Destined for the Alpha's Embrace

Chapter 2

Her head throbbed to a steady rhythm, like a relentless hammer pounding against her temples. It reverberated in her ears, muffling all other sounds, enveloping Andrea Wilson in a suffocating silence, as though she were trapped in a vacuum.

Her body felt heavy, giving the impression concrete blocks weighed down every limb. It made little sense. None of it made sense to her foggy brain.

There was an intense pressure in her chest caused by her heart galloping frantically as though it were trying to escape her body. Just then, a shudder went through her muscles like an electric current flowing through her. Andrea gasped.

Oh, no. Like a vital piece of a puzzle that hints at the full picture, she finally had a clue as to what was happening to her. She knew what that feeling meant. She finally put it all together. Her magic was loose, flowing freely through her body.

Andrea shuddered again. This time from fear. Nothing good ever came from her magic power running loose without her control. Not that Andrea would ever use the word control and her powers in the same sentence any day of the week.

No. Andrea wouldn’t be so lucky as to have any sort of control over the witchy powers she had been born with. And as her former coven, which had thrown her out, had put it, a witch that couldn’t control her powers was useless and a danger to all around her.

But that wasn’t the only reason she had been banished from the coven. Andrea’s crimes to the coven had been a more complex knot of several failures on her part. The first had been the failure of Andrea, a fourth-generation witch, to be born with natural powers, like all other witches.

She had been eighteen years old when she first showed signs of possessing any sort of magic in her blood. But what should have been a great relief after years of teasing and ridicule soon turned into more bullying because Andrea’s magic was unstable at best and explosive at its worst.

It didn’t help that no amount of training helped her control it. She wasn’t even sure the magic was a part of her. Most days, her magic felt like another being living in her body, like a parasite. It certainly had a mind of its own and never listened to anything Andrea said.

Andrea swallowed hard. She felt that unstable force floating through her now. What the hell had she done now?

“Andrea!”

The sound of her sister’s voice cut through her spinning thoughts. Andrea turned her head in the direction her sister’s voice came from. But Kristy sounded so far away and faint. Andrea’s head felt so heavy she wasn’t even sure she had actually turned it. She couldn’t even see Kristy. Everything was so dark.

“Andrea, wake up! Open your eyes.”

Is that why she couldn’t see Kristy? Andrea wondered groggily. That made sense. She tried to pry her eyelids open, but the effort required for such a simple task felt beyond her. The flow of power through her body felt even more suffocating now that her senses were waking up fully.

She tried to open her mouth and tell Kristy she needed help, but her tongue wouldn’t obey. Just like her eyes. She was drowning, her consciousness slipping away.

Thankfully, Andrea could trust her elder sister to be perceptive and know exactly what was happening. After all, Kristy was a proper witch. One who could actually control her powers, unlike Andrea.

Kristy was only two years older than Andrea. Unlike Andrea, Kristy had been born with her powers and had spent years practicing and learning the art. Her sister wasn’t the kind who could bring an entire house down with a click of her fingers, but she had skill and experience brought on from years of discipline.

So Andrea wasn’t shocked when, barely a heartbeat later, Kristy was by her side. The distinct scent of garlic and burning cinnamon hit her nose before she could sense her sister’s presence draw closer. And then she felt Kristy’s trembling hands gently come down on both her shoulders.

A ball of dread settled in Andrea’s chest. If Kristy was shaking, then things were worse than she thought. What had she done now? Kristy hadn’t been this shaky when Andrea had accidentally burned down every tree in their irritating neighbor’s yard. Or when she had accidentally made all of Kristy’s hair fall off. Whatever she had done now had to be far worse if Kristy was trembling like a leaf caught in a storm.

Still fighting the haze, she was in and imagining the worst-case scenarios, Andrea felt her sister draw the loose magic away from her and into herself with barely audible words.

It took a few minutes that felt more like hours, but finally, the weight around her lightened. Like fresh air rushing into the room after a hot day, she felt strength returning to her muscles, enough to allow her to open her hazel eyes and look up into Kristy’s troubled brown ones.

“What happened?” Andrea croaked out after checking that she could use her tongue again.

Kristy looked away, avoiding her eyes. That wasn’t a good sign. “It wasn’t your fault,” she said.

No other statement would have made Andrea’s blood run cold as much as that one did. Because it meant the exact opposite. Whatever had happened was definitely her fault. She didn’t ask another question, because just then, her senses picked up what her magic-induced hazy brain had missed. And what the burning cinnamon and garlic couldn’t hide.

Blood, and lots of it. The metallic smell of it saturated the air like thick smoke, overtaking everything else.

Panicking, Andrea moved her hand, intending to use it to lift herself off what she now realized was their living room floor. She froze when she felt something wet and sticky between her fingers. Her eyes immediately returned to Kristy’s, silently begging her sister to tell her it wasn’t what she thought.

But Kristy only looked at her, as though waiting for Andrea to piece it all together on her own.

Okay, Andrea gave herself a mental nod. If that was the way it was going to be, she would piece it together on her own. Slowly, Andrea lifted her hand until she could see it in front of her face. It was exactly what she feared. Her fingers were covered in cold, half-dried blood. The dark red stood out against her tan skin accusingly.

“It’s not yours,” Kristy whispered.

The thought had occurred to Andrea for a split second, wondering if she was bleeding out on the floor of their little living room. But knowing it wasn’t hers didn’t ease the tightness in her chest. Whoever’s blood it was, the person couldn’t be alive. She knew it for a fact.

Slowly, she used her other hand to push off the floor and sit up. Her vision swam for a few heartbeats before it cleared. And when it did, Andrea wished she was still unconscious on the floor, blind to the reality around her.

Their once pristine, white living room looked like a small tornado had run through right in the middle of it. All their furniture was either broken or lying on its side, knocked over. Even the heavy, old couch Kristy had insisted they purchase was resting on its side with one arm clearly broken. The awful brown material that covered it was ripped in several places, revealing all the finished cushions within and darkened aged wood.

Had it only been the broken furniture, Andrea would have stomached it. But finally, her eyes landed on the source of the blood and she nearly passed out again.

In an instant, Kristy grabbed her shoulders in a firm grip. They were almost the same size, both cursed with small, lean frames although Andrea’s had at least developed a few curves. Still, it wasn’t hard for Kristy to restrain her. “It’s not your fault, Andrea.”

Andrea looked at the body of a tall, muscled man on the floor a few feet away from her. His eyes were still open in shock, but she could see there was no sign of life in them.

His skin was pale, obviously from all the blood loss that had pooled on the floor around him. Whatever had happened seemed to have been sudden and out of control. There was no way that was not her fault.

She shook her head, feeling nauseous just looking at it all. Bitter bile tickled the back of her throat even as she tried to speak. “I did that, Kristy. I killed him.”