Claimed by Her Alpha by Alex Anders

her strength, but certainly, he needed to keep up his. The only chance they had of survival was him fixing the engine, and he couldn’t do that if his eyes blurred with hunger.
    The half of corned beef sandwich that they both enjoyed wasn’t much. It almost made them hungrier than before they ate it. But it did clear their minds. So once the sun provided enough light for Lane to look down into the engine, he began again.
    Today, he asked for her help more often. Parts of the engine took two people to lift, and by midday, the engine head was completely torn apart.
    “Okay, I think I see it. The filter I was talking about is in there,” he said, pointing to a metal box with tubes running from it. Lane hesitated.
    “So, what are you looking to find?”
    “Well, if I’m right then when I open that, there will be dirt in there blocking the gas.”
    “And if there isn’t?”
    “Then…” The expression on Lane‘s face drooped. He swallowed with nervousness and instead of answering, reached for the metal box.
    Saki felt like crying again. She had an awful feeling in her chest, and she was beginning to find it hard to breathe.
    Lane reached into the engine and retrieved the metal box. Four screws held it together. He quickly released them, removing the lid.
    Saki wasn’t sure what she was looking at. It held two things that bounced around like tonsils. She couldn’t see anything that looked like a filter at all. Lane rotated it in search of the same. It wasn’t there. Saki‘s heart dropped.
    “I… I was sure it was here. I don’t understand.”
    Saki fell onto her knees next to Lane. She stared at the box that he still twirled in his hand. Wilting under the midday tropical sun, her head drooped. Almost by instinct, she picked up the lid of the metal box and flipped it over.
    “Wait, is that it?” She said, pointing to netting on the inside top of the metal lid.
    Lane quickly took it from her and held it up to his face for a better look.
    “I think so,” he said with mounting excitement. “I think that’s the filter.”
    Using his flathead screwdriver, he pried the filter from its housing. When he did, the thumb-sized instrument fell into his palm. Flipping it over, he found sand-sized granules clogging the metal grating.
    “Here. See! It must have been in the gas. Or maybe it was in the tank and all of the shaking from the waves loosened it and sent it into the engine.”
    “So, what does that mean? Can you fix it?”
    “Yeah. I just have to clean it off and then put it back together.”
    Saki‘s head got lightheaded from his words. Hope was returning to her. Falling back onto her palms, she tilted her reddened face toward the sun. No moment in her life had ever felt better than this. She knew that they would survive. She could do anything with Lane by her side.
    Lane showed Saki the filter once the dirt was removed. She knew nothing about mechanics, but even she could see the difference.
    It took all of the sunlight for Lane to put the engine back together, and in the end, it still wasn’t complete. Switching on his phone as night fell, they saw that their boat was actually drifting closer to Nassau, having been whipped into the Great Bahama Bank. With any luck, they would be closer still in the morning. Hopefully, Saki could get back to school before Dax‘s pack realized they both were missing. If they figured out the two of them were together, that would end their chance of overthrowing Dax. But if everything went perfectly, they would still get that chance.
    As soon as light broke, Lane was back at work. When it came time to flip the engine switch, they were both tense. With the first turn, the engine didn’t start, but Lane shouted “yes” in delight.
    “What?”
    “That means I put it together right. Try it again,” he said, squeezing the black plastic bubble that ran from the engine.
    This time the engine turned over. It made a noise like it wanted to start.
    “Try it again,” Lane