Double The Alpha: A Paranormal Menage Romance Page 14

  “We haven’t even had many Creeper attacks lately either, have we? Let’s hope all this nice weather and peace isn’t the ‘calm before the storm,’ right?”

  She laughed, and I forced myself to laugh in return, amazed that a person could be having an anxiety attack while still probably appearing at least semi-normal to another person.

  After another minute or so of listening to Michaela talk about her new dining room table, or maybe it was even chairs, while slowly returning my rate of breathing to normal, I got up from the bench and told Michaela that I was sorry to cut our visit short, but that I had a little errand to run. She said that she understood and told me to enjoy the rest of my afternoon, which almost made me stifle a chuckle, because I knew I probably wouldn’t be.

  After giving her a wave, I began jogging across the greenspace, intent on doing my “little errand” before I lost my nerve. I was going to go visit Ryan and have a talk with him, telling him how I’d started to feel. After all, I thought, it wasn’t fair to him to be in a relationship with someone who still loved him but definitely didn’t love him as much as someone else.

  Also, I knew that the more time passed before I told him this, it was just going to make things harder. As it was, I figured that if the tables were turned and I were in a trio with him and another woman, I’d be devastated if he told me that he’d been loving her more for two whole weeks while acting like everything was just fine.

  After crossing half the village at a jog, I stopped to catch my breath at the southeastern portion of the wall, away from all the houses, realizing that I’d been so lost in my thoughts that I’d overshot my intended destination by maybe a whole quarter-mile of wall. Now, after catching my breath, I was going to have to backtrack south until I heard the sound of construction underway.

  Frustrated, I leaned against the wall, breathing heavily, while a few birds in a tall pear tree nearby tweeted their appreciation for the unusually nice day. However, after a few moments, I heard something else besides birdsong. I heard the muffled sound of a conversation taking place on the other side of the wall. It was two deep male voices. And both of them had a tone that somehow made me think that something crucially important was being discussed.

  Intrigued, I didn’t want to eavesdrop, but I felt unable to help myself at the same time. I’ll just listen to a few words and then go on my way, I told myself. Just a few words to see what’s going on.

  Quietly inching my way up to the wall, toward the voices, I soon realized to my complete shock that one of them belonged to Ryan. Now well beyond simply being intrigued, I silently made my way down the wall for maybe ten feet before coming to a stop. Then, tentatively, I moved one of my eyes to the thinnest of cracks between two sheets of metal welded together with strips of steel. Because the wall at this point was maybe only eight feet high, topped with barbed wire, I was able to hear pretty well from this point, as well as see through the thin crack.

  Now looking at Ryan from a distance of only four feet, if that, I hardly dared to breathe. He was having a conversation with Malcolm, who was one of “his” shifters, meaning that he’d come to Silverfield with Ryan as his alpha. Ryan soon continued talking about whatever he’d been talking about before I’d shown up, and I strained my ears to listen.

  “No, man, I’m telling you…I’m positive about all this. She’s falling out of love with me, or she’s falling more in love with Eric, or something. I can see it in her eyes. I can see it in her eyes whenever she looks at him. Something has definitely changed, but she’s still trying to act like everything is normal. I’m not blind, though. She’s even been acting a little funny too…just different things that I can’t even explain, but I’m sure about all this. She’s getting ready to push me out of the relationship or something, and I just can’t let that happen. I won’t.”

  With his gaze on the ground, Malcolm mumbled something quietly that I couldn’t quite catch, and Ryan continued.

  “Well, I don’t care what I have to do. Ellie is the woman for me, and with Eric gone, she’ll finally start to realize that I’m the man for her. The only man for her. It’s just that she can’t properly think when he’s around or something. He’s just got her all confused. But once he’s gone…she’ll be all mine. I just know it. The only thing is that obviously, I can’t be blamed for Eric’s death, and no one can think I’m responsible. That would completely throw a wrench in things with how Ellie feels, I’m sure. So, like I said before, this can’t be anything like me having a physical fight in the street with Eric or whatever dumbass things you and Kevin are always doing over Darcy.”

