The Alphas' Bliss (21 page)

Bliss

M
y begging and pleading had finally paid off. It had only taken a little over a week to wear them down. They were going to let me go pick out a dress for the upcoming claiming ceremony, but I wouldn’t be going alone. I’d have four escorts. Two vampire, two wolves.

My entourage consisted of the vampire twins Brock and Bradley and two wolf enforcers, named Josh and Evan. They escorted me to the dress shop but thankfully let me enter alone. I didn’t know how the humans inside would react to having the four overly large men inside the tiny shop.

“We’ll be right outside my lady. Just yell if you need us, okay?” Brock said holding the door open for me.

“I will, but I’m sure everything will be fine,” I gave him a smile, entering the boutique.

One of the sales clerks greeted me and I gave her my name. I’d made an appointment prior to arriving, so I wouldn’t be spending hours looking for a dress.

“Oh, welcome Ms. Garrett. I’m Jennifer. We spoke on the phone. I picked out seven dresses for you to try on. I have shoes and accessories to match.” As she shook my hand vigorously, I had to smile at her enthusiasm.

She led me to the back of the shop where the large dressing rooms were housed. On a rack near the door were the seven dresses she’d picked out. They ranged from a dark dove gray to blood red. Immediately, the red one caught my attention. I think I’d save that one for last.

She pulled the first dress off the rack and hung it in the room, turning back to me.

“I took the liberty of choosing under garments as well. Bustier, garters, etcetera. I hope you like them,” she said and waved her hand into the room. I took that as my cue to go in.

“Thank you Jennifer. I’m sure everything you picked out will be lovely.”

“I’ll be close by so if you need any help, just call out, okay?”

I nodded and she shut the door. I quickly removed my boots, jeans and hoodie. I stripped out of my bra and panties, then donned the bustier, thong, and garter that hung on the wall. When I turned to look at myself in the mirror, I was pleasantly surprised. The bustier tucked my waist in while emphasizing my bust. The garters on my thighs were just sexy. I might have to wear this and nothing else for my mates. I smiled mischievously. I pulled the gray dress off its hanger and stepped into it.

It was strapless, silky soft, floor length and hugged my curves. I turned this way and that way, getting a complete picture of the dress with all the strategically placed mirrors. I felt beautiful in it.

I had six other dress to try on before I made a decision, so I began to remove the dress when my door unexpectedly opened. I turned to look at the intruder and almost tripped over the dress. He caught me roughly by the arms and stood me upright. I was in shock. I didn’t know what to do for a moment. I opened my mouth to scream and he shoved his cloth-covered hand over my mouth. I screamed behind the cloth but only succeeded in sucking in more of the foul-smelling liquid drenching cloth. It tasted like bitter almonds.

I tried scratching and kicking but he was too large to fight off. He had a death grip on my head, his large hand covering my mouth and nose. Whatever was on the cloth was making me dizzy and sleepy. I gave one more feeble attempt to kick out at him, but I only succeed in hurting my foot.

“Micha, Devin!”
I called out on our mental connection. I knew I was going to pass out so I relayed the only thing I could, “
Conrad.”
Then everything went black.

Micha

D
evin and I looked at each with mutual WTF expressions. We reached for our cells simultaneously.

Brock picked up on the first ring. “Conrad is there with Bliss!” I yelled into the phone.

“What? How?” Brock asked. I could hear the jingle of a bell indicating he was going into the boutique. “Shit!”

“What?” I demanded.

“The clerks are down, hidden behind the wall. Alive, but out of it. I’m checking the dressing rooms,” he informed me. Devin was shouting instructions in his phone as Brock was searching the rooms.

“She’s gone Micha,” he said, on the run. I heard doors slamming.

“Fuck!” They’d lost my mate. How the fuck could this happen?

“Track him!” Devin said deathly calm. He turned to look at me. “They picked up a scent. They are following it.”

“Micha, it looks like he carried her out of here. She was unconscious. Bradley is looking at the video playback. Probably used the same shit he knocked the clerks out with. He’s in a red pick-up,” Brock said on the other end of the line.

“The wolves have a scent and are going to trace it as far as it goes. Follow them,” I instructed hanging up the phone.

“Brock said Conrad carried her out of the shop. She was unconscious. So are the clerks. Let’s get over there.” I headed out of the suite calling down to Warrick. “We need to get everyone to the shop where Bliss was shopping. She’s been taken,” I explained.

