The Alpha's Fallen Princess

Ch. 7: A Wolf Possessed

Two Years Later…

(April’s POV)

“Do you see them?” Jake asked in our group mind-link as we ran full pelt through the forest. I listened as one-by-one all the guys answered negatively. Frustrated, I skidded to a stop and looked around.

“What is it, A? Do you see something?” Alex asked through the link, which only frustrated me more, but on an entirely different level. I shot him a nasty look, and he rolled his eyes at me.

The as*hat wouldn’t let me go off on my own, insisting on coming with me when all the guys went in other directions. He snarked at me about “still always having to play the hero”. If his sorry behind had been paying attention he'd know I don't run headlong into these things anymore.

Today, however, we were hunting dark-elves. They had infringed on our territory a few hours ago, and we've been out here hunting them ever since. They've been trying to invade our territory for months now, but we've managed to keep them at bay.

Nasty little buggers, they are. They're somewhere between a wood elf and a high elf. So stuck up but not snobbish. They think their sh*t don't stink. They also use magic, as most elves do. Though they're definitely not what I'd call “good people”. And they're starting to p*ss me off.

Though I guess I should rewind a little here.

It’s been four and half years since my battle with Solaris. Our little group is finally beginning to learn how to be a team again. But we weren’t doing so well. Everyone seemed to wanna do their own thing and Alex was still having his issues.

To make things even more difficult, everyone was dealing with varying degrees of PTSD and those of us with the more extreme cases were going to some very nasty extremes. You already know my case. Then there’s Austin. He began completely shirking his duties and spending all his time in the Elven Kingdom even when Nora wasn’t with him.

It took him almost losing his rank for him to begin spending more time in Diamond Lake again. Though as a result, he and Nora began arguing. A LOT. They almost lost their mate-bond due to how bad the fighting got. And I suppose it didn’t help that I’d been teaching both Nora and Noel how to fight either.

As a result, Austin and Nora are now in couples therapy. But getting better.

Connor became the most destructive of all of them, though. He began hunting anyone and everyone connected with Solaris and killing them. Even those who were actually innocent of any crimes. It wasn’t until he was dumped at our main gate, broken and beaten to a pulp, that I finally became aware of what was going on.

Needless to say, that didn’t go over well with me. I basically put him on house arrest for a month and f*rced him into therapy. Between that and what happened to me, poor Noel had an actual nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized.

She’s also in therapy.

Most of the adults threw themselves into their work, which kept the pack not just in one piece but running semi-smoothly. At least as far as the lower ranked members went. The only exceptions were my Dad and Alex’s Dad.

To this day, my Dad hovers over Winter and I like a god d*mn helicopter. He’s so bad even Mom gets p*ssy with him about it. And Mom? She has these random moments where she breaks down, just falling to pieces for no apparent reason. They’re both finally beginning to get better slowly due to their therapy sessions.

As for Poppa Bear? Or Uncle Wyatt, as I’m back to calling him per his request. Even now, he can’t look at me without guilt filling his eyes. I’ve told him repeatedly that he has no reason to feel guilty. But nothing I say helps.

He thinks he would've killed me because he tried to get Alex to take me off life-support and lay me to rest. But I don’t think he would have. And I don’t hold any of that against him, either. In my eyes, he was just doing what a good Alpha does, looking out for the welfare of his pack.

The pack was suffering from the loss of their future Luna. He could see it, and feel it, and he tried to help them find some closure. Especially Alex, Aunt Lily, and Kendrick. I’ll come back around to Alex in a moment, but as for Ken and Aunt Lily?

Well, Aunt Lily went into Hyper-Luna mode or something. Spreading herself so thin, she had no time to think about anything but whatever task was closest at hand at the time. Then at night she would just crash. Sometimes the crash would only be physical from exhaustion. But sometimes, it would be emotional. Those times were the hardest, I’m sure.

I realize that Uncle Wyatt and Aunt Lily didn’t just lose a future Luna or a daughter-in-law. They lost the closest thing to a daughter they’d ever had. And they were hurting just as badly as everyone else was, but unlike the others, they couldn’t openly show it as much.

And Kendrick? Well, Ken just disappeared on us. He went off claiming he was going on one of his diplomatic endeavors, then just never came back. Which hasn’t helped the situation any with Aunt Lily and Uncle Wyatt, either. Sometimes I think they blame me for him leaving. But I may never know, since they won't talk with me about any of it.

Then there’s Jeremy.

Like Connor, Jeremy got dangerous. He began tracking down rogues and t*rturing them for information. He was trying to find out who was top dog now that Solaris was gone. The only problem with that was that there didn’t seem to be a top dog anymore. He was another one I had to place on temporary house arrest and then f*rce into therapy.

Jake? Well, he had Cassy. And Cassy, being the beautiful and loving person she is, was able to soothe his heart enough that, out of everyone, Jake managed to function on a more normal level. His problem was that his temper became volatile, like hair trigger volatile.

And when he went off it was like a scene out of Looney Tunes or something, only much more dangerous to those around him. Steam coming out of his ears, his face turning bright red, the top of his head literally lifting off as lava burst from his skull like an erupting volcano.

Okay, not literally. But f*ck me sideways if it didn’t seem like it. Thankfully, he was self-aware enough that when that happened he’d go to the gym and blow off steam. As a result, he’s gone through more heavy bags than Steve Rogers.

He often sent those heavy bags sailing across the gym so hard that they’d go straight through the windows. When I had to rebuild the gym for the fourth time, I made Jake go into therapy as well.

