Accidental Surrogate for Alpha

Instinctually, I take a step forward, interposing my body between my mate and

my mate and my brother.

“Oh back off, Dominic,” Roger growls, forcing himself to turn away and stalk to the window, looking for Cora, hoping she’ll magically appear in the driveway. “I’m not going to hurt anyone.”

“You’d better not,” I murmur, leaning back against the mantle.

“I’m going to take Rafe upstairs,” Ella sighs, nodding to the baby, who has finished eating. “See if I

can get him down for a nap.”

I nod to her, watching her carry our little boy out of the room, my heart surging with love for

them. When they’re gone, I turn my attention back to my brother.

“I need you to come back, Roger,” I say, my voice soft. “We need you here.”

“How,” he growls, digging his fingers into the windowsill and not turning towards me. “How can I

concentrate on anything when she hasn’t talked to me for days. And I don’t even know what I did

wrong.”

“Well,” I say after a long pause, considering. “Did you do anything wrong?”

“What?” Rodger spits, spinning on me.

“It’s just a question, Roger,” I say, shrugging and meeting his furious eyes. “Did you do something

to make her question your mating?”

“NO, Dominic!” he shouts. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Well, then there’s your answer,” I reply with a little shrug. “If you didn’t do anything, then it’s all

with her. And your only choice is to keep reaching out, and wait for her to come to you when she’s

ready. There’s literally nothing you can do now except be patient.”

“You’re ridiculous,” he snarls, turning away from me again, desperate.

“You just don’t like the truth,” I reply, sighing. “Because my answer wasn’t ‘go rip the world apart

until you find her, and then sling her over your shoulder so you can more easily carry her home.“”

“Well, yeah,” Roger replies, arrogant and angry. “Obviously that’s what I would do, if I even knew

where she was.”

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I laugh and move over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder that makes him jump a little bit.

But I don’t move away – I’m bigger than he is, anyway. I can take what he throws at me.

“Trust her, Roger,” I say quietly. “She’ll thank you for it, in the end, if you approach this with faith

instead of suspicion. And in the meantime, let me distract you.”

“You just want me to work harder on this cult problem,” he sighs, closing his eyes and hanging

his head, giving into my advice a little bit.

“Just think of it as a puzzle,” I say, slipping my arm around his shoulder and giving him a

steadying little squeeze, “and when you finish it, your reward is that my son doesn’t get

kidnapped! Isn’t that a great prize?”

“Fine,” he sighs, shaking his head and covering his eyes with his hand. “But you get maybe three

hours of this,” he continues, “before I’m out there looking for her again.”

“Okay,” I reply, nodding and lying through my teeth. Because there’s no way I’m letting him

prowl the streets looking for Cora when he’s like this. He’ll completely freak her out, and it sounds

like she’s spooked already. So I turn him, my arm still around his shoulders, towards the door and

we head to the office to sort through the evidence we’ve sorted through a thousand times.

We spend hours doing this, wearing ourselves out looking for loopholes that we haven’t explored

before, calling our interrogative team together to better speculate about the possibilities, when

suddenly, the front door to the house slams open.

Roger is instantly on his feet and moving towards the door, only one person clear on his mind

But I’m more wary, more aware of the possibilities and my muscles bunch as I sprint to get in

front of him, pushing behind me as we reach the office door together so that I can get into the hall

first, just in case it’s a threat –

—

My eyes go dark as I see my reconnaissance team forcing their way in, a black–robed figure trapped in their arms with a sack over his head. I think several things at once, the first being that

they would never, ever come through the first door if they didn’t have to

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And second, that they barely have a hold on him.

“Roger!” I shout, my voice deep with the Alpha’s command. “The door! NOW!”

He realizes instantly that it’s not Cora, but he responds ably, seeing the importance of the moment. Roger sprints past the struggling reconnaissance team to slam the door shut behind them while I stride forward, pushing one of my men aside and slipping behind the priest’s back,

wrapping an arm around his throat and cutting off his air so he can’t breathe.

—

The priest, who cannot see anything at all, struggles hard against me and even though he’s a small man – he must have some magic working on his side to be able to resist me so well. Still, he’s no match for me, and I get one of his hands twisted up behind his back, yanking it so that he

screeches in pain.

“Enough,” I growl in his ear, yanking his arm again so that he whimpers, his arm almost

qualms with breaking each one of your bones before I tear your limbs apart. Am I understood?”

The priest hesitates for a moment but, luckily for him, realizes that he’s been beat. Quickly, he

nods. As he does, I nod to the team to let them know I’ve got him. “Ropes, cuffs,” I command,“

tasers.” Most of them scatter to gather the supplies I order to interrogate our prisoner as I move

forward, pushing the man towards the office where we’ve gathered our intel. Honestly, the

basement would be more convenient, but until we have him contained…

“Dominic,” Roger says, coming to my side as we enter the office and then pulling up a chair so

that I can sink the priest into it when the team comes back, “Let me take charge on this.”

“Can you do it?” I demand, my voice harsh. “Is your head in the right place?”

My brother looks at me steadily and then nods once. “I need this,” he says and I nod as well,

consenting. Honestly, it’s probably better – I’m too close to this, my emotions might get the better

of me –

There’s a fair chance I’m going to snap this priest’s neck from rage if I’m in charge, so Roger…he

really is the right choice, now.

Luckily, before I can act on it, the team floods the room with supplies and together we get the

priest into the chair. He struggles again as my team strap him down but I punch him, hard, across

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the face behind his hood, warning him without words to stop struggling. He cries out in shock and

pain, but we’ve got him now, his arms and legs securely strapped to the chair.

Dominic? Ella’s voice asks, quavering, through our bond. I heard something – what’s going on? Is

everything okay?

Stay upstairs, Ella, I command, sending her a feeling of reassurance as well to let her know that

I’m okay, Roger’s okay. We’ve got a priest. We’re going to ask him a few questions. I’ll tell you

everything – just, stay upstairs. Where it’s safe.

Ella sends me a little pulse of compliance, tinged with fear, and I turn my concentration back to

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