Fate of the Alpha: The Complete Bundle (23 page)

T
he sun dipped
behind the college woods as Ainsley left Volker’s house, Camilla Parker Bowles tucked under her arm.

The warmth of the little dog helped to ease some of the stress she’d been building up all day.

The x-rays had come back clean. In a way, Ainsley felt relieved. She hadn’t given much though to how they would get the key out of the dog if they found it. It had been a long shot, anyway.

Hopefully Grace’s hunch was paying off. Ainsley snuggled the dog a little closer thinking about how much she must miss her mistress.

A sharp note of perfume and spice alerted her to Ophelia’s presence just before she appeared from around the corner.

“Ainsley, you have a pet,” Ophelia remarked. “How... quaint.”

“Oh, no,” Ainsley explained. “I’m just watching her for a sick friend. A packmate.”

“Walk with me,” Ophelia said.

“Of course,” Ainsley replied, adjusting her pace to keep up with Ophelia’s long strides.

Just then, the familiar voice of Sting, belting out the chorus of
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
exploded out of Ainsley’s phone.

Grace’s ringtone. Shit.

Ophelia raised an eyebrow.

“A friend changed the ringtone as a joke,” Ainsley explained as she tapped the screen to decline the call.

Ophelia eyed the dog, then the phone. “You have...interesting friends.”

“You have no idea,” Ainsley said before she could stop herself.

They walked on in silence for a few minutes toward Ainsley’s house. Overhead, the streetlights turned on, one by one.

“Ainsley, what do you know about your duty?” Ophelia asked unexpectedly.

“To lead and protect my pack,” Ainsley answered immediately.

“That is the duty of an alpha,” Ophelia acknowledged. “But what about the duty of the pack?”

“The pack has a duty?” Ainsley asked. Even as the words left her mouth, she knew what Ophelia must be talking about.

“The location of each wolf pack is no accident, Ainsley,” Ophelia began. “You should have learned this from your parents, but here we are.”

Ainsley felt a pang of regret. Her own stubbornness had cost her her relationship with her parents. And now it was too late. They were gone.

“There are darker things in this life than you know,’ Ophelia continued. “And we wolves are strategically positioned to be the first line of defense between the dark ones and the rest of the world, should it come to that.”

She was talking about the thing under the field house. That’s why the pack had always been in Tarker’s Hollow? Why they couldn’t just relocated to avoid unwanted attention? Was she a glorified, furry prison guard?

“It has been this way for hundreds of years,” Ophelia said. “But lately, we have had cause for concern.”

“Concern?” Ainsley asked.

“Of course,” Ophelia continued. “There are always those who seek to exploit the dark power to their own ends. And those forces are stirring, as if they are preparing for something.”

Ophelia looked her in the eyes, taking her measure. Ainsley hoped she wasn’t left wanting.

“Most wolves live without the burden of this knowledge. But you are the alpha, Ainsley Connor. You must be prepared, so that your pack, such as it is, can fulfill its duty.”

“Prepared?” Ainsley asked carefully.

“You are a natural wolf, Ainsley, and your lieutenants have trained you well in the mundane skills. You’re mastering your senses and developing your physical strengths. But there is more to being a wolf than heightened senses and quick healing.”

Ainsley paused to take that in. She was semi-awestruck that Ophelia was happy with her hastily learned ‘mundane skills.’ But what else could there be?

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Magic,” Ophelia said simply.

“Magic?” Ainsley asked, incredulous.

“More specifically, resistance to magic,” Ophelia told her. “It’s one of the reasons we are so well suited to our role as protector. Wolves and magic don’t mix. Most wolves have some innate resistance to magic, but like your tracking and fighting, it is a skill that can be developed. I can help you.”

They emerged from the woods, and cut across Ainsley’s backyard to the enter on the front porch. Ainsley wanted her superior to see the grandest part of the house first. Old real estate habits died hard.

Ainsley smelled the presence of the two men before they had rounded the corner, and her hackles rose instinctively.

They stepped into the front yard to see Charley Coslaw and Garrett Sanderson standing in the middle of her lawn.

