Four Alphas, Four Babies

## Chapter 1 *Rose* Alpha Kane rushes off, leaving me alone with just the woman who was in here earlier. She is staring at me with a puzzled look on her face, and I want to tell her she should go help with the invasion, but I am under the impression that she has been assigned to guard me. At least it’s her and not one of those other two guys. They were both so stupid, I’d probably be able to trick them into leaving me alone long enough to get out of here without them being able to catch me, but at the same time, they were creepy, and I don’t trust them not to do something stupid or weird. “So…” she finally says, folding her arms under her chest. Her blunt haircut makes her look older than she is, I think. Her skin is smooth and clear. She’s actually pretty, when she’s not glaring at me like she wants to kill me. “I guess that bit about not remembering shit was a bunch of lies then?” I shrug. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” “How did you think that was going to help exactly?” she asks me, and she’s giving me the same look that she gave those two men when they’d say something stupid. “Well, my theory was that maybe if I didn’t remember who I was, no one would think that I was a threat,” I tell her. “They would think I was just some helpless pregnant woman and leave me the hell alone.” I hope that makes sense to her. “It’s not like I had a lot of time to think of a strategy. I had to do something. You heard Kane’s plan for me and my children, right?” She shrugs. “Serves you right. Rich Alpha’s daughter bitch with four lovers.” My eyes widen. “Uhm, clearly, you don’t know anything about me.” She scoffs, a laugh escaping her lips. “Which part of what I said was wrong exactly? Your father is an Alpha, which automatically makes you rich, and those four Alphas knocked you up, so whether they love you or not, they’re still your lovers, right?” I narrow my gaze at her. “First of all, my father is a horrible Alpha. He misappropriated a whole bunch of funds, and we are far from rich. Kane and Stephen attacked him, so I have no idea what’s left of my pack, but I’m sure my people are struggling right now.” She is staring at me intently, but she doesn’t roll her eyes or accuse me of lying. So I continue. “Then, you should know that I have had anything but a glamorous life up until the time that I came to the castle, and quite frankly afterward. Back in my home pack, because my parents had spent so much money they weren’t supposed to, I had to take a job in a neighboring pack at the sewage treatment plant. I had to shovel shit for a living. That was just one of the jobs I’ve had in my life, so coming to Castle Black Rock to become a Breeder wasn’t exactly my choice. I just did what my parents told me to do.” Her eyes stay on me for a long time, like she’s not sure what to say to me. I think she believes me, though. Eventually, she says, “You’re not the woman I thought you were. Kane says you’re a spoiled, rich brat, something like Barbara, I guess, and if we kill you, the world will be a better place. He says that your babies will be the equivalent of demon babies, and we may as well kill them, too. He says the Alphas are a bunch of conceited assholes who want to rule the world.” “It sounds to me like Kane is the one who needs to either be killed or put in his place,” I say with a shrug. “He’s not being honest with any of you, and he’s making you do things you don’t want to do just because he’s your Alpha and he can boss you around.” She seems like a smart woman. She continues to think about what I’m saying to her, chewing on her thumbnail now. “Listen, you have to know that Kane can’t possibly defeat all four of the Alphas and their armies, right?” I ask her. “Well, he has help. Alpha Stephen, for one, is helping him. There are others, too.” I shake my head. “No one is going to be able to beat the four Alphas. They are the strongest, most powerful Alphas in the kingdom. That’s why King Gene chose them to be the ones to participate in this contest to begin with. So… Alpha Kane will lose, and when he does, the people who fight on his side are going to have to pay for what they’ve done. Do you want to be the person who was responsible for watching me when I died?” She swallows hard but doesn’t speak. “What’s your name?” I ask her, using a gentle voice. “What difference does it make?” she asks, defensively. “Are you trying to get me in trouble?” I smile and shake my head. “No. Just curious. You know my name. I wanted to know yours.” She hesitates a bit longer before she says, “Diana.” “Hi, Diana,” I say, thinking I might actually be friends with her under different circumstances. “Hi,” she says, but she doesn’t seem very enthusiastic. In fact, since I mentioned to her that she’d be in big trouble when this is all over, she looks very nervous. “I think, though, you have a good opportunity to change the tides here, you know? If you can help