Page 32 of Alpha's Claim

I throw open the car door, but the car lurches again.

Darius’s hands are braced against the back spoiler, and he has the rear wheels lifted off the ground to keep it from moving.

“Put it in park! The P,” he barks.

I shove the handle to P, and the car lurches again, then stops.

Darius lowers the rear tires as I climb back out. He arches a sexy brow. “Going somewhere, princess?”

I suck in a breath, considering whether to tell him the truth or lie.

No, he deserves the truth. I just don’t want him to play hero for me and end up dead.

“I have to go back.”

Darius

“What?”

My bear tries to rip free of the hold I have on him. He’s going insane over Paloma trying to leave.

Over the fact that she wants togo back.

He wants to rampage, ripping his claws through the walls of the garage Paloma drove halfway out of.

“No,” I say before she can explain. “No fucking way you’re going back.”

“Darius, there’s more to this than you understand. Thom has leverage on me.”

Everything in me goes still. A dark prick of warning seeps under the rage of my bear.

“What do you mean?”

“He has my sister. He said if I tried to escape again, she’d die.”

Ice sluices through my veins. I grind my teeth together. “Where is she?”

“At a boarding school in Connecticut.”

I nod. “Then we’ll get to her first.”

“No. You don’t understand.” She’s not soothed by my words.

“Explain it to me.”

“They don’t allow cell phones at her school, and it only has school intranet, so I can’t get a message to her.”

“Then we’ll go there. Connecticut is just an hour away.”

“It’s more complicated than that. She’s on a school choir trip to Ireland right now. We need to figure out how to find her before Thom does.”

Fuck.

Paloma is all warrior. Her jaw is set with determination. Her eyes flash with anger. She may have been a princess in a tower, but she’s no wilting flower.

“Also, I’ll die without my medicine. We have two days until I go into full cardiac arrest.”

My bear tries to claw out of me in a rage.