Page 54 of The Rabbit's Foot
“You okay?” Alp asked, sitting down beside him and stroking a hand over his leg. “Didn’t wear you out, right?”
He snickered. “It’s been years since I’ve been on a pack run. Damon didn’t take it easy on me. I forgot what a bitch some of those hills could be.”
He rolled to his side and lifted his arm. Alp slid in beside him and sighed when Mal embraced him.
“Thank you for coming along.”
Alp snorted. “Thank you for carrying me most of the way. You guys were amazing. My legs are built for bursts of speed, not long distance. And you’re right about those hills. I think I’d still be on the first one, if Cece hadn’t nudged me up it.”
It meant the world that Alp fit in with Cece and Damon. If something happened to him, at least he knew Alp would be surrounded by people who cared for him.
“You ready for the morning?”
“You mean, five hours from now? Yeah, I am,” Alp said, but he heard the wobble in his own voice.
“Damon laid out a good plan. Groups of six, each splitting off and going in different directions, taking down humans as they go.”
“But….”
“What? Tell me what’s on your mind?”
Alp sighed. “What if some of these people are innocent? Who knows what Hyde told them they’re doing.”
The thought had occurred to Mal, but then he’d come to a realization. “The one guy knew he’d taken a shifter’s eyes,” he ground out, the anger bubbling up. “He fucking laughed about it. I wanted to jump into the truck and rip his throat out. He said it in front of everyone with him, which tells me they all know. The other factor is, we have to protect ourselves, and that means they’ve got to die.”
“I guess.”
Mal grabbed him by the arm, his grip tight but not painful. “No, don’t guess. You have to be committed to this, or you’ll be the weak link in the chain we need. Remember what they did to you. You weren’t a rabbit when they cut off your hand—you were in your skin. There’s no way they’re innocent.” He tightened his grip on Alp a bit more, holding him closer.
“No, you’re right,” Alp breathed out, his breath hitching. “We have to do this.”
“The operation is going to take all day,” Mal reminded him. “We figured that the trucks coming and going means the people were housed somewhere and brought in for their shifts. Damon is going to let a few of them escape so he can track them back to wherever they go, and then wipe them out there as well. None can remain.”
“How do we know if anyone who worked there before left? I mean, this opens a whole spiderweb of possibilities.”
“Damon has people—other shifters—who can remotely access the computers once we get into the complex. They’ll be able to tell us who needs to be silenced.”
Silenced. Such a sanitized word, especially when it really meant killed. Murdered. “Mal….”
He tugged Alp to him. “I know. I hate it too, but we can’t let them expose us. We can’t let what happened to you happen to other shifters.”
The words still didn’t settle the disquiet in Alp. To hear his own mother tell Mal to kill them had shocked him. It was made worse by the fact that Alp had harbored the same feelings. But now that anger was about to be given form, to be made real?
“You can still stay here,” Mal murmured, his lips against Alp’s ear. “No one will think poorly of you.”
Fragments of the dream came back with crystal clarity. Mal, laying on the floor, his sightless eyes forever staring at nothing. Never again to let Alp see the warmth they held, not crinkling in the corners when Mal smiled at him. Not open wide when he was in the throes of orgasm.
Just… dead.
The visions steeled his resolve. Even if he didn’t like the idea of killing them all, he wouldn’t allow Mal to die. At least not if he could prevent it.
“No, I’m going,” he said, his voice strong and steady.
Mal kissed him, deep and claiming. Then he held Alp against him. “Sleep, my bunny. Tomorrow will be here sooner than either of us thinks.”
* * *
Mal was grateful when Alp finally succumbed to the inevitable. He’d lain there, squeezing Mal’s hand, trying to force himself to remain awake. Mal had noticed what he was trying to do and grabbed Alp’s ankles, then pushed his knees to his chest and fucked him until Alp clutched at Mal’s neck, trying his best to pull Mal into a kiss. When he’d bent and given Alp what he wanted, his bunny came, crying Mal’s name into his mouth. Afterward, Mal told him to stay where he was and cleaned the cum from Alp’s chest and stomach. Then, finally sated, Alp drifted into slumber with Mal’s name on his lips.