  Malcolm finally looked up from the ground. “So, what do you want to do?”

  “I’m going with plan A, just like we talked about. The next time the Creepers attack in a large group, I want you, Kurt, Don, and Mason to locate Eric, wherever he is, and lead a big group of Creepers toward him. Really tease the Creepers a little bit, but don’t fight them. Just make them completely frustrated and hungry for blood. Then, once you’ve led them to Eric, you guys just circle around the Creepers, forcing them even closer toward him, to hem him in.

  He’s a strong shifter, no doubt, but there’s no way he’ll be able to fight his way out of a large group of Creepers in a tight circle around him. At that point, you, Kurt, Don, and Mason just keep corralling the Creepers toward Eric, making sure that they really start tearing him up. Then,

  just for appearance sake, if other guys are around and aren’t completely distracted fighting other Creepers, maybe you, Kurt, Don, and Mason can even pretend to help him a little bit, but you don’t have to keep that up for long. Once they’re really tearing him up, maybe even holding him down in a dogpile, you guys just take off, pretending that you’ve gotten injured or pretending that you’re urgently needed to fight other Creepers.”

  With his gaze back on the ground, Malcolm didn’t say anything, and Ryan spoke again.

  “Kurt, Don, and Mason are already on board with this whole thing. They know what to do, and they’ve already been promised compensation. The next young woman that we stumble across while out on a supply run, if they like the look of her, she’s theirs. I’ve told them that I don’t even care if she’s willing or not, or married, or with a big group of guys or a family group, or what.

  We’ll just take her, and she’ll be theirs. If she doesn’t come with us willingly, I’ll just put the fear of God in her with a few threats, telling her that if she ever tells anyone that she was taken here unwillingly, she’ll be killed. This way, when I’m Ellie’s only remaining alpha hero once Eric is dead, I won’t have some new woman with loose lips changing Ellie’s opinion of me.”

  With his expression unreadable, Malcolm lifted his gaze to Ryan’s face after a long moment. “You’ve changed.”

  Ryan’s response was a short, sharp burst of laughter. “Hey…maybe I have. I’ve never wanted anything in my life more than I want Ellie to be all mine, and maybe that does change a man in some ways. All I know is that I’m going to do what I have to do in order to get what I want, and what I want is her. This is just the alpha way, man, and I feel like I’m finally just now coming into my own as an alpha. It’s about damned time, I’d say.”

  Chuckling again, Ryan gave his head a little shake before speaking again. “Now, the only thing we have left to talk about is your compensation. I’ve promised that if you help me do this, Malcolm, Darcy will be all yours. We’ll make sure of that. A few weeks after we take care of Eric, we’ll make sure the same thing happens to Kevin…and then, you’ll finally have Darcy all to yourself. So, what do you say? Are you on board?”

  Malcolm hesitated in responding, and Ryan spoke again.

  “Come on, man. I need you. Kurt, Don, and Mason are strong shifters, but not half as strong as you. I need you in order for this plan to work. Without your muscle, pushing a large group of Creepers toward-”

  “I’ll do it. I’m willing to essentially help murder Eric in order to have Darcy finally be all mine. I may not be
an alpha, but maybe it’s time I start acting like your description of one with this whole situation.”

  Grinning, Ryan clapped his hand onto Malcolm’s shoulder. “There you go, man. Now, we’re both going to get what we want. And our women will never be any the wiser. No one will be. All we have to do is just wait for the next Creeper attack, and if my thinking is right, it won’t be long now. Mason and I saw a huge group of them heading this way yesterday while bringing one of the trucks back with some scrap metal for the new wall. I didn’t say anything to Eric about it, because…well, I think it’s best if the next Creeper attack is something of a surprise for him, don’t you?”

