The Alpha Legacy Boxed Set 1-7

by Holly Hook

  As does greenish smoke.

  The wind blows just right, bringing the stench of the poison right up to the window. The dark spirits are working, all right. I cough and backpedal, as do Brett and Karina.

  “I never realized how bad that stuff really was,” Brett says between fits of gagging. “Even before your mate bit me it was horrible, but not this bad.”

  “We have to get to Cayden," I say just as a door to our left opens. An older man in slippers and a fuzzy robe stands there, smelling musty like sleep.

  “What is going on here?”

  “You’re having a nightmare?” I ask, bolting away from him. I don’t have time for this. The only way I’m going to get down to Cayden is if I find another way out, and that might be through the guy with the gun.

  We leave the guy behind us as the air thickens, not just with the poison that’s conveniently blowing through the window but that invisible dread. There’s no window on this side of the hallway so I’m forced to descend the steps.

  “What are you doing?” Karina asks.

  “We need another way out. We’ll suffocate if we go down in that alley.” Cayden’s down there and from the stairwell, even I can’t hear what’s happening.

  The stench manages to follow us down the steps. My eyes water and my lungs ache with the toxic air. The stairwell’s funneling the poison down it, and I pick up my pace, trying to run ahead of it. The cult and the dark spirits are working together to smoke us out.

  “Karina, try to hold this back,” Brett says just behind me.

  “I’m trying!” She coughs, probably alerting the warlock at the bottom that we’re coming.

  And he’s still there, waiting for his prey to come to him. I stay in the lead, because that urge to protect Brett and Karina is still there. That, and logic. They must be valuable if the cult wants to murder them.

  I glimpse the robed man at the bottom, right through the spaces between steps. And he’s looking right up at us. His scar looks like someone slashed him over the nose once, and a mean look in his eyes makes me stop in my tracks. My shoulder burns with the old silver injury. He could shoot me somewhere not vital and slow me down and then take out Brett and Karina.

  “This way,” I hiss, waving Brett and Karina onto the second floor. That’s not far enough from the warlock but it beats facing him head on.

  We stagger out of the poison and I take a breath of clean air. But my relief lasts half a second. As Brett and Karina step onto the level ground behind me, the warlock on the ground floor starts climbing the steps.

  “A room,” I whisper.

  Brett nods. Karina's a zombie again. It's the only way out, but I can hear from the here that no one's at the front of the hotel right now. So I yank open the closest door, which has an empty room behind it, and wave Brett and Karina inside.

  The warlock's heard us. He bolts up the stairs. And before I can vanish into the empty room, he makes it to the landing, raising his pistol. Then he sees who he's aiming it, pauses, and lowers the gun to point at one of my legs.

  So maiming me will work.

  I dart into the room as he fires.

  The deafening sound of the gun going off, and the bullet splintering the door I'm closing, fills the hallway. Splinters fly into the room. Karina screams. Brief, shocked silence falls as I close the door, now unlocked and useless with a hole on the bottom. Brett's already across the dark hotel room, which reeks of antiseptic and laundry detergent, and opening the window.

  "I can't jump," Karina says, racing over to her brother.

  For the first time in a while, she's scared. Adrenaline fills the space. This is a different Karina, a vulnerable one I didn't know existed.

  "You can," Brett says. "You'll only feel it for a little bit and then you'll be fine. Now jump!"

  Karina scrambles out the window, whimpering, as I face down the door. The warlock's approaching the hotel room. I hear his finger curling around the trigger again. His shadow stretches across the light coming underneath the door. For a moment I wonder if it's the dark spirits, but for now, they've backed off. They aren't needed.

  He shoves open the door, which bangs into the bathroom door and rains more splinters.

  Instinct takes over and I charge the scarred man without a thought. He lifts his pistol but it's too late. I crash into him and throw him back into the hall as he fires off a shot, missing my face by inches. The bullet bounces off the ceiling and strikes the television, shattering glass. He goes down on his back and I land on top of him under the lights of the hallway. People shout from other rooms. The man growls at me like he's trying to do a Wolf impression. I stare right into his deep brown, stony eyes, and I know this guy has seen some crap.

