Page 11 of The Alpha’s Chosen Mate

Chapter Six

HARRISON

18 Years Old, January 1991

I drum my fingers against my upper arm as I lean against the front of my red truck, watching the students as they make their way into the school.

It’s their first day back after their winter break, and I’m parked across the street. I feel like a stalker, but this is the only way I can gain insight into what happened. I can’t storm up the mountain to her pack and demand answers. Not without starting a war between Lupine River and Crescent Lake. If Emily shows up at school today, then I can see her, make sure she’s okay, and find out what happened on her birthday. If she doesn’t show up…

I’ll worry about that when I need to.

“Incoming,” Brad mindlinks me from the school’s front doors.

I glance towards the entrance. The Lupine River vans file into the parking lot, pull up to the loading zone, and their occupants exit the vehicles. As more of them leave the vans and I don’t see Emily among them, my conflicting emotions ratchet higher.

Part of me is hopeful—if she’s not here, then there’s a chance she escaped and found her way to a safer place. But there’s also a chance her alpha caught her and has her imprisoned. Or worse.

Twenty-nine students exit the three Lupine River vans. Twenty-nine, when there should be thirty. And Emily isn’t one of them.

“Fuck!”

I drop my chin and close my eyes, fighting against the raging lycan inside me. In the back of my mind, I know it’s possible she left. But my lycan—he’s pure animal, and he doesn’t listen to logic. He’s convinced she’s been punished. He wants blood and revenge.

“Harrison—”

“I know. There’s still a chance she got out. See what you can learn from her pack mates and—”

“Harrison! Get your head out of your ass and look over here!”

Brad’s desperate, almost shouting mindlink forces my attention back to the school. There, climbing out of the third vehicle, is Emily.

Brad straightens as Emily walks up the front steps. My lycan is unhappy that Brad is so focused on her, but I can’t run over there to talk to her myself without drawing the humans’ attention with my supernatural speed, or the attention of whoever is driving the vans from her pack.

There’s something fishy and sinister going on in Lupine River, and we don’t yet know how deep that treachery runs. But there’s no question that it all stems from their alpha.

Whatever is going on there, it’s why he didn’t want Dad’s help. Or help from anyone else. It’s why the pack keeps mostly to itself.

It’s why Emily wanted to run and why she didn’t show up at Brewed Awakenings last week for her birthday.

From my spot across the street, I can see that Emily is wearing way too many layers for a werewolf’s naturally higher body temperature. She’s wrapped a heavy scarf around her neck, and she wears thick gloves on her hands. She hugs her books to her chest—her broken backpack nowhere to be seen—and walks past Brad without so much as a hello or a smile or a glance.

“Shit,” Brad mindlinks me. “Harrison, she looks…”

I don’t let him finish that sentence. “I need to talk to her.”

I need to see how she looks for myself.

“How are you going to do that?” Brad asks.

“I—” My shoulders slump in defeat. “I don’t know.”

We have to be as discreet as possible. We can’t let anyone from her pack know we suspect something is amiss. The students from her pack have kept to themselves most of the year so far instead of disrupting the peace like my dad thought they would—thank Selene—but that doesn’t mean they’re safe. And word can’t get back to her alpha.

“Mr. Martin.” Brad says the name slowly.

“What?”

“She has Mr. Martin for English fourth period,” Brad explains. “But he has a prep period right now, so—”