Alpha Mine (The Alpha Council Chronicles) (29 page)

“You, Doctor Garsoe, know the person who owns the ranch in Utah and you’ve arranged for her to live there and work so she can make a fresh start. The directions are on the paper I just gave you. Just take Highway 15 out of the city. The ranch isn’t too far across the Utah border.”

Stephan leaned in the car, clicking Katrina’s seatbelt into place.

“Gotcha,” said Michael.

“All right.” Stephan ran the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “As you drive away I’ll release her from her sleep.”

Michael nodded in understanding. “As soon as she wakes up I’ll start talking to her about the ranch. I’ll pretend to be her doctor and keep the cover story. Do you mind telling me why we are doing all this?”

Michael noted the gathering of moisture in the Alpha’s eyes. “I’ll tell you when you get back. Time is ticking away. You need to be getting on the road.”

Stephan shut the door, and Michael brought the engine to life. He eased the rentd SUV out into traffic, watching Stephan in the rearview. The warrior’s face wore a painful look as he stood watching the car roll away.

Michael knew the reason he’d been chosen for this assignment was because Kat had never met him, so seeing him now would not jog any memories in her mind. However, knowing that did not make his mood any better.

His flight landed in Vegas less than an hour ago and now instead of checking into a hotel to sleep off his jet lag, he was on the road doing an errand for Stephan that would take several hours. It was all extremely irritating. He rolled his eyes in perturbation.

Katrina stirred, languidly blinking the sleep from her eyes. She turned her head slowly toward the person beside her. The man behind the wheel glanced over at her and smiled.

“Hello, Miss Spencer,” he said easily, as if they were old friends. “Did you have a nice nap?” When Kat did not respond he continued. “It should not be too long until we get to the ranch.”

“Okay,” she replied hesitantly. Kat’s eyes closed once again, and she tried to make sense of the jumbled thoughts in her head.

She remembered awakening in the hospital and being told she’d been in a coma for seven years. Despite Dr. Garsoe’s assurances, things didn’t quite add up. She’d awakened to an implausible story and yet every time she tried to think things through her head would hurt and an overwhelming desire to believe her doctor came over her, pushing all thoughts from her mind. She had some vague recollections of strange memories involving vampires, but she had been reassured by her doctor that they were just hallucinations she experienced during her coma. He told her that it wasn’t unusual for people in comas to have strange dreams and perhaps even believe them to be real. It was her doctor who had said that. The man who sat beside her.

She felt desperate, sad, utterly alone. Tears pushed into her eyes. The feelings made no sense, almost as if they were not her own. She shouldn’t feel lonely. The only person she knew sat right beside her. And when she thought about the life she was about to begin she felt excited, not sad and yet a tear escaped down her cheek.

Kat slowly opened her eyes and wiped away the lone tear. Gazing forlornly out the window, she tried to come to grips with the fact that she was about to embark on a brand new life, not remembering anything of the past seven years.

As if reading her mind, Dr. Garsoe reached over and patted her hand resting on her knee. “Don’t worry if you don’t remember all the details, Miss Spencer. It’s not unusual for patients such as yourself to forget things after awakening from a coma.”

“I know, doctor.” Kat bit her lower lip. “I just…It’s hard to accept what happened.”

He patted her hand once again. “I know. We’ll get you to the ranch, and you’ll live the life the Fates wanted you to have.”

Strange turn of a phrase,
she thought as she settled back into the seat. He tried to assure her, but the thought of going to live somewhere she would not know anyone seemed a little daunting.

They rode the rest of the way in comfortable silence, much to her appreciation. With a fluid turn of the steering wheel, they pulled onto a driveway through the weathered fencing that lined both sides of the drive. The tires crunched on the gravel driveway while they traveled up the drive.

Kat watched the split rail fence roll by. She spotted a group of horses grazing and watched as a black and white foal ran along the fence trying his best to keep up with the car. A smile lit her face for the first time that evening.

Kat’s gaze shifted to take in the rest of the ranch as they rolled to a stop. It looked immense. She didn’t know how many acres, but the fencing went on further than she could see. An impressive two story wooden house sat in front of the Utah mountain range, with a pitched slate roof and square windows through which yellow light poured from the home.

