Alpha Divided (Alpha Girl Book 3) (16 page)

Maybe if I climbed on the roof, my cell could pick up a signal, but that would mean breaking the rules…

As the smell of pepperoni and cheese filled the kitchen, I pulled out plates.

“What’s going on?” Daniel said as he walked into the kitchen.

I guessed he’d been busy trying to figure out what I’d been doing wrong. “My mom brought food. You hungry?”

“Sure.” He sat at the table and my cousins joined him. The way they talked with each other reminded me of my friends. Suddenly, it wasn’t just Dastien I was missing, it was everyone.

Adrian might be able to get on coven ground, but that would probably only fly once. If I were lucky, maybe twice, and Luciana would definitely try to get her hooks into him. So, I had to save that for when I had really good reason to contact him.

As I tucked into the second pizza, Dastien occupied my thoughts. He was probably fine. Maybe chatting with our friends.

The image of Imogene kissing him flashed into my mind.

What was wrong with me? I really wished I could un-see things. But once I had a vision, it was never gone. When I was in Imogene’s room a few months ago, I’d touched her necklace and glimpsed an intimate moment between the two of them.

I guessed that was why she got to me. She’d known Dastien much longer than I had. He said he hadn’t meant to lead her on, but she’d been led nonetheless. Her ulterior motives for speaking against me weren’t all that secret.

She wanted Dastien back. I knew it. Hell, everyone knew it. But I had to trust Dastien. I had to focus on why I was here, and know that my bond with him would always exist, even if I couldn’t feel it. Still strong. Just hidden.

But it was hard to remember when I felt so cut off from him.

The pizza settled like a ton of bricks in my stomach. I put the last one in the fridge and went back to my room. A shower and a nap would do wonders for my attitude. Or at least I hoped they would.

Chapter Twelve

Three days into being at the compound I’d proven to Daniel, Claudia, and Raphael that I was a walking disaster when it came to magic. Every spell I tried backfired. I attempted to light a candle, but it exploded, splattering me with melted wax. Thank God for my Were healing abilities. That wax was freaking hot.

I tried to levitate an object and it flew through the roof, making a nice hole in the ceiling. That had stopped practice for a while. But at least now I could say I knew some serious home repair skills.

When Daniel suggested we try an invisibility spell, I’d succeeded in turning my clothes invisible. That had been mortifying. And if Dastien knew what’d happened, and that Daniel actually got an eyeful, he’d flip. The guy would be blind or dead. As it was, I suddenly felt really exposed around Daniel. No one had gotten such an intimate look at me in…ever.

I felt like a complete moron. It wasn’t like I was failing on purpose. I was following the spells to the letter, but nothing worked for me. It seemed the harder I tried, the worse the damage got. I was seriously starting to wonder if I belonged with the coven at all.

I’d met a couple other people around the compound, but for the most part, I was a bit of a pariah. How I was supposed to befriend all these people, let alone figure out which one was supposed to be the next leader, was beyond me.

To add insult to injury, I was a hot mess when it came to missing Dastien. I hated the needy feeling that was eating me up inside. It was like I was drowning and anxious all the time. And it was all because I was missing my mate. My other half.

Pathetic.

I’d been fine being alone before I met him. Why did I suddenly feel like half a person?

During the mornings, the other coven members had meetings and classes. Any group lessons were held at the little schoolhouse down the road a ways. Daniel told me that the older
brujos
helped the younger ones with their studies there. Most of them did homeschooling lessons during the afternoon, but Daniel had finished his work for the semester way early, so he usually spent afternoons attempting to teach me.

While he was busy in the morning, I took to exercising. The need to change grew stronger everyday, but I’d agreed to live as a
bruja
, which meant no shifting. A deal was a deal. I’d stick to it even if it killed me.

As I made my fifteenth lap around the compound that morning, a car pulled through the gate. The driver was someone I recognized. I grinned, and jogged over.

“Tia Rosa.”

“
Hola, mijita. Como estas?”

Completely shitty was the truth, but she didn’t need to hear that I was going slowly going mad from being cut off from my mate. “I’m getting by.”

