Filed to story: Mated to the Alpha and His Beta Novel Free >>???
I paused with my hand on the railing. “I thought you said Brightsky had never gone into lockdown.”
“Well,” said Bellissa cheerfully, “there’s always a first time!”
Lanie–
I paused and closed my eyes so I could make a better connection with my wolf Lily couldn’t read, of course. She could understand words that I read, but even if I gave her control of my eyes so I could use her vision, she could only see the words on the page, their sharp strokes and spatters of ink, or the erasure marks that were too faint for my human vision to pick up. She couldn’t comprehend anything without my interpretation.
Still, she wouldn’t stop whining and pacing, pawing at the ground and even howling so fiercely that the sound almost jumped out of my throat-something I was pretty sure would get me kicked out of the library I soothed her and let her see through my eyes. At her wordless urging. I turned the pages slowly, scanning each line and trying to see what she saw.
The watermark was clearest when I held the paper up to the light, but with Lily’s enhanced gaze, I could also see the outlines of the image beneath the words on the page. Over and over again, she had me look at the pages, up and down, line by line. The watermark was the same on each page, but no matter how many times I looked over them, I couldn’t seem to figure out what it was that she wanted me to see.
Finally in frustration, I shuffled all the papers together and turned them upside down, hoping that a different point of view might make a difference.
I spun the papers around the right way and read another snippet about twins and hybrids, but again the author of the paper was referring to historical figures and events I’d never heard of was getting super frustrated, and my anger came out in my shaking hands. Lily wasn’t happy, either anything, she seemed annoyed with me!
Deciding to take some breaths and relax, hoping that somehow I could figure out what she was tryin tell me, I closed my eyes again. I put my hands on the papers, which were resting on top of the large book where I’d found them. I let my body settle into the comfortable chair:
If I wasn’t careful, I might just doze off The library was super quiet, but I could hear the murmurs of othe people sometimes, like a far-off distant hum White noise, like a fan whirring. I hadn’t thought I was tired when I got here, but now it felt like all I wanted to do was sleep…
And then I was walking in the forest with Lily at my side This didn’t feel like a dream. Not exactly But I knew it had to be, because when my wolf took her control, me, Lanie, was inside her the way Lily remained inside me the rest of the time We never walked next to each other this way. It was impossible. There was no Lily without Lanie, no Lanie without the wolf We were one being in two parts Yet, here we both were, padding along the crunching pine needles beneath trees so tall they seemed to fantastic, it had everything anyone could ever need or want…except, despite its name, the bright sky.
My hand rested on the top of my wolfs head as we walked, I thought she might speak to me, since this was a dream or a vision or whatever, but Lily remained silent except for a few chuffs and rumbling growls when she wanted me to take one path or another. She led me deeper into the forest until we reached a clearing.
Above us, the moon shone so brightly it was almost blinding. And…there she was. The woman from the watermark. She held a bottle in her hand. More like a pitcher, really. She tipped it into a glass and held it out.
It was full of blood.
I took it, wondering if the Moon Goddess meant for me to drink. The liquid inside was rich crimson and swirled like it had a life of its own.
Lily went to Moon Goddess’’s side and curled up at her feet, just like in the image on those papers. I’ waited for the Goddess to tell me what she wanted me to do.
Without words, she made a graceful gesture toward a book on the ground next to my wolf. I swore it hadn’t been there before.
Lily took it in her teeth and trotted to me to lay it at my feet. I looked down at its faded, green leather cover and the title stamped in gold foil.
My fingers trembled as I stroked them over the ancient book. The title jumped out at me, almost stopping my heart.
Celestial.
Xander–
Malachi had dismissed the rest of the leadership council and promised to get me and Mason all the information we’d asked for.
He’d even had food sent in for us. Big platters of steaks and ribs, along with a couple pitchers of beer. My laptop was practically smoking from all the files being downloaded to it, and my brother had a thick stack of files and papers in front of him to sort through.
We had ourselves a tidy little command center here in the conference room. For the first time since we got to Brightsky, it finally felt like we’re doing something important. Making a real contribution. Sure, it was a selfish one for the sake of our Luna, but going over all the security protocols in the enclave was going to help.
more than just us.
