Chapter 6
6
M elvale landed, to the shock of a few bystanders across the street, and took off at a run. He crossed the next street and kept going. He had her scent, and his mind was consumed with finding her. He ran the length of the block, his body fighting against something… foreign. But no matter, even with something hindering him, he could feel the power beginning to pulse through him. He would find her, and no one would dare stop him.
He crossed the next street, dodging cars and kept going, running up a residential block of brownstones. Angry shouts and honking horns followed, but he didn’t care. He had to find her.
Melvale caught her scent again and came to a stop. He sniffed the air, his head snapping to the building next to him. He growled low in his throat and bared his teeth, fangs descending. He ran up the steps and almost stumbled. Kwaku, this was his fault. Melvale remembered him giving him something to drink…
He growled again, opened the leaded glass door to the building, entered the vestibule, then opened the second door. Inside he sniffed the air, caught her scent coming from down a hall, and headed that way.
Something nagged at him as he followed his mate’s scent to a door at the end of the hall. He ignored the niggling as his vision blurred, and he blinked a few times, trying to get his bearings. Thankfully, her scent was still strong. He’d found her!
Melvale put his hand on the doorknob, turned it, and the door opened to a set of stairs that disappeared into blackness. But it didn’t matter, her scent was even stronger, and he could sense things in the dark. He had no weapons, but that didn’t matter either. He’d kill anyone that kept him from his mate.
He took the first step, then the second, and again almost stumbled. Whatever Kwaku gave him was still working. Running only pushed any remaining drug through his body. But would it also burn it off? Is that why he still had his wits about him? Or did he?
The Alpha side of him was driving him to find her, take her, get her as far away from here as possible and keep her safe. But where would he go?
He descended the stairs, feeling his way, his senses working yet not as they should. It wasn’t until the last few steps that he realized he wasn’t alone. The slamming of the door at the top of the stairs was proof even if he didn’t sense the others.
The lights came on, revealing his surroundings. He was in the building’s basement, his head only an inch from the ceiling. Before he could so much as take in the rest of his surroundings they shot him. The darts came from everywhere as he bared his fangs at his attackers. He grabbed the nearest man and tossed him against a wall. Another came out from behind a pillar and shot, the dart hitting his shoulder. Melvale began pulling the darts out, but his vision was blurring. A memory hit, a beach, darkness, dozens of men in black attacking him. He’d been protecting Prince Vale and… what was the woman’s name?
Melvale blinked and realized he was on his knees. How did he get there?
“Easy, boys, he’s still not out,” a voice called. “But we don’t want to overdo it.”
Another tranquilizer dart hit him in the neck, and Melvale let go a guttural growl of warning. But he couldn’t get up. He thought he had, but no, he now lay on the cold concrete floor, breathing like a winded horse.
“Careful, don’t get too close. And don’t shoot him again. We don’t want to give him too much. Not until we figure out what he can take.”
Melvale’s breathing picked up again, and he struggled to his knees. He could still smell the summery sweet scent of his mate. Where was she?
He growled again and looked around. He was surrounded by men, each with an article of clothing hanging from his belt. Her clothing, no doubt.
Melvale closed his eyes. They’d laid a trap for him, and he’d walked right into it. The nagging he ignored earlier had been a warning.
“Oh, stab me,” he whispered. “You and I, Mr. Alpha, are going to… have a…” he swallowed hard. “Talk.”
The men in black surrounding him looked at each other in confusion.
“Wait for it…” one of them said.
Melvale followed the sound of the voice and looked at a man with dark hair and eyes, wearing a pair of glasses. Melvale narrowed his eyes at him as dizziness took hold, forcing him down. Then everything went black.
“What was that?!” Shona screeched. She spun to Dallan. “He jumped out the window?!”
Dallan ran to the bay window and looked out. The open middle window was larger than the other two. Big enough for one such as Melvale to jump through. He looked down, saw people gathering in front of the building and cursed. “He didna go unnoticed.” Dallan closed the window and turned to Kwaku. “We’ve got to go after him. Hurry.”
“Oh, great, who knows what else he’ll do,” Shona lamented and followed Dallan.
Kwaku and Zara were right behind them as they hurried out the apartment’s door. Halden and Raina must have heard the four coming down the stairs. Halden poked his head out of a door on the first floor. “What happened?”
Dallan was the first to reach him. “Melvale jumped. He’s trying to find her.” He hurried out the building’s front door, the others right behind him. He ignored the people pointing at the fourth-floor window and let his heart search. As soon as Shona, Kwaku and Zara joined him, he nodded at the street corner to his right. “He went this way.”
“Did you see him jump?” a bystander asked. “He landed like a superhero and ran off!”
A woman took a picture of Pari’s building with her phone. “Who can survive that?”
Dallan ignored them and took off at a fast walk. As soon as he crossed the street, he broke into a run. He got halfway down the block and stopped, letting his heart search again. Kwaku came alongside him. “I sense great ill intent, Boyeee.”
Dallan opened his eyes and looked at him. It was the same thing Dallan sensed in Hawaii when they matched Prince Vale and Makama. “This isna good. We canna let them take him!” He took off at a run, his heart searching for Melvale. But he sensed nothing now and stopped at the end of the block.
Zara and Shona were at his side, their expressions grim. “Where is he?” Shona asked.
They heard a siren, saw an ambulance traveling up the next block through stopped traffic, and disappear out of sight. Dallan looked at Kwaku in horror. “I canna sense him at all. It’s as if he just disappeared.”
