The Alpha's Desire 5 (5 page)

Chapter Four

I fought back my yawns as we boarded the plane in the morning.  There had been a delay in the flight, some mechanical issue on the jet. I’d had a fitful rest even in Lex’s arms. Last night, our ability to feel each other’s emotions created rounds of feeding off each other’s stress with poor Lex taking claim to the burden of trying hard to calm us both.  Every time I had managed to fall asleep, dreams of that warehouse, seeing Lex tortured, seeing werewolves and vampires die, had come flooding back to me, waking me up drenched in sweat.

Even after more than seven months, the images of those few days, the worst of my life outside of losing my parents young, had haunted my. My wolf protector in my bed now, as my husband and lover, should have helped as it had when I’d been younger, and he just a figment of my dreams, or so I’d thought. Yet, given it was him I’d feared losing during those horrid days, even having him there, loving him so much I felt my heart would burst, didn’t help. It only made me more anxious, having him, and thinking of what it would mean to lose him.

I wouldn’t survive that. I knew that for a fact. When I’d lost my mother so young, I’d been just that – young. With my innocence, I had found some solace in the stories of adults about Heaven, my mother an angel. When I’d missed her, I’d imagined her singing, happy, watching me. When that failed to work, Lex, as a wolf, had come in my dreams, calmed me with our connection as protector. When my father had died, I’d been older. By that time my wolf protector only showed up out of the corner of my eye, and I’d thought him a hallucination. Still, even though I had mourned my father, in a way, I’d been old enough to also find peace in the fact he no longer suffered, no longer had to drink away his pain of losing my mother and being forced to go on raising a daughter.

With Lex, it would be different. My heart beat along with his. We had a connection no one could describe, even the Royals who understood it. There were not words for it. He gave me strength where I lacked it. He made me brave. It was like I breathed only because he did. We were definitely one unit though we walked as two. An orphan now, I understood even more what my father had gone through losing my mom, and why he’d drank so much just to get through each day. Why I hadn’t been enough.

I shook off my melancholy thoughts, ones that came so easily when exhausted and stressed, when it came my turn to climb the metal stairs up to the belly of the jet. As the ten of us boarded, found places to sit in the large great room inside, I grew thankful that the crowded situation had me pressed against Lex. We’d just come from having said our good-byes, gotten our last pep talks from Edward and Catherine. Going off to battle, good-byes could feel all too real. I knew that each one of us as we’d gotten hugs, kisses, personalized words of wisdom, had thought the same. What if this was the last time we saw each other alive?  

The deaths of Vivian and Riker, and the other wolves we’d lost last time hung over the group of us like a dark cloud. Edward and Catherine had told us to use that grief and turn it into action in the names of those lost to Daniel before. Lex held me tightly to his body, the strain on my sore and stress-weary muscles welcome, keeping me alert, making me feel loved and alive rather than an inmate on death row.

“Don’t forget how well trained you are this time going into battle. You did fine last time, and you hadn’t a day of training. Also, you are a werewolf now, so with your strong magic in human form, or your strength and speed in wolf form, you’ll be unbeatable. But, you have to work on your mind. Stop beating yourself up for letting Daniel go last time. The fact you couldn’t kill makes me love you even more,” Lex offered in my ear as we took a seat on the couch, the one we’d dared make love on several months ago on the flight here when we’d had the cabin alone and all the world seemed hopeful.

“I know. I just can’t not think this my fault. If I had killed him, we would not be going to the States. All of those with us would not be in danger. Not to mention all who have already lost their lives to his current vendetta.”

“But, as Catherine pointed out, you can’t take responsibility for his deranged thoughts and violent actions. You shouldn’t have to kill to make someone behave. Every bit of this is on him. All I think when it comes to him is that he could have just asked for help in the first place, and that pisses me off enough to go after him. It is the only fact I focus on where he is concerned. He could have asked, and you would have never been in danger. Vivian and Riker would have been living it up with us on the island. I could go on and on, but you get my point. This is all his fault. Only his fault.”

“He’s absolutely right,” a Royal seated beside me named Josh said. “Sorry to eavesdrop, but this is a bit of a confined space with so many bodies in it at once. Besides, with our connection, I’ve been feeling your guilt and thinking the same. Not to gang up on you, but I wanted you to know that we all think the same. We don’t blame you in any way. We can’t even get there in our minds. Just hoped a man saying it outside of the one that loves you might help hammer it home.”

Lex thanked him before I could open my mouth. Josh and I had found we had a special connection, like brother and sister in the pack during my training. Just one of those things between wolves, a myriad of connections between us within each pack. Though I had a connection with each of them, with Josh it had been different, and in battle, we would use that to our advantage.