Jeez, now that I’m thinking about it, pretty much our entire pack is in therapy now. No wonder Doc Holiday came to us asking to have room in the pack hospital for a mental health facility. We’re actually building one for him now. Dad wants him to name it Tombstone and says if Doc does, he’ll get in touch with Val Kilmer and invite him to the grand opening.

Doc thinks Dad’s bluffing, but Dad really does know Val.

Anyway, Winter and Bethany have had the smoothest transition, in my humble opinion. They still have nightmares sometimes, but they deal with them. They aren’t fighting or anything and, other than Winter’s habit of disappearing to the library for days on end, nothing unusual has developed for them.

Reading is Winter’s coping mechanism, apparently. Well, not just any reading. Researching. It doesn’t matter what the topic is. Just so long as it occupies his mind. I figure there are way worse ways to cope, so I let him be. Bethany? She just goes out and trains with her Am*zonian sisters.

As for me? Well, I’ve always been kinda f*cked up so nothing new there. But yes, I’m still seeing my therapist. She’s helped me through a lot of the emotional trauma, but there’s nothing she can do about my memory.

See, when I started therapy, I realized that I had no memories at all, starting from when Solaris plunged that poisonous dirk into my side to the point when I staggered into that clearing the day of the memorial service.

But, as you’ll recall, the memory problem actually goes deeper than just the time I was unconscious and missing. I still have all these holes in my memories. Holes that I’m very much aware exist. It’s like, I know there should be a memory there, but what that memory is, is lost to me.

I’ve described it to Doc Spencer, my therapist, as being like a mountain of paper snowflakes. I have all the tiny pieces cut from the sheets of paper but there are so many papers it’s impossible to find the right clippings without some sort of clues to guide me.

Once I have the clues, I can sift through the clippings. The more clues I have, the easier it is to find the right clippings to fill those holes. Like a delicate jig-saw puzzle.

The only problem is, if no one ever talks about the situation that formed the memory in some way, then I have no clues with which to begin piecing that paper back together. So I’m f*rced to wait until someone happens to bring up an incident that I can’t remember.

Do you have any idea how hard that is to deal with when you have a photographic memory? Sure, my photographic memory is only for words, both written and spoken. But in almost everything we do we use words as our primary form of communication. As a result, I know where each and every hole is in my mind where there should be a memory. I just can’t recall the memory.

It’s maddening.

Anyway, due to all this stuff, there are times, and they’re more often than I care to admit, when we really just don’t work well as a team anymore. Today is most definitely one of those days. Which is why I’m now running through the forest looking for dark elves instead of being back at the packhouse having a nice lunch with my family, Alex included.

“A! Pay attention, d*mn it!” Alex snarled in my head and I growled at him. He knew what he was doing. He knew I hated it when he called me “A”. Sure, the gang all do it. Even Raine does it. But he literally only does it when he’s being p*ssy for some reason. So it annoys me.

“Practice what you preach, Alexander!” I snapped back just as he overtook me. Alex always prided himself on being fast, but he knew if I wanted to, I could outpace him. Right now I was just too angry to care, though.

That is until he ran way ahead of me and stepped on something, and we heard a loud metallic click. I was close enough behind him that I couldn’t stop myself in enough time and wound up skidding to a halt like two steps past the object.

He was moving so fast that he was already off the object and clear by a good distance, but had turned to try and stop me, his eyes wide with fear as he turned to me. Just as our eyes met, I heard a loud BOOM and was thrown into the air, flying across the small area and right into a large boulder.

I heard a loud crack and darkness began to envelop me. As I was losing consciousness, I heard Alex’s voice frantically calling my name, then felt his hand wrap around mine. The last thought I had was that he sounded like he was in pain.

(Unknown POV)

We watched as the male crawled toward the now unconscious female and grasped her hand, making me smile, “Mates?” I asked out loud and my own mate smirked. “They must be. This is the break we’ve been waiting for, Mauve. Come on, we need to hurry!”

My mate wasted no time. We floated toward the two wolves and he “sat on” the male wolf, who had also lost consciousness, then smiled up at me and said, “See you in a minute, baby.” Then I watched as he conformed to the position the other wolf was lying in and disappeared into the wolf’s body.

“My turn.” I said as I tried to do the same with the female but was immediately and violently ejected. I shook it off and tried again but got the same result. “Holy h*ll! What the f*ck is going on? Why can’t I get in?” I cried as I tried for a third time but again got the same result.

We've done this before on a temporary basis and never had any problems. So why now? I couldn't understand it, and we were running out of time.

As I was shaking off the after effects of my last attempt, my mate opened his eyes and looked down at his new form. “Goddess above this wolf is magnificent. He’s so powerful! I’ve never felt anything like this befo…” He finally looked up and saw me.

Frowning over the fact that I was still hovering over the ground where he left me instead of in the other body, he asked, “What are you waiting for, Mauve? Take over the body. Hurry. Their friends are coming.”

“I’ve tried! Three times! But she won’t let me in. Something keeps blocking me out! You’ll have to leave that body. We’ll find new ones.” I said, but he just began shaking his head slowly. “Gill you promised! You swore we’d be together for eternity! Please, baby. We’ll find new bodies.”

“Sure, we could find new bodies, but none that would be this powerful. I’m sorry, Mauve. But I’m not giving this one up! Go find another body, then come for me. We’ll figure it out once you do. I have to go now. They’re here.” With that he just laid back down and pretended to be out cold!

“You b*stard!” I screamed just as some other wolves, all males, came running into the area. I can’t believe he’s doing this to me! After everything I’ve done for him, this is what I get?

He’ll f*ckin pay for this!

If it’s the last god d*mn thing I ever do… HE… WILL… PAY!