Page 15 of The Feral Alpha

“His dad said he was on his way to meet you when it happened.”

“M-me?”

“Yeah. He went missing shortly after he began his cross-country trip. Turns out, there was footage of him being captured at a gas station, but no one could track him down.”

His heart sinking, Olson stared at the two bonding marks on his wrist.

One larger, one smaller.

He remembered Rex’s dad being furious all those years ago. Had Rex’s eyes been moss-green back then? Olson couldn’t remember.

But there was no forgetting the urgency in that boy. Like he’d needed to get his words through to Olson as quickly as he could, because he was running out of time. And he had. He’d tried to stay, but his father had dragged him away. Rex had kept his gaze on Olson all the way until the restaurant door swung shut between them.

I’ll come back to marry you.

“It’s my fault he got kidnapped, isn’t it?” he said quietly. “But I didn’t even know he was coming. I would’ve sent him back.”

Nate’s smile was wry. “And yet somehow, he’s made it here.”

Olson swallowed hard. “It’s crazy. Why me?”

“No one knows. Not even his dad.”

“That’s just insane.”

Had it been anyone else, Olson’s red flags would’ve all shot up and waved madly in the air.

But he’d known about Rex and his intentions since Rex was a child. He’d looked grown-up Rex in the eye, and all his instincts had said to submit to that man.

He remembered the way Rex had stared hungrily at him through the door, the way he’d cared for nothing else in the bar but Olson. The way he’d touched Olson all over, Olson’s name like a prayer on his lips.

“What are you going to do about it?” Nate’s question broke him out of his thoughts.

Olson bit his lip. He thought about the dirty blanket in Rex’s den, the scant piles of food in there. The leaves Rex hadn’t bothered to remove from his hair.

The way Rex had almost begged him to stay.

“I... I think I have to make some amends,” Olson choked out.

Nate gave him a sympathetic smile. “Good luck.”

6

REX MAKES HIS CLAIM

Rex looked up when leaves crunched on the forest floor. A man stepped between the trees, a bulging bag slung across one shoulder.

A growl rose in his throat.

“Hey,” Jag said calmly. “Still sticking around? It’s been a few months.”

Unlike the terrible, sinister alphas back there, this alpha was... good. It had taken a long time for Rex to start trusting him.

They’d met when Rex had been rummaging in a trash can one evening, hungry with the smell of food wafting in the air. Jag had appeared with trash bags in hand; he’d been about to confront Rex. And Rex had attacked him.

Jag had knocked him off his feet too easily, for an older alpha just slightly smaller than Rex. But there had been no beatings. Instead, Jag had given him food that made his mouth water; he’d brought Rex into his house to wash the dirt off his body. He’d explained to Rex that he couldn’t just start fights with people, or he’d be locked up somewhere bad.

In the months since, Rex had shown Jag where he lived, and Jag visited occasionally with TP, clothes, and food.

---