Alpha Alexander

Chapter Thirty-One

It was just past two a.m. and I had already passed through the moderately-sized town of Three Rivers, Oregon. After asking a gas station clerk where the thickest cluster of trees and the least used trails into the forest were located, I managed to pinpoint where Leo could be hiding. My body was rigid with alertness as adrenaline pumped through my veins. I had just merged onto Central Oregon highway, US-20 West, and was nearing my designated left turn. My fingers tightened around the steering wheel as I drove pass a sign for my upcoming turn.

14 miles.

I was only fourteen miles away from my little brother. Goosebumps traveled down my arms, chilling my heated skin. My mental brick wall held strong, but I distantly felt the pressure building behind it. Gabriel will find a way to penetrate my mental barrier, and I couldn't have him in my mind when I confronted Leo. He was too much of a distraction for me.

With my lead foot and some skilled driving I didn't know I was capable of, I managed to shave an hour off my driving time. I didn't bother with the radio, so the silence looming in the vehicle gave me an awful sense of foreboding, and it forced me to question myself for the past eight hours.

What am I doing?

"I'm saving my brother. Leo will only give him up if he has me," I reminded myself sharply several times.

I should have told Gabriel what Cassie told me.

"He wouldn't have let me go!" I shouted in frustration to the vacant SUV.

But he would have done something.

"Something that most likely would have gotten Tommy kill!" My voice had a slight tremor in it.

What if Leo kills you?

"He won't," I said strongly and, surprisingly, I actually believed that. "He won't because he needs me."

"Only you can bring Gabriel Alexander to his knees." That's what Cassie had told me when she first came for me in the high school over a month ago.

"He doesn't kneel to anyone," is what I had said back to her.

"He will if it meant saving your life."

Leo needed me alive if he intended to make Gabriel submit to him. I had to believe that my plan will work; I had to trust that I knew what I was doing. I took a breath as the sign for my turn approached. I slowed the SUV and crept onto the dirt road that would dead end at the foot of a trail that had been closed off for months. From there, I would most likely have to hike until someone in Leo's pack sniffed me out.

This will work. I told myself. This has to work.

I parked the SUV and turned off the engine. I didn't bother taking the keys or even locking the doors. I only took my bottle of water and a flashlight from the glovebox before re-strapping the gun holster around my torso, under my hoodie, and ditching the SUV. I climbed over the barriers that warned hikers not to enter for their own safety, which was just ironic considering why I was there in the first place. I dropped to the ground on the other side of the fencing and started making my way into the forest, my determination to save my brother overriding my fear.

After an hour of hiking, when my feet started to dully throb in pain and the water bottle I filled at the gas station was completely empty, I felt a tingle of alertness on the back of my neck. I stopped walking up the slight incline I was currently on. My body instinctively turned to the left and I stared at thick cluster of trees.

I lifted the flash light to point in the direction I felt the threat coming from. "No need to be shy," I said calmly, despite the rattle of nerves that were coursing through my body.