The Alpha (The Lycans 4)

He leaned down, and I rose up on my toes to meet him halfway for the kiss. It was gentle, a slow burn instead of a raging wildfire. It was perfect and sad, maddening and obsessive.

My back was to the living room entryway, so I didn’t see Odhran enter, but I sensed him, felt the heavy, sorrow-filled presence that surrounded him like a cloak, like a shadow or pouring rain cloud.

“It’s time,” Odhran said.

Although Cian didn’t look at him, his eyes locked on mine, he did give a short nod in agreement.

He leaned down again to kiss me before lowering his face to the hollow of my neck, where his mark was, kissing the spot gently. I was coming to realize he loved that spot. And I did too.

“Just remember the house is protected,” he said and pulled back, his hand on my waist, his fingers tight against my skin as if he was afraid I’d vanish. “Odhran will be here tae protect ye. I trust him no’ only with my life, but most of all with yers.”

Although I didn’t know Odhran, not really, and we’d only said a handful of words since our first encounter, I could feel the loyalty he had for Cian, as if he wore it as a badge of honor.

“I’ll return tae ye faster than ye realize.”

I hoped that was true. I really did, because we deserved to find that happily ever after.

21

Cian

My skin felt tight, this itch I couldn’t scratch. I knew it was because I’d left my mate back at the house. She’d been scared, worried about what would happen, and her worry was ultimately mine as well. I knew Odhran would guard my female with his life, and I trusted him with my most precious thing… Evie. But still… I felt off. My wolf was restless, and it wasn’t only because he wanted back to our female.

I shook off the unease and focused on getting this organized and settled as fast as possible so I could get back to Evie. Then we’d work on making a solid plan to take down the Assembly, or at least the first steps to ensure they were dismantled.

I told myself never again was I letting her out of my sight. No one could watch over Evie as well as her mate could. As well as I could.

I pulled to a stop in front of the two-story house Adryan was using to do his recon for the Assembly fuckers. I was out of the rental car and striding toward the front door as soon as I cut the engine. I couldn’t see them, but I felt Adryan’s soldiers in the shadows, their gazes a heavy pressure on me.

Right before I got to the front door, it swung open, and the vampire named James stood right at the entrance. We didn’t speak as he moved aside, I stepped inside, and the front door closed behind us.

“This way,” he said and came forward to lead the way, his head cocked toward me, his smirk a flash of his lip curling before it vanished and he started making his way down the hall.

I followed without speaking but took in my surroundings with my heightened Lycan senses. The house was void of furniture, an empty husk with the occasional flash of a nightwalker passing through a room or creeping in the shadows.

I focused forward as I was led down to the basement. Fucking figured the bloodsuckers would want a subterranean base. It was clear this house wasn’t used for living, maybe never had been, not with a lot of it being gutted and with walls torn down, technical and electronic equipment strewn all over the place as we passed what would have been bedrooms.

James glanced back at me once we descended the long, narrow staircase. I didn’t like the fucker, and not just because he was a vampire. The looks he gave me and the air of arrogance that surrounded him told me he was a male who thought highly of himself in the cockiest of ways.

No doubt he thought his kind was above mine. I’d love to see him come face-to-face with me in a darkened ally or deep in the woods. No others to help. Just two Otherworld males doing hand combat and using strength and skill that was known with our kinds. Guarantee the fucker wouldn’t last without backup.

I felt my wolf stir in restrained anxiousness to test that theory.

Where the other upper level of the house had been gutted for the most part, down in the basement was filled with tables and chairs, the technology situated in this massive room impressive. There were two huge workstations, one on each side of the room, rows of computers and TVs, and so much other high-tech equipment that it made my old-school head spin.