Pregnant for The Hollow Alpha

on the f

ime thi

personally betrayed me. My heart was slamming. My hands were shaking. And on my right palm fou

the i

outh and breathed through my n

thing but the feeling of it. Dark. Fast. The sound of something enormous moving through trees. And eyes. Amber

at

ed at

rs over the mar

st needed to stop sleeping, apparen

dy awake when I

onally haunted, up before dawn, asleep after midnight, always in his chair

oked like he

id, without lookin

m f

ways sa

I'm alw

pecific expression he got when he knew something I didn't and was deciding whether to tell m

ing to thin

o bed, Ari

d before. I'm

to the fire.

down. I went

ing. I'd grown up with that sound. I'd learned to sleep through it, learned to ignore the way the forest moved when nothing was

village knew that. Old and strange and full

als. Odd weather. The way sound tr

nning to r

t the forest w

hat had been moving and stopped all at once. Like every creatu

und the wi

erek said

omething o

hing out there. That'

fferent

se. "

r a sight. It was a feeling, low in my chest, behind

n't say anything and I was losing my m

away from

oved at the

t had chosen to stop moving rather than something that had never started. A figure at t

ers

d been there for a while

od wen

figure

ng the moonlight. Not the dull reflection of ordinary eyes. Something brighter

be

r as the eyes

on the door before I made th

on his feet. "Do

ened

hit me li

f frost stiff grass between our back door and the tree l

figure was

which meant they'd moved while I was coming through the do

first thing my hand found. A kitchen

y best plan. I'm saying

ng to do much,"

who had absolutely no business being this calm a

back,"

ghtly, just enough in the way you tilted your hea

o go back ins

you are and why you're st

der, not harder, but with a sudden urgent edge underneath

ell him exactly where

e fores

outward, surrounding the clearing in a sound that hit me somewhere below the reasoning par

rned toward t

mid twenties. Dressed in dark clothing that looked like it had spent a lot of time in forests. His hands were at his sides, perfec

ist, a mark. Dark lines, deta

ulsed on my

oked

neath the blood from the claw marks, underneath the skin, a warmth I

g was gett

see them clearly amber, burning, exactly like the eyes in my dream and the

when they arrive." He took one step toward me. I raised the knife

in my garden at t

," he said. "And tonight my cover is blown, which means you have about sixty sec

wling

a dec

t wit

ead of me by three steps, moving through the dark like he'd done it a thousand times, which he probably had. I kep

est felt different with

ing attention to me specifically, like the

was adrenaline. It was

cottage. He pressed himself against the stone, listening. I pre

ing had

was

e close enough to not

rocessing the dark around us. At the mark on his wrist that I could see more clearly no

ist b

e said, low. "They'll search for it

pack of wolves looking for me and what the hell that mark on your wrist is, because I have one t

oked

ugh his expression that wasn't pure focus. Something almost startl

o

is Kael,"

l wh

. "Kael

meant not

e wolves?

r exactly one s

sent them

t him. "Yo

es

a wolf

es

my h

es

you'r

"Which is significantly harder w

hut

econds, which was my absolute

the second we'r

catching those amber irises and a pack of wolves somewhere behind

th moved. Not quite a

," he

gh the forest that avoided the eastern path entirely. He checked the c

in his hand and an expression that cycled through rel

urpri

sed to see this m

of shock on his face. At the iron poker

ow him,

said n

know

ia.

m, how long has he been out there, and what exa

t the po

had been putting off a conversation for e

ook the iron key fr

fe. The one that opened the

own,"

want to s

cracked slightly o

at

to the ce

e key in

old you the night you were born." He turned the ke

m wh

g open. Cold air ros

d one eye clouded and both of them carrying eighteen ye

t. That's what

h," he said. "