My warriors met us at the base of the stairs. They all looked ready to commit murder. Devin’s cell phone buzzed. He grabbed it from his pocket and hit the answer button, putting it on speaker, as we made our way down to the garage.

“You are on speaker Josh. What did you find?”

“We lost the scent about three miles out boss. Sorry. We are going to start combing all of Conrad’s haunts.”

“Good plan, keep me informed. I’m heading over to the shop with Micha. We’ll talk to the clerks to see what they can tell us.”

Devin closed the phone then climbed into the SUV. He growled menacingly. “I’m going to kill that bastard when I get my hands on him.”

“Good, and if you don’t, I will,” I told him in no uncertain terms.

I reached out to Bliss, but all I got was a black void. It infuriated me. I couldn’t touch my mate’s mind and our connection was lost. Either she was blocking me or she was still unconscious.

I looked over at Devin and he was shaking in rage. His claws had come out and his fangs had grown. His low, rumbling growl was constant.

“What could he possibly want with her?” I asked. Devin turned to look at me.

“Revenge. I bet you anything Stephanie was his mate and they didn’t reveal it. Bliss took her away from him, so he’s going to take Bliss away from her mates.”

“Is he capable of hurting a female? One of his own kind?” I knew the answer but I was praying for a different one.

Devin sighed heavily. “At one time I would have sworn on my life no, but now, I just don’t know, Micha. But, our girl is strong and fierce. She went against three wolves already and survived.”

I nodded. Yeah, she’d survived but we’d come too damn close to losing her. I didn’t want a repeat. I reached out to her again, but got nothing back. I felt like I was smothering. I was finding it hard to breathe. Bliss was my life, my soul, my air. Without her I’d be useless and would seek the sun. There would never be another for me. She was my soul mate.

Devin

“W
e’ll find her, Micha.” I’d picked up on his thoughts and his resolve that if Bliss didn’t survive, then neither would he. I knew how he felt. She was my everything and the thought of not being able to touch her, love on her, ate me up inside.

My wolf clawed at me, wanting out to hunt, and he’d get his chance. We had to find Bliss first.

Conrad! Fuck. I should have killed that bastard the night he attacked Bliss. How the fuck did he get out of his cage? Someone at the Ranch must have let him out and when I found out who, I was going to skin the bastard.

He’d been more forthcoming of late. Revealing more details about the rogue pack, and the plan that he and Stephanie had concocted. He and Stephanie had ruled over the pack with money, not out of honor or because they were the strongest. They’d promised the rogues lots of money once they’d gotten rid of me.

Their plan had been a crazy one. Stephanie was going to get me to mate her, name her my beneficiary on all my personal and the Ranch’s assets, then within a few months I’d have an unfortunate accident. Since I had no heir, Conrad would have automatically become Alpha, until someone challenged him for the position. But they’d never planned on taking over the packs, they just wanted the money. I shook my head. Greedy fuckers. Conrad was my best friend. He was like a brother and he betrayed me for a few million dollars.

Well, Bliss had put a wrench in their plans. She was my mate and would have inherited everything should something happen to me. So, the plan had changed. They had to get rid of Bliss first. Conrad had been the one to take the two shots at Bliss. He’d disguised his scent with a mud bath. He’d let it dry, borrowed clothes from one of the rogues and hid out in the woods the night of the run. He’d volunteered to man the club that night so I hadn’t found it strange he was missing from the run. Stephanie never participated in the runs, so again, I didn’t find anything strange about her absence.

We arrived at the boutique where Bliss had gone to buy a dress for the upcoming claiming ceremony. For days, she’d begged Micha and me to let her come out and find a dress instead of having someone come to the house to fit her. She’d been cooped up since that night, almost two weeks ago, when she’d been attacked and badly stabbed. Her pleas weakened us and we had finally relented. With Conrad locked up and Stephanie dead, we thought if we put four males on her she’d be safe. We were so fucking wrong.

I reached out to Bliss again, hoping for any spark of response but got nothing. It made my chest hurt and made my wolf that much more wild.

We all climbed out of the SUV, heading for the front door. Brock had gone with my enforcers to follow the trail, so that left Bradley with the clerks. When we walked in, he seemed totally relieved and the eyes of the clerks widened. One woman whimpered. Bradley just rolled his eyes and came to meet us halfway through the store.

“What do they know?” Micha asked.

