Read Alpha Omega 02 - Hunting Ground for Free Online Page B

One,” Charles said.
    â€œHey, Jer,” came a worried and thin voice from above them. “You don’t go bothering them, or the police’ll have us outta here. You know they will.”
    The troll in human guise held the bit of gold up to his nose and smelled. His face twitched, and his eyes swirled with an eerie blue light before they settled down and became just eyes again. “Toll,” he said. “Toll.”
    â€œJerry?”
    â€œNo troubles, Bill,” he called up to his . . . what . . . friends? His roommates, his bridgemates, who were more human than he. “Jest saying good afternoon.”
    He looked at Charles, and for a moment an oddly noble expression crossed his face, his back straightened, shoulders thrown back. In a clear, accentless voice he said, “Word of advice for your payment. Don’t trust the fae.” He laughed again, devolving into the man who’d greeted them in the first place, and scrambled up the hill and under the bridge.
    Charles didn’t say anything, but Anna slid off her perch and followed him back to the car.
    â€œAre trolls really as big as that statue?” she asked, belting herself in.
    â€œI don’t know,” Charles answered. And smiled at the startled look she gave him. “I don’t know everything. I’ve never seen a troll in its true form.”
    She started the car. “A toll is supposed to be for crossing his bridge. We didn’t cross the bridge.”
    â€œBut we were trespassing. It seemed appropriate.”
    â€œWhat about the advice he gave?”
    He smiled again, his face lit with amusement. “You know what they say, ‘Don’t trust the fae.’ ”
    â€œOkay.” It was a common piece of advice. The first thing people said and the main point of most stories about them. “Especially when they tell us not to, I suppose. Where to now?”
    â€œBack down the Troll road. See those docks down there? Dana lives on a houseboat at the foot of the troll.”

    HE’d only visited Dana at her home once before, but Charles had no trouble finding it again: it didn’t exactly blend in.
    There were four docks; three of them had a number of boats of various kinds secured to them. The fourth had only one. A houseboat two stories tall, it looked like a miniature Victorian mansion, complete with gingerbread trim in every color of an ocean sunset: blue and orange, yellow and red.
    Dana brought hiding in plain sight to a new level. None of her neighbors, except the fae themselves, knew what she was. She was powerful enough that she had been allowed to choose to expose herself or not—and she’d chosen to continue hiding.
    Charles was powerful, too. But he had no choice.
    â€œThis is it?” Anna asked, “It looks exactly like something a fairy should live in.”
    â€œWait until you see the inside,” he told her.
    For nearly two centuries he had been trekking along happily . . . or at least contentedly, down a straight path. His life had always been about serving his Alpha, who was both his father and the Marrok, in whatever capacity he was needed.
    When his father had told him what he intended, had told him he needed wolves to give a public face to the werewolf, wolves Bran could trust not to screw up in public, Charles had agreed to be one of them. Not that it would have mattered if he’d refused; in the end a wolf obeyed his Alpha or he killed him. And Charles knew with an absolute certainty that left him content that he would never be able to take on his father.
    But that had been before Anna. Now his life was about her, about keeping her safe. As much as he agreed with his father about what the proper course of action to follow was, he and Brother Wolf were both concerned that keeping her safe and presenting himself to the public as a werewolf were not compatible.
    This week, he couldn’t let so much as a breath out that might express his true