Fate of the Alpha: The Complete Bundle (6 page)

G
listening
red leaves mixed with the pine needles that carpeted the college woods. Each step that Ainsley took released the heady scent of the changing seasons.

But she hardly noticed. Ainsley and Erik were deep in conversation about the motives of the lone wolf they had yet to locate.

“What could he want?” she asked. “If he’s been here all this time, why doesn’t he show himself?”

“Maybe he’s gathering info for another pack.” Erik suggested. “Or maybe he’s planning to challenge you. MacGregor said it wouldn’t surprise him if another wolf tried to move in when leadership looked weak.”

“So my leadership is weak?”

“Not at all.” Erik laughed, as though the very notion were ridiculous. “Everyone is behind you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Any lingering doubts went out the window when you sent Clive packing. But we were without an alpha for so long, we were bound to get onto someone’s radar. Maybe he’s biding his time. Taking the measure of you. Deciding whether or not he should make a move.”

“So do I look tough enough to scare him away?” she asked.

“If he had any idea how tough you are, he wouldn’t be here in the first place. And if he sees you practicing any of that magic you used to blast Clive, he’ll be on the next bus out of town.”

Magic.

Ainsley was in serious trouble if her magic was the only reason they all thought she was tough. She pressed her lips together.

“Why do you always clam up whenever I bring up magic?” Erik asked. “You know I’m not against it. I happen to think it’s pretty cool.”

“It’s not that. It’s just…”Ainsley trailed off, unable to share her failure, even with her mate.

“Julian. You don’t want to talk to me about your special time with Julian.”

Dear god. He was jealous.

It was flattering and adorable and infuriatingly misplaced all at once. Her time with Julian was about the most dreaded and least ‘special’ part of Ainsley’s day.

Ainsley knew she should tell him the truth and ease his mind. Alpha image to uphold or not, he deserved to know. She opened her mouth to begin.

But her wolf rose up inside, closing off her throat, and whispering in her ear:

I am the alpha, I can mate with whomever I want, whenever I want.

Ainsley’s stomach turned. She certainly had no desire to mate with Julian. He wasn’t even a wolf. And since when was the wolf in charge? This was the man she loved.

As she struggled, Erik sighed.

“Never mind. I’m sorry I asked.”

“Erik.”

“Forget it. I’ll send Cressida by to pick you up when you’re done.”

He stopped walking.

Ainsley bit her lip in frustration. There was no time for this. As a matter of fact, she was supposed to be clearing her mind for practice.

She turned back to him, to tell him he didn’t need to worry, that she would tell him what’s going on later, when
he
came back for her.

But the look on his face froze her.

The air began to crackle and something stirred in the fallen leaves. A cascade of pine needles mixed with red and yellow leaves lifted from the forest floor and began to circle her.

As Ainsley watched in dismay, the circle began to glow a sickly yellow. The glow spread, illuminating a complex pattern inside. She knew the runes meant magic, but she couldn’t begin to decipher them.

“Ainsley, are you doing that?” Erik called.

She couldn’t move. Her feet rooted to the ground, and her muscles locked up like she had touched a live current.

The circle roiled, folding in on itself and regrouping. As they both watched, it took the form of a giant, glowing snake, encircling Ainsley.

Suddenly everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.

The snake reared up between them, baring dripping, silver fangs.

Erik crouched low and launched himself, shifting in mid-air and shredding his clothes.

Ainsley found herself thinking about how much she had liked that jacket as the snake began its strike in her direction.

Then, the enormous black wolf that was her mate crashed into her, knocking her out of the circle and putting time back in its place.

Before she could react, the snake’s fangs sunk into Erik’s back.

He howled in agony.

The wolf howl melted into a human scream as Erik shifted back.

It was the saddest sound Ainsley had ever heard.

Suddenly, the snake was gone and the leaves dropped back to the ground, as if they had never been anything but normal fall leaves.

Ainsley fell to the ground by Erik’s side. He seemed to be in one piece, but something was terribly wrong.

“What happened, Erik? What can I do? Can you shift to heal?”

“Ainsley.” His eyes were glazed and unfocused. “I can’t. My wolf… It’s…gone.”

Before she could take that in, the sound of crashing footsteps came toward them through the woods.

Ainsley struggled to hold her wolf in check. She opened her hand and a grapefruit-sized sphere of energy appeared instantly.