Once Josh settled back, closed his eyes, I settled in against Lex as the engines roared to life, giving me a little zip of adrenaline my nerves didn’t need. They were on edge enough already, so with my heart beating fast, it added only to my shakiness. I did have to do some mental work, and I had this plane flight to do it. None of the ten of us seated in the cabin looked much in the mood to talk anyway, and some like Josh looked ready to attempt to get some sleep.

I did gather some small comfort from being in more urban wear again. Though the clothes had just been flown in last night, the black jeans and t-shirt made me feel myself, as I hadn’t since leaving. Not that it had been a bad thing by any measure to wear flowing gowns, or my wolf hide, or even special attire to train in, but this outfit somehow prepared me for battle in the mean streets of New York.

Funny, all my life I’d been taught the dangers of New York. The criminals, the unsavory element that hid in the shadows, went after the unsuspecting going about their lives. Yet, I’d had no idea, had never been told, about the paranormal element, both good and bad at all. Not that my father had probably even known, but even if he had been aware, would he have warned me? This was the stuff even adult nightmares were made of.

I looked over the crew of Royals in their street clothes, having never seen some of them in anything like these. I found it interesting that we all had basically the same thing on. While more to hide us in the night, we would look like a band of common thieves to anyone else. An intimidating bunch in stature anyway, let alone the all-black articles of clothing, but still, we probably didn’t look menacing to Daniel and his new pack of terror-causing werewolves.

Outside of the tornado of my thoughts, which had prevented me from even closing my eyes, attempting sleep, the flight back had been thankfully boring. Very little to no chitchat went on, and no turbulence had been hit. I had tried to pick up on their emotions, to see if they too felt nerves before a fight, but all I could manage was to feel Lex whose death grip on me, whether holding my hand or having his arm around my shoulder, never let up in the hours it took us to get back to the States.

The strain of having so much time alone with my thoughts lifted as soon as I stepped off the plane and rushed into Nira’s outstretched and waiting arms. While I’d only known the woman a few days prior, the way we’d met had bonded, then left us lifelong friends. I felt closer to her than any friend I’d left behind here. Thoughts of my strained relationship with Chloe hit me another second before I wiped it from my mind, giving into the hard press of Nira’s arms around me. The woman was genuinely happy to see me, like she would have been any long lost friend. Not that seven months was that long, but I’d gone through more than a lifetime of changes since I’d last seen the vampire and her crew. (It says Christina only knew the woman a few days prior, and then says it was seven months since they’d seen each other?)

Her face had to be lined with worry, as the vampires didn’t age anymore. Her eyes that had sparkled last time I’d seen her looked dark and tired. I knew it had nothing to do with a need for sleep, and everything to do with the weight on her shoulders to keep people safe once a mad man and his loyal men brutalized their city.

Guilt flooded my system once again. I couldn’t stop the feeling that if I’d just been able to kill Daniel last time that none of this would have happened no matter what anyone said to me. It scratched away at my brain, my emotions, a little bit at a time. I’d talked to myself until I’d been sick of hearing my own thoughts to no avail on the way here. I could think it all I wanted, still my feelings didn’t listen, wouldn’t change just because I told them too. 

I needed to be ready this time, to end him or anyone else that lived to hurt others. While even as a wolf I had no thirst for blood, I needed to defend, to protect, and my canine mouth had been built for such if need be. This time the need did be. This time I would own up to my responsibility no matter what if it were to be laid upon my shoulders again. Selfishly, again, I hoped it wouldn’t.

“I’m so sorry, Nira, that this is happening again,” I said coming out of the long, endearing hug.

“This is not your fault, dear. I knew you would be carrying the guilt of it. You do not control him. He has to answer for his own actions. He could have been grateful you spared his life. He could have used that opportunity to change his ways. But that was not the course he chose. This has nothing to do with you. These are all his issues, the fault all his own, though, unjustly, I’m sure he bears none.  The man is a monster. The things he has done. It is time he is put to a stop,” Nira replied.

I nodded, as everyone seemed to get that but me. It had been repeated enough, even if I didn’t comprehend it yet, I was a lost cause myself in a way. I’d been good all my life of acting one way even though I’d felt another; that way, if you acted fine even if you weren’t, at least everyone stopped asking you how you were as a little motherless girl. That trait alone had saved me then, and would this time too if put in the situation again to end Daniel.

“We all feel the same,” another vampire that I recognized from the last time I’d been with the group said, a kind smile on her face of welcome. “We are grateful to have you and the Royals here to help. So grateful. I can’t explain how it has been and what a relief seeing you come to our aid is.”

“We are happy to be here to help you, to return a favor,” one of the Royals spoke up who stood behind me.

“It all equals out in the end,” another vampire responded back. “We should all just be thankful for such an alliance.”

