? How the fuck was that possible? Now she chose to bring it up while we were testing our weapons, knowing we were about to be attacked again? My back stiffened. The blood in my veins sped up, rushing through my body, causing my heart to pound.

  I didn’t think I’d ever understand Eve. “Not many bears in Chicago. Real or shifter,” I said.

  “No. It’s not really a place where many shifters of any type gather.”

  “Maybe those who don’t want to be shifters,” I grumbled.

  “Are you implying I didn’t want to be a shifter?” She asked, as an edge crept int
o her voice..

  Wasn’t that exactly what she’d said? I was under the impression she’d rather have been human. “Now is not the time to get into this.”

  “When exactly is the time? After we’re dead?” she said.

  “What does that even mean?”

  “We could die doing this.” Eve snatched a knife off the table and flung it, slamming into the tree so hard bark flew off

  “I’m well aware. That’s why I find it odd that you bring up the fact that you want to move to a place with no shifters!” I tried to stop my voice from rising, but it got louder without my consent.

  “I didn’t say that!” Eve yelled.

  I rubbed my hand over my mouth. I couldn’t stop a harsh exhale. “That is exactly what you said!”

  “I was telling you about an opportunity I got. Then I was going to ask how you felt about me moving, you idiot!”

  I had no idea what to say to that. I stood in silence for a few moments while Eve picked up a gun and fired several rounds into one of the shifter-shaped targets I did keep for shooting practice. She was still a good shot. She always had been, even when we were kids.

  Had Eve been testing me? Trying to see how I’d react? Was I supposed to ask her not to go? No. She wouldn’t set me up. She’d just say something. She’d tell me what she wanted, or she’d ask me what I wanted to give.

  Every part of me wanted to slink into the house and turn on the television, and numb myself to the agony of trying to deal with an omega you loved, but couldn’t have.

  I wouldn't though. I was the Alpha. I dealt with problems head-on, or so they told me. I wasn’t going to wimp out and hide from this, no matter how much I wanted to.

  I took a few steadying breaths, and walked around the perimeter of the cabin. No one in this world pissed me off like Eve did. And yet, no one else made me feel as alive.

  It was time for me to grow up and tell her how I felt. I could stand around and wait for a clear signal, or I could take action. The worst thing she could do was tell me off, or never speak to me again. I’d already survived that heartbreak once. Thousands of people and shifters alike suffered far worse things on a daily basis. I could do this.

  When I got back from my walk, Eve sat cross-legged on the ground, sharpening each knife with precision. She fixed me with a strident glare but didn’t comment.

  I sat down on the ground next to her. “I’ll get right to it. I am in love with you. I want you as my mate. Not because you’re the one that got away, but because I’ve fallen in love with the adult you. The one that’s brave and fiery, and who doesn’t hesitate to get in my face.”

  I cleared my throat. “When you said you wanted to move, I didn’t react well.”

  Eve’s mouth dropped open.

  “Now that we’ve cleared that up, we can get back to planning our strategy.”

  “I won’t leave again,” she said.

  I didn’t follow what she meant. “What?”

  “I won’t run away again. I won’t disappear without telling you what I’m doing.”

  “Okay. Good,” I said. If that was all I was going to get from her, then it was better than nothing. “It’s getting late. Why don’t we go inside?” My stomach was tight, and my head was a swirling mess. I didn’t want to be caught off guard outside if Bull showed up before we were ready.

  Eve stood. “Owen.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I don’t know what it will look like, and the only promise I can make right now is that I won’t run, but I want to be with you,” she said. “I love you.’

  She loved me? I opened my mouth to ask what that meant to her, but I never got the chance. One of my MASK unit teammates appeared next to the house. “We got a visual, Alpha,” he called out. “Bull is twenty miles from here.”

  Eve

  Inside Owen’s house I sat in front of the fireplace. In my lap, I cradled an M-16. I didn’t like it as a weapon, but at that moment, I needed something easier than a knife or a bow.

  Owen professed his love for me, and I just declared my love for him.

  Somehow, despite our soul-baring conversation, the tension between us had rocketed up about fifty million degrees.

  Owen stood near the door, but not in front of it, in case Bull had a sniper outside. He held a similar gun in his hands. Neither of us had spoken.

  We should be in the bed, celebrating our new love, but here we were, holding powerful guns, with tension stabbing at us like needles.

  “I wasn’t going to take the job,” I said. I’d seriously considered it, before I reconnected with Owen. Chicago would have been one step farther away from my previous life as a shifter; moving would have been another way to sever ties with my past.

