The Alpha’s Catharsis

2

“Are you f*****g serious?!” I demanded into the void.

Of course, I received no response. I gripped the edge of the counter even tighter, gritted my teeth, and squeezed my eyes shut, focusing every drop of energy I had on breaking down his mental block. I failed, but I expected to. Still, I was relentless, trying over and over again to get through to him, turning a stubborn, blind eye to the futility of my attempts.

“Nat?”

I exhaled heavily, not even having realized I’d been holding my breath, and my head snapped up. Ellie stood several feet away, her robe loosely tied closed over her massive belly. Her brow was furrowed with concern and her lips turned down in a frown.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

I shook my head and my gaze fell to the ice cream that still sat on the counter in front of me. “Nothing,” I lied, as I began to spoon more ice cream into the bowl. Unfortunately, it had mostly been reduced to a thick liquid in the time I’d been preoccupied—I’d put it too close to the pot of soup on the stove.

Ellie came to stand by my side. “It’s a little melted.”

“I know.” I sighed and replaced the lid. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Ellie said. “I’ll drink it.”

I put the carton back in the freezer and Ellie brought the bowl to her mouth, taking a big gulp.

“You know,” she said, in between sips, “I’m just pregnant. You can still tell me things.” Sip. “I know something happened.”

I hesitated. “I had a vision. I mind-linked Reid about it, but he put up a mental block.”

“Something bad?”

“I think so.”

Sip. “Is he at the meeting place?”

“Yes.”

“That’s all, then. He just can’t talk right now.” She gave me a reassuring smile, but I wasn’t convinced.

“You know Reid. He’s impulsive. I’m just worried.”

Ellie clocked her tongue. “Well, he also might as well be bulletproof. I’m positive he’s okay.”

I knew she was probably right. The meeting had likely begun and he needed to focus. Regardless, I couldn’t shake my uneasiness—the vision had me spooked.

“Why don’t you come back into the living room?” Ellie suggested. “Soup will be done soon. Sylvie just left.”

I suddenly remembered the last thing on my to-do list for the day. “s**t. I totally forgot, I have to check in with the patrols.”

“Can you do it from the couch?” Ellie asked.

“Yeah, I just have to mind-link them.”

“Then come on. Do it from the couch.”

She set her empty bowl down on the counter, and then she offered me her hand, a knowing expression on her face. Ellie was a healer—she had an Affinity. She could only use her gift for emotional pain, and as I took her hand, I was grateful. My inner turmoil fizzled quite a bit in an instant. Still, as we made our way back to the sofa, I tried Reid again.

I was still blocked out.

My Wolf was suspiciously quiet. Ellie’s Affinity reached her, too, but it wasn’t quite as effective. I could sense that she was coping with a flurry of emotions—confusion, alarm, and anger were the most prominent.

My fingers stayed intertwined with Ellie’s long after we sat down on the sofa. Nina and James were talking amongst themselves when we rejoined them, and Ellie happily jumped into their conversation.

I mind-linked the warriors who were assigned to the afternoon patrol group. There were sixteen of them. Nobody reported that anything was amiss.

With Nina, Ellie, and James wrapped up in an increasingly loud discussion about potential baby names, my mind inevitably wandered back to the vision. I could still clearly hear the haunting sound of the purple-eyed woman’s voice, and it made my skin crawl. I began to pick the vision apart, detail-by-detail, searching for anything I may have missed before.

I was deeply disturbed by the notion that Alpha Nicholas was under her control somehow. I didn’t know who she was, but I knew what she was—undoubtedly, a witch.

Black magic bullshit, my Wolf mumbled, breaking her silence at last.

Of course, I agreed, and she must have Grady.

She must be who Claude escaped from.

Claude’s unexpected arrival was still fresh in my memory, as fresh as it was just after Doctor Henry and Silas took his corpse away.

He’d teleported into the room from Goddess only knew where, and he’d appeared in front of the window a b****y, bruised mess. He collapsed on the floor, wheezing and coughing up blood.

I grimaced as I recounted the damage that had been inflicted upon his face and his body—countless contusions and lacerations, and so much blood.