Cheers went around though low and a tad unconvincing, still we all tried to keep our spirits focused, to talk the talk so we could walk the walk. This fact alone shook me to my core. Not that I would have called any of us cocky, but we had a way of holding ourselves, being confident, believing in our abilities that this man had damaged by taking so much from each side. I didn’t believe it fear, but each of us he had hurt, and all of us were weary. I tried to at least keep that in mind as I missed the bravado I’d experienced last time.

“I’m happy to see you looking so well,” Nira said, obviously changing the subject as she led us to waiting SUVs. “Marriage has agreed with you.”

“Yes, it definitely has,” I said, looking back at Lex a second. “Not to mention life on that island, magical powers, being a werewolf. It has been the most amazing seven months. I hope to find the time to bore you to death talking your ear off about it.”

“I hope so too. I’m so happy for you. You deserve this. I did a little digging into that file of yours that I’d been sent before and never had a chance to read before that battle. You have had a hard life, yet you have proven yourself a survivor. You deserved that time. Wish it could have been more as I wish you had come back for a visit under different circumstances. We shall get that time though. One day. And, I will not be bored in the least.”

Chapter Five

Nira and her vampires brought the group who were stuffed into a few black SUV’s close to an outlying area of woods near to their safe house. Nira had explained on the ride there that they’d had to find yet another one, as each one prior had been attacked by Daniel and his pack. To be overly cautious, not drawing attention to ourselves with big, expensive vehicles in a rundown neighborhood, or with a large amount of people going into one house, we’d had to make a trek the rest of the way, splitting up into groups, using the dark of night to file into the ramshackle house undetected by houses of people that never seemed to sleep, according to one vampire.

“It has saddened us to see such deplorable conditions. Not that we haven’t worked in such neighborhoods before, but to live in one is a completely different matter,” a vampire with slicked black hair and pale skin, who actually looked like a movie vamp unlike most of them, stated as we entered. “We formed a fake family that are the only ones to show themselves outside of the house for appearances sake, and we have gotten quite the education.”

“We’ve been talking in the brief moments we either have the time or need the distraction about changing how we operate,” a pretty blond, female vampire picked up the conversation as I twirled a strand of my hair as if it helped me to think. “We help people, but we need to redefine what it means to need help. Physical injury is not the only cause. These people need our help in so many ways.”

“They really do,” another vampire chimed in, one who looked much younger, like a teenager, yet spoke with years of hard-earned wisdom. “So many humans are afraid, with good reason, to come into these neighborhoods and help. I mean if you end up dead, really what good can you do? But, for us, the immortal, with our strength and speed, our means, we could do so much good without any fear.”

“That would be amazing,” I managed, as always, blown away by this group most would be terrified of, misjudge, if they ever chanced to meet them. 

Television, movies and books had done the group such an injustice. Not that many didn’t want to be fictional vampires, but none would want to meet them in real life, not how they were so inaccurately portrayed. When all of this was over, that was going to be my new mission, to write my story, giving a whole new version of vampires, even if I had to call it fiction.

By the time we all got settled in, with no time to be weary from travels, we gathered around on the floor in an empty room save for a few mattresses. This place had been a foreclosed house which resided in this not so great, or more far from even livable neighborhood from what I had seen making my way through it. Still, I’d seen a drug deal, a fight, and heard some domestic disturbance that made my wolf want to knock down the door to put a stop to. This area was definitely the perfect camouflage for the vampires that lived in a million dollar loft and Royals who had come from a secret island on a private jumbo jet.

“We apologize for the sleeping conditions along with lack of amenities,” Nira said, the only one left standing, addressing the room.  “Let’s think of this as camping. At least we have real mattresses and indoor plumbing. We’ve smuggled some mattresses into every room to give everyone a place to rest, but still it will be tight quarters with all of us crammed under one small roof.”

“We will all be fine,” one of the Royals said, a girl who always had a kind word to say, like the rest of them, but went over and above making people feel good about themselves, like a self-esteem booster.

“Right, it will make us gritty for battle,” another chimed in, the oldest male of our wolf pack outside of Edward. He brought a tight smile to our host’s faces. 

“Well, I thank you for that,” Nira said.

I could tell how the words had touched her, something needed, even if small, in such stressful times. The comradery alone I could never describe, as I’d never felt it before. Closest I’d ever come had been my best friend Chloe, so this was like having a large group of improved versions of her. Not to say she wasn’t amazing, we just didn’t have the paranormal connection this group did, and that accounted for a lot.

“It was the best we could do given safety was our top priority,” our fearless, yet weary host continued. “We’ve lost many already. Daniel, or the man Christina always lovingly referred to as the man in the black suit, has been ruthless and unmerciful. Every place we have been has been destroyed, and those there at the time killed.”

