The Alpha's Possession: The Offering

Game Changer

CHARLES'S POV:

"Pearl has family looking for her, and you are just now telling me this!"

"I swear that I didn't know, Charles! A few of the Salaquins just came forth and told me." Jake's voice is almost mumbled like he was in a corner speaking to me.

"Oh, and what the hell did they say?"

 I strum my fingers across the steering wheel, debating on what my next move will be. Hmm, find Pearl and give her the best night of her life, or whip the car around and jack up a few of Richard's useless pack members that are a thorn in my side.

Jake coughs and takes a breath to calm himself. "Lawson and Mike were the ones that came up and told me. They said the moment the family found out Pearl was alive, they wanted her back."

I slam my fist down on the steering wheel and do a one-eighty in the middle of the highway. Two trucks swerve out of the way. Lucky for them they don't crash. A pickup truck loses traction, his back wheel comes off the road. I glance over my shoulder. Thankfully, the i***t doesn't flip the damn junk of metal over on his side.

"Move it, or lose it, i***t!" I screamed out the window and honked my horn as more cars slow me down.

"Charles!" Randolph lashes out loud, "Stop being an asshole!"

People say I am an asshole just because I have no patience to slow down or show any bedside manners. Maybe they are right, but this is about Pearl. The moment we mated, something took over me. Now, I dare anything or anyone to impede my mate. 

Being an asshole will look like a Godsend by the time I'm through. They want Pearl back! Oh, I would love to see the bastards try!

I ignore Randolph and smash my leather brown boot down on the petal. My head whips back as I take off twice as fast as before, "They want her back... where?" I snarled through my growing fangs. "With them? Because if that is the case, they are sadly mistaken."

"Charles," Jake answers nervously.

Long, thick black hairs form on the top of my hands and knuckles. Tiny sweat beads drip down my temples. The amber from my eyes reflects from the windshield. 

"Want me to drive?" Randolph offers.

"I got this, Randolph! Back off!" I warn.

"Randolph is just worried about you wrecking again. That's all." Jake offers.

"Did I ask you, Jake?" I snap.

"Charles, I-I," Jake stammers. Although we have been through a lot, not once have I sounded so threatening.

"Drop it!" I growl deep from my chest.

"Y-yes, sir." Jake whimpers.   

"Listen, I know that you are trying to help, Jake, but if these family members of Pearl are already out looking. We have no time to lose!"

Even if I am starting to feel blue balls from before... f**k, I was so close!

"I know, Charles," Jake's voice raises, then he catches himself like he is trying to be quiet again.

 I am two lights away from heading out of the city. Our meeting place is on the outskirts of town in a low key bar where no one goes called 'Jax Pub.' The owner keeps to himself and has a fully furnished basement reserved for our meeting room. He wasn't thrilled when he saw Richard, and I walk in together for the first time. He just shook his head and kept cleaning his spotless shot glasses. Smart man.

"I am almost there. We need to get to the bottom of this, now!"

"I agree, Charles." 

Several men start arguing again in the background, making it harder to hear Jake.

"The pack is getting rowdy, Charles. I am trying my best to hear you." 

Two glasses shatter, followed by threats. 

This is just not my night to get with Pearl.

"I can tell. It sounds like I will have to straighten a few of them up. Mike and Lawson are not giving is the whole story."

Another glass shatter, and several wolf's growls. I will need a strong Bourbon after this meeting.

"I know they aren't, Charles," Jake confirms.

"Here we go. I knew there was more, Randolph!"

"Give him a chance to speak first." Randolph's voice is way too calm.

"How so, Jake?" I feel my eyes shift from amber to red as I make my way to the parking lot in a matter of minutes.

"Erik was sitting off to himself in the corner on his phone. He saw Mike and Lawson in the corner. They thought no one was watching because the pack was uh...occupied."

"Occupied? With what?"

"Well, that's not the important part."

"Jake, this talking to me in circles s**t has got to stop! You are already on the short end of the stick with me, and the way you are acting is shady!"

