Broken alphas, p.9
Broken Alphas, page 9
Sheila felt the woman’s annoyance but also her desire for the male. The cat inside her mind snarled. He was hers! Logan. Yes, that was his name. Logan.
“Yes. I’m here.”
Had she spoken his name aloud? Fingers glided over her sweaty face. Sheila turned into his touch. The vibrations of a purr rising from her chest startled her into opening her eyes. Icy blue eyes looked down at her; a frown line between his eyebrows.
“Hi,” she whispered.
“Hi. How are you feeling?”
“Hot,” she croaked. Her throat felt like she had swallowed a fist of sand. She tried to look around, to take in her surroundings, but was too weak. Logan sat on the mattress next to her hip. He looked down at her with concern. Was she so bad off? He used a washcloth to clean her face of sweat. The fabric felt like jagged rocks against her skin.
“You have a fever. Does anything hurt?”
Sheila shook her head weakly. “No. I-” The sudden pain gripping her stomach cut her off. The scream ripped through her like the agony did her belly. Curling up on herself, she fought to breathe. What was happening? Was she dying? It felt like something was shredding her from the inside out.
“Sheila! What’s wrong?”
She heard Logan’s frantic voice, but she couldn’t respond. Terror, pain, fury; a million intense emotions washed through her, cutting off her ability to think and speak. The onslaught was so great it felt like she was about to explode.
So much suffering! So much pain! The fire burned inside Sheila’s chest and expanded until the world became something else. Her vision expanded. Everything turned to shades of gray, but she could see the smallest detail in the wood furniture across from her.
However, what caught her attention, better said, her cat’s attention, was the male scent. Her clawed hands reached for him. Sheila saw Logan from a distance, as if she was watching him through somebody else’s eyes. He grabbed her wrists, preventing her beast from touching him. The female hissed and lunged for him. He held her back easily.
No! She was going to hurt him! Panicked, Sheila rushed to the forefront of her mind, shoving the other entity back. The primal cat hissed at her. Sheila ignored it. Her vision returned to normal.
“Logan, I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”
“Hey, it’s fine. I’m okay.”
Sheila started crying. The fear pummeled at her. “What is happening to me?” She watched Logan shook her head.
“I don’t know. I think your cat is trying to emerge, but it’s not like the normal shift. You shouldn’t have a fever and you shouldn’t be in so much pain.”
“Where’s Eva? Is she safe?”
The sudden question and change of topic seem to startle Logan.
“Yes, and yes. She’s two doors down the hall from you. Why?”
“I want to see her. Is she conscious?” The fear she was feeling was slowly being buried by sheer terror. Sheila’s breath quickened. Logan cupped her face.
“Hey, hey. What’s wrong?”
“I-I can’t... it’s... too much.” She fought for the next breath. Her heart was beating so fast she could feel it against her ribcage.
“Too much what?!”
“Pain! Fear! Terror!” Sheila screamed the words.
“Why are you scared, Sheila?”
Logan stood over her, the tip of his nose almost touching hers.
“I’m not,” she whimpered, fighting to think. Those weren’t her emotions. She wasn’t terrified, just scared. The pain she was feeling could be hers, but she wasn’t sure. Was she channeling someone? It seemed Logan had reached the same conclusion.
“Karla, go check on Sparrow and Eva.”
The rustling of clothes was the only response to his command. Sheila breathed through the feelings that weren’t hers. Logan didn’t say a word, but his jaw was tight. They stared at each other, waiting. Not two minutes later, Karla rushed into the room.
“Logan, Sparrow is awake again.”
Logan jumped off the bed, rushing out.
“Wait,” Sheila reached for him weakly, her hand falling limply on the spot he was a second ago. The healer followed him, leaving Sheila alone. Through the now opened door of her room, she could hear the commotion down the hallway. Groaning and ignoring the invisible belt squeezing her chest, she crawled out of the bed. Dizziness hit her the moment she tried to stand.
