Alpha King

Chapter 1

Lawson

“Come on! We need to get out of the room. This thing is going to blow in like thirty seconds and I promise you don’t want to be in the same room unless you want your ears ringing for the next year!

” Genzo shouted. I hastily beckoned my men to follow me around the corner into the dark shroud of the tunnel and we got as far away from the detonation site as we could.

I took a deep breath, counting down the seconds until we breached the basement of the Venuti family fortress.

There was no doubt in my mind that this was going to work.

I’d gotten my hands on the original blueprints for the fortified building, knowing that the only way in would be from beneath it.

They’d buried their underground vault deep, but we’d dug deeper and found what would be one of the exterior walls of the massive skyscraper rooted below.

The Venuti had wronged my pack and I intended to fix that.

I would spare no expense to get my beta back.

He’d been taken by the Venuti, and it was up to me to right their wrongs as the alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack.

I had a reputation to uphold. I protected the members of my pack no matter what it took and that meant I had to rescue Toboe before the Venuti decided to kill him and start an all-out war between our two families.

Time seemed to slow, and I could almost sense the vibrations within the mechanism of the bomb about to engage. My heart pounded in my chest as I took a deep breath. I covered my ears.

Three.

Two.

One.

Boom!

A blast of dust, silt, and wet dirt exploded out of the doorway into the tunnel.

We only waited a few seconds for most of it to settle before we charged into the room to see the damage.

The walls the Venuti built were thick and it had taken quite of bit of explosive power to break through them.

Mangled cement and steel practically smoked from the massive explosion, but there was a circular opening in the wall just large enough for us to make our way through one by one.

“Let’s move. Those fuckers will have heard that,” I growled, and my men smiled with exhilaration. They were looking forward to this, and to be honest so was I.

I stepped forward and dipped my head low enough so that I could make it through the opening without hitting the top.

If I wasn’t so angry about my beta’s kidnapping, I would have been impressed by the rather incredible feat of engineering that had gone into making an underground fortress like this beneath the silt and sand of New Orleans.

I didn’t much care about that now though. I just wanted to get him back.

I pressed forward and walked into a big room. The overhead lights were flickering, but that didn’t stop me from pulling in a small gasp of shock at what was inside that vault.

There were so many gold bars. Stacks and stacks of them piled on heavy-duty metal shelving built right into the walls.

I had known the Venuti clan of vampires had been around for centuries but seeing just a portion of their wealth right in front of my eyes like this was another thing altogether.

They were known to have been a part of the Roman Empire, the British Empire, and so many others in between.

They were opportunistic creatures, picking and choosing various human governments to infiltrate to build and maintain their power and wealth.

In the past hundred years or so, they’d pulled back and maintained their position here in New Orleans.

Clearly, they’d taken all that ancient wealth and compiled some of it here.

I was certain that this just barely scratched the surface.

My men funneled in behind me single file as I heard each one of them react the same way I did.

“Damn. This is something else,” Genzo whispered. “When we leave, I’m gonna snag one of these and buy my wife something nice.”

I chuckled.

“Yeah, she probably deserves it for dealing with you all these years,” I smirked, and he narrowed his eyes at me with mock anger.

“What do you mean, boss? I’m clearly a catch,” he replied, and even though he tried to cover up his grin of amusement, ultimately he failed and started to laugh.

“You snore loud enough to wake the dead, Genzo,” I said, my voice flat, and he broke out with a raucous laugh.

“No, I don’t,” he replied.

About a dozen men behind me voiced their disagreement with his words and I just grinned.

“Well. I’ll just make it a hell of a good-sized diamond,” he finally muttered with a chuckle.

“Good man,” I said. With a quiet laugh, I stepped forward toward the door and slowly opened it, expecting to be ambushed. For a moment, I just listened. I heard nothing.

I’d expected the Venuti to move slowly. I’d specifically planned to make our entry point just after sunrise when most of the vampires were asleep. They would die if they went into the sun. They’d sizzle right up like overcooked bacon. Didn’t smell particularly good.

I knew the vampires would come for us, but their reaction times would be slower right now in deploying a team to handle our infiltration. We had a small window to find and rescue Toboe from their clutches down here and we needed to take advantage of that.