A
low growl
built in Ainsley’s throat as she set Camilla Parker Bowles down on the grass. What the hell were these two doing back at her house? And why was Charley carrying a shovel?

Camilla Parker Bowles made a bee-line to the rhododendrons in the flower bed.

Ainsley finally realized what the little dog had been trying to tell her all along.

The key.

Sadie had buried the key in Ainsley’s rhododendrons.

Ainsley knew every second was precious. She needed to get the key before the warlocks did, or risk the whole future of Tarker’s Hollow.

But Charley was already at the edge of the flower bed, bending over to see where the dog was digging.

She could blast him, but she didn’t dare use her magic in front of Ophelia.

Garrett began to murmur a familiar spell at Ophelia.

Ainsley had just enough time to protect her alpha.

Or to protect her pack.

A
low growl
built in Ainsley’s throat as she set Camilla Parker Bowles down on the grass. What the hell were these two doing back at her house? And why was Charley carrying a shovel?

Camilla Parker Bowles made a bee-line to the rhododendrons in the flower bed.

Ainsley finally realized what the little dog had been trying to tell her all along.

The key.

Sadie had buried the key in Ainsley’s rhododendrons.

Ainsley knew every second counted. She needed to get the key before the warlocks did, or risk the whole future of Tarker’s Hollow.

Charley was already at the edge of the flower bed, bending over to see where the dog was digging.

She could blast him, but she didn’t dare use her magic in front of Ophelia.

Garrett began to murmur a familiar spell at Ophelia.

Ainsley had just enough time to protect her alpha.

Or to protect her pack.

A
insley summoned
her magic with an evocation so powerful, she felt like a black hole trying to suck in the sun. She didn’t want to reveal her magic in the presence of a Federation alpha, especially one with the power to disband her pack for such a grievous act, but she was left with no choice. Before the light ball could fully form in her hands, the words slithered out of Garrett’s mouth.

“
Subsisto lupo mutatis!
”

Ainsley recognized the spell – the one that stopped wolves from shifting. Garrett had aimed it directly at Ophelia.

She didn’t even try to dodge.

Could Ophelia’s reflexes really be so slow?

The alpha of alphas only gazed coldly at Garrett, her pale skin glowing in the moonlight and her dark eyes glittering with satisfaction.

The brilliant wave of red magic washed over Ophelia’s unmoving form, wrapping her in its malevolent embrace.

She gave a small shudder, like a dog shaking off a wet coat, and the magic rose off her in a hissing crimson fog.

Ainsley was riveted, trembling with amazement at her alpha’s mightiness.

Ophelia remained still, but her eyes flashed a deep amber, like honey on fire.

Garrett sucked in a breath and began to draw his form inward.

Ainsley clenched her fists. She had seen Garrett do this before. He would collapse into a covey of inky black birds and elude their grasp once more.

Ophelia crossed the front yard so quickly that even Ainsley’s own alpha senses could barely follow. When Ophelia reached Garrett, she clutched the warlock’s lapels in her long fingers and yanked the pulsing blur of birds back into a man shape.

No sooner did the shape have a mouth, than the lips began to move, forming another spell.

Ophelia lowered her gaze, then once again, pulled hard on his lapels, thrusting the crown of her head forward as she yanked him in.

Garrett’s jaw snapped with a loud crack of bone and teeth, and his spell dissolved into an inarticulate gurgle.

All of a sudden, the rich smell of overturned soil pulled Ainsley’s attention back to the rhododendrons.

To her horror, Charley dug frantically under the foliage. She couldn’t let him get to the key first.

Ainsley knew the price she would pay if she used her other gift. Wolves hated magic. There was no way Ophelia would let Ainsley remain alpha once her secret was out. But there was more at stake here than that. Ainsley gritted her teeth and pictured her high school self throwing the perfect softball pitch as she let loose the ball of energy that still hovered at the tips of her fingers.

The visualization trick Grace taught her worked like a charm. The blue sphere flew out of Ainsley’s hands, knocking Charley off his feet and sending him sprawling halfway across the front yard. He skidded to a stop when he hit the boxwood hedge.

