Page 102 of Stolen By the Alpha Hunter
His lips curl into something like a smile, cold and thin.
"You should catch him before he tries to run."
But I already am.
My body moves before my brain does. I snarl, the shift ripping through me—partial, brutal. My claws shred through the arm of the man on my right as I barrel past him, aiming for the exit.
I feel Peaches. Her panic surges through the bond, white-hot and all-consuming.
She knows.
I throw myself at the door, still half-shifted, just human enough to wrench the handle.
Almost there.
Something invisible slams into me—like a wall made of pure force. I hit the bulkhead hard, my spine bouncing off steel, the air knocked clean from my lungs.
I try to get up. Try to crawl. My fingers scrape against the floor—shaking, bloodied, useless.
Footsteps.
Then a blur of motion behind me. Something cracks against the back of my skull.
I go down, hard.
Lights pop in my vision. Pain blazes white.
The last thing I see is Gideon’s steel-toed boot in front of my face, his eyes full of something that almost looks like pity.
"Oh, Javier," he says softly. "I had such hopes for you."
And then the boot swings back, and everything goes dark.
24
PEACHES
I’m adrift.
I burrow into my nest of Javi’s clothes, the bond wavering, my world collapsing in on me. I close my eyes and zero in on his location, but all I can get is a steady, slow pulse. At least I know he’s alive, but that’s cold comfort when I saw him go into the mess hall with a horde of alphas and an Angel.
I didn’t see him come out.
It’s been hours.
My nausea kicks back up again as I wait, and I’m forced to empty my stomach more than once. This can’t be good for the baby—and even as I think about that, it sends me reeling to consider that I’m pregnant.
I’m going to be a mom.
It’s strange and new and I wish I was excited because I love this kid’s father. Back at the den, I dreamed of something like this—of sharing this experience with my best friend, of sitting with my own baby and Charlotte and Maggie…but I’m just scared.
I have to protect her.
And Javi promised he would protect us both, even if it meant his life.
“Where are you, Javi?” I whisper to myself, going back to the window for what feels like the thousandth time. It’s pitch black out, the floodlights off, the Heavenly Host ship still sitting on the deck. I can only see because of my lycan senses, and even those are practically useless out here. No one is even on the deck, still in the main complex of the mess hall.
They could be in there all night, and it’s connected to other buildings—the barracks for visitors and unmated lycan, my father’s throne room, and of course, the brig.
