Trapped With the Alpha (Balfour Shifters Book 1) (18 page)

Caleb slams his fist on the table, drawing my attention. “She had brown hair when I was with her. She was also nearly as tall as me.”

Looking at the others, that sinking feeling starts to hit me in the pit of my stomach. This is all so messed up. Hell, at this point, I’d say Colin was the least of our worries if we have a shape-shifting witch on the loose.

“As I said, she changes her appearance,” William continues, bringing silence to the room. “I believe she changes herself to suit her needs. If the man she wants likes blond hair, she’s blond.” He shrugs his shoulders as if it’s the simplest thing to understand.

Closing my eyes, I try to pull up my memories of her. What I see nearly causes my wolf to come forth, and I swallow back the bile that rushes up my throat. “She looked a hell of a lot like Izzy, only her eyes were different.”

“Hell, she looked like Blair, all but her eyes,” Finn says, jumping from his seat. “I hadn’t even met Blair when I went to the Stuart witch. Yet, that bitch knew exactly what I desired in a woman.”

I knew Izzy, had known her for years, when I visited the witch, but I didn’t know she was my mate. How could anyone, even a witch, know something that I didn’t? Shaking off my questions, I look to Aiden. “How will we find her, if she changes her appearance? This isn’t the eleventh century. I already sent Finn to talk to the head of the local coven. We can’t just go around asking for the McGregor witch unless we want to be dragged off to the psych ward.”

“I don’t know,” he answers, looking back to the book. “Let me do a bit of research, talk with Elise, and we can meet again in a few days.”

Nodding at him, I turn back to Peter. “Why wasn’t the witch killed after she cursed Blain?”

He shakes his head as he answers. “I don’t know. I asked Richard once, and he said that his father made him promise to stay away from the witch. He made it clear he didn’t want to talk about it. After that, I never brought it up again.”

“It might be a good idea to have Aiden look into that, too. There has to be a reason our ancestors didn’t deal with her themselves,” Caleb adds, his thoughts mirroring my own. “For all we know, maybe she can’t be killed. We have no idea what kind of power she is able to wield to protect herself.”

I look around the table, noticing everyone is looking as confused and angry as I am. If I’m honest with myself, some of them even look a little scared. The unease that is settling in my gut is making me a little on edge, as well. My eyes finally lock in on Peter. “I want you working with Aiden and Elise. You know more about clan history than any of us, so let him use your expertise and knowledge. I want this bitch found before she hurts my mate again.”

“Of course, Alpha,” he replies, standing up. “I’ll do anything I can to help.”

“We also need to deal with the rogues,” I say, grabbing everyone’s attention. “The war with them has been pushed back because of Izzy’s return, but it has not been forgotten. If any of you gets even a whiff of Colin or one of the other rogues, you grab them immediately. Not only did they come on our land and injure my brother, they may also be working with the witch who imprisoned Izzy.”

Finn looks around the room before leaning back in his chair. “When I talked to the warlock in charge of the coven, he said the rogues were definitely working with a witch. No one has ever met this witch, but he has heard that she practices the dark arts.”

“Like I said, try to bring one of the rogues back alive, if possible,” I order them. “They may not be able to give us any information if she is screwing with their heads, but we may just be able to use them as leverage over her.”

Waiting for everyone to give their nod of agreement and approval, I begin to stand. As soon as I’m confident that we are all on the same page, I jerk my head toward the door. “Meeting’s over. You’re all free to go.”

When is this going to end? Is it too damn much to want to just live my life in peace with the woman who owns my heart and soul?

Izzy

LOOKING THROUGH
what I swear is the millionth rack of skinny jeans, I blow out a breath in exasperation. “I’ve changed my mind. Shopping is not something that releases stress. It causes it. I want to go home.”

“Oh, please,” Elise says with a smile. “You are putting too much thought into it, Iz. It’s shopping, not rocket science.”

Bursting into laughter, Blaire doesn’t bother to say anything but continues to shake her head at the both of us. Then, she goes back to digging through the jeans.

Rolling my eyes at the both of them, I resume my search for the so-called ’perfect pair of skinny jeans’. They may claim this isn’t rocket science, but I swear there is something here I must be missing. 

Blair pulls out a pair of faded jeans and squeals, “These are it.”

I take the jeans from her hands and look at them. “I just don’t get it. What’s different between this pair and the last three pairs I tried on?”

“These are just the right color—not too light, not too dark. They’ll look amazing on you,” she replies, looking to Elise for her input. 

She nods in agreement, adding her two cents. “They’re perfect.”

I shove them under my arm then turn to start looking through the next rack. Within a minute, I notice a gorgeous pair of ruby red jeggings. Ripping them off the rack, I wonder how I’ll look in them. 

“What about these?” I ask, turning to find them both huddled together, giving some poor unsuspecting soul a vicious stare down. 

Wandering over to the two of them, I lean in and whisper, “What are we gawking at?”

Whipping their heads toward me, they both immediately shout, “Nothing!” before quickly diving back into the mounds of clothing in front of them. 

Shaking my head at them in exasperation, I say, “Yeah, I don’t believe either of you. You are both seriously shitty liars.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Blair says, pushing me backwards. 

“Just spit it out already,” I grumble as I turn to try to see what has gotten them both so on edge.

Noticing a couple of women on the other side of the store, but nothing else of any interest, I shrug my shoulders before resuming my own search. Finding myself yet again frustrated with the selection in front of me, I start to head toward the front of the store, but barely make it two feet before Blair is stepping in front of me as if to block my path.

“Uh, excuse me. Pushy much?” I say as I go to step around her. 

“Don’t go over there,” she all but shouts in my face, holding onto my arm. “Come this way. I saw something toward the back that is totally you.”

