Chapter 235

I could hear Asher’s and his wolf’s thoughts as clearly in my head as if they were sitting next to me.

Mine. Mine. Return to me. Cynthia!

He was crazed, succumbed to his more instinctual wolf half. His feelings, more than even his words, beat into me like a battering ram. His desperation. His fear. His anger.

In wolf form, he kept pace behind the SUV. Then, on a straight piece of road, he moved faster, coming along beside the car.

“Don’t let him get in front of us,” the investigator snapped to the driver.

The driver swerved erratically to the left, nearly sideswiping Asher. Asher dodged away just in time, and the SUV sheered the front of a park bench instead.

Inside, I hadn’t had time to put on my seatbelt, so I flew to the side as the car. I wrapped my arms around my baby bump just in time, but even within me, Lilith was struggling.

“We can’t keep this up,” she warned.

Asher backed off then, like he could tell he was endangering us. He stayed behind us, though, never more than a few feet away from the back bumper of the car.

He followed us the entire way further into the city and to a large brick windowless building that had to be the research facility.

The SUV veered left into an underground parking garage below the building. A gate began to descend immediately behind us, but Asher ducked under it with ease before it could fully close.

Immediately, the investigator had his phone to his ear. “That’s right. An Alpha with the strength ability has given chase. We need all the available backup. The package is Class A. The King won’t give her up so easily. Use lethal force if necessary.”

“No!” I reached forward, trying to snatch the phone from the investigator’s ear, but the goon beside me, gripped me by the shoulder and slammed me back into my seat.

At the end of the parking lot, near a metal elevator, the SUV skidded to a stop.

The goon beside me roughly grabbed my arm and pulled me from the car.

Asher was already there, blocking our path to the elevator. His wild eyes zeroed in on where the goon’s grip was biting into my arm. His deep grow was a low, dangerous rumble.

“Do not interfere, Asher,” the investigator said as he rounded the car to stand beside his two goons and me. “This is the King’s official business. To stand in our way is treason.”

Asher growled louder. He didn’t move.

For a moment, we were at a standoff. Asher eyed the goons, and the goons eyed them.

Then, the elevator behind Asher dinged open, and more goons in the same black suits poured out. At least a dozen of them surrounded Asher. Two, when they saw him in wolf-form, shifted themselves. Their wolves weren’t as big as Asher.

My stomach twisted with worry. Individually, Asher could take on any one of these men, but combined, he might be overwhelmed by their sheer number.

They moved at once. The goons jumped in as Asher lashed out. Asher snapped at wayward hands and tackled those that dared approach him. Someone grabbed the back of his neck, but he twisted sharply, slinging the attacker over his shoulder, down to the ground.

Asher didn’t kill anyone, but he rendered plenty of them unconscious. More sustained bite wounds or tears from Asher’s massive claws.

Then, one came up behind Asher, holding a bat.

I tried to dash forward, desperate to help, but the investigator grabbed my arm, holding me back and keeping me out of the fray.

“Asher!” I cried out.

Just in time, Asher glanced behind him, saw the bat, and grabbed it in his mouth. He crunched down and the bat shattered in half. Then he pounced toward the attacker, digging in his front paws to the man’s chest. The man flung backwards under the force of Asher’s strength.

Eventually, the fight came to a standstill. Most of the attackers were on the ground or inching backwards, afraid of the werewolf before him, the one they had been ordered to stop.

Asher was standing tall. He panted a little, but was otherwise unharmed – or perhaps, too determined to show any hint of exhaustion or weakness.

Slowly, Asher shifted back into his human form. Without his fur, his wounds were more obvious. Bruises and scrapes covered his body, though all seemed superficial. At least, he wasn’t favoring any of them, even now as a human again.

He was also totally naked, something that would have otherwise interested me, but right now, all I could think about was how vulnerable he was…

Against the gun the investigator had produced from under his jacket and now held pointed at Asher’s chest.

A gun with regular bullets would hurt Asher but wouldn’t be able to kill him. As crazed as he was, it might not even slow him down.

The investigator would know that. Which meant that the gun likely had silver bullets.

Silver bullets could kill a werewolf.

“Please,” I whispered. “Don’t hurt him.”

“He won’t be hurt, so long as he stands aside.”

When Asher spoke, his voice was rough, like his vocal chords were still trapped in the transition. “I will never stand aside.”

“Asher,” I said, pleading. I loved that he was so protective of me, but I didn’t want to see him get hurt, or killed.

He looked at me, and held my gaze prisoner with his ocean eyes.

“Don’t,” I whispered, breaking my own heart. I hated the thought of being parted from him.

“We can’t be separated,” Asher said to me. He blinked slowly, then looked at the investigator. “Nothing will keep me from her.”

“A few silver bullets might,” the investigator said, confirming my worst suspicions.

“You don’t want to shoot down an Alpha, or you would have done it already.”

“Don’t press me, young man,” the investigator said, but I could see in the way his finger wasn’t even on the trigger that Asher was right.

Alphas were highly regarded. To kill one with silver would be a faux pas of national proportion. The investigator would be on every news channel for a month, unless they covered it up.

“Please. I cannot leave her side. Even if that means I must enter the facility with her.” Asher swallowed hard. “Please let us stay together.”

The investigator tilted his head. “Why would you willingly enter the facility for this girl? You are an Alpha. The very world is at your fingertips.”

Asher stood tall, shoulders back and head lifted. He stared down the investigator, despite the gun in his hand. Somehow his biggest fear seemed not to be the man or the silver bullets in his gun, but the idea of being separated from me.

Asher wasn’t pleading for his life. He wasn’t begging to be led go. He just wanted to be with me.

My entire heart melted into a warm gooey puddle on the floor. I loved Asher so much. I didn’t want to be apart from him either.

“Why would you do this?” the investigator asked again.

This time, Asher answered as proud as anything, “Cynthia is my true soulmate.”

The investigator stilled. His eyes went wide. He glanced at me. “Is this true?”

I nodded at once. “Yes.”

He didn’t lower the gun, but conflict waged war across his face, twisting his expressions this way and that. Eventually, he just looked tired.

“Shit,” he said.

And I held my breath.