Read The Alpha's Hunger for Free Online

for past twenty-four hours.
    It’s almost over. Then Melissa will be safe and you can go to the police and tell Mr. Stone what you’ve done.
    She took the elevator to the third floor of the parking garage and got off. Clutching the satchel to her chest, she walked forward, toward the northwest corner. She had parked her car there that morning just to familiarize herself with the area. The cement walls echoed with her footsteps, the smell of exhaust and gasoline oppressive. The lot seemed empty—no other cars, no people, nothing. She stood and waited. Had she heard the time or place wrong? No, the words were still echoing in her mind. Third floor, northwest corner of the lot. She opened her car door and sat down on the seat with the door standing open. Sweat trickled down her ribs. She thought she heard a door close, but when she looked around, she only saw the stairwell door, and no one was near it.
    Time ticked by. Five minutes, then ten.
    God, she hoped Melissa was okay.
    Suddenly, she heard the sound of a car coming up the ramp. She stood up and took the laptop out of the satchel, her hands clumsy. The satchel dropped to the ground and she left it, craning her neck to get a look at the car.
    A dark blue sedan approached. It was old and junky. She didn’t know what she’d expected, but it had definitely been something more impressive. A Humvee or something. She took a few steps forward to show herself.
    The car stopped and three men got out. She tried to see in the darkened windows for another person. Where was Melissa? The men walked toward her. They were young men—scruffy-looking, with tattooed arms and piercings. They wore t-shirts and jeans and they palmed guns.
    “Where’s Melissa?” she called out.
    “You got the laptop?” one of them asked as they drew closer.
    “Maybe,” she said, clutching it to her chest and backing toward her car. As if she had any chance of not giving it to them when they were armed and it was three against one. “Where’s Melissa?”
    “She’s in the car. Give us the laptop and you can see her.” They had backed her up to her car now, surrounding her.
    “I want to see her first.”
    One of them cocked his gun and held it up to her temple, pushing hard against her skull. “Hand it over,” he said as his friend grabbed it and tried to pry it from her chest.
    “No,” she said struggling.
    The guy with the gun smacked her head with it and she fell back against the car. She lost her grip on the laptop and one of them snatched it away.
    Another one grabbed her arm and yanked her forward. “You’re coming with us, honey,” he said.
    A terrible snarl sounded from the other side of her car and suddenly a huge black animal leaped over the car, gleaming white teeth snapping. Its jaws closed over the neck of the man holding her and they both tumbled to the ground, the beast snarling and growling as they rolled together. Gunshots rang out from both directions, and the animal yelped and let go, but sprang to its feet, crouching to attack another man. The men continued to fire at the animal, the sound ricocheting around the concrete parking garage. Screaming blared in her ears—her own voice, she realized. The laptop had fallen to the ground and she grabbed it and took off running for their car. If her sister was in it, she needed to get to her.
    The animal launched at her, knocking her down. She screamed, expecting it to move in for the kill, but instead it turned, lunging at one of the men.
    “Let’s go, let’s get out of here,” one of them yelled, helping up the most severely wounded and dragging him toward their car.
    She climbed to her feet to follow, but the wolf—or whatever it was—turned and snarled, blood dripping from its muzzle. She took a step back. It snarled again, blocking her way, then it chased the remaining man, tackling him once, but then taking another gunshot wound that left it lying as the man jumped in the driver’s seat and the car screeched