The Alpha's Virgin Prize (Mated for Life 1)

They were all faster on foot, and as he took off, the speed of his wolf took over. If he was to change into his wolf, he’d be even faster, but Reese had a point. If they were near humans, he didn’t want any distractions. So long as he didn’t give in to his wolf, he wasn’t at risk of completely being at his beast’s mercy.

Right now, with his mate in danger, he had to be in complete control to be able to win her back.

His pack and Joe were close. Not once did he slow down his pace. He kept on running. The fire burned in his thighs, but he didn’t stop.

All he could think about was his woman.

The way she smiled at him.

The trust.

The love.

He was going to get her back and there was no way he was going to allow himself to even think for a moment that he wasn’t going to see her again. The second he got her back, he was never letting her go.

“Stop!” Joe’s call came out hard and sharp.

Caleb stopped and turned to see Joe’s head lifted, and he took off to the left. He followed.

“What is it?” Caleb asked.

“I can smell something.”

They came to a rundown house that was better suited in a horror movie than in real life. Paint on the wood panels was chipped off, some parts a dark gray, others black. The scent of decay was heavy in the air. Somewhere around there was stale water as well. Underlying, he smelled something else.

Joe took off.

Entering the house, the door crumbled as he burst through it. There was no way the house was stable. Entering the house behind Joe, he froze. Someone was dead in the house, but there were also people living.

He heard them.

At the back of the house, there was a fresh bolt on one of the doors in the kitchen. Joe grabbed the handle pulled. The door was no match for his strength, and it disintegrated.

“Okay, the crazy bear had to have been the one to do this, but how?” Brian asked. “There’s no way he could have done this.”

“Unless it was what he wanted,” Joe said.

Caleb handed him a torch from the counter. Going down the steps one at a time, Caleb sensed the despair.

“Help.” The voice was vacant and hoarse.

Caleb didn’t need the torch to help him see. He saw the entire fucked-up scene. There were at least five women in the basement, all of them bear shifters. Two of them were dead. Three more were chained to the walls. It looked like the two dead women had torn off their arms and tried to get to the bucket of water in the center of the room.

“What the fuck?” Caleb murmured.

“He said if we wanted to live, we had to be strong,” a voice said from the corner. She sniffled. “I begged them to stop, but they used their teeth and tore through their own flesh.”

Caleb looked at Joe. The bear struggled, his eyes going feral. “We need to get them out of here.”

He nodded at his men and helped the women out of the house and into the sunshine.

The one who’d spoken to them cried out as she got in the sun. All the women were so pale. They hadn’t been in sunlight for a long time. They were also painfully thin, their bones showing through.

“You can take them to my place,” Caleb said. “I can’t stop to understand this right now. I need to find her.”

“Do you know where he went?” Joe asked.

Two of the women had passed out.

Caleb looked at the one who’d been carried out by Reese, the one who’d spoken to them. Out of all of the women, she appeared to be the strongest of all of them.

The woman shook her head and groaned. “No. He … he wants a mate. We’re not good enough. He wanted a wolf mate as he believes it will make him strong. He kept talking about being reborn. How no one will know what he means.”

“Tell me you know what that fucking means,” Caleb said.

“I do,” Joe said.

****

“You know, when we’re born, we’re surrounded by water,” the crazy bear said.

Bethany didn’t say anything. He’d tied her hands behind her back once she’d tried to escape. She had no doubt her face was bruised from his backhand. It certainly stung, and it was getting harder to see out of one eye. Looking at his face though, it made her feel even happier because he had nice little scratch marks as well. If she was a wolf, his face would be gone. When had she gotten so bloodthirsty?

He shoved her forward. She tripped over a fallen branch and cried out at the shot of pain rushing through her body. Her shoulder ached, having taken the brunt of the fall.