Page 7 of Forsaken By Fate
“Didn’t I tell you to stay down?” I demand, towering over her. She cowers as I advance, losing some of her gusto. Slowly, she slinks down. “How did you get through the magic portal? How did you get into this town?”
She shakes her flaxen tresses, the blonde strands falling over her pale cheeks to hide her face partially. “I honestly don’t know,” she whispers. “I told you. I ran out of gas, and I was walking down the highway, and I just?—”
“Bullshit!” Fenris interjects, advancing on the four-poster bed menacingly. “No one just waltzes through the portal where Apex Alpha’s live. It’s forbidden and protected. Can you just walk into the town where your Apex Alphas live in Oklahoma?”
She shakes her head. “No,” she replies. “I mean, I don’t think so. I’ve never tried. That would be stupid.”
Fenris snorts at her response. “But you thought you’d come here and do it? Because it’s smarter here somehow?”
“I don’t know how I’m here!” she insists, the indignation returning. “I keep telling you, I wasn’t looking for your town!”
“Could it be some kind of anomaly?” Zane suggests from behind us.
Both Fenris and I shoot our sensible, peace-keeping sibling a nasty look.
“Not one I’ve ever heard of in the hundreds of years Apex Alphas have ruled,” I spit back. “Have you?”
Zane relents and stands back, studying Aurora from his place behind us. I refocus my attention on her, my eyes raking over her again. I wish I could shake the budding attraction, her scent still lingering in my nostrils, despite the space between us now.
Thunder booms, and Aurora yelps.
Fenris snorts at her reaction. “Not so brave now, are you, Little Prey?”
She balks at the moniker, and I smirk again. “Please,” she begs, her luminous eyes fixing on me. “Just let me go. I won’t come back here. I keep telling you that I never meant to come here in the first place. I don’t know how else to prove it to you!”
My chest tightens with her impassioned plea, but I can’t now. She has crossed a barrier that she should not have been able to cross. She has no right to be in Oak Hollow, and yet she’s here.
“Victor,” Fenris mutters urgently, nudging me. “We need to get rid of her.”
“I don’t think we should yet,” Zane mumbles, stepping closer. It’s like having an angel and devil on my shoulder.
Aurora’s chin quivers as she stares at me imploringly, waiting for my decision.
“You’re staying,” I determine as both my brothers exhale. Fenris isn’t happy, but Zane is relieved. He doesn’t want any blood on his hands. “You’ll be our prisoner, so don’t try to escape, or you won’t get a second chance. You're already pushing your luck.”
My meaning is unmistakable, and dread replaces the naked fear on Aurora’s fawn-like face. “For how long? When will you let me leave?”
I shrug indifferently and spin around to leave. “For as long as I see fit,” I reply nonchalantly. “Maybe I’ll never let you go. Maybe you’ll be our prisoner forever.”
Fenris snickers, rubbing his hands together like some evil scientist. “How would you like that, Little Prey? Do you know how to mop floors?”
I shoot Fenris a reproving look out of Aurora’s view, but my brother is nonplussed by my silent reprimand. As I reach for the door handle, a vase falls off the mantle in the sitting room and crashes to the floor, for no good reason.
Another smash of thunder emanates through the suite, and we file out quickly.
“She’s throwing off the energy in here,” Fenris snaps as soon as we’re in the hallway and out of Aurora’s earshot. “It’s better to get rid of her before she does some real damage.”
“Not until we know how she got in here,” I insist, noting the relief on Zane’s face. “She might be a plant for someone.”
“That still doesn’t explain how she got in,” Fenris insists. “And if she is a plant, we shouldn’t have her in here. That’s counterintuitive.”
“More the reason to keep her and find out what she knows,” I reply firmly. “Tone it down a notch. Let’s win her over, make her our friend, but we’ll keep her out of pack business, and keep a close eye on her while she stays in the suite. She’ll be more likely to tell us what she knows if she doesn’t see us as the enemy.”
Zane nods enthusiastically, even if Fenris frowns. “I still think we should kill her.”
“Noted,” I sigh. “We’ll call that Plan B. Right now, we have some due diligence to do on this girl. Let’s do some homework and find out who the hell she is.”
Chapter 3