Free Alpha Pack 7 - Chase the Darkness by J.D. Tyler Page A

“How did she get them out of the store?”
    “She didn’t. She pinched them off the delivery truck in the alley behind the store after the guy ducked inside for a few minutes. Mama was so pissed, she marched us down there and made Rowan confess, and me, too, for my part in the escapade. We had to scrub floors and stock shelves for a week to pay for the defiled dogs.”
    Jacee couldn’t help but laugh out loud, and the waiter arrived at that moment with their food. He gave them an indulgent smile, served up, and after seeing if they needed anything else, disappeared. They ate companionably, and she basked in being near Micah. At one point she noticed he didn’t seem to be eating as much as he should, but she didn’t think more of it because he seemed fine.
    They chatted for the rest of their meal, and if Micah had noticed that she hadn’t divulged any history about her family, he didn’t mention it. She was grateful. She loved her family still, but talking about them was hard. Emotional. And she didn’t want anything to spoil this lovely dinner.
    They each had another drink and sipped for a while, but declined dessert, being too full. After they were done, he paid the tab, as promised, refusing to allow her to even get the tip. Even Jax, as nice a man as he was, had never bought her a meal. Never paid her much attention. She was beginning to adore Micah.
    Outside, he helped her into the car again, and they were soon on their way. He drove in silence for a few minutes, and she noted they were headed out of town, in the direction of his compound. Night had fallen, and the sky was clear, twinkling with stars.
    “You still up for that run? Or, if you’re too full, we can just walk.”
    “A run sounds great, actually.” Her coyote yipped in agreement. “I need to burn off all that energy from that great food.”
    “I know the perfect place. We won’t go all the way to the compound, but we’ll go for our run in an area not too far from it. There’re other places we can go, but for miles around our facility, the land is warded.”
    She peered at his profile in the darkness. “Warded?”
    “By a protection spell. Kalen is a Sorcerer and Necromancer. He’s quite powerful, and he placed a ward around the grounds a while back when we were having trouble with an Unseelie King and his Sluagh. And before you ask, the Sluagh are fallen Seelie who went over to the dark side, so to speak. They used to be beautiful Fae, then chose to ‘fall’ and serve the evil Unseelie, and so their beauty was taken from them. They become mindless drones, their only purpose to do what the Unseelie king says—which is usually to maim and kill.”
    She shuddered. “That’s horrible. Those things aren’t around anymore, I hope.”
    “No. The ones the Pack didn’t kill were sent back across the plane, into their own world. Hopefully never to cross again. Especially since Kalen killed their previous king, Malik.”
    “Holy crap. Kalen must be all kinds of badass to kill an Unseelie king.”
    “Yeah. He gets his power honest—Malik was his father.”
    “Damn! Shades of Luke and Darth, anyone?”
    “For real. Not only that, Kalen has a half brother at the compound as well. His name is Sariel, nicknamed Blue, and he’s the former Seelie prince who was cast out because the court found out Malik was his father, too. Fortunately for us, while extremely powerful, both of Malik’s sons are inherently good. They’re only bad when they need to be. Hopefully Kalen’s son, Kai, will follow in their footsteps and take after them, not his grandfather.”
    “Oh? How old is Kai?”
    “Only a couple of months. Cute little bugger, too. His mother is Kalen’s mate, Dr. Mackenzie Grant. He’s got his Uncle Blue wrapped around his little finger, and Blue absolutely
hates
handing him over to the new nanny when they’re all busy working.”
    “I’ll bet. Gosh, that’s an interesting group you live with.”
    “You have no idea.”
    It