Alpha Unleashed Read online

  “You can fix the cage as your apology. You got yourself under control now?”

  Vic groaned. “You’re always giving me more work as an apology.”

  “’Cause you’re always screwing up.”

  “This wasn’t my fault!”

  “And yet you’re still responsible for your actions. You still have to face the consequences.”

  He growled at his sister. “You’re still a bitch.”

  “And you still stink.”

  That pulled up him short, and his nostrils flared. So did Simon’s as he tried to compare the air quality to what it had been a moment before. Vic reacted first.

  “I do not. That’s old stink.”

  Alyssa arched a brow. “So you’ve got it together?”

  He held up his hands palms turned outward. “I’m sure.”

  “Then I guess you can learn.” She stepped forward and quickly unlocked the cage, swinging the door wide. “Go take a shower and get some clothes on. We’ve got things to do.”

  “What things?” Vic asked, belatedly realizing he was standing naked in front of his sister. He tried to casually cover his important bits, but the whole thing looked awkward.

  Simon took pity on the man. “We’ll discuss that when you’re showered. Go on. I’m going to figure out a way to fumigate this basement.”

  Vic took the escape and fled while the two of them watched his bobbing black ass climb the stairs. But the moment he disappeared upstairs, Alyssa turned to him.

  “You think he’s okay to be wandering around?”

  He arched a brow. “You’re the one who let him out, not me.”

  She shrugged, a guilty flush to her cheeks. “You said he could get control, and then he did. And I hated seeing him in here.” She sighed, but her gaze didn’t soften. “Now I want to know if I was being impulsive. Does Vic belong in a cage?”

  Difficult question and all he had were guesses. But to suggest that Vic should remain in a cage was to say that every young shifter belonged locked up because they might lose their temper. It didn’t work that way. Easy enough to stay calm when you were holed up in a basement watching TV. The only way to learn control was to test it. Out in the real world.

  “I think I need to stick close to him just in case.”

  She nodded. “Fair enough.”

  “But now I need more answers. Were there any symptoms before he started changing? Was he especially surly? Did he get sick or have a fever?”

  “Yeah. I already told you he had the Detroit Flu about three days ago.”

  “Tell me again.” As they spoke, he found a couple big fans and one little one. Alyssa helped, opening the appropriate storage areas with her key. Then it was a matter of judging how to best get air flowing through the basement.

  “Two outbreaks. I caught the first. Vic the second. Hospitals were overrun with people spiking fevers. A lot of the old and young died. The CDC was called in, but mostly it was just an ugly bug. I felt crappy for days.”

  “How many people got it?”

  “Seemed like everyone. All at once.”

  “And what did the CDC conclude?”

  She snorted. “What does the government ever decide? Nothing. Or at least nothing that they’re telling us. But further investigation is warranted.” Her last sentence was done in a mocking accent and he couldn’t help but agree. “Well, if everyone got it, then it couldn’t have done this or everyone would be running around with fur.” Unless Vic had some preexisting genetic condition that the virus triggered. Maybe only an unlucky few were changed. “You and Vic are half siblings, aren’t you?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. Same mother, but our dads were different.”

  So Alyssa might not have the same genetic predisposition to going furry that Vic did. Maybe. Damn, he hated guessing. “We need more information.”

  “Which is why we’re going to visit the Griz.”

  He shook his head. “Not we. It has to be—”

  She held up her hand. “You can’t leave Vic alone. And if Vic is going with you, then I’m going as back up. If my brother loses it, you need someone to help you.” She held up the Taser with a strained smile. “Have weapon, will electrocute.”

  “This is not a good idea,” he said, mentally scrambling for a valid argument.

  “You remember how to read yet?”

  He glanced at a magazine on the top of an open storage box. Though the hot babe cover was clear enough, the printed letters meant nothing to him. Yet.

  “No,” he bit out.

  “You’ll get there,” she said gently. “I’ll start teaching you as soon as we finish with the Griz.”

