Page 100 of The Librarian and Her Alphas

“Let us go, you bastard!” screams Paige. Annabelle lets out a small whimper of terror and begins to tremble.

“Shut up!” he hisses, then points his dagger at me. “Do it, Lena. Now!”

My breathing hitches, dread settling in my bones at the fear on my co-workers’ faces.

“Please,” I beg desperately, hoping he’ll hear me out. “Let them go. They have nothing to do with this!”

Raul laughs bitterly, unfazed by my pleas. He draws closer to Annabelle and points the dagger at her throat. Tears roll down her cheeks as she eyes the dagger carefully, trying not to let it touch her.

“They do now,” he spits viciously, the threat clear in his eyes.

“Don’t,” I plead again, my voice cracking with fear and anguish. “I’ll go with you, just don’t hurt them.”

Aleks waves me over.

“Well, come on, then,” he mocks. “We don’t have all day.”

Despite my words of acquiescence, my feet refuse to move, rooting me to the spot with terror and dread.

“Enough!” Raul shouts. “You will come with us!”

He drops the dagger, and Annabelle lets out a small sigh of relief when it clatters to the floor, but it’s short-lived when he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a gun. The cold, gray metal gleams in the overhead lights of the library, and Annabelle sucks in a sharp breath. My eyes widen when he points the gun at her, the barrel pressing against her temple.

“Time to move,” he seethes, “or she gets her pretty head blown off.”

The remaining people in the library had frozen in fear when Aleks and Raul barged in through the doors, waving their daggers, but once Raul pulled out his gun, they began to scream.

The old lady who had shushed us earlier drops the book she’s holding and hobbles toward the back of the library, far out of reach of the crazy gunman. Two other people who had been working on the computers in the corner make a dash toward the door, but before they can escape, Raul points the gun straight in the air and fires it.

“Not so fast, motherfuckers!” he screams, and in the silence that follows, the clink of the empty round hitting the floor echoes throughout the library. “You’ll leave when I say you can leave!”

The two people closest to the door drop to the floor and shuffle back until their backs hit the wall, watching the rest of the scene unfold with terror.

Aleks walks closer, and I can see the deranged look in his eyes as he stares us down. He points his dagger at Paige and Annabelle.

“On your knees, you stupid bitches!” he growls, and the two women comply, terror etched in every line of their faces.

“Aleks, don’t hurt them!” I yell loudly, shaking with adrenaline and fear for all the innocent people here who might die because of me. It’s all my fault for getting involved with the wrong alphas in my past.

“You!” He swings toward me and grabs a fistful of my hair. I yelp in pain, my hand automatically going to his to try and pull him off of me. “Let’s fucking go!”

“Let me go!” I scream, but Aleks’s fingers only tighten in my hair, pulling at my roots. He starts to drag me by the hair toward the library door, but I dig my heels in.

I’m not going anywhere with him.

“Move it, you useless whore!” he shouts.

“Aleks, please,” I sob, beyond caring that I’m begging. “Just let me leave! If you won’t let me go, at least let the people in the library go.”

“I don’t think you get to ask for favors,” he sneers. He pulls my head up so that we’re at eye level. “Now shut the fuck up, or I will kill you.”

He carries on dragging me forward, and I kick and scream with all my strength, but it’s in vain. He’s so much stronger than I am, and even with the weight of my pregnant belly, he still manages to handle me easily.

Pain lances through me, and I cry out.

I look down, thinking for a moment that Aleks has had enough of me and decided to stab me after all, but when I don’t see a dagger sticking out of me anywhere, I’m confused. Another stab of pain rocks through me, making me curl into myself, and then it hits me—it’s my contractions; the stress is making them come faster.

I look at Annabelle and Paige, kneeling on the floor not far from me. Their wide-eyed and fearful expressions tell me they’ve realized the same thing.

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