They fell into a brief conversation about my former father, wondering how he even managed to get here. Then Alpha Dirk confirmed something I already knew. “He wasn’t of sound mind,” he said. “He was under his Alpha’s control. I could see it in his crazed eyes when he attacked Clove.”
Which explains why he stood still as a statue after putting a knife to my throat.
But doesn’t exactly tell us how he arrived on the island.
“Someone must have helped him,” Alpha Ebony said, voicing my concern out loud.
The question is, who?
Alpha Kin’s father?
I refuse to call the male our father because I don’t know him, nor do I want to know him.
Just the thought makes me shiver.
“He could have just taken a speed boat from the mainland,” Alpha Dirk told Alpha Ebony.
“Maybe,” she replied, not sounding all that convinced.
I’m not convinced either.
It’s a piece of the puzzle that’s been swirling around in my mind on repeat for hours. There’s someone else involved, I keep thinking, even now. But who?
From what Alpha Ebony said, Alpha Kin’s father was taken into custody by Alpha Umber. So it can’t be him.
A deep roar comes from the hallway, snapping my wolf’s head in the direction of Volt’s fury.
They’re here. They’re here. They’re here.
My wolf wants to bound into the corridor to greet them, but I stay seated.
Because I’m protecting Alpha Dirk.
Alpha Ebony is right. They’re furious and they’re going to try to kill him because my blood is in the hallway, as is his from the fight.
Alpha Tieran is the first through the door, his gaze wild as he takes in the scene with a snarl.
Until he sees me sitting there, waiting.
He’s in wolf form, his animal dwarfing mine.
His reaction is immediate, his wolf leaping forward to sniff my neck and nuzzle my throat.
Volt is next. Then Caius. The three of them are all in their beast forms, rubbing against me with purrs and growls and sniffing every inch of me to check for injury.
I let them, refraining from the instinct to do the same.
Because I need to keep my focus.
Volt is the first to react to Alpha Dirk’s presence, his growl low and menacing. Tieran does the same, both males rumbling in disapproval and fury.
When Volt starts to stalk forward, I nip him on the flank.
He spins on me, growling at the unexpected bite. Then softens when he realizes it was me.
I stand then, and move to sit between him and Alpha Dirk.
All three of my males watch me with interest, their confusion palpable.
“She’s saying she’s in charge of his punishment,” Alpha Ebony translates for me, a hint of wonder in her tone. “That’s why you’ve been sitting by the door.”
I grunt in confirmation.
And now that my males are here, I can shift.
Because I feel safe again.
So I do, which turns out to be a mistake because Volt immediately tackles me to the ground in the next breath, his furry body covering all of mine.
“Oomph.” The sound escapes me on a puff of air, leaving me a little lightheaded.
“Get her a shirt,” Tieran demands, apparently back in human form. “What the fuck happened down here?”
“Alpha Kin took out the communications tower and the power. Only his sat phone seems to work,” Alpha Ebony says. “But we couldn’t figure out his password to make outgoing calls. And without access to electricity, which we need to power up the computers, we couldn’t use anything to hack it.”
A shirt appears in my peripheral as Caius kneels beside us. “Here you go, gorgeous,” he says, his eyes more silver than gray as he scans my face.
Volt grumbles a little, shifting just enough to give Caius room to pull the shirt over my head.
“No one sees you naked except us,” Caius explains, tugging the fabric down.
“I’m a shifter,” I mutter at him. “I have to be naked to shift.”
His eyes narrow. “No one,” he repeats.
My mother’s voice is in my head telling me to pick my battles. This is one I may fight him on later, but for now I let him pull the shirt down while Alpha Ebony continues to report on what happened down here.
“Alpha Kin killed Alpha Duncan,” she says, her voice void of the emotion I know she’s feeling. “He tried to kill me and Alpha Edwin, and would have succeeded if Alpha Dirk hadn’t removed the silver.”
“And you had no idea he was working with Bryson?” Tieran demands, his words for Alpha Dirk.