Blood of The Beast

iii

Alastair:

    The class had already been seated when I walked into the classroom. The scent called to me as soon as I turned away from the chalkboard. I had never come across something so intoxicating in my entire existence. At the top, in the highest row, her eyes caught mine as I began to lecture on the hidden war of Amistad.

    The way her eyes lingered over every word I said made these cold bones feel like there were on fire. She isn't taking notes. Now and then she'd scribble something down, but I know for a fact she isn't a student. Those eyes are older than the others here. Her posture is mature and she is very well mannered.

    I know her. The Alpha's Daughter or should I say the Alpha of Rogue Creek. The little pup who had written the eccentric piece of me for the Vanity Fangs a few years back. It had obviously been edited to fit the profile of the magazine. What I wouldn't give to get my hands on the original. It's not often that modern literature catches my attention the way this article did. She's been tutored by older, more practiced writers.

    She had lit my body on flames. Her voice is still ringing in my ears. The growl she had responded with left me in awe as she walked away. The scent of her arousal is still lingering prominently in the air. I watched her rush out towards the parking lot and mount an expensive-looking motorcycle. She gave me a little mischievous smirk before she put her helmet on and raced off.

    I walked back into the classroom wondering what the hell I'm going to do about this. In my twenty-six hundred and seventy-five years of life, I had never imagined something like this. A mate. A woman handcrafted to fit my profile of malice.

    A little girl so ahead of her time, so pure, yet so dangerous. I had come across her kind of wolf before and their lives had been a reign of chaos and death. Where they went death followed. The unyielding need to kill. Yet she's so unlike those other I've encountered. Those other wolves were surrounded by darkness whereas this one surrounded herself with light. This one knows more than the savagery residing inside of her.

    Even as I stood before her willing to take her she stood her ground and kept all of those raging emotions I tasted in the air around her in check. No alpha her age has ever been able to do that. It's why they keep training so that they can control the wolf in them. She has a tight lock on both sides of who she is. The ping to my phone interrupted my thoughts. I picked it up to see it was her father.

    Come meet your guard. it said.

    In my coming here, lots of covens were outraged over the fact that I had not joined my own in the ranks. I didn't know why I had done it until now. She had been calling to me from the moment she was crowned the Alpha of Rogues.

    There hadn't ever been a gathering of rogues like this in the history of rogue existence and all of it had been over the anger of a father whose little girl wasn't wanted in a pack for being different. The stupidity of some people. This little girl could have handed that alpha the world and he tossed her out like trash because she had threatened his power.

    She had come a long way since then. That little girl had become a decorated woman. She has taken her role as the alpha of all rogues to a whole new level. No pack allowed for my kind to stand with them and this one is crawling with us. This new world is very different than the civilization it had once been. We coexist with humans as long as we didn't take anything from them. The ancients make sure of it.

    Vampires, now willingly work with wolfs under their law. Mated, contributing, and plotting alongside those we had been enemies with for longer than I have been alive. The King has yet to speak on the matter. There hasn't been a single prohibition of this. He's visited many here and Dylan has allowed him to come and go freely. That's what drew me in. The expansion and vision for more than just power. This is Evolution. Progress for better days. The progress that will soon begin to take the blood of those who feared change. This girl is starting a war and I don't know if she knows it or if she's planning it.

    Today's events leave me in grief as well as peace. Two emotions I haven't felt in centuries. This mortal looked into my eyes with love and trust. She had accepted my mate as her own and loved her without condition. Her mission had shaken me down to my damned soul. There was devotion to her request. More than just the love between a grandmother and granddaughter. It was almost worship. 

    I sat outside the old woman's room with the gray hardcover journal of recipes she had left for our little girl. I knew from the moment she had climbed out of that car she would not make it very far. The way she was lavished with affection the moment she stepped foot in this house startled me. The diversity of this place is like a breath of fresh air and the woman standing in front of it will stop at nothing to defend all of it.

    This old woman means the world to everyone here and she'd never make it another day. I knew that the look in Scylla's eyes told me she knew as well, and the woman knew. Yet she spent the day doing what she pleased. The two of them were happy. It was all so mundane. 

    I had walked in on a truly tender moment. Scylla held this woman against her. The woman's feet stepping on her's only covered with colorful socks that didn't match. She danced to Frank Sinatra's Come Fly with me with ease enjoying the moment. My little wolf is taking in this woman's scent into memory. When the woman pulled back to wipe my mate's tears, I almost fell apart. I never thought I'd be able to feel as much as I am today. I had forgotten these human feelings.

    There is so much love in her eyes directed at the small woman along with so much raw pain. She's experiencing loss truly for the first time. She had been too young when her mother had died to have suffered the actual loss of someone she would never remember.

    I followed them up and sat outside the door. I listened to movements until my little wolf began to sing. Her voice a steady melody of peace. The woman died almost instantly. I wanted nothing more than to rush in there and comfort her, but her father stopped me.

    "She needs this," he said. "She needs to see this in order to let go,"

    I stayed rooted to the floor as her cries bounced around in the emptiness of the bathroom. We both nearly lost it when she repeated that she wasn't ready. Whatever that meant was shattering her inside and I had to fight my urge to go to her. I had never felt for someone like this. I never cared enough before. I don't know what this is and I'm not sure I'm prepared for it or that I want it.

    After a few minutes, she fell asleep. Her father called those who stood by ready to take the woman from her. I walked in first. My mind shattered at the sight of her. She cradled the woman in her arms. The little lady didn't look dead yet. Her eyes are closed in a deep slumber she'd never wake from. Scylla is holding onto her as if the woman would wake up at any moment and c***k some kind of dark joke.

    When Scylla came around she panicked. For the first time today, her emotions showed painfully on her beautiful features. The sweet taste of her suffering made me reach for her before she killed her pack mates for taking her little lady from her. She shouted at them and fought against me until I called her name. She went limp in my arms but didn't tare her eyes from the woman as she was placed into a black body bag and then carried out.

    "Is she okay?" she voiced. Her voice never breaking. She wasn't hiding her pain or even attempting to. It dawned on me that maybe she didn't have the strength to do so.

    "Yes," I whispered brushing my lips against her neck. "Better than okay. She'll never suffer again. She'll bake until her heart's content. There is no more suffering for your little lady,"

    She turned around to look at me. Her wet clothes began to soak through my own. I steadied her on her feet. The emotion in her eyes took a turn. They went from grief to vacant. The cold steel of her pale gray eyes struck me with an emotion I'm not too familiar with. Fear.

    "Scylla?" I asked wanting to know why she had shut out like this. I took a step back.

    "Leave me. I want to be alone," she demanded loud and clear.

    Her voice sliced through me with the sharpness of her tone. She stepped away from me firmly on her feet. I tried to reach for her, but she pulled away and walked out into the small room belonging to her little lady. I followed behind her until she stopped at the end of the bed looking down at a pair of slippers.

    "Scylla?" I tried again.

    She slowly turned around to look at me. Her eyes are no longer their natural color, but a stunning pale silver. The low menacing growl came from deep inside of her. Her father was at my side immediately. He grabbed my arm and began to pull me out.

    "Shhh baby girl," he cooed from a distance. "Shhh,"

    Their Beta pulled me out and shut the door. I could hear him approach her slowly still cooing sweet nothings to her. The tension in her relaxed as all her emotions flooded out again and she began to cry. I looked around to find that I had been left alone. I took my seat outside her door once again and began my wait for her to come seek me when she's ready to. That was the strangest thing have ever seen. She reminds me of someone I know. Someone I am very fond of. The similarities are uncanny. It's not possible though. He's a vampire and she's a wolf.