Out came a balding, potbellied man, dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt with a dark beard that outlined the jolly smile on his face. His perfect teeth seemed to shine in the twilight. Reaching the car, he opened the door swiftly and said, “Welcome. I’m Rusty Willis, the owner of this ranch. I’ll bet you’re Katrina Spencer.”

“Yes, that’s one of the few things I still remember.” She flashed him a weak grin of her own.

“
Oh honey, if I could lose some of my memory, I think I’d be happy. I can think of a couple of years I wouldn’t mind getting rid of.” He laughed, and she exited the car. “You got any luggage?”

The doctor unfolded from the SUV and made his way around to the back before answering the rancher, “Yes. It’s in the trunk.”

He quickly popped the hatch and handed the bags to the ranch owner. When Rusty took her luggage, Katrina noticed how easily he lifted the heavy bags. It occurred to her that he must have developed great strength working on the ranch all these years.

Maybe working on the ranch would be good for her. She could develop her strength too, although she found herself in surprisingly great shape for someone who had been in a coma for seven years. She must have gotten some physical therapy while she was unconscious.

She watched Rusty head toward the house with a bag in each hand, amazed that all her belongings fit in only two bags. She remembered being told by Dr. Garsoe that her items had been sent to storage when it didn’t look like she would be coming out of the coma any time soon. She supposed she should just be glad anything had been saved for seven years.

Kat followed Rusty into the house, and suddenly remembered she’d forgotten to thank Dr. Garsoe. She turned on her heels and waved at the doctor with a hopeful expression on her face. “Bye, Dr. Garsoe. Thank you, again.”

Her doctor glanced at her briefly and entered the vehicle. “Goodbye, Miss Spencer,” he said curtly, closing the door behind him.

He tore off down the driveway, the tires spitting gravel in his haste.

Katrina’s stomach dropped as she watched the only person she knew leave her sight. She wrapped her arms around her waist in a bracing hug.
All right girl, this is it, the beginning of your new life. Just put one foot in front of the other. You can do this.

She turned and found Rusty staring down at her from the porch in expectation.

“Come on in, Miss Spencer,” Rusty said. The look of pity on his face said he noticed the tears in her eyes.

“Please call me Kat.” She hoped her voice sounded surer then she felt and blinked the tears away.

“Very well, Kat. Come on in, and I’ll show you to your room. I’m sure you would like to get some sleep. It’s late.”

“But it’s only ten.”

“You know the saying, early to bed, early to rise. We go to bed early ‘round here because we start at the crack of dawn.”

Rusty led her through a sparsely decorated living room. Wood paneling lined the walls. A matching set of red couches sat in an L-shape with identical end tables sitting by each arm. The carpeting, tan to match the walls, had a worn trail that led down the hall.

They made their way down the hall, and Katrina thought to ask, “What time should I set the alarm for?”

“Five a.m. would be good,” the ranch owner informed her, opening a door off the hall.

Kat hid her grimace when she entered behind Rusty into a bedroom. If she thought the living room was sparsely decorated, it was nothing compared to the perfunctory bedroom. In the room, two twin beds sat across from each other next to short dressers, each with three drawers. A fan hung from the ceiling, its center globe producing the only light in the room.

Beggars can’t be choosers,
she reminded herself when tears welled up once more.

She couldn’t stop the flood of depression and sorrow that flowed through her. She chastised herself for the self-pity. She should feel grateful for the opportunity, excited for the new adventure she was about to embark on, but instead an overwhelming sadness threatened to consume her, almost as if the emotion wasn’t her own.

“So here’s the room. I know it’s not much, but at the end of a long day all you’ll care about is that you have a bed. Not to mention you’re welcome to make this room your own. Add any little touches you’d like.” Rusty glanced her way, a worried look raising his brows. “Please don’t cry, darlin’. I hate to see a woman cry. There is nothing that makes a man feel inept faster than seeing a woman cry.”

“Thank you, Mr. Willis.” Kat forced a smile. “I’m good.”

She wiped the tears from her eyes, unsure why they were there.

