Page 92 of Claimed By Prince Daddy

“I’ve caught her scent,” I told my sentinels.

“God, really?” Alexandra asked.

Garret tilted his head back and drew in a deep breath. His eyes snapped wide. “It’s Chelsea!”

After breaking out into a run, I streaked through the forest, my pack mates on my tail. As I rounded a bend in the trail, I noted a glimmer of light that flitted through the trees.

Red and blue lights.

My heart thundered in my chest. I captured Chelsea’s essence again. Sunshine sprinkled with nutmeg, but a hint of something else intermingled with it. A metallic tang. My stomach pitched.

No. Please, not blood!

I pelted across the ground, picking up speed as my legs propelled me forward. Alexandra called for me to slow down, to stop. But my legs wouldn’t respond. My brain misfired, the thoughts swirling through my head like a jumbled mass.

The lights grew brighter. I could now make out police vehicles in a clearing, lining the trail up ahead. Several figures—humans—stood scattered within the circle of cars. They all stared down at something at ground level.

God no. Please no!

Chelsea’s scent grew stronger, coming from the direction of the men. Crime scene tape that encircled the trees to form a barrier surrounded by officers in uniform.

“Sasha!” Garret’s voice boomed across the distance. But I was too fast, the distance between us growing wider.

A crew of humans stood off to the side, a woman standing before a camera, the man behind it signaling for her to raise her microphone closer to her lips. The blonde spoke, her voice drifting my way.

“It appears the young girl encountered a bear along these trails. Authorities still haven’t?—”

Oh, God…

The blood roared in my ears, drowning out the rest of the speech. The words ‘young girl’bounced backthrough my mind.

Between the patrol vehicles lay a tiny figure on the trail. Splotches of crimson stained the shirt the person wore and pooled under the body. Blood. Dark brown hair curled in ringlets became visible as I drew closer. Honey-brown eyes stared unseeing up at the sky.

Chelsea’s eyes.

Grief fisted my heart, and the muscle spasmed. Tears blurred my vision, and a wail ripped past my lips.

“Chelsea!”

CHAPTER THREE: VENGEANCE

SASHA

Istaggered into the clearing when a pair of brawny arms banded around my waist. “Hey, you can’t go in there!” the man holding me, an officer, said.

A red haze bled across my vision, and I struggled in his grasp, bucking and kicking out like a wild animal. “Let me go. Let go!” Sobs racked my frame. “I have to go to Chelsea!”

The man paid no heed to my desperate cries. He called for two other officers’ aid to help keep me away from the body—from Chelsea. Another officer grabbed a white sheet and rushed to drape it across the girl. More hands gripped me, hauling me back away from my pack mate. I was alpha and needed to be with the child. With fangs punched out, I whirled, intent on ripping out the nearest officer’s throat when a large hand grabbed hold of the back of my shirt. It ripped me away from the officers with one yank.

I found myself pressed against Garret’s broad chest, my cheek resting on the cotton of his black shirt. After apologizing to the officers, he hauled me away to stand a couple of yards from the scene.

He ducked his head, his lips grazing my ear. “Your fangs are showing.”

“I don’t give a damn.” I twisted out of Garret’s hold. “They were keeping me from Chelsea.”

“You know how these things go,” Garret bit back. “The humans have to perform their own investigation. They got here first. So we play by their rules now.”

Alexandra padded closer, heading away from the officers. “He’s right, Alpha.” She bared her fangs, flashing a dark look at the humans. “No matter how much it rankles, we can’t intervene.”

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