The Alpha's Desire 4 Read Online Free PDF Page A

shattered.
     
    I glanced at my hand. Even in the dark, the light of the moon coming through the dirty windows illuminating my pale skin, I could see the glow of my white knuckled grip. Okay, maybe that was my imagination on overdrive, but as confirmation, my fingers ached from holding on so tightly. I had to wonder if the power boiling under the surface of my skin could be any help to me if fell. Could I push out the power to cushion the blow of my body against the ground, now many, many feet below me?
     
    Hitting the second floor, getting to stand on a solid surface I couldn’t see through for a minute, I braced for another attack. They’d thought it better to revise the plan, I guessed, the vampires not going ahead this time. Guessed we were showing as a wall to get through. I hadn’t been able to hear the vampire whispers as they’d come back for us. All I could do was follow. Nira still stood in front of me, along with two other vampires. Alex behind me, as I’d said, was flanked by two other werewolves. This time, an attack would have to take on a group, with me in the middle.
     
    I could see by the way they all carried themselves that they were braced for another attack. I could only compare our plight to Dante walking through the circles of hell. Yet, I expected monsters on every floor. As we inched further into the space, we were met with nothing but silence. Up here, the large room, the entire floor open, was basically empty save for some broken up work areas along the walls. Paper debris again littered the floor, more a powdery dust than full or even partial sheets. With the moonlight and absence of heavy machinery to cast shadows, it was easier to see here. The glow from the partial moon, even through the sooty windows, helped. Thank goodness it was a clear night. I couldn’t imagine doing this in, say, a thunderstorm with nothing but the occasional lightning to guide us.
     
    What had been left behind on these floors, a combination of trash covered in paper dust or just regular old dust, looked like snow under the dim moonlight in some spots where it shined through a completely broken-out window. Empty shelves added to the vacant, lifeless, abandoned ambiance of the place. I’d always enjoyed the photographs of old abandoned buildings that people shared on the internet, but standing in such a place didn’t have the same appeal. Could have been the bounty on my head, or on the heads of the many I was with, but still, in this light, it just looked pathetic, broken, and worst, forgotten, left to wither away.
     
    I kept my eyes away from the wolf body that laid in a heap. He’d turned back to his human form now. His neck had to be broken, judging by the odd angle his head rested at, fully tilted to his shoulder. Nira or one of the other vampires had done that. At least I knew they could hold their own against one of them. Thing was, he had friends. His pack was somewhere else in this building lying in wait for us, probably watching our every move right this very moment.
     
    As we scooted as a unit, a jagged piece of wood that hung off the front of one of the cabinets got awful close to my hip. No one had noticed it, I’m sure, but it served to threaten me with impalement. I only breathed a silent sigh of relief when Nira looked back at us and gave the all clear look that said we were moving on to see what possible torments the next floor might hold.
     
    Back to those dreaded stairs, at this new height, I had to look ahead, basically at vampire legs moving up ahead of me. I feared that, if I looked down, I would stop and curl into a fetal position, clutching at the steps for dear life. I already grew dizzy just thinking about how high we were now. I couldn’t imagine working here when the factory was in full swing, having to navigate these stairs with other co-workers on a daily basis.
     
    I used that thought, though, to sooth myself. The steps had been here all this time. They had held then and would