"Alpha Marshall sent me."
Kye
liked the deep voice that replied but he did not like the idea that Alpha
Marshall sent anyone. Kye hadn't liked the alpha since the moment he met him.
The disdainful glare the alpha had given him and his family made Kye's skin
crawl.
Considering that he was in another pride's territory, keeping the door shut
wasn't an option. He'd have to let the man inside. But that didn't mean he had
to do it alone.
"Please wait." Before the man could reply, Kye hurried across the room and
knocked on his brother's door. A moment later, a bleary eyed Kumiko answered
the door a moment later, rubbing his eyes. Kye didn't even wait for his
brother to say anything. He just grabbed him by the wrist and started dragging
him toward the door. "Hurry, Kumiko, the alpha has sent someone to speak with
us."
Kumiko's eyes were huge as he looked down at Kye and then at the door. "Alpha
Marshall?"
"Yes."
"At
this hour?"
"Yes." Kye made a shooing motion with his hands. "Now go. I'll wake Yuji."
Kye
heard his older brother stumble toward the door as he hurried to the room he
shared with his other brother, Yuji. There were three of them, and Kye was the
youngest of all of them. Kumiko was the oldest and Yuji was born second. They
still treated Kye like the baby of the family even though he was twenty three
years old.
"Yuji, wake up and get dressed."
"Wake me in a couple of hours," Yuji murmured as he tried to bury his head in
his blankets. "It's not even light out yet."
Kye
rolled his eyes and hurried to get Yuji's clothes together, and then tossed
them onto his brother's twin bed. "Get dressed, Yuji. Alpha Marshall sent men
to talk with us."
"What?" Yuji exclaimed as he jack knifed in bed. He blinked, and then rubbed
his eyes, then blinked again. "He did what?"
"Alpha Marshall sent some men to talk to us. I suspect our time here in this
town has come to an end." Kye pulled his faded jeans up his legs and then
buttoned them before reaching for his sweater. "Get dressed and help me gather
our stuff. I don't know how much time we have before they kick us out."
As
soon as Kye was dressed, he rushed around the room and gathered their stuff,
shoving it into the bags they had brought. He had done this before. He knew
the routine. Grab the most important items first—their identification,
laptops, their crafts and supplies, and their money. After that came the
clothes and hygiene items. They weren't as important as their craft items.
While his brother was getting dressed, Kye set the packed bags on the bed and
crept over to the door. He cracked it open and peeked through the small slit
in the door to the main room of their hotel suite.
Three men stood talking with his brother, Kumiko, and they were the biggest
men Kye had ever seen. Kumiko looked like a child standing next to them, which
would make Kye look like a toddler as he was several inches shorter than his
brother.
Kye
paled when he realized one of the men was looking directly at him. He'd been
caught, plain and simple. He felt his face go from ashen to pink. He glanced
over his shoulder at his brother to see him tying his shoes. Good, they could
run if they had to. It wouldn't be anything new. They had had to do it before.
Kye
never understood that.
They
followed the rules set down by the council. They never went into another
alpha's territory without presenting themselves and requesting the customary
five day leave time. Usually, they were allowed to stay for the allotted time
but a couple of times they had immediately been run out of town. Once, they
had actually been hunted as they ran.
Kye
really hoped this wasn't such an occasion.
Kye
opened the door and stepped out, hoping to learn what was going on. The more
prepared he was, the easier it would be to escape. As he stepped into the
small hallway between the room he shared with Yuji and Kumiko's room, he ran
smack into the hardest wall he had ever hit. Large hands grabbed him before he
could fall back onto the floor.
"Whoa, I have you."
Kye's eyes snapped up at the deeply rumbled tone, and then up some more. He
had to tilt his head all of the way back to see into the large man's face. "My
apologies," Kye said quickly, afraid he was about to be squashed like a bug.
"I was not looking where I was…going."
Gods, what was that wonderful smell?
It
was divine. Kye sniffed the air. He glanced around, sniffing some more as he
tried to pinpoint exactly where that intoxicating scent was coming from. He
had never smelled anything so wonderful in his life. It was like a combination
of mountain air and jasmine.
"No
apologies needed, little bit." The man chuckled. "I hope I didn't hurt you."
"No,
not at all." Kye smiled as much as he could considering the state he was in.
His skin was suddenly tight and itching. He felt an almost overwhelming need
to rub his hands up and down his arms. "Please, excuse me. I must speak with
my brother."
And
find out where that wonderful scent was coming from.
When
Kye went to step around the massive wall of flesh standing in front of him, he
realized that he couldn't. The man's shoulders were almost as wide as the
hallway. Kye felt flustered. There was no way that he could move the man on
his own. And if the stranger decided not to move, Kye couldn't do anything
about it.
"Excuse me, please," Kye tried again. His mother always said politeness was
best when in a tough situation, and they didn't get much tougher than this.
"My
apologies this time, little bit." The man slid to the side but there was still
barely enough room for Kye to squeeze past. "I was just a little astonished
that you have no scent. I was under the impression that you were a white
Bengal tiger."
Kylle's breath caught in his throat as he slowly raised his widened eyes to
the man standing beside him. He licked his lips as he tried to form the words
that where hanging on his tongue.
"You"—Kye suddenly had a fist sized lump in his throat—"you can't smell me?"
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