The Alpha's Desire 3 (4 page)

Good-bye simple, mostly boring life
, I thought to myself, my eyes closing as the world rolled by at about seventy miles an hour. Seems I would no longer have to use my imagination to write of adventures, magical or otherwise.
Good-bye city I was born into, and hello place of my ancestors. I can’t wait to meet you all. And, good riddance painfully boring job. Please fire me. I have bigger and better things to do now.

Chapter Three

“So, I hate to sound like the child of the group, but I’m too excited, and nervous, to not ask, are we there yet?” I said with an embarrassed laugh, my face turning a tad crimson if the high pitch of the abrupt sounding words hadn’t tipped them off.

“It’s all understandable,” Vivian replied, looking back at me with her award-winning smile, though it was the genuine kindness so apparent in the softness of her blue eyes that really hooked me, and brought me the comfort that comes from someone understanding you.

She took the time to look at a person when she spoke to them, always granting me her full attention for one. Plus, no matter how unsettlingly beautiful she was, she didn’t fuss with herself, save for swiping a hand through her long blond hair to keep it from her eyes, giving it that tangled fall that on her looked beautiful, too.

The idea of family bloomed in my mind. Just to have some, after all of this time, no matter how distant, or how far removed, was amazing in and of itself. I’d been alone save for friends for so long now, that I’d forgotten what such a bond of blood felt like. I knew that family didn’t always involve blood. I’d been made part of Chloe’s family my whole life, but still, maybe it was something in the magic, but I felt such a connection to Vivian.

In fact, the connection was more on an energy level. The power inside of me grew, multiplied in her presence, as it did around Lex, but differently. With Lex, it sparked, burned in jagged arcs in the pit of my stomach, as if fueled by my emotions maybe, and some by the magic granted to him to turn into a wolf, it having been given by one of my relatives. With Vivian, though, it burned steady and stronger, more all-consuming, from the inside out. It gave us some sort of instant bond I’d never known before with any stranger, related or not. 

I mean, at each of my parents’ funerals, relatives that were virtual strangers, third cousin this, and aunt twice removed that, had come out of the woodwork to pay their condolences, then never to be heard from again. Made me wonder which of my mother’s relatives also had this dormant power I had, in them unknown, not showing itself. Regardless, I’d never made any immediate connections, had barely felt like family. Though, those were not my best moments. I’d not been thinking of anyone or anything outside of my grief.

“Hey,” Lex said, his hand grabbing up mine, kissing the back of it before pulling it tight to his chest. “Where did your mind go off to? You raised my canine sensors that something was wrong.”

“Sorry. Was thinking about family, and well, that took an unexpected turn toward losing my parents and all the family that came out then. Sorry. Can’t seem to control these raging thoughts of mine today. Of course, truth be told, that’s not much different than any other day aside from subject matter.”

“It’s okay, love. You have a lot on your plate, and an over-active mind, not to mention imagination, that I love.”

I smiled that I loved him back, unsure in this company if I should say ‘I love you’, when he’d not said exactly that. But, it had brought it to my mind, and I wanted him to know, so I softened my eyes and gave him my warmest smile, which he returned in a toe-curling fashion only a man with his looks could pull off so easily, with so little effort on his part but to be himself.

“Thanks for the reassurances, Vivian,” I said, giving a half smile, half grimace, not quite sure how to state that she had not answered my question. At least she was no longer looking back at me. I knew I should just sit back like an adult and let it go, but I couldn’t stop my mouth from moving. “So, estimated time of arrival then?”

“Oh, right. Sorry. And, I am sorry to report that we are only about half way there. We are driving all the way to the airport with the private plane. We feel it attracts less attention. Our private airport is just that. Private. It doesn’t accept any other flights other than our plane. We have the one large hanger, and only one runway, way out in the middle of nowhere, of course. It is a scenic drive, however,” Vivian offered. She’d glanced back my way before turning back around to look out the front window.

“And, out in the middle of nowhere means that we will get off the highway and take more rural roads with very little traffic, so we can go a little faster than the set speed limit and make up some time,” Riker added as he easily maneuvered the large vehicle around a semi and picked back up some speed. “Our exit is just a fourth of a mile up the road. There’s the sign for it.”

I read the sign for a city and road I’d never heard of. I’d not paid much attention to where we were going as we’d driven all morning, but I had at least noticed that at some point we’d entered Pennsylvania. We’d already stopped twice for restrooms, snacks, and coffee in the past six hours, according to my watch that I’d looked at way too many times. Trying to force myself to watch more of what most called God’s Country go by out the window, I should have been lulled to sleep by the endless green. The scenery was lush and radiant, as the last of all the rain we’d had recently had succumbed to the sun-filled skies growing back everything green, teasing us with tiny blooms that held the promise of spring colors after a long, gloomy winter.

The car slowed on the off ramp, coming to a rolling stop before coasting into a right hand turn onto some country road with only two other cars in sight, both far down the road. The scenery changed from the wide expanses of farmland on the interstate to a few abandoned, rundown buildings. First had been a long closed gas station with a few windows boarded up. Next had been some sort of farmer’s market once. At least these sights I could get into. What writer didn’t like to explore a good, old building in some state of decay, to use as a setting in a book? As much as the instinct to ask to pull over and grab a camera came on, it was easily brushed aside by my need to get on with my newest mission in life.

I needed another photo of decaying wood and peeling paint as much as I needed a hole in my head. Although, a hole to stop the constant buzz in my brain, my imaginings of the splendor of the royal island, my fears and worst case scenarios of meeting such people, especially such people I was related to... that hole would be welcome right about now. Even a nap would do, just to give my over-active brain a break, along with my nerves.