“Wow!” Sheila sat back down, bending over. The ringing in her ears intensified, but she breathed through it. It was at that moment she realized that her breath was fiery hot. Was she really sick? She hadn’t heard of a shifter catching a cold before.
The dizziness slowly passed, and the ringing in her head faded away. However, she still felt terrified and her breathing was quick. Carefully, she stood, relieved when her legs didn’t buckle under her. Moving like an old woman, and using the walls and every piece of furniture she encountered as a crutch, Sheila shuffled her way out of the room and down the corridor.
It seemed to take forever to reach the room from where the voices were coming from. Panting and sweating like she ran half the day during Nicky’s crazy training program, she leaned against the wall. The door to the room stood ajar. Voices came from inside, but Sheila couldn’t understand the words. The harsh wheezing of her own broken breaths impaired her hearing.
Leaning into the wall for balance, Sheila peeked into the room. The girl she and Eva had rescued was cowering in a corner. Sheila had a vague memory of biting the young woman, but she didn’t know if it was real, or just a fever-induced dream. Sparrow hissed and swiped at anyone daring to come into reaching distance. She didn’t have claws, but she was acting like she did. Strange.
“Sparrow, you’re safe, baby. Come back to us. This isn’t you. You know me. I’m Logan, your brother. This is Patrick, your pride mate and friend.”
Sheila entered the room quietly, leaning her back on the wall to stay upright. The poor girl was too terrified to acknowledge him as family or to listen to anything he had to say.
“Please, Sparrow.”
Logan had his hands in front of him, trying to reason with a feral. Sheila knew it was in vain, but she also understood Logan’s reasoning. She was his sister. He had to try to save her. Too bad no one could. Feral meant the girl was beyond saving. The animal had gone wild and buried the human side.
Patrick took a step closer to the feral girl.
“Sparrow, darling, you know me. Scent me, sweety. Remember.”
But the girl was too far gone. The young woman emanated pure terror. It made Sheila’s own cat hiss in anger and protectiveness. Her vision changed to shades of gray. Her sense of smell enhanced as the feline inside her rose to the surface. Sheila allowed it. She couldn’t fight the girl’s feelings, her animal, and her own exhaustion. At that moment, she wasn’t strong enough to handle all that was thrown at her. Her father would be disappointed.
Her father, her mother, and her little sisters. Were they okay? Where they-?
The scream ripping through the room broke Sheila’s wandering thoughts. Her pride mate was in danger! Focusing, the cat inside her saw two large males holding down the feral girl. Her pride mate. She had claimed that girl! How dare they touch what was hers?!
Reacting on instinct and screaming a challenge, she leaped. The move propelled her through the air, landing on the backs of the two males. The Alpha cat dug her claws deep, ripping into skin and muscle as the momentum moved her forward.
“Ah!”
“Fuck!”
Both males screamed, moving away from Sparrow. Sheila’s cat crouched over the traumatized girl. Her pride mate! Hers! She snarled through a human mouth that was half shifted. The glare and growl she gave the retreating males was a clear warning to stay away. The larger male, the Alpha, said something. Sheila’s human mind translated.
“Sheila, she’s my sister. I won’t hurt her.”
Family. She had family, too. “And they didn’t even know if I’m alive or dead.”
The human half of Sheila provided that information and the cat calmed slightly. But the fear coming from the shaking girl was fueling the cat’s temper. She needed to take care of her small pride.
Guiding Sparrow to the corner where she obviously slept, she sat on the wrinkled blanket. She gathered the girl in her lap, rocking and rumbling deep into her chest.
Sparrow shook and whimpered like a kitten, rubbing her face against Sheila’s neck. She was looking for comfort from her Alpha in a primal way, though she couldn’t shift. From across the room, the males stared at them. Sheila blinked, and her vision returned to normal. Her sense of smell faded, but not all the way. Was it her imagination or was she smelling Logan’s pheromones from all the way across the room?
