Alpha Rising: Book 12 of the Grey Wolves Series

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

“I feel like I must be prepared for anything and everything at all times. At some point along the way, you’d have thought I would have realized that I am not an all-powerful being and, therefore, cannot be all things in all situations for all people. I am but a dormant female Canis lupus. It doesn’t matter how many times I try to remind myself of this, it still pisses me off when I’m caught off guard.” ~Jen

“They’re gone!” Cyn bellowed as she suddenly appeared in the war room directly beside the table where Jacque and Jen were currently sitting, having just realized that their pack had been betrayed to the Order.

Both girls were on their feet in an instant, their chairs falling to the floor from the force of their rising.

“Who’s gone?” Jen asked, her hands already shaking because she knew what Cyn would say. Call it a mother’s intuition or just the understanding that she’d learned to always expect the worst when someone was running around screaming out thing’s like ‘they’re gone’.

“The pups,” the fae warrior, who was usually so calm and stoic, breathed out around a sob.

Nissa, the high fae Peri had left to help protect the stronghold, appeared a second later. “Alston,” she said through clenched teeth.

Cyn nodded. “Alston and Skender. They blew the door off the nursery, and Alston bound us before we could wield our own weapons or magic. Then they grabbed the pups and left.”

“I felt him,” Nissa said. “But I couldn’t get to him. I tried to flash to his location, but it was as if he had nullified my powers. The sensation evaporated, and I was able to move again. I checked on the children first and then followed Cyn’s magic here.”

Jen felt Jacque’s hand on her shoulder and realized that her friend’s hands had phased to full-on claws and fur. Jen closed her eyes and took several deep breaths to calm herself.

“They’re just … gone,” Cyn mumbled again, as though she were trying to convince herself there was some kind of mistake.

“Did they say anything?” Jacque asked.

Another fae warrior, Talia, suddenly appeared next to Cyn. “You flashed before I could show this to you.” Talia held her hand out to Cyn. A folded piece of paper sat clenched within it.

Jen snatched it before Cyn could move and quickly unfolded it. She read it three times, her mind frantically trying to grasp the words through the haze of rage and fear. “He says we are to come to Arizona and bring Sally if we want to see our children alive and unharmed,” she read, looking at Jacque, who appeared about as calm as Jen felt.

Before anyone could respond, Sally and Costin came running through the entryway to the war room. Sally’s eyes were the size of saucers, and Costin looked ready to skin someone alive.

“Where are our children?” Sally asked, her words coming out in between gasps of air. She must have run the entire way from the playroom. Gypsy healers, for all their inner strength, simply didn’t have the physical stamina of wolves. “They’re gone, and I thought Cyn agreed to tell us if they were leaving…” She realized Cyn was standing right beside Jen. “Why are you here? Why aren’t you with Titus, Slate, and Thia?” She growled as she glared at the fae warrior. “And why in the bloody pixie babies are you crying!” Jen understood Sally’s confusion over Cyn’s show of emotion. The fae female rarely, if ever, showed any emotion.

Costin wrapped his arms around his distraught mate and pulled her back from where Sally had stepped into Cyn’s personal space. “Answer her,” Costin said, his voice deadly.

Jen was the one who spoke. “Alston and Skender have taken them.”

Sally breathed out in a desperate plea. She looked at Cyn and Nissa. “Why didn’t either of you stop him?” Her eyes focused on the female high fae. “Aren’t you supposed to be powerful like him? What freaking good are you if you can’t protect the most important people in this damn mountain?” Jen began to speak, but Sally whipped her head around and drilled Jen with an angry glare. “Why are you just standing there doing nothing, Jennifer?”

The growl that Jen’s wolf emitted was beyond her human control. The beast didn’t appreciate Sally’s implication—that Jen wasn’t concerned for their little ones. She was worried out of her freaking mind. But she needed a moment to process the situation. Her mate was far away on a battlefield facing an enemy that was forewarned of their plans and prepared for the fight. Now, her daughter was in the hands of that same enemy.

“Give me a bloody damn minute to think!” Jen yelled. Jacque placed a hand, which had phased completely back to her human form, on her arm as if to say, “Sally’s not the enemy.” Jen knew that, of course, but she also knew her friend needed to take a step back and think before she started accusing her of doing nothing.

“He said to bring Sally to Arizona,” Jacque said. “Decebel and Fane just showed us the field where they are about to go to battle.”

“Nissa and I can trace Alston’s magic,” Cyn added. “But we need to get back to the room and follow it before it fades.” Cyn looked at Talia. Her tears were now dry, and she seemed to have pulled herself together. “You need to let Alpha Alina know what’s going on. We don’t have time to tell her.”

Talia nodded.

Cyn held out her arms, as did Nissa. Jen and Jacque placed a hand on Cyn while Sally and Costin each placed a hand on Nissa. They flashed and ended up in the playroom. “Don’t let go,” Cyn said, and then they flashed again.

Jen considered for about a second that maybe they should have thought their actions through a little better before chasing after the evil high fae and traitorous wolf, but she dismissed the thought as soon as she pictured Thia’s perfect face in her mind. If there was one hair harmed on her child’s head, Jen would pull Alston apart limb by limb. She’d make Skender watch, so he knew exactly what would happen to him.

