Alpha Betrayed: A Dark Shifter

Ford

When we reach the main road, I head north. We need to go east for about three thousand miles, but if the assassins have found their way to Canada, I don’t want to make it easy for them to follow us.

I also don’t want them to guess where we’re going.

Lost Moon University is supposed to be a fortress, defended by magical wards and a small army, but that doesn’t help us any until we’re accepted into the program and behind those fortified walls. Seeing as I have no idea how hard that’s going to be, it seems best not to arrive at Lost Moon with people who want to kill us on our tail.

So, we’ll take a zig-zag route, travel at night, and do our best not to leave any clues behind that a sharp tracker might be able to follow.

Without a cell phone or a map, it’s hard to guess when the next town will pop up on the horizon, but I know this part of Canada is still fairly densely populated. When we get into the plains region in the center, we’ll have to plan ahead more, but for now I trust we’ll come across a town or two before morning.

My trust is rewarded a little after five a.m., just as the horizon is glowing a bruised orange and Juliet’s body is beginning to sag into mine. She must be f*****g exhausted. I know I am, and I haven’t been through anything close to what she’s been through. Even back in the syndicate I was well-fed and taken care of.

They needed me in good shape to keep killing other shifters.

Pushing the dark thoughts away, I slow, studying the billboards as we move through a hamlet that’s seen better days. Half the buildings in the small downtown are boarded up and the gas station and dollar store look like the only places to buy food. I take note of that for later but keep driving toward the Lucky Lodge advertised on the two bus stops in town, hoping it’s still in business.

Thankfully, it is, and it seems okay for a roadside dive. As I turn into the parking lot, the brightly lit lobby looks clean and the two cars parked in front of the short row of rooms are mid-price sedans, not beat up wrecks.

I circle around to the back of the motel, parking behind a large dumpster. The sudden silence after I cut the engine rings in my ears, the peaceful calm of the early morning seeming to underline the horror of everything that came before.

Juliet slides off the bike behind me and promptly collapses onto the grass. I reach for her, but she bats my hand away. “I’m fine. My leg’s just asleep.” She rubs at her bare right leg, which I can now see is covered in goosebumps and slightly blue.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were cold?” I ask, my voice harsh. “I have extra clothes in my bag.”

She looks up at me, her gaze flat. “Not in the habit, I guess. It’s been a long time since anyone cared if I was comfortable.”

I press my lips together and ball my hands at my sides.

“Are you going to hit me?” she asks, still sounding bored. Or, more likely, exhausted.

“Never,” I promise. “I was just wishing I’d taken out the rest of Gorey’s men on our way out. They should pay for what they did to you.”

“They will,” she says. “I have a list. When I’m Alpha, I’ll start checking it twice. But spoiler alert, everyone on it is naughty. And I’m going to kill them.”

“Good.” I pop open the storage area at the back of the bike and pull out my duffle bag. Unzipping the top, I find another gray hoodie identical to the one I’m wearing and toss it in Juliet’s lap.

She pulls it on without a word, then tucks her legs beneath it. “Your name is on there, too. Or it was, until a few hours ago. Top of the list, actually.”

I sit down on the grass in front of her. “Okay. Shoot.”

Her brows lift the slightest bit.

“Ask me,” I add. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“You don’t. Not for sure, but you were always one of the smartest kids in the pack. You got accepted to Pepperdine, for f**k’s sake. If I’m lying, you’ll figure it out.” I shrug. “And hopefully, after we talk, you’ll see why I’m on your side.”

She studies me for another beat, watching me with that new, eerie stillness of hers that’s so different from the bubbly, bouncy young girl I once knew. “So, Dad sold you to the B***d Pit syndicate and told you I was the one who gave the order. Is that right?”

“Yep. And he sold you to the circus and told you I was to blame.”

“Correct.” Heat sparks in her eyes. “But why? And who the f**k is running things now? Dad isn’t going to live forever. He was ready to pick a successor two years ago. He told me it was going to be me, and you were the only other one with a claim. What the hell happened?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. I haven’t wanted to risk getting in touch with my friends in the pack to ask what’s going on until I was holed up somewhere safe. Hammer put a bounty on my head. I’ve had hired killers on my tail all the way from San Diego.”

Juliet’s gaze cuts toward the motel. “That’s why we’re parked back here? Do you think they’ve followed you?”

“I don’t think so. I haven’t had any run-ins since I crossed into Canada, but better safe than sorry. There might be people from the auction looking for us, too.”