Right before he died, he managed to choke out that Grady was alive, his voice impossibly hoarse. I would never forget his haunting, rattly last breaths.

I hadn’t even been in Reid’s office at the packhouse since Claude’s terrible death.

Reid had performed an autopsy of sorts, but reportedly, the only concrete thing he determined was that Claude’s cause of death was most definitely his numerous injuries.

He had internal bleeding, and broken ribs. He had been injected with a suppressant, which we assumed prevented him from using magic. Thanks to the suppressant, his blood reacted to whatever tests were performed on it like a human’s would.

We didn’t know how he managed to overcome the suppressant to get to us. It made me sick to think that Grady had been injected with the same stuff, but something told me she had—she was not staying wherever she was being held by choice.

Reid and I were busy. We had no leads as to where she was. I desperately wanted to focus on finding her, but what was there to focus on?

Waning Moon was Reid’s way of distracting himself in one of the best ways he knew how. Maybe leaving our territory, acting like a brute, and scaring a bunch of weak werewolves was therapeutic?

I wished that my vision had come earlier. I’d have stopped him from going. The purple-eyed woman was potentially some kind of lead, but Alpha Nicholas was wrapped up with her, regardless of whether his involvement was voluntary. I didn’t want Reid anywhere near him.

“Natalie,” Ellie said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Hey, you need to stay out of your head right now.”

I ran both hands down my face and sighed. “I know.”

“What do you think of the name Soren?”

I blinked at her. “Middle name?”

“Soren James Grantham.” She smiled and rubbed her belly over her robe.

“He won’t have your last name?” I asked.

“No, he’ll have James’s. No need for him to carry on the Laurier name now.”

I just stared at her.

“My boys have my last name,” Nina cut in, “because we all assumed one of them would become Alpha someday. Nobody thought Reid would have pups.”

I shifted in my seat uncomfortably. “He still may not. You never know.”

“Reid loves kids. I think he’d be a good dad,” Ellie mused.

“I think he likes other people’s kids,” James interjected. “I don’t think he’d know what to do with his own.”

Ellie rolled her eyes. “You just don’t like Reid.”

“So?”

“I think Soren is a cute name.” I wanted nothing more than for the topic of our conversation to shift. “James, what’s your middle name?”

“My middle name is Theodore. Ellie found the name Soren in a forum online.”

“I just really like it,” Ellie said. “If you have a son, what will you name him?”

“I don’t know. How do you name a brand new person?” I glanced at Ellie’s stomach.

“I wanted to name Mav after my dad, for the principle, I guess,” Nina said. “Daniel was reluctantly okay with it, just because I was dead-set and I was the one carrying his pup. But Reid told me that once my kid found out who his namesake was, he’d probably never speak to me again.”

“Thank Goddess for Reid,” Ellie mumbled.

Nina ignored her. “I think the best way to name a kid is to just not name them something awful.” She shrugged. “Discretion thing, maybe, but obvious s**t like not using the name Damon for my firstborn son is a good example, I think.”

“I agree,” I said simply. I couldn’t fathom why she thought naming Mav after her monster of a father was a good idea, in any way, shape, or form.

But, Ellie was right. Thank Goddess for Reid.

•••

We ate our soup with homemade French bread. It was delicious, of course, but everything that Ellie cooked was.

Ellie experienced some mild, intermittent cramping as we ate. James paled at her hopeful suggestion that maybe little Soren would be making his appearance soon.

Outside, the sun had long since settled below the horizon. It was just after 7pm, and I was still unable to contact Reid. Nina and Ellie tried, too, but he’d blocked them out as well. We tried Silas and Beck, and several warriors who we knew had tagged along—we were each met with mental blocks, with every single attempt. I was becoming increasingly worried.

“Why don’t you just stay here till they get home?” Ellie suggested.

“I’ve got to feed Cujo,” I declined, although staying seemed much more appealing.

“I’ll swing by and feed him,” Nina offered, as she shrugged into her coat.

“You don’t mind?”

“Not at all. I may go home and grab the boys first. They’ve been asking to see him.” She smiled.

I smiled back, grateful. “There are peanut butter cookies on the counter for them. I made them yesterday.”

“Thanks, Aunt Nat.”