She grumbled. “That’s what I thought.” She put on the little glasses that hung around her neck and gripped my face with her hands. As she stared into me, she tugged on the skin under my eyes.

I blinked and jerked away. What was that about?

“Hmmm. Interesting.” She pulled the glasses off.

“What?” Had someone spelled me again? Because if so, that totally meant I could leave. Didn’t it?

“Let’s talk inside.”

“Okay.” I followed her back to my cousins’ house. “Would you like something to drink?” I asked as she settled down on their floral couch.

“No,
mijita.
Sit next to me.” She patted the cushion.

We sat on the couch together in sudden silence. I didn’t know who was supposed to talk first, but she already knew what I wanted to hear, so I waited.

“The things that they have you doing, those are distractions.”

Not what I was expecting. How did she know what I was doing here? “What do you mean?”

“Spells and incantations and parlor tricks are not worth your time. You need to be working on growing your visions. Becoming more aware of the lines in the future.”

Was it just me, or was she being incredibly…crazy? It was like I was missing half the conversation. “Lines?”

“Up until this point, you’ve seen past and present. You’ve gotten feelings and premonitions of the future, no?”

“Yes.”

She wheezed a little as she talked. It made my lungs ache in sympathy. “You need to have more than premonitions.”

I shook my head. That was impossible. It wasn’t how my visions worked. “How?”

“By finding that place within that’s the source of your power. Then, you will be able to lead this coven.”

I couldn’t contain the shocked gasp. “No. I can’t. That’s not what I’m here for. I need to find the next leader.”

“Your Grams—my sister—found the next leader.”

“She found me, but I’m in the pack. I’m an alpha. I don’t know where I really stand yet, but I’m stronger than most. I can’t be in two places at once.”

“No,
mijita.
You
are
of two places and you will always be in two places. You think your Grams didn’t know what would happen? You think she made a mistake?”

Honestly? Yes. I kind of did think she made a mistake.

“She knew what would happen to you. She knew that your path would be hard, and she prayed over it, but you cannot change what is meant to be.”

“Rosa,” I said to her, pleading for her to understand. “It’s not just me who doesn’t want to be here. The coven doesn’t want me either.” Luciana didn’t want to give me to the wolves, but she hadn’t paid a visit since my first day here.

“Now
that
is a useful way to spend your time. You need to be going around and making friends here, getting to know what these
brujos
really think.”

She’d lost her mind. It didn’t matter if I had friends. This wasn’t my job. “I don’t even want to run the pack.” I wasn’t sure if that was the road I was heading down, but I was a strong alpha and it could happen—it almost certainly would happen to Dastien—so at the very least, I was bound to end up the Were version of a first lady. But Tia Rosa was talking about a whole other level of leadership. “Why would I want to run the coven on top of that?”

She grasped one of my hands. Her skin was so soft and papery thin; I had to be careful with her. She was human, both old and fragile.

“As you grow, you learn that life is rarely about doing what you want. We all do what we must, and that is even more true for the powerful ones like you. My sister saw the times changing. To stop war, you must be the link that unifies the pack and coven…and eventually, all supernaturals. When the time comes for the world to know the truth, the people will need someone to look to. A trustworthy leader who knows what it’s like to be human.”

I couldn’t breath. There wasn’t enough air.

No longer able to sit still, I pulled away from Rosa to pace the small room. “I can’t be that person. I’m just me. I’m a normal girl.”

“You’re not normal, and it’s past time for you to let go of that delusion.” Rosa stood and walked to the door. “When you’re ready, if you want my help, you know where to find me.”

“I’m not sure I’m allowed off the compound.”

“Not allowed off the compound to visit
la Aquelarre’s
wise woman? I think I’d have something to say about that. You send Luciana my way if it’s not allowed.”

I cracked a grin. Rosa might be old, but she still had her wits and sass. “I’ll think about it.”

I opened the door for her, and she patted my cheek. “I’ll be seeing you soon.”

