Free Alpha's Child by Aubrey Rose Page B

around Damien in a small circle, no doubt relishing how helpless Damien was.
    Out of desperation, Damien considered lunging for Grath’s throat. If Damien killed him, the others might not know what to do; they might accept Damien as their new alpha. On the other hand, they might rush him without hesitation and tear him to bloody shreds.
    “Are you not the alpha of your pack?” Grath said with something like disgust and something like skepticism in his growl.
    “I am.”
    “And you were… crying ?” The wolf said the last word as if he’d never imagined having to use it.
    Rage boiled up inside of Damien.
    “He was my friend,” Damien said.
    Grath gave a low grunt of distaste, and Damien could picture his sneer.
    “An alpha does not have friends,” the wolf said. “He has subordinates. Subordinates, mates, and enemies, and that’s it.”
    “How I run my pack is none of your concern.”
    “Perhaps, but how you conduct yourself in certain other matters of leadership is my concern.”
    “What do you mean? What do you want?” Damien asked.
    “Not here. The whole pack must bear witness. Start running. North.”
    “Whatever you want from me, you’re not going to get it if you hurt them.”
    Grath gave a bark of laughter as if the notion was ridiculous.
    “The females will not be harmed. Now shut up.” He rose his voice to address the pack: “Others of his pack may try to track us. Be prepared. Let’s move.”
    They started cantering north through the woods. Damien followed the sounds of the wolf directly ahead of him as best he could, but he still frequently slammed into tree trunks and crashed through bushes. Every time he did, the wolves surrounding him would cackle. Damien was pretty sure the wolf ahead of him was purposely passing as close to trees as he could and hurdling bushes just so that Damien would collide with them.
    It was humiliating, but when he slowed down at all, the wolves behind him snapped at his haunches. Soon his sides were bruised and aching and his face was bleeding from scores of scratches.
    Julia and Dee were behind him but he said nothing to them, not wanting Grath to know how much he cared about them—he would be more likely to use them as leverage. Grath had said the females wouldn’t be harmed, and Damien had gotten the impression he wasn’t lying. He took some short-term comfort in this, but not much.
    Even though he was not interacting with Julia, and even though their connection was still flickering for some reason, all he could think about was her. Thoughts of her forced out the fear and drove him onward with teeth-gritted determination. He didn’t know what he was going to do, what he could do, but he did know he would stop at nothing to keep her safe. Ideally he, too, would survive for her sake, and for the sake of their unborn children…but that was not his priority.
    What did Grath want from them? What was he planning to do to them? He’d said the whole pack had to bear witness. To what? Was he going to execute Damien as a show of force, maybe torture him first? Whatever Grath had in store for them, it wasn’t good.
    Throughout the journey, Damien racked his brain for some brilliant plan, but none came. He was outnumbered, blind, powerless; it was maddening. All he could think to do was try to reason with Grath. Short of that, his goal was simply to stay alive as long as possible and hope that an opportunity to escape would arise, or that Mara, Katherine, and Kyle would track them down and figure out a way to rescue them.
    Finally, the pack and its captives slowed down as they approached a heavy concentration of wolf scent, presumably their den.
    “We fight later,” the wolf said.
    “Fight?” Julia’s voice was scared.
    “Fight?” Damien asked. “Fight who?”
    There was no response.
     
     
    The alpha was huge in human form, his weight thudding audibly when he stepped.
    “Will you fight?”
    Damien frowned; it was a strange question. If Grath wanted to