Surrogate For Alpha Dom

Sinclair

I growl down at the man before me, who is younger than I thought he would be, for one with

such power. He has thick black hair and a day’s worth of stubble on his thin cheeks. The man

glares up at me with dark, angry eyes and opens his mouth to speak but before he can, I slap him

– hard with an open palm.

–

The man gasps with surprise and pain, his eyes going wide as he stares down at the floor, and I

smirk. I doubt this man has been slapped anytime recently, if ever. He has the smug look of

someone used to being in charge.

But he’s in my house now.

“You’ll speak when we tell you to speak,” I growl, and then I turn to the head of my

–

reconnaissance team, who is standing against the wall, his hands on his knees, panting a little.

Craig isn’t a small man to see him so undone by the efforts suggests that this diminutive priest

is, indeed, powerful in other ways.

“How did you catch him?” I snap. Craig looks up at me and does his best to straighten up.

“We followed the leads, sir,” he replies, looking me in the eyes, “that we gleaned from the

conversation with the other priest, who wished to remain anonymous. They were…fruitful. We

found this one’s lair, for lack of a better word. It was actually in a sewer -in an abandoned

maintenance room. He was living there doing…” Craig hesitates and then shrugs. “Forgive me, Sir,

for the dramatic language, but ‘arcane magics‘ are the only words coming to my mind now. Lizard

skins…and and snail shells, in jars – he had a cauldron –”

“Thank you,” I say, interrupting and nodding towards the head of my investigative team. “You.

will give your details to Alastair, as soon as you can. For now, though I want everyone here for

the interrogation.” I lean forward towards the priest, who watches me with wary eyes and a

clenched jaw.

my voice and slowing my words, “will

need

a brave man, then, by baring his teeth at me in a little snarl. But

makes him faulter. And then I step away, secretly

to rip this man’s head off. Roger steps in to take

looks down at the man

And what your people want with my brother’s child.”

a too–wide expression that

his voice now. Roger stares at him

team standing behind

against the priest’s neck.

body, making him shriek and twist in pain, but

The priest goes a

Roger says, kicking the leg of the chair to get the priest’s attention. “What

want with

priest looks up at Roger

his head

on his face. “You are already…too late.”

he starts to laugh – really, truly laugh, as a crash of glass

upstairs –

stops as I

Ella

was just sitting here, tense, in my rocking chair by Rafe’s basinet, one hand on the edge of it

is – shushing him quietly

–

at the glass of his window –

expecting a little bird – maybe

a black–masked

turning to ice as I froze, as he quietly pointed to the basinet

for

–

go so fast – the man pulled back his arm, and made a fist, and crashed it

window

know how he did it – it should have broken his

the room through the hole he made with

the window cracking and

–

moment he hit the floor, only half an instant later, my

rolling basinet behind

rocking chair away and back into the corner

the foot of the window. As

–

–

way up to the window and

fast –

man in the lead is on his feet now, grinning at me, starting to prowl towards