Once he let Della go, she would kill him. “Shh,” he murmured in her ear, barely audible. “You can scream at me once they’re gone.”
After a few more feeble calls, the Omegas tromped back toward the hot springs, their voices dejected as their chatter and scents began to fade. Cal listened intently, all of his Alpha senses tuned to the outside world to survey the threat to those young Omegas and, most importantly,hisOmega.
“I’m gonna let you go”—he kept his volume lower than the aggressive call of a bluejay in a nearby tree—“but you need to be silent. Someone else is out there.”
Della nodded once, and he dropped his hold on her. Immediately, she spun to face him, a tear roaming down her cheek. On tiptoes, she grabbed his scruff and jerked his ear to her mouth. “There’s Alpha scent in the woods!” she whisper-screamed. “They’re indanger.”
“Iknow.” His head pounded. Impatience rolled off her in waves. She clearly wanted to go after the Omegas herself. Or, at the very least, send him to chaperone their return to wherever they left their horses. But leaving the cave risked tainting the air with his scent, which would be obvious to any nefarious Alphas prowling around, not to mention risk having their safe haven discovered and leaving Della vulnerable without protection while he tracked the Omegas.
Fuck. Fuck!
Della’s fists pounded on his chest as she continued to berate him in a harsh whisper. “You have to go help them!” He snagged her fists in one of his own, fixing her with a silencing stare while his brain spun itself in circles.
He had no way of knowing how many Alphas might be sneaking around the dense wood. His instincts told him only one, but he couldn’t verify that for certain. If he left the cave, he could very well be walking into a trap or a fucking ambush. Sure, he could hold his own against one Alpha, maybe two, possibly three... but beyond that? What if he scented a scout and an entire Pack encroached behind him? He’d be held captive or killed, and then who would protect Della?
A tense minute passed. Then the thrashing sound of large bodies moving through brush rustled on the wind. Della froze, her nostrils flaring as Cal sniffed again, getting a choking nose-full of dirty Alpha stink. Color drained from Della’s face.
The sound grew closer. Releasing her fists and holding up a finger, Cal shifted them farther back into the shadow of the cave’s entrance and reached for his knife belt. If he’d had his way, he’d drag Della to the pitch-black back of the cave and leave her there while he investigated. But, knowing the stubborn woman, she’d not only protest, but she’d come out of hiding as soon as he stepped one foot out the door.
His fist clenched around the leather handle of his buck knife in impotent aggravation.God dammit.He hadn’t faced an attack totally alone and unprepared for years, and now he looked down the barrel of one with his Omega at risk.
“Why don’t we grab them now?” an Alpha voice rose up from outside the cave, entirely too close for comfort. Instinctively, Cal pushed Della behind him.
A second voice chimed in, angry and agitated and loud. “That prick has been holding out on us! He said they only hadmatedOmegas in that fucking settlement. Motherfucker lying through his fucking teeth! If they let those two stroll away unnoticed, who knows how many they have?”
“What’re you thinking?”
The coarse susurrus of big feet crunching tender plants ceased as the pissed-off Alpha stopped to think.If he worked any harder at it, he’d hurt himself,Cal thought bitterly.
“Change of plans,” the Alpha said. “We don’t wait to meet up with that prick. We wait till it’s dark, surprise them and take the Omegas and horses for ourselves.”
“And the Alphas? He said they have a dozen or so. We can’t hold off that many.”
An evil chuckle wafted through the air. “They can’t fight us if they’re fighting a fire. We’ll burn the whole fucking place down.”
Della sucked in a gasp, her hand flying over her mouth at the noise she’d made. Cal reached behind and gave her hip a soothing pat. Those two asswipes made so much noise with their mouths and their feet that he sincerely doubted they’d hear anything louder than their own farts.
“And the Omegas back at camp, what’ll we do with them?”
His nerves tensed. These fuckers hadOmegas, too? But they wanted more; they wanted to steal the Morris Hill women and intended to burn the place down to do it. Oh, holy shit, this situation was bad. Really,reallybad.
The plotting bastard grunted. “We’ll have to take them, tie ‘em up and stash them in the woods while we work. They’ll keep their mouths shut if they think they’ll be getting fed.”
The Omegas were hungry, too... Starved? Abused? Imprisoned? He felt sick, all his protective instincts instantly at war with each other. Protect Della, protect the Morris Hill Omegas, protect these nameless, faceless Omegas unfortunate enough to be in a Pack with these two repugnant Alphas.
“Hey.” An ominous pause descended, and Cal held himself stiff, fighting the urge to poke his head out and get a good look at the bastards. “Are you picking up any other Alpha scent? I’m getting something, maybe another Omega, too...”
A long, brittle minute passed while Cal held his breath as if he could keep his own smell locked away by not breathing. If he could track those Alphas, they could likewise track him right to the cave. Once Della’s Heat arrived, he hadn’t been especially careful to hide his tracks as he’d gone to and fro. Silently, he cursed himself.Sloppy.
“Eh,” the leader grunted in response. Feet crashing through the underbrush again, his voice started to fade. “We’re close to those hot springs, so it’s probably leftover from whoever boiled their balls in there today. Come on. Those Omegas are long gone. Let’s head back to camp.”
The Alphas continued on their way, heading north away from the cave, but instead of relief, a tight throb pulsed at the base of Cal’s skull. The information avalanche of the last few minutes promised an almighty headache: Omegas ambling unprotected, searching for Della and coming uncomfortably close to finding her; rogue Alphas planning a merciless attack; someone—Cal suspected he knew who—in league with the rogues and feeding them information about Morris Hill.
All of it enough to make his stomach cramp with worry.
Della, his not-yet-claimed Omega, shook behind him.Shewas the priority, he reminded himself, and that clarified things. He needed to think of a way through this mess. None of it would touch his mate, not while he lived.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR