Alpha Dom and His Human Surrogate

Chapter 245 – Human Camps

Sinclair

I don’t depart for the human refugee settlement alone. I take every Alpha I can find, but I take special care to rope in Kieran. The wolf has been shooting me subversive glances since we arrived. He’s been perfectly attentive to the shifter refugees, but it’s almost as though he’s angry I’m making him care about them – that I’m confronting him with their pain.

It’s a short trip to the human camps, and we promised the pilots we would return by the scheduled departure time. This only leaves us about an hour to actually get a sense of the situation. Before we arrived I was worried this wouldn’t be enough time – afterwards I realize it was too much. The scene is so overwhelming, so distressing that even a few minutes amidst the chaos is overwhelming.

If we’d believed that the plight of shifter refugees was grave, it’s nothing compared to that of the humans. After all, the shifters understand why their lives have fallen to ruin, the humans are completely in the dark, and they’re not coping well.

We hear the camp before we see it. This isn’t much surprise with our supernatural hearing, but the sounds that float to us through the forest are not the desperate cries of people in need. It sounds like a battle.

Eventually we reach the crest of a hill overlooking the sprawling camps – if they can even be called camps. “Holy Goddess.” Gabriel says beside me, his dark skin going remarkably pale.

A vast field of black and blue tarps sit in deep mud, propped up on shabby poles and sticks. They’re supposed to be tents, but they look more like the squalid dwellings often built by those experiencing homelessness in large cities. The ramshackle structures are on the verge of collapse, and there is no sign of any food or fresh water. The stench is incredible, and it’s immediately apparent that there is no one governing this place.

The disconsolate cries of women and children rise through the air in a miserable symphony, while the voices of angry men explode in violent shouts. It seems like there’s movement everywhere, but none of it is positive or productive. There are fights breaking out every few feet, people lashing out over the last piece of fire wood, or accusing one another of thefts and attacks.

terrified screams break out as the humans whip around, searching for the source of the disturbance. It’s coming from the Northern mountains– the opposite direction of the shifter camps – and it sounds

never seen anything so…” Callahan begins, trailing off before he can

I expected to find an ounce of empathy for these people. Still, the pain and concern in his voice is clear, and I find myself even more on edge than before. I can’t make sense of his behavior today. One moment he’s so tense and on edge, looking around at the other summit attendees with such suspicion and distrust that I wonder what on earth is going through his head. The next moment he’s acting as though he actually has a heart, and I don’t trust it for one moment. Something is going on with him, whether this latest show of emotion is to throw us

__________________

Ella

are five minutes after the designated landing time and the airfield is

looking back and forth between Henry and

in a headwind.” Henry answers, squeezing my hand. “Flight

on Isabel. Surely she’ll support me, I think, with James away as well. “They did

here in the capital – at least, not any

about it.” Philippe growls from behind me. “For my sake if not your own. Dominic will

under my breath, my wolf roiling against the idea that anyone but Sinclair should give us orders. “I ought

“they’re

or third transports to land, and I realize my noble mate probably waited until everyone else had departed before taking off himself. Finally the last plane taxis over the field, coming to a stop mere meters away. The cargo door starts to descend before the plane has even finished moving, and then Sinclair is

in my overwrought body finally relax. “Seven minutes,

against my ear, squeezing me so tightly I think I might burst. “But I’m here now.” He purrs, “I’m

waves. The wolves around us shrink back at the force, but my own inner canine only swoons. I don’t understand why he’s unleashed his full strength on the airfield, but I’m too caught up