Sold To The Alpha
A Lost Princess Chapter 20

Riley and Daniel were backed against a wall in the alleyway, the four men encroaching on them as they each kept their sights trained on two of their opponents. Letting out a loud roar, the ring leader rushed toward Riley trying to grab his neck, not expecting the young man to easily manoeuver himself out of harms way, slipping under the older man's arm before spinning and aiming a solid kick into the stomach of the second man with shoulder length black hair, who was following behind his leader, sending him flying

backwards where he landed with a grunt onto the cobbled street.

Quickly glancing over to Daniel, Riley saw his Beta moving around his two attackers, placing well aimed punches to their torso's whilst keeping himself out of reach. Turning back to his own fight, he ducked just in time for the ring leaders arm fist to graze over his hair, having used Riley's moment of distraction to his advantage.

Launching himself from his crouched position, Riley cannoned into the Ring leaders torso, wrapping his arms around the other man's waist as he tried to force him onto his back, suddenly he grunted in pain as his opponents elbow ploughed downwards into his shoulder trying to force his grip to loosen.

Feeling the arms around him tighten, he grabbed Riley's shoulders then flung him backwards, away from him before landing a kick to his ribs, causing the Alpha to hunch over in pain.

The second attacker had clambered back to his feet behind the scuffle, placing his arms around Riley's hunched form, he lifted him clear of the ground, tightening his grip, pinning the teenagers arms to his sides. Using the black haired man's strength to his advantage, Riley bent his knees, and thrust his feet out in front of him, catching the ring leader square in the chest, knocking him in to the far wall then throwing his shoulders forward to force his captor to bend and place his feet back on the floor. Rolling forward, Riley deftly threw the second man over his body and into wall next to the leader who was trying to right himself.

Marching over to the two thugs, Riley smashed his right fist into the Leader's face before grabbing his hair and smashing his head down forcibly into his knee.

Turning to the second man who was leaning against the wall for support, he grabbed his head and slammed it forcefully into the brick work over and over again until he fell limply to the floor. Leaning down he placed his arms around the leader, encircling his neck, lifting him off the floor and forcing him in to a kneeling position as he looked over at Daniel who placed a firm kick to the face of his remaining opponent, sending his now unconscious body into his groaning friend.

Lifting the Leader's head, Riley growled, 'You let your good friend Rowan know that I left a message for him with you, tell him I'm coming to replace him and when I do, this will look like child's play, so he better be ready!' he muttered darkly into the man's ear. Trying to look at Riley, the Leader tried to speak through the choke hold Riley had on him, 'I.... t. thought you were his f. friend' he stuttered, as blood dribbled from his mouth.

Laughing derisively, Riley pulled back on the man's neck, 'no, he kidnapped my friend, I'm looking for him so I can replace her and kill him' he said nonchalantly.

Pulling at Riley's arm, the man's face began to turn purple from lack of oxygen as he gasped out 'We aren't his friends! that's why we attacked you'.

Dropping the man, Riley glared at him as he wheezed in breaths, rubbing his neck furiously.

'What do you mean you are not his friends?' Riley demanded, 'you have the same tattoo!'

The leader sat up tentatively, keeping his hands in view, 'We were once allies, but Rowan broke the code of the Collectors, he got kicked out of the guilds any one who is a friend of his is an enemy of ours' he replied gruffly.

Holding out his hand to the man, Riley helped him too his feet, 'Maybe we should start again?' he asked as the man nodded, giving a chuckle as he rubbed his chin, wiping the blood that was running from the corner of his mouth. 'Sounds good, you give a mean right hook, do you know that?' he added as he gave orders to the one remaining conscious man to tend to their friends and led the way back to the bar.

Making their way back in to Jack's, the leader led the way to a booth at the far end of the bar, calling out to a waitress to bring a round of drinks before dropping down into one of the seats and motioning for the two boys to join him. Sitting down opposite, they waited until the waitress placed three pints of beer onto the table and left before speaking.

