Page 20 of Alpha's Claim

“Yari, gather the pack. Cora was attacked again and I’m tracking her but I need backup.” I didn’t say it wouldn’t be productive for me to get killed with her. It didn’t need to be said. “I’m going back. Signal if you find her. Don’t rush them as a pack- we might spook whoever took her might panic and hurt her.” I ran back out without confirmation that she would follow. My trust in her was complete. She would gather my pack, my loyal friends and family, and bring them into the woods. By the time I broke the treeline, I could hear the sound of feet behind me and the howls began soon after, letting me know they were fanning out to search. Good. I needed everyone possible to be out here with me looking for her.

As I ran I relied completely on my scent. My eyes kept me from smashing into trees and injuring myself instinctively. My body knew I needed to run to her and it pulled me to where she was. There were hundreds of thoughts running through my head as I ran, just a worry spiral I had to try to block out to keep focusing on finding her.

It didn’t take long for me to come across her scent. The smell was seared into my brain. The pain in my chest led me right to it. I focused on that. It was hard to push aside the other odor alongside hers, but I hated it. Their scent was the only thing I knew about them and recognition tugged at the back of my mind. Where had I smelled them before? They weren’t an Alpha. But who? And where did I first smell it? Deep inside me I knew that I knew- I just couldn’t remember it clearly.

Once I had caught the aroma of her I slowed. It killed me, but what if I ran right past her in my bid to get to her? It would kill me to know I didn’t get to her in time because I rushed unprepared into a situation I didn’t understand yet. Rushing in was a bad idea. As I moved I listened for the howls that would let me know she had been found. There was nothing. It both scared me and made me feel better at the same time. It meant the pack was hunting intelligently so that whoever had Cora didn’t know they were surrounded. If they did I was certain Cora would be killed. I couldn’t bear that.

I listened out for voices as I moved. In my mind, she would have been fighting back. She was strong-willed and would put up a fight. Using all of my senses was the only thing I could do if I wanted this to be successful. That feeling of dread in my chest was only growing. Cora was moving further toward danger and my heart was dragging me toward her. It was torture to be away from her.

I could tell I was getting closer. Her scent was stronger and it pushed me to keep pushing through the pain and the burning in my muscles. There was nothing, no pain, no fear, no person who would stop me from getting to her side.

As I ran as soft and fast as I could while keeping track of her smell I found myself hating the other scent more and more. This person had attacked her twice. I couldn’t rationalize in my head that anyone else would have done this. The two attacks must have been from the same person. It killed me to think that this asshole was touching her, forcing her deep into the woods for whatever horrible reason. None of the options that my mind was calling up had a good ending. All I could think of were the worst-case scenario. I could tell I was getting close- they had stopped. I would find them.

Chapter twenty

Cora

Prestongrippedmyarmand pulled me deeper into the woods. I was panting as we walked. My ribs were killing me. I was sweating from the pain of trying to keep up with his brisk pace. At one point I stumbled and fell when my knee gave out on me. Preston yanked me back up by my arm and it hurt so back I had to wonder if it was dislocated.

“Get up and walk. You keep telling me how weak I am, yet to me it looks like you’re the helpless one.” I gritted my teeth and fought my way upright.

“You attacked me like a coward. You’re the one who caused this.” I said, a little off balance because of how bad I felt. I had never been in pain like this before and I didn’t know what to do. I was growing ever nearer to my demise and yet at this point I had to admit that it scared me. I wouldn’t show the fear, but I felt it deep in my soul. I would die alone. I couldn’t imagine being away from Weston that long. It felt to me that I was missing a part of me at that moment. He… he was my hope.

As we marched through the woods with the autumn leaves crunching under our feet I felt a tiny glimmer of hope. We were going to a place Weston and I had been together. He had told me that he felt that I was hurt when I was attacked the first time, so surely he must feel it now. I had never been in more pain or more imminent danger. Surely… surely he must have felt it in that moment. It was the only spark of hope I could conjure up. I had to hang onto it. I wouldn’t surrender so easily, especially not to Preston.

My skin continued to crawl at his touch. He was so creepy. That day he stopped and hit on me and came back to me and I felt like I could vomit at his touch. My stomach was already roiling from the pain and fear. If I hadn’t skipped breakfast I was certain I would be sick. Maybe I should try, I thought, because I might just be able to hit him with it. I didn’t have too much else to do but fantasize and keep going. My shoulder was burning with pain and I was afraid he had pulled it out of socket. I hadn’t ever had that kind of injury before so I didn’t know for sure, but when he had yanked and twisted my arm he must have pulled or torn something.

“Can’t you slow down?” I finally snapped, and he stopped and pulled me in closer to his chest. He was uncomfortably close and I stepped back, ignoring the pain. “What’s the rush?”