"It's not that, Charles. I told you that!"

"And I am supposed to believe you after what you did?"

"No, you're not."

"Then speak up!" I snap cutting off the engine and wait for him to confess something, anything worth my time.

"Erik saw them trade a picture. It looked just like Pearl only-"

Before Jake could finish, a woman with a deep sultry voice moans through Jake's phone. "Jake, honey, I am sooo horny tonight. You wanna play with me? Mmm, better yet come over here and join in on the fun?"

I knew that voice anywhere. Kathleen Leigha.

The pack calls her "Legs." Standing at six feet tall, long blonde curls that touch her cheeks every time she bends over for the men to see she doesn't wear undergarments beneath her cut-off shorts and skirts. As for her t**s, she swore she never got a boob job, but the way her breast is always so plump and perky, I want to call her bluff.

It didn't help the way she batted her baby blue eyes and pouted her red painted lips, lips that would make any pack fall to their knees. 

Great. Just great.

"Is this what you are hiding, Jake?" 

Legs could have anyone she wants, and by the shattered glass and pack, it sounds like she is deciding now who, unless...

"You have got to be kidding me. Jake, please tell me the Legs knows I have a mate now."

"Well."

"Fuck."

"Look, man, I will do anything for you. Anything! You name it! But Legs, she is a different kind of crazy!" He whispers through the phone. "Please, Charles! My wife will already smell her perfume on me. This is bad news, man!"

"And instead of staying home like most of the women, she showed up tonight because she thought I was coming to the meeting."

 "Hey, Jake, whoever you are speaking to, tell them to come and join in on the fun too. I don't mind."

Legs moan through the phone like a w***e in heat. I am half disgusted, and yet once again, my blue balls ache like hell. She knows it's me. She not dumb.

I hit the alarm on my car and watched the hairs settle back down beneath my skin. I adjust my c**k in my pants, knowing it's time to straighten everyone out in the pack.

Kathleen Leigha. I can handle her. No problem.

PEARL'S POV:

"Hekara, are you okay?"

"Don't worry about me right now. Ask your small friend why he wanted us here tonight so bad in the first place."

Her words stung. I could tell she felt betrayed by me keeping a secret, and what was worse, I used magic to help her win. Hekara's Alpha pride was stomped on. "I'm sorry, Hekara... I was just trying to help." 

Hekara doesn't answer, making me feel twice as guilty. She shifts without saying a word, leaving me alone and naked in the park to face my fate. Hekara was right. I need to know why Pita brought me here. He was so frantic on my balcony window, not his usual playful self. I guess Hekara and I will have more time to talk later.

"Pita," I pause and try to focus on what's important. "Hekara, and I want to know what was so urgent that you had us come tonight."

Pita taps his tiny claws on top of the tree stump. He bobs up and down and flaps his wings. 

"You look like you are dancing, Pita, slow down." I try to offer.

Pita keeps doing it faster and faster with his feet and tapping in a rhythmic code. He looks around the park then back to me. I follow his eyes and try to see what he sees. 

"What is it, Pita? Tell me!" I ask with a sense of hope.

Faster and faster,  his feet pound. The rhythm sounds more like a set of drums in the back of my head until everything stops and becomes silent. The world around me disappears — all except Pita and me. In the distance, I hear a crow calling out and what sounds like a few children playing too. We lock eyes; his black and my brown are as one.

"I see it," I whisper. "It's a village of people, but they are not just any people. Look, Pita! They all carry the Hekate sign. Pita, is this real?"

The vision fades away. Both Pita and I try to catch our breath. "Pita, you just shared a vision with me!"

"Pita, you're my Spirit Guide!" Pita bows like a human and walks back and forth on the tree limb.

"This is so freaking amazing! But Pita... is that place real?... The place you just showed me with the other Hekate's? Is there more like me still around?"

Pita taps his feet again, excitedly, confirming what I already feel and know. "Well then, let's find them."