Stealing the Alpha’s Heart

I hadn’t gotten a text from Lyssa.

Not that she was the most communicative person during her work shift, but she usually shot me one or two during her lunch. I hadn’t noticed at first because I’d been on the phone with Jacobian, discussing what he’d found about her parents.

But now, I had most certainly noticed. I instantly dialed her, forgetting how upset Jacobian had been about his efforts. Worse come to worst, I was just being overly paranoid. Or at least that was what I told myself until it went straight to voicemail.

I left a message, but alarm bells were ringing in my head. Quickly I dialed up Emmaline instead, trying not to pace.

“Hey, bro, what’s up?”

“Hey, is Lyssa there?”

“No, she left for the bank at the start of her lunch break, why?”

“She’s not answering her phone. But maybe she’s just busy setting up her account?”

I could hear that Emmaline was just as worried as I was. “I guess, maybe. But do you have GPS on her phone? Can you check that?”

“I don’t, actually. She’s a bit sensitive about being surveilled, and I wanted her to know I trusted her.” However, I was beginning to regret it.

“I’m going to leave work and head to that bank. Maybe they’re hassling her.”

“Do you want me to leave? It’s just four blocks down from here.”

“Is it a straight shot?”

“No, you have to go around this big, ugly building. You know, one of those modern chic ones.”

“No, stay put in case she comes back. I’m heading out now.”

My inner wolf’s head was perking up from its slumber, heeding my anxiety. I called Lyssa twice as I rushed to my car, vaguely announcing to my team that I was leaving. My sister’s boutique was a few miles away, hardly a long drive.

Part of me was tempted to shift so I wouldn’t be confined to the roads, but having a giant wolf running around downtown would cause all the packs in the area more problems than they needed.

I called Lyssa three more times while I drove, sick to my stomach. A thousand and one worries were pouring through my head, one right after the other. So yeah, I might have sped, maybe I didn’t. Except I most certainly did, arriving at the bank in minutes.

Heading inside, I cut in line and went straight to the closest teller, asking for the manager. Either my face or my outfit spoke for me because less than a handful of seconds later, a smartly dressed woman came walking out.

“Can I help you, sir?”

“Yes, my fiancé was just opening an account here on her lunch break.”

“Sir, we cannot give information about our customers without their permission.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s fine. I don’t need to know about her account info. I’m worried because she never contacted us at the end of her lunch break and she’s not answering your phone. I want to make sure she’s safe. Did you see which direction she went in?”

“Oh,” the woman’s tone changed from managerial calm to genuinely worried. “Give me just one moment.”

She disappeared behind the counter, talking to a couple of tellers. A few moments later, one of them handed her something then she hustled over to me.

“Jamie here says your fiancé was in here just fifteen minutes ago, but she left this behind. Hopefully, she is fine, just unable to message you without this.”

She handed me Lyssa’s phone, and I swore my heart stopped in my chest. My mind could only come up with two solutions, one being that she had run away and the other being that she was taken away. Neither were good options.

But I tried to work my expression into something not panicked for the manager. “Ah, of course. She must have just been in a hurry to get back to work. I’ll go run this to her.”

They handed the phone over and I headed out. But the moment I stepped onto the sidewalk, I was already typing into the group chat for my inner circle.

I told them that Lyssa was missing, and she’d left her phone behind at the bank. I also warned them that I might need them to start searching downtown, but first for Jacobian to hack into the bank’s security feed and see if he could find anything.

There was a chorus of affirmative comments, and I tucked my phone back in my pocket, deciding to go on foot to try and track Lyssa’s scent. Easier said than done with all the scents in the city.

I hoped she was just so occupied with the bank that she had accidentally left her phone behind. But my instincts were screaming at me that wasn’t the case and something dangerous was afoot.

Which meant I had failed. My entire job was to protect Lyssa, to provide for her. And yet, I’d let her fall right into danger. I’d take whatever punishment fate put on me if it meant that she was safe.

Hurriedly, I walked to Emmaline’s boutique, praying I would just happen across Lyssa. I looked right and left, trying to scan everything as I strode along. I was nearly to Emma’s and thoroughly defeated until, impossibly, I spotted Lyssa sitting alone at a sandwich stop.

The entire world stopped spinning as a dozen or so feelings hit me all at once. I rushed to her, ignoring the employees who tried to greet me.

Lyssa smiled at me, sweet as ever, but it didn’t abate the surge of too much within me.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, obviously unaware of the chaos she’d caused.

“What am I doing here?” I echoed, trying not to sound harsh and failing entirely. “Lyssa, you left your phone behind in the bank in the middle of a rash of shifter kidnappings! I thought you were gone!”

