Page 41 of The Alpha's Forced Pregnant Mate

He looked down at me, his eyes flashing with anger and frustration. “What?”

“You can’t just go running in there without a plan,” I hissed. “They could kill you and then we’ll have no chance of finding Peter.”

“I’m not letting him die,” Julian growled low, his teeth clenched so tight I could hear them grind together.

I shook my head. “Of course not. But we need to know what we’re up against first. That SUV seats five, so there are four at most. We can handle that, but we need to secure Peter first.”

Julian nodded, taking a deep breath and forcing himself to relax. “Alright. Three of us, four of them. If we go in fast and hard, we can get Peter and get out before they have time to react.

“Good,” I said, scanning the area and thinking. “Laura, you circle around back. Stay in wolf form, but don’t be seen. We don’t want them to know we’re coming. Cause a distraction if you need to. I’ll wait for your signal.”

“Got it,” she said quickly, stripping and shifting into her dark gray wolf form. She ran silently through the trees, heading for the back of the cabin.

I looked up at Julian, and he was staring at me, his eyes wide and a little shocked. “What?”

“That was…that was good. Smart. Laura is good in a fight, but you’ve got a better eye for strategy than I do.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m more of a hit first, ask questions later kinda guy.”

I tried not to smile at the compliment. “Yeah, I got that impression. So how about you stay here and wait until Laura gives us the signal.”

“Or…” Julian said, cocking his head to the side. “You stay here and wait for Laura to give us the signal, and I’ll go in.”

I scoffed. You wish—"

I didn’t have time to finish my thought before Laura gave three muted yips from behind the cabin. We’d practiced over and over again to mimic a coyote as closely as possible so we didn’t tip off our enemies, but three yips were a bad sign. It meant ‘emergency’.

I told Julian as much, and he was sprinting toward the cabin before I could stop him, keeping low to the ground with his borrowed sword unsheathed.Fuck, I thought.So much for being sneaky.

I followed him, pulling my blades out and running silently behind him, scanning for any movement from the demons. We reached the door in less than thirty seconds, but when Julian tried to turn the doorknob it wouldn’t budge.

“Damn,” he said, rattling it harder. “It’s locked.”

My eyes widened when I heard a thump from inside the house, like someone falling to the floor, and then a man’s huff of pain. Without thinking, Julian slammed his shoulder against the door, putting all of his strength into it.

There was a loud cracking sound as the wood around the lock splintered and the door swung open. I didn’t have time to revel in the victory, because Julian was already running into the room, his sword at the ready.

I followed him inside, my heart dropping as I saw the scene before us. Peter was on the ground, his hands bound, bleeding from his temple but thankfully still conscious. Two demons were standing in the far corner of the room, while one was standing over Peter, his foot pulled back as if to kick the older man a second time.

If there was a fourth demon it wasn’t in the structure. As soon as I had the thought, I heard Laura’s snarl and the shriek of a demon in pain out back and grinned. My partner could handle herself.

The two demons that had been in the corner took off for the back of the house, trying to get out before we could catch them while the third went for the front. I tackled that one to the ground, slicing across his hamstrings with my knife before rolling out of the way to let Julian finish him. The demon was still screaming and thrashing when Julian sliced his head clean off.

I jumped up and sprinted for the back door, but two of the demons were sprinting for the cover of the trees while Laura finished off her adversary. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw the nasty gash across his neck where Laura had ripped his throat out. It was an instant kill wound, but the demon was stubbornly hanging onto his life.

“Stupid mutt,” he hissed at me. “You’re all going to die today.”

I kicked him hard in the ribs, and the sickening crack was music to my ears. “You’re the only one who’s going to be dying here, Buddy.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but before he could speak, I slammed my knife through his eye socket, straight into his brain. It was a messy kill, but I didn’t have time to be neat right now. We backed off as it popped out of existence in a shower of sparks, Laura shaking her head hard to get rid of the taste of demon blood.

We’d only killed two of four, but there was something more important: Peter. Julian had stayed inside with his old mentor, who was on his back, trying to push himself into a sitting position, but he looked hurt and disoriented. Julian moved to his side and knelt, helping him up.

“What happened?” Julian growled,

Peter winced, touching his head gingerly and coming away with a bloody hand. “I was run off the road, and two of them pulled me out of the car.” His voice was steady, despite the situation. “They knocked me out, then took me here. I don’t know what they wanted, but every time I tried to shift they beat the shit out of me to keep me in human form. Bastards.”

I could guess what they wanted, and Julian probably could too, but that was something that could wait until we were back at the cabin and could figure out our next move. Instead, I focused on the here and now. “We killed two of them.”

“The two that got away were the ringleaders.” Peter coughed, struggling to stand on his own, but unable to keep his balance. I grabbed him by the arm, putting my shoulder under his to hold him upright. “Shame we couldn’t grab them.”

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