Clearing his throat, the leader looked the two men in the eye, 'OK, so I suppose I should start with my name' he said humourlessly, 'I'm Sebastian, the lads who's arses you just kicked are my men, we are part of a guild called The Collectors, we obtain what people need and we deliver it too them, no names, no paper trail, no way for anything to be traced. Rowan came to me when he was a kid, his parents had been killed by Rogues, I knew he was a werewolf' he added, noting their surprised looks. 'Yeah, I may not be a Werewolf but in my line of business you deal with all types of people, you get to know what lurks outside if you know what I mean' he said in a low voice.

'I took Rowan in, lad had nowhere to go and he had light fingers, he was good at the job, could get into spaces we couldn't, that kind of thing. So we taught him the job and when he was old enough the council made him an official member, gave him the brand' he said as he rolled up his sleeve to show off the tattoo again.

'So how did he become an outcast then if he was like your protege?' asked Daniel intrigued.

Sebastian laughed coarsely, 'Even those of us who live outside of the law have rules boy, and Rowan broke the biggest one. We don't deal in people, we'll get you weapons, money, spells, anything you want, but we do not take or hurt people' he growled angrily. Rowan took a side gig, didn't tell anyone, some Vamp offered him a lot of money to bring him a girl from one of the villages, seems the Vamp had taken a liking to her but her parents did not approve of the union and the girl didn't want to go against her parents wishes. He wanted to get her and turn her, force her parents to allow her to remain with him, so Rowan took her from her bed whilst her parents were sleeping. They had a meeting place planned, and Rowan handed her over, took the money and left, her body was found four days later' Sebastian said, the anger in his voice evident, 'they had drained her of her blood, and dumped her like garbage in the street. Turns out that Rowan wasn't the only person who had been hired to obtain girls for these blood suckers, there was hundreds of them over the years, the Vamps had realised it was an easy way to get fresh meat.

Daniel looked like he wanted to be sick whilst Riley just stared unbelieving at the man in front of him who was trying to contain his rage.

'What happened to Rowan after you found out?' Riley asked finally.

'Once he found out what he had been a part of, Rowan came clean with the council, said he hadn't meant for her to get hurt, he thought he was helping her. The council sentenced him to death, his actions had killed a girl, he had broken the rules, that couldn't be allowed to go unpunished. But Rowan wasn't just anyone, he could wriggle his way out of any situation, he escaped from the council's clutches and has been in hiding since. He has a hefty bounty on his head, all Collectors are sworn to try and bring him in, when you said you were old friends of his we assumed you were part of his new life. There are a lot of stories that circle about him, we know he's dealing in pretty much anything now, so we were going to force you into giving us any information you had on his whereabouts' Sebastian said, 'that didn't go quite to plan' he added with a hoarse laugh.

'Trust me' Riley replied angrily, 'He is no friend of ours'

Looking at the pair thoughtfully, Sebastian said, 'I don't suppose you boys would like some company on this trek of yours?'

Looking at each other, Riley carefully replied, 'won't we be a bit conspicuous, six huge men, stalking round asking about Rowan?'

Sebastian grinned, 'I was just talking about me, I can help you replace your friend, I have a lot of friends in low places, plus not to put to fine a point on it, but you two Ivy league college boys stand out like a sore thumb in places like this' he chuckled. Catching Daniel's eye, Riley raised his eyebrow questioningly, catching the small nod as his Beta showed his agreement.

Turning to the Collector, Riley held his hand across the table, 'If you would like to Join us Sebastian, we would be happy to accept the help' he said as the pair shook hands. 'Oh by the way, my name is Riley I'm the future Alpha of one of the packs in this territory, and this is my Beta Daniel, we're also Werewolves'

Giving a broad grin, Sebastian replied, 'A pleasure to meet you both, now I understand how you kicked my men's asses' he chuckled.