He held up his hand and slowly let his claws extend. Their eyes went a little wide at that, but they didn’t freak out. Apparently, they were okay with that. He decided not to press his luck with the fangs. Nail extensions were one thing—a mouth full of fangs might be a bit much right now.
He let his claws retract. “What did you mean when you asked if I was the person you’d come out here to find?”
Chloe was the one who answered. “Within hours of escaping, we both felt something telling us we had to find someone. We don’t know who it is, but that instinct has been pulling us to LA for the past week. When I woke up and saw you last night, I thought you might be that person.” She gave him a sheepish look. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not quite…right. There’s someone else out there, and I get the feeling they’re looking for us, too.”
Zane was about to point out how crazy that sounded, then realized he’d just told them they were both turning into werewolves. At this point, crazy was relative. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any idea how betas found their alphas. Or vice versa. It didn’t work that way for alphas. Gage had asked him to join the Pack and he had.
“I think,” he said slowly, still working it all out in his head, “that maybe you two are looking for your alpha.”
“What’s that?” Zoe asked even as Chloe’s eyes sharpened with interest.
“Alphas are a kind of werewolf.” He knew he was going to muck it up if he tried to get too deep into the details, so he’d keep it simple. “They tend to be bigger and stronger, like me, and usually have a protective instinct. There are other werewolves called betas that are smaller and gentler, which usually form tight packs with an alpha. You’re beta werewolves.”
Chloe nodded. “That makes sense. And the pull we’ve been feeling is our alpha trying to find us while we’ve been trying to find him.”
It wasn’t a question, but he answered anyway. “Yes. Though, in the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that your alpha might not be a him. It might be a her.”
Zoe eagerly scooted forward on the couch. “Can you help us find him or her?”
As much as Zane didn’t want to take on the burden when he was already dealing with enough stuff on his plate, he couldn’t turn his back on them.
“Yeah, I’ll help you.” He sighed. “In fact, I’m out here in LA with two other alphas from my pack, so maybe one of them is yours. If not, we’ll come up with some way to find him. Or her.”
Zane prayed it would be as simple as either Diego or Rachel being their alpha. Because it wasn’t like he could look for whoever it was in the phone book under “werewolf, alpha.”
“Wait a minute,” Zoe said, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. “I thought you said alphas form packs with betas. Why are you in a pack with other alphas?”
How the hell did he answer that when he still wasn’t quite sure how he and sixteen other alphas could live in harmony? Finally, he shrugged and replied with something close to the truth: “It just kind of happened.”
Luckily, Alyssa and Christine came in with a handful of sodas and candy, saving him from any more questions for the time being.
“So, did you guys clear everything up?” Alyssa asked, handing him a candy bar while Christine gave the twins several bags of peanut M&M’s and two bottles of soda.
Zane nodded. “I think so. But it means Zoe and Chloe need to stay in town for a while.” He looked at Christine. “Do you think it will be a problem if they hold on to the room until then?”
Christine threw a curious look at Alyssa but nodded. “No, that’s fine.”
Zane glanced at the twins to see them already munching on their candy. They looked more relaxed now that they’d talked to him. He only hoped he could find their alpha.
* * *
Alyssa was stunned at how quietly Zane moved. For a guy his size, he slipped through the lowest level of the parking garage like a ghost. Maybe she should have agreed to let him come down here on his own. He was seriously good at this stealthy stuff.
He stopped and held up his hand, motioning for her to do the same, his head held high as he listened to the sound of a vehicle moving somewhere else in the garage. All Alyssa could make out was the squawk of car tires taking tight turns on smooth concrete. She had no clue if the vehicle was five levels above them or about to run them down any second. He must have decided everything was okay because he motioned for her to continue following him, heading down the incline toward the lowest level of the garage.
“You sure the vehicle we’re looking for is down here?” he asked.
“The truth is, I’m just guessing,” she admitted. “The program on my laptop only shows the location in 2-D. The sedan I put the tracker on could be on any level in here. I had no idea this place had five levels underground, but since we haven’t seen it yet, it makes sense they parked down on the lowest level. Especially if they were planning to dump it.”
That answer seemed to suit Zane, and he continued on ahead of her, his head swiveling side to side as they passed behind the few cars parked down there. It wasn’t surprising this level of the garage wasn’t filled to capacity. Even in a city as crowded as LA, with its lack of available parking, this section was too creepy for anyone to want to come down there.
As they walked, Zane would lift his head every once in a while, and he’d do this weird thing where he closed his eyes and sniffed. Like he was testing the air with his nose. Okay, that was damn odd.
After reading the information Nathan had found on the Dallas SWAT team, Alyssa had been convinced Zane—and probably the rest of his team—were special. She had no idea what they were, but after seeing copies of the autopsy photos of some of the criminals they’d dealt with, she got the feeling they were something that could be scary as hell if you got on their bad side.
One of the reasons Zane and his team were so good at taking down bad guys might be because they seemed indestructible. While there was nothing in any of the official incident reports the team wrote, Alyssa could read between the lines. It was almost a certainty that Zane and his teammates had been shot in the line of duty—multiple times in some cases. Yet only one of them had ever been taken to a hospital. Even after getting shot with a high-powered rifle round through the chest, the guy had literally run out of there less than a day after surgery and right back into the action, going up against a psychotic killer.
The funny thing was, even though she was sure Zane wasn’t entirely human, she didn’t feel concerned for her safety when she was with him. It was probably crazy, but as they’d talked over donuts earlier this morning alone in her room, she hadn’t been worried for a second. Not even when things had gotten a little tense as they’d asked questions they both refused to answer.