“Follow me. The holding cells should be this way,” I whispered. “From here on out, try to move as stealthily as you can. Let’s make the most out of this.”

My men nodded succinctly. They all understood how serious this was.

I crept into the hallway, keeping my footsteps light.

Carefully, we made our way toward the prison.

The door was locked, but Genzo was prepared for that.

He reached into his bag and pulled out a rectangular box.

He pressed it against the steel lock, and it stayed, held in place by powerful magnets, before he typed a short code into the watch on his wrist.

The box popped as a small explosion destroyed the lock and the door swung open.

It was all very quiet and self-contained, perfectly designed for missions that required a more delicate touch.

Genzo had quite a superior talent with explosives and most other technology, so much so that I sometimes wondered what I’d do without him.

I swung the door fully open and strode inside. This section of the fortress was two stories tall, lined with two rows of cells designed to hold vampires and shifters alike. The metal bars were thick and as I moved closer toward an empty cell, I reached out to touch them.

My skin sizzled hot and I sucked in a furious breath. I pulled my hand away and glared down at the angry burn on my fingertips. At once, my flesh began to pull back together, and within a few seconds there was nothing but unmarred skin left behind.

“The goddamn cells are silver,” I growled.

“As expected, boss. I can handle that,” Genzo whispered, and I nodded once in acknowledgement.

I wrinkled my nose, breathing in the rancid scent of the vampires imprisoned here. To my kind, they smelled of rotten fruit and putrid stinking meat. To them, we just smelled like wet dog.

Nearby, one of the prisoners snarled. Our presence had been noticed.

Knowing time was of the essence now, I walked down the line of cells.

I was surprised by the number of vampires imprisoned down here, likely from other families or perhaps they were even Venuti if they’d broken ancient vampire law.

Those cells weren’t silver, but very thick ultra-hard steel strong enough to stand against the strength of their kind.

That wouldn’t stop the likes of us. That’s why they designed the ones meant for shifters with silver. It was our one weakness, and they took advantage of that as much as they could.

Having not found Toboe on the ground floor, I leapt up to the second. I vaulted over the iron railing and walked down the line until I finally saw the familiar blond hair of my beta. He was sitting on a cot in the back of the cell and when he saw me, he grinned.

“About time, Lawson,” he chided quietly, and I chuckled.

“I should have just left you here,” I smirked.

“Then who would you have to tell you that you look pretty every day?” he answered, and I snorted in response.

“Keep it up, Toboe. I’ve been thinking about promoting Genzo anyway,” I answered, and Genzo chuckled by my side.

“Liar. I’m irreplaceable,” Toboe grinned, and I just shook my head.

“What do you think, Genzo? Want to get out of here and find someplace to enjoy a nice steak?” I asked.

“Steak? Fuck, yeah. I always say yes to a good piece of beef,” Genzo replied, and Toboe glared at me, but his eyes sparkled with his amusement.

Toboe would always be my second in command, no matter how much shit he gave me.

Being a beta was in his blood, just like being an alpha was in mine.

No matter how useful Genzo was, he was an omega and that meant he was at the bottom of the pack hierarchy, and he would always answer to the two of us.

“The bars are silver,” Toboe pointed out.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Genzo grinned as he reached into his bag. “It’s not like I was planning on pulling out the bars one by one with my goddamn hands.”

Toboe shook his head. He hadn’t stopped smirking.

Beside each cell was a digital panel that operated the door, opening and closing the cell with a code. Genzo would have to hack it to free Toboe. Firepower wasn’t going to work here. He’d need a more subtle approach so that my beta didn’t get hurt in the process.

“Get it done, Genzo,” I finally ordered, and at once my men got down to business.

Feeling a bit inquisitive, I walked down the line of vampire and shifter inmates, but I didn’t recognize any of them.

Some of them snarled at me, others looked on in curiosity, and yet others just trash-talked the Crescent Moon Pack as I walked by.

I wasn’t surprised by that. As the alpha of my pack, I was quite identifiable.

I would have been more shocked if they hadn’t known who I was.

At the end of the line, I came by an unexpected surprise.

A human female.