She expected the men to leave, but no. Logan did something unexpected. Undressing quickly and with no shame, he shifted. The tiger was majestic. He padded calmly and silently towards her, holding her gaze. He was the Alpha of the pride and she had marked him. Did that mean anything to him? The tiger reached her, rumbling a greeting. Then he rubbed his body all over her and Sparrow, scent marking them. Sheila pushed her fingers through his thick fur.
“I’m sorry for attacking you,” she whispered. The tiger rumbled, rubbing his face against hers. His whiskers tingled, and she chuckled. But her chuckle turned into a sob.
“I don’t know what’s happening to me, Logan. I’m scared.”
The rumble he let out almost woke up Sparrow. Sheila shushed her and rubbed the nose of the huge feline.
“She needs rest, so be quiet. I can finally feel my heart and I think my blood pressure is back to normal. She was so scared she was about to give me a heart attack.”
The tiger rumbled again, but quieter. He settled next to her and Sparrow, licking her hand, then Sparrow’s. Thinking of those moments when her feelings weren’t hers and she was out of control made her panic rise. Sheila swallowed back her tears and fears.
“Logan, I want to contact John Black, Alpha of the Dark Claw Pride. My father.”
Chapter twelve
Inside wolf territory, the human doctor named Cain, sat in his laboratory. He listened to the screams coming through the ventilation system. Some sounded of hunger. Some dripped with pain.
He had locked all the pups in the cells below the main house. Even the two-day-old pup was there, crying for its mama. Two days of starvation and the phycological torture of the pack made him smile. Hearing the pups’ cries and being unable to help them kept the pack under total control. One female had actually killed herself because of it.
Cain smiled, remembering how that beast had launched herself at him. The bullets his guards had fired had ripped her to shreds. She’d been dead before she’d landed back on the ground.
However, the small abominations had survived longer than he’d thought. “Next time, the little beasts will have a three-day fasting,” he thought.
The pack was being punished because John Black’s daughter had escaped, killing his loyal men and taking the other prisoners with her. His spies in the pride had kept him appraised of her development over the years. She was something else; something special.
His father’s journals contained detailed explanations of what he did and to whom. He had left his ideas of how humans could take back control of the world from the animals.
“I created the perfect trojan horse; a female cub. An Alpha that will infiltrate the shifter ranks and take over.”
Cain had searched many years for the lost babe.
“The girl,” his father had written, “has been genetically changed to be an Alpha and to breed only Alpha females. We proved females are easier to control because of their bond with their children. We can control a pride through an Alpha female by keeping her offspring hostages. She will fight every male trying to stop her from protecting her young.”
Cain closed his eyes and reclined in the chair. The screams and groans of pain were like music to his ears. He was going to take back his world or die trying. And even if he died, there were many more human scientists working to regain the control over the animals. He had a network the shifters couldn’t dream of.
War was coming for them.
Another scream reminded him that his men had failed to capture the girl. He’d been looking for her for twenty years. Luck stumbled upon him two years ago as a half-shifter named Ben.
The male had been furious that she had refused to go out with him. Ah! What unrequired love does to a person? It makes him bitter and vengeful. Ben had been all too willing to help him monitor the female.
That was how Cain had found out that she hadn’t gone through the change. She was a half-shifter. He had thought it made her an easy target, but he had been wrong. The girl had a fighting spirit, that was for sure.
Maybe he would impregnate her with his semen the first time. He would not have sex with her, of course. She was a beast! But through artificial insemination?
Cain hummed, really considering it. Then he shook his head. A babe of his could make him soft and can be used against him. He had plenty of human soldiers to use as sperm donors. And he was sure his guards will be more than willing to fuck a dirty beast. They had already done it with the wolf shifters. The screams had made Cain’s cock harden, wanting to join. But he was above them.
He was clean.
“Sir, the two-day-old pup just died.”
Cain opened his eyes at the news and looked at the human guard standing in the open doorway. A female shriek came from outside the house. The mother just felt the death. Cain smiled.