With that thought, I heard a sudden, rather unexplainable noise come from Riker just seconds before something large and dark struck his side of the vehicle from seemingly out of nowhere. The horrid sound of crunching metal ripped through my head as the world outside the car started to spin. My hands scrambled for purchase, though with my seatbelt on, I remained in some sort of suspension while the car tumbled, that slow, unreal occurrence that happens during accidents, though later we all say that it happened so fast.

Metal crunched again once we’d come to a stop. The car hit something hard, rolled back, and we were hit by the car again. My door seemed to push in toward me as the vehicle rocked. I felt a second of searing pain in my leg before another hit to the vehicle spun us another way. We were upside down, and now spinning like a top. My head hit my window and turned my world black.

The next time I opened my eyes, I was blinking against not only the sunlight and pain, but the haze over my surroundings, the dense fog that I couldn’t seem to clear from my vision. I peered through that grey, trying to desperately to make out the grunts and cries of pain around me. There were the distinct sounds of a whole scramble of motion, many feet moving, bodies slamming together. When I attempted to instinctively curl up, to protect myself from whatever commotion was taking place, a fight obviously, my legs screamed, and caused a blinding pain to shoot from below my knee up through my hip, making me nauseous as it entered my stomach.

As I teetered in and out of consciousness, I became aware of the smell of burnt rubber on pavement, topped only by the metallic smell of blood that I could only assume was my own, given the wetness covering my head. My own shaky hand rose to my forehead as I tried in vain to regulate my breathing, to stop the flames that seared the insides of my lungs. The noise, the jumble of things hitting together, and growls, coupled with the distinctive tearing of claws and teeth into animal hide. This sound I’d only come to know in the past few days, but I would never forget or fail to recognize it again.

When the haze started to clear, my vision righting itself despite the thumping of my head, my first sight was of my blood-covered fingers proving the wetness on my face, seeping into my hair, was from my own injury. Not a real surprise given the unbelievable headache I had going, but the sight of one’s own blood is never a comforting thing.

Opening my mouth, wanting to scream, the iron taste dripped onto my tongue and made me gag. Rolling to prevent it from getting to my throat, again there was the sting, sharp and burning, that resonated from my leg, and left me to drop my face back to the warm pavement along with my hand that had been blocking my view. The sight there now before me... different place, different time, yet still the same fight, the attack of original werewolves against mine... made me instantly weary and incensed to see.

Cars overturned, crunched into unshapely metal, jagged edges void of paint, littered the road, as did bloody bodies of overgrown wolves. Panic forced me up onto my elbows, regardless of the searing discomfort of this effort, to look for my Lex. What I saw at first was the pool of blood, which like a river had formed under the bodies and had begun to flow toward me, toward my own imprint of vital plasma seeping into the dirt.

The bodies were strewn like a protective semi-circle around me, though I could only assume they’d died either protecting me or trying to get to me. Just beyond that, I recognized Lex, Vivian, and Riker, all in wolf form. Distinctive markings on their fur, a crest of black just below their hunched shoulders, a magic marking I could only assume, set them apart from the other wolves they stood in a standoff against. 

I’d noticed this mark last night, and now, here, in my pain and panic-frazzled mind, I somehow remembered that I’d forgotten to ask about it. Didn’t matter now, but still my rattled brain thought on it more than was appropriate as my rising panic stole my ability to regulate my breathing. My vision grew fuzzy again. Regardless, the sight of my wolf protectors was grim.

Whether from the car accident, obviously on purpose, or from the ongoing battle, they were in sad shape. Blood soaked their fur. Gashes grew more and more gaping, unsightly as they moved.  Through the ferocious growling, the three wolves leapt in unison at their predators, and so the tangle of wolves, the gnashing, the biting, the growling, continued.

What caught my eye, though, just beyond that, was that on the tiny hillside on the other side of the road stood the disgusting slime ball in that shiny black suit that had lead the attacking pack last night in my apartment. He’d threatened to take me then, to have a sorcerer of his own and to use my magic. The point of it all, this pack’s attacks on the Royals all over the globe last night, remained unclear, other than for the petty battle to be alpha, not over a mere pack, but over all the wolves in the world, and to change how they shifted, to make it magical and painless.

What I had gathered then came back to me in sweeps of thoughts. This pack of real werewolves were either jealous or resentful, probably both, being bound to their curse to shift, seemingly painfully, while the royal werewolves shifted effortlessly with magic. They planned to use me to make their shifts magical, as well. I couldn’t know my fate in their hands, but it couldn’t be good. Besides, once they got from me what they wanted, I’d probably be as good as dead. They only wanted to use the pain of my Lex against me. They’d toyed with him till near dead, then let him live.

Fear grew like a noose around my throat as the man in the suit, the ring leader of the true wolves, the bad pack for lack of a better name, caught my eye, and looked directly at me. I grimaced in return. His whole rich, sleek look consisted of a shiny black suit and crisp white dress shirt, apparently a uniform for this guy, and it didn’t compute with his far from matching tousle of unruly brown curls, which now moved about in the gentle breeze of the day. All tan, with his bronze skin catching the sunlight, I’d have had to admit him to be cute if the circumstances had been different. Instead, especially now with the man I loved in grave danger due to him, and the pain in my leg and head growing unbearable, he stood a cowardly devil on that hill, instructing his pack to fight his battles for him.

That pack really outnumbered the three left from my vehicles, at least three to one. Similar to last night when at first they’d ganged up on Lex in my apartment, here, today, a dozen or more of them toyed with my three wolf protectors, all that appeared to be left. The numbers set unevenly, they basically took turns jumping on their victims. Watching Lex be bit by one, body slammed by another, and then tossed to the ground by yet another one, my heart ached in my chest, a sound I could hear throbbing in my ears. Still, it couldn’t drown out the moans of pain Lex let out as he got back up each time, and dodged and took all the blows, keeping his body between me and them.