She turned toward the sound and prepared to throw.

F
or the second
time since stepping onto the path, Grace thought she saw movement in the trees.

The college woods took on an ethereal quality every evening during the hour when dusk settled into Tarker’s Hollow. And this close to the full moon, there was no telling what might be prowling in the semidarkness.

She squared her shoulders and stepped up her pace. It was the light playing tricks on her - there was too much contrast between the dark shadows and spun gold of the oak leaves above.

To the rhythm of her steps, Grace repeated her questions.
Why would someone harm Sadie Epstein-Walker? Why would a teaching assistant know details? Why meet at the amphitheater?

None of it made sense.

A hollow feeling filled the woods tonight. Grace couldn’t put her finger on it, but her inner voice was whispering of tragedy.

She tamped it down and kept walking.

Grace had never really gotten into exploring the college woods the way so many Tarker’s Hollow residents loved to do. While Ainsley was out here kissing Brian Swinton, Grace had been curled up on a chair with a text book, looking out over the trees from the safety of the library.

A stone monument marked the entrance to the amphitheater. Carved into a natural hillside, the half-circles of stone that formed the amphitheater’s stairs and seats were the blue-gray granite unique to nearby Springton quarry. The quarry had shut down two generations ago, but these stones had been in place for nearly one hundred and fifty years.

Grace took a deep breath and scanned the amphitheater from above. This was the best vantage point she was likely to get tonight.

In her periphery, the shadows seemed to move, but wherever she focused her eyes everything looked completely normal.

At the center of the amphitheater, far below, stood a young woman, presumably Lilliana. She stood out in a bright yellow raincoat with the collar turned up, though there had been no rain. Her too-bright red hair caught the last of the light, but Grace could tell, even from here, that it was a bad dye job - not her natural color.

Grace started down the deep carved steps toward the girl. As she descended, it grew darker, in part because the sun was setting, but also because the walls of the amphitheater blocked it out.

When she reached the bottom, the girl smiled at her. Her skin was so pale that her red lipstick seemed almost clownish in contrast. She was taller than Grace by a good six inches.

“Hi, I’m Lilliana.” She spoke with an exaggerated Southern drawl.

Grace immediately had a bad feeling about Lilliana. And she had learned to trust her instincts. But she was here now and had not called for back-up.

The weight of her taser in its holster reassured her. There were some unpredictable things in Tarker’s Hollow, but they all had the same reaction when introduced to 50,000 volts.

“Grace Kwan-Cortez.”

“Thank you so much for meeting me here, Miss Concordess.”

Grace nodded, ignoring her butchered last name.

“Please call me Grace.”

“Well, Grace, when I heard about that poor old lady, I just didn’t know what to do.”

Lilliana took another step closer and lowered her voice, making the conversation immediately feel more intimate and less professional.

“I swear, if I’d of known she was in any danger, I’d’ve called y’all right away. I didn’t think he was gonna
hurt
anyone.”

“Wait,” Grace said “Slow down. Who are we talking about here?”

“Mr. Sanderson,” Lilliana replied. “I heard him on the phone, telling someone that the old woman wasn’t cooperating, and he was tired of playing nice. He didn’t know I was listening, because I was in the storage closet-”

“Hang on a second. Where was this? And why were you in a closet?”

“Oh,” Lilliana said, with the air of having said too much.

“I need you to be honest with me if you want me to take you seriously,” Grace said firmly.

She tried to study Lilliana’s face, but by now they were in near full darkness, and the girl, who was several inches taller than Grace, was silhouetted against the barely lit sky that peeked through the tulip trees above.

“I didn’t want him to know I was there to meet the professor. No one really knows about us, on account of it wouldn’t really be appropriate for us to be having…a relationship until after I defend my thesis.”

“Where are you getting your degree?”

“Penn, but I got sent here to do a year as a teaching assistant. I did undergrad at LSU,” she added proudly.

“Which professor are we talking about?”

“I don’t want to get anyone in trouble…”

“Lilliana…”

The girl sighed.

Before the breath was out of her mouth there was movement in the woods. This time it wasn’t just a shadow, there was the light sound of jostled branches.

“Hello!” Grace called out in her most authoritative voice. “Is someone there?”

There was no reply, but sudden movement caught her eye just inside the tree line.

