Alpha Omega 02 - Hunting Ground

braced on his. That allowed him the most control. He might be a werewolf—but so was she.
    â€œTry and relax into it,” he told her.
    Alan sat on the bed, too, swiveling until he was facing Anna. He set the tray on the nightstand and a bowl by his hip. He started with a pair of sharp-nosed forceps and picked out the easy ones first.
    â€œDid you see?” Anna said, her eyes closed.
    â€œSee what?” Charles asked.
    â€œThe one-armed vampire. Wonder what he did with the arm?” She hissed then as Alan pulled another pellet free.
    â€œI don’t know.” He kissed the top of her head.
    Anna didn’t struggle against his hold as Alan pulled out more surface pellets. She didn’t move until he had to dig deeper.

TWELVE

    ANNA was sweating and swearing—and Charles was fit to be tied and a fair bit on his way to needing restraint himself. Alan had nerves of steel, because his hands were steady even though Charles couldn’t keep his growls to himself. Finally, Alan dropped the forceps into the bowl.
    â€œAll right,” he said. “There is still lead in there. I can smell it, but I’ll be damned if I can find it. At least it is not silver. An X-ray machine would be able to locate the rest.”
    â€œWe have one of those in Aspen Creek,” Charles said.
    â€œOr you can let the remainder fester out. There isn’t a lot—I don’t think it’s enough to make her sick.”
    â€œThat’s where my vote goes.” Anna’s luminous skin was greenish, and there were dark circles under her eyes. “No more probes, please.”
    Charles slid out from behind her. “You’ll change your mind when they start festering,” he predicted. “But you can wait if you’d like.”
    â€œI’ll do that.” She huffed indignantly. “Festering. What a lovely thought.”
    He kissed her lightly, then took a good look at the manacles they’d used on Anna. “I can pick these,” he said, “if Arthur has the right tools around.”
    â€œGo look,” Anna told him. “If I’m going to fester, I’d like to do it in comfort. And these things are not comfortable. Plus they’re tacky.”
    Charles was smiling when he left the room, shutting the door behind him. While she was hurting, and he had to get her help, he hadn’t even thought about her nudity. But he didn’t want Arthur walking in on her, so he shut the door.
    The house was dark, and he thought Arthur must have gone back to bed—morning was still a while away. He wasn’t going to sleep again, not in Arthur’s house—and he wasn’t going to move Anna until she’d healed up a bit.
    He went to the kitchen and opened drawers to see if he could find anything useful.
    â€œCharles?” Arthur’s voice. It came from the room that he kept his treasures in.
    â€œYes,” he answered. “I’m looking for something to get the manacles off Anna. You wouldn’t happen to have a lockpick kit, would you?”
    â€œI probably have something that would work,” Arthur said.
    Charles stopped sorting through the kitchen implement drawer, lifting his head. There was something . . . odd about the other man’s voice.
    Maybe it was nothing. Maybe. He removed a fillet knife from the block and slid it into his jeans pocket.
    â€œThat would be cool.” He was careful to keep his throat loose, so Arthur wouldn’t have any reason to think Charles had noticed anything different. “She’s tough, she’d handle it—but I want them off.” He moved unhurriedly through the dark living room . . . and caught Sunny’s lingering scent from the couch nearest him.
    Poor thing. He hadn’t known her well enough to do more than feel sorry for her. No wonder Arthur was off. Oddly, the sympathy he felt for Arthur was far more sincere than any mourning he could do for Sunny.
    He tried not to think about how much worse tonight could have been. Anna, they wanted to kidnap. Not kill.
    Their taking her made him angry, so angry that not even killing three of them soothed him. Or Brother Wolf, either.
    If they had killed her . . . he would have joined her. He paused, not having worked that out before. But it didn’t particularly bother him. If she died, he would follow. Just as he would have followed her wherever they had planned on taking her had they succeeded. She was his and he