go. He just didn’t want to tip off any lurking alphas. Now and then, he heard a crunch, as if someone was out there, but when he stopped to listen, nothing came to him on the wind except Jack Henry’s scent.
He was close now, so close he didn’t need the bandana to guide him. Jack Henry’s scent was hot and needy. Saul could smell the desperation in it. He tilted his head, listening again, and this time he caught the faintest sound of a whimper. He followed both his ears and his nose until he came up against the fence, but there was no sign of Jack Henry. Jack Henry wouldn’t have gone over the fence, would he have?
Saul stared through the chain links in perplexity. Jack Henry’s scent was so strong he almost couldn’t breathe, and every rustle sounded like a clue he couldn’t unravel until the skin on the back of his neck prickled and he understood. Lon was smarter than Saul would’ve given him credit for.
He turned, raising his glance to find Jack Henry peering down at him through the leaves of the huge elm behind him. Jack Henry’s chest moved in great heaves, and he made a choked sound when he realized Saul had spotted him, as though he’d been trying to hold the noise back and couldn’t.
“Jack Henry,” Saul said as he made his way slowly to the base of the trunk. “I’ve come to claim you, if you’ll have me.”
“Alpha?”
Saul’s cock throbbed to immediate fullness. He grabbed the lowest branch of the tree, appreciating the challenge his omega had given him to overcome as a last obstacle before claiming his prize. He used the branch like a chin-up bar, pulling himself up until he could lever himself onto it.
Jack Henry was tucked into the corner of a wooden structure, huddling there as if Saul scared him, but the sparkle of his eyes in the moonlight and the hard bulge at his crotch said he was more turned on than scared. Still, Saul approached him cautiously, inching across the planking of the nest his mate-to-be had found, extending a hand in an attempt to gentle him.
“Can I claim you, Jack Henry? I’d be honored if you’d have me.” He scooted closer, close enough to touch now, and dropped his hand on Jack Henry’s ankle. He closed his fist around it, wanting to yank him forward and tear into him but reining in his alpha instincts as best he could while he waited for confirmation.
Jack Henry licked his lips. “I’m hot.”
“I’m going to take care of that for you. Just as soon as you tell me I can.”
The omega tilted his head, offering up his neck, and Saul moved in to bite it, to claim Jack Henry irrevocably as his, but before he could sink his teeth into the sweet-smelling flesh, an angry roar sounded from the base of the tree. Another alpha. Shit.
Jack Henry pulled away, scrabbling at the wall behind him.
“Cheater!” Lon screamed. “I was the one who knew he’d be in a tree, which means he’s mine!” Lon jumped for the first branch as Jack Henry scrambled higher. He clung to a narrow limb overlooking the treehouse, clearly terrified.
“I challenge you,” Lon screamed up as he tumbled off the branch back onto the ground. “I challenge you for him. You have to come down here and fight me.”
“I won’t let him claim you,” Saul promised. He caught Jack Henry’s chin to give him a quick kiss, then dropped out of the tree to fight for his omega.
ELIAS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sound of a fight broke across the quiet woods—a grunting, crashing cacophony that tore into the silence with an unexpected violence. Elias startled, his instincts kicking into high gear. He ran toward the noise, in the direction of the old treehouse where he’d expected to find Jack Henry, but Jasper caught him by the arm before he got very far.
“Someone’s after Jack Henry,” Elias protested. “We have to save him.”
“We have to use our smarts,” Jasper said. “That thing you specialize in, remember?” He tapped Elias’s forehead. “There’s more than one alpha involved.”
Elias cocked his head to concentrate on the noises that broke over him like a physical assault. Jasper was right. That was the sound of two alphas fighting each other, not the sound of Jack Henry trying to defend himself. Elias was ashamed to realize how quickly he’d let his own alpha take over. He’d thought he had better control over his body, but