  Malcolm agreed, and Ryan said they’d better get back to the job site.

  “Ellie’s supposed to be stopping by to see me this afternoon, and I don’t want to miss her.”

  They both soon left, walking south. I took my eye from the tiny crack in the wall and turned to stand with my back pressed against it, feeling curiously numb. I thought that I should probably be crying. I thought that I should probably be feeling like my heart had been torn in two. Maybe that would come later, I figured.

  However, at present, along with the numbness, I just felt a strange sense of resignation. I was going to be with Eric and Eric alone, although this wasn’t going to happen in the way that I’d planned, by way of me having an emotional, painful conversation with Ryan. I knew it was probably going to happen by way of Eric ripping Ryan to shreds once I told him everything that Ryan had said.

  CHAPTER 15

  Knowing that the next Creeper attack could happen at any time, I knew I had to find Eric quickly in order to prevent him from possibly being killed. So, feet flying, I took off running westward, not even acknowledging several people who called out to me, waving hello, when I cut through the houses.

  I’d just crossed the greenspace for the second time that day when the sound of a loud siren startled me, making me stop dead in my tracks. The siren was coming from the tall guard tower by the massive front gate, and it was part of a new “community warning system” for Creeper attacks. When Creepers were spotted by someone in the guard tower, they were supposed to sound the siren just briefly in order to warn women and children to take cover in their homes, and to alert all shifters to prepare to fight. The reason that the siren was supposed to be sounded just briefly was because any longer than a few seconds, and it would probably only serve to make any Creeper attack worse by drawing more of them with the noise.

  The siren pealed for maybe five or six seconds before stopping, which was just long enough for me to realize something in the midst of my growing panic, which was that even if I could reach the western wall before the Creepers attacked, that was no guarantee that I’d be able to reach Eric himself. For all I knew, he was possibly working too far away from the existing wall to even hear me if I shouted for him, and that was even if I just happened to spot him quickly through a crack. Better to just go through the front gate, then run around the wall to the west, I thought, already sprinting in the direction of the gate.

  When I neared the gate a few minutes later, breathless, dozens of wolves were already streaming out of it, going off to fight the Creepers. Not wanting to be spotted by anyone, at least not until I could get much closer to Eric, I waited until all the wolves had trotted out. The gate was then shut and locked by the tower guard, who then went back up in the tower. That was when I made my move, sliding beneath a gap beneath the gate on my stomach, getting stuck along the way.

  “Dammit,” I muttered.

  The gap was much too small for a Creeper to slide beneath; however, being a fairly petite woman, I’d thought that I would at least be able to slide beneath it. However, I now realized that it probably would have been a tight squeeze even for a child.

  Frustrated but determined, I began just trying to slowly inch my body to the right, grunting with exertion while I did so. After moving maybe just a couple of inches, just far enough to have the metal gate dig into my butt crack, I paused for a few moments to catch my breath before trying to squeeze through again, this time holding my breath. I got a little further this time, scraping my stomach across the gravel in a way that was incredibly painful, but I soon did a third and final inch-by-inch squeeze to the right. And then, I was out, leaping to my feet.

  Wishing that I was in a little better shape so that I could run faster, I sprinted westward around the wall, not even caring if the tower guard saw me at this point. If he did, I highly doubted he’d abandon his post and come all the way down to stop me. Not to mention that for all he knew, Eric and Ryan had given me full permission to leave the confines of the wall to fight the next time the Creepers attacked. At any rate, I just hadn’t wanted him to see me leaving the gate, where he would have been much more likely to question what I was doing or try to stop me. Now, my only problem was the shifter wolves ahead of me, because I had no idea if Ryan’s co-conspirators were among them.

  Some of them immediately charged off into the dense forestland to the west, where they would surely do a sweep for any Creepers hiding just as Eric always instructed them to. Other wolves continued charging toward the western section of the wall, probably intending to circle the entire community until they spotted the Creepers that the tower guard had sounded the alarm for. Praying that I’d see Eric soon, I trailed far behind the sprinting wolves.