  "Let go of me!" he shouts.

  Someone down the hall asks a question in what might be Spanish, and another in what could be Arabic. Doors open. One slams shut again as someone must see the gun. Someone will call the authorities. The guy punches me on the arm, but I slug him across the face, making him drop his weapon. A woman down the hall gasps. Behind me, Brett and Karina scramble out the window, and I hear them land, one after the other, on the sidewalk outside.

  I slug the guy again. "Don't touch my pack members and don't touch my mate!" Cayden. He's out there and I've lost track of him. So I slug the guy again across the side of his skull, aiming just above the temple and scraping greasy hair. His eyes roll into his head and the pressure threatens to surge into my chest. No. I can't kill him. Even if he's a cult member, he's a human, and if I repeat what I did to Mr. Hayde now, Romulus takes over and kills these bystanders.

  But I do grab the pistol, which feels cold and deadly in my grasp, and rise. Three people peek out of their rooms at me, two men and one woman, and three jaws fall as I stand there with the deadly weapon. "Hi?" So I smile and wave before ducking back into the hotel room, leaving the stunned cult member on the floor of the hallway.

  Brett and Karina have already gone. I bolt for the window, fleeing from the pressure within, and gun in hand, I exit feet first. The ground swirls below, and two dark shapes--the Hayde siblings--wait.

  Chapter Nine

  "Where's Cayden?"

  Though I stand there with a gun in hand on the sidewalk of the Portrait hotel, staring at the Hayde siblings, he's my first thought. I feel for our connection, but not much is there, which tells me Cayden's nowhere near now. The sidewalk's empty and I don't smell the cult, either. All of them except for the guy on the second floor have fled the area, and Rome has so many other scents that they mask the burning herbs and smoke smells the magic users give off. It doesn't help that a breeze now blows through the city, making it hard to pin anything down.

  He's gone. Cayden and the other cult members have vanished. I take a breath, urging my pulse to calm, as I tuck the weapon under my shirt.

  "I haven't seen or sensed him," Brett says. He has his arm around Karina and she's making no effort to shove him away. I guess that's progress?

  "Me neither," Karina says. She sounds incredibly small, like a mouse who had until now, disguised herself as a cat. And now she's exposed.

  "Sis, we can't stand out here. The cult will be back if they want their limo," Brett says.

  I follow his gaze. The limo still stands there, doors open and empty.

  "They won't come back with the police coming," I say just as sirens start in the distance. "Let's go. We need to find Cayden and I'm not dealing with the human authorities." Panic makes my ears ring. He could be--

  No. I'd feel it if he neared death, and that wave of despair hasn't approached yet.

  "Karina, come on," Brett says with a gentle tone.

  "They tried to kill me."

  I don't have time to comfort her now. The sirens get louder, and I guess they're just a couple of miles away. Even a human should be able to hear this and worse, I still have the gun, which looks really bad. I face the alley where Cayden landed. He ran around the back of the hotel as a Wolf. When he changes back, he'll be naked and alone. I wave
Brett and Karina down the alley and we vanish into the dark together.

  The acrid stench of herbs still lingers in the air as my pack bounces on my back, but the dark spirits made sure to waft most of the poison up into the top story of the hotel. The broken window peers down at us as we weave between parked cars (honestly, do they always park this close together here?) and I hear the wind whistling against its glass teeth. But there's no one in the alley now, and just the remnants of a burned herb bag lie at the end. The sirens get louder behind us. We can't get caught. It doesn't help that we entered the country illegally.

  Emerging at the back of the hotel, I realize we're between tall buildings, probably other hotels, and still alone.

  "I don't see anyone," Brett says. He's let go of Karina, who now stands beside him.

  I sniff, but Cayden's scent is very faint and I can't tell where it's coming from. He's still alive. Must be. Otherwise I would have felt his death. Darkness swirls around the edges of my awareness, telling me the dark spirits are still lingering. They could still have effects. What if the cult is working to separate us? Some of these things are still attached to Cayden and maybe they've moved on to another type of pain.

