Page 123 of Claimed

“Stay here.” I march to the wooden storage building kitty-cornered to the edge of the fence and eyeball the perimeter for any signs of more trip wires. “Three paces back, everyone,” I clip, wait, and kick the door, feeling confident I can handle whatever is on the other side.

“Wyatt often has a couple trips hooked to those in case people nose around that aren’t supposed to,” Luke says.

“You know what’s in there?” I ask, eyes adjusting quickly to the dark and seeing mostly gardening tools and junk.

“No, sir,” Luke replies.

“Flashlight,” Linc says, passing me his keychain.

I turn it on, though I don’t really need it, and pan over gas cans, propane cylinders, and easily see wires connected to a small box that feeds out the back.

“I can disable that,” Jared remarks. “Suspect it’s a mickey mouse setup.”

“Have at it,” I say and back up, handing him the light.

“Let me get some footage first,” Mitch asserts and steps up with his phone.

Larry and Luke both look nervous. Me and Linc watch for a minute until Mitch backs up. Jared moves in and as per what we’ve seen so far, Jared has his shit tight.

He’s hunched over it for a minute with his tools, then he lifts the cardboard box and sets it into the half-full rain barrel three feet away.

He dusts his hands off and we move along.

“Jase, Brody – that’s disabled.” I say and look to Linc. “When we figure all this out and it smells normal here again we could use you putting your nose to the ground and suss out any other-”

I’m cut off with a series of bangs in the distance and echoing through the phone line.

“Jase!”

“One sec,” Brody answers.

There are several more bangs, then all goes silent.

“Jase? Brode?” I ask after a minute.

Jase answers, “All good. Noisemakers. Tripped ‘em not at the fence line, but five feet from it. See a bunch more in a straight line. Gonna set the rest off now.”

“Right. Speak up as soon as you’re done.”

A few minutes later, after a succession of bangs, Jase calls out, “Done with this section. We’re back by the gate if you need us.”

I want us moving quickly at this point after all that noise in case someone here thinks to do something about our now obvious presence. I knew we wouldn’t have the element of surprise with this many alphas in one place.

Moving in, I’m drawn to check out the large, ramshackle cabin behind what’s obviously Meadows’ house. I push open the door. No one’s in here but it reeks like male seed in here.

“What’s this?” I ask Luke.

“That’s where Wyatt keeps the girls,” he says.

“What?” I ask.

“The girls.”

“What girls, Luke?”

“The girls available for betas that are training.”

I look at the kid and he looks panicked, probably at the energy rolling off me because of the potential meaning here.

---