Turning back to see if Elise is following behind us as Blair all but drags me through the store, I find her standing in what I can only assume is a standoff position. She’s facing down one of the women I had previously noticed, shopping near the front. Her finger is in the brunette’s face as she forces her to walk backwards. 

Stopping abruptly in my tracks, I yank my arm away from Blair, attempting to get her attention. “What the hell is going on?

Looking back at me, she mutters, “Oh shit,” before turning back to the scene just feet away from us.

No matter how hard I strain my ears, I can’t seem to hear what they are harshly whispering to each other. I don’t need to be able to hear to know that Elise isn’t happy about their little run-in. Her posture says it all. 

 Leaning at Blair, I ask, “What’s going on? Elise looks like she’s ready to strangle her. Hell, she looks like she’s two seconds away from snapping that chick’s neck.”

 In truth, that’s exactly what she looks like. The big ass vein is even beginning to pulse in the middle of Elise’s forehead. Even after only knowing her a short time, l know that is never a good sign. “Maybe we should go over there and separate them.”

“Just leave it,” Blair demands, trying to block my view of Elise and the mystery brunette. “She can handle herself. Come on.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I reply, trying to walk around her again.

Tugging at my arm again, she refuses to let me by. “Please, Izzy. Let’s just get out of here.”

It dawns on me, my friends are going out of their way to make sure that this mystery woman and I don’t come face to face. Taking a second to study Blair’s face, I can see immediately that whatever is going on is making her extremely uncomfortable. There’s only one reason I can think of for either of them to be acting this way. One of Brody’s whores is in the room. 

“Who is she?” I ask, even though I already know the answer. 

She shrugs her shoulders as she pushes me to the back of the store. “It doesn’t matter.”

Pulling against her grip, I dig my feet into the tiled floor, refusing to budge. In Blair’s haste to pull me to the back, my sudden stop throws her off balance. She stumbles, almost falling flat on her ass. Righting herself, she turns to me with a look of complete exasperation on her face. “Just leave it alone, Izzy. Elise can handle it on her own.”

“Handle what?” I ask, my own frustration growing. “What are you two trying to keep from me? If you think I don’t know all about Brody’s whores, you’re wrong.”

Shaking her head at me, she bites her bottom lip, a deep frown creasing the normally smooth skin between her eyes. “You’ve been through enough. You don’t need to deal with this.”

Releasing a grunt, I say, “Oh, for the love of God, what could be that bad? I’ve been watching him fuck bitches for years. Running into one of his sluts won’t kill me.”

 She doesn’t respond, just continues to chew on her bottom lip. Suddenly, I realize what they’re doing. Just like everyone else, my friends are treating me like glass. “It’s bad enough that Brody and the guys treat me with kid’s gloves. I’m not doing this with you two. I don’t need to be coddled and protected from everything.”

Spinning on my heels, I head over to Elise. Blair sputters out a curse at me as she rushes to keep up. I come to a standstill beside the two women who are now almost nose to nose with the each other.

Jabbing her finger into the mystery woman’s face, Elise growls out, “Leave it alone. He doesn’t want you anymore. Haven’t you learnt that Brody is a one and done kind of guy?”

As soon as the words leave her mouth, a gasp leaves mine, catching the attention of the brunette in front of Elise. Not wanting my friend to realize how much her words hurt, I paste on a smile. “He used to be, but not anymore.”

I turn to study the woman now looking at me with a smirk on her gorgeous face and immediately feel the blood rush to my face. The minute we make eye contact, I recognize her as one of Brody’s women that I know I’ll never forget. I nicknamed her
The Screecher
. She squealed so loud, my ears were bleeding after their little romp in the sack.

Shaking off my obvious distaste for the slut in front of me, I look toward Elise and ask, “Everything all right?”

“Oh, everything’s great, Iz. I’m just taking a moment to take the trash out,” Elise says with a snarl.

“Oh, please,” the brunette huffs, a wicked grin on her face. “Brody enjoyed his time between my legs just as much as I enjoyed having him there.”

Unable to stop myself, I blurt out, “I’m not so sure about that.”

Her eyes go round, but Blair cuts her off before she can say anything. “Why’s that?”

Smiling, I tell my friends about the chick. “She’s a screamer, a really loud screamer.”

“So are you,” Elise says, momentarily forgetting her anger. “I hear you begging for more all night. I had to go out and buy ear plugs just to get some sleep.”

“That’s what I told her this morning,” Blair says with a laugh.

The brunette shakes her head, obviously bored with our conversation. “Who the hell are you, anyway?”

Before I can answer, Elise gets in her face again. “She’s his ma… his woman.”

“Just because blondie here showed up doesn’t mean he isn’t still interested in me,” she snarls, giving a flick of her fingers in my direction. “A man like Brody doesn’t stick with one woman, and you all know it. When you have a sexual appetite as large as his, you need multiple partners to sate your needs. It’s not my fault that I just happen to be what he uses to fulfill that need.”

Standing there with my mouth hanging open at what just came out of this bitch’s mouth, I don’t even have it in me to react when Blair pushes me back and whispers, “I was wrong to try to shield you from Macy. You have to show your dominance, Izzy. You are the Alpha’s mate. She may not know Brody is a wolf, but we do.  There are also other pack mates.  You have to prove that you deserve the title of Alpha female to them.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Elise asks, her fists balled at her sides. “I’ve only been here for a little while, and even I know you bend over for anyone with a hard dick, so why the hell do you feel the need to go after someone you know has no interest in you?”

Looking at Elise that arrogant smirk returns, and she replies. “Oh, really? ‘Cause when I saw him at The Den last week, he sure didn’t seem uninterested.”

“You’re a lying bitch,” I whisper, knowing her words are untrue. He hasn’t left my side since I was released. “He couldn’t have been with you, because he’s been with me.”