Filed to story: Mated to the Alpha and His Beta Novel Free >>???
Mason–
“Is that…?” Zane said and quickly shut up.
“Sirs, umm…if you don’t mind, I can just leave the phone here. It’s really hot,” Goldie said hesitantly.
“Unless you need me for something else? I’ll head back to Standard with my new phone and get the rest of the photos.”
“Did anyone in Standard notice you’re not a regular resident?” I asked her. I hadn’t yet seen the pictures on her phone, but by the way Zane and Xander were reacting, it had to be bad news.
Goldie waved at the steam but didn’t do much to move it around or clear the way. “I don’t think so.
I pretended to be a janitor. Nobody pays much attention to the cleaning staff.”
“Smart,” Xander said. “What’s wrong with this phone?”
“It just froze up. Won’t take any pictures, won’t connect to the internet. Nothing. I couldn’t get the pictures to send, but they are saved on it. Oh, and it doesn’t have a passcode on it. If you need me for anything else, Alphas, I’m at your service.”
She left the room.
As soon as she did, I crossed to the bench next to my brother. “Who is it?”
Xander turned the phone toward me. At first I had no idea who the picture showed. Then it hit me.
“Aldon. The guy from the prison? Your Elder from the Council?”
“Yep.” Xander swiped back and forth through a few more of the photos on the screen, then handed me the phone. “She’s right.
This phone is basically bricked.”
I swiped to a closeup picture. “What’s he doing in Standard?”
“Good question,” Xander said. “I say we get out of here and discuss it back home before we bring it to the leadership council. We need more pictures from Goldie to see if we recognize anyone else.”
We all showered off the sweat from the steam room, dressed, and headed back to our quarters. Lanie was gone, but a quick test of the mate bond told me she was with her grandfather. That was just as well. I didn’t want her getting worked up by any of this.
From what I could remember, she and Aldon had interacted, but I wasn’t sure what she’d think about him being in Standard.
None of us could figure it out, either.
“The only reason he could possibly be in that town is because he somehow found out that we ended up here in the enclave.”
Zane handed me and Xander each a bottle of beer with the caps already cracked off. He went back to the mini fridge in our kitchenette to get himself one.
Xander took a long pull off his beer and smacked his lips. “Brightsky Brewing makes some da mned fine. beer. And yes, Zane, I agree with you. No Elder would be randomly traveling around. It’s not like he’s on vacation.”
“Not in Standard, anyway,” Zane added.
I studied the pictures. Goldie had managed to get a few from a distance, and some more up close. He wasn’t really facing the camera in any of them, and a few were blurred. “These pictures aren’t the best.
Could it just look like Aldon?”
“No way. That’s him. You think I’d forget the man who put me in prison?” Xander said with a scowl.
Zane slid into the chair across from us. “He looks like s hit, but that’s how he always looked, as far as I’m concerned.”
I got up, my beer in one hand, to pace as I thought aloud. “The whole reason you had Goldie go take those pictures was to be absolutely sure before we let Malachi take action that Brightsky needs to be on the defense. So let’s think about all the reasons why an Elder might have recently arrived in the portal town to Brightsky.”
“One,” Xander said roughly, “he knows we’re here.”
“Two,” I put in, “he might be trying to get to Brightsky for his own reasons. What if he’s seeking sanctuary?
He helped Lanie, didn’t he?”
Zane shook his head, then seemed to reconsider. He looked thoughtful. “So he straddles both sides of the fence. That just means we can’t trust him.”
town.
“It means he could be trying to find safety in Brightsky,” I said.
“So why isn’t he here, then? If he made it all the way to Standard, that means he knows it’s the portal If he’s really got a good reason to show up after all this time, he’d know how to petition for entry. Right?”
Xander tapped his finger at his temple, then pointed it at me.
Zane took a long drink. “I get why you’re trying out all the angles, Mason, but Aldon’s a f uckwad. If he’s in Standard, that smells like trouble to me.”