  I also smell the cult from somewhere, but the scent is incredibly faint. The sirens, however, are not.

  "Keep going," I say. "Anywhere. Run as fast as you can."

  We take off, running through alleys and across cobblestone sidewalks. Brett and Karina keep pace with me, running separately, but I've lost all fear of Karina joining the cult again. Cayden's scent comes and goes, but every time I run down a new alley, following his scent, it fades again. The dark spirits hover over us the whole time and I know they're working to frustrate us and throw off our trail. The wind changes direction every other second, blowing papers around the streets. The three of us run under apartments with balconies. Past coffee shops that populate narrow streets. We even pass a McDonald's on a street corner. Once the sirens stop and fade behind us, I stop.

  Cayden's scent is gone. The cult's scent is gone. And as if satisfied they've ruined our night, the dark spirits back off and the air clears.

  I've lost my mate.

  "Where's Cayden?" I ask, as if Brett and Karina will know.

  "How should I know? You have the great senses," Brett says.

  I'm alone with the Haydes, with a pistol tucked into my pants and barely hidden by my shirt. Something tells me to take it out. Maybe it's the fact that Karina is right there. I have no Cayden. Instead, I have this hunk of metal. At least no one's on the street to freak out over it.

  Brett eyes it. "I've seen those before."

  "Oh." I eye the old pistol, which looks as if it had been made in the eighteen hundreds. The handle is wooden and has a carved Wolf on the side. It's a lot like the one that belonged to my mother and might have even been Hunter made. "Did the cult steal this?"

  "No," Brett says. "We've always had silver bullets on hand just in case the Savages turn on us. I know you think the cult are a bunch of idiots. And you are right. But they're not as idiotic as you think."

  "You just called the cult idiots?" I ask, tucking the weapon back into my pants. It's like I'm trekking through the woods, ready to face the Savages for the first time all over again. I did that for Cayden, too. And now he's gone. The cult might have--

  "Aren't I making progress?" Brett spreads his arms, almost hitting his now-quiet sister by mistake. Karina hikes her shoulders and bites her lip.

  I sigh. Aunt May left my life and now I've lost my mate, at least for now. I eye the swirly white pattern of the table and grip the side as hard as I can, shoving one of the white chairs out of the way with my foot. The shop nearby smells of coffee and cream, of exotic cookies and sugar, but even the happy scent can't make me feel better.

  And as expected, neither Brett nor Karina say they're sorry I'm having a bad night. My eyes burn and a horrible thought enters my head. What if Cayden ran away from me and not just the cult? He's so far away now that I can't feel him, and I'm sure the magic the cult worked makes it so that I won't be able to find him soon. They're counting on ripping us apart. Maybe it's the final part of their plan.

  "Brett, are there spells to make people fall out of love?" I ask, peeling my gaze from the table.

  "Controlling people and their thoughts is really difficult," Brett says. "Magic works through indirect ways." He looks to his sister as if hoping for more explanation.

  "Artemis used to rip apart relationships the cult members had outside the cult," Karina says. "So people wouldn't leave."

  Brett's eyes widen and her words hit me in the chest so hard they almost throw me back. "Artemis can rip lovers apart?"

  Karina scowls. "She wanted to kill me, so I spill her secrets. Artemis could have her spirits screw with peoples' lives. One member wound up with another woman's underpants in his apartment laundry by mistake--and it was just because they were still in the dryer when he put his clothes in--and his girlfriend thought he was cheating when he wasn't. She broke up with him and he came back to the cult. There was another member, Thalia, who was about to marry a man outside the cult and Artemis put a stop it that, too. Another woman showed up in the man's life and he ran off with her instead."

  My stomach heaves. "That's disgusting!" Could she do this to me and Cayden? Rip us apart with misunderstanding? But we've been through that before. Cayden had to pretend to get close to Olivia and we still stayed together.

  "Well, it was to keep people from leaving the group." Karina speaks with a shrug. "How else was she going to do it?"

  "The cult relies on its members being dark and broken," Brett says. "I hate that I didn't see it sooner."

