Defying the Rogue Alpha
Chapter 105: Concern

Chapter 105: Concern

Missy’s face mirrored her own concern, lips pressed into a thin, worried line.

Kade, standing at her other side, remained silent.

"Kade, do something!" Ava all but shrieked.

Kade exhaled sharply. "I can’t," he said, not quite meeting her eyes. "Remember, I’m in hiding." He lied.

If Kade thought she was going to stand here like some helpless damsel while Dennis got himself torn to shreds, he had another thing coming.

Her gaze snapped to Missy, and before the other woman could react, Ava yanked the keys from her waist.

Missy gasped. "What do you think you’re doing?"

Ava didn’t answer.

She knew exactly what she was doing.

Fixing her mess.

She had caused this. She had pushed Dennis into this fight. And if she stood by and let him die because he was too damn stubborn to shift, she would never forgive herself.

Dennis had spent his entire life protecting others.

Now, it was her turn to protect him.

Jaw tight, she shoved the key into the lock, twisted it sharply, and flung the gate open.

Missy cursed under her breath, but Ava didn’t care.

She stormed past, her breath ragged, every fiber of her being thrumming with suppressed rage.

Lucas and Dennis had just braced to lunge at each other again when she screamed.

"Enough!"

Ava’s voice wasn’t her own.

It was deeper, commanding, ethereal.

The moment the word left her lips, the sky split open.

A streak of lightning tore through the heavens, flashing dangerously close, slicing the ground clean between the two men and forcing them both to stumble backward.

The world went still.

Ava stood there, chest heaving, power pulsing in her veins, her entire body tingling from the otherworldly force that had just exploded out of her.

A breathless silence fell over the pack.

Even Missy gawked in shock. "Well, I’ll be damned."

Ava blinked. Her hands trembled.

Her knees suddenly felt like they didn’t exist anymore.

Shit. Her vision swam, the energy drain crashing down on her all at once.

She wobbled on her feet.

She barely felt herself falling before strong arms caught her mid-collapse.

A deep growl rumbled against her ear as he pulled her against his chest. His body was hot, and he held her possessively, like letting her go was not an option.

He buried his face into her hair, inhaling deeply.

Fuck. He had missed her.

Manic purred at her nearness. He held her closer anyway.

Dennis stood just feet away, watching them, he saw the way Manic retreated giving control to Lucas. Ava hadn’t been joking when she said she tamed him.

Lucas could feel his brother’s eyes burning into him, could smell the jealousy rolling off of him in waves.

And fuck, he loved it.

The pain in Dennis’s gaze was a delicious kind of payback for every moment of betrayal.

For every fucking time Dennis had looked at Ava like she was his to take.

"I have to get her to Missy," Dennis said. "She’ll take care of her."

Lucas’s hold on Ava tightened.

"I’ll take her."

Dennis stepped forward.

Lucas growled in warning.

"Don’t fucking touch her."

"You are not stepping on my land again."

"And you," Lucas shot back, "are not touching her."

Dennis’s lips curled. "Have you noticed when we fight, someone always gets hurt?"

"And whose fault would that be?"

Still cradling Ava’s unconscious form, Lucas turned toward the gate.

Missy immediately stiffened, went through the gate to stand in Lucas’s path. Ava being anywhere near Lucas was a bad idea. It would mess up everything she was trying to get Dennis to become. With the show of power she had just seen, Ava could do wonderful things and the perfect alpha for her was Dennis. She had to put an end to this, immediately.

Lucas arched a brow.

Really? Missy. Did she really think she could stop him?

"Let him," Dennis ordered Missy.

Missy’s eyes widened. She couldn’t defy her alpha but this wasn’t good.

The pack parted as Lucas walked through, a sea of rogues watching him with barely concealed hostility.

Lucas couldn’t give two fucks about them.

His only focus was the woman in his arms.

As he passed Kade, the man gave him a small, respectful bow, one that Lucas barely acknowledged.

*****

Missy’s mind worked at warp speed, running a thousand calculations at once. The first problem was that Lucas was inside the rogue pack’s territory, the second time in days. It unsettled the people.

Second problem, Lucas was near Ava. And that was the biggest problem of all.

The mate bond was still intact, an invisible thread tying Lucas and Ava together, no matter how much pain it brought. Lucas could have any woman he wanted. Hell, he already had a harem of concubines throwing themselves at his feet.

He didn’t need Ava too.

But here he was, standing over her.

Missy clenched her jaw.

And then there was Dennis.

She flicked a glance at him through the open doorway.

For ten long years, he had refused to act against his brother, choosing peace over rebellion. But then Ava arrived, and in just a matter of days, she had lit a fire under him.

Ava was more than just a woman Dennis had feelings for.

She was the rogue pack’s savior.

And Missy was not about to let Lucas ruin that.

Turning her sharp gaze back to the hulking Alpha standing in her way, she inhaled through her nose. "I need you out of the room if I’m going to attend to her."

Lucas didn’t so much as blink.

"I’m not going anywhere."

Missy narrowed her eyes.

This overgrown menace of a man was really going to stand here.

Nope. Not happening. "I can’t work when the most frightening Alpha in the region is breathing down my neck."

Lucas tilted his head, growled dangerously in her direction.

Missy refused to cower. He wasn’t her alpha afterall.

For a moment, it was a battle of wills.

Then, with a huff that sounded an awful lot like a wolf irritated at being denied his meal, Lucas shifted on his feet, shot Missy a look that promised he’d be back, and strode out of the room.

Missy let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.

But she didn’t waste another second.

She rushed to Ava’s side and pressed two fingers to her wrist.

Her pulse was steady but weak.

Damn it. Ava had exhausted herself completely.

For weeks, they had been trying to awaken her wolf, training her to tap into the power inside her.

But nothing had worked.

Her wolf was dormant, and without it, her human body wasn’t strong enough to handle the sheer force of the magic inside her.

Every time she used her powers without shifting, she risked killing herself.

And Missy had no idea how to stop it.

She sighed, rubbing a hand down her face.

Ava’s eyelids fluttered.

And suddenly, she was awake.

Missy barely had time to react before Ava shot up.

Her wild, frantic gaze darted around the room. "Where’s Dennis?"

@Harmonyque: Your support means the world to me.