The Alpha's Captive (2 page)

A few hours later after switching the last load of laundry and watching some mindless television, Aiden went upstairs. His room was the farthest down the hall. It allowed him some privacy and gave his parents their own as well.

Once in his room he headed straight to the bathroom. He opened the shower door then turned the handle all the way to hot. Aiden took off his clothes and put them in the hamper. Once he was completely naked, he climbed into the shower. The larger showerhead above released the water as if coming from a waterfall. It cascaded in big drops over his head and down his chest to drench his tired body.

Between the drive and sitting on his ass for the past four hours he was exhausted, too tired to even yank one off in the shower which said a lot of his tired state. He was still a teenage boy who could get hard when the wind blew in the right diction, but not even his body was willing. Aiden’s cock hung flaccid between his thighs. It didn’t even twitch when he scrubbed his length and balls.

Turning off the water he stepped out of the shower and toweled off. He grabbed a pair of pajama bottoms from his dresser and flopped down on his bed. As he snuggled under the soft bedding, Aiden’s eyes drooped shut, and the blissfulness of sleep claimed him.

* * * *

Aiden jolted up in bed when he heard a loud crash. He looked over to the clock and saw that it was only a little past midnight. His dad had said Peter would be coming by to check on him, and Aiden assumed the older man stopped by to make sure everything was safe and sound and that Aiden had arrived home all right.

Most people might be frightened by this, but over the years his father had his friends check in on him and his mother if he were out of town at a veterinarian seminar. So Peter coming by late at night wasn’t that unusual.

Aiden pushed aside his blankets and sat up. He figured it best to go and check on Peter. A slight shiver rolled down his spine as the cool air hit his bed-warmed body.

Turning the knob on his door he stepped into the hallway. He heard another sound but was uncertain of what it had been. It almost sounded like a growl. Aiden gave his head a good shake. His family didn’t have a dog and neither did Peter. Sleepiness must be causing him to be hearing things.

As Aiden made his way down the stairs, he flipped on the entryway light. Not paying attention, he walked past his father’s office and tripped on something. Aiden lost his balance and fell to the floor. He braced the impact on his palms. The jolt sent a stinging pain up his arms. Pushing himself up and onto his knees, he looked behind him to see what had caused his fall.

“What the hell?” Aiden scooted back on his butt until he hit the far wall. Peter lay on the floor with a gash above his left eyebrow. If it wasn’t for the rise and fall of his chest, Aiden would have thought the other man dead.

The sound of footsteps caused his stomach to roll. Panic caused his palms to sweat and his hands to shake. Bile rose in his throat, and he thought he would be sick right there on the soft taupe carpet. His mother would be so pissed at him if he ruined it.

“Aw, look what we have here.”

Aiden jumped at the sound of an unfamiliar voice and bumped his head against the wall. Two very large men came into view. One had long blond hair, and the other had short black hair. The blond one eyed him with malice, and Aiden could feel his body tremble.

The blond man’s eyes jumped to Aiden’s face then to the wall then back again. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” He let out a whoop. “Talk about hitting the motherfucking lottery.”

They strode slowly over to Aiden. He tried get away, but the hard wall at his back wouldn’t allow it. He was trapped.

“What are you talking about, Viktor?” the man with the black hair asked.

Viktor knelt down in front of Aiden. His thick legs looked like tree trunks this close up. Stubble shaded Viktor’s jaw, and his cold blue eyes looked at Aiden menacingly.

Without looking away from Aiden, Viktor pointed to his father’s office.

Aiden didn’t have to look to know what the man was referring to. This past summer before he left for school his mother insisted on doing a family portrait. And the large photo hung over the fireplace in his father’s office.

“It looks like we got some leverage now.” Viktor looked over his shoulder. “Don’t you think, Josef?”

Aiden looked over Viktor’s shoulder and watched as Josef looked from the picture then back to him. “Well, Devon did say do what we had to do.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe pretty boy here knows where they’re keeping Erik.”

