Filed to story: Mated to the Alpha and His Beta Novel Free >>???
“What does Seek mean?” I thought to them all.
Even though we were all using the mind link, it still sounded like we were all whispering.
“To Seek is to send out my mind ahead of me,” Stella said aloud. “Like a scout. It’s not telepathy. It’s more like a projection of myself, while my body stays here. Mother, you were Seeking when the Goddess called you into the forest, but I can do it on purpose.”
“And do it so well,” Lanie said aloud with a smile, proud smile. “Do you need us to do anything for you while you Seek?”Stella shook her head. “I’ll need a minute or two. I want to see where they are and what they’re doing.”
Her eyes went white, but hazy, like they were full of clouds. Her lashes fluttered. A soft sigh puffed out from between her lips, and then, just like that, she was back with us.
“Can we stop them from coming through the tunnels?” Xander asked. “Keep them out of Brightsky?”
She nodded, her expression grim, but her eyes alight. “I can make them think they’ve encountered a rockslide, blocking them. It won’t keep them forever, but once they figure out it was fake, they’ll understand that they were tricked. They’ll retreat…”
She paused, that white cloud going over her gaze again. It lasted only a few blinks this time. She focused on us.
“They’ll go back to Standard and regroup. They’ll figure out we’re still heading to Fallen Crest.
They’ll make their way there, maybe on our trail or maybe in another fashion, but it won’t matter. We will still get there before them.”
“Is that what you’ve seen for certain?” Lanie asked.
“Everything I see is a possibility, but this is the outcome I see as the end to many different choices.
That means it’s the one we should expect, unless something else drastically changes.” Stella sighed, her shoulders hunching for a moment. “I have so many talents, and sometimes, they work against each other.”
“You’re still learning,” Lanie told her, an arm around her shoulders and offering Stella a mother’s comfort.
Stella leaned against her. “Thanks, Mama.”Lanie kissed her cheek. “Come on, now. What’s next? We’re here. We’ve got you.”
Stella drew in a breath and straightened. Her shoulders squared. “They’re moving through the tunnels, intending to meet us where they assume they’ll intercept us. I’m going to send out a mirage just beyond it. It will look, feel, and sound like a rockfall. It will send them back out the way they came in. It buys us some time. Maybe an extra half a day. No more.”
“We better get moving then,” Xander said.
Zane cleared his throat. “What’s the benefit in sending a mirage? Couldn’t you actually collapse the tunnels? If not on top of them, at least enough to block them for real?”
“Blocking the tunnels would prevent anyone in Brightsky from escaping through those tunnels. In the end, it would possibly be worse for them. Just in case they need a way out,” Stella explained, but hesitantly. “And, I’ve seen a path in which I collapse the tunnels. It doesn’t end with triumph for us. I don’t know why. I can’t always see the reasons.”
“And you don’t have to,” Lanie assured her.
“All right. This will take a moment.” Stella took several steps away from us.
She closed her eyes tight, her entire face squinching. Her fists clenched at her sides before her arms rose, palms up. Her fingers twitched, curling and flexing, as her hands moved. I’d seen her make orbs before, but this time she looked more like she was working with her hands.
“She’s weaving something,” Lanie said after a moment. “Or knitting? Something like that.”
“Only it’s not with yarn or cord,” Zane murmured.
Xander shook his head in amazement. “She’s doing it with their minds.”The three of us looked at each other, and all of us laughed incredulously. For some reason, I thought I’d hear them screaming or something, but we hadn’t yet reached the entrance to the tunnels. All I heard was my mates’ soft chuckles and the drip of water from the cavern ceiling.
Stella opened her eyes.
“It’s done,” she said in a voice thick with a sound like gravel crunching under heavy feet. “Now. We run.”
Xander–
Wolves can run for a long time at a steady pace. Long, loping strides. Measured breathing. We’re built for long distance travel in our wolf forms, but even in our human shapes, we’re pretty good at it.
Even so, by the time we were seven miles away from Brightsky, the frozen tundra and equally frigid air was taking its toll. We might have shifted into our wolves, but that would have meant leaving our backpacks behind, and none of us were ready to do that. We’d eventually have to return to our human bodies, and we’d be naked in the Alaskan wilderness. Not ideal.
“We’re going to have to camp here for the night,” Mason said, looking up at the sky.
So far, even though it felt like the middle of the night, the sun hadn’t gone down. No moon had risen, either. I couldn’t tell what time of year or day it was.