She was just in time to catch the shape of a man, dressed all in black, fleeing the scene.

Grace took off after him.

She tried calling for him to stop, and identifying herself as a Tarker’s Hollow police officer, but he didn’t acknowledge her commands.

Whoever it was, he was fast. Grace was no wolf, but she still held a few of the Tarker’s Hollow High track records. Her legs were short, but her lithe body gave her nearly endless stamina, and she hoped that her target would tire before she did.

She slipped her Maglite out of its place on her belt as she ran and sent a bouncing beam of light ahead of her. Grace couldn’t help but notice that whoever she was pursuing was doing an amazing job of running in the woods in almost full darkness without any kind of light.

As they approached the edge of the woods and the entrance to the path that followed the creek back out to the main campus, Grace gained on the mysterious runner and hoped to overtake him in a few more strides.

She pushed herself until her legs felt like they were on fire, and managed a burst of speed as she broke out of the trees right behind him.

She was just in time to see him dart behind a large tree.

Grace dropped her flashlight and rounded the corner of the tree with her arms out, hoping to snag him.

Her eyes were adjusting to the darkness without the flashlight’s beam, so by the time she was sure of what she was seeing it was too late.

The man in black was gone, and in his place a cluster of blackbirds flew straight at her. The flutter of their wings made a strange hushing sound and smooth feathers brushed her cheeks as they hurtled past.

She threw her hands up reflexively, but the last bird still slashed a deep cut across her cheek with its beak as it passed. Grace pressed her palm to the wound as she spun to look for the man in black.

He was nowhere to be seen.

Grace’s skin began to hum and tingle.

Magic.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then retrieved her flashlight. Luckily, it still seemed to be in perfect working order.

Grace thanked god for small favors and began to jog back through the woods to the amphitheater. Hopefully, Lilliana wouldn’t be too spooked to keep talking.

From the woods on the edge of the amphitheater, she could see that the grassy stage was empty.

Grace picked up her pace. Maybe Liliana had simply seated herself on the stone stairs.

She broke out of the woods and scanned the whole arena.

Empty.

“Lilliana?” she called.

There was no reply.

A swatch of color flashed in the beam of the light. Grace bent to pick up the belt to the bright yellow raincoat Lilliana had been wearing. It was the only sign that the girl had ever been there.

Grace took her time traversing the stairs back to the stone monument, hoping to see some sign of Liliana.

Though she told herself that the girl had simply been spooked, a flash of inner wisdom told her this disappearance was something more sinister.

Without warning, Grace was knocked in the chest with a horrible empty feeling. It echoed the whispers she’d heard in the woods on the way to this meeting, but amplified a thousand times.

And now she knew what it meant.

Ainsley needed her. Ainsley needed her
now
.

J
ulian paced
the Sycamore Woods cul-de-sac waiting for Ainsley, too distracted to expand and contract his consciousness.

What was disturbing him? His skin was fairly crawling and yet there was nothing wrong.

Wildflowers growing from cracks in the pavement nodded at him in the slight breeze. As usual, there was a musty, leafy smell. The mournful sound of crickets cut through the stillness of dusk. Everything was as it should be in the abandoned neighborhood - just as it was at every sunset.

Suddenly he sensed a huge discharge of magic.

Deep in the trees beyond Sycamore Woods, a wolf howled. Julian ran toward the sound as fast as his legs would carry him.

As he approached the edge of the woods, the howl melted into a human scream with a note of despair so dark it turned his stomach.

He plunged into the woods. Ainsley was in there somewhere. And she wasn’t ready to protect herself. Though she should be by now.

As he crashed through the trees he was haunted by the image of the Coke bottle, wobbling on the stump.

He was moving so quickly that he was almost on top of her before he saw her.

Ainsley crouched low over a writhing body. So much magic coursed though her system that her eyes crackled blue. In her hand, an enormous blue ball of magic hissed and roiled.

Julian stopped in his tracks.

But it was too late. In her defensive state, Ainsley hurled the energy at him.

Julian tried to bring up a shield, but he was not prepared. He could feel the sizzle of the energy ball as it pushed aside the air between them.

Ainsley’s face was a mask of fury. She was terrifying but also somehow beautiful. Her nostrils were flared.

He had a flash of his failed ambush attempt yesterday afternoon. Would she smell him now? Did she know what she was doing?