“What about the other newcomers? We should wait until we see their photos before we go jumping to conclusions,” I replied.
Xander nodded. “I’m with Mason. We have Goldie keep eyes on Aldon and boots on the ground about the others. Hopefully, she can get us some more pictures.”
I took the phone and tapped the screen. “In the meantime, maybe I can figure out what happened with this phone. In case someone tampered with it or something.”
Something was telling me that not everyone in Brightsky could be trusted.
Lanie–
I hated putting up a permanent shield against my daughter, but Malachi had convinced me it was necessary. Of course, we both knew that if Stella really was in control of all the powers of the universe, she’d have no trouble blowing right through any shield little old me was able to put up, no matter whether or not I had the blessing of the Moon Goddess.
The real key was acting like nothing was wrong. Not just for Stella’s sake, but for my other children. My mates. My mother-in-law, even if she’d been turning colder and colder to me every day.
Once things calmed down, I promised myself I’d have a real heart-to-heart with Gabricla. Get us back on the same page. I hated that I felt this growing distance between us.
Xander and Mason had included Zane in planning their updated safety protocols for me during the testing of my own, still fully unknown abilities. I thought they were all being way overprotective, but I didn’t fight them about it. My mates were strong and knew what they were doing. So long as they weren’t actively trying to stop me from learning more about myself, I was willing to honor their simple requests for my safety.
Or what they perceived it to be, anyway.
This morning I was in my grandfather’s quarters. Not in the breakfast room with its fake windows this time, but a smaller gym. He had lined it with wrestling mats.
room.
“Do you think I’m going to fly off and hit the ceiling or what?” I asked him with a laugh as I came into the It was only me, Charlotte, Greyson, Braden, and Malachi. We wanted to make sure nobody could walk in on us during activities my grandfather had promised might be “intense.” I felt better knowing I didn’t have an audience, for one, but also all the people around me would take care of me to the best of their abilities.
“Let’s start with the most basic and move up,” Malachi said. “The first thing I want you to do is shift, Lanie.”
I hesitated, not sure I understood him right. “You mean let my wolf take over?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not even a skill,” I said, balking. “That’s just my nature. Who I am. Me and my wolf are inseparable He smiled. “So it should be no hardship to allow her some freedom, then.”
“It’s not a hardship,” I agreed. I stripped naked, folding my clothes neatly.
There was no reason to be shy about it. Charlotte and Greyson were shifters, too, and understood the need to not shred my clothes. Malachi was my freaking granddad. But Braden…
Heat painted my cheeks as I slowly turned away from the four people watching me. Braden and I were never going to be together like that, but there’d been a time when we’d flirted. I didn’t think my mates would be thrilled about me being naked in front of him no matter what. On the other hand, as I let Lily rise to the surface, being naked and changing into my wolf felt so free that I really didn’t care what Braden was looking at.
“Very nice,” Malachi said, clapping his hands together.
Lily was happy to be out. She sniffed at the outstretched hands of my grandfather, wrinkling her nose and growling a bit at his vampire scent. She had her freedom for a few more minutes before I called her back. I returned to my human form, tasting sweat on my upper lip.
I put my hands on my hips. “Now what?”
Braden tossed me a towel and I wiped my face.
Charlotte handed me my clothes, and I dressed while my grandfather laid out the list of other skills I was going to run through.
Levitation.
Check.
I didn’t make it up very high, but I could get myself a few inches off the floor, anyway. I was glad it wasn’t much higher, because even with the soft mats to land on, I still ended up on my a ss.
Super speed?
That one was harder. No matter how I tried, the space was too small. Malachi coached me, but I couldn’t quite get it right.
“I run into the wall,” I complained, rubbing my nose from the bump I’d given it.
“You’re thinking too hard,” he said. “You don’t need to get up to speed. You simply are the speed. Try it again.”
I did, getting frustrated, especially when Charlotte demonstrated along with him how easy it was.
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?