Avoiding Alpha (Alpha Girl) (3 page)

“Why are you talking about me like I’m not here?”

Fear raced through my veins, making me lightheaded. I sat back down on the edge of the tub and Meredith reached for my hand. I twined our fingers together.

This couldn’t be happening. Meredith had to be okay.

Dr. Gonzales swung her black messenger bag over her head, and pulled out what looked like a black cosmetics case. I had a feeling it wasn’t filled with make-up.

She unzipped the top, and grabbed a shot. For once, I didn’t mind seeing her bag full of needles.

“Meredith,” she said in a calm, even voice. “I’m going to give you something to make you sleep. When you wake, your wolf should be calm again. Okay?”

Meredith’s hand squeezed mine as she nodded.

Dr. Gonzales gripped Meredith’s arm and stabbed the needle in. It didn’t take long for the drugs to kick in. Dastien caught her as she slid to the floor, lifting her like she weighed nothing. As he put her in bed, I retreated to my room and started pacing.

This shouldn’t have happened. I should’ve pushed her to talk about her curse and how she was feeling. I knew something was wrong, but I’d let it go.

Stupid. How could I be so stupid?

“Tessa?” Dr. Gonzales’ voice brought me back to the present.

“Is she going to be okay?” I asked as I sat down on my bed.

“Can you tell us if something happened with Meredith?”

It didn’t go unnoticed that she didn’t say that Meredith was going to be okay. She wouldn’t lie.

“The curse is still active, but her wolf is awake. Has anything happened to Meredith recently? Anything that could upset her wolf?” the doctor prompted, but I didn’t have anything helpful. We went to class, we did homework, and we ate a ton of food. We didn’t even get to leave campus very often.

I tried to think of something that could have caused this, but for the life of me, I couldn’t. Last night was the first time I’d seen her act off at all. How did she get sick so
quickly? “I can’t remember anything that really changed. We’ve been doing our usual stuff since the whole vampire thing.”

Dastien came back into the room. I finally really took him in. His navy blue T-shirt was just tight enough to hint at the muscles I knew were underneath. I was glad he’d come so quickly. Having him here made me feel better. Like everything was going to be okay.

“Something’s changed,” he said. “You know her better than anyone. Did she fight with someone? Get upset? Did someone say something to piss her off? Anything that could bring out her wolf?”

He sat on my bed and gripped my hand. Our bond strengthened through touch and I could feel his worry on top of my own.

Oh, God. Of course. That was it. “She had a fight with Donovan a few days ago.” How could I forget about that?

“What? Why did they fight?” Dr. Gonzales said.

“He left—”

“Right,” Dr. Gonzales said. “He had to go find the alphas in South America for the Tribunal. Why would she fight with him about that?”

Mr. Dawson, Donovan, Sebastien, and a few other alphas were off rounding up as many pack leaders as possible for the Tribunal. Some of them lived in pretty remote areas, preferring to be able to switch from wolf to human without worrying who was watching. Donovan had gone after a pack alpha that roamed the Andes Mountains.

I blew out a breath. I didn’t know how much to tell them about Donovan and Meredith. It wasn’t my business to spill and Meredith liked to keep her stuff private, but she was seriously sick. “When Donovan left last week, he and Meredith had a fight. She wouldn’t talk about it, but I have a pretty good guess what they were fighting about.”

Dastien leaned closer. “And?”

I paced away from them as I considered what to say. From the sound of Meredith’s steady breathing in the next room, she was totally zonked. Screw it. I was gonna spill my guts and hope she wouldn’t kick my ass for it later. I turned back to face them. “When they first met, I thought I felt something between Meredith and Donovan. The way they looked at each other was beyond intense. Something clicked with them, but then all the vampire stuff happened… Anyhow, right before Donovan left he told her that he wanted them to be mated, but she refused.”

God. She was probably going to kill me for saying this, but if it could save her, then she’d get over it. I reached for Dastien’s hand again. “I’m pretty sure they’re a true mated pair.”

“
Cherie
. Just because we’re a mated pair, doesn’t mean that others are. It’s very rare,” Dastien said.

He was going to get himself hit if he kept using that patronizing tone. “I know that I’m new to this whole deal, but I can tell the difference between our bond and other bonds.”

Dr. Gonzales stepped closer. “What do you mean?”

I shrugged. “They feel different.”

