Feral Alphas
Chapter eleven
Iwas elbow deep in a tuba when my phone rang. Dragging out the mass of stickers I'd found in the instrument, I turned to grab the phone, dropping the stickers into the garbage.
"Hello?"
"Kienan, you still want that omega?"
"I do."
"I'm going to pull her three nights from now. Meet me where we met the first time at 2 am sharp. Bring the cash." Josh hung up before I could ask any questions. It didn't matter.
Nearly tossing the tuba aside, I headed out in search of Zephyr. He was the only one who knew about my harebrained idea to bring an omega into the pack. He wasn't entirely on board, but it didn't matter. I was the pack leader and in the end, I would do what would save our pack.
"Kie?"
"What's up?" I poked my head into the gym where Dean was lifting weights.
He set the weights down and pushed his long dark hair off his face.
"We need to do something about Vale. He's going nuts and I don't think I can take it much longer."
"I have some solutions in the works," I assured him.
Dean studied me with his blue eyes. "I'd like to believe that, but the man is about to go feral."
I closed my eyes. "I know." Opening them again and looking directly at Dean, I took a deep breath. "I'm trying to do my best for both of you, but I need you to focus on yourself, not Vale. Let me handle him."
Something dark and dangerous sparked in his eyes, but then it was gone. "Fine. Do things your way, but when he snaps and takes us all out, don't forget I told you so."
He went back to his weights and I left the room, feeling tired. I was barely thirty and already this pack had me aging like a crack smoker.
I finally found Zephyr in the basement, where he was measuring spaces and drawing lines on the concrete floor with chalk.
"What the hell are you doing now?"
"Planning ahead. Those two are going to go feral and we'll need cages for them."
"You don't think we could get the Alpha Protection Agency to pick them up?"
He narrowed his eyes at me. "They're pack. We're not letting some fucking agency drag them off to who knows where."
"So what's the plan down here?" I looked around the space. We usually only used it for storage, but Zephyr had shoved everything over into one corner, leaving most of the space open.
"Metal cages. Wall between them so they don't flip out over seeing each other…" There was a sudden roar from upstairs, followed by a crash. "Shit."
We both ran up the stairs at full speed to see who was hurt, the noise level picking up as we reached the living room.
Vale was under Dean, but both men were flailing at each other like they had an audience.
"I'll take Vale," I muttered, as we charged into the fray.
Grabbing the man by his narrow shoulders, I hauled Vale back and he fought to reach Dean again. It was like trying to separate fighting dogs. "Keep Dean here!" I called to Zephyr and dragged Vale out of the room.
Once he was out of sight of his rival, Vale snarled and twisted to snap at me. His dark eyes were glazed over with a look I was unfortunately becoming all too familiar with.
"Vale, it's me. Snap out of it!"
There was no response. His nostrils flared and he lunged for my neck.
"STOP!" I barked. My bark was far stronger than he was at this point and it stopped him dead in his tracks.
Vale blinked, his eyes focusing again and he ran his hand through his shock of bright pink hair. "Shit, I did it again, didn't I?"
"You did."
"When are those injections coming?" he asked tightly. "Is Dean okay?"
"Sounds like he's still under." I could hear Dean fighting Zephyr in the other room. "If you're good, I'm going to go bark him straight, too." I steadied Vale with my hands on his shoulders and peered into his eyes.
"I'm good, go."
Spinning away from him, I ran toward the other two members of my pack. As usual. It seemed like all I did was put out fires these days between the two alphas. The pack was unbalanced and if I didn't do something fast, we were going to lose them both.
Zephyr had Dean in a headlock, but the other man wasn't settling.
"Dean, stop fighting it!" I barked.
His neck muscles strained as he twisted to snap his teeth at me.
"Stop fighting. Come back to us!" I barked again, hating to use this much power on my own men.
Dean suddenly sagged in Zephyr's arms and the other alpha lowered him to the floor.
"He's fucking heavy. And I think he's got a loose tooth."
We maneuvered the unconscious Dean onto the sofa.
"This can't keep happening. We have to separate them and look for something more, something that can actually help them," Zephyr groaned. He rubbed a newly forming bruise on his jaw.
"I just heard from Josh, that's why I was coming to look for you," I told him. "We just have to hang in there three more nights."
Zephyr eyed me warily. "Think we'll make it?"
"We have to."
I didn't want it to come down to locking our alphas in cages in the basement.
But Dean had barely responded to my first bark tonight.
He was nearly as strong as I was when it came to being alpha and I knew he could easily challenge me.
And, honestly, if I knew he wasn't going feral, I'd happily step back.
This running a pack shit was ridiculous.
"I'm ordering pizza." Zephyr pulled out his phone. "You mind?"
"No." My mind was far from food. I didn't care what I put in my mouth tonight. Fuel was fuel. "We need to start planning for the omega. Where she'll sleep, all that shit."
"Well, she can take my room. I spend all my nights with Dean anyway." Zephyr rubbed his eyes with one hand then went back to tapping away on his phone. "We'll need omega stuff. Like, soft blankets and pillows and stuff."
"Right. Let's get her here first and then we'll figure out what she likes," I suggested.
"Pizza will be here in twenty."
Zephyr looked as tired as I felt as he slid down to sit on the floor.
He leaned against the couch, one of Dean's hands barely touching his shoulder.
Those two had been best friends since I'd met them.
Zephyr was definitely feeling the loss as he dropped his head back against Dean's rock-hard stomach.
"We're going to fix this," I promised. "I'm going to fix it."
His black eyes reflected my desperation when he looked up at me. "I hope so."