Ainsley darted into the rhododendrons and began to dig with her hands in the spot Sadie’s dog, Camilla Parker Bowles, always seemed drawn to.

The rich black soil soon packed under her fingernails, slowing her progress. Her human hands just weren’t meant for this type of work, but she couldn’t risk shifting, she might need her magic again.

Ainsley continued to scrape futilely at the hard packed earth. As she dug, she imagined the effectiveness of her wide, strong wolf paws. To her amazement, her hands began to sprout silky red fur. She continued her work as they melted into the powerful claws of her wolf, while the rest of her held onto her human form.

That was a new trick. She’d never seen anyone partially shift before. Was it some sort of alpha ability? Being a wolf really needed its own instruction manual.

Ainsley dug furiously, chunks of loose dirt spraying in all directions, until her paws scraped against something cold and hard.

Working as carefully as she could without slowing down, Ainsley uncovered what turned out to be a metal lunch box. She allowed her furry, dirt-caked paws to slip back into human hands and lifted the box from the hole.

For an instant she was dragged back to the memory of another buried lunchbox. When they were kids, she and Erik had dug a big hole under the sycamore and stuck a metal lunchbox in it as a time capsule. They’d filled it with drawings and cool stuff they’d found in the woods.

Her chest tightened as she thought of Erik. Her mate was gone, sent off on Federation business. And it was looking more and more likely that he wasn’t coming back.

Ainsley shook herself out of the dangerous grip of the past and spun around to check on Charley.

He was still out cold.

Her gaze returned to the metal box that rested in her dirty hands, humming with energy. She found herself fiddling with the latch before she had actually decided to open it.

A flash in her periphery brought her attention to Garrett.

He was unsheathing his sword from his cane.

Ophelia wouldn’t know about the silver.

Before Ainsley could warn her, the sword sliced through the air toward Ophelia’s head.

As the arc of the swing reached her, Ophelia’s head vanished.

Ainsley’s first thought was magic, but then she realized the alpha had shifted down into her wolf form, just in time to avoid the slice of Garrett’s sword.

Ophelia’s wolf teeth flashed white, and then the sword clattered to the ground.

Garrett moaned in agony through his mangled jaw.

His right hand was gone — bitten clean off.

Garrett clutched at the bleeding stump of his wrist as he slumped to the ground.

The moment the threat to her alpha was gone, Ainsley’s attention snapped back to the box. With shaking fingers, she managed to open the clasp.

A shard of midnight black crystal rested inside.

The key. Not what she expected it to look like.

It called to her.

Against her better judgment, Ainsley reached out a tentative finger to touch it. The smooth surface felt almost oily. Without warning, the blackness began to grow—

Or maybe she began to shrink?

—as first her finger, then her whole hand passed into the crystal, pulling the rest of her body behind it until the whole world was nothing but blackness.

She fell further still, into the creature below the Field House.

Into the moroi.

Immediately, its hunger overwhelmed her, turning her inside-out with emptiness. Her very soul ached with dry need.

Above her, in Tarker’s Hollow, she could feel the energy, the life force of the creatures stirring. She knew without asking that their energy would fill the void. Each creature floated like a helium balloon with a ribbon trailing down into the void. She traced the ribbons upward with ravenous desire, hunting for their light.

Some of the people flickered like birthday candles. But emotion made others brighter. A college student swooned over a boy and her light glowed seductively. MacGregor’s light burned orange in anguish. Ainsley wondered briefly if he was still humiliated from her snub the night of the full moon.

But she hardly had time to spare for him when she felt the throbbing brilliance of a truly radiant light. Julian. Was it his magic? Yes, she knew it was.

And Grace. Her Grace. How she shone, like the sun, eclipsing all the light around her. A meal like that would fill the void. Ainsley almost couldn’t look.

She followed more strings until she saw herself, glowing with power and passion. And Ophelia, and Garrett, and ...

Where was Charley?

Charley.

Ainsley managed to rip her finger off the key and slam the lid down on the lunchbox, snapping herself back to the reality of the battle scene that was her front lawn.

But it was too late.

Charley was gone.