“Not much. Said Conrad snuck in through the unlocked back door. He knocked them both out before they could get to the silent alarm. We have the video though and got a good picture of the truck and license plate. We texted it to Gideon, so he should have something soon.”

Micha nodded. “Scrub their memories. Plant that Bliss rescheduled for next week,” he instructed Bradley.

The warrior nodded his head once then went off to talk to the two clerks again. The other warriors had poked around the place while we were talking. Micha and I headed toward the back of the shop when I suddenly picked up a whiff of Bliss’ scent. It was covered in fear. Unadulterated fear.

I growled furiously, slamming the dressing room door open. Stepping into the large room I inhaled.

My mate had been terrified. My whole body started to shake and I was fighting not to shift. All her clothes were on the little stool in the corner. I picked them up bringing them to my nose, inhaling deep. It calmed me marginally.

Micha stepped into the room and had to lean against the wall to steady himself. My sense of smell was off the chart but a Vampire Alpha, a fucking King, like Micha, well his was probably comparable if not better. I held the clothes out to him and he growled deep in his throat.

“He took her naked?” He demanded from Bradley.

Bradley shook his head no. “She was covered in something. Maybe one of the dresses. There’s two empty hangers in here,” Bradley said pointing to the wall.

My phone buzzed so I pulled it out of my pocket. “Yeah?” I listened to Josh talk for a minute then hung up the phone. Micha stared a hole through me.

“They found the truck abandoned at a service station next to Route 8. They followed his scent for another two miles before they lost it at a fork in the road.”

Micha slammed out of the dressing room, almost running Bradley over. He stormed through the boutique and back to the SUV. When he got in, he gripped the headrest of the driver seat so hard I heard material rip.

“Let’s get to the service station and see if they have video,” he commanded. Everyone climbed in the SUV and we were off again. I handed Micha Bliss’ hoodie and he brought it to his nose, inhaling her scent.

“I want the bastard’s fangs,” he hissed looking over at me. His eyes were glowing red.

I nodded. “You can pull them out yourself,” I promised him.

Bliss

T
he slap across my face jarred me awake. I focused on the male standing before me. I hissed at him showing my elongated fangs.

“Those fuckers don’t scare me,” he said with a smile.

“What have you done Conrad? Devin is going to kill you,” I rattled the handcuffs that had my wrist attached to the metal post of the cot I was lying on. The bastard had stripped me. I was naked.

“Oh, I know he will, but, I plan on having a good bit of fun with you first,” he reached out, cupped my breast then pinched the nipple hard. I bit into my lip to stop from crying out. Conrad only laughed again.

“You’ll scream Bliss. You’ll scream good and loud for me before we are done,” he promised running his clawed hand down my stomach. He left a faint trail of scratches.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked watching him closely. He looked ill. Maybe my bite hadn’t healed yet or the beating that Devin had given him had taken more out of him than I knew.

“You took my mate from me,” he said simply. His claws dug into my thigh making my eyes water. I blinked the tears away quickly. I would not cry in front of this asshole. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

“She tried to kill me! Devin is your Alpha, your best friend! How could you betray him like this?”

Conrad laughed evilly. “Yeah, I put on a good show, but, the plan was always to kill him. I wanted to take over the packs but Steph just wanted to start fresh somewhere else, and we needed the money. You ruined everything!” He hissed at me.

“You coward!” I yelled at him. “You couldn’t win in a fair fight for the Alpha position so you were going to do it the dirty way. You’re nothing but a coward!” I yelled at him again. I saw the fist just before it contacted with my jaw. Fuck that hurt! I felt blood trickle from the side of my mouth and I saw stars when I opened my eyes.

I turned my head back to look at him. “Again, only a coward would beat on a female.” I spat blood at him. He raised his hand again and I braced myself for the impact but he didn’t strike me. Instead he ran his claw across the faint scar that ran across my throat.

“You don’t remember me do you Bliss?” he asked gently, softly. What the hell was he talking about now? “What? Remember you from what?” I asked. He kept tracing my scar. My body betrayed me by shaking. He smiled.

“Maybe if I shaved off the beard, you’d recognize me. We spent a lot of time together when you were twelve. Three long days and nights in fact. Imagine my surprise when Devin told me that the little freak I was ordered to kill eighteen years prior was still alive. Not only that, but she was raised by vampires.”

My heart thumped in my chest. No, it couldn’t be. “The wolves who attacked me are dead. Brass found them and brought me their fangs.”

