Filed to story: Mated to the Alpha and His Beta Novel Free >>???
“I’ve never even heard of Alphas like you,” Charlotte said. “Your entire family is unique.”
It could have sounded like she was just sucking up, but the smile on her face looked sincere. It settled me down alittle. Xander, too.
“But you can’t just keep tossing out all of these bombshells and not expect us to get upset.” I finished Xander’s statement for him. “You all aren’t used to wolves like us, but we aren’t used to any of this at all.”
“Fair enough,” Malachi said in a tone that sounded genuinely sorry.
Charlotte shot him a fond look. “Vampires are well known to have a flair for the dramatic.”
for all to get along and appreciate our differences.”
“So how about instead of being all dramatic about it, then, you just tell us what we should be worried about for Lanie,” I said.
“Yeah. Is she in danger of getting sick? Or ending up in a coma? What?” Xander demanded.
Malachi leaned forward in his chair. “Unfortunately, much as with everything else relating to my granddaughter in particular, we simply cannot be one hundred percent sure. There have been cases of hybrids. who, for some reason or another, have been unable to access their full strengths, even with a lot of training. Some with a lesser m ental capacity, for example.”
“Lanie’s one of the smartest women I’ve ever met.” I defended her boldly.
Malachi inclined his head. “I agree. I have no doubts that she will be able to learn everything she has to. The problem lies within the scope of what that means.”
Xander shot me a look and a thought. “Now what the hell’s he talking about?”
“You’re not entirely sure what she’s fully capable of, so you can’t be sure you can teach her everything she needs to know. Am I getting that right?” I asked Malachi, who nodded.
Xander picked up where I left off. “So then what?”
“The solution to that, fortunately, is a simple one. We teach her every skill we can think of. It will be quite intense. And first, of course, she has to be tested to see if she inherited the skills. So if the only way the two of you overprotective lunks will allow it is if you can be in charge of the safety protocols, then by all means, please set them up. But do it quickly. By the end of the day, if possible, so she can get started first thing in the morning.”
My brother and I exchanged looks. He nodded, and I returned it. Xander gestured at Malachi.
“We’ll need a list of the potential skills you’ll be testing and how you plan to do it. If there are people you be asking to help you out, we need their names.
Background information. Anything like that.” Xander sounded confident, and d amn, I did admire the way he was able to step up like that.
Not for the first time, I wondered what it would be like to really rule the Constantine pack beside him.
The longer we stayed here, the less confident I was that we’d ever have the chance.
“On the subject of hybrids, their strengths and weaknesses, and of particular importance to their upbringing.” I read the title of the old fashioned essay aloud.
It wasn’t printed in the book but in a sheaf of folded papers that fell out when I turned a page. It looked more like a rough draft of an essay rather than any published piece. It was written in faded ink, the handwriting thin and ornate and hard to read.
Since I’d found a comfy chair tucked away into a back corner of this small library, there wasn’t anyone around to see what I was doing. Nevertheless, following some instinct I couldn’t put my finger on, I settled deeper into the chair and turned my body away from the room to shield what was in my hands.
Slowly, I turned the pages of what I’d found. The handwriting covered both sides, top to bottom, of four The paper itself was weirdly thin, almost transparent, and yet despite having words on both sides, nothing was showing through.
pages.
I held it up to the light and noticed a faint drawing or engraving of what looked like the moon and a woman with stars in her hair.
The Moon Goddess? In one hand she held what looked like a bottle, and a wolf lay curled at her feet. The drawing was surprisingly intricate for a watermark. It was also an image I’d never seen before, but it had a kind of religious flavor to it that made me think maybe this paper had been written by one of the Moon Goddess’s followers.
That could mean wolf, vampire, or probably even witch. For all I knew, there could be any dozen other kinds of supernaturals who worshipped her. What mattered to me was that I’d found a paper about hybrids. I sent up a prayer to the Moon Goddess hoping I’d finally learn something concrete.
o over ita The paper used a lot of flowery language, which was kind of hard to understand. I had to go couple of times when the sentences ran on and on.
Sometimes, there were references to things I couldn’t figure out. Names of supernatural races I didn’t recognize and hadn’t met here at Brightsky. Dozens of references to historical events that seemed to be common knowledge for whoever had written this paper but that I’d never heard of That wasn’t shocking. I knew the High Council had kept us all isolated for that very reason, to keep us ignorant. What was unsettling was just how many times I had to go back and reread something, trying to put it into context, without even knowing where to begin.
Beyond the Great Wars, there had been other battles, The paper touched on interactions of supernaturals with humans in times long past, when apparently we’d all lived in greater harmony. Or if not harmony, I realized, reading on, at least less secrecy Humans had widely known and accepted the existence of supernaturals. According to this paper, some great disaster had changed all of that, but it didn’t go into detail about what that was I really needed a notebook and pen to start taking notes about all the things I was reading that led me to research more thinns I didn’t understand it was hark in school again only this time instead of heina a pretty decent student that got good grades, I felt like the bad pup in the back of the row who shot spitballs at the teacher when her back was turned. The one who failed all the tests.