“Are you in this place just for safety, or did he take your loft?” I asked, some comment from earlier clicking in my brain, making me wonder if the magnificent place still existed. Not that it mattered, the loss of it, but it had been where they’d called home for some time as I’d understood.

“Both. He burned the entire place to the ground. Everything was lost. Thankfully, in that one, no one had been there at the time due to a last minute call for help from another group he’d attacked. He foiled his own plans that time if he’d meant to do any of us in, not that I think he bothered to think it through. He’s become a wildcard, and he’s killing, I’m afraid, just to show us that he’s pissed for the whole warehouse thing. Now don’t you say I’m sorry, I can see your lips getting ready to. We’ve already had this conversation. No matter what happened to him, in my eyes he should be thanking us for sparing him. No one has the right to act this way.”

I nodded in response, swallowing down over the bile rising in my throat from the knot in my stomach. I played with a curl of my hair, but catching myself dropped my hands only to find them fiddling with the hem of my shirt.

“To our count,” Nira went on after getting a nod from me, “he’s got at least twenty new wolves. This fight is going to be about manpower for us, not skill, He’s yet to come up with even so much as a good, sound plan. He’s reacting only, making rash decisions, though under attack, he has the group well organized. They have just been unpredictable in their attacks to say the least. They seem to toss a coin to decide when to attack, and play something like pin the tail on the donkey with a map to decide where to. This shall be as much his downfall as it is our burden in trying to form a plan to catch him.”

“It really is unprecedented, his attacks.” another vampire, one I recognized from before with his blond-hair-and-blue-eyed All-American good looks. “That’s why we asked for your help. Rather than picking up the pieces each time, we need to get proactive and end this once and for all before we no longer even have a city to call home.”

“So, you are down to six vampires?” Lex asked, “or are others out?”

“No, this is it. It’s been a massacre. So, we are already outnumbered. We can’t get enough new vampires trained in time to win this. We will win this due to training and heart, overpowering their wild strength.”

A round of cheers went up quietly around the room in an attempt not to alert the neighbors, though with someone playing music with the bass up way too high outside in a car, and screams heard in nearby houses both from misbehaving adults and children, along with the commotion of people just hanging out on the street, I doubted anyone paid us much attention.

“So, we need a plan. Not knowing yet where they are holing up, the best we could come up with is to wait until the next attack, and then use a few of us to cause a distraction, to separate the pack. We don’t like doing it, using our own as bait, but we need to form a group that will take out Daniel. Luckily, his mistake this time will be getting his hands dirty. He no longer stays back and directs in his suit. He goes in like a wild animal too, and causes as much destruction as two of his pack put together.”

“He’s changed so much,” I said, not realizing I’d spoken my thoughts out loud until I’d started at hearing my own voice.

This started a chain reaction in my body that began with some subtle shaking and then migrated into a few deep breaths in a frail attempt to remedy the situation that only ended with fighting my fatigue from battling my emotions. The result, my body was now more heavily weighted down by everything hanging out there in the near future.

“He has, Christina. He’s on some sort of deranged warpath. We have to stop him and hope that after that happens his band of angry wolves will either disband, or be easier to conquer without his constant direction,” Nira stated with her own sigh lingering after her words were done.

“We’ve agreed it is the best course of action given what we’ve seen, been up against,” another vampire spoke up. “We are hoping that you will be with us, or if any of you can think of a better way, you know we are all ears. Anything would be better than this sitting and waiting for his next attack and then using our own as bait, but again, we haven’t thought of it.”

A chorus of murmurings went up around the room, each Royal more than willing to comply with our experience, our knowledge of the situation, willing to follow them into battle doing whatever they asked of us. I liked that position best anyway, being a follower. Even if I’d been trained now to use my powers, I wanted someone to give me direction, and I would do my part to the best of my new abilities to see the plan through. I didn’t yet trust my gut instinct, as I was still meshing my human and my wolf. Besides, I’d never been a leader, and I was okay with that knowledge. Not everyone needed to be.

“Thank you,” Nira finally said, addressing the group, gaining back the primary attention. “We appreciate you coming and being so willing to help.”

“As you have always been for us,” one of the Royals spoke up.

Nira nodded with a small smile before continuing. “So, now that night has fallen, food is in the kitchen if anyone needs anything, but all we can do now is wait for the latest commotion as our call to move out. Just let me assign you to groups first.”

No shock befell me when I found myself paired with Nira and Lex along with Josh and a few others. I sat after that nibbling like a mouse on a piece of cheese that Lex had insisted I eat. At the first swallow, my stomach simultaneously growled and protested the food. To keep up the best of my strength I pushed through, managed a few more bites washed down with some water. It would have to be enough. I couldn’t stop to lose my lunch in the middle of battle, and each time I heard his name the thought of seeing Daniel again turned my stomach. Having slept so little, I had a generous amount of energy without caffeine.