  “I know, but—”

  “And you got any way to get around Detroit without me or my car?”

  He had his nose. But in the soup of urban smells, picking out the scent of grizzly-shifters would be tough. He could wander for days without getting anything.

  “No, but—”

  “So stop fighting it. I’m coming.”

  “It’s dangerous.”

  She snorted. “So is running a cash business in this neighborhood. And yet here I still stand.”

  He glared at her. “I don’t like it.”

  She chuckled, a warm sound that was soothing even as her words irritated him. “Oh my,” she cried in a mock southern drawl. “Someone doesn’t like my choices. Whatever will I do?”

  He had no answer to that, so he flicked on the fans. The fetid air started moving. If nothing else, at least he remembered how electrical fans worked. He was sure that would help enormously as he faced a criminal gang of grizzly bear-shifters…not.

  Chapter 10

  Alyssa tried not to let her anxiety show. She didn’t like driving in this area of town. Hell, she didn’t like driving in any place she didn’t know the people and the streets like the back of her hand. What she did know about this neighborhood was it hugged the Bernd Creek, one of the tributaries into the River Rouge, and it was not a nice place to raise kids. It was also weird as hell to drive at twenty miles per hour while Simon and Vic stuck their noses out the open windows like dogs. They were trying to be subtle about it, but in this neighborhood, even her beat-up Chevy stood out.

  “Which direction, Simon?” She tried to keep her voice low and soothing—more for her brother than herself—but every part of her screamed, Leave now.

  “Feeling anxious?” Simon asked, his voice low. Then he kept talking before she could answer. “It’s a low-level psychic thing some shifters can do. A subtle territorial thing. I remember it being strong in the Griz leader.” He touched her arm in a slow stroke. “If you’re feeling it, then we’re getting close.”

  “I feel it in most of Detroit.”

  “Nah, you don’t,” Vic said from the backseat. “Not this prickling scalp anxiety.”

  Simon turned his startled gaze onto Vic. “You can feel that?”

  “Like a zillion paper cuts all over my skin.”

  “Let me know when it feels like barbed wire.”

  Vic rolled his eyes and drawled, “Oh goody.”

  Simon turned back to the window. “It’s a special sensitivity, Vic. That’s a good thing.”

  “Tell that to my skin.”

  Simon didn’t answer as he squeezed Alyssa’s arm.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Huh?” He looked back at her.

  She arched a brow, but he was obviously clueless. He clearly didn’t even realize he had squeezed her. Or stroked her. Or any of the hundreds of ways that he had been touching her today. There wasn’t anything overtly sexual in any of it. If there had been, she would have slammed him against a wall. She did not want a repeat of last night. Not when she’d sobbed on his shirt or let him carry her to bed. And nothing like what she would have let him do if he’d pushed last night in bed.

  She was not having sex with Simon. It was a ridiculous thought despite her fantasies. Vic was in trouble, there were dangerous gangs involved, and only a moron would throw sex into the middle
of that.

  And yet every time he touched her skin, her entire body followed the stroke or squeeze. Her mind zeroed in on the sensations, her breath hitched, and her skin tingled. Like full-on tingles followed by heat. Not just on her skin, but inside deep where her womanly hormones were getting all revved up.

  She hated it.

  And yet, part of her sank into the feelings. How long had it been since she’d gotten revved up about anyone? Exactly two years, eight months, and a handful of days. That was when Simon had last visited with Vic. And that’s when her fantasies of the hot army engineer had taken over her nighttime imagination.

  “This is not the time or place,” she grumbled under her breath. Too bad neither Simon nor her libido listened. He continued to touch her arm, and she continued to allow it.

  Then suddenly he jerked her arm and pointed.

  “There,” he said.

  “Oh hell,” Vic moaned. “We’ve gone beyond barbed wire to axes and machetes on my skin.”

  Simon looked back at her brother. “It’ll ease over time. Or when the leader decides he wants to talk to you.”

  “Peachy,” Vic growled between clenched teeth.

