Alpha Divided (Alpha Girl Book 3) (2 page)

I shoved my burger in my mouth, not sure what to say. “Mmm.”

“John. Leave them alone. She’s going to be fine,” Mom said.

“She will be,” Donovan agreed. “I know it seems rushed and odd, but this is totally normal. Especially for True Mates. You couldn’t find a better match for your daughter. He’s financially sound, responsible, and would do anything to make sure Tessa’s happy.”

Great. Now they were talking about me like I wasn’t there. This was too awkward. I jammed another bite into my already full mouth so that I couldn’t be expected to say anything.

“Am I the only one who thinks this is completely insane? She’s—”

“John.” Mom’s voice was a warning to drop it.

“No. She’s
my
daughter. She’s still practically—”

“She’s eighteen—”

“Exactly. Still a child. People change so much between eighteen and twenty-five. She doesn’t know who she is yet or who she even wants to be. She—”

“Stop it. Like it or not, Teresa’s legally an adult. If she hadn’t been bitten, she would’ve been starting her transition as leader of the coven.” Mom blew out a breath.

God. This was mortifying. Did they have to do this now? On my birthday? In front of everyone?

“I know you’re worried, but I’m not,” Mom said. At least that was something. “This is her life now, and we need to at least try to be understanding and supportive.”

I swallowed the last bite as I looked between them.

“She’s only eighteen.” Dad muttered as he got up to flip the burgers.

I caught Mom’s attention as I swallowed. “Thank you,” I mouthed.

“Give him time,” she said softly. “He didn’t think his baby girl would be moving on so fast.”

“Me neither,” I said under my breath.

Dastien poked me in just the right ticklish spot, and I barely suppressed a squeal.

“What? It’s true,” I whispered to him.

Dad cleared his throat. “Who wants more burgers?” His voice was a little gruff, but he at least he didn’t try to argue anymore. Thank God.

All the werewolves held their plates up.

Dad shook his head. “I gotta say, it’s impressive how much you kids eat.”

Donovan chuckled softly. He looked like he was in his mid-twenties, but I was pretty sure he was older than a few of us put together. As one of the Seven—the council governing all the packs—he was extremely powerful. From what I understood, he had to have been around for a long time to gain the power for that position. It felt rude to ask his actual age, but I was curious.

Once we were done with the burger portion of the meal, we cleaned up and moved inside. Mom went into her room with Axel and came back with two giant sheet cakes.

“Whoa. That’s a lot of cake,” I said.

Mom laughed. “Well, I wasn’t sure how much to get.” She looked at Donovan. “Too much? Not enough?”

“I’m sure it’ll be just grand, Gabriela.”

Mom blushed at Donovan’s accent. I had to admit, it was pretty hot. I lived for the times he said ‘ehm’—the Irish version of ‘uh.’

The doorbell rang. I paused what I was doing. Pretty much everyone who knew where I lived was already here. “I’ll get it.” I cut through the house to find my cousins Claudia and Raphael on the porch.

I never saw them unless something was wrong. “Hi. What’s going on?”

“We just wanted to stop by and wish you a happy birthday.” Raphael wore his usual khaki shorts and flip-flops. His black hair was cut short, and he rubbed his hand back and forth over the top of it as he spoke.

That was a surprise. I didn’t think they knew when my birthday was. “Thanks.” I swung the door wide and waved them in. “You got here just in time for cake.”

Claudia gave me a hug. Her hair was pulled back in two braids, like always. She wore a flower-print sundress. “
Felicidades
.”

“Is that Claudia?” Mom asked from the kitchen.

“Yes. And Raphael.”

Mom appeared and gave them both hugs. “Come on in. We’re lighting candles.”

I cringed. “Oh, we’re not doing the whole singing thing, right? Because that’s really not necessary. We can skip straight to the cake part.” I hated getting sung to. It was embarrassing.

“We absolutely are singing.” Mom pushed me into the kitchen. “Get in there,” she said as she slapped my butt.

I jumped. “All right. All right,” I said as I rubbed my stinging tush.

As soon as I got back in the kitchen, everyone started singing. I wanted to shrink into the ground. I’d never had so many people be around for this, so I avoided their gazes and stared at the cake. When the song was done, I leaned down, made a wish, and blew out the candles.