For now, I’d have to use my phone. I snapped pictures of the sections I found most confusing, and added some typed thoughts in my notes app. By the time I got to the end of the four pages, a headache was starting to brew. More than once, Lily had probed at my mind. That wasn’t usual of her. She reacted to my strong emotions, yes, and if it had been too long since she’d had her freedom, she was more likely to nudge me for it. But reading this paper, it was almost like my wolf was reacting to the words, especially the things I wasn’t understanding.
I tried again. The first couple of pages had a history of the different kinds of hybrid combinations and what traits were more often dominant versus recessive.
Something I found interesting was that hybrid children were more often twins than singletons, something that I would never have guessed. Alice’s babies were twins and hybrids, but neither Alaina or Isaac had shown any signs of special qualities and probably wouldn’t until adolescence.
Not like Stella.
At the thought of my daughter, Lily whined. Her insistence grew stronger. There was something in these pages that my wolf had seen…and it was about my daughter.
Zane–
Spider shifters?
“I’m not a shifter.” The spider laughed again. Now it was the size of a cantaloupe, which thankfully seemed about as big as it was going to get. It looked me over with its eight sparkling eyes and waved one long front leg at me. “Just an enclavian spider.”
“You read my mind?”
“I could see the horror all over your face,” she said.
“But yes, I read it. A little. You were sending very loudly. It’s a bit rude to invade someone’s thoughts, so we spiders generally only do it amongst ourselves. I do want to reassure you, though, I am not a shifter.”
I still took a step back and looked around the stairwell for any signs there might be more potentially giant spiders. “I’m Zane.”
“I’m Bellissa. I’ve heard of you. We all have. The wolves who came to Brightsky with Malachi’s granddaughter. Welcome.”
“Thanks.” This was kind of awkward.
“Out exploring are you?” Bellissa waved her leg again “Are you looking for Greyson? Sorry. That was a bit rude. You’re just sending so loudly, it’s difficult not to receive.”
“I guess I am?” I said. “I mean, I was just kind of wandering around. Getting the lay of the land, so to speak.”
The spider dangled lightly from a thin string of webbing that attached itself to a high-up corner. She spun gently in the breeze from a nearby ventilation duct. “It’s always good to understand where you are…
Would you like me to find Greyson for you? I can put out a call to my friends.”
“Uh…” I looked up the stairs and then down again. I could spend the day wandering around without any purpose, or I could hang out with Greyson, assuming this spider could help me find him. “Sure.”
She let out another tinkle of that light laughter and said after a second, “Oh, he’s far, far down in the pearl fields.”
“In the what, now?”
“The underground lakes in the caverns that the enclave was built over,” Bellissa explained cheerfully, pointing with one leg to the stairs going down. “Some of them house fish, while others grow edible water plants. And of course the clams and mussels provide food for the ducks and chickens on the farm level, and the pearls are sold to wealthy human collectors so the enclave has income. This entire complex was designed to be self-sustaining.”
“For safety?”
“In the event of an attack, especially a siege, yes. But generally, also in case that its residents determine there’s a need to completely go underground. Not just physically; I mean if the leadership council feels like it’s imperative for us all to withdraw from the world.
Hide for any indeterminate amount of time.”
“Why would they decide that?”
She waved both her front legs. “I suppose if there seemed to be some kind of natural local or global disaster. I’ve heard stories about an enclave-”
“This one?”
“No, an older one.”
“How many are there?”
Bellissa swayed lightly. “I don’t know, really.
Enclavian spiders can only talk to others in the same enclave. But I’ve heard there were at least a few other enclaves. And one of them went on lockdown during the humans’ Black Plague. They didn’t re-emerge until sometime after the invention of the airplane. It must have been quite shocking for them all.”
“How often has this enclave gone into lockdown?”
“We spiders live short lives compared to most of you, so I can say that it hasn’t happened in my lifetime and it won’t mean much,” Bellissa admitted. “But because we live such short lives, we also share generational memories. So far as I’m aware, no, Brightsky has never gone into lockdown. But isn’t it comforting to know that you’re safe here and could be for the rest of your life and the lives of your children, your children’s children…”
“I don’t want to stay in here forever,” I interrupted. “I sure don’t want my descendants to have to, either.”
Bellissa chuckled. “I suppose not. We spiders like our dark corners and our sheltered spots. I’ve heard the sun is horribly bright.
No, thank you. Ah, my sister Agatha says that she would be happy to tell Greyson you’re on the way, if you like. So he doesn’t leave before you get there. It’s a terribly long way down via the stairs, and I’d hate for you to make the trip without reason.”
“That would be great. Thanks. I’ll just head down that way anyway,” I said, already turning. I might as well see the pearl farms whether Greyson was there or not.
worry.
“Have fun!” Bellissa called after me. “Oh, and in case the enclave suddenly goes into lockdown, don’t The alarms will all sound and the lights will go off, but you should still be able to breathe all right. At least, I think so.”
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?