Twin Alphas: Desired (A BBW Paranormal Romance) (12 page)

              Then again, Caroline’s mother had been crazy too, if she thought that a potion could make two Alphas fall in love with her.  Clearly crazy ran in the family.

              The ropes holding her wrists and ankles were too tight, and she was too weak. With every passing mile that they drove, she could feel her strength fading.

              Would this crazy woman be able to ruin Ajax and Barron’s lives? The thought filled her with despair.  She didn’t want them to be miserable, and they certainly would be if Vita tricked them into bonding with her.  If she died, she wanted them to be happy, to carry on without her and find a new mate and…

              She was getting dizzy and it was hard to think. Of course Vita had drugged the beer with the love potion. It must have been a family recipe. Would Ajax and Barron figure it out before it was too late?

              They drove, and drove, and she slipped in and out of consciousness.

              Then, oddly, she started feeling better. Her strength was coming back. How was that possible, with Vita driving further away from Ajax and Barron? Where was this strength coming from?

              Whatever, she didn’t have time to question it. She needed to move fast, before she started weakening again. She’d die before she let this psycho ruin Ajax and Barron’s lives.

              She slid her hands under the seat and felt a sharp piece of metal sticking out. She began rubbing the rope against it frantically.

              She felt stronger and stronger, and the rope frayed quickly.

              She heard Vita swearing, and the car slowed to a stop.  She could dimly make out bright flashing lights. Like lights from police cars. Then she heard someone rapping on the window.

              “What do you want?” Caroline shouted angrily. “Let me through!”

              “Roll down your window!” she heard a male voice yelling from the outside.

              “I haven’t done anything! What do you want? I’m late, let me through! My daughter is sick and I have to get home!” Caroline wailed plaintively.

              Mackenzie screamed at the top of her lungs “Help me! Help me!” and at the same time, ripped her hands free, threw off the blanket, and sat up.

              “Shut up! Stay down!” Caroline’s voice was hoarse with rage. “ I will kill you, I’ll cut you, I’ll kill you!” She lunged over the back seat, a knife gleaming in her hand.  Mackenzie just barely managed to roll out of the way before the knife stabbed into the floor next to her.

              Caroline was hissing like a snake, lips peeled back from her teeth in rage.

              Glass shattered, the back door opened, and Mackenzie was yanked out of Caroline’s way right before the knife plunged down.

              Caroline kicked and screamed, legs flailing, as she was hauled out of the car. “No! No! You have to die! You have to dieeeeeeee!”

              Someone pulled her to her feet. It was Ajax, wrapping his arms around her tightly and hugging her like he’d never let her go.

He was here. She was safe, and Ajax was here. That would explain why she was feeling strong again, but how could he be there? “You’re in jail,” she said, bewildered.

              Barron was with him. A roadblock had been set up; police cars were blocking the road. It was pitch black out, and they were somewhere in the country with trees hemming in the road. The full moon hung overhead, and Ajax and Barron were there. Barron knelt down to rip the rope from her ankles, and she stumbled, and Ajax caught her.

              “How are you here?” she demanded.

              “Right after you left, a Truth Mage showed up – my aunt and uncle found somebody who was able to come right away, so the Sentinels let us out. When we found out that you’d left the Festival, we headed out right away, looking for you.”

              “But how did you know where to start looking for me?” she asked, sagging into Barron’s arms.

              “Me! Me!” Karlie was walking up to her, looking tired and frazzled. “Dear God, I thought you were dead.” Fabian was trotting along behind her.

              “You probably feel like celebrating now, huh?” Fabian said eagerly. “You know how some people like to celebrate –Ouch!” he cried, as Karlie punched him in the arm, hard.

              Mackenzie blinked in the flashing lights. There were police cars barricading the road, and a long line of cars backed up. 

              An officer quickly moved Mackenzie’s car off to the side of the road, and the police cars moved out of the way, and cars began pulling through. 

              Caroline, handcuffed in the back of a police car, was screaming with rage and kicking at the windows.

              “So, go on. You were saying,” Mackenzie said.

              “Okay, after Fabian and I left, I asked him why he wanted to buy Vita’s necklace,” Karlie said. “He said it was a powerful disguise charm. That’s his talent; he can sense when objects are magic, and what their properties are. So I thought, why would she need something like that?   Then I remembered what bothered me about the person who told the Sentinels that they heard Ajax and Barron accusing the bartender of drugging their drink.Assuming the person was lying about that – who even knew about the drinks being drugged? Me and Vita, and the Mage that Ajax and Barron went to for help.  Then Barron called me, asking where you were, and I told him where I’d last seen you.”

              “Her name’s not Vita.” Mackenzie shook her head ruefully. “Her name is Caroline Thorberg, and she is batshit, stark raving insane.”