He laughed again. “Yeah, I was a lucky bastard. I didn’t want my scent all over you, so like I did the night I shot you, I covered myself in river mud to mask my scent. The other fools with me didn’t take precautions and Brass picked up their scents right away.”

“You are lying! There were only three wolves!” I insisted. Could I have forgotten a fourth wolf? I racked my mind but nothing surfaced.

He shook his head. “No darling, there were four of us. The other three were teenagers trying to be initiated into the pack.” He leaned over me, brushing his lips against my ear. “You and I are gonna have some fun little girl,” he whispered in my ear, nipping it hard.

Just like that it was like a flood gate opened. Memories of those three horrible days flooded my mind, but this time, there was a clean shaven Conrad in the picture. He was the one always touching me, biting me, pinching me. He was the one who constantly threatened to rape me. I gagged and he stepped back with an evil smile on his face.

“Oh, so you do remember now. How sweet. I’ll admit that I was terrified that you would recognize me when Devin brought you to the Ranch, but you didn’t so much as blink when you looked at me so I knew you must have forgotten or blocked it out.”

“Why were you tasked to kill me? I was just a little girl,” I asked watching him. He was enjoying reminiscing.

“You are a freak! Vampire Wolf hybrids have no place in this world! Your father left his pack to be with your vampire mother. Your father was second in line to lead the rogue pack coming out of Alaska, but he fled. His father sent me and three others to find them. It took us two years to finally locate them and when we did, there you were. An abomination of the worst kind! My alpha ordered you and your mother be killed and we were to bring your father back to be punished.”

“Did you kill my parents?” My whole body was trembling, rage vibrating through me.

“Oh yeah. But first we raped your mother in front of your father. He shifted and broke his bonds. He was killed in the shuffle. When I went looking for you, your mother told me we’d never find you, that you were well hidden. No matter how bad it got for her, she never told me where they’d hidden you, so I slit her throat.”

He ran his claw across my throat again, pressing the nail in. I felt blood come to the surface. He smiled at the sight.

“How did you find me?”

“A nurse at the orphanage noticed that you were developing a lot faster than all the other kids. You couldn’t stay out in the sun for long periods of time. Whenever you were upset, your eyes turned blue and your nails grew. She was the mate of one our members and she mentioned you to him. He told our Alpha. We watched you for a couple of weeks and sniffed you out, but you smelled human. Then the nurse had done some more digging and found an old video of your mom dropping you off at the orphanage. So we knew we had our little freak. And you know the rest.”

I’d been walking back to the orphanage from school when they’d grabbed me. They’d put me in the trunk of their car and drove to an abandoned warehouse. For three days they’d toyed with me, beat me and starved me. One of the men would sneak water to me occasionally but there had never been any food. I’d begged them to release me but they’d just laughed. On the third day, I’d worked my bonds loose and tried to escape. Conrad had been coming through the door just as I’d reached it. He grabbed me, dragging me into the alley behind the dumpster. He pulled out a knife and slit my throat. I remember trying to scream but nothing had come out. I’d watched him wipe the knife on his pants, turn to the others and instruct them to get in the car. They’d driven away leaving me there to die.

Brass had come down that alley moments after the wolves had driven away. I’d seen his boots coming toward me from my view under the dumpster. I hit a can, knocking it over with a loud bang, and Brass had come around the dumpster. He’d sniffed the air, his eyes widening. He hurried over to me, placing his hand on my throat to stop the bleeding. He’d picked me up and run the three blocks to the vampire clinic. He’d saved me then but he wasn’t here now to save me again. I’d have to save myself.

Conrad’s hand traveled from my throat to my breast again. I twisted my body to avoid his touch but the handcuffs on my wrist and ankles limited my movements. He climbed on top of me, almost crushing me. I could barely breathe. He descended on my lips, smashing his teeth against my own. I couldn’t open my mouth enough to bite him with my fangs so I bucked my body trying to dislodge him but he was too heavy.

He moved his mouth to my neck, then to my shoulder where he buried his fangs deep. I screamed aloud but in my head I screamed for Devin and Micha.

The evil bastard laughed as he pulled his fangs free. He worked his way down my body biting, pinching, and twisting my skin. It was all so very painful, but the worst part was that he told me in vivid detail how he planned on raping me. When he put his hand near my face I snapped at him earning me another punch. This time I didn’t fight the blackness. I let it overtake me.