The Alpha's Desire 5 (3 page)

“Fuck me, Lex,” I growled.

He grabbed my arms until he had both of my wrists in his grip, forcing them over my head, and then to the ground. After, he angled himself a second before thrusting in deep, in one long stroke. All control lost, we worked together in fast, frantic movements until we came together. The roar of my orgasm ripped through me, mixing with his emotions, taking me to another level of consciousness where only the two of us existed.

Chapter Three

Walking back into the castle hand in hand, back in our human form and fully clothed, we couldn’t keep the “we’ve just had a roll in the grass” smile off our faces any more than we could keep our hands off each other, even if it had to be in an appropriate way. Life was indeed beyond grand. I let out a sigh of pure satisfaction as I glanced around me at the splendor of the castle, even if just the entrance way, that I’d never if I lived here a hundred years, get used to. I jumped, letting out a little noise, a squeak of a cry, making Lex pull me to him when we were stopped immediately by a woman from the staff who appeared to be waiting just for us. The petite woman with hair pulled back in a tight bun had looked out of place just sitting in a chair by the front door, one ornate and purely for decoration, but had startled me when she’d jumped to her feet in front of us.

The whole thing was odd from the woman being there to the way she’d moved, quick, uncomfortable, her face tight, stressed. Staff didn’t sit around here. Not that they were treated badly or even overworked, not by a long shot. The Royals had to be a gift to work for as far as I had witnessed, and so the whole staff seemed to work tirelessly, and happily for their bosses. I’d born witness to a few of the perks of working here that inspired such employee morale. They had a whole whistle-while-you-work thing going on most of the time, making the castle even more of a fairy tale. One was never greeted without a smile too, so everything about this woman, this scenario didn’t show right.

“Your presence has been requested in the dining hall. They asked me to send you as soon as you returned,” the woman said before turning on her heel for me and Lex to follow her.

I thought I heard the woman take in a deep breath before she began to walk rigidly down the hall at quite the fast clip. Lex had given my arm a tug as he took off, dragging me with him, not slowing down, even if his look was apologetic at taking off the way he did. My heart had begun to beat hard. Anticipation of what would come was compounded by the strangeness of the situation and the vibe of the whole castle being tense, as if the walls themselves held tight yet trembled just a little.

Magic resided in these walls, and I’d often noted that the intricate emotions of the day were represented there, whether sadness like when I’d first arrived over the loss of Vivian and Riker, or eager anticipation before my training sessions, or just simple day to day joy of existing here. When all but the servants magical, and their gifts used freely, I guess it should be no surprise the mammoth home would become a living thing as well, magical in its own right. Today, these walls held something different, something menacing, worrisome, making me feel I was being lead to my doom. Life would change momentarily, and I wasn’t anywhere near ready for that to happen.

Often ushered about throughout the castle, though we knew the way, I had finally gotten as used to as one could get to being treated like royalty when you were born a simple girl in New York City. It seemed a way of life here to have everything handed to you. It was a life with servants, simply, nothing more or nothing less, no hidden message saying we don’t trust you to show up on your own like I’d thought a few times when we’d first arrived. Not that everyone had been anything but welcoming and accommodating, it just took me a bit to adjust to this lifestyle.

As the servant girl stepped aside in the hall to let Lex and I enter, just the slight click due to the size of the door closing behind us startled us both. I’d felt his hands rearrange, the one that had been holding mine jump to my back as the other one grabbed my wrist. My insides already quivering, I began to see a physical shake to my hands. Nibbling on my lip as if that would solve something, I waited for whatever news awaited us. 

All were present. Not that that was anything new here - we did all meals together. Yet, the air seemed tight in the room, as if there wasn’t enough for all of us. I began to talk my lungs out of hyperventilating. The emotions of everyone present hit me like a blow to the gut. Part of my training had been to utilize the empathic skills the magic gave me. This had only been practiced in training simulations,; given in real life, if another battle ensued, it could come in handy. At the time, I’d hoped never to have to use it.

Here, at this minute though, the anxiousness, the anger, along with a whirl of other smaller emotions like fear, duty, and sadness gave me the strong, distinct impression that soon I may be using all I’d learned. I’d known the Royal werewolves were often called to help when I’d agreed to become one. In fact, I wanted to help as I’d been. I owed my life, the man I loved, to these people and to others. I’d serve. I berated my honeymooning phase for making me greedy, for not wanting these ideal days to end yet. Lex pulled me into him when my breathing became rather frantic, adjusting to all the feelings at once, soon unable to decipher which were mine and which belonged to them. Still, I’d also become a victim to my runaway thoughts.

“Please. Come. Sit down. We have some news we need to share, and your first assignment,” Catherine said, gesturing us toward empty seats at the table where they all had gathered.

We quickly did as we were asked, taking the empty seats that had possibly been reserved for us, directly across from the head Royals, Catherine and Edward. The table had been fully set for lunch. Platefuls of food sat untouched in front of each of us. My stomach rumbled instinctively seeing the bowls of fresh fruit salad I’d come to love here, especially since we’d both worked out a lot the last few hours. Sadly, I didn’t think I could manage to chew and swallow even if I had to at the moment. By the looks of things, we all felt the same.

“We heard from Nira,” Edward began. “More, we got a distress call. We thought you would want to know, maybe want to help, given your connection to the vampires. All they have done to help us in the past, getting both Lex and you to us safely most recently, we will be sending as many as possible to help their clan.”

“Of course we would help Nira. She did so much for us, saved both Lex and my life in a matter of days, losing many of her vampires in the process. What is going on?” I asked as a tight knot formed in my stomach, and my legs started to tremble.

