Page 106 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
“This doesn’t look good, Night,” Dom said, speaking through our telepathic bond. “He must’ve moved them already.”
“We should investigate the cave.” I wasn’t just speaking to Dom, but to all of my wolves. This was easier to do in my wolf form, but my Alpha powers weren’t coming to me as naturally as they usually did. “There might be some indication of where Redwolf took them.”
Two of my men stood outside the cave while the rest of us entered. Tavi and Bryn’s scents were all over the walls, as well as Troy’s. But there was no sign of the girls. All we found were traces of blood splatter and shackles left in the cave walls. The sight made Dom and I tremble and growl with rage, and the rest of my wolves, too. They had known Tavi as long as I had, andBryn had easily endeared herself to them. The girls were their family, too, and none of us took this most recent failure lightly.
Finally, we forced ourselves to leave. Staying in the cave would only make us angrier, and there were no clues to where Troy would have taken them. As we neared the entrance, I reached out to my men outside.
“How’s it look out there?” I waited, but didn’t receive a response. I glanced at Dom, who met my gaze with a grave look of his own.Shit.
We upped the pace, bursting from the cave to find Troy standing in his human form with two dozen wolves backing him. The wolves we’d left as sentinels lay bloody at Troy’s feet, but they were still breathing.
I shifted to my human form, but Dom and the rest of my team remained in their wolf forms. Dom stuck close to my side as I walked toward Troy, ready to jump in at a moment’s notice.
“I can’t say I’m happy to see you, Night,” Troy said. I wished so very badly that I could rip the smirk right off the prick’s face.
“Where are Bryn and Octavia?” I demanded.
“You just missed them. I took them to a secure location because, you see, I was enjoying Bryn far too much to just let her go back to you.” His tongue ran over his lips and his canines, which were sharper than usual. “You know, I’ve never tasted blood so sweet. I had a filling meal for dinner, and then I had Bryn for dessert.”
I growled before I could stop myself. Damn him.Damnhim. “I’ll make sure you pay for every mark on her before I kill you, Troy.”
“Ohh. I’m shaking. You pose such a large threat with just a handful of men behind you.”
Every cell in my body urged me to attack Troy, but I forced myself to stay still. I needed to play this smart, or I risked not only Tavi and Bryn, but the rest of my wolves as well. I was weak, and I shouldn’t push things now with all of Troy’s wolves backing him up.Don’t let him get a rise out of you. Focus.
“It’s obvious that you want something,” I said. “So what is it?”
Troy gave an exaggerated pout, like a child disappointed that an adult wasn’t playing his stupid game. “I just want the chance to kill you, Night.”
I looked around and held out my arms. “There’s no better opportunity than right now, Redwolf. Why not settle this now?”
He tilted his head. “How like you, Night. Always pretending to be the big bad wolf, when the loss of a woman is enough to bring you to your knees.”
I remembered the day I’d rescued Bryn. I had knocked him flat on his ass and I’d very nearly killed him then. If I could go back, I would have taken the opportunity to end Troy’s life.
“Too scared that I’ll embarrass you in front of your men, Troy? In a fair, one-on-one fight?”
“Not at all, but you Wargs have a tendency of surviving no matter how often your betters try to squash you. You’re more like cockroaches than wolves.”
A few of my wolves growled low, but they quieted as I lowered my arms. “Doesn’t that say more about you, then? If you can’t take care of a few cockroaches, how could you be able to run a pack?”
His eye twitched. “You want your whores back, don’t you? If so, then you’ll fuckinglistento me.”
Dom gnashed his teeth, digging his claws into the ground. He was about to take a step toward Troy, but I shot my hand out to stop him.
“You’re a coward and a piece of shit, Troy. The Kings are the dominant pack in the area, and still you let them suffer under your leadership. You’re even worse than your fuckhead of a father—” I paused, and then smirked. “Sorry, I guess I should sayourfuckhead of a father.”
A ripple of shock and confusion spread through Troy’s men. His wolves glanced at each other, at Troy, and finally at me. They were putting together the puzzle pieces in real time.
Troy’s face turned puce. “Fuck you,Night!” he snarled, taking a step forward. “You’re nothing but a bastard, and your mother is a whore. I’m theonlyson of Gregor!”
I let Troy continue his tirade, the smirk still on my face. It had only taken a small push to get him to this state, to make him look like a fool in front of his own men.
“Fuck you,” he said again. “You think you’re the one in control here, but you’re not.I’mthe one who’s got Bryn and your sister. If you want either of them to see the light of day again, then you’ll fight me in the ring in front of my pack, and you will lose.”
“Fuck that. I’ll fight you and win.”
“No. You didn’t let me finish.” He’d recovered from his tirade enough that he could sneer at me. “We’ll fight, but if you win, I’ll have my men kill both of them. If you lose, I vow to my men and yours now that I’ll let them go back to your pack”