Aiden’s head darted between the two men. “I…I…” His jaw worked up and down, and his throat tried to form words, but his terror blocked their path out of his mouth. He tried his best to swallow around the dry lump in his throat. “I don’t know what you are talking about. Who’s Erik?”

Viktor laughed harshly and bent down until he was nose to nose with Aiden. “Like you don’t know.” He grabbed Aiden around the neck and stood up, taking Aiden with him.

His feet dangled in the air as the man held him in a death grip. Aiden clawed at the man’s hand. He couldn’t breathe. Viktor’s fingers clamped down tight on his windpipe, and the lack of oxygen caused Aiden’s vision to become blurred.

Who’s Erik? And who are these men? Aiden’s analytical mind tried to comprehend the situation, but he kept drawing a blank. Probably from fear and the lack of air reaching his lungs.

“Hey, take it easy there, Viktor.” Josef stepped up beside his friend. “If you kill him we lose what little chance we have of finding Erik. Plus Devon will kill you.”

The grip on Aiden’s neck loosened, and his feet dropped back to the floor. Gulp after gulp of air filled his lungs, pushing out the fuzziness from lack of oxygen. Spots danced in his line of vision. Aiden rubbed at his neck as he glanced out of the corner of his eyes, letting his hair shield his face. He lived in this house for years, but for the life of him he couldn’t think of the best escape route.

“Good point. But we need to get him out of here without drawing any attention.”

Aiden was just about to ask what he meant when a meaty fist barreled toward his face. The last thing he remembered was praying his blood wouldn’t stain his mother’s carpet.

Devon sat in his office waiting for the call from his brother. Viktor had always been a loose cannon, and Devon never knew what brand of trouble his brother would get himself into next. Be that as it may, Viktor had excellent tracking abilities which made him a useful wolf.

His phone began to vibrate, and he snatched it off his desk. “Yeah?”

“Hey, Dev,” Josef said over the line. “We didn’t find Erik, but we found a close second.”

Devon squeezed his phone so tight the fragile plastic threatened to shatter from the pressure. Taking a deep breath, Devon spoke into the phone. “What did you find?”

Two weeks prior his and Viktor’s younger brother Erik had been abducted. Devon remembered the night clearly. It was the night of the full moon and the pack had gathered to run under its silver light that rained down around them. His pack wasn’t large, but they liked to go out and run and do as their animalistic nature called for. They typically stuck to the land they owned, but every once in a while he liked to venture out and explore different wooded areas. It gave a change of pace to what they were used to.

That’s what they were doing when they had been attacked. Men in dark clothing surrounded them and opened fire on the pack. Devon, Viktor, and Josef, the three strongest, lunged for the men, but there were too many. While they were fighting the men off, more men attacked. He barked, giving an order for his little brother Erik, and the other two pack members, Skyler and Dominic, to hide.

Devon took a bullet to the stomach and went down. The next few minutes passed in slow motion. He watched as Josef had been taken from behind and a large serrated knife sunk deep into his back. Viktor tried to go to Josef’s rescue but was shot in the neck and dropped to the ground.

He watched helplessly as his baby brother shifted from wolf to human and ran toward him. Erik almost made it when a hunter shot him, but not with a bullet. No, they used a tranquilizer on Erik. Erik looked at him with frightened, rounded eyes, pleading for Devon to save him.

As Erik started to fall to the ground, two men caught him and dragged him away. Devon pushed up on his pawed feet and stumbled forward, trying to reach Erik. But it was no use. Another shot rang out, and he fell to the ground with a thud.

“The hunter’s son.”

The sound of Josef’s voice brought him back to the present, and his eyes widened. It wasn’t Erik, but like Josef said, a close second. He could proposition a trade, Erik for the hunter’s kid. Maybe all wasn’t lost.

After he came to that night, Devon and the others searched for clues. Anything that would lead them to finding the men who took Erik. Lying discarded on the ground was an unused tranquilizer dart. On the small dart, with its vile liquid, a number was etched into the side.