Julian braced for impact, but it didn’t come.

Instead, the ball of energy crashed into the tree next to him, splintering it instantly into a million pieces.

The blue energy flickered out of Ainsley’s eyes.

Recognition softened her features.

“Help!” she called.

Her voice was high and reedy, utterly unlike her usual throaty purr.

Julian’s gaze dropped to the body at her feet.

Erik Jensen. He was unconscious, but sweating and moaning in pain.

“Please, I’m afraid I’m going to lose him!”

“Let’s get him to your house.”

Ainsley began to lift her mate in lieu of answering. Julian moved to help her.

A growl ripped out of her throat and he cringed reflexively.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, embarrassed.

“It’s very natural that you’re protective,” he tried to keep the shock out of his voice.

Ainsley hoisted Erik’s body like he was a child and draped his form over her shoulder.

“Let’s go,” she said, seemingly unbothered by the large man’s weight.

Ainsley was strong. Julian knew she would be, but her wolf qualities always seemed to surprise him. He had met her when she was almost all human.

They moved quickly and in silence until they got to the edge of the woods. They would have to cross the construction site and Yale Avenue to get to Ainsley’s house on Princeton. The streets were mostly empty, and Ainsley didn’t seem to be concerned with being seen by anyone.

They rounded the corner onto Princeton and Ainsley sped up again. She took the porch steps in a single leap, as though she weren’t carrying a full-grown man on her shoulder.

Grace Kwan-Cortez perched on the edge of the wicker sofa waiting for them.

Julian felt his heart lurch.

“I came as soon as I got your call,” she said in her soft, clear voice.

Julian didn’t remember Ainsley getting out her phone.

He was very glad to see Grace. This time he was determined not to be an ass.

“Let’s get him inside,” Ainsley said in a flat voice.

She carried Erik through the cozy living room with its built-in bookshelves. Julian couldn’t help but flash back to the moment they had let him in, in spite of everything, and he’d been allowed to explain himself. It was hard to believe that the angry young man who had been ready to send him packing was limp in Ainsley’s arms right now.

By the time they helped her lay Erik gently on the dining room table he was so pale he looked almost inhuman.

“Do you have a blanket?” Julian asked.

Ainsley nodded and sprinted upstairs.

Not wanting to look at Erik’s writhing naked body, Julian was left looking over the table at Grace. He hoped not in a lewd manner.

It was difficult to look at her at all without thinking of freeing her shining hair from the pony tail and running his fingers through it. He imagined it would smell like a summer night with evening jasmine blooming and fireflies winking in the plush darkness.

Ainsley was back and wrapped the blanket around her mate with such care. It seemed that she thought that maybe if she did it just right he would open his eyes and be well again.

“Can you tell me exactly what happened?” Julian asked.

She took a careful breath.

“We were walking in the woods. All of a sudden the leaves were circling me and there was this strange glowing pattern in them. And it turned into a snake. I was frozen in place. And just as it was about to bite me, Erik shifted and knocked me out of the way. And it bit him-”

She pressed her lips together tightly, unable to continue.

Dear god, the snake. Julian recognized the elements of that spell. Did this mean that Erik…?

He studied the younger man’s face out of the corner of his eye.

Erik did seem somehow…less.

But it could also be that he was passed out and in pain.

“Whoever set this trap is very, very good. I remember this spell from the book and it is a very difficult one,” Julian said.

“What do we do?” Ainsley asked.

“I don’t remember anything about a reversal or a cure,” Julian said carefully.

“The first thing to do for a snakebite is get out the poison,” Grace said firmly.

“This is not an
actual
snakebite. A cottage spell for venom doesn’t apply.”

Julian heard the dismissive tone in his voice as soon as the words were said. But he couldn’t take them back. So much for not being an ass.

Though he wasn’t a wolf, he could practically smell Grace’s disgust.

What was the matter with him?

“Turn him over,” Grace said calmly.

Ainsley turned Erik over like a mother rolling over a sleeping baby. A gasp escaped her as she saw the extent of the injury.

The wound was purple and swollen to the size of a softball. Black lines spread from it like a rotten spiderweb.

“It smells like…death,” Ainsley whispered.

Grace was unwavering. She traced a circle in the air over the wound with her arms, then another.