Dastien pulled me into his side while Mom cut the cake. “What’d you wish for?”

I glanced up at him. “I can’t tell you. That’d nullify my wish.”

“Does it have anything to do with tonight?” He squeezed me, and all I could see was him.

“Maybe.” I gave him what I hoped was my best flirty look.

“What’s happening tonight?” Raphael asked, dragging me back to reality.

I wasn’t sure how I should answer the question.
La Alquelarre
—the coven—had been pretty pissed about Dastien biting me. My cousins had been cool though, no matter what the rest of the other
brujos
thought. They’d even helped me out a few times.

Dastien gave a small nod and I took that as the okay to tell. “The full moon is tonight, so we’re formalizing our bond.”

The twins shared a long look, before Claudia turned to me. “I thought you were waiting until
after
the Tribunal.” She said the words carefully.

I knew that the relationship between the pack and
la Aquelarre
was strained, but the way her hands fisted at her sides made me realize she was a little more upset by this than I’d thought.

I should’ve kept my mouth shut. This was totally going to come back to bite me in the ass. We were rushing things because Dastien and I wanted a stronger case when we defended ourselves at the Tribunal for the whole biting thing and all the drama that had happened afterward. If the
brujos
started interfering… “No. We’re doing it tonight,” I said as casually as possible.

“Are you sure about joining into this kind of a bond? Once done, it can’t be easily undone. Not even by us,” Raphael said.

I didn’t like the threat of them breaking our bond, let alone the fact that that was even possible.
Should I lie?
I asked Dastien through our bond.

He shrugged.

Way to be helpful.
I’d grown up being told honesty was the best policy. Guess that applied here. “Yeah. I’m sure.”

The twins gave each other another long look.

A horrible sinking feeling crept over me. It was like someone had just walked over my grave, and all the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

I’d come to know that feeling well. It usually meant bad things were coming. It wasn’t exactly a premonition—I didn’t have those. My visions were only of the past and present, but every once in a while I got really good gut feelings about what was going to happen.

As soon as I answered, I knew in my soul that I should’ve lied. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, but we should go. Let you celebrate with your friends.” Raphael smiled, but the expression wasn’t real. “
Felicidades, prima
.” The way he said it, all soft, made it sound like an apology.

They left without another word.

The room was quiet. Frozen. We all knew how the rest of the coven felt about Dastien and me, but I hadn’t realized that extended to my cousins. It had to be a recent development—as in the last couple of days.

Had I majorly screwed up? And if so, when? I’d borrowed their books to help Meredith, but I’d give everything back if that would fix whatever was wrong.

Or maybe I was being too sensitive? Dad’s reaction already had my defenses up.

I swallowed. “Anyone else think that visit was off?”

Donovan nodded. “Aye. I think we’ll be hearing from them again soon.”

“They couldn’t stop the ceremony, could they?” I asked.

“I don’t think so?” Dastien said.

“You don’t
think
so
? Was that a question?” The wolf in me rose to the surface and I buried my face in Dastien’s chest before I started sprouting claws. I couldn’t let my wolf free in the middle of my parents’ kitchen. I inhaled deeply, letting the scent of him calm me.

He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me tight. “It’s going to be fine,” he murmured in my ear. “Dono, should we call in some reinforcements?”

“We’ll have plenty on campus, but I’ll let word out that we might have trouble headed our way. We’ll get you through this, Tessa, even if your coven shows up.”

I pulled away from Dastien and scanned my friends’ faces. No one would meet my gaze except for Donovan. His arms were crossed as he frowned. Not exactly encouraging.

“Shit. My birthday just got sucky, huh?”

“Who wants cake?” Mom said in a false cheery voice.

“Me,” I said. Might as well head off this bad feeling with a massive sugar high. “I’ll just take all of one sheet and maybe half of the other.”

“Eating your bodyweight in cake isn’t going to fix this,” Axel said.

“I disagree. Cake will totally help,” Meredith said. “Ice cream, too.”

I laughed, but it was forced.

I’d spent weeks dreading the full moon, but now that I’d finally shifted for the first time, I was pretty damned excited about the ceremony. I wanted it so badly that the thought of it not happening made me feel stabby. There’d be another chance next month, but I didn’t want to wait. We needed it now so we could get through the Tribunal.

