The Alpha I Saved

Taken by the Alpha

Rain washed Kael’s blood into the cracks of the pavement while his hand stayed locked around my wrist, hot and unyielding. Three strange men stood around us, staring at me like I was either a miracle or a problem.

I was leaning toward problem.

“Let go of me,” I said, forcing my voice not to shake.

Kael’s golden eyes stayed on mine. “No.”

One word. Calm. Rough. Final.

My fear sharpened into anger. “I wasn’t asking.”

One of the men stepped closer. He had cropped blond hair, a scar through one eyebrow, and the kind of shoulders that made doorways seem nervous. “Alpha, we have to go. Now.”

Kael didn’t look away from me. “Bring the car around.”

The man hesitated. “And the human?”

Kael’s fingers tightened. “She comes with me.”

My stomach dropped. “No, she absolutely does not.”

The men looked at me. For half a second, I remembered that yelling at supernatural strangers in a dark alley probably wasn’t smart, but fear had always done strange things to me. Some people froze. Some people cried. Apparently, I developed a death wish and an attitude.

“I don’t know who you are,” I said, glaring at Kael, “or what you are, but I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“You touched my blood,” he said.

“Because I was saving your life.”

“And now they’ll smell it on you.”

A chill slid down my spine. “Who?”

“The hunters.”

The word made every man around him tense.

I swallowed. “You keep saying that like I’m supposed to understand.”

Kael pushed himself up on one arm, and the movement made his jaw clench. The bandage around his leg was already soaked through, the white gauze turning dark red.

“Don’t move,” I snapped. “You’re going to tear the wound open.”

His eyes flickered with surprise.

Good. Apparently, nobody told the giant naked wolf-man what to do very often.

“You need stitches,” I continued, because if I focused on medicine, I didn’t have to focus on the fact that he was naked, bleeding, and looking at me like I already belonged to him. “Maybe surgery. Definitely antibiotics. And a hospital.”

One of the men let out a short laugh. “A human hospital?”

I glared at him. “Yes, a human hospital. The place with sterile equipment and doctors who don’t kidnap people.”

Kael’s hand slid from my wrist to my palm. It should not have felt intimate. It should not have sent heat rushing up my arm so fast my breath caught.

“You are a doctor,” he said.

“Medical intern,” I corrected automatically.

“You saved me.”

“I’m regretting that more by the second.”

This time, his mouth twitched.

The blond man draped a black coat over Kael’s shoulders. Another man moved to his injured side. “Alpha, we need to carry you.”

Kael’s eyes flashed. “No.”

“Your leg—”

“I said no.”

The command rolled through the alley like thunder. Every man went still. Even I felt it, not just in my ears, but in my bones, in the sudden urge to lower my eyes.

I didn’t.

I lifted my chin instead.

Kael noticed, and something hungry passed across his face. Not hunger like he wanted to eat me. Worse. Hunger like he wanted to keep me.

“Stop being stupid,” I said. “You’re bleeding through the bandage.”

The blond man coughed like he was trying not to laugh.

Kael slowly turned his head toward me. “Stupid?”

“Yes,” I said. “Very.”

For a long second, he just stared at me. Then he said, “Help me stand.”

“No.”

His brow lowered.

“You just said you’re taking me somewhere against my will,” I said. “I’m not helping with my own kidnapping.”

“It isn’t kidnapping.”

“Are you giving me a choice?”

Silence.

“Then it’s kidnapping.”

The blond man muttered, “She has a point.”

Kael growled, and he immediately shut up.

A black SUV screeched to a stop at the mouth of the alley. Headlights cut through the rain. The back door opened.

I stepped back.

Kael’s head snapped toward me. “Do not run.”

The clinic door was still open behind me. Inside, there was a phone. A lock. Other people.

Safety.

Maybe.

I ran.

I made it three steps before the blond man moved in front of me too fast to be human. I slammed into his chest and bounced back with a gasp.

“Sorry,” he said, actually sounding like he meant it.

“Move.”

“I really can’t.”

Behind me, Kael inhaled sharply. Not from pain. From anger. I turned slowly and found him standing barefoot on the pavement, the black coat hanging open over his bare chest. Blood trailed down his injured leg. His face was pale, but his eyes burned like gold fire.

“You ran from me,” he said.

“I tried to leave my own workplace,” I snapped.

“Because you are in danger.”

“From you?”

His expression went still.

For the first time, something other than command flickered in his eyes.

Pain.

It vanished so quickly I almost thought I imagined it.

“Never from me,” he said.

A distant crack split the night.

Not thunder.

A gunshot.

The men reacted instantly. The blond one shoved me behind him as another shot rang out, closer this time. Something struck the dumpster with a sharp metallic ping, and I screamed.

Kael moved. One second he was several feet away, and the next he was in front of me, his body blocking mine from the alley.

“Get her in the car,” he snarled.

Hands grabbed me, and I fought on instinct. “Let go!”

“Mira,” Kael snapped.

I froze.

The command hit my body before my mind could argue, locking my muscles for one terrifying second. Another shot cracked through the rain, and the side mirror of the SUV shattered.

That ended my argument.

I dove into the backseat.

Kael was pushed in after me, landing heavily with his injured leg stretched across the floor. The SUV tore out of the alley, tires screaming against wet pavement.

I twisted in my seat, staring through the back window as the clinic disappeared behind rain and headlights. My bag was still inside.

My phone was still on the counter. My entire normal life was still there.

And I was in a car with monsters.

I pressed myself against the door, trying to put space between us. It wasn’t enough. The SUV smelled like leather, rain, blood, and him.

Wild pine. Smoke. Heat.

Kael leaned back, breathing hard. His face had gone gray, and blood dripped onto the floor mat. For one stupid second, my fear faltered.

“You’re going to pass out,” I said.

His eyes opened slowly. “Worried about me, little doctor?”

“No. I just don’t want you dying in front of me. It feels legally complicated.”

The blond man laughed once from the front seat.

Kael didn’t. His gaze dropped to my mouth, and my breath caught before I could stop it.

“You should not smell this good,” he murmured.

My heart stumbled. “Excuse me?”

His eyes darkened, not with anger this time, but with something that made heat bloom low in my stomach.

“You are human,” he said, voice rougher. “You shouldn’t call to my wolf.”

I swallowed. “Well, tell your wolf I’m unavailable.”

His mouth curved. This close, it was devastating.

“You are not unavailable to me.”

Wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I looked away fast. “You’re delusional from blood loss.”

“Maybe.”

The SUV took a sharp turn, and Kael groaned. The doctor in me won again.

“Take off the coat,” I ordered.

His eyes gleamed. “If you wanted me undressed, Mira, you only had to ask.”

My face went hot. “I need to check your wound.”

“Liar.”

I glared at him. “Bleed out, then.”

He laughed softly, then hissed in pain. I moved before thinking, sliding closer and pressing one hand to his shoulder to keep him still.

The SUV went silent.

Every man in the car seemed to stop breathing.

Kael stared at my hand on him, then at me.

“Careful, little doctor,” he whispered.

My pulse thundered. “Why?”

His golden eyes burned.

“Because my wolf thinks you touched me because you wanted to.”

I should have pulled away.

I didn’t.

The SUV sped deeper into the forest, carrying me farther from everything I knew. Beside me, the Alpha I saved watched me like he was fighting the urge to devour me whole.