“Call me Rusty, hun. Everyone does.” He returned her smile after giving her an assessing look. “If there’s nothing else you need, I’ll leave you to unpack. The bathroom is two doors down on the left. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Thank you.”

Kat quietly unpacked, donned a nightgown and crawled into bed. Bereavement pushed in on her, when she thought she should be excited. She looked forward to the morning, when she would begin her new life and learn all about ranching. And yet her emotions didn’t seem to match her thoughts. She tucked the confusion away to examine later. For now, she needed sleep.

She lay in bed trying to turn her mind off, but found it impossible. As if her body was on a different schedule, it refused to settle. She rolled over onto her back and stared at the fan watching as it rotated above her. A heavy sigh pushed from her lungs. It was going to be a long night.

****

The engine of Michael’s rented SUV whined as he sped down the highway. He had been instructed to let Stephan know when Kat had been delivered safely to the ranch so he took out his cell phone and dialed the Alpha’s number.

“Is it done?” Stephan asked him curtly.

“Yes. I dropped her off a few minutes ago.”

“And was she…” his voice hitched, “okay when you left her?”

“Yeah, safe and sound.” The phone went dead.

“Hello… Stephan?” How rude! He slammed the phone down into the console.

Earlier in the evening, he’d been irritated by the inconvenience but now absolute fury at the lack of appreciation from Stephan heated his blood. His ears grew hot when he thought about how Stephan had not asked him about the trip to the ranch or anything about how he was doing. The guy didn’t even thank him for going out of his way by heading all the way to Utah, just to do the Alpha leader a favor and that exasperated him the most.

It wasn’t his fault weather delayed his flight so he was the only Alpha that Stephan’s female friend didn’t know. It also wasn’t his fault that a mechanical issue kept him from arriving in time to attend the meeting of the Council. And it certainly wasn’t his fault that he didn’t know that blonde, but yet somehow he ended up being called upon by Stephan to do all the work in relocating her.

Stephan had been curt, barely telling him anything other than get this person to this place. Anger and frustration prickled his skin with heat, and he needed an outlet for the pent up energy.

The thought of going to a casino briefly flickered across his mind, but he swept it away, knowing that in his mood he would most likely make careless mistakes and lose all his money. But he wasn’t ready to go back to his hotel room either.

As he drove down Highway 15, he lowered the windows in the vehicle. The wind whistled through the compartment, flowing over him, causing his dark hair to whip around his face. He loved the way the speed felt, the hum of the engine, the vibration of the road coupled with the cool night air. His tension began to ebb.

Michael noted the scenery and struggled to remember why the road seemed so recognizable to him. Memories of a time long ago began to play in his head while he continued down the interstate. Though he’d never been to Vegas before, he definitely remembered having been in Nevada. Then it came to him. Many years ago, before he became an Alpha, he attended a party here.

Pleasant memories brought a fond smile to his face. He knew someone who lived off the highway and that, he decided, was just the diversion he needed for his frustration. An old friend to get reacquainted with, to relive fond memories, would indeed be an excellent diversion, Michael decided, turning off Highway 15 just outside of Vegas.

Fifteen minutes later, he pulled up in front of the large two story house.

Hope they are home,
he thought exiting the SUV. A big burly man, sporting a crew cut, met him on the walkway to the front door. Dressed completely in black, the male looked intimidating, even to the Alpha.

“May I help you, sir?” The man crossed his arms over his chest and spread his legs in a defensive stance.

“Yes. I’m here to see Gage Lucio.”

Chapter 34

“Excuse me, sir.”

At the sound of Alvero’s voice, Gage looked up from the book he read. “What is it?”

“You have a caller.”

He glanced down at his watch, noting the time. “At this hour? Who is it?”

“He says his name is Michael Garsoe.”

Gage put the book down on his desk and materialized at the front door. Gage opened it wide with a smile. “Michael, I’m so glad to see you. It has been almost a century since I last laid eyes on you.” Gage stepped back, opening the door wide. “Welcome, welcome. Please come in.”

Michael stepped through the doorway with an outstretched arm. Gage shook his proffered hand vigorously, squeezing it tightly.