Dominic, one of the wolves in Devon’s pack, was a computer nerd. Devon had learned over the years Dominic could hack into anything or do a search to find a person’s most intimate secrets. And that blessed talent led them to Phillip Stefano.

Phillip Stefano was a veterinarian who obviously hunted werewolves on the side. He was married with one child who was away at college. By all appearances the man lived a nice and normal life.

The thought of abducting the young Stefano had entered Aiden’s mind, but the time involved in locating the kid, learning his routine, then snatching him seemed too time-consuming. And time was something they didn’t have a lot of, so Josef and Viktor getting Phillip’s son was a gift he hadn’t counted on.

“How far out are you?” Devon asked.

“I’d say another hour at least, but with Viktor’s driving maybe a little less.”

Devon nodded his head then remembered Josef couldn’t see him. “Okay, just be careful. Don’t let my fool brother do anything stupid.” He didn’t need to remind Josef. He already knew Viktor led with his emotions and not his brain. “We need that kid alive.”

“Will do, boss.”

Devon hung up the phone. He relaxed back into his chair as his mind ran through the countless options they now had at their disposal to get Erik back. It wasn’t in Devon’s nature to be violent, but he’d do what he had to do to save his little brother.

So if this hunter’s kid ended up being collateral damage, so what? Hunters had taken everything from him. Devon would be damned if he lost his brother, too.

Hunters were relentless in their pursuit to exterminate werewolves from the world. Devon understood some wolves were monsters and killed for sport, but so did some humans, but Devon didn’t go around murdering them indiscriminately.

“I won’t feel guilty about this,” Devon mumbled to himself. He wasn’t a monster or a killer, but fuck, hunters took from them, so what did it matter if one of them lost a brat kid in the cross fire? Maybe it would teach them a lesson to leave Devon and his kind alone.

Devon had been the alpha of his pack for the past ten years, ever since his parents had been brutally murdered by hunters. His pulse began to race as he remembered that fateful night. He’d just turned twenty, Viktor nineteen, and Erik was just a pup, only six at the time.

His father had been the alpha. He was a great leader. All the wolves in their pack respected him and followed his lead without question. He’d earned their trust, and the pack never once had a problem. Devon had grown up thinking of the pack as his extended family.

Before every moonlit run his father held a pack meeting. It was the time to discuss any important issues or concerns within the pack. They had just finished up with their meeting and were heading off to run and hunt in the dense forest. It was nothing out of the ordinary. Devon ran with Viktor and Josef like he always did. They’d race, wrestle, and hunt together until dawn. Erik was still too small, and their parents forbid him running with him or Viktor.

When the first shot rang out, Devon swore his heart stopped. He looked to his brother and best friend and ran in the direction the sound came from. Another shot echoed in the woods, and Devon dug his nails harder into the cold, damp soil, racing for all he was worth.

Just as he neared where the sounds were the loudest, a little gray wolf came running toward him. Erik bounced right into Devon’s front legs. Devon picked him up by the scruff of his neck and sat him down between Viktor and Josef. Viktor growled low, trying to tell Devon to let him come but he shook his head no. If something happened to him at least Erik had one brother to watch out for him.

Devon crouched low to the ground and moved forward, scratching his belly with every step. Erik running alone meant something bad had happened to his parents. He dipped even lower as he heard the sounds of men talking and laughing. The closer he got he saw three men. They stood over his parents’ lifeless human bodies, which suggested they had shifted probably in hopes of pleading for their lives. Devon watched as the hunters took pictures and high-fived one another and showed absolutely no remorse for what they had done. They killed the pack’s alpha as well as took a mother and father away from their children.

One suggested they take the bodies back for testing and Devon lost it. He lunged forward, taking the men by surprise. His teeth sunk deep into the fleshy skin of one man’s thigh, and he wrenched his head to the side, taking one hell of chunk when he did.