Page 128 of The Reluctant Alpha

I screamed, one hand flying to my stomach protectively as I jerked away from the sudden intrusion. A man stood there, backlit by my truck's interior light, and my mind stuttered, trying to reconcile what I was seeing with what I knew to be true.

But it didn’t make sense. He was dead. Christopher Valentine, Emery’s dad, was dead.

I tried not to hyperventilate as realization washed over me. Christopher Valentine was a con artist. A pathetic human being that had tried to blackmail his own son before fleeing to the bears because he thought he could use them.

"Good boy," Christopher said, his voice unnaturally smooth as he reached over and took the keys.

I gazed at his face, my knowledge of vampires making me realize what I was seeing. The signs of age smoothed out. The unblemished skin. Then I put it together.

"You—" I choked out, "You're Shane's boss."

His smile was cold, nothing like the charming facade he'd worn when I'd first met him as Emery's father. His skin had that same unnatural smoothness Shane had described, and his eyes... eww, his eyes were wrong. Not quite silver like Rhys's, but something between—a metallic gray that reflected light in ways human eyes shouldn't.

"Smart boy," he said. "Though not smart enough to stay where it's safe, are you?"

I tried to breathe. "My mom?”

"She’s fine. Just sleeping for a while."

My blood ran cold. "If you've hurt her—"

"I don't want to kill anyone," Christopher interrupted, sounding almost offended. "Well, not anyone but Bayer, anyway." His smile returned, sharper now. "You're simply bait, Danny. The means to an end."

I wondered if I could get to my phone in time. As if reading my thoughts, Christopher reached out with inhuman speed and plucked my phone from the dash.

He crushed it in his fist with disturbing ease. "I'm afraid communication with your furry friends won't be possible."

"What do you want?" I demanded, trying to keep my voice steady despite the terror clawing at my throat. "Why take Ben?"

Christopher's expression darkened. "Ben was...a distraction. The half-breed son of Alessandro, walking around unprotected? Too much of a temptation to distract everyone and get you unprotected."

And I’d played right into his hands. When would I learn?

He leaned closer, his breath cold against my face. "But you, Danny, you're the real prize. The human mate of the bear alpha, carrying his cubs. When Bayer comes for you—and he will—I'll have everything I need."

I felt sick. "This is about revenge? Because it wasn’t the bears that killed you, it was the vampires." And how do you know about the cubs?

Christopher laughed, the sound hollow and wrong. "The bears didn't kill me, Danny. They just left me to die. There's a difference. You wouldn’t believe what I found out here just listening to idle gossip." His eyes slid to my belly, lingered a second before they flashed with something ancient and hateful. "Alessandro found me useful, kept me alive just long enough to learn everything I knew about Emery, about the bears. Then he made me what I am."

"A revenant," I whispered.

“Fuck no,” Christopher curled his lip. “Alessandro left me hanging, but it was Ivan who drained me completely.” Christopher’s lip curled.

I gaped.

"He thought he'd killed me." He leaned forward, and I caught a flash of fangs. I stiffened, panicked, then tried to move, but one hand held me effortlessly as with a sharp sting, both his fangs slid into my neck. Emery thought the silver-skins had killed him.

But he was wrong. Everyone thought there might have been someone else helping Rafael, and it all fit.

Alessandro or whoever hadn’t killed Christopher.

He’d turned him.

Chapter thirty-one

Bayer

The moment I left the packhouse, I knew I'd fucked up. I loved my nephew, but Ben had Phoenix and an entire pack looking for him, and I’d just left my vulnerable mate on his own worrying about his mom. He hadn’t even complained as he’d put Ben before his worries. But this was his mom, and Danny had taken on responsibility for her since his dad died.