  Alyssa slowed the car down, taking her time as she drove past a converted storefront. It looked like it used to be an Ace Hardware, since no one had ever bothered to bring down the old signage. But black curtains covered the four large glass windows and a single poster by the door declared it to be “Kuma Dojo” with a grizzly bear silhouette as its logo. Pretty obvious to her, but even without all that, she would’ve known they’d found the right place. The smell was rank even on the street. Like Vic at his worst. And that psychic stay-the-hell-away had her knuckles white as she clenched the steering wheel.

  “Drop me off here,” Simon said. “Come back in an hour.”

  God, she wanted to. Not the leaving him behind part, but anything that got her the hell away from that dojo. Instead, she parked her car right across the street from the dark curtained doorway. Simon hopped out, but then so did she and Vic.

  “We’re just going in there to talk,” she said as much to herself as anyone else. “That’s not dangerous. That’s normal civilized conversation.”

  “Except they’re animals,” Simon said. And then he shook his head. “You’re an idiot for following,” he said to her, but then focused on Vic. “And you keep it together or I’ll rip your head off myself. Got it?”

  Vic didn’t answer. His skin was gray and his mouth pinched tight with pain. It had to be those axes and machetes he’d been talking about. But even with that, he was still following with one determined step after another.

  Alyssa didn’t know whether to be enormously proud of her brother or terrified for their stupidity. Both, probably. Nevertheless, they all walked together across the street. Until Simon held up his hand.

  “Stay behind me, no matter what. And when I say run, you run. Hard.”

  She nodded and Vic did, too. Honestly, she wanted to be strong here, to back Simon up however he needed. But every step closer to the building had her knees weakening and her heart fluttering at panicked levels. She was really afraid that if he told her to run, she’d take the excuse and bolt. And she wouldn’t stop until she was in Canada.

  In this she was unexpectedly helped by the stench in the air. Hard to run when she was gagging for breath. She glanced at her brother who was shaking his head.

  “It’s not from me,” he said, as he showed her his bare and very humanlike hands.

  “No,” said Simon as he put his hand on the door. “It’s from inside.” Then he hauled the glass door open and went in.

  They followed a step behind, pushing through the dark curtain just as Simon had. But Alyssa never got farther than a half step before she felt Simon’s hand press flat on her belly.

  “Run,” he said, his voice low and urgent. “Now.”

  Chapter 11

  As a teen, Simon had seen his share of shifter battles. There was even a shifter summer camp that had an area designed for that. And yes, there were secret shifter fight clubs that every teen searched for but fortunately few found.

  None compared to what he saw right now.

  A single, moderately-sized grizzly bear stood backed into a corner. It was dark brown with black patches and matted with blood. His face was a swollen mass, and his right thigh had taken enough tearing strikes that it looked like ground meat. Blood flowed everywhere, but the creature was still fighting. It should have been roaring with the way its mouth was open and his teeth gleamed white and wet, but it didn’t have the breath. It saved its strength for swiping with broad strokes in front of him, keeping the four…monsters…back.

  Four who looked like Vic at his worst and a stench that matched. They were going in for the kill, encroaching step by step with murderous intent. And lest he think that the others in the room were going to help the pure shifter, the other nine, all in human form, were watching with looks that varied between glee and nausea.

  This was a gang murder, plain and simple. And he’d walked Alyssa in seconds before it happened. And double hell, she wasn’t leaving despite the fact that he’d just tried to shove her outside without drawing undue attention to them.

  And now it was too late. Alyssa made a sound of defiance. It wasn’t even a word, but she refused to budge, and nothing caught a male shifter’s attention faster than a female refusing to obey. It signaled to everyone that she was a fair target since she’d just refused a male’s protection.

  The sound did little to distract the attackers, but it certainly caught the onlookers’ attention. Multiple eyes swiveled in Alyssa’s direction; Simon had to capture their attention quick or risk whatever they had in mind for her.

