Chapter Thirty-Two
Roman slipped in and out of consciousness until the van slowed to a stop.
He stared at the ceiling of the vehicle, only aware of the hatch opening and rough hands seizing his ankles, dragging him out and into the frosty night air once again. Two alphas gripped him by the elbows and kept him on his feet while Dax climbed out, tablet tucked under his arm.
“Take this inside,” he said, offering the device to one of his pack brothers, who took it without complaint. “And retrieve Axel. I want him to bring the dog to the backyard.”
“Yes, alpha.” The man dipped his head and darted out of sight, and then Roman was being forced around the back of what turned out to be a Jeep, his hazy vision picking up what looked like a massive house silhouetted against a dark sky, a handful of the windows glowing golden from within.
“Take it easy on him,” someone yelled, and another one of those hyena laughs split the air. “The alpha thinks we might keephim after all. Would be such a shame to ruin that body before any of us have time to break him from the inside out.”
The house that belonged to Pack Kincaid was far more elaborate than the first one they’d visited, and Roman made a mental note of it as he was dragged past it and into what looked like a lush backyard of wild grasses and flowers. The pair who restrained him carried him all the way to the treeline where they dropped him in a heap, though stood guard over him. Although he was muzzled and bound, they still knew better than to leave him unoccupied.
Dax joined them a moment later with three more alphas trailing behind him. Roman knew Axel would be missing, but it seemed like Jett was missing as well. Not a good sign.
“Axel will be just a moment,” Dax said, his tone apologetic. “The dog gives him some trouble. When you see her, I’m sure you’ll understand why.”
So they were bringing some kind of trained attack dog into the yard? Roman remained silent. He didn’t know what they were plotting, but he already knew to be wary.
And then Axel Kincaid stepped from the shadows, dragging a chain leash behind him with each step.
The dog was not a dog. Thedogwas a young female alpha who snarled and growled with every forced step she took, her hands wrapped tight around the steel links as she tried in vain to dig her heels into the dirt. A leather collar was wrapped snug around her throat, fastened tight enough that Roman wondered how she could even breathe around it. She wore what looked like a tattered dress that was stained so badly he didn’t know what its original color was, her bare skin streaked with dirt and grime. Her long hair was matted and tangled, but it was her bright crimson eyes that drew his attention. So bright they almost burned like twin flames in the darkness.
The Kincaids’ dog was a feral alpha. The pine note of her scent was sick with rot, while the softer vanilla tone was rancid. Roman had never smelled an alpha scent like it before.
Dax sighed as Axel wrestled the girl to the ground, gripping her by a handful of her dirty hair and kicking her knees out from under her when she tried to stand. “Puppy.Down.”
Alpha commands did not always work from one alpha to another, but the woman settled on her knees even as her slender body vibrated with fury. Her teeth seemed almost permanently bared, a low rattling snarl filling the air as her eyes darted from alpha to alpha.
Then they landed on Roman, and she stilled, a flicker of human confusion splitting her gaze before pure animal fury reclaimed her, her growling getting louder by the second.
Dax turned his attention to Roman with a polite smile. “What do you think of her?”
Roman didn’t have an answer for him. Feral alphas were few; most did not survive going feral the first time and never came back to their human senses. Roman himself had slipped only once, pure feral bloodlust staining everything around him, but Sidian had brought him back from the brink. He doubted this alpha had anyone who could do that for her.
Dax stretched out a hand, patting the top of her head, though she refused to take her eyes off of Roman as she squirmed in place. “Puppy has been a bit of a work in progress, you see. My brother worked very hard to tame her… Some might saytoo hard,for that matter. We’ve struggled to get her to obey, but she has one talent, and that’s taking out my trash for me.”
Puppy tugged on the leash, her hands still clinging to her collar as she scratched at her own neck.
“You are a pretty specimen, I’ll give you that,” Dax continued on, and Roman just stared at him. “But you are dangerous, very much so, and I don’t know if we can trust you. You careso muchfor our little breeder that it makes you stupid, and I can’t have stupid men in my pack.”
Roman remained silent, his eyes fixed on the woman.Puppy.It was taking his drug-addled mind too long to connect the dots, but Puppy was Kitten’s sister. Heknewher.
“This will be an excellent litmus test to see if you’re worthy of keeping,” Dax continued, snapping his fingers in front of Puppy’s face until her gaze jerked to his. “We’ll give you a head start, Kane. I would suggest running as far as you can. She’s quite vicious once she catches up with you.”
Axel grunted as she started fighting against his hold again. “Get him up and let him go. I can’t hold on to this bitch forever, and it’s been way too long since the last time we let her out to play. She might not come back this time.”
Dax snorted. “She’ll come back. She always does. Nash, get him up.”
Nash hauled Roman to his feet, steadying him against the trunk of the tree at his back while Roman tried to shake himself the rest of the way to awareness. Being caught in the middle of the woods by a feral alpha would not end well for him, and he knew that better than most. Heknewwhat they were capable of, what he had once been capable of, and if he didn’t focus, Puppy would catch him. She’d kill him. She wouldn’t even remember doing it once it was done.
“There are no paths out here, so best of luck.” Nash shot Roman an acidic smile before shoving him toward the trees, and Roman forced himself to move, his vision adjusting to the darkness and his pace picking up as he tried to account for every stone, every stick, every divot in the dirt.
“Five minutes, Kane,” Dax called out. “I hope you don’t disappoint your little omega.”
As soon as he was out of sight of the treeline, Roman strained against the zip ties binding his wrists until he felt the piecesof plastic snap one by one. They dug into his skin, and he felt it break in places, blood slicking his fingers, but the pain was nothing. Pain meant nothing to him.
They had Sidian. The bastards had Sidian. Roman couldn’t afford to die out in the woods.
