Chapter 58 - Alpha to Alpha

Adalyn sat down next to Dylan on one of the sofas in the room and showed him the picture that she took from Arrow's phone. She didn't want to tell him exactly what had happened with the kidnapping but hoped that he might be able to recognise the person.

Dylan took the phone from her to take a better look. "He doesn't look immediately familiar to me. Are you sure he's from my pack?"

Adalyn leaned over towards him to zoom in on the photo so he could get a better look. With her head and neck now leaning over his lap he caught a whiff of a familiar scent and leaned in to her exposed neck to sniff her.

Adalyn pulled back quickly to her side of the sofa after feeling his hot breath against her. "Did you just sniff me?!"

"Are you mated?" he asked bluntly.

'"Whh..what? I...er..well.. no, not yet." His question seemed to have come completely out of the blue.

"Yet?" Dylan asked with a raised eyebrow. "Does that mean soon?"

"Why are you suddenly asking me that?"

Dylan wasn't exactly sure why he was asking either. "You've just got a hint of a foreign scent on you that I thought I could recognise. I can't quite seem to place it though." Dylan looked down at her neck. He couldn't see any claim marks, but someone had definitely been intimate with her.

He snorted a little and smirked. The Adalyn he knew wasn't the same innocent girl anymore if that lingering scent was anything to go by.

Adalyn could feel his eyes assessing her. "Why are you looking at me like that?" She used her hands to try and cover herself. It felt like he was looking at her intimately.

"I was just curious" Dylan replied dismissively. He looked back at the picture again on her phone.

"Well...what I was trying to show you before you got all weird was this." Adalyn took the phone back from him and zoomed in on the Star Howlers pack tattoo on his arm.

"Huh. That's an unusual place for a pack tattoo."

"Exactly, right? I thought that might make it easier for you to know who it is"

"Well...that will definitely help. Only a limited number of tattoo artists in our territory are authorised to do pack tattoos like this. We can't just have anyone claiming to be in our pack so anyone getting a pack tattoo like this would need proof before they could get it. That information would be logged in our registries as an identifying mark for that individual. The location of the tattoo is pretty unusual, so it should be relatively easy to find out who it is from the register."

"Amazing! That would be great." Adalyn smiled broadly. She knew Dylan would be able to help.

"You know Ady, I’m going to have to ask why you need this information? It's not typically protocol to just give out people's personal data like this. Has this guy done something wrong? If he's from my pack he's under my jurisdiction, so I would be obliged to address it."

Adalyn sighed. She hoped he wasn't going to ask for any of the specific details.

"I...I can't say any more I'm afraid."

Dylan looked at her curiously. He could see the inner turmoil on her face. "Are you in some kind of trouble?"

Adalyn tightened her lips instinctively. She really didn't want to say anything that she shouldn't.

Dylan realised that whatever it was, she didn't seem to be in a position to say anything else. He looked back at the photo and exhaled.

"Okay, send me the photo and I'll see what I can find out." He entered in her number in to his phone so she could contact him directly.

Adalyn cut him a short smile. She realised that he was going to have to break a couple of rules for an old friend, so she appreciated the effort on his part. "Thanks"

Seeing the smile return to her face put Dylan at ease. "So does Gabriel know that his little sister is in to covert operations now?" He said with a hint of humour in his voice.

"No, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell him" Adalyn smiled back. The smile on her face slowly faded after she started thinking about Gabriel. She still had no idea where he was. She was missing her big brother.

Dylan could see the rollercoaster of emotions playing out on her face. She was smiling one minute then frowning the next. "Are you sure you're okay Ady?"

Realising what she was doing Adalyn forced a smile back on her face to try and put him at ease. "I will be."

The relative calm was suddenly disturbed by a commotion from outside the door. They could both hear heated muffled voices coming from outside. They both stood up abruptly and Dylan mind linked some of his entourage to work out what was happening.

Adalyn looked up at Dylan, realising what he was doing.

"What is it?' she asked apprehensively.

"Someone has started a fight with some of my guys." As Dylan went to approach the door to see what was going on, the door forcefully came off of its hinges.

Dylan instinctively pulled Adalyn behind him, anticipating a fight with whoever was stupid enough to try it.

A man slowly walked in to the room. Dylan could see one of his guards behind him, knocked out cold.

Adalyn tried to look around Dylan to see who was coming in but Dylan held her back. The familiar peppermint and oak scent started to fill her nose. She didn't need to see around Dylan to know who it was.

"Kai?" Dylan asked curiously.

Adalyn stepped to the side of Dylan to look at him but Dylan held on to her arm. Something seemed off about him. Kai's eyes were black and it looked like he had assaulted half of Dylan's entourage to get to where they were.

"Kai? What's wrong?" Adalyn barely recognised this man. He had the same dark look about him when he caught up with her, after she tried to run away from him at the manor house.

