The Alpha's Mate ON HOLD TILL JAN 2025

Chapter 76

LEAH

Pulling open the front door, I stepped outside, and my eyes instantly landed on the man on the other side of the road.

I took a step, but the smell hit me—rotten eggs. If they smell this bad, what do we smell like to them?

"Never thought about it," Tala grumbled and stayed close by. "Maybe we can ask one if we catch on alive."

I said nothing. My worry was clearly on show. I had to stay calm and be brave.

"I'm here with you," Tala murmured suddenly. "We do this together."

"Okay." That was all I could say since my stomach was in my mouth. I wanted to throw up everything.

"Well, there she is," the man said with a grin and moved toward Dani. He pulled on her hair and yanked it back to make her see me. Her eyes widened. "Leah," she whispered, but I could hear it.

I walked away from the house. All eyes are on me. I felt violated. Part of me knew they were checking me out since I was only in a T-shirt, which is disgusting since I'm only seventeen. Most of the men here were old enough to be my grandfather, for fuck sake.

"Come closer, sweetheart," the man said.

I did as he asked. I needed to get closer to kill him.

As I stepped onto the road, he growled.

"That's far enough."

His eyes went to the house. "Where's the other little one? We can have her, too."

Lucy, they were on about her.

Tala growled in my head, but I kept my face neutral.

"She's my daughter, you can't—" Dani said, but the man yanked her head, which made her cry out in pain. "Oh, I can. I have been around here to know she is mine to take." His eyes darted to me while the corner of his lips curled up into a grin. "Just like her."

My stomach dropped.

My father surely didn't work for this man.

The man moved his head to the side. "You're wondering how I know your father."

I said nothing, but the man was telling me it all. He wanted me to know, since he didn't think I had a wolf.

"You should ask first, how I know you?"

"That part is simple," he said. No one else spoke, only listened. "An old man and his friend approached me. Telling me that his slut of a daughter bore a child with a human, which would be you."

Anger swirled inside me at how he said things, but I couldn't show it. My eyes went to Dani, who was looking at me, but I looked at him while he continued. Hopefully, he will drop whoever it is on this stupid plan, too. Maybe we can learn more. I needed to keep him talking before I let Tala do her business.

"I didn't want to take the job, but the money they were paying me, well, I couldn't pass it up."

The man looked around until he returned to me, his grin smug. "We learned he wanted another job since he needed more money. Who would have thought a girl like you would cost so much?"

There were sniggers coming from behind me, but I didn't bother to look around.

"I hand-picked some men who I knew would benefit from the big payday," the man said. "We followed you both and reported back to them. After a while, another payday came, and they wanted more information. That's when we got the idea of construction. Handing him money was from what we had, and your father sang like a canary about you."

There were a few laughs.

This was all hard to hear, but I had to.

Anger was filling everything within me, waiting for him to stop running his mouth about my father.

"He told us you were beautiful," he said, his eyes skimming over my body. A shiver rippled down my spine. "He wasn't wrong."

"Then the men wanted us to kill you both," he said, grinning. "One little car crash should have killed you, but no one told us about the dog in the car. It tore one of my men apart. What kind of dog do you have?"

"Tala, was that you?" I asked while keeping my eyes on the man.

"True right," she said. "I want to kill him now. He talks too much."

I said nothing.

"You know what the funny thing is," the man said. "I would have kept you for myself, payment for putting up with your old man for a few months."

A growl rippled through the air.

Knowing it was Lucian or Josh, I did nothing.

The man looked behind me and grinned. "Ah, what do we have here?"

"I bet the man will be so happy to know you are willing to kill his daughter's mate and her brother," Josh said. "Since he is all about traditions within the pack."

"I don't care about anything else. I have one more payment, and all I have to do is kill her," he said, looking at me.

"You are going to kill me?" I asked, an idea forming in my head with the words he said.

Taking a step toward him, I looked at him. "You said you could have me." I stepped toward him while Tala was getting into position. His eyes were on me. "You could pretend that you killed me to them."

The man chuckled.

"They want proof of death, sweetheart," he said. "I have to send a photo to them, or we don't get payment."

Tala growled.

Ignoring her, I sighed and shrugged. I took another step toward him, which was at arm's length. Tala had plenty of room to kill him. "That's a shame," I said. "I have to kill you now."

The man laughed but stopped when he saw what was happening to me. Closing my eyes, Tala pushed forward but didn't shift since Dani was close by, and my eyes opened to reveal Tala. "Boo!"

Tala lunged forward and gripped the man's neck. His eyes widened. His hand in Dani's hair loosened, and she got free but looked shocked.

"How!" He gasped. "Can't smell—"

Tala squeezed tighter and growled. Leaning toward him, I moved closer to show myself. "Surprised. Wonder how your bosses are going to be when I kill them."

With that, Tala's claw came through and pierced his neck. Blood spilled out of my hands until I felt his lifeless body drop.

Tala let go and moved back. I looked at Dani, who looked petrified.

I guess seeing someone do something so heinous to someone else, but the damn man needed to be killed.

Growls erupted, pulling me back and spinning around to see all the men that came with the man glaring at me.

"Kill them!" a voice shouted.

Tala pushed me back and shifted. This was one fight I knew I needed my wolf for. She stood and let out a loud growl while moving back to protect Dani.

The men stared back, stunned, but that didn't stop them from doing what they came here to do—kill me. But Tala and I weren't going to without a fight.