I was yelling and aware that people were looking, but I didn’t care. I needed Lyssa to know how much she meant to me. I needed her to know how scared I was. I also needed her to be careful! There was someone out there snatching up shifters right and left. And we weren’t exactly easy prey. But Lyssa was. She was essentially declawed, defanged, and half-deaf.

“No,” she said simply, gathering up her sandwich and standing.

“What do you mean, no?”

But she ignored me and waved to the employees behind the counter. “Thank you so much for the sandwich. It was delicious.”

Packing the rest of it in her backpack, she headed out the door. Naturally, I followed her, still plenty pissed but also baffled by her reaction. I attempted to ask her several times what was up, but she would just cut me off with a very firm ‘uh-uh.’

I was lucky that Emmaline’s wasn’t far, and as soon as we arrived, my sister was rushing forward to hug Lyssa.

“Thank the moon, you’re safe!”

“Why are people worried about that? You two realize I lived on the streets for three years, right?”

“That was before people started kidnapping pack members,” Emmaline chastised, and that seemed to cow Lyssa at least a little.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that. I was just trying to enjoy a sandwich without being harassed. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to borrow your office to talk to your brother.”

Her tone brooked no argument, and Emmaline nodded. “Uh, sure. Whatever you need.”

Nodding, she marched forward, and I followed, pretty sure that things were not about to go my way.

Sure enough, as soon as she shut the door, she laid into me, her voice steely and cold.

“I realize you are stressed and worried, but you will not come up to me in public and make a scene! There was no need to yell at me or try to embarrass me like that in front of people.”

Okay… when she said it like that, I could… kind of see her side.

“I was scared you were hurt. I even called in the calvary.”

“I… I appreciate that. I guess I’m just not used to having people to watch my back. But even if you’re terrified, that’s no excuse to start screaming at me in public.”

“You’re right,” I admitted, feeling contrite. “I’m sorry. I won’t freak out like that whenever you’re off on your own.”

“Why do I feel like there’s a but coming?”

“Not really a but, but more of a… small request.”

“All right, out with it.” She crossed her arms, giving me a disbelieving look.

“Would you have any interest in self-defense classes? I know you have street smarts, but it would ease my mind.”

To my surprise, she grinned broadly. “Actually, I’d love to. I’ve always wanted to but haven’t for obvious reasons.”

At least I had one good idea that day.

“So, we have an agreement?”

“We do,” she said, her mood seeming to clear. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for scaring you. That wasn’t my intention.”

“I know. And I promise I’m not normally like this.”

“Yeah, I’m guessing that normally multiple shifters aren’t going missing within weeks of each other.”

“It’s pretty novel, yeah. And not in a good way.”

“Okay then, we’ll talk more later, but right now I should get back into work. Maybe you should message that calvary of yours and tell them it was a false alarm.”

“Probably would be good.” With a nod, I headed out. I wanted to k**s Lyssa goodbye —because when didn’t I want to k**s Lyssa? — but I could tell it wasn’t the right time. It seemed I was indeed in the doghouse, even if she understood where I was coming from and mostly forgave me.

Giving Emmaline a wave goodbye, I headed out and updated the group chat.

Theo: Is your brain even functional?

Parker: Whoa, harsh much?

Theo: I just mean that your completed mating bond should mean that you would have been able to feel if Lyssa was in danger or not.

I rolled my eyes and reminded him that Lyssa was not able to access her inner wolf, and that pretty much stopped a lot of what we were supposed to be able to share in our bond. I was grateful it wasn’t total radio silence, but I knew we were missing out on a majority of information that was supposed to be exchanged.

But now, more than ever, I knew that we needed to break whatever curse she was under. Impatient, I exited the group chat and reached out to one of the few witches I knew and asked him to meet with me in an hour at a bar owned by a local friendly wolf pack. He was a young witch, but he was the best shot I had at the moment until our alma got back to me.

Heading back to my car, I hopped in and headed to the Moon Cycles’ Bar.

---

“You okay, Mahlan? You look stressed.”

“Probably because I am,” I answered honestly, sitting beside Samson, the witch I’d called. He was a young guy, barely twenty and still growing his beard. His skin was deeper than umber, and his eyes were a sort of hazel that I was sure captivated plenty of people.

“You wanna tell me what’s up?”

“Not really. What I want you to do is seal the sound around us.”

“Sure, I can do that.”

Samson raised his hand, his brow furrowing. Although I couldn’t always tell a magic user when I met them, I could feel his enchantment wash over me. Then the sounds of the bar dulled, and I knew he’d done what I asked.

“I need you to try to break a curse for me.”