  "I'm not broken!" Karina snaps, stepping away from her brother. Her chin wobbles ever so slightly, but once she senses me looking at her, she bites her lip to stop it.

  I back away from the table as the air thickens. Regret fills Brett's dark eyes as he faces me. No longer does he seem angry about me killing his father. I've paid off that debt and now he has to live with this.

  Then Brett looks to his sister and opens his mouth like he wants to ask her a question. Karina turns away and faces the street. A late-night couple walks up the sidewalk towards us, wobbling against each other like they've sampled a lot of the local wine. I smell it, too.

  "We need to find Cayden. The others will be landing when the sun rises, so we have hours to check," I say. At least the three of us have slept, though I feel like I need a shower.

  "I know," Brett says.

  We watch the couple pass. They don't even notice us but speak in low voices. I sniff again as the alcohol stench clears. Still no Cayden. "He's nowhere near us."

  "We can't go back to the hotel. Now actually would be a good time to go to Remus's resting place," Brett says.

  I whirl on Brett and Karina, pulse roaring. "We need Cayden. I can't leave him out here."

  "Look, alpha, if we stall, the cult will go to the victory site and be ready for us. They'll know why we're here. Why else would Noble Wolves come to Rome? There haven't been Noble Wolves in this area for a long time. Just Savages. This isn't a friendly place for your...for our kind. If we want any chance of channeling Remus and stomping this cult forever, we have to take it now."

  He's saying we should just leave Cayden to an uncertain fate. "We need my mate. You don't understand what he does for me. We can't leave him out here to die."

  "We'll waste time," Brett says. "I haven't been around the guy much but we talked. He'd do anything for you. Even die. And I bet he wants you to go ahead to the victory--I mean resting site."

  Brett's words scrape against everything I want to do right then. "But there are only three of us. We need the numbers."

  "Well," he nods towards Karina, who exchanges a glance with him, "We have a very talented witch with us who rivals Artemis. Who Artemis wanted under her thumb. Karina, did you know she's probably scared of you?"

  We're still wasting time talking about this. Karina doesn't say a word, lik
e she's still processing things. In fact, she's shaking. "Why are you telling me this? I'm not a good sister."

  Brett's gaze darkens. "You can change that."

  What's going on? Karina tried to kill Brett. They're healing too quickly for reality. Is there something I don't know?

  "Cayden," I remind them.

  "We won't find him before the cult reaches the victory site if they're using magic to keep you apart," Brett says. "I don't even think we should wait for the others to get here now. Alpha."

  I'm in command. Pulling back my shoulders, I let him have it. "You don't know much about love, do you? If Cayden dies, I'll feel it. I'll go dark and we're screwed. And that's more likely to happen before we even reach Remus's site and do our magic. Our best bet is to find him before we go there. So we find him. And that's my order."

  I turn away, but not before Brett snorts and shakes his head.

  Chapter Ten

  Brett shuffles his feet in disgust behind me as he and Karina follow me through the streets. The buildings go from cute shops to apartment buildings and get progressively newer and more modern the longer we walk. We've left the tourist area, but Cayden's not there anymore. But I ignore Brett and Karina and pick up my phone as I walk. Making sure no dark spirits have come back, I text Leonora, my stand-in secretary, and let her know what happened in a long, four-part message.

  She replies, 2 hours out.

  Might meet you at airport, I respond. Depends.

  And I end it there, putting my phone on Do Not Disturb, and put all my focus on finding Cayden. He's not dead yet. I'd feel the shock if he were, being his mate. I have a good sense of smell, better than the rest of the pack, and I pick up no traces of him as we traverse from one corner of the city to another, walking in the shadows.

  "Brett. Karina. Do the cult members have any secret hangouts over here?" I ask. "They could be masking Cayden's smell and hiding him from us. If they have him. And I have a horrible feeling they do." I used to be able to hear Cayden in my mind, especially when I was in danger, but I realize I haven't heard his voice in my mind much since the night where the cult sort-of bound Romulus to me. It's as if the new connection is interrupting the one Cayden and I share.