“The longer we are away, the longer people have a chance to realize you’re missing, my dear. Being able to get away with this really depends on my alibi, don’t you think? Move. If you’re going to run your mouth do it while we walk.” He said, starting up the pace again and I stumbled to catch up so he wasn’t dragging me along. It was still too fast. It wasn’t surprising. Preston wasn’t someone who I would say had empathy for others. Especially not me, it seemed. Weird considering his very recent desire to marry me. Apparently.

“Why on earth would you think you’re going to get away with this?” I laughed, gasping in air from the pain of it. “Be realistic, Preston. Your scent will be all over me. My father will know immediately that you had something to do with this.” I forced the words out in spite of my pain.

“Maybe I found you out here after you were attacked, Cora. Surely we can’t trust that Silverstreak Alpha. He can’t be trusted. He attacked you once before. We’ll simply have to eliminate him. Likely his whole pack. If you can’t trust the Alpha you can’t trust his subjects.” He said without ever looking at me.

“Really? People like you are so arrogant.” I wrinkled my nose at his little speech. “You’re so sure of yourself for being the epitome of mediocrity. You’ve made mistakes, Preston, and you’ll be figured out.”

“Why on earth would I have made a mistake?” He asked, and he was trying to sound as if it didn’t bother him but I could hear the annoyance in his tone. I rolled my eyes at him slightly.

“Everyone makes mistakes, Preston. Even you.” It was true. It was almost impossible to not make a mistake in a situation like this. A kidnapping and murder, even if it was by magic forest, would be solved. My father wasn’t a stupid man. There was a good chance he would put the pieces together. Maybe not, but I was going to hope that this wasn’t going to be the catalyst of a war with the Silverstreaks. At least if they did go to war I could hope that they would be able to call on those people who had approached him for help. “My father isn’t stupid. He could figure you out.”

“He won’t.” Preston was still avoiding looking at me as he dragged me through the forest. The worst part about all of this was that I didn’t even know how far away from the attack I was. I didn’t know where we were in relation to the grove.

“God, see this is why I hate you. You’re so convinced that you’re special and smart and strong and you’re just not. Your whole life you’ve gotten praise because people wanted to suck up to you to get in with my father, but they’re not your friends. They’re using you. It’s obvious. You’re mediocre at best and you know it and it terrifies you.” I snapped, glaring at the back of his head.

“I’ve asked you several times to shut up, Cora. You can come to your own conclusions, of course, but it doesn’t matter. I’m still going to get everything I want today. I’ll be in charge sooner than anyone thinks.” He was starting to sound annoyed and exhausted. He was struggling too and I felt good about that. It was nice to know that this was hard on him too, even if just physically.

“Whatever. This magic grove might attack you too, you know.” I was breathing hard and it was killing me.

“It’s your blood that will be spilled there. The curse will affect those in charge. I’ll be able to placate it once your father is dead.” My eyes widened slightly at that. Preston was completely unhinged- I had known that he was power-hungry and ruthless, but I had no idea he was so willing to murder not just me, but my father as well.

“You’re absolutely detestable,” I said softly. “He trusts you. Killing me is one thing, but killing him? You’re a psychopath. It’s completely pathetic how far you’re willing to go to placate your own feeble little ego. The truth is that it doesn’t matter how much you plan or who you get rid of or how hard you try you’ll never be anything but entirely unremarkable.” It wasn’t that I thought he wouldn’t kill me if I confronted him. I didn’t expect to get away from this. I just wanted him to know exactly what everyone thought of him. “Literally everyone can see how pitiable you are but you.”

“Are you trying to get me to kill you before we reach our destination?” His voice was icy cold, but I had heard it before. I wasn’t intimidated by it. The only thing that scared me about Preston right now was realizing I was alone in the forest with a psychopath with a knife. That was the frightening thing. I didn’t want to die. I would go down swinging if I had to, but I was still silently praying that Weston was on his way. My whole heart was pleading that he would find me and we could escape. It was my only hope, that single pinpoint of light in the darkness in this dreadful situation. Until then I’d talk and hope to delay his plan with the hope he was coming.

“I’m not afraid of you, Preston Banks. I don’t care where you kill me. I just want you to realize what exactly you are before you do it.” I kept my voice as strong as I could while I struggled to breathe. “What everyone knows about you. Even if you become Alpha, you’ll fail. You’re a coward, Preston. You’re so proud of nearly killing me twice, but you ambushed me. It was never a fair fight. And I’m just about half your size.” I scoffed at him. “Just have some dignity and admit how ordinary you are.”

“You’re not going to get out of this alive. Whatever you have to say is just the blustering of a dying woman. It doesn’t matter what you say, I’m going to come out on top with this.” He was clearly angry. That pleased me to no end. What I said would haunt him however long he lived and no matter what he said. He would fight against being mediocre his entire life, trying to be anything but ordinary. I giggled softly despite myself and he squeezed my arm tighter and turned to look at me, finally. It didn’t matter- I couldn’t help but laugh at him. It was a paradox I thought. Laughing in the face of death, just amused by the absurdity of the situation I found myself in.

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