Page 25 of Alphas Never Hide

“Whyare you always kicking me?”Irubbed my knee and peered atRyley, who was crawling onto the bed.

“Iwas having such a good sleep,”Ryleygroaned.

Thestrange noise that had woken me pinged again.

Whatwas that?

Ilooked at my phone and saw a light flashing.Right.Thenoise must meanIhad a message.Igot up and scooped up my phone from the counter.Sureenough, a text message notification popped up on the screen.Iglanced at the time.Itwas already seven in the morning.

Thatcouldn’t be right.Inever overslept.Butnow thatIknew the time,Irealized the trailer was brighter than it normally was whenIgot out of bed.Thesun was definitely up.Itapped on the screen to open the message.

Van:Followedthe trail as far as we could.Hita dead end.Searchedaround to see if we could pick it up again.Wedidn’t.Headingback now.Willcome around to talk with you and the faun.Needto get his statement.Goingto grab some sleep now.

Isat on the edge of the bed and stared at the screen.Damnit.Ishould have been out there.Vanand the others were good, butIwas the damn alpha.Mywolf was inherently stronger than the others.

Wait.Whatthe fuck?

Iwasn’t the damn alpha.

Thisshit was messing with my head.Maybeit was a good thingVanhad texted instead of calling me.He’dhave crowed like a rooster if he’d heard those words fall from my mouth.

“What’sgoing on?”Ryleyclimbed onto the mattress and came up behind me to peer over my shoulder at my phone.Itilted it so he could see the message.Afterreading it, he flopped down on the mattress. “Well, fucker doodle do.”

Yeah.Iagreed completely.

Chapter Nine

RYLEY

Afterreading the message fromVan,Haydenwas as ornery as a wolf whose nose had been stung by a bee.Ihopped into the bathroom to clean up before he did, becauseIknew the moment he was ready, he’d leave me behind ifIwasn’t ready at that exact moment, too.

Iwas still wearing the clothes and shoesI’dborrowed fromHaydenlast night.Iwouldn’t normally sleep fully dressed nor wouldIwear those same clothes the next day, but needs must.Andspeaking of needs,Ialso needed to check everything in my cloud, make sure my bank account was still secure, and find time to buy more clothes.Noneof that would be difficult.Ijust needed a computer.

Unfortunately,IdoubtedHaydenwould stop long enough for me to sign in, let alone poke around and make sure everything was okay.

Although, wouldn’t it be cool if when we found that asshole wolf, we found my stuff, too?Itwas wishful thinking,Iknow.Butitcouldbe in the bunker.Ishould have looked whenImade my escape.Thathad been short-sighted of me.

Ha!Right!LikeIwould have wasted time wandering around down there.Thatwould have just been begging to be caught again.

Whenwe were inHayden’struck, waiting for the electric gate to open so we could drive out of the secure parking lot,Ichanced a glance in his direction.Helooked a lot better than he had last night.Hisscar from my kick was almost gone, thankMagic.Itwas strange how long it’d taken.Washe ill?Aspasm ran through my chest at the thought of him being sick.Despitehaving slept snuggled against him last night,Ididn’t know him, but my instincts told me the world would be worse off without him in it.

“What?” he asked gruffly, without looking at me.

“Canwe stop for coffee?Itcan be to-go.”

Hayden’smouth flattened in a line, but he didn’t say no.Whenthe gate was open wide enough for the truck to get through, he didn’t waste time getting us out of there.Iglanced over at the front of his shop, andIcould see theOpensign lit up and the lights on inside.

“Doyou have to work today?”

“Buddycan take care of things.”

Ifrowned.WhowasBuddy?Hispartner?Ifolded my arms over my chest as another weird ache shot through it.Whatwas up with that?MaybeIwas the one who was sick.Becausewhat would it matter ifBuddywasHayden’spartner, business or otherwise?Iwasn’t interested in having a relationship withHayden, and nothing hadhappened between us.Excepthe shouldn’t sleep in a bed with someone if he was involved with someone else.

Thankfully, nothing had happened between us.Andnothing would, becauseIwasn’t staying here long enough to get involved with him or anyone else.Sure,I’dthought about having a fling with him last night, but that was then.Inthe light of day,Iknew better.

Therewere too many supes in this town for my comfort.Itdidn’t matter that the onesI’dmet so far seemed nice.I’dbeen around enough supes in my time to know better than to blindly trust them.Asa hybrid faun,Ididn’t belong anywhere close torealsupes.Myherd had taught me that lesson well.

Haydenwhipped the truck into an angled parking spot in front of a place called theFlyingRowanCafé.Hepointed at the place. “Coffee.”