Page 36 of Alpha Claimed

Apollo?

She scanned for him, but he was nowhere in sight. She sniffed the air, but she couldn't tell what she smelled. It didn't smell like a wolf, but it didn't smell human, either. It smelled… of nothing.

She jumped to her feet and listened. She had no idea where they were in relation to the cabins, but she didn't want to stay put. Her wolf paced, telling her they should run. But which direction?

Whispering caught her attention. She spotted them easily in the dusk. What the hell were they doing on Apollo and Ares' land? She stepped back, trying to hide behind a thick bush. Then she caught the glint of a gun.

Hunters.

River tried to back up further but hit a root and stumbled.

"Did you hear that?" one of the hunters asked.

River froze.

"There she is," said the other.

"Where?"

"There. By the tree."

She?They were looking for her?

River looked closer as the men moved out of the shadows and into the low light. She recognized one of them. The man from the street. The one who ?stared at her. A bandage covered his nose, and he had two black eyes but wore the same clothes.

She wondered if Apollo had broken his nose. Maybe he wasn't as innocent as she thought.

She sniffed the air again, and again, the strange muted scent of nothingness struck her. Similar to how she'd not smelled Titan when he'd scratched her. And just like that time, her wolf told her there was a problem.

Though her wolf begged her to run, River didn't move a muscle.

"Shoot her already so we can get out of here," said the one with the broken nose.

The other man raised his gun and aimed at River.

Oh, hell no!

She was not going out like that. Shot by human assholes. River growled and then leapt toward them.

A shot rang out, and something whooshed over her head and struck the tree behind her. She hurled herself onto the man with the gun in a heartbeat. She grabbed his arm, ripping and tearing into it, crushing the bones in her teeth. The man screamed, and with a whip of her head, she tore the limb from his body and flung it away.

"Holy shit!" The man with the broken nose yelled.

The first man rolled on the ground, wailing and grabbing at his torn flesh.

The second man backed up a step, and then his form rippled- but nothing happened. He tried again and again nothing happened.

"Damn Titan! Damn, is freaking masking pills."

A chill raced down River's spine. Titan. He'd sent the men to find her. But they weren't men. They were shifters using the same masking pills she'd used to mask her scent for so many years.

River lunged at him, teeth bared, and he pulled a pistol from his hoodie.

"Stay back."

River growled, and her hackles raised. She stalked forward as he continued to back up.

Kill. Kill. Kill.