A slight twinge in his chest made him wince.
He loaded shells into the gun as quietly as possible, then crept back toward the curtain to peer out into the darkness again. The person was hard to make out, tucked into the shadows of the house, but Val thought it might have been a woman. The lithe shape of the body and the long mane of curly hair seemed feminine to him, though without a proper look at their face, he couldn’t be sure.
Were they an omega? They might have been looking for a safe place to stay.
He scoffed at himself. No omega went sneaking around someone’s house if they needed help, but it was a wonderful insight into his mind. He was stupid enough to walk right into a trap if an omega was involved, but as far as he knew, that should have been the norm.
Alphas should always be willing to go out on a limb for the sake of an omega.
From his vantage point, he couldn’t tell if the person was armed or not. If they had no weapons on their person, then the gun should be adequate intimidation even without pullingthe trigger. If it wasn’t, he wasn’t afraid to put the gun to use. Anything to keep his pack safe. Especially his mate.
Val frowned when he saw the figure glance around.What the hell are you doing?
And then the mane shifted as the figure leaned back.
He frowned at the sight, unable to know what to make of it, though his pulse sped up as the person kept bending backward, and backward, and backward. The dark hair gave way to the pale expanse of a forehead, the curve of a dainty nose, a mouth pressed into a thin line.
And most disturbing of all, a pair of crimson eyes that cut straight through the shadows.
The woman stood on the gravel of the driveway, arms hanging at her sides, leaning back far enough that she should have toppled over. Instead, she remained in that position, her red eyes meeting Val’s and holding his gaze while the wind stirred her curls. The arch of her back seemed alien, inhuman.
And then she twisted around, rolling her head grotesquely, so she never took her eyes off of him.
What the fuck?The shotgun didn’t seem like quite enough to handle whatever the fuck that was. Red eyes meant feral, but feral alpha or feral omega? If she were a feral alpha, then he would need to shoot her, but where had she come from? Did she live in the house across the road?
Or had she turned up there when her bloodlust died out?
Val knew how much damage a feral alpha could do, and he was not about to let her get anywhere near the house. Instead, he stepped back out of her line of sight and took a deep breath, then headed for the door. He might frighten her off if she wasn’t too deep in her instincts, but he couldn’t depend on that working. He needed to be ready to do what needed to be done.
The locksclickedas he twisted them, and with one more deep breath, he swung the door open.
The feral woman stood on his doorstep, staring into his eyes.
Without thinking, Val raised the rifle.
Epilogue III
It took three days for Puppy’s curiosity to get the best of her.
Sidian swore as he shoved his hands into the pockets of the jacket he’d stolen from Roman, shivering in the chill that laced the air. Three days of settling in at what had once been a Mamba safe house so they could have an actual place to stay, a house where they could sleep each night and where Sidian could laze away the rest of his pregnancy. After a month of being out on the road, finding some of the most breathtakingly scenic views they could find throughout New Jersey and even up into New York, it was nice to have somewhere to settle down for a little while.
Didn’t mean it was home. He wondered if he would ever feel at home anywhere in the world. Maybe it would just take time. Growing up in a trailer that seemed to stand only because of duct tape and poorly hammered nails did not give him a feeling of security, and it had been from there to the psych ward, then straight to the breeding center.
He could give himself time. Be patient or something. Whatever.
But he had to get Puppy back into the house before Roman woke up. He’d fallen asleep waiting for Sidian to get out of the shower with Amey stretched out on her back next to him on the king-sized mattress in the master bedroom. The house was a pretty average place with a lot of wood paneling and an overall cozy interior, three bedrooms—one of which would become a nursery over the next few months if Sidian had anything to say about it—and a nest off the master bedroom that Sidian still needed to poke around in.
Roman had muttered something under his breath the day they moved in aboutLorcanandmoney.Sidian believed that meant they would get whatever they wanted when they asked for it.
Of course, Devereaux could not magically teleport across the country to drag the half-feral female alpha who accompanied them back into the house. She had been restless since the evening they pulled the Toyota into the detached garage, making muttering sounds under her breath or staring out at the dirt path that led to the main road. Out in the middle of nowhere, there was only one other house around for miles, and it was more or less across the street.
Given how she was, it wasn’t a surprise she wanted to know more about their neighbors. Every time they stopped anywhere to eat, she wedged herself into the booth next to Sidian and radiated such tension and hostility that Roman tipped extra as an apology. If an alpha in public glanced over at them, Puppy would catch that alpha’s gaze and hold it until they got spooked and broke it themself. More than a few freaked out as soon as they realized what eyes they were looking into.
She had been living in a feral state that, according to the Kincaids, was induced through purposeful trauma of some kind. Fresh out of that, she was in fight-or-flight mode. She just pickedfightat every opportunity, and while that was endearing, it could be dangerous.
Puppy could flay open an asshole who tried to put his hands on Sidian or leered at Amey, but she sort of needed to leave their neighbors alone.
And what the fuck was she thinking, wandering over there in the middle of the night?
