Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 169: Caught

*Eli*

A sharp pain is pounding in the top of my skull. In front of me I see nothing but tree bark, so I try to turn my head, but the pain radiates even stronger. I’m guessing I hit the tree head-on, so I’m pretty amazed that I’m even awake. I move what I last remember to be my broken paw, but it’s a hand now, so I must have gone unconscious and shifted back at some point.

How long have I been knocked out?

Kelly!

I have to move now since I need to see if she’s okay; I need to help her. I use my good hand—which right now isn’t much better than the other one—to push off the tree and try to get up and turn around at the same time. But something is stopping me.

“Piece of shit’s awake,” says a raspy voice right above me, and now I can feel that whoever it is, is holding me down with a huge, muddy boot.

Some dust catches in my throat, and I cough, and I’m still trying to get up or at least turn around and see who’s holding me down. The male voice is definitely not familiar.

I sense someone else moving closer and another man says, “That looks like one we should worry about. Nathan! Bring the kit.”

A kit—that must be a medical kit. But if they’re here to help me, why is this guy holding me down with his foot?

‘Kelly!’ I call out in the mind-link, but she doesn’t answer. I try to reach a few of the others who were with me, and all of them are quiet; I feel a knot growing in the pit of my stomach as I imagine what’s happened to them. Finally, the guy lets go, and I turn around and sit up, instantly seeing why my sister and pack mates haven’t responded.

They’re all tied up and knocked out.

The second man laughs. “Yeah, we’ve got your friends, and we’ve got you, too,” he says. “That’ll teach all you fucking pack-loving rich boys to come on our territory!”

I gaze over at Kelly, who is bleeding from her head and her hands are tied behind her back. She’s unconscious, and I breathe a sigh of relief when I spot the gentle rise and fall of her chest. She’s alive. Apparently, she hadn’t shifted, so she’s fully clothed, unlike me at the moment.

The man follows my gaze, and he smiles wide to show a mouth full of rotted teeth. “Oh, you like the female, do you? She your girl?”

I glared at him and finally find my voice. “She needs medical attention!” I shout.

“Oh, she’ll be fine,” he says. “Head wounds are a tricky one. They look a lot worse than they are. But you have bigger problems, big man.”

“Who are you?” I ask.

He laughs. “You see, that’s the issue,” he says. “You should know exactly who the fuck I am because I run this territory, and you’re passing through it, unauthorized.”

“Means ya didn’t ask permission,” says the first man who had put his foot on me.

“I know what it means,” I say.

“Oh, Mister Smarty Pants thinks he’s better than us!” hollers the first man. “Just ‘cause we didn’t have no ritzy school to go to don’t mean you’re better than us!”

“I didn’t say I was,” I say. I can’t believe I’m wasting my time with these—rogues, they must be—when I need to get to Rose. The pain in my head is stabbing, and I feel a little sick to my stomach, but I gather my strength for the words I need to say next. “I need to know how my people are,” I say with authority, using my Alpha voice. “Why are they all unconscious?”

The second man laughs. “Oh, looks like we’ve got an Alpha here, boys!” he says loudly, then he looks back at me. “Nathan, where the fuck are you?!”

“Here, Pete, sir!” says a young-looking boy holding an old tackle box who is running toward us.

“We have no need for Alphas here, rich boy,” says the second man—Pete—as he steps back to let the boy approach.

“It kind of seems like you’re the Alpha,” I say. “If you’re so independent, why are you together in what looks like a pack?”

I try to shift but my head is so woozy that I can’t focus, and the boy, Nathan, has opened his box by now and is taking out what looks like a giant syringe.

“Hurry up,” Pete tells him.

They’re all starting to look fuzzy, and I take one last look over at Kelly before the world goes black.

* * *

I wake up again, and this time I’m in a room of some sort, and now my head hurts even worse. I hope they didn’t actually stab me with that dirty needle since I passed out on my own, although I’m afraid that’s what they did to Kelly.

I look down to see that I’m wearing some tattered, dirty sweatpants, so at least I’ve got some clothes on, but all I can think about is Kelly, and Rose, and the rest of my people. I have to get up; I can’t just lay here when they all need me.

‘Kelly!’ I shout again in the mind-link.

‘Here,’ she answers, weakly.

‘Oh, thank the Goddess!’ I say. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m all right,’ she says. ‘I’m somewhere in a room by myself. How about you?’

‘Same,’ I tell her. ‘Is everyone else okay?’

‘Trevor is, and a couple of the others,’ she says. ‘But I can’t reach Ben or Liam. Their crash looked pretty bad, and I think they’re….’

She trails off, but I know what she means. Though Rose and the pups are always at the forefront of my mind, my people here need me first to get them out of here… wherever ‘here’ is. ‘What do you know about these rogues?’ I ask her.

‘Nothing,’ she says. ‘I didn’t even know they were here. They have women and kids here, though. I woke up right before they took us inside, and this looks like some old, abandoned hotel or something. I never knew there was anything out here.’

‘I guess we’re all in separate hotel rooms then,’ I say. Looking around, I can see now that the broken, dirty furniture in the room was once nice, like one would find in a luxury resort. I hadn’t heard of anything like that around here, either, but then again, we’re pretty far out of Gene’s territory, and I’m not familiar with anything in this direction.

‘Can you get up and walk around?’ I ask.

‘Yes, but there’s a guard outside.’

‘I probably have more than one, then,’ I say. ‘Can you shift?’

‘I haven’t tried. One sec,’ she says. A few seconds later she says, ‘Yes.’

‘All right, I’ll try the others.’ I contact Trevor and the other warriors who’d accompanied Kelly–except for Ben and Liam, whose families I will have to contact later–and they’re all in good enough shape to shift, so we discuss a plan to get the hell out of here. We’re far more experienced in organized combat than a bunch of rogues, but I don’t take anyone for granted who’s had to fight just to stay alive for who knows how long.

Not to mention that my head is still spinning, and my hand is mangled. I’m not exactly in top shape for fighting.

The doorknob turns, and I get ready to shift, but when I see who’s coming inside, I hold off. She’s young, maybe about sixteen or seventeen, and she’s holding a basket of what looks like medical supplies.

And she looks terrified.

She approaches me, slowly. “I—I’m here to patch up your hand,” she says softly.

I nod, but don’t say anything for now. Why would they send a young girl in alone with an Alpha? They’ve never seen me before, and I could be someone like Kane for all they know. Whoever this Pete guy is, he’s risking his people for no reason.

We say nothing more as she applies an herbal salve and wraps my hand in gauze that doesn’t exactly look sterile. I wonder to myself why they’re wasting their supplies on me when they obviously have so little. I decide that I could probably get some information from her.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

“H—Heather,” she says.

“Hi Heather,” I say. “I’m Eli.” There’s a pause while she continues wrapping my hand. “I never knew about this place,” I say. “How long have you been out here?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “Forever, for me.”

“You were born here?” I ask.

“Y—yes,” she says. “I mean, that I know of. Never been nowhere else.” She finishes up and closes her box, giving me a shy smile while not making eye contact before she walks out the door.

‘What happened?’ asks Kelly in the mind-link.

‘They sent in a young girl to wrap up my hand,” I say.

‘A girl? Alone with a strange Alpha? Are they insane?’ she asks.

‘I’m starting to think that,’ I say. ‘We need to get the hell out of here.’

Just then the door opens again, but this time it’s Pete and two tall, gangly looking men.