“Really? Too bad. Take the body outside. I’ll be there in a moment.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cain stood slowly, arranging his white coat. He walked to a table holding vials with all kinds of liquids in them. He took one.
“This is going to be a hard lesson for the animals,” he murmured into the silent room. The commotion outside told him the guard had exited with the dead pup. Cain headed for the courtyard.
Two minutes later, he exited the main house, going down the five stairs of the porch with ease and a smile on his face. The female ripped her tear-filled eyes from the body of her son and looked at him with pure hatred.
It impressed Cain. That look should have the power to kill! The female struggled, growling and snarling but being unable to shift. The drug he had injected the member of the pack with, kept their animals caged inside their own bodies. Some had already gone feral because of that. Oh, well.
Now, the female snarled and foamed at the mouth. Her eyes were already pink. She was turning feral from the rage. Cain motioned for the guard to place the pup on the ground. He glared at the animals gathered there.
“You will do as I want or your pups and mates die.”
Cain took the vial from his pocket, opened it and dropped the liquid onto the small body. The skin sizzled as the acid ate the flesh, the muscles, and finally the bone.
“No!”
The female went crazy. Five guards held her down while she screamed in fury. Cain watched as the horror installed on each face there. The female kept screaming. Cain sighed. He was getting a headache. Pulling the gun from his holster, he shot the female in the head.
Silence.
Weeping.
Cain ignored it. He re-holstered his gun, glaring at the animals. He pointed to the pile of disintegrating body and then at the dead female.
“Obey, or you are next. I am tired of this game. I want that female shifter; Sheila Black. Get her for me and I’ll leave your territory.”
He wasn’t lying. He would leave if he had Sheila, but he would kill the entire pack. Then he would bring in another pack from the south; one loyal to him.
*
Logan sat on the bed next to Sheila. After the Sparrow incident, he had brought her back to her assigned room. Her fever hadn’t gone down and the seizures of pain came more frequently. His touch seemed to make them easier to bear, so he stayed at her bedside while Patrick had informed her father of her whereabouts.
The other Alpha had come with his healer in tow. Logan observed the woman, Beth, trying to fix whatever was wrong with Sheila.
“It’s not working!”
The frustration in her voice came out loud and clear.
“I can’t help her, John. I haven’t seen or felt anything like this. It’s odd. Her energy resembles the one of a half-shifter, but it’s not quite right. She has surges of Alpha waves. But then they subside to a submissive’s level. It’s like her animal doesn’t know what level of dominance it has. I think that causes the pain.”
The woman looked at her leader with concern and fear. That fear was gripping Logan’s beast. He never heard of something like this before. What if she died? Was the bond between them strong enough to affect him? Her father’s jaw was tight.
“Logan, you said she claimed your sister as her own. Had she done this with any of the males?”
Logan clenched his teeth. He didn’t want to do this. Showing the mark to others meant he placed Sheila in more danger. But this was her father and her healer. He pulled on the t-shirt’s collar, making the bite visible. The gasp in the room came from the woman. The hiss from the Alpha.
“When did she do this?”
John’s panther rumbled through the words. Logan couldn’t tell if the actions of his daughter pissed the man off, or if he feared for her.
“The day we saved them from the humans chasing their car.”
Logan had brought the other Alpha up to speed with the week’s events and the saving of his daughter.
“You told me she was dying, but I thought your healer...”
Logan shook his head. “No. Her cat took over right after the crash. She bit me to save herself.” He left out the second bite he allowed.
The silence in the room was telling. Everyone knew what the repercussions were. Logan met John’s eyes. He could read the challenge of a father in them. John was ready to protect his daughter. Logan kept eye contact, allowing his dominance free. Sheila was his. Not only because of the mark and the strange bond they shared, but because of his sister. Sheila had claimed Sparrow as hers. That meant where Sheila went, so was his sister. He couldn’t allow her to leave his territory. And at that moment, he realized he couldn’t kill her either.
