Alpha Eyes (Alpha Eyes: Book 1)

Chapter 17

He had to protect her, save her from whoever the sick bastard was that thought he could mess with Sierra's family. No matter the danger to his own life or the financial cost to the pack, he had to protect her. She didn't deserve the horrors being thrown at her. As her mate, he would stand in front of her every time.

The envelope hadn't magically appeared in the house. Someone delivered it, which meant that someone had been caught on one of the many invisible security cameras. Although Adrian wasn't paranoid about his pack's safety, finding his mate had put his protective instincts on high alert. Hopefully the extra precautions would prove resourceful to him now.

He tightened his hold around Sierra's trembling body and smoothly gathered her into his arms. She buried her face in his shoulder and let hot silent tears soak a spot in his shirt. The salty drops seemed to burn against his skin, and he hated the pup who dared do anything to make her cry.

It took several hours, but Sierra eventually fell asleep. Curled up against his chest, she'd silently cried until she had no energy left. When her body sagged into unconsciousness, he picked her up in a cradle hold and carried her up to their room. He meant to settle her in the blankets and leave, but he found it difficult to walk away. After holding her for a few more minutes, he tucked the blanket around her and pressed a kiss to her temple before slipping out of the room.

When he reached his office, he opened the bottom desk drawer and grabbed every file that Alpha Orion had compiled over the years. The stack had doubled in the short time Sierra had been alpha, although she didn't know about most of it. The threats had kept coming no matter who was in charge of the pack. If he could only find some connection between the rogues, the threats, and this stalker, he'd be one step closer to making the pack safe forever.

The papers covered the desk, stories and stories of the same. The main elements of the story remained the same, which should make the puzzle hunt easier. Threatening notes nailed to trees, rogues claiming to be on a kill mission for their master, the gray wolf keeping a watch from a distance... No other pack ever claimed responsibility or motivation for an attack. Everything pointed to an outside enemy that never revealed itself.

"What am I missing?" he growled. "This should be clear. What aren't we seeing?"

He searched through the information for several hours, scribbling notes on a piece of scratch paper and attempting to find any connection between it all. With only one brief coffee break and a peek to make sure Sierra was still sleeping, he continued to pour over the reports. Nothing pieced together, and nothing became any clearer. This hunt through the paper trail was proving pointless.

He was going to have to go into the woods with Jaxon and hunt for answers himself.

#

I groaned as the end of the bed dipped and someone smacked my calf. "Seriously?"

"You never were a morning person, my little princess."

The voice washed over me and sparked something in the depths of my mind. I jerked upright, the covers falling off my chest onto my lap. For a moment, my brain refused to acknowledge the information coming from my eyes. There was no way, NO way I could possibly be seeing this.

"Daddy?"

My beloved father sat on the end of my bed, looking younger and less stressed than I remembered. What really got me was his eyes, a swirled mixture of the original deep brown and the alpha emerald. Yet there was a great deal of emotion there too.

"Daddy, we thought you were—"

"I am, princess. I'm sorry that I didn't have a chance to say goodbye before I left." He reached out to touch me, but his hand passed through me and the covers. He really wasn't there.

"What happened, Daddy? What happened at that alpha meeting on the border?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that, sweetheart. There's too much to tell and not enough time." Daddy turned to fully face me and clasped his hands together. "I'm so sorry, princess. I never meant for my struggles to fall on your shoulders so harshly. There was so much I meant to tell you but didn't have the chance. It wasn't supposed to happen like this."

I shivered a little and hugged the blanket close to my chest. Something seemed off in his tone. Whatever wasn't supposed to happen 'like this' was far more sinister than he was letting on.

"Daddy?"

He met my gaze with his half alpha eyes. "You have the power of so many alphas before you. The strength of multiple generations runs in your veins. This power is much more than just heightened senses and extra strength. It's so much more, and only our family line can possess it. You have to be careful and protect our family line."

"Protect our family line?" I squeaked. "Daddy, I'm your only child. There's no one else who—"

"Be careful, princess."

"Daddy!"

I blinked, and he was gone. I was left alone in my dark bedroom, shivering as goosebumps prickled my skin. My chest heaved several deep breaths before I flopped back on the pillow. I rolled onto my side and curled into a ball. Hopefully Adrian would come in soon and help me sleep.

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What do you think? What do you think the warning means?