“You can feel bonds?” Dastien asked, spacing his words out so that there was no misunderstanding.

“I guess. Kind of. Can’t you feel ours?”

“Sure.” There was a hint of a question in the way that he said it.

That didn’t sound so convincing. “I don’t know why I can tell, but I can. Trust me. They’re not like everyone else. Their bond was tangible from the moment they met. The connection between them sizzled, and it got stronger as they spent more time together.”

“Assuming you’re right, she actually refused him?” Dr. Gonzales’ eyebrows were somewhere in the vicinity of her hairline.

Donovan was strong and powerful. It didn’t help matters that he was hot and really sweet, too. If I hadn’t met Dastien, even I’d be crushing on him. Saying no to him seemed pretty unfathomable. “I think she’s being dumb, but Meredith thinks she’s ‘broken’ because of the curse. Like that makes her not worthy of him.”

“We need to get Donovan back here,” Dr. Gonzales said. “Can you reach him?”

“As soon as he checks in, sure, but that could be today or next week.” Dastien rubbed his hands down his face.

“I’m not sure she’ll last that long,” Dr. Gonzales said.

Panic made my knees weak. I sat on the bed next to Dastien. No. This had to be fixable. We had to fix this. “What do you mean?” I leaned into Dastien as he put his arm around me.

“It typically takes weeks for nausea to set in, but with the blood…Meredith is already considerably past that.” She said it gently, as if that would make it any easier to hear. “If we can’t find a way to break the curse, she won’t have much time.”

A loud buzzing rang in my ears.

“Breathe,
cherie
. Take a deep breath.”

I did, but it was a shaky one.

We needed a plan.

“Okay,” I said when I could speak again. “So, we break the curse or something.”

“It’s not that easy,” Dastien said.

“Nothing ever is.” I looked at Dr. Gonzales. “How much time?”

“I’m going to move her to the infirmary and keep her sedated, but her metabolism won’t let that work for long.”

“That’s not answering my question.”

Her gaze was full of pity I didn’t want. “Two days? Give or take a day.”

“Donovan won’t make it back before then,” Dastien said. “And even if he did get back in time, I don’t know how he could fix this. He doesn’t have magic to break the curse, and I couldn’t get her wolf to listen to me at all. I’m nearly as strong as him.”

Holy shit. My chest was tight. There wasn’t time to panic, but I was already beyond that. I was nearing a full on freak out.

My heartbeat rang loudly in my ears.

I got up to pace again. There had to be a solution.

The only people who could help were my cousins who belonged to the local coven. Dad took a job at St. Ailbe’s so that we could move from LA to Texas, which meant that I could get closer with my
bruja
family. That had never happened. Dastien bit me before we could be reintroduced.

That said, my cousins had helped us before. They’d given me intel and a pretty cool bag of tricks that saved our butts with the vamp situation. I hadn’t met anyone else from the coven, but it followed logic that they’d help me again.

This was good. This was a plan. This I could do. “I’m going to call my cousins. Maybe their coven did this to Meredith, but they’re
my
family. It might make a difference if I’m the one asking them to fix it.”

“No. That’s a crazy idea. Your cousins might have reached out before, but the rest of them…
non
. They’re the ones who did this to her in the first place. They let her suffer for years without a second thought.”

“I’ll convince them that what they did was wrong. I have to.”

“I don’t want you to take too much of this on yourself,” Dr. Gonzales said. “I think you need to start to prepare yourself for what’s going to happen.” Her words were carefully said and evenly paced, and they made me want to hit her. I didn’t like what she was insinuating at all.

“Meredith was there for me when she had no reason to be. She stood by me, and I won’t repay her friendship by giving up. I’ll find a way fix this.”

“Tessa…” Dastien said.

“Don’t you start,” I said. “I can do this.” I wish I really knew that for certain, but I’d do pretty much anything for Meredith. I’d grown up an outcast because of my visions and she’d been the first person that wasn’t a member of my immediate family to accept me. She was kind and caring and thoughtful and funny. She deserved to be happy, and she deserved her mate. I was going to help her get that. If I had to beg my cousins for help, I had kneepads. I wouldn’t let pride get in the way of saving my best friend.

Dastien got up, brushing a kiss on my forehead. “Call them, and then we’ll talk again.”

“Okay.”

He headed into Meredith’s room, lifted her into his arms, and left with Dr. Gonzales.