me, then, when this is all over, I’ll be able to tell the Alphas that you were a friend to me, that they owe you, and when one of them is the new king, they can reward you for your help.” I hold my breath, watching her, hoping she’s willing to help me because I don’t think I can do this on my own. It takes a long while, but eventually, she nods and says, “Fine. I’ll do it.” A smile spreads across my face. “Thank you,” I say. “It won’t be easy, though. You’re carrying four pups, and there are guards everywhere. It’s not like I can dress you up like a soldier.” “Are there any secret passages or anything?” I ask her. She shakes her head. “No. But I do have a plan. Do you trust me?” I inhale sharply and then let it out really slowly. “Do I have a choice?” A smile spreads across her face and she replies, “No, you don’t. Come with me.” Reluctantly, I push up off of the bed and get to my feet, unsteady from all of the drugs. I’ve got to make this work, one way or another. ## Chapter 2 *Eli* It would be faster to heal if I stayed in wolf form, but the tiny seats in these utility vehicles aren’t exactly built for four legs. Since my hand is still injured, I’m stuck riding shotgun while Kelly drives. And I wish she’d go faster. She’d insisted that I eat, but I didn’t want to waste time, so I inhaled about half a sandwich before I finally convinced her to leave, so now I’m finishing up the rest of it one-handedly while we speed through the forest. Luckily there’s a rough path here, so the vehicles are making good time, although in wolf form we may be able to run faster—but again, there’s my injured hand, so I’d probably trudge along like a snail. While I’m in a generally useless state, I have time to think. There’s an ache deep in my gut whenever I think of Rose being kidnapped, and that’s making it more difficult to finish the sandwich. Though I could easily ask Kelly what happened at the castle, I really don’t think I want to hear the details. I know Rose would never let anyone take her alive, so imagining what someone had done to drag her out of there is just… unthinkable. The result of whatever happened is that Rose is missing, and she’s probably been kidnapped by Kane’s people, which means she’s in the hands of Kane right now. At that thought, I’m completely done with my sandwich, but I force myself to down some water because I’m going to need the hydration to heal up and fight that evil bastard. Out of all the Alphas, he’s the lowest because he’s willing to kill anyone he needs to just to have as much power as he can grab. Well, maybe Rose’s father is the lowest after what he's done to her throughout her life. But Kane… he’s terrifying, which means whoever he has guarding Rose will never go against his commands. I never want to harm innocent wolves, but I’ll have no choice if they stand in between me and Rose. I look over at Kelly, who is really focused on driving, so I decide not to bother her. She probably doesn’t know where our armies are anyway. ‘Reece,’ I say in the mind-link. ‘Eli? Are you okay?’ ‘I’m fine,’ I tell him. ‘What’s the situation?’ ‘We have our main forces headed to Kane,’ he says. ‘But the other Alphas and I are going after Stephen.’ ‘What?! Why?’ ‘Barbara said that Stephen took her,’ he says. ‘And you believe her?’ That knot in my stomach has turned into pure anger, and it’s welling up in my chest. ‘No,’ he says. ‘But if it’s true, then we’ll waste time with Kane while Rose and the pups are still in danger. It’s pretty much on the way to Kane’s anyway, so we’re taking the chance. If she’s not in Stephen’s castle, then we can get to Kane fairly quickly.’ I take a deep breath. It’s a gamble, but he’s right. I know Barbara is working with Kane and would do anything to help him. But on the other hand, Barbara is all about Barbara, so if it’s in her best interest to help us—which it is since we’ll be the ones ruling the kingdom—then she’s just as likely to sell Kane out without hesitating. If we ignore her, then Stephen could be hurting Rose right now. We just can’t take the chance. But with three Alphas heading toward Stephen, my place is with the troops going after Kane. ‘I’m headed to Kane,’ I tell him. ‘You’re in no shape for that,’ says Mark. Apparently, Reece had brought the other Alphas into the mind-link conversation. ‘I’m fine,’ I say. ‘Kelly brought herbs from the healers and they’re working fine. Nothing is going to keep me away from Rose. We need an Alpha overseeing the Kane attack.’ There’s silence, so I know everyone understands that there’s no sense in trying to talk me out of it. We all feel the same way about Rose, and we just need to rescue her as soon as we can. ‘We’ll get her,’ Tristan says, and then we disengage the mind-link. We all have troops to command and no time to waste chatting about it. And that’s exactly what I do, contacting my warriors to get their position so we meet up with them before they reach Kane’s fortress. I’m so pissed about Cora, and I pray to the Moon Goddess that she didn’t bring any of my trusted warriors over to her side, whatever her side is. I’ll have to worry about that later. The landscape flies by at a dizzying pace, with specks of green blending into the deep browns of tree trunks as the smell of pine and cedar fills the air. I close my eyes, needing a moment to regroup inside my head before we meet up with our troops. Images of Rose flow through my mind—lingering on one picture of her smiling face gazing at me drearily as we wake up from a night of lovemaking. The pain of missing her is biting, but I can’t help smiling at her beautiful face as the memory of her scent dances in my mind. I feel a sudden, violent jerk and open my eyes to see the bushes and trees still moving by quickly, but I’m no longer in the utility vehicle—my body is flying forward. I shift mid-air and jump down with too much forward momentum, landing violently on my injured front paw and letting out an ear-piercing howl as I roll on the ground, the pine needles mixing with the blood on my fur until I finally come to a stop at a giant tree. * * * *Adam* ‘Take one for the team,’ I say in my mind, ‘The Alphas need you.’ I’ve been repeating my little mantra for the past hour, but I don’t think I’ve convinced myself that sitting here listening to Barbara and Gene bicker about—clothes?—is somehow going to win the war on Kane and get Rose back. But since it’s all my fault that she’s gone, I sigh. I can’t believe I didn’t guard that damn secret passage door. “I am to be the Luna Queen!” Barbara hollers. “How can I be seen in these worthless rags? They’re hardly worth burning in the castle furnace for heat!” She seems to have perfected the art of bellowing almost as effectively as Gene has. “These are made of the finest fucking silk!” screams Gene. No, he’s still the champion at bellowing. “I don’t give a fuck what they’re made of,” she says. “I’m not going to be caught dead in these drab colors and unflattering styles. I’ll need the royal seamstress to start from scratch.” They rattle on for several more minutes, and I close my eyes, just to give myself a few milliseconds of peace. “Adam!” I jump in my seat and open my eyes to see Gene’s face no more than twelve inches away from my own. It’s horrifying. “Y—Your Majesty,” I say. There’s silence as he stares at me without speaking, and I can see that he’s even drooling a little. “You’re to escort Luna Barbara to the seamstress to measure her for new outfits!” He finally backs away from me, and I’m guessing it’s so that I can get up and take Barbara where he’s ordered me to. I’m torn as to whether this is a good thing or not, but I guess going from dealing with two of them to just one is a win. Yes, I’ll call it a win. “Yes, Your Majesty,” I say as I stand up, give Gene a half-assed sign of respect and heading toward the door. He’s already pouring a drink at his private bar when I close the door behind Barbara and me. I need a drink myself right now. “Well?!” Now Barbara’s face is in front of me, and while she has somewhat attractive features, she has a nasty habit of contorting them into horrifying configurations that make her look like a witch. I quickly dodge her and wish I had some bleach to clean that awful image out of my mind, and we both head toward the sewing room to find the seamstress. She keeps talking while we walk, babbling on about nothing and clanking her heels on the floor. I don’t know how she walks in those huge heels. They seem to defy gravity. To tune her out, I escape into my own head for a while… Shelby, yes, she’ll do it for me. She’s so hot, and I remember how I snuck up behind her in the shower a few days ago and grabbed her gorgeous ass from behind. She was mad at first, but then I reached my fingers around and massaged her nipples until they were all perky and delicious, then I turned her around and tasted them. They were fabulous. I’m almost at the sewing room door now, so I come out of my thoughts and realize that I’ve successfully tuned out Barbara. I don’t hear her babbling—or her heel clacking, come to think of it—anymore. I turn around and face a blank hallway. Fuck. I had one job, and I blew it once again. ## Chapter 3 *Rose* “Where are we going?” I ask Diana as she leads me out of the room where Kane had intended for me to stay toward the sound of troops shouting and running outside. I think they must be preparing to shift in order to go fight against the Alphas, and I don’t want to go that way. It seems dangerous to me. “We’re going to Alpha Kane’s office,” she tells me. I stop in my tracks. ‘What? Why?” That sounds like an even worse idea than where I’d thought we were going, toward the sound of fighting troops. “Well, we need a phone,” she explains, “and in order to get one, we’ll have to go to his office. It’s the only phone in the entire castle.” I’m still confused. “But won’t he know we’re in there?” I ask her. She shakes her