Hopefully Dastien was right and we were overreacting, but I had a feeling we were exactly right. With just a few words, I’d screwed over both my birthday and my first full moon ceremony.

I’d bet my life that we’d be seeing more of the coven before the moon rose.

Chapter Two

Everyone took off back to campus after the cake, leaving only my family and Dastien. My parents wanted a little alone time before I went back to the dorm. Even though they knew what was going to happen tonight in a vague sort of way, they couldn’t be there. It was a Were-only thing.

The tension in the house was only getting worse thanks to the cousins’ visit. As I did the dishes, Dad started whispering to Mom about how they should stop the ceremony. Suddenly, the kitchen seemed too small.

I moved to the wraparound porch and sat on the swing to soak in a little bit of quiet. The screen door screeched. My eyes were closed, but I didn’t need to open them to recognize Dastien sitting down beside me. I could sense it through our bond and the scent in the air—that lovely mix of forest and dirt and him. I rested my head on his shoulder and he nuzzled against me.

“Nervous?” he asked after a moment.

“A little.” Straddling the lines between human, wolf, and witch was hard. Each part pulled me in a different direction. Being with Dastien was easy. Natural. I wasn’t worried about that, but the ceremony symbolized taking the final plunge into my life as a Were, letting it take precedence over everything else.

I knew why Dad was having so much trouble with it. Everything was changing for me. Fast. “I still feel like a kid, you know? And we’re basically getting married tonight. When I think about it, it’s kind of crazy.”

He lifted his arm so I could scoot closer. I pressed my head to his chest, and listened to his steady heartbeat as he ran his fingers through my hair.

“What’s making you nervous exactly?”

I blew out a breath. “Honestly?”

“I only ever want the truth from you.” His chest vibrated under my ear as he spoke, his voice low and rumbly.

“Just don’t laugh.”

“
Cherie.
I would never laugh.”

That wasn’t true at all and we both knew it. He laughed at me all the time. It was a good thing I didn’t take it personally. I poked his side.

“I laugh
with
you,” he said as he chuckled, and batted my finger away.

“Everything’s changed so quickly. I feel like I’m always racing to catch up.” My nerves wound tighter as I talked, which was why I’d been avoiding this discussion. “I want to hit pause for a bit. Enjoy this moment. Have some time to grow up.”

His fingers continued to run through my hair, soothing me. I swung my legs over his to get a little closer. I felt his smile through the bond—a jolt of pleasure because I wanted to be closer to him. It made Dastien happy, which settled my nerves a little more.

“No one said you have to have everything sorted tonight. We still have time to grow up, but we’ll grow up together. As a team.” He pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. “Don’t forget, I’m only two years older than you.”

“I know, but you feel a lot older.”

He laughed again. “Thanks?”

I slapped his stomach. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that you always seem to have it all figured out.”

“I don’t have it all figured out, but I’m not a worrier. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to know how everything’s going to work out. It’s impossible.” He tugged on my hair a little, and I swatted his hand away.

The guy had a point, but that didn’t mean I’d stop worrying anytime soon.

I smelled the jasmine in Mom’s perfume a moment before she stepped onto the porch. She sat on the swing on my other side, careful not to touch me. It was still ingrained. Growing up, any brush of skin was enough to bombard me with flashes of thoughts and memories. Of everyone in the family, Mom had always been the best at controlling herself around me, mostly because she grew up with my grandmother—the source of my talent.

“So, what’s the ceremony like?”

Dastien’s hand found mine, and he squeezed, sending me his support.

“Well, there’s one every month. Apparently, everyone gets together and shifts and runs, but some pack business gets taken care of, too. Anything that changes the pack structure.” I hadn’t been sure I was going to go through with the ceremony until after I shifted. Since then, I’d finally had time to ask questions about the process. Dastien and Meredith had been pretty great about filling me in over the past couple of days.

The only part that I wasn’t too into was biting Dastien. Apparently, I had to eat a little bit of the flesh and blood of my mate—completely barbaric and disgusting. Dastien had done his part when he bit me, but I still had to return the favor.