The Alpha's Secret

KEEPER'S MANOR

MORIA

Sprawled out on a steep cliff and surrounded by dead drops on all sides so it looks like it is suspended in the air, Keeper’s manor itself is not really a manor at all.

If I were asked, I would say calling it Keeper's Cathedral would be little more closer to the truth.

The twin towers on each side with their dark pointy ends, the domed light blue roofs between them and the narrow stained glass windows on all three levels of the building reminds me both of dank, ghostly, Gothic castles and of warm, resplendent cathedrals all at once.

There are other buildings stretching out from the sides.

All made of stone.

Smaller structures, tall, pointy structures, wide, flat structures all connected by walkways and passages to the main three level castle.

We drive under a raised portcullis and unto a smooth, stained stone pavement into a sort of courtyard.

The center of the courtyard has a tall marble fountain with the statue of another woman pouring out sparkling water, the same lilac colour of the mountains, from a large, intricately carved marble jug.

And perched on the top of the steps leading up to the fountain, long, jet black hair tied in a high bun, is Tristen.

He is half in shadow, half bathed by the last golden rays of the suns already more than a quarter ways through their descent, causing the olives of his skin to appear even warmer.

Like everything in this world, he looks impossibly beautiful.

If I did not know him, had not felt the vitriol of his gaze burn me, perhaps from this distance, I would have thought him another statue.

Because humans simply did not look like he did.

But then again, he isn't human.

None of us are.

My heart immediately starts to race.

Both in fear and in trepidation.

I hate that merely seeing him is able to do that to me.

"I'm glad he drove alone here."

I do not realize I have said that out loud until Axe responds with a distracted. "Who?'

"Tristen."

Axe, who had been busy trying to navigate his way on the through the courtyard looks up and spots Tristen. "He didn't."

"I don't understand" I ask, still looking straight ahead and wondering if he knows it is him we are speaking about.

Given how nothing made sense here, I wouldn't surprised if sound travelled different or he had super hearing abilities.

Axe swings the car around a bend and towards the fountain.

"Tristen is a Tracker Wolf."

I knew it.

The Wolf in the water. The one that had saved me. That was him.

Oh my God!

My heart is racing so hard, my chest has started to hurt.

Wait, I might be jumping to conclusions. Maybe the words didn't mean what I thought they did.

This world is different after all.

I glance at Axe, leave my gaze on him. "What...what does that mean?"

"It means he didn't drive here. He ran."

Impossible.

My mind instantly becomes a mess of thoughts.

I open my mouth like a fish out of water. "That's..."

"Incredibly stupid." There is a hint of disapproval in his voice and then he shakes his head slightly. "Using his essence like that. He must really not want to be around you."

I push past the tiny prick I feel.

Well, the feeling is mutual.

But magic, Essence, whatever they wanted to call it aside, I could not understand how on earth he had run all the way here.

If I didn’t dislike him so much and if he wasn’t even at this moment looking at our approaching car with that cold, veiled expression of his, maybe I could have found it in me to almost be impressed.

But now, all I feel are the first ticks of annoyance and unease I am beginning to realise seeing him will always bring.

As least, that is what I tell myself the tightness in my chest and the breathlessness in my voice is.

A Tracker wolf.

As expected Axe parks the car like he got his license from a drug dealer.

Tristen leans forward, elbows resting on his knees and even though I am not trying to, our eyes meet.

I was not wrong to describe him as beautiful.

But he is not beautiful in the way you would look at a painting or a picturesque landscape.

He is beautiful in the way a violent stormy sea against a backdrop of lightening torn skies is beautiful.

There is a captivating wildness to him that makes me want to both run and keep looking at him all at the same time.

His eyes slide away from me with all the inconsequence one gives to a door knob.

Why did that bother me?

Why should I care if he looked at me or not?

I flick my tongue over my suddenly dry lips and get out of the car first.

The shadow of stubble across his jaw is already darker than I remember it being mere hours ago.

But other than that he appears completely unruffled.

Most certainly not like he had just ran miles and miles and up a mountain.

In wolf form.

He glances at Axe as he starts down the steps. “Any longer and I’d have had to send the Calvary out to look for you”

Axe grins at a scowling Tristen as he steps out of the car and lets the door swing shut.

“Oh isn’t that sweet and here I was thinking you didn’t care."

Tristen throws something snide back in response.

I would never have guessed it because of how almost completely opposite they are.

Axe with his lazy playfulness and Tristen with his strong set jaw and brooding eyes.

But something in the ease with which they interact is enough I tell me that Axe is probably one of the closest people to him.

As close as a person like Tristen would allow anyway.

I should be paying more attention to what they are saying but I am too busy craning my neck at the beauty surrounding me to pay them any mind.

The courtyard appears to be the center of some sort of maze.

And as I look around I notice different paths leading away from it in various directions.

The floor of each path is made up of a different sort of material and each one has trees lining them.

All different colours and types but the same for each path.

It is almost disorienting.

Back home, some of these trees do not grow in the same habitats.

Much less in the same space as each other like this.

And a mountain range at that.

I try to count all the paths I can see.

There are six in all.

There is one with a soft dirt floor and lined by dark brown oaks with trunks the colour of mud after the rain and heavy with bright red leaves

Another path made of pure white stones is lined on both sides with bone colored birches, their gnarled branches bare, twisting and writhing as they stretched towards the sky.

So absorbed am I, that I don’t even notice when Axe and Tristen start walking away, taking the path closest to us on the left.

“Groundskeeper is going to be so pissed you left your car in front of the fountain again."

Axe grins at Tristen's flat words. “Ehhhh…he’ll get over it. Coming princess?”

"Coming." I call back in a normal tone.

"Why do you call her that... you know what, never mind." I hear the frown in his voice as he asks that and I half half a mind to tell him not everyone is an asshole to people they barely know.

But I don't.

Because, even though I would rather slam my arm in a car door than admit it, he still frightens me.

So very much.