head. “He only spends time in his bedroom banging all of his maids or in the war room shouting orders at his commanders. Other than that, he’s usually out on the battlefield. He doesn’t spend a whole lot of time in his office.” “What about other people?” I ask, still not walking toward her. “Doesn’t he have a secretary or his Beta or something? Someone who would be in or around his office?” She lets out a loud sigh. “No! I’m telling you, the office is the best place for us to go right now. He’ll never look there. It’s probably more dangerous for you to be out of your room because he’s more likely to go in there and want to harass you than he is to go into his office. But it sounds like your boyfriends are keeping him busy right now, so as long as we hurry, we should be good.” She beckons for me to come, and I start walking again, struggling to keep up with my four babies in tow, but I still don’t think this is the best idea anyone has ever had. “Why can’t I use the mind-link?” I ask her as I walk along. I’ve been trying to reach Tristan, Mark, Reece, or even Eli ever since I woke up and discovered where I was, but it hasn’t done any good. “Alpha Kane’s got it all clogged up,” she says, waving her hand dismissively. I am confused. “What do you mean all clogged up?” I’ve never heard of anything like that before. “Yeah, so he is an Alpha, right? He can keep prisoners from being able to reach their pack mates, family members, even other Alphas. It’s a skill a lot of the Alphas have. I bet yours can do it, too.” My mouth drops open, and I stare dumbfounded. I’ve never heard of anything like that before. “Well… I still don’t know how a phone is going to work. It’s not like I can just call the Alphas while they’re on the battlefield. And even if I do call them, what should I tell them? ‘Hi, I’m being held hostage by Kane.’ They likely already know that.” She turns the corner quickly without peeking around first, and it makes me nervous to follow her, but she doesn’t wait for me, so I have to rush around to catch up with her. “We can call your parents,” she says. “I know you said they were awful to you, but maybe they can get word to the Alphas of where you are. I heard Kane say something about a couple of your Alphas saving your parents, so maybe they’ll be willing to help.” I shake my head. “Clearly, you don’t know my parents. They’ll be pissed at me for getting myself kidnapped to begin with.” She slows down now and turns to look at me. “Just leave it to me. I’ll make them listen.” My mouth drops open to protest, but we have reached the office now. Diana tries the doorknob and it won’t budge. It’s locked. ‘So much for that,” I say. She rolls her eyes. There’s a doormat in front of the door, which looks really weird since we are in the hallway. The doormat says, “Wipe the shit off your shoes–there’s enough shit going on in here!” “What are you doing?” I ask her, but she doesn’t answer. Instead, she just reaches under the mat and pulls out a key, which she then uses to unlock the door. “I’ll be damned,” I mumble. “There is someone in the world who is just as dumb as King Gene.” She laughs and puts the key back, and then we walk inside. Sitting down at the desk, she picks up the phone and then looks at me. “What’s your phone number?” I rattle it off for her, and she dials, but I don’t think this is going to work. “Hello?” Diana says into the phone. “Yes, may I speak to the Luna or Alpha please?” She waits a moment and then says, “I’m calling with very important information from King Gene’s castle regarding their next payment for their daughter’s Breeder services. Yes, I’ll hold.” And then, I realize what she’s going to say, and it makes me really sad. But I know it will work. “Hello?” she says a few seconds later. I can imagine my parents running to the phone, practically tripping over one another to get there in time to get the call. “Yes, this is Clarisse from King Gene’s office. I’m calling regarding the payment for Rose’s Breeder services. Who am I speaking to?” There’s a pause before Diana says, “Well, Luna Karen, I regret to inform you that your daughter has been kidnapped, and since she is no longer at the castle, King Gene has determined she will not be getting paid for her services anymore, and since she hasn’t fulfilled her duties, you will be forced to repay all of the money he has sent you.” Diana immediately pulls the phone back away from her ear as my mother begins to scream like a lunatic. I can hear her shouting, not about me being kidnapped and in danger, but about having to repay the money. “Listen,” Diana finally shouts, “if you want to get your next payment, you’ll have to figure out a way to get her out of Alpha Kane’s castle and back to King Gene’s. Maybe the four Alphas can help you, but I can’t. Now, if I were you, I’d send someone to find one of the Alphas and let them know that Rose is being held in the castle of Alpha Kane, that he’s threatening her life, and