The Alpha's Secret

CENTRAL

MORIA

I glance from the road to him and then back to the road again.

"Do you always drive like this?"

"Like what Princess?"

"Like you're trying to kill us both."

Axe grins at me. "Relax. You're in safe hands."

I try not to scoff. It comes out anyway.

Axe laughs. "If you think I drive fast, then you should never enter a car with Tristen behind the wheel."

"Yeah...he tried to kill me when all he had was his bare heads...trust me, getting in a car with him is not on any wish list of mine."

Axe starts to laugh but catches himself at the last minute. "I want to tell you he isn't always like that."

"Don't bother. I don't think I care to know what else he's like."

Liar...

I ignore the voice in my head and glance out my window. "As long as we stay away from each other, then I think we'll be just fine."

"Yeah, don't get your hopes up on that one princess."

I start to ask what he means by that but then he rolls back the roof of the car and cruises slowly into the most beautiful place I had ever seen.

“Welcome to Central, the capital city of Xesperia.”

I gasp in spite of myself, my breath catching in my throat.

Bright, full of life and bustling with activities, it is like a metropolis that has somehow managed to still remain one with nature.

It is something out of a fairytale.

There were people everywhere, cars zipping past, strangely shaped and familiar looking buildings all merging together in a way that makes it almost impossible for me to know where to rest my eyes.

Or to close my mouth for that matter.

Axe’s laughter breaks me out of my daze.

“Keep swinging you head back and forth like that and you’ll give yourself whiplash.”

I strain against the restrictions of my seatbelt. “I can’t help it.”

I pinch myself as covertly as I can.

The pain is sharp and stinging across my arm.

Nope, definitely not dreaming.

“Relax princess, you’ll have all the time in the world to site see soon.”

I lean back in my seat. “So, since you’ve been doing extremely well at answering my questions…”

Axe groans but keeps his eyes on the road.

I decide to pretend not to hear him.

I have so many questions that require answers that I almost do not even know where to start.

Wait, no, that is not true.

I know exactly where my mind wishes to start.

The wolf...Tristen.

But at the same time, I am not sure I am ready to think about that just yet.

So I bite my lip softly and decide on something else.

“Earlier, when...I tried to attack Tristen, why did I black out and what did Chryseis mean when she said I was drained and Tristen kept mentioning something about my essence reserves and not to waste it?”

Axe places one hand on the steering wheel and uses the other to push his hair out of his eyes.

“Don’t you have any simple, uncomplicated questions? Something along the lines of ‘where are we?” would be nice.”

I can feel my teeth start to clench again and I stop them halfway. “Nothing about this situation is easy for me Axe.”

He sighs. “Emotionally blackmailing me into giving you answers is going to get old, fast."

But I stay silent and eventually he caves.

“You blacked out because you’ve been using your abilities and draining your essence without, what's the word, recharging the right way."

He might has well have been speaking another language for all the sense that made to me and so I respond the only way I know how.

Sarcasm.

I slap my thigh exaggeratedly. "Gosh darn it. why didn't you say something earlier. I'll just not do that then."

He must finally realize he is just confusing me further and that I am not about to let it go because he drags one hand across his face and sighs again.

I roll my eyes and clasp my hands to my chest . “Oh I’m sorry, is my trying to arrange the pieces of my life stressing you?”

He glares at me then sits upright, both hands back on the wheel.

“Okay Princess since you want a crash course on Xesperia so bad, here goes and try not interrupt. Earth and Xesperia are sister worlds."

"Like another planet?"

"No not like...damn this is going to be harder than I thought. Both worlds exist side by side, We know about them but they just don't remember us anymore. Can't find us even if they tried."

I frown slightly. "I don't know if that's what you're going for but you're not making a lot of sense."

I see a flash of frustration across his face. "Look this is a job for someone else. Just know that every magical story you've heard about on Earth, every strange, mythical creature humans have twisted and tried to explain away, here on Xesperia, they exist. And the major difference between Xesperian and humans is that while humans are born with the gift of science, we are born with Essence…"

I start to laugh but he narrows his eyes at me.

"I said let me finish”

I pretend to zip my mouth and swallow my disbelief and questions to let him continue.

“An Xesperian’s Essence gives them special abilities…”

Even though I had seen it with my own eyes, I am unable to hide the disbelief in my voice. “You mean like superpowers?”

Axe glances at me with distaste “What part of do not interrupt is so hard for you?"

I raise both my hands slightly in mock surrender.

His lips curl up in a slight sneer. "And please do not rubbish our entire existence with such nonsense human terminologies.”

“’Abilities’ is an English human word too you know”

“Yes, but it’s one that makes us sound less like we wear a cape and underwear over leggings”

Smirking I mumble something about self deceit under my breath and pretend I do not see him out the corner of my eyes staring daggers at me.

“If you’re done laughing at something you are a part of…”

I wave at him to continue.

He tackles a sharp bend in the road with the speed and ease of a professional racer. “Using your abilities often and without control has a draining effect on your essence reserves. At critically low levels, in an effort to conserve it, you body shuts down and you…”

“Blackout”

The statement is more of a whisper of understanding to myself than anything else but he nods in agreement.

“We, especially Central agents like Tristen, Chryseis and I, have learned to control our abilities and how much we use them and we understand the signs our bodies give us to let us know our reserves are running low and we need to…” He put air quotes around the word “…recharge. So we almost never get to that level. Plus, as you use your powers the right way you learn how to do so without exhausting your reserves”

My head is almost starting to hurt again.

“But how could I have drained my essence so badly, I haven’t been using any abilities. Heck I didn’t even know I had them.”

Axe glances at me out the corner of his eyes. “Are you sure about that?”

I let out a slightly bitter laugh. “I’m pretty sure I would know if I have been flying around or shooting lasers out of my eyes don’t you think?”

“Okay first of all, shooting lasers out of your eyes…not a real thing and secondly, why were you trying to sneak into that pool of that house on the night we came to find you?”

“Find me, is that the respectable term you've chosen to sugarcoat the fact that you abducted me?”

He rolls his eyes and slowly brings the car to a stop. “Think Princess, why was it so important for you to get into that water?”

I look out the window, turning the words over in my head.

Somewhere along the way, we had left the hustling and bustling city and are now driving through what looks like a country side.

The cool breeze and a sweet scent, like roses with a bite swirls around in the air and reaches me though the open roof of the car.

Then in a sudden bolt of clarity, the past few years of my life comes rushing behind my eyes.

It comes in a series of fast, flashing images.

The barrage of emotions I had felt over the years, emotions that were there one minute and gone the next, emotions that I could swear were not my own.

The crippling headaches that would follow and finally the peace and instant relief I would feel the minute I held my breath and felt the water rush around my ears and above my head.

Then, as sudden as a slap to the face, the incident with Anita barges it's way into my mind.

I had been in the 10th grade and it was the first time I had fully felt and acted on an emotion that had not been mine

...and my life had almost changed forever.