Page 129 of Bite Me Alpha Cole

Cole pads through the cave, lifting his nose, looking around, sending out all of his senses and trying to find…something. Anything. I move the flashlight around, searching for any signs of life, of the little girls I wassoconvinced would be here.

There’s a sudden flash and movement, and when I turn back to Cole, he’s standing there in his guy body, frowning down at me.

“Is that…safe?” I whisper, kind of wanting the protection of those big fangs back.

Cole shrugs. “There’s no one here, Nadia. I’d be able to smell them, hear them. It’s empty.”

I bite my lip, looking around. “Maybe we need to go further inside,” I whisper.

“All right,” he says quietly, studying me. “If that’s what you want. You’re okay?”

“I’m fucking…shaking in my boots, Cole,” I hiss, glaring up at him, pleased to have somewhere to direct my anxious ire.

He smirks at me, gesturing towards the cave opening. “Your mission, Amir. We can leave whenever you want.”

But I scowl and look further into the darkness of the cave. Because something is still tugging mein.

Cole reads my intention and shifts back into his wolf. I follow him as we go deeper.

As we walk, we discover that the cave splits into side caverns, each more craggy and darker than the next, making it abundantly clear why Slaken picked this place to hide. It’s absolutely gigantic, with more than enough space for all of his people, and it seems just…endless. There’s even one huge cavern that’s spread with the remnants of hay, smellingeerilylike Shayne’s barn at home.

God, the cows. Where are the cows? Did Slaken…take them?

I glance down at the blood still streaking the ground, hoping that it’s not the poor cows –

But does that mean I hope it’shuman? Or wolf blood?

God, where are my priorities these days -

Cole nips gently at my sweatshirt, and I jump. He cocks his head at me and then tilts his nose towards the path, clearly urging me on. I nod and follow, fascinated by this place, by this maniac man who is dragging people and cows all over the countryside. God, whoishe?

We search for about forty-five minutes, walking through caverns, just generally looking around. Cole mostly lets me take the lead, and I can tell by his calm that there seem to be no threats around – none at all.

But eventually, my shoulders sag as the instinct within me starts to wane. I stop, shaking my head, starting to wonder if I’m just…going nuts. If maybe I made this all up and dragged Cole out here in the middle of the night for some kind of…fantasy.

It would be nice to help all those little girls. Maybe I just…wanted to help them so badly that I convinced myself I could.

Cole shifts to his human body again, looking down at me with a frown. “What’s up?”

“I just feel like an idiot, Cole,” I murmur, raising a hand to cover my face. “I can’t believe I made you do this – lose sleep like that fornothing.”

“Hey, it’s fine,” he says, shaking his head at me. “You were following a hunch. Youshouldbe doing that.”

“Youshould be doing that, youhaveinstincts,” I murmur, looking down at my feet. “You’re a wolf, I’m just agir-“

But both of us go stock still as a little piece of rubble falls off the wall, tumbling to the ground and rolling to our feet. I gasp, skittering away from it like an idiot, flashing my light first on the pebble and then on the wall itself.

Cole tenses, shooting out an arm in front of me, his eyes moving to the wall. A snarl fills his chest, slipping out over his lips as his shoulders tense and then curl, protective. “Get behind me, Nadia.”

“W-why?” I whisper, starting to tremble all over as I flash my light between him and the cave wall.

“Light on the rocks,” he growls. “And stay still.”

I do as he says immediately, every muscle in my body clenching tight as I stand straight, the light clasped in both hands ahead of me.

Cole takes one step toward the wall, speaking slow and soft. “I’m going to shift,” he says. “But if I run, I want you to jump on my back as I go. Just get up – no matter what you have to do. Rip out my hair if you have to.”

“Cole,” I whisper, my voice shaking. “What’s –“

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