they need to hurry, got it? Otherwise, if she gets killed, you’ll be on the hook for all of that money.” My mom screams a few more times before Diana says, “You heard me. You are running out of time. Goodbye.” She hangs up the phone and gives me a satisfied smile. I shake my head. “You don’t know my parents. They will go hide somewhere so they don’t have to repay the money or free me.” “No, they’ll do it,” she says confidently. I could hear it in her tone. “Don’t worry. Now, let’s get you back to bed.” She gets up from the chair and comes around the table, and we’re about to exit the room when the door opens and a familiar man is standing there. “Well, shit,” I mutter. Diana says, “Well, shit indeed.” ## Chapter 4 *Eli* A sharp pain is pounding in the top of my skull. In front of me I see nothing but tree bark, so I try to turn my head, but the pain radiates even stronger. I’m guessing I hit the tree head-on, so I’m pretty amazed that I’m even awake. I move what I last remember to be my broken paw, but it’s a hand now, so I must have gone unconscious and shifted back at some point. How long have I been knocked out? Kelly! I have to move now since I need to see if she’s okay; I need to help her. I use my good hand—which right now isn’t much better than the other one—to push off the tree and try to get up and turn around at the same time. But something is stopping me. “Piece of shit’s awake,” says a raspy voice right above me, and now I can feel that whoever it is, is holding me down with a huge, muddy boot. Some dust catches in my throat, and I cough, and I’m still trying to get up or at least turn around and see who’s holding me down. The male voice is definitely not familiar. I sense someone else moving closer and another man says, “That looks like one we should worry about. Nathan! Bring the kit.” A kit—that must be a medical kit. But if they’re here to help me, why is this guy holding me down with his foot? ‘Kelly!’ I call out in the mind-link, but she doesn’t answer. I try to reach a few of the others who were with me, and all of them are quiet; I feel a knot growing in the pit of my stomach as I imagine what’s happened to them. Finally, the guy lets go, and I turn around and sit up, instantly seeing why my sister and pack mates haven’t responded. They’re all tied up and knocked out. The second man laughs. “Yeah, we’ve got your friends, and we’ve got you, too,” he says. “That’ll teach all you fucking pack-loving rich boys to come on our territory!” I gaze over at Kelly, who is bleeding from her head and her hands are tied behind her back. She’s unconscious, and I breathe a sigh of relief when I spot the gentle rise and fall of her chest. She’s alive. Apparently, she hadn’t shifted, so she’s fully clothed, unlike me at the moment. The man follows my gaze, and he smiles wide to show a mouth full of rotted teeth. “Oh, you like the female, do you? She your girl?” I glared at him and finally find my voice. “She needs medical attention!” I shout. “Oh, she’ll be fine,” he says. “Head wounds are a tricky one. They look a lot worse than they are. But you have bigger problems, big man.” “Who are you?” I ask. He laughs. “You see, that’s the issue,” he says. “You should know exactly who the fuck I am because I run this territory, and you’re passing through it, unauthorized.” “Means ya didn’t ask permission,” says the first man who had put his foot on me. “I know what it means,” I say. “Oh, Mister Smarty Pants thinks he’s better than us!” hollers the first man. “Just ‘cause we didn’t have no ritzy school to go to don’t mean you’re better than us!” “I didn’t say I was,” I say. I can’t believe I’m wasting my time with these—rogues, they must be—when I need to get to Rose. The pain in my head is stabbing, and I feel a little sick to my stomach, but I gather my strength for the words I need to say next. “I need to know how my people are,” I say with authority, using my Alpha voice. “Why are they all unconscious?” The second man laughs. “Oh, looks like we’ve got an Alpha here, boys!” he says loudly, then he looks back at me. “Nathan, where the fuck are you?!” “Here, Pete, sir!” says a young-looking boy holding an old tackle box who is running toward us. “We have no need for Alphas here, rich boy,” says the second man—Pete—as he steps back to let the boy approach. “It kind of seems like you’re the Alpha,” I say. “If you’re so independent, why are you together in what looks like a pack?” I try to shift but my head is so woozy that I can’t focus, and the boy, Nathan, has opened his box by now and is taking out what looks like a giant syringe. “Hurry up,” Pete tells him. They’re all starting to look fuzzy, and I take one last look over at Kelly before the world goes black. * * * I wake up again, and this time I’m in a room of some sort, and now my head hurts even worse. I hope they didn’t actually stab me with that dirty needle since I passed out on my own, although I’m afraid that’s what they did to Kelly. I look down to see that I’m wearing some tattered, dirty sweatpants, so at least I’ve got some clothes on, but all I can think about is Kelly, and Rose, and the rest of my people. I have to get up; I can’t just lay here when they all need me. ‘Kelly!’ I shout again in the mind-link. ‘Here,’ she answers, weakly. ‘Oh, thank the Goddess!’ I say. ‘Are you okay?’ ‘I’m all right,’ she says. ‘I’m somewhere in a room by myself. How about you?’ ‘Same,’ I tell her. ‘Is everyone else okay?’ ‘Trevor is, and a couple of the others,’ she says. ‘But I can’t reach Ben or Liam. Their crash looked pretty bad, and I think they’re….’ She trails off, but I know what she means. Though Rose and the pups are always at the forefront of my mind, my people here need me first to get them out of here… wherever ‘here’ is. ‘What do you know about these rogues?’ I ask her. ‘Nothing,’ she says. ‘I didn’t even know they were here. They have women and kids here, though. I woke up right before they took us inside, and this looks like some old, abandoned hotel or something. I never knew there was anything out here.’ ‘I guess we’re all in separate hotel rooms then,’ I say. Looking around, I can see now that the broken, dirty furniture in the room was once nice, like one would find in a luxury resort. I hadn’t heard of anything like that around here, either, but then again, we’re pretty far out of Gene’s territory, and I’m not familiar with anything in this direction. ‘Can you get up and walk around?’ I ask. ‘Yes, but there’s a guard outside.’ ‘I probably have more than one, then,’ I say. ‘Can you shift?’ ‘I haven’t tried. One sec,’ she says. A few seconds later she says, ‘Yes.’ ‘All right, I’ll try the others.’ I contact Trevor and the other warriors who’d accompanied Kelly–except for Ben and Liam, whose families I will have to contact later–and they’re all in good enough shape to shift, so we discuss a plan to get the hell out of here. We’re far more experienced in organized combat than a bunch of rogues, but I don’t take anyone for granted who’s had to fight just to stay alive for who knows how long. Not to mention that my head is still spinning, and my hand is mangled. I’m not exactly in top shape for fighting. The doorknob turns, and I get ready to shift, but when I see who’s coming inside, I hold off. She’s young, maybe about sixteen or seventeen, and she’s holding a basket of what looks like medical supplies. And she looks terrified. She approaches me, slowly. “I—I’m here to patch up your hand,” she says softly. I nod, but don’t say anything for now. Why would they send a young girl in alone with an Alpha? They’ve never seen me before, and I could be someone like Kane for all they know. Whoever this Pete guy is, he’s risking his people for no reason. We say nothing more as she applies an herbal salve and wraps my hand in gauze that doesn’t exactly look sterile. I wonder to myself why they’re wasting their supplies on me when they obviously have so little. I decide that I could probably get some information from her. “What’s your name?” I ask. “H—Heather,” she says. “Hi Heather,” I say. “I’m Eli.” There’s a pause while she continues wrapping my hand. “I never knew about this place,” I say. “How long have you been out here?” “I don’t know,” she says. “Forever, for me.” “You were born here?” I ask. “Y—yes,” she says. “I mean, that I know of. Never been nowhere else.” She finishes up and closes her box, giving me a shy smile while not making eye contact before she walks out the door. ‘What happened?’ asks Kelly in the mind-link. ‘They sent in a young girl to wrap up my hand,” I say. ‘A girl? Alone with a strange Alpha? Are they insane?’ she asks. ‘I’m starting to think that,’ I say. ‘We need to get the hell out of here.’ Just then the door opens again, but this time it’s Pete and two tall, gangly looking men. ## Chapter 5 *Rose* “What the fuck are you two doing in my office?” Alpha Kane bellows as he comes charging in through the door. “L-looking for you!” Diana says quickly. “We had an important piece of information to tell you, and Miss Rose needed to find you immediately. But obviously, you’re not in here, so we decided to go back to her room and wait for you.” He seems to be pondering whether or not that could be true. “Well, what is it that you need to tell me?” He has calmed down slightly, but not much. He stands there, stroking his chin. “Uhm, the important thing… that we need to tell you… is… uh… is….?” Diana is looking at me with a giant question mark hanging over her head, and I am at a loss for words as well, but then something comes to me. “It’s that… I think… King Gene believes you are working with Barbara against him!” There! That should be enough to get him off track about what we were actually doing in his office. “What?” he asks, confusion washing over his face. “What do you mean? How could he possibly know that?” “Well,” I say, trying to think of a reason that would