My alarm went off, telling me it was time to go to the cafeteria before class.

Screw classes. I’d grab some food in the common room downstairs. I had a curse to break and not much time to do it in.

In times of crisis, I’d found it best to keep moving forward. I wasn’t sure what the right first step was to help Meredith, but I had to do something. Eventually, I’d figure out what would work. I had to.

Calling my brother was at the top of my list. He’d know how to reach the cousins and might have some advice, too. When I first got bitten, he’d hung out with our cousins a few times.

I grabbed my cell and hit Axel’s number. He didn’t answer. I hung up and called again. No answer.

Shit. He was probably still sleeping off last night’s party.

I didn’t have my cousins’ numbers. This was probably dumb in retrospect, but the two times I’d seen them, I’d been kind of distracted. The first time I’d been in a rush to save Dastien from being eaten by a den of vampires. The second time they’d saved me from getting my ass beat by Imogene.

If anyone would know how to get in touch with them, Mom would. But she’d ask questions—which was why I’d tried Axel first.

Screw it.

Mom picked up on the first ring.

“Is everything okay?”

I almost laughed. “Why’s that the first thing you say when I call?”

“Because lately, every time you call, something’s been wrong.”

Oh. That kind of blew. And it was totally true. “Right. Well, yes. I’m fine. But no, everything isn’t okay.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Meredith’s sick.” I hated the sound of that. “I need to talk to Claudia or Raphael. You wouldn’t happen to know their numbers or anything, would you?”

“No.” Her voice was firm, like I’d just asked her if I could start stripping.

I paced my room. “Mom. Do you—”

“I know where they live, but I don’t have their numbers.”

Awesome. Maybe this wasn’t going as bad as I thought. “Great. Where—”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea that I tell you, honey. They’re all a little…” She sighed. “…
upset
about your situation right now.”

I couldn’t take that answer. She had to tell me. “I’m not joking. Meredith could die, and I really don’t care how upset they are.”

“Explain.” So, I did. When I got to the end, she was quiet for a minute. “I know you wonder why I didn’t bring you back to Texas sooner, but the truth is, I still don’t agree with how
La Alquelarre
—the coven—is being run. If you go, they’ll try to make you stay. Luciana’s in charge, and she isn’t a friend of the pack. She’ll try to manipulate you, and needing help will make it that much easier.”

That sounded like a whole bunch of not fun, but I didn’t have a ton of options. “Mom. Please. I’m strong. I’m a werewolf for God’s sake and I’m not about to let anyone manipulate me.”

“You don’t understand. If they have something that you want, they’ll…” Mom stopped herself. “I’m worried about what could happen to you.”

“You shouldn’t worry so much.” I had it covered for both of us. “I’m going to be fine, but Meredith might not be.” I paused, hoping that would sink in. “The address, please.” I squeezed my eyes shut and crossed my fingers.

She was quiet for so long this time, I had to check to make sure she hadn’t hung up. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. Don’t you wonder why I kept you away from them?”

“Sure…” Not that it was relevant right now.

“Your grandmother led the coven because she fulfilled the two requirements: she was female and had the gift of sight. When Luciana took over, your
abuela
started searching for the next generation’s leader and found you. We were already in LA because Luciana had everyone fooled. I didn’t have any gifts, so she didn’t bother pretending around me.
Mija
, she’s not a good person, and the coven went dark when she came to power.”

I didn’t like hearing that this lady had been a total bitch to my mom, but I couldn’t let that scare me away. “I get that she’s bad, Mom, but that doesn’t change the situation that I’m in. I have to go over there. Maybe later I can help straighten out the coven, but not now. I barely have a handle on this werewolf stuff.”

“That’s not what I meant. It’s not your problem anymore. The coven has been in trouble for a long time, and your
abuela
thought it best if we waited to bring you back. After she died, we almost didn’t come back at all, but you were having a hard time and your brother was leaving and your powers were growing so strong…so I thought…it doesn’t matter. What matters is that going over there
now
is not a good idea. Not after what’s happened. It was dangerous before. It’s why we stayed away. But now they feel like the pack wronged them by taking you as their own, and it’s even more dangerous. I understand why Dastien did what he did, but he’s placed you in a very bad spot. As your mother, I have to
protect you. Even when it’s hard. Even if it means risking your friend’s life. I cannot give you information that could put you at risk.”