“Den Melvale and de Alpha in him have been subdued.” Kwaku gazed at the street. “Dis is my fault. I never should have let him come.”
“But we took precautions,” Zara said.
He looked his mate in the eyes. “Not enough. He got away from us and is now gone. Unconscious. It is de only explanation. De drug I gave him was strong, but not enough to knock him out, not even after his chasing after the scent of his mate.” He studied his surroundings. “No doubt whomever took her, has also taken Melvale.”
Dallan’s eyes went wide. “Say it isna so, heathen.”
Kwaku gave him a grave look. “We must get dem back, Boyeee.”
Shona’s hands flew to her mouth to stifle a gasp. “This is terrible. How are we to find them?”
Zara put an arm around her. “We found Princess Raina and Captain Kolbeck. We will find Melvale and his mate. But if they keep him drugged, it will make it more difficult.” She looked down the street. “This way.” She began walking.
Dallan noticed the small group of people that followed them. Some were pointing phones their way, taking pictures. “Kwaku…”
Kwaku followed his gaze and shook his head. “Dis is not good.”
“Let’s not give them anything to look at,” Shona suggested. She wrapped her arm around one of Dallan’s and followed Zara.
They walked another block, and it wasn’t long before their followers wandered elsewhere. Zara crossed the street to the next block and stopped halfway down in front of a three-story residence. It was smaller than the building where Pari lived, and Dallan could sense Melvale had been here. “Let’s go.” He went up the stairs to the heavy leaded glass door and opened it. The second door opened as well, and he looked over his shoulder at the others. Halden told them the second door of such buildings were always locked.
The four filed inside, and Shona looked up the stairs in front of them. “This is a brownstone with apartments. Do you think he’s in one of them?”
Kwaku closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them. “Dis way.” He went down a hall to a door at the end. “He was here. Der were odars as well.”
“Aye, I feel them,” Dallan agreed. He looked at the door in front of them and opened it.
“A basement?” Shona asked as she took his hand. “Where’s the light switch?”
“Perhaps down there,” Zara said.
Dallan put Shona behind him and started down the stairs. “Stay close, Flower.”
She did and let him lead the way.
He reached the bottom and could smell an odd scent. “Find the lights.”
“I found dem,” Kwaku said. There was a click, and the lights came on. Shona gasped. “Oh, Dallan, no.”
The four stared at the cement floor. It was littered with more than a dozen tranquilizer darts.
“Looks like they were in a hurry to get out of here. No doubt they’ll send someone to clean this up,” Dallan said. He bent to the floor and picked up a dart. “Poor Melvale. How many of these d’ye think they got into him?”
“Enough to take him,” Zara said. “And hopefully not so many that they do him harm.”
Kwaku also picked up a dart. “Dese men do not know what dey are dealing wid. If Melvale’s Alpha takes over, dey will have to keep him heavily drugged.”
“Or what?” Shona asked.
Kwaku gave her a matter of fact look. “He will kill dem.”
She gasped. “Melvale?”
Kwaku nodded. “Dey have his mate, my treasure. If dey harm her, or even so much as frighten her, he will eliminate dem.”
Shona put an arm around Dallan. “That’s horrible.”
“No, it isna,” Dallan said. “Not in this case. The Alpha side of him is controlled by pure instinct, is it no?”
“Yes, Boyeee,” Kwaku said. “Dese are bad men. Very bad. If Melvale eliminates dem, den so be it.”
“What do they want?” Shona asked.
Kwaku took on a grave look. “If my guess is right, all of us.” He stood to his full height and headed for a door on the other side of the room. It, too, was unlocked and he opened it.
“It’s the backyard of the building,” Shona stated.
“Aye, and look.” Dallan nodded at an open gate in a chain link fence that separated this yard from the next. There was another gate, and it led into an alley between two buildings that faced the next block over. He looked at the space between the buildings, and most of the backyards were separated by the same sort of chain link fencing.
“Oh, no,” Shona breathed.
Dallan took her hand and headed for the gate leading to the alley. “They must have brought him out this way.”
“To a waiting vehicle,” Shona added. She looked up at Dallan. “I have a bad feeling. A very bad one.”
“Aye, lass, as do I.” He looked at Kwaku. “They’ll no kill him, will they?”
“No, but dey will do unspeakable tings to Melvale and his mate de longer dey have dem. And if dey dink she has no value and kill her, den it is only a matter of time before Melvale dies.”
“So, they need to bond, in some way,” Shona said.
“Yes, little treasure. He must bond wid her, den mark her as his. Dat is letting nature take its course. Den de two sides of Melvale will complete de merge into one man.”
“How does this Alpha bond?” Dallan asked.
Kwaku shrugged. “A Muiraran Alpha wants to pursue his mate. He hunts or searches for her, captures her, plays wid her… it is like a game.”
“Like flirting?” Shona said.
Kwaku shrugged again. “Someting like dat. Dey bond drough play.” He looked up and down the street. “An Alpha is not a mindless brute. He wants to win her. Make her happy.”
Shona nodded. “And during this process, the Alpha and Melvale begin to merge, like you said before?”
“Yes,” Kwaku said. “But Melvale and his mate must be able to touch one another. Dat initiates de bonding. And he must win her.”
Shona’s eyes widened. “She can walk away, can’t she? She’s not bound to him by pain.”
Kwaku gave her a grave nod. “Yes, my little treasure. She can reject him.”
“Then the sooner we find them, the better,” Dallan said. “Let’s see how far we can follow them, then fetch some help.” He looked down at Shona, kissed her, then took her by the hand and set off.