I placed my ringing hands under the table, sitting on the edge of my seat to find out what was going on. Lex’s hand on my back had begun to rub. Though well-meaning, his agitated pace only helped to increase my heart rate, make adrenaline surge through my body even more than it already had been. My mouth so dry my lips were beginning to feel stuck together, I wanted a sip of the drink in front of me, but feared I’d gag if I attempted to get it down right now. So instead, I continued to uselessly lick my lips, gaining me nothing but something to do, another way to fidget.

“Well, the man in the black suit, as I believe you referred to him, Christina, the man who captured Lex to get you, the one you and Nira’s vampires defeated his first pack, named Daniel…” Catherine had begun until Edward stopped her rambling by placing a hand on hers on the table.

He patted it twice before beginning, “I believe we know to whom you are referring, Catherine. It’s okay.”

He’d not been rude or demeaning in any way. More his true concern for her showed in the lines of his face, the way his eyes clouded over looking at her with genuine concern. He’d never be one of those husbands that lorded over his wife, spoke for her, as though she had nothing worthwhile to share. These two were true partners, fifty-fifty in all they did. Besides, as far as I had seen, they did everything together, and never with even a hint of getting on each other’s nerves. Their relationship had amazed me from the beginning, and continued to now as I sat here awaiting the grim news. Had to be bad if the man in the black suit had been mentioned.

Catherine nodded at him, a slight smile moving her lips for just a second. “Please, Edward, tell them for me,” she said to her husband before turning to us. “You will have to forgive me. This is all too soon after our loss of Vivian and Riker to this man. I’d been living in blessed denial, hoping that no news meant he was off licking his wounds, maybe having some change of heart. I’d wanted to never hear his name again. Anyway. I will let my Edward do the explaining.”

“It is fine, Catherine. We all understand. But, back to Daniel, he’s been able to come up with another pack of true werewolves,” Edward continued. “Reports are that the group is wild, made up of old and young true werewolves from other packs around the States. He’d spent these last months traveling, using underhanded tactics from reports we’ve just gotten to create an army of those easily swayed to leave their own packs. Weak-minded wolves, sadly. Yet, weak-minded often means physically strong but stupid, gullible, reckless, among other things. Dangerous. Plus, from what Nira said, he’s gotten them extremely organized. I’m sure he used the loss of his pack, brandishing tall tales about what really happened to play on their own pack mentalities to win them over to his cause, no matter how twisted it is. Looks like his sorcerer was not able to create a spell to create werewolves like you and Lex, like the Royal wolves, so he had to recruit those probably too old to fight and those too young to handle being true werewolves yet to do his work. Easy marks. The old often feel useless once their prowling days are over, and the young are often too eager to begin adult work their bodies are ready for but their minds are not.”

“So what is he up to?” I asked, my heart having sunk now just at the mention of his name, let alone the lengths he’d already gone to in order to form an army against us. The old battle to gain knowledge of how the Royal werewolves had been made had been renewed.

Images of those days after Daniel and his wolves had crashed into our SUV, had attacked Lex, killed Vivian and Riker among others, came flooding back to me. Among the horrors of going to battle, true werewolves against Royal werewolves, the bright spot had been Nira and her vampires. Kind, dedicated to helping paranormals, without them, I knew neither Lex nor I would be here today. Lex would be dead along with the others lost those days, and Daniel would have me locked up like a lab rat trying to learn of my magic so that his wolves could shift as easily by spells rather than the painful curse of their birth. He’d thought me an easy target then, untrained, new to my skills.

Daniel had to believe I’d been trained by now. Yet, still he continued his war. Maybe not so much to get me this time, but just for pure revenge. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of how much more dangerous that could make him. He’d been vicious before. Now, who knew?

“So, what has Daniel and his new pack been doing?” I asked, not wanting to know but knowing that I had to anyway. I remained committed to my family even if the idea of fighting this man again terrified me, shook me to my core.

“According to Nira, very organized, almost methodical, attacks are occurring around the city,” Catherine chimed in again. “The vampires have been doing their thing, saving people, but it has become too much for them. Daniel and his pack have wreaked havoc and mayhem all over the city. Nira is losing too many vampires in these battles. He attacks with a seemingly random choice of places. The people in them have nothing to do with him or his cause. He mixes it up, the style of attack, how they go in, the order to what they do. To Nira, it appears the reckless work of a madman, yet she knows better. It is a well thought out plan of attack meant to throw them off their game, using the element of surprise to help them do more damage. The losses, of vampires, of innocent humans, has become too great to comprehend. We have connections with the cops who often call on the vampires to help them. The police are overwhelmed and at a loss of what to do as well. Not that we have answers, but we have gifts and bodies to offer.”

“They hated to call us for help,” Edward took over, or more continued on for his wife. They were definitely a couple who finished each other’s sentences. “I told them nonsense. We owed them much, and would be happy to help. Plus, this man, Daniel, he’s taken much from us. Not ones for revenge, still, this is as much our fight as theirs. We need to help. We need to end this in Vivian and Riker’s memories. They will have died in vain, for nothing, to sit back now and let this madman go on.”

“I agree,” I chimed in. “I’m sure part of it is retaliation against what I did to him in saving Lex. He’s calling us out.”

“Yes, he very well may be,” Edward said, “but we don’t fall into traps, we create them, and we uphold justice. There should not be wars among any paranormal groups, but this man, he is jealous, angry, bitter, and vengeful, maybe now even power hungry. He believes he can lure us out to get to you, or any of us for that matter since you’ve been trained. We need to put an end to this fight once and for all.”

“We do,” I agreed despite the lump in my throat.

“You know that we would have helped him and his people if he would have just asked us in the first place,” Catherine said before she burst into tears, the loss of Vivian still a deep wound, not even given a year to begin to heal.