  It wasn’t long before my lungs began to burn, and I was forced to slow my steps. Up ahead, I could see that the wolves I’d been following had now rounded the western curve of the wall and were probably heading south. This allowed a little bubble of hope to rise in my heart, because if these wolves were all loyal to Eric, I figured they might be able to stop any Creepers and traitorous wolves who might come charging westward from the south. They at least might be able to slow them and “thin the herd” a little bit, anyway.

  After just a brief rest spent clutching my heaving sides while hunched over, I took off at a run again, immediately spotting an enormous silver wolf emerge from behind a newly-constructed portion of secondary wall up ahead. I recognized this wolf right away, and overjoyed, I began shouting.

  “Eric! Eric, over here!”

  Even though he was in his wolf form, I was somehow still able to see an expression of complete shock on his silver-furred face when he saw me, even from a distance.

  I continued running toward him, and he took off at a run toward me, and we kind of met in the middle, with him shifting into his human form when we reached each other.

  “Ellie, what-”

  “Just listen. Just listen, please, Eric. But just let me catch my breath a second first.” Inhaling a great gulp of air into my lungs, I really did only take a second before speaking again. “Ryan is going to try to kill you by having some of his wolves intentionally send a big group of Creepers your way. His wolves are going to try to get the Creepers to circle you in, so that you can’t break free from them, and so that they’ll kill you.”

  “I know.”

  Uncomprehending, I just looked at Eric for a long moment. “What?”

  “One of Ryan’s initial co-conspirators, a man named Mason, actually developed a conscience, came to me in secret, and told me everything a few days ago. That’s why ever since then, I’ve had no fewer than ten of my strongest, most loyal shifters near me at all times, although kind of hidden. Most of them are behind that length of new wall right now, just waiting for whatever Ryan, Don, Kurt, and Malcolm think they can dish out with the Creepers. But how did you find out about all this?”

  Shocked and still winded, I took a few deep breaths before responding. “I just happened to overhear a conversation between Ryan and Malcolm. Ryan wanted to know if Malcolm was finally fully onboard with the plan, and Malcolm said yes. He said he was willing to help take part in basically murdering you just so that he can be with Darcy, because Ryan promised him that they’ll have Kevin killed later.”

  “Well, I’ll deal with Malcolm and his fellow traitors very soon. But, right now, we need to
get you to safety back inside the walls first, because I just have a feeling that once the Creepers and Ryan’s wolves move this way from wherever they are right now, the ensuing fight is going to become a little too intense for a non-shifter human to be anywhere near.”

  “But, I’m not just a regular human, Eric, remember? I’m an orb-thrower. Meaning that I can help.”

  “Not a chance. When you jumped into the defense at the breach, that was one thing. That was within the walls, with the Creepers coming in with relative slowness. This is different, and I’m not taking any chances with your-”

  “But I’m already out here, and I want to help you take out Ryan’s men too. I’ll be able to tell which wolves are his co-conspirators by which ones try to push the Creepers your way, and I’ll-”

  “Ellie, I’m just not going to allow you to put yourself in harm’s way, and that’s the end of it. Now, don’t make me get parted from my men in order to physically carry you back to the gate. Just-”

  “It’s too late. Look behind you.”

  Like a scene from a horror movie, dozens of moaning, gurgling Creepers were tearing around the side of the wall from the south, obviously being driven forward by something, probably Malcolm, Kurt, and Don in wolf form. The Creeper group might have even numbered somewhere around a hundred of them. Being that they were still a few hundred yards away, it was hard to tell. All I knew was that the size of the group was massive, a much bigger Creeper group than I’d ever seen in my life.

  Right after glancing over his shoulder, Eric turned back to look at me. “Run back to the gate and crawl beneath it if the guard doesn’t see you to open it for you. Go right this second, Ellie.”