When her feet were on solid ground once again, Jen opened her eyes, which she hadn't even realized she’d closed, and gasped as she took in the battle raging around her.

“Do you see them?” Sally asked, her voice full of the urgency that Jen was feeling.

“No,” Jacque said. “Wait, there.” She pointed to the right, and Jen followed the direction. Alston and Skender stood in the middle of the fray, holding the three children in their arms. Alston held Thia, and Skender had Slate and Titus.

Jen’s wolf pushed forward and snarled. “I will end them.” Nissa held out her arm to try to stop her, but Jen was not having it.

“Get in line,” Sally snapped as she and Costin started toward the treacherous wolf and high fae. Jen and Jacque began to run. Jen didn’t know where Cyn or Nissa had gone after she’d stomped past them. But whatever the fae were doing, Jen hoped it helped.

The seconds it took to reach the two males seemed like hours. But when they were finally mere feet away, Jen had to fight her phase. Her wolf wanted free. It needed to rip into the man who held their pup and pull his entrails from his tender stomach. It wanted to wrap them around his neck and strangle him, watching the life fade from his miserable eyes. Thia’s face was red, her eyes puffy from crying and tears rolled down her face. As soon as she saw Jen, she reached out one of her chubby, little hands to her. Jen was so going to disembowel the POS holding her child.

“I’m glad to see you took my warning seriously,” Alston said as he met Jen’s wolf-eyes.

“Give me my pup,” Jen said. Her voice was not her own. The wolf was in full control, and the human could only watch. It took all of Jen’s will to stay in her human form so she could keep speaking.

“Now, now,” Alston cooed. “Let’s not rush things. There is much to discuss. Let me just get everyone’s attention, and then we can talk like reasonable adults.”

“Oh?” Sally’s eyes widened. “And where were you planning on getting these reasonable adults to speak with? Because I don’t see any here. Reasonable adults don’t use hordes of vampires to murder innocent humans. Reasonable adults don’t steal innocent children from their parents. And those parents definitely don’t remain bloody reasonable when their children are in the clutches of psychotic supernaturals!” Sally was screaming by the time she finished, her breaths ragged gasps. It appeared as though she was physically restraining herself from lunging at Skender to get to Titus.

“Wow,” Skender spoke up. “She sure doesn’t act like a gentle healer.”

Jen’s eyes snapped to the male wolf. “You have no right to speak, wolf,” Jen’s inner-beast rumbled. “You are a traitor. A viper in the nest of innocent babes, willing to turn on your own. You’re the lowest of the low, and I will feast on your bones before this is over. Be sure of that. Do not speak of our healer again.”

“Are you really in a position to be making threats, Jen?” The smirk on Skender’s face only enraged her more. “We don’t want to hurt the pups, but we will, if you force our hands.”

“You’ve already hurt them. They’re terrified, you imbecile. Why would you think k********g them from their home, their families, wouldn’t hurt them?” Jacque asked. “How could you do this?” Her voice was full of disbelief and horror as she stared at him. “How could you turn on your pack?”

“Because our pack leadership is inept. Vasile is in the wrong. We shouldn’t have to hide. The supernaturals shouldn’t be afraid of the humans,” Skender said. His voice sounded bland, as though he was a terrible actor reading from a script.

“As titillating as this conversation is,” Alston cut in, “there are more important things to talk about. One second.” He held up his free hand, and Jen hoped to hell he didn’t drop her daughter.

Alston’s voice magnified as he spoke in the fae language. She recognized it because Peri had used it many times in the spells she cast. Thunder rumbled and clouds gathered as fog enveloped the circle of the battlefield until it built a wall between them and the rest of the world.

“JENNIFER!” She heard Decebel’s voice in her mind, but she couldn’t answer him or even try to find him in the bloodbath that was happening all around her. All she could focus on was Thia and making sure Alston didn’t hurt her girl.

On and on the battle went, and though it felt like it had been hours, Decebel knew from past experience a fight was never as long as it felt. He was moving forward to help Fane with two fae that were attacking him when suddenly he froze as he felt his mate. She was there. He could feel her through the bond so strongly it was as if she were standing next to him. Decebel’s head turned frantically as he looked for her, hoping like crazy that he was wrong. He also realized the frantic feeling inside of him wasn't his own. It was his mate’s.

“JENNIFER!” He yelled through their bond, but she didn’t answer. All of a sudden the world just stopped. He couldn’t move, and as he shifted his gaze back and forth, he saw that nobody else could either. Even their enemy was frozen in their spots.

Finally, he found her. Her long blonde hair was pulled back in a tight braid. She stood rigid, her shoulders back and her hands fisted at her sides. Why was she there? How was she there? It didn’t make sense. Why hadn’t she told him she was coming? The questions rushed through his mind as he continued to fight the magic holding him. If this was Peri’s doing, he was going to bite her, hard.

His mate slowly turned, and a second later their gaze locked on to one another. He drank her in like a man who’d been thirsty for decades. He wanted to go to her, needed to make sure she wasn’t a figment of his imagination. The fear that filled Jen’s eyes made his stomach clench. He’d only ever seen her that scared once before, and that was when she thought Thia was going to die at birth.