Alpha Omega 02 - Hunting Ground

will be hunting you rather than the prize. Because you are my mate and because you are an Omega.”
    â€œChastel.”
    â€œChastel is not the only enemy my father has here—and I have a few myself.”
    â€œI actually thought about that possibility. Ric is hunting tonight. He says that he will keep an eye on me, and thinks his Alpha—someone named Isaac—will agree to do so also.”
    Charles nodded and opened his door.
    â€œCharles?”
    He bent and looked back into the car.
    â€œCan I join the hunt?”
    His eyebrows went up. “That was never up to me. You’ve assessed the benefits and the possible problems. It is up to you.” He closed his door.
    Anna unbuckled herself and got out of the car. “So what happened to ‘I am dominant and I protect those who are mine’?”
    He propped a hip on the front of the car. “If it would benefit you, I would kill every wolf here. But there are things that you need to do—and interfering with that is not protecting, not in my book. The best way for me to protect you is to encourage you to be able to protect yourself.”
    He gave her a sudden, rueful smile. “I admit it doesn’t make me happy. But with Dana and me on watch, and Ric and his Alpha on the floor, you are as safe as you are going to be in a hunt full of dominant wolves. You’ve killed a vampire and a witch—you are hardly helpless.”
    She straightened her shoulders as his confidence lent her courage. So she walked to him and put her arms around him, burying her face in the sweet-smelling warmth of his chest. He wore one of his favorite flannel shirts over a plain red T-shirt and the cotton was soft against her skin. “You are a remarkable man, Charles Cornick.”
    He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and put his chin on the top of her head. “I know,” he confided lightly. “And often underappreciated by those who don’t know any better.”
    She poked him with a finger and looked up at him. “And funny—though I expect that is another facet of your character that goes unappreciated even more often than your remarkableness.”
    â€œSome people don’t even notice,” he said in a mock-mournful voice.
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    THE main room in the bigger warehouse was more than twenty feet tall and large enough to swallow all the wolves who had chosen to hunt and leave room for twice as many more. The rest of the wolves—a strong majority—stood on a platform ten feet above them. Everyone was still in human form. One wall of the room was covered with flat-screen TVs, which were off.
    Dana stood in the center of the raised platform and spoke. “The rule is no bloodletting—which rule I will enforce. The walls and floors of these buildings and the earth beneath will tell me if there is blood. You will start out human and change when the bell is rung. There are three leather bags, hidden several days ago, containing a handful of pig sausage each—and one of them also holds a two-carat star-ruby ring provided by the Marrok.”
    As she spoke, the last the monitors all turned on to show a woman’s hand holding a ring in its palm. The setting was plain enough so that the ring could be either a man’s or a woman’s ring—it was the gem that made the ring beautiful. The ruby was a deep semitranslucent red, with a star that was almost white.
    It was beautiful and doubtless valuable—and Anna was pretty sure there wasn’t anyone standing on the wooden floor with her who was here for the prize. The hunt was all that was important. How often did an Alpha get a chance to pit himself against other Alphas without risk to those they must keep safe?
    Angus spoke while the ring was still on display. “Our hunting grounds encompass both buildings, which interconnect via layers of underground tunnels. This building has between two and six layers of maze aboveground, the other three and four, and both have three basement floors original to the structures and two more beneath those that we have added. The three bags are hidden here, and one contains the ring.”
    Anna glanced at the people around her. Chastel was there, and she recognized Michel and several of the Spanish wolves she had met at the barbecue restaurant. Arthur, though, was standing just behind Dana, with the ones who had chosen not to hunt.
    Angus’s instructions continued. “Once you find