“This is going to be rough. Get him something to bite down on in case he wakes up in the middle.”

Ainsley dashed to the kitchen and came back with a wooden spoon. She placed it on the table next to Erik, then began to pace up and down the room.

Grace took a few deep breaths, drawing herself up to her fullest possible height.

She reached out over Erik once more. Her arms were strong, her movements fluid and graceful. Julian was reminded once again of a ballerina.

Slowly and deliberately she made motions as though she were gathering up cotton candy. Then she pulled.

Erik screamed. Ainsley placed the big end of the spoon in her mate’s mouth, and he bit down hard enough to make indentations in the wood.

Nothing happened to the wound.

Ainsley resumed her pacing. Four steps toward the kitchen, four steps back. The look on her face was terrifying.

Julian let out his breath slowly. Grace’s sheer determination had made him half expect her improvised spell to actually work.

“Damn it!” Grace hissed, squaring her small shoulders and beginning again.

Julian studied her face, sweat beaded on her brow and she breathed hard and fast, as though she were lifting a huge weight.

Grace wasn’t using the correct words - or
any
words. Her posture was dreadful and her breathing was worse. How could she possibly expect anything to happen?

Erik screamed again through clenched teeth.

Julian opened his mouth to shut her down. There was no point torturing the poor man.

A wisp of silver trickling out of Erik’s wound froze the protest in his throat.

The silver trickle had the appearance of oily smoke. It trailed upward, and hung in the air just over Erik’s back, shimmering in the light of the old chandelier.

Grace continued her labor, she was practically panting now. Sweat ran from her face down her neck and dampened the collar of her t-shirt.

The ominous smoke began to form a small silver cloud. More and more came out in silvery ribbons, like a stage magician pulling an unending scarf.

As Grace pulled, the swelling went down and the spiderweb of black on Erik’s back receded.

She was powerful. Incredibly powerful. Julian was thunderstruck. What could be the price for such magic?

Before he could try to imagine, the last wisp of smoke escaped Erik’s wound and the whole cloud dissolved like fog on the wind.

Incredible.

Ainsley went to Erik and rolled him gently onto his side.

He was out again, but his expression was peaceful now and his breathing steady.

Ainsley cradled Erik’s head tenderly in her arms. The indescribable expression with which she studied him thrust Julian far back in his memory to a visit to
La Pieta.
Ainsley’s ecstasy and despair reminded him of the Mother. A moment so intimate that Julian had to look away.

Grace lifted her eyes to meet his.

He braced himself for the comeuppance he richly deserved.

It never came. Grace’s knees buckled.

Julian was just able to catch her.

Here it was, the magic would take its price. She would be lucky to survive.

He was surprised to notice how good she felt in his arms. Her small body was very feminine in spite of its straight lines and hard angles. Somehow she fit him exactly. She smelled just like the jasmine he had dreamt of, but she was burning hot - her clothes were soaked through and clung to her frame.

Her eyelids fluttered, and then he was rewarded with that sable gaze. She observed him with confusion. And something else.

Something in her disposition had changed. Her fierceness was gone.

Why was she looking at him that way - like a fox in a henhouse?

Though Julian did not want to take advantage of her in her weakened state, his body did not agree. He could already feel himself responding to the question in her eyes. His heart pounded.

Her lips parted and he longed to taste her.

As if in a dream, she lifted herself to him, fulfilling his wish with a kiss so light it maddened him.

He forgot himself then and pulled her close, coaxing her mouth open and tasting her. She tasted like citrus and he could feel her tiny nipples press into his chest, hard as pebbles. She was warm, so warm. Too warm.

Just as he remembered the circumstances and tried to pull back, he felt the bite of her nails on his chest.

He groaned as the bittersweet pleasure overtook him and he dove back into her, not caring about anything except losing himself in her.

Grace seemed to melt into him. Her hands slid down from his shoulders to mold his chest, then further still.

His erection strained against his trousers, anticipating her gentle touch.

Instead, she stiffened in his arms and pulled away.

Her absence left him cold and aching. He closed his eyes for a second to try and find his balance.

When he opened them, he found Ainsley was staring at him in wonder.

Grace ducked her head and darted out of the room.

“I have to go,” she called as the front door slammed behind her.

Julian stood speechless, feeling for all the world like Cinderella’s prince at midnight.