With that, Nina said her goodbyes and took her leave, wrapping her scarf loosely around her neck as she stepped out into the cold night.

When Ellie fell pregnant, her contributions to the pack as a warrior stopped altogether, of course. James, however, continued. For the time being, his workload was significantly lighter—he was assigned to the midnight border patrol group, but that was all.

James opted to get some rest before he had to leave for patrol. He retired to the spare bedroom, while Ellie and I puttered around between the baby’s nursery and her bedroom, where she had created a very cozy, intimate birth space.

Eventually, we made our way back downstairs. Together, we cleaned up the mess in the kitchen from dinner. Ellie ate some ice cream, straight from the tub.

We still couldn’t reach Reid, or any of the men with him.

Ellie sat on the sofa, resting the carton of ice cream atop her belly, as she asked, “How long would these meetings last with your dad?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged, “I never attended one. But Dad was always gone all day…he’d leave early in the morning, and he’d get back late at night.” I sat beside her, munching on another piece of her homemade French bread.

“Reid, too.” Ellie spooned some more ice cream into her mouth, a thoughtful expression on her face. “Do you want to tell me about the vision?”

“Not particularly. I don’t want to stress you out.” I popped the last bite of bread into my mouth.

She scoffed. “Please. I could be either hours or days or even weeks from having to push a watermelon-sized baby out of me. That’s stressful. Your visions are not set in stone.”

I suppressed a smile at her sarcasm. “This one was different.” My smile immediately fell as I recalled the vision yet again, and I realized it really was different. “Normally, I see things that could potentially happen. Based on the timeline, and when Reid got to the meeting place, there’s no way Alpha Nicholas could’ve travelled there between the time I had the vision and…” I trailed off, as clarity struck me.

Ellie frowned. “What is it?”

“He must’ve teleported there. Or, someone must have teleported him there.”

“Natalie, what did you see?”

“Well, now I don’t know. I don’t see into the past, and I’ve never had a vision with such a short window of time to change the outcome.”

“Maybe this outcome can’t be changed?” Ellie suggested.

My heart leapt in my chest. “God, no, that can’t be.”

“What did you see?”

The second I hesitantly began to recount the details of the vision, goosebumps raised on my skin. I told Ellie everything—about the vacant look on Alpha Nicholas’s face, about the woman’s strange purple eyes, and about her haunting dual voice. I told her about the woman’s promise to release Alpha Nicholas in exchange for Reid.

Ellie stopped eating her ice cream as she listened. Her brows were knit together, and her green eyes were swirling with something akin to confused worry.

I finished speaking, but she didn’t say a word. She set her spoon down in the ice cream carton and brushed a lock of blonde hair out of her face.

“Before Reid put up his mental block,” I continued, when she remained silent, “I told him not to go with Alpha Nicholas. He knows about the purple-eyed woman. He knows something is wrong.”

Finally, Ellie spoke. “Do you think the purple-eyed woman has Grady?”

“I know she does.”

Ellie seemed to be lost in thought, so I waited. After a moment, she said carefully, “If you’d mind-linked him just a moment later, who knows if it would’ve been in time.”

I gulped at her insinuation.

“I think you did change the potential outcome of the vision. Alpha Nicholas could’ve surrendered or something, just to get Reid to come with him to his territory, and the purple-eyed woman would’ve been waiting for him there.” She shifted her weight on the couch cushion and set the ice cream tub down on the coffee table. “Talk about timing, Nat. Seriously.”

I exhaled heavily. “Now I just wish he’d give us some kind of confirmation that he listened to me.”

Ellie smiled slightly. “I’m sure he did. He always does.”

I rolled my eyes. “Definitely not always.”

Suddenly, Reid’s voice invaded my head, and I jumped. “We’ll be home soon. I need you to meet up with the midnight patrol group. Make sure we’ve got double the men.”

“What the f**k, Reid? What happened?!” I demanded. “Are you okay?”

“We’ll be home soon,” he repeated. “Go make sure we’ve got double the men.”

“Why?”

“Because we need them.”

Despite how badly I’d wanted to speak to him since our last communication, I ended the mind-link. I quickly pulled out my phone from my back pocket and checked the time—it was almost 11:30.