  Owen had been right. There wasn’t any type of shifter life there. No clans, no community, nothing. I’d have an easier time ignoring that I’d ever been anything but human.

  The job had been a good one, and it would have boosted my career. But the main draw had been the disconnect from my old life.

  With a loud snap, Owen’s comm crackled to life. Within a second, both of us had our guns up and ready to fire. I sagged a little when I realized it was his teammate checking in.

  “Alpha,” his teammate’s voice boomed, “Bull’s been spotted ten miles from here. Seems to heading in the exact direction.”

  “Thanks Brian,” Owen said. “Stick to the plan.”

  When the comm was silent again, Owen and I moved the furniture. Owen directed me in how to make the best defensive areas to crouch behind if our play went off-script, and I ended up in a shootout.

  The real plan was for me to be on the front porch, pretending to work, using my scent to ensnare Bull.

  While Owen scanned the yard, I dragged a fan out onto the porch where I’d already left a laptop and some legal pads. I was going to type on the computer and make case notes, and appear to be unguarded.

  I doubted Bull would think I was truly alone, but we had to start somewhere.

  According to Owen, my scent was still intoxicating to an Alpha. I’d aim the fan directly where I was sitting, and hope that it helped Bull pinpoint exactly where I was.

  During the week, Owen’s team had gotten some potent scent blockers and suppressants, and they’d all triple dosed themselves last night. The lack of their scents created a hole in my mind, an absence where they should be. I didn’t like it.

  I’d grown to rely on Owen’s juniper scent.

  I sat down on the top porch step. I did my best not to glance in the direction of the woods where Owen was waiting.

  I cracked the laptop open and began jotting notes on a legal pad. The fan ruffled my hair as I worked. It would have been nice if Owen and I’d had more time to sort through our feelings before Bull arrived, but he’d forced our hand.

  “You better live through this,” I muttered to myself. After days of wading through our messy relationship, I was too close to having everything I wanted. I refused to let anyone -- even Bull -- screw this up for me.

  Owen

  Hiding in the woods, watching Eve use herself as bait? Fucking torture. Why had I agreed to this? No Alpha let his omega put herself in danger. Was she my omega? Maybe not in the way I wanted. But she was close enough.

  My bear insisted. She’s yours. Go get her.

  I crept to the edge of the porch. “Eve. Come on. We don’t have to do this. He’s on his way.”

  “Owen,” she hissed.

  “Come out here. Let me and my guys handle it.” Her being up there on the porch, out in the open, didn’t make a lick of sense.

  Her eyes flashed. For the first time ever, she growled at me. “I am not moving. And if you try to make me, you will regret it.”

  I had no doubt about that. It was true, I had promised her I’d stick with the plan and let her dangle herself as bait in front of a psychopathic shifter. My bear had not made any such promises. “The second something goes fucking sideways, my bear is showing up, with or without my permission. Just so you know.�
��

  “You agreed to this plan,” she said. She slashed her arm through the air. “Stick to it.”

  I gripped the handle of my sharpest knife. “We’ll see.”

  Eve leaned forward to stare at me. Fury seethed from her eyes, all of it directed right at me. “You are driving me crazy,” she said.

  “Somehow, I know exactly what that feels like.” I gave her one last look. “Be careful.”

  I went back to my station and adjusted my gear.

  The plan was for Eve to let herself be captured. It had been her idea, based on the fact that Bull wanted her alive, to have her as one of his mates. Eve came up with the plan, and the rest of my team had agreed with her.

  I was the only one who protested. But because I was on thin ice with Eve, I gave in.

  I never gave in. I was the Alpha. I wasn’t supposed to. Unless Eve was involved, apparently.

  My team thought that once Bull felt he had won, and succeeded in getting the omega who had bested him, that he’d be distracted, let his guard down, and we could make our move.

  Out intel said he was only traveling with two guards. Overpowering the three of them should have been no challenge for my team; but as we all knew, during a mission, things could go south in a split second.

  We’d run through possible scenarios a few times, including ones where Bull had more than two guards, they had more weapons, or they showed up with law enforcement officers that had been bribed into aiding criminals. We talked through each one and argued about solutions.

  All that prep didn’t matter. I didn’t feel any better about letting Eve put herself in the line of fire.

  Not that I was letting her do anything. I could feel the scowl that had become part of my face today.

  I was supposed to stand here and let Bull Payne put his disgusting hands on Eve.

  My comm buzzed. “He’s here.”

  My team was right, there he was. Bull melted out of the shadow of the woods. He came forward, taking deliberate steps. He didn’t look around. He didn’t look behind him. His eyes were anchored to Eve. The two guards he had with him stayed hidden in the woods.