Page 109 of Stolen By the Alpha Hunter
I’m starting to think they’ll leave us here to rot until I hear the door unlock after sunset. I cover Javi with my body, holding onto his fur and meeting the intruder’s eyes straight-on.
Abel.
“What do you want?” I ask, staying close to Javi.
“Wow,” he smirks. “Awfully mouthy for a girl without a big scary alpha to protect her.”
I glare at him. “He needs medicine,” I say. “If you want him to live?—”
“Gideon wants him to live,” he interrupts. “I don’t give a damn. As far as I’m concerned, you’ll adapt better to being mine if he’s dead.”
I move between Abel and Javi, as much as it scares me to get close to the other man. My claws come out when I face him, and I bare my teeth to show my sharp canines.
“I’m not gonna do anything,” Abel snorts. “Why would I bother when he’s clearly on his way out?”
I want to cut him—to make him bleed. It’s a strange, foreign thought, but it nearly overrides my survival instinct. I hang onto my composure by a thread, staying completely still.
Have to protect Javi.
Have to protect myself.
“You’re wanted in the kitchens,” Abel says. “You need to come with me.”
“I don’t want to leave him,” I say, my voice low and shaking. “He’s sick.”
“He’s not sick,” Abel scoffs. “He’s a junkie. Big difference. He did it to himself.”
I can feel my claws breaking through the skin of my palms, every instinct screamingprotect him, stay. “Youdidthis,” I seethe, each word trembling. “I won’t come with you?—”
“You will,” Abel says, “or I’ll execute him right now.”
My blood goes cold.
For one terrible second, I believe him.
I try to square my shoulders, to rise to my full height—but the truth is, I’m not a fighter. Not like this. Not without him. I don’t know how to fight monsters who would kill my mate and smile while they do it.
“You wouldn’t,” I whisper. “Gideon would be angry.”
Abel smiles. It’s not a kind one. “Gideon’s the one who injected him,” he says. “Wanna guess who he’d side with? His loyal second…or the omega traitor who stole his women?”
I whip my head around to look at Javi, wanting—needing—one more moment, one more heartbeat to remind me that he’s still breathing. But Abel grabs me before I can move, yanking my arm so hard it makes my shoulder wrench. He jerks me through the door, dragging me away, and I hear the latch click into place behind us like a death sentence.
The bond cuts out again, sudden and sharp.
I stumble as he pulls me through the hallway, my legs barely keeping up. The ache in my joints, in my belly, in myheart—it’s all overshadowed by the knowledge that I can’tfeelhim anymore.
It’s like a part of me’s been torn out.
He hauls me into the dining hall before I have a chance to gather myself. I veer toward the kitchen, thinking maybe I can disappear, maybe I can justbreathe?—
But Abel catches me by the collar.
He yanks me back and suddenly I’m face to face with my father.
Gideon doesn’t hit me. He doesn’t have to.
He justlooksat me with that sneering, twisted expression like I’m a bug he’s about to squash.