I was happy to feel like me and my brother were getting the chance to work together, too. Sure, we’d had our problems with each other in the past, but we’d also never really had an opportunity to find out if we could lead side by side.
The vampire looked restless, though. He paced in front of the fake windows that made it look like we could see outside.
“You don’t have to stick around if you don’t want to,” told him. “So long as we get what we need, Mason and I can keep working on all of this without you.”
“Unless he doesn’t trust us,” Mason used the mind link to say.
“What wouldn’t he trust us with? It’s an empty room.
It’s not like we could steal anything.”
“Well, something’s wrong with him. He looks jumpier than a cat on a hot stove,” Mason thought.
I snorted soft laughter aloud at that funny old-timey saying. Malachi spun around to face me. His expression was twisted into an emotion I couldn’t read.
“What’s up?” I asked him.
The vampire waved a hand. “I don’t know.”
“You look nervous,” Mason said.
Malachi shook his head and put both of his hands on his hips while he stared intently out the “window.” He didn’t say anything.
My brother and I shared a look.
“Maybe you should eat something,” I suggested.
The vampire’s lips drew back to expose his suddenly much sharper fangs. I shot my brother a look.
Mason’s eyebrows were going up just like mine.
Wolves had canines, upper and lower, and of course they got sharp when we were letting our wolves rise.
Our teeth weren’t fangs, though. They didn’t inject venom. I wasn’t sure if vampires showed their teeth as a sign of aggression, but that’s what it felt like, and it was making my wolf unhappy.
“Dude, what the f uck is up with him?” Mason thought to me.
“No clue. But he’s making Hunter agitated.”
“Colt, too. Think we should try to calm him down or what?”
“You can both stop thinking about me,” Malachi snapped.
His fangs flashed, and spittle sprayed. His tongue slid out to swipe over his lips. He scraped both hands through his mane of hair and tossed his head back, shaking it. He let out a weird noise, too.
“Want to tell us what’s going on?” Mason asked him.
Malachi made a visible effort at getting calmed down.
My brother and I shared another look. There was some s hit going down in this room, and both of our wolves were reacting to it.
At the same time, it didn’t seem like his weird behavior was directed at us. Not to mention that no matter how strong our wolves were, even the two of us together weren’t likely to be able to take down an Ancient.
And if we did, what then? The entire enclave would be against us. We’d never be able to get our Luna the help she needed.
“My apologies,” Malachi said. “I’m feeling strangely unwell.”
“Do you need us to call someone? A doctor? Get you some blood or something?” I asked him.
Malachi rubbed his mouth but then shook his head.
“No. This isn’t physical.”
For the first time in the past few minutes, he looked at us and seemed to actually see us. “Again, my apologies. You see, when you are as old as I am, the world feels different. I am tied to it in ways I could not begin to explain.”
“We aren’t idiots,” Mason said, but not like he was trying to be a d ick.
From the way Malachi smiled, it seemed like he might be thinking about disagreeing. I held myself back from saying anything. I just watched him, letting my wolf’s senses enhance mine.
Vampires didn’t sweat, but I did pick up a kind of bitter scent that smelled like anxiety. No heartbeat or heavy breathing, but he was pacing and clearly focused on something internal.
“Excuse me,” Malachi said and then, like a shot, moving so fast he was a blur, he ran from the room.
Lanie–
The thud of someone dropping a heavy book startled me into full consciousness. I was back in the library.
Lily had retreated. The Moon Goddess was nowhere to be seen…
But the lingering scent of pine needles still tickled my nose.
I hadn’t fallen asleep and dreamed it. She’d come to me in a vision with a message, one clear enough that I didn’t have to fight to figure it out. I sent up a grateful prayer with a small, embarrassed chuckle at how hard she’d had to work for me.
“Sorry, Lily,” I murmured to my wolf, who’d also been doing her very best to get me to see the message.
There was a book in this library that would tell me everything I needed to know. Now, I just had to find it. It was probably wrong to fold up the sheaf of papers into a fat square and shove it into the pocket of my jeans, but I was willing to take that risk. I returned the small stack of books I’d been reading and forced myself to get into concentration mode.
If finding that book was as easy as looking it up by the title, I’d have found it already. That meant it was somewhere on these shelves but it had been misplaced, either by accident or maybe on purpose.
But it was here, I knew it in my heart.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?