  “We’re just visiting,” he said loud enough for everyone to hear. “Do you mind pausing in the…um…illegal activity over there while we’re here? We don’t mean to interrupt, but now that we’ve seen it, it would be best if it didn’t cross any lines.” It was a sound, logical argument that reminded everyone that they were humans subject to the rule of law.

  It didn’t work.

  A stupidly large man stood up. Thick shoulders, broad nose, and dark yellow teeth in his pale Caucasian face. He was the Griz alpha, and his name was Nanook as a nod to his Inuit ancestor Nanook of the North. Also, he was the only known shifter who was part polar bear.

  And he was really pissed off.

  “How did you get in here?” he demanded.

  It was that booming question that saved the shifter in the corner. At that tone everyone in the room—including the four attacking…hybrids?—turned to glare at Simon.

  “We walked in,” Alyssa snapped. “Through the door. Which was unlocked.”

  Hell, this wasn’t the time for her to talk. But he already knew she attacked whenever she was scared. Big grizzly bear roars at her in the UP? She shoots it. Big alpha makes threatening noises here? She responds with a smart-ass comment and she probably had her hand on her gun.

  She was going to die—or worse—if he didn’t take control fast.

  “Quiet!” he snapped, investing his word with the bite of command, and was eternally grateful that she was smart enough to obey. Then he answered the question that Nanook had really meant.

  “I’m Simon Gold, one of the Gladwin grizzlies. I’ve been here before and we spoke, so I’m welcome here.” That was the real question: How did he get past the psychic “no trespassing” vibes? Answer: He was bold enough to defy them because he knew that he was welcome.

  “He isn’t,” Nanook said, jutting his chin at Vic. And then came the psychic blast that Nanook was best known for. It was like a physical blow to every nerve ending in a man’s body. The first and only time that Simon had felt it, he had gone down on his ass and trembled like a child for twenty minutes.

  Vic was no better. He dropped like a stone, but he wasn’t trembling. No, he was full-on monster by the time he hit the floor. His mouth peeled back and fur came out. He’d been smart enough to wear sweats th
at expanded with him and his flip-flops fell away, so he wasn’t screaming in pain from his clothing, though the T-shirt was stretched thin. What was really impressive though, was that his friend didn’t flop on the floor like a beached fish. That had been what Simon had done two years before. No, Vic rolled jerkily to his feet where he faced Nanook on all fours and with his teeth flashing.

  And the four other monsters abandoned the bloody grizzly to advance on Vic.

  Shit.

  “Stay there,” Simon ordered to everyone, Vic included. “We’re not here to cause problems. We just need some information.”

  Nanook snorted. “I just bet you do. Wondering what that is?” He gestured toward Vic.

  Simon echoed the gesture only at the other four who were literally salivating to get to Vic. “You obviously know more than we do. We came here respectfully to ask if you’d explain.”

  “Want me to explain?” the man bellowed. “It’s the fucking dogs, that’s who! They’ve done this to us!” He advanced forward, his manner barely controlled aggression and Simon felt his insides grow tight. His grizzly was primed and ready, aching to burst free, but that would be disastrous. No way could his grizzly win in a fight. Not against everyone here. Not while still protecting Alyssa.

  So he kept his voice calm, trying to pitch the tones to be soothing and deferential. “How did the dogs do this?”

  “They do everything!” Nanook bellowed, obviously warming to a favorite theme. “See this?” He hauled over the nearest monster. “This was Jayden. He was a damned good mechanic. Now he’s this. All the time.” He shoved Jayden away who came up snarling. The only reason he didn’t attack was because Nanook growled him down. Then he pointed to the others in turn. “Billy. Tyler. And that last one, she was Tiana.”

  Simon did a double take. That one was female? God it was hard to tell. Neither human nor beast, they were each a sick combination of twisted limbs and partial shifts. “They just changed?”

  “It was the fever,” Nanook growled. “Most get better. Some died. Then there are a few…” His voice trailed away as he looked at Vic. “Come here, boy. I can keep you from killing your family.”