make sense. “She… talks in her sleep, you know? And when she was trying to seduce one of my Alphas, she fell asleep. And he heard her say that she was going to kill King Gene and make you the king.” I hope that half of what I am saying sounds believable. I have no idea whether Barbara talks in her sleep or not. He stares at me, his face unwavering, for several long moments before he finally says, “That bitch!” I look at Diana, and she has a relieved expression on her face, but I don’t think we’re done yet. “How could she do that?” “I don’t know,” I say, even though the entire story is made up. “I guess she’s not as loyal to you as you had hoped she would be.” “I guess not,” he says. An angry look fills his eyes, and he stares off into the distance, as if he’s plotting Barbara’s demise. Outside, we hear the sounds of wolves howling and growling at one another. It sounds like the battle is getting very close to the castle. I wish I could just run out there and be taken away by my Alphas’ troops, but that would be dangerous. I’m certain that Alpha Kane’s men would never let me just waddle out there to the other side of the battlefront. “Sir,” Diana begins, her head tipped down as she looks reverent, “I’d hate to interrupt your thoughts, but it sounds like the battle is getting very intense out there.” “Battle?” he asks, looking up and then swiveling his head around a few times, like he’s totally forgotten there was a battle going on at all. “Oh, shit! The battle! Yes, I was just coming in here to get my lucky hamster’s foot.” Again, Diana and I can’t help but exchange questioning looks. “Do you mean… rabbit’s foot?” Diana asks him. “No, no!” He pushes through us and walks over to his desk, where he sits down and opens up his top desk drawer. He rifles around for a minute and then pulls out a small item with a silver chain. It’s hard to tell what it is from over here, and I don’t want to walk over to look at it. The idea of someone carrying around the tiny foot of a hamster makes me a little sick to my stomach. Just as he is about to get up, he glances down and sees his phone, and then his body language shifts, and he stares at it intensely. “Is, uh, everything okay, sir?” Diana asks, and I can feel sweat beginning to pool in the small of my back. What is he looking at? “My phone,” he says. “Something is off about my phone.” “Something is off?” Diana repeats. “What do you mean?” The sweat that has pooled in the small of my back overflows and begins to trickle down my ass, sliding down my ass crack…. My ass is sweating. “I mean, someone has touched my phone.” He lifts his eyes and looks at Diana, his stare penetrating and menacing. I gulp down a breath and say, “Oh, you know what? When we, uh, walked over there to see if maybe you were… in the… closet, I probably bumped into it. With my giant baby belly.” His forehead furrows as he is now staring at me. “Why would you check to see if I was in the closet?” he asks me. The closet door is behind his desk, but there’s really no reason why I would have needed to walk around it to see if he was in there, not on the side of the phone anyway. It was the only excuse I could think of. “Uh… because I thought… maybe you were in there, planning what to do with the attacking wolves. Don’t you keep your secret plans in your closet like King Gene does?” I am now pulling all of this out of my ass–my sweaty ass…. “Oh,” he says. “King Gene keeps secret plans in a closet in his office?” I nod. “That is my understanding.” “Interesting. I will have to let Barbara know that so she can get in there and find those secret plans. Now, you’ve really helped me, stupid, fat, pregnant lady.” He gives me a wicked grin and then reaches over and straightens his phone. I want to punch him in the nose for calling me all of those names, but I have to remember that he is an idiot, and idiots are bound to say stupid things. Diana grabs my hand. “We have to get back to Rose’s room now. The babies need to take a nap.” “All right,” he says. “Thank you for helping me with all of this valuable information, Rose. I may not kill all of your babies in front of you now. I may take them into another room to kill them.” “You’re a fucking saint,” I tell him as Diana pulls me out of the room. As we walk along, she says, “Be cool. You can’t let him make you mad. That’s what he’s trying to do. Besides, if you listen to what’s going on outside, I think your Alphas are making good headway. It sounds like there’s a ton of screaming going on out there, and I doubt that your Alphas’ troops are going to be screaming like little pups.” She has a good point. I don’t want to go back to my assigned room and wait for the Alphas to rescue me. No, I want to go running out to meet them, but I know that is a mistake. I have to stay here and be patient. I have to trust that my men will come for me, sooner or later. And I have to trust that they will get here in time to save me and their children.