Sold to the Alpha (Alma Venus Shifter Brides 1)

“Rosanna, calm down. What happened?”

The girl sniffed her nose and struggled to keep her voice steady. “It’s Avelyn. She’s in pain.”

Max didn’t wait for her to finish. He rushed past her, and Rosanna had to run to catch up with him.

“She says it hurts… it hurts so much… I think there’s something wrong with the baby. She needs a doctor.”

He couldn’t hear her. It was like she was far, far away, and her tiny voice couldn’t reach him through the veil of darkness that had instantly covered his eyes and ears, drowning his senses in pure, unforgiving panic. “Avelyn. Avelyn and my son. No, nothing can happen to Avelyn and my son. I won’t let it. I won’t let it.” It was like a mantra. All he had to do was keep walking, keep climbing the stairs, and keep repeating it. Everything would be fine if he only kept repeating it.

END OF BOOK FIVE

CHAPTER ONE

Before the Storm

Max was pacing the corridor like a lion in its cage. He knew Avelyn was asleep. He could feel it. Then why was Dr. Stevens still with her? Why didn’t he come out already and tell him what was wrong with his wife? The waiting was driving him insane.

“Calm down. As long as the doctor is with her, she’ll be fine.” Kevin was leaning against the wall, staring out the window and trying to tune out his Alpha’s constant, annoying pacing.

“Don’t tell me to calm down. You know damn well I can’t. This whole thing is a mess. Oh, Christ! It’s such a mess.”

“We’re sorting it out.”

Kevin was right, of course. They were sorting it out. They had covered all the traces of the battle at Alma Venus Boarding School, they had transported the bodies of the fallen Crescents, Dark Wolves, and Moon Children to the Schloss, and Kevin had brought Dr. Stevens from London as fast as humanly possible. Avelyn and his baby were safe. They had to be safe. The hospital in Myrtle Valley wasn’t much, but the doctors were great professionals and they had connected Avelyn to an IV drip and put her to sleep. The only problem was that Dr. Stevens had been in there with her for over an hour, and Max just couldn’t take it anymore. He kept going through everything in his head, trying to convince himself there was no way he could have done things differently. No, there was no way he could have avoided this… putting his wife and unborn child in danger… He had tried. He had tried so hard. There was nothing he could change now. The only thing he could do was wait and hope Avelyn and the baby were well. She was just tired. That had to be it. The deaths of Sabine, Christine, and Val had taken too much of a toll on her.

“Please, Max! Just sit down for a minute!” Kevin ran his hands through his long, blond hair, exasperation evident in his voice and his dark green eyes.

Max almost snarled at him, but caught himself on time. It was true he felt like punching something, but punching his Beta would have been a huge mistake. Enough mistakes had already been made. He gave a deep sigh, rubbed his temples, and leaned against the wall opposite from Avelyn’s room. He immediately jumped at the sound of soft steps approaching the door from the other side. When Dr. Stevens stepped over the threshold, he almost bumped into Max’s wide chest.

“Mr. Blackmane…”

“How are they? Tell me they are all right. The doctors here didn’t do much. They just said she was tired and dehydrated and needed an IV.”

“Considering the little information they had to operate on, they were right. She is fine, Mr. Blackmane. You can calm down now.”

“Oh, thank God…” He finally allowed his painfully tense shoulders to relax. “Can I see her?”

“She’s asleep and I think it would be best to let her rest. Care to join me outside? I’d like to ask you a couple of questions.”

“Of course…” Max turned to Kevin. “I need you to stay here. Make sure she is safe.”

Kevin nodded. The only person who had ever wanted to hurt Avelyn was dead, but they had reasons to believe she wasn’t entirely safe. Part of Sabine’s rogue pack did escape before the Blackmane wolves even considered going after them, and the Inari who had supported the she-wolf was still out there. He had seemed terribly enraged when Viggo crushed Sabine’s bones, otherwise he wouldn’t have attacked the dragon. No one in their right mind would ever take on a dragon with only a couple of shifters by their side, yet the three-tailed Inari did. Why? Neither Kevin, nor Max had any idea. However, they had to be ready just in case the Alpha fox decided to seek some kind of revenge.

Max followed Dr. Stevens down the corridor, then out in the hospital courtyard. The sun was setting, lazily throwing red and orange rays to light the two men’s path.

“When was the last time your wife ate a proper meal?”

Max bit his lower lip and cursed himself for not making Avelyn eat against her vehement protests.

“I… I don’t know… These past few days have been a nightmare. So many things happened… I couldn’t protect her. I did my best to take her away from the madness, but I just… I wasn’t smart enough. Or fast enough. I don’t know… I don’t know anymore… She refused to eat this morning.”

“You should have made her eat.”

Max fell silent. What could he say? There were no excuses.

“What happened here, Maxwell?”

It was very rare that Dr. Stevens addressed him by his first name, and the small gesture felt like a punch to his gut. He couldn’t tell why.