“The cowboy’s friends,” she murmurs. “I think we killed them all, but you’re right. Better to play it safe. Especially while I’m still so weak.”

“Once we get checked into our room, I’ll leave you with one of the guns for protection and run back to town for food. Step one is getting your weight up so you can start building muscle again.”

She slides her eyes back my way. “How’d you end up in Canada?”

“I was looking for you.”

“To kill me,” she says.

“Originally, yes,” I say, knowing better than to sugarcoat it. “Or maybe just torture and hold you captive as leverage, I hadn’t decided yet.” I stretch my neck to one side and rub at the tight muscles. “But when I realized you really were a prisoner, just like me… My plans changed.”

“And what is your plan?” she asks. “Appeal to the Canadian packs for help taking out dear old Dad? Because I can tell you right now that won’t work. No one’s doing the hostile takeover thing anymore. It’s all peace talks and democratic decision making. The North American packs have formed some kind of shifter coalition, led by an Alpha in New York. I heard Gorey gossiping about it while he was making Paloma feed on him.”

My brow furrows. “Paloma?”

“She’s a vampire. Gorey got off on being vamp food. Paloma said he tasted like sawdust and horse piss.” Her shoulders slump as she huddles closer around her legs. “She was my friend, I guess. As close as I had to one in there, anyway. I should have set her free on our way out. I’m a bad person now.”

“We barely got out of there with our lives. You’re not a bad person.”

Her gaze locks with mine. “Yes, I am. It’s what I had to become to survive. And now I’ll become whatever I have to become to take revenge on the people who thought they could destroy me. And maybe you can be part of that, Ford, but probably not. You want to be in charge, and I’m done taking orders and being a good little puppet. From now on, I’ll call the shots in my life or die trying.”

Sensing now isn’t the time to get into what a good idea it would be to team up and share the victory and the spoils, I say, “Let’s get a room, some food, and some rest. Then, while we wait for it to be dark enough to travel again, I’ll fill you in on my plan. It isn’t fancy, but if it works, it should give us time to gain strength, gather allies, and actually have a chance at taking Zion.”

She pulls in a breath. It escapes as a faint wheeze I only realize is a laugh when she says, “Remember when you convinced me there were ogres and a giant, flesh-eating cat in the mountains and that they were going to steal me away and eat me if I didn’t get a sweater for Christmas?”

I clear my throat, regretting what a shit I was a kid. “Yeah. My gram used to tell me stories like that all the time. She’s from Iceland. Their holiday legends aren’t as cute as ours.”

“You were so good at spinning a yarn, though. I was so terrified I peed the bed twice the night after I didn’t get that sweater. You made me believe so hard I thought I saw the cat’s glowing yellow eyes outside my window.”

“I half-believed it myself,” I confess. “Gram made those stories sound so real.”

Juliet sobers. “Exactly. So, if your plan sounds like a pipe dream, I’m not going along with it. You have a history of believing in fairy tales and I have my own mind and my own plans.”

“Sounds fair.” I stand, reaching a hand down to her. “Come on. Let’s get a room. I need a nap.”

“And a shower.” She takes my hand and lets me pull her up. Once she’s standing, she leans in, pushing up on tiptoe and dragging her tongue up my cheek. I flinch but before I can move away, it’s over and Juliet’s face is hovering in front of mine. “You have b***d splatter on your cheeks. Probably want to clean that off before we head to the lobby, Handsome. You’re scary looking enough without the bonus gore.”

She pulls away and ambles toward the front of the motel, still barefoot and looking about twelve years old with her stick-thin legs poking out from under my giant sweatshirt and the bottom of the dress beneath. Still, the sight of her sends a shiver of awareness down my spine.

Maybe it’s the darkness inside her that she makes no effort to hide.

Maybe it’s the way her tongue on my cheek sliced through me like an electric shock and the part of me that liked hearing her call me handsome—even though I know she was being a smartass.

I was pretty sure that part of me was dead and that pretty girls with soft lips and warm tongues held no fascination for me now.

I didn’t think there was room inside me for anything but hatred and revenge.

The fact that I might have been wrong about that is scarier than a fleet of assassins parked outside my front door. I don’t have time for soft feelings, especially not with a woman who seems as likely to kill me in my sleep as lick me again.

“F**k,” I mutter, but I head after her.

Like it or not, she’s my best hope, and I need hope too badly to change course now.