"What the hell are you doing here Adalyn?" Kai asked. He was breathing a bit heavier than normal and his voice sounded almost threatening, like he was trying to hold himself back.

Dylan's eyes darted back and forth between Adalyn and Kai. They quite clearly knew each other which surprised him.

"What's wrong with you?" Adalyn asked pained.

Kai's eyes suddenly locked on to Dylan's hand holding on to her arm. He growled loudly. Dylan didn't like the look in his eyes and he pulled Adalyn back behind him which only agitated Kai further.

"If you don't let go of her arm right now and stand aside Dylan, I promise you you'll lose it." Kai said through clenched teeth as a warning.

It suddenly clicked with Dylan. The faint scent that he had noticed on her was Kai's. *'She must be his mate'* he thought. He quite clearly hadn't claimed her yet though. *'Is that why he had come all the way here? Is that why he was acting like this?'*

"Do you want to tell me what's going on here Ady, before I start losing limbs." Dylan asked her out of the corner of his eyes. He didn't want to break eye contact with Kai and was still feeling reluctant to stand aside. Regardless of the fact that Kai outranked him, Ady was his friend and he didn't want to see any harm come to her. Dylan's eyes turned black as he geared himself up for a fight.

Adalyn could feel the aggressive tension building up in the room. She patted Dylan's arm which momentarily snapped him out of his aggressive trance. His eyes changed back to hazel and he released his hold on her arm realising that was what she wanted him to do.

"It's okay Dylan" she said tentatively.

"Is it?!" Kai asked angrily. "Because I'm pretty sure *nothing* about this situation is okay right now. I asked you to stay put. That's all I asked you to do and you disobeyed me. You're coming back with me now!"

Kai lunged at Adalyn and grabbed her arm then forcefully pulled her out of the room and down the hallway. She could see the unconscious bodies of several shifters lining their path. *'Had he done all this just to get to me?'* she thought. This wasn't anything like the man that she had come to know. Since when did he become so vicious and violent. She suddenly recalled the conversation that she had had with Elias earlier in the day. Is this what he was referring to, about Kai being unstable.

As they reached the main foyer of the club, several of the clientele looked over at the both of them. Shock and fear of Kai's imposing presence was plastered over all of their faces. Adalyn had had enough. She wrenched herself free out of Kai's grip.

"Will you stop this! You’re completely overreacting!" she yelled.

Dylan had caught up to them and everyone else was looking on as the standoff commenced.

Kai eyebrows knitted together. "I find my woman alone with another man in a brothel and *I’m* overreacting?"

"Don't you see, I was trying to help. I know Dylan, he can help to find out who was on the CCTV footage."

Kai looked at Dylan then back at Adalyn. Now it made sense. That's what she was doing here. Trying to find out information.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Did I ever once ask you for help?! In fact, I explicitly told you to stay out of it!" Kai yelled back at her.

Arrow came running in through the main entrance and stopped seeing the crowd that had gathered. “Shit, I’m late”

"How can I stay out of it when they’re after me too?! If you’d just stop and think for a moment..." Adalyn pleaded

"Think?!" Kai huffed. "You know that the guy from the CCTV is from their pack and you just go waltzing in to their territory. You could just be walking right in to their hands. Did you *think* about that?! How do you even know that he's not involved?!" Kai motioned with his eyes to Dylan.

Adalyn shook her head. "I know Dylan, he’s not like that."

Kai was failing to reign in his frustration with her. "When will you get it in to your head. You are my property! I don’t need you to think, I just need you to obey me do as I FUCKING tell you!" Kai's eyes flash red for a moment before changing back to black.

The whole room fell deafeningly silent as Kai roared at her.

"Kai?!" Arrow shouted, realising how inappropriate he had been with what he had just said to Adalyn.

Adalyn stared shocked at what he said but also at how he had said it. Everyone in the room was now staring at her and she felt absolutely humiliated by the way that he was speaking to her in front of everybody else.

The regret at what he said immediately hit Kai. He had no idea where those words came from and the manner in which he had shouted at her, with such venom in his voice.

"Your property?" Adalyn said quietly. She had to repeat it back to herself to make sure that she heard him right

"Adalyn, I didn't mean..." Kai tried to explain.

Kai was suddenly cut off as the the room was flooded with dominant energy. Everyone turned to find the source and realised that it wasn't coming from Kai, it was coming from Adalyn. She was challenging the prince.

"Woah!" Dylan said to himself. With Kai being from the royal pack, he couldn't understand how she was able to do that in front of him. Even Kai was taken aback. In her rage she couldn't look more beautiful, more powerful. His jaw nearly dropped open.

Adalyn's eyes turned jet black. Her humiliation had turned in to pure anger. Both Adalyn and Tara were furious.

"Fuck you Kaiden." She said quietly but with a voice full of malice. Adalyn swiftly turned on her heels and left.