I was still sitting on the couch, trying to absorb Rosa’s words when Daniel stepped into the house. His morning lessons must’ve been done. I glanced at my watch. How long had I been staring into space?

He started chatting about the spells he wanted to try today, but I held a hand up.

“Dude. Four days of trying something and getting the same results…don’t you think we’ve had enough? I mean, a hole in the roof? Really?”

He crossed his arms. “You’re giving up?”

I shrugged.

“Didn’t you break the curse on Meredith?”

“Yeah. But I majorly fucked up when I tried to use magic to do it. She almost died. I used my normal powers plus some Were stuff to actually break it.” I rubbed my eyes, trying to make sense of everything. “Maybe I’m messing everything up so badly because I didn’t grow up around spells and magic, but some of this stuff…it’s just not working for me.”

“Well you have to learn it.”

“Says who?”

He looked away from me with a sigh. “Says my mother.”

I snorted. “Yeah, okay.” I hoped the sarcasm was thick enough for him to pick up on it. “You’ve been really nice to me and I’ve had fun, but I’m not sure that we’re getting anywhere with these lessons. I keep getting it wrong. I follow the all the steps, and I get the complete inverse reaction. Do you think it’s because of the Were in me?”

He uncrossed his arms as he thought. “You might be on to something.”

“I thought so. The thing is, I got more control over my natural abilities when I became a Were. That could’ve come with a cost.”

“That’s a really smart theory. How did you come up with it?”

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. As much as people’ve called me crazy, I don’t think I actually am.” I smiled. “If something’s not working, it’s time to try something else. Plus, Tia Rosa came by earlier. She said I needed to work on strengthening my natural abilities.” I started walking to the spell room. “Any chance there’s a book on that in here?”

“Claudia?” Daniel yelled through the house.

“Yeah,” she answered as she came down the stairs. “What’s up?”

“Do you have anything on sight here? I think I have a few books at my house, but my mom’ll be pissed if she sees that we’re working on something that’s not on the prescribed list.” His cheeks got a little pink.

“Prescribed list?”

He got redder. “She’s a little controlling.”

I gave him a bland stare. “I’ve noticed.”

We followed Claudia into the craft room. “Should have something here,” she said as she got down on her hands and knees and started searching through the piles of books under the worktable.

I shook my head. This was no way to store books. Someone needed to do some reorganization. I knelt down on the floor beside her and started digging through the piles.

After what felt like forever searching and coming up with nothing, Claudia dusted off her hands. “There’s another place I can check. Hang on.”

I stood up from where I was digging through the books, and Claudia came back with a box.

“Maybe in here?”

Daniel and her started inspecting the books, but something else caught my eye. I hadn’t noticed before that there was a hidden door built into one of the walls.

“What’s back there?” I asked.

“Back where?” Claudia said without looking up.

“Behind this,” I said as I walked to the wall.

“Nothing. What you see is what you get.”

“No. There’s something here.” I ran my fingers along the crease, looking for some sort of a latch. A small, thin piece of metal stuck up about two-thirds of the way up the door from the ground. I pushed on it and the door swung open.

“Way to hold back, Claudia,” Daniel said.

Claudia stared open mouthed at the closet. “I wasn’t holding back. I had no idea.”

The three of us crowded around to look inside.

“Wow. Look at this.” Daniel held up a little jar of something that looked like nail clippings.

“Oh my God,” Claudia said. “Those are so hard to find.”

Okay. They had my attention. “What is it?”

Claudia winced. “It’s gross. Trust me. You don’t want to know.”

Her saying that made me really want to know. I leaned forward, and knocked a book down. “I’m such a klutz.” I bent down to pick it up and paused.

It was brown with a teal colored seal—the one that I remembered my vision. I’d searched my whole bedroom to no avail and then forgotten about it. Then just like that, the book was here.

It was almost too perfect. Like I was meant to find it after I talked to Rosa.

But that couldn’t be right. Could it?

“What’d you find?” Claudia said.

“I’m not sure.”

I ran my hand over the book and hesitated for a second before grabbing it. Its cover was made of soft, flexible leather. I opened it, and the first page was signed with Grams’ name.