Right on cue, James came clomping down the stairs, bundled up and ready to brave the cold wintry night.

I leapt to my feet. “I have to go with you.”

“Why?” Ellie stood, too, pushing off the couch with both hands. “Was that Reid?”

“He said we need double the men for patrol. I have to make sure everyone shows.”

James stepped off the final step and adjusted his coat. “He mind-linked the entire patrol group a little while ago. We may have some runaways from Waning Moon to deal with tonight. We aren’t supposed to let them onto our territory.”

“Runaways?” I asked. “Rogues?”

James shrugged. “Technically. He didn’t elaborate, but I guess there’s been trouble at Waning Moon. If any of them show up here, we’ve been told to kill them on sight.”

Black Summit wasn’t exactly known to be a safe haven for refugees. In fact, it was quite the opposite—territory infringement always resulted in execution on-sight. But in this particular case, Ellie and I exchanged worried glances, and I knew we both were thinking the same thing.

“Should I go, too?” Ellie asked.

“No,” James declined. “You need to stay here and rest.”

“Nat and I aren’t patrolling,” she argued.

I placed my hands on either side of her stomach. “Please, stay here. You and Soren are safer here.”

She sighed in defeat and looked down at her ice cream on the coffee table. “Fine.”

I gave her a quick hug and then I hurriedly crossed the room to bundle up and put on my boots.

“I want live-action updates,” Ellie called as I opened the front door.

James gave a hasty goodbye, and then together we headed for the north side of the territory.

I gathered that James didn’t like me much, by association. He was certainly more vocal than most about his dislike for Reid, but he didn’t dare speak poorly about him to his face.

I didn’t particularly care for James, but I was civil, for Ellie’s sake.

We walked briskly, and we didn’t speak. Instead, I reached out to Reid again.

“When can we expect you back?” I asked.

His reply came after a brief wait. “Probably about 2-ish.”

“Are you going to patrol?”

“Yes.”

“Then I will, too.”

“No, you aren’t,” he disagreed. “It could be dangerous.”

I scoffed. “Oh, please.”

“Natalie, I’m not in the mood. Go home.” The notes of irritation in his tone were unmistakable, but I stayed firm in my convictions.

“If you don’t want me to patrol, you can send me home when you get here.”

“I sure as f**k will.”

I ended our communication. I didn’t bother throwing up a mental block, because Reid was a strong enough Alpha for mental blocks to be completely useless. He didn’t press the issue anyway.

As James and I neared the designated meeting place for patrol groups, I mind-linked Ellie to let her know there’d been a change of plans, and that I would be patrolling.

“Against Reid’s wishes, I presume?”

“Correct.”

“Live-action updates,” she reminded me.

I was expecting thirty-two men, including James—double our normal number.

I counted all thirty-two men, I dutifully reported to Reid but I did not receive a reply, and then I addressed the warriors standing before me, staring at me, waiting.

“I assume Alpha has filled you all in on your assignment for tonight.” Never mind the fact that I wasn’t even entirely sure what was going on. “If you come across any rogues, take note of their location, and kill them on-sight.”

I received thirty-two scattered, somber, “Yes, Luna,”s in response.

“In light of these unusual circumstances,” I continued, “I’ll be joining you tonight. When Alpha Reid returns, he’ll be joining us as well.”

James glanced at me curiously, but he didn’t speak.

I found Asher’s face within the crowd. Over the past few months, he’d proven to be one of our finest warriors. He usually led the midnight patrol.

“Asher,” I called, “please.”

With that, he stepped forward. He divided the thirty-two patrolmen into four groups of eight, and he invited me, the thirty-third wheel, into his group.

“Channing and company, go west,” Asher instructed. “Frederick, go east. Delilah, go south.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket to steal a glance at the time. 12:09.

“Remember what Luna Natalie said. Any rogues, take note of their location, and kill them on-sight. Delilah,” he turned to look at her, “you need to be extra vigilant—Waning Moon is southwest of us, so chances are, you are our first defense.”

She nodded in solemn understanding.

“Good luck, ladies and gents.” Asher began to undress to Shift, and so everyone followed suit. “Stay alert!”