Alpha Omega 02 - Hunting Ground

effortlessly even though she worked out on a daily basis. Werewolf. He must be one of the werewolves.
    â€œCome, my children,” he said, and she realized he wasn’t alone. She heard people move behind them, but the only one she could see was the woman who hopped onto the roof of her car. A beautiful woman with honey-colored hair caught up in a ponytail.
    â€œWe can play with our dinner?” the woman asked, and terror made Sunny’s knees give way. The woman had fangs.
    Not werewolf. Vampire.
    â€œWe’re going to see if she is his mate—or merely his wife, Hannah,” her captor said.
    â€œThat means yes.” The voice came from her left, but she couldn’t see the man who said it. But she felt him pull her arm straight and sink his fangs into the inside of her elbow.
    It hurt.
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    THE Emerald City Pack’s hunting grounds were in a warehouse district that had seen better days. Those warehouses nearest the water were lit up and, if not hives of activity, still obviously running with a full shift of people. As the ground rose away from the water, the warehouses began to look less and less prosperous.
    Following Charles’s directions, Anna continued up the battered asphalt road to a pair of huge buildings surrounded by a twelve-foot-tall chain-link fence, hospitably topped by razor wire.
    The whole property looked as though no one had done anything industrious there for fifty years—and none of the other warehouses in the immediate area looked any more occupied. Adding to the general disreputable air, the metal roof of one of the buildings was missing a sheet or ten of roofing material.
    The people at the gate must have recognized the car because they had it opened for her to drive right on through. As she drove closer to the warehouses, the buildings looked bigger and bigger, and, as she passed between them, they shut out the night sky until it was a narrow ribbon with the Hunter’s Moon, just a sliver of silver, in the sky above them.
    There were thirty or forty cars in a space big enough to park a hundred. Most of them were parked next to the larger of the two warehouses, so that was where Anna parked, too.
    â€œYou’re quiet tonight,” said Charles.
    She looked at her hands and flexed them on the steering wheel, easing her grip when the wheel creaked.
    She’d meant to keep quiet about joining the hunt, but as the time approached, springing it on him in front of everyone seemed more and more stupid. “I have an idea—and you aren’t going to like it.”
    He looked at her for a long time, long enough that she finally looked back.
    â€œI am dominant,” he told her, as if she didn’t already know. “And that means I am driven to take care of those who are mine.”
    She met his gaze, held it, and realized slowly that it pleased him that she could do so. It pleased her, too.
    â€œYou want to go into the hunt.”
    â€œYes.”
    She expected him to forbid it outright—and realized that part of her had been counting on using that as an excuse to bow out.
    Instead he simply asked, “Why?”
    â€œBecause Ric thinks that it might help with this . . .” She dropped her eyes and then raised them again and firmed her voice. “With the baseless fear that had me shivering in my seat yesterday when the auditorium filled up with Alphas—who were ready to kill each other to protect me. It made me feel stupid and weak. I was less frightened when Chastel came into Angus’s office—and I had a lot more reason then.”
    His eyes flared gold, and he said, in a voice that was lower and rougher than his usual tone, “It’s because you fought Justin once, and your pack caught you and held you for him.”
    Anna nodded jerkily. It hadn’t been just for Justin, and it hadn’t been just once—and she wasn’t about to tell him that with Brother Wolf looking out through his eyes.
    â€œHow does Ric think this will help?”
    â€œBecause I’ll be focused on the hunt. He thinks that my wolf will help, that she’ll keep me from panicking.”
    â€œHe is a psychologist?”
    She couldn’t help but smile. “Almost, he says. But not to worry, his mentor thinks he’s a genius.”
    â€œI cannot join the hunt,” he said heavily. “If I won, it would be a political disaster. If I lost, it would be worse. If you hunt, there are those who