“Ew, undoing someone else’s work? I’m a bit young for that, you know.” Samson’s attitude was disinterested, but that was how witches always were. Their mantra was to stay hidden and out of the way, always serving their own purposes rather than anyone else’s. Granted, I couldn’t exactly blame them, considering how many of them had been hunted down by humans; nasty stuff, those witch trials.

“Right, I’m sure. But listen, my pack’s lost their moonstone, and there’s a lot of stuff coming down all at once. If you’re not willing to break a curse, I need you to do some spying for me.”

“Spying? You sure you don’t just mean scrying?”

“If scrying will help, do that too.” I quickly gave him the rundown about the company and how we needed our moonstone back. While witches didn’t have moonstones, they had their crystals, relics, and altars. They knew how important it was when a clan relic was taken away.

“Complicated, complicated,” Samson mused. “Sounds risky.”

“Because it is. I won’t lie to you.”

“Okay, you know I liked your past alpha, so I’ll help you out.”

“Thank you.”

“But, for a price.”

“Right, of course.” Yeah, he was definitely a witch through and through. “How much?”

Instead of just telling me, he grabbed a napkin and started to write across it with his finger, the digits appearing in brilliant shades of purple and green. Witches. Always so dramatic. When he turned it to me, I scoffed at the amount.

“You realize that’s more than most people make in a year.”

“That’s because most people can’t infiltrate a wolf business and do what you need to be done without being detected.”

He was fleecing me. I knew it and he knew it. But once again, I couldn’t really blame him. Magic users all tended to live short lives. Between spells backfiring, infighting, and ne’er-do-wells poaching them for their body parts, getting old wasn’t a usual option for his kind and others like him.

“All right then. I’ll pay.”

“You have a deal.” He offered his hand, and I could feel the magic crackling around his palm. I knew if I took that shake, I would magically seal our agreement down to our souls. But I was a man of my word, so I took his hand firmly.

“Of course, you guys are gonna have to work your own wolfy magic and get me hired.”

“Don’t worry on that front. We already have two people on the inside, one known and one unknown.”

“Smooth, I like it.”

“Now… about that curse…”

“It’s the second time you’ve mentioned it, so spill the deets. I’m curious. What, did a witch turn your pecker into a turtle? Give your wolf form baldness?” He let out a mock-horrified gasp. “You didn’t sleep with a succubus, did you?”

“I don’t think there’s a single succubus in a three-state radius,” I rebuffed. “Too cold for them.”

“Ah, right. But is it the warmer temperatures they like or all the people running around in tiny swimwear?”

“I’m not here to discuss the habits of succubae, incubi, or any other fey,” I snapped, my patience growing thinner and thinner with every snarky comment. He wasn’t like Lyssa, not at all. She could banter and brat with me for hours, and I’d never get tired. But I was quickly hitting that level of exhaustion with Samson.

“Touchy, touchy. All right, fine. What’s going on?”

“Someone’s locked away my mate’s inner wolf. Cut off all connections to it. Could you help with that?”

Simon clicked his tongue. “It’s never simple with you wolves, is it?”

“Can you do it or not?”

“I… I don’t know, to be honest. We need to arrange a time, so I can get a look at her and whatever enchantment is beleaguering your beloved.”

“Okay, we can do that. Text me your schedule and I’ll find a time.”

“And you know that’s gonna add more to my price, right?”

“I would imagine nothing less.”

Samson winked, chuckling to himself, and I understood why not many people were friends with witches outside of witches. They really were the antithesis of the pack and community culture I was raised with.

“And what about tracing lineage?”

“Geez, did you bring a whole grocery list?”

“If that grocery list gets you more money, why are you complaining?”

“A witch only has so much time, you know? But to answer your question, I need to see what’s going on with her before I can do much else.”

I nodded, relieved to have some answers, even if they were vague. “We’ll be in touch.”

With that handled, I decided to skip the rest of the workday and just go home. I didn’t check my phone until I was done driving, which was somewhat of a feat considering texts from Jacobian kept going off.

As soon as I could, I checked his messages and saw that he’d finally managed to hack the company’s HR and was trying to find those hidden employees that Hannah couldn’t find anything on. Pleased at the fortunate timing, I sent Samson’s info and told him to put it into the system that the guy was hired for the shipping department and to send a welcome packet to his email.

I was lucky to have Jacobian on our side.

Jacobian texted a thumbs-up back and nothing else, which meant he was about elbows deep in whatever he was doing and likely wouldn’t come back up for several hours. With one last thing to do, I texted Samson to keep an eye on his email before going into my apartment to think about everything that had happened. It sure was hectic for a Thursday.