The Alphas’ P**n Star Mate

I hesitated, weary of his touch. It was a kind, gentlemanly gesture, but something about his hand stretched towards me made my stomach turn. "Estel, this feels like a trap," Kai urged. "Even Rodger is saying to call it. Beau too. Nothing about this seems right."

That pull tugged and pulled deep in my soul. My heart was beating wildly. Not from fear of going down into the dark basement, but at the thought of not and risking never finding out what this pull was trying to take me too. "Not yet," I told Kai. "I have to do this."

With a new found confidence, I took his hand. Mr. Smith gripped it firmly, a sly smile on his face.

"My dear. Watch your step."

A deep hissing vibrated in the air, throwing me off. Where was it coming from?

Then I looked at his cane, pressed to the step below us, descending before us. Mr. Smith was using it to balance, gripping it tightly. Almost as tightly as he was gripping my hand. When I stared at the ornamental snake head in his grasp, the jeweled eyes gleamed. It was like a sudden flashing of light on the black jewels.

THUMP THUMP.... THUMP THUMP....

My heart was hammering. What I having a heart attack?

No. Not my heart. The necklace was thumbing against my throat. I gasped, looking to Mr. Smith on my right, but his eyes were fixed downward. His smile looked more sinister in the dimness of the stairwell. His grip felt too tight. Uncomfortably so. When I tried to pull my hand free, he didn't lessen his hold. He didn't even flinch, or acknowledge what it was I was trying to do.

When we reached the bottom of the saints, he still didn't let go. He pulled me along as I struggled to get free.

"Estel! Get out of there!"

Kai's panicked voice was what broke me into full terror.

"I, uh, I think I need to go make a phone call," I started to pull against Mr. Smith with more force. He still didn't release me.

"Oh, Miss Steele. I think we both know that you don't."

"I do," I begged. "Damn it. Let me go."

"Not quite yet," he chuckled, the sound devoid of any real humor. It was a sick, menacing sound that made my skin crawl. The necklace was thumping wildly. I needed to get out of here. "What do I do? Shift?"

"Help is on the way!" Kai reassured me. "Hold on. We're coming!"

"This," Mr. Smith dragged me along, waving to a vast room with giant machines to the left, "is the laundry room. If you need a picture, Miss Steele, I would hurry. There is so much more to see." "Please, Mr. Smith," I resorted to begging. "Why are you doing this?"

"Whatever do you mean?" His dark eyes looked back at me, glimmering in the little light shining in the flood lights up above. His eyes looked like his snake cane's. It was off-putting. Evil. "Please. My friends...."

"Ah," he chuckled darkly. "Do you mean those individuals who have been watching from the hill?"

The Alpha behind us growled deeply, and the Luna shrieked. Her shrill voice was like nails on a chalkboard.

"We were being watched?!" She yelled. "You knew?!"

"I know now," he smirked. "This woman just confirmed it when she called me Mr. Smith."

"Shit," I hissed. Do I shift? Do I fight my way out of here? That Alpha was ready to tear me apart. I suspect Mr. Smith was the only reason he hadn't yet.

"Where is he taking you?" Kai asked desperately.

"I don't know!"

Why? Why didn't I listen to him before? I could have shifted and found a way out. Ada was fast. She could have outrun them long enough to get to the others. There was no escaping this. There were too many behind me, and Mr. Smith in front. There was no escape for me now. "Hurry!"

"We're coming!" Kai shouted.

I was still struggling while I was being dragged, but crying and screaming for them to let me go.

But then Ada's words stopped my struggle flat.

"Do... Do you smell that?"

Then it hit me. The scent of figs and cinnamon. Like my favorite homemade preserves from when I was a kid, when my grandma was still alive. It brought tears to my eyes.

Ada whimpered, and our fight was done. He was dragging us towards that scent, and death was a price I was willing to pay to find its source.

"I can't believe you knew we were being watched and didn't tell me!" The Luna stomped behind us. "What are we going to do?! If she really has friends watching...."

"Quiet!" Mr. Smith snapped, his friendly facade crumbling. "Take her away! Prepare to fight! They will be coming soon."

"You don't get to....!" She started to sputter. "You.... YOU MADE ME PROMISES! I WANT HIM! I WANT HIM!"

"Take her away!" Mr. Smith commanded the Alpha, and to my surprise, he listened. He picked his kicking and screaming mate up and retreated with her over his shoulder. "Open the door!" he yelled at a guard up ahead. The heavy door swung outward, then the scent smacked me to delirium.

I felt like a ragdoll when Mr/s Smith tossed me into the room. I fell at the feet of a chair with a crumpled, unconscious man tied to it. My eyes widened in heart-broken horror.

"Mate," Ada whimpered.

It was our mate, broken and beat up, tied to a chair in this torturous basement room.

Our mate. Boyd, the man I was sent to help save, is my mate.