              Barron let out several choice swear words. “That bitch!” he growled. “That whole damned family! I’ve never hit a woman before, but I swear I’d make an exception for her.”

              “That is crazy!” Karlie stared at Caroline,  whose face was distorted with rage. The police car that she was in pulled away.  “I don’t understand why she pushed you into mating with Ajax and Barron, though.”

              Mackenzie leaned into Ajax, resting her head on his shoulder, and he stroked her hair.  Her wrists and ankles stung where she’d been tied up, but she could feel strength flooding back into her body.

              “Long story, which I will explain in boring detail as soon as I feel better.”

              Barron grabbed her hand and squeezed it hard.

              “Look out!” somebody screamed. 

              They heard the screech of tires, and Mackenzie looked up in shock to see a car hurtling towards them.

              Ajax and Barron, with their superfast werewolf reflexes, barely managed to throw Mackenzie out of the way, to the side of the road. The car knocked Barron down and ran right over his leg before it managed to stop.  There were shouts of panic and horror, as Barron crawled out from under the car, dragging his leg behind him.

              “Oh my God!” Mackenzie screamed, looking at Barron’s mangled leg.

              “Oh, good Lord. I hate this part,” Karlie moaned, hiding her face in her hands. “Ew. Is it healed yet? Ew.”

              “By the way, the curse hasn’t been lifted yet,” Barron called out.

              Mackenzie took a deep breath of the lovely country air.  Earth was a beautiful world. “Thank you again for letting me stay here,” she said to Mrs. Baxter, Karlie’s mother. They were standing on the front porch of the Baxter family home, basking in the late afternoon sun.  Barron sat on the front porch, sipping lemonade that Mrs. Baxter had just made minutes earlier.

              “Why, it was our pleasure, dear. Any friend of Karlie and Amelia’s is a friend of ours.”  Mrs. Baxter patted her on the arm. 

              “We should have thought of it earlier.” Barron shook his head at his own foolishness. 

              It was Karlie who had suggested it—since Earth lacked magic, all magical things lost their powers over time, once they were brought through the Breach.  The curse was magic in nature, so the hope was that it wouldn’t be as powerful on Earth.              This had mostly proved true – Mackenzie had been unusually accident prone over the last few days, wrenching her ankle, spilling hot food on herself, tripping and almost falling down the stairs – but she hadn’t actually died.

              Barron and Karlie had come over to wait for Ajax to make his appeal to the Council of Mages.

              Ajax had spent the last several days on the other side, appealing to the Council of Mages to get the curse lifted. 

              This morning, Mackenzie had woken up with a feeling of lightness, of relief. She hadn’t had a single accident yet, and it was already mid-afternoon, and now Ajax was driving towards them in a pickup truck.  He wouldn’t have come back unless he’d gotten the curse lifted.

              As he parked the pickup truck, she and Barron ran over to greet him.

              Ajax climbed out of the truck and flung his arms around her with a huge grin. “Do you want the good news, or the good news?”

              “Oh, gosh, let me think…how about the good news?” Mackenzie hugged him back, hard.  “Please tell me we don’t have to keep separating like this. I hate it.”

              ”Farley showed the Lookback Mirror to the Council, and they saw that Elizabeth Thorberg drugged our Fathers’ drinks at the festival.  They also saw that Cornelius agreed to a curse that was far too wide ranging and illegal, and he is now removed from his position, facing prison, and permanently banned from practicing magic.  Another Curse Mage stepped in, and was able to lift the curse.”

              Mackenzie let out a whoop of joy. “Cubs? We can have cubs?”

              “So many cubs.” Ajax nuzzled her hair, and she felt Barron pressing up behind her.

“We’ll get started right away.” Barron’s voice was a sexy growl in her ear, and she felt his hardness pressing up against her.

“More good news,” Ajax continued happily “Vita, of course, is going to prison for life.  And her family is being stripped of our pack’s property, since they got it under false pretenses.”

“Whoa. Honestly, I hadn’t even thought about that,” Barron said. “But no wonder they were so angry when they saw us coming. They knew they were at risk of losing everything. I don’t know that I’d want to move back to that town; I can’t say we got a warm reception there.”

“No, but we could sell all that land and use the money for the many, many cubs we’re going to have.” Ajax nipped affectionately at Mackenzie’s ear, and she stifled a gasp of pleasure.

“People are watching,” she chided. “Tonight. I swear. We will have the biggest, longest, hardest reunion in the history of ever.”

“The most important thing beside the curse being lifted is, our fathers’ honor is restored,” Ajax said triumphantly.

He seized Mackenzie’s hand. “Come on, formerly cursed woman. Let’s pack up and go home, so we can  introduce you as the Alphas’ Mate. And tonight we’re all going to get lucky. Very, very lucky.”

THE END