“How long have we been at Brightsky?” I asked Lanie as she set down her pack with a sigh.
She shook her head. “I don’t know, my love. I’ve lost track of everything.”
“Same here.” I pulled her close for a hug and kissed the top of her head as we watched Stella giving Zane and Mason orders about how to set up camp. “No tents. No sleeping bags. Nothing to build a fire with.”
“Stella will take care of everything. Besides, you’ve had survival training, haven’t you?” Lanie teased lightly, nudging me in the side with her elbow.
“Yeah, sure. My father had us doing drills from the time I was weaned. We always had some preparation, though.”“We have her.” She tipped her chin toward our daughter.
“I’ll need something to use for the fire,” Stella told us all when Lanie and I joined the rest of the group. “I can light it, but I can’t make anything out of thin air. Any transmogrifications need to have a source to change from.”
“We packed light, the way you said. I have this.” Lanie offered a popsicle stick picture frame the twins had made her in preschool. “I want to keep the photo, but I guess you can have the frame.”
“Perfect,” Stella said with a grin. “I’ll make sure they replace it with another one.”
We watched her break the frame into small pieces. She put them on the ground and concentrated.
The sticks grew larger, into a stack of firewood. She looked at us proudly.
“Bravo,” Mason said.
“Thanks, Abba.”
“But what about tomorrow night?” Zane looked around the bare tundra. “Those sandwiches aren’t going to last long. We can’t keep using things we brought with us to change into what we need, either.”
Stella hesitated, then knelt next to the pile of wood. She studied it in silence for a moment or so, then murmured a few words. It caught fire and was soon burning briskly. She gestured for us to gather around it. It was a little awkward, sitting in our bulky winter gear, but it also felt good to take a break.
“We aren’t going to walk the entire way. That would take us forever, first of all, and also, as you pointed out, Papa, we aren’t really prepared. I just wanted to get us as far away from Brightsky as we could to start.” Stella waved a hand over the fire, which blazed to even greater light.It cast a dancing orange, red, and gold glow over her face. Her expression was solemn. She drew her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them.
“I’ve been in touch with some friends,” she said finally.
Lanie sat up straight. “What kind of friends? Why don’t I know about them?”
“We’ve never met in person. I’ve only been able to connect with them through a kin link,” Stella explained. “Because I’m a Celestial, I could make one with them even though I’m not…umm…”
“Stella,” I said sternly. “I think it’s time you came clean. Who are these friends, and what, exactly, are they supposed to do for us?”
“Slitherkin,” she said softly, almost like she was worried we would scold her.
Zane’s eyebrows rose. “What the hell are Slitherkin?”
“It sounds like snakes,” Lanie said with a frown. “Stella, please tell me that you are not talking about snakes.”
“Snow snakes,” she said apologetically. “They’re not like us. Shifters, I mean. They never take human form. They’re more like the enclavian spiders than they are like people. They live deep beneath the permafrost. They’re what created the original tunnels and caverns under Brightsky.
Malachi chased them off in order to take over their territory so he could build the enclave.”
“That sounds rude,” Lanie said, pursing her lips.
“They weren’t happy about it, that’s for sure. But don’t worry, Mother,” Stella said hastily. “I’ve been in contact with them, and they’re willing to help us get to Fallen Crest. Mostly willing. Okay,” she admitted. “I’ve had to use some strong mind power to get them to even agree to come meet us. But I’m pretty sure they won’t try to hurt us. Or kill us.”“Pretty sure?” I demanded.
Stella gave me a sheepish grin. “…yes?”
Zane–
Discovering that the High Council had lied to us all for decades about the existence of other supernaturals had been shocking. Learning that the world was also full of monsters just about laid me out flat. I still couldn’t believe it, not even after riding on the back of a giant freaking worm miles underground.
The Slitherkin weren’t really worms. Not snakes, either. They were something totally unique, a hive mind race that grew as big as blue whales but that somehow had managed to escape the eyes of the world. There weren’t even any rumors about them. No sightings.
“They’re not Bigfoot, Papa,” Stella said in a low voice as I leaned against the wall of the tunnel in which we’d be spending the night. She must have read my thoughts. She laughed and leaned against me. “The Slitherkin are real.”
“So long as they’ve decided we aren’t the enemy,” I told her. “Those things have massive teeth.”
“Sure, to bore through rock and dirt. Not to eat wolves.” She laughed again.
She sounded tired.
“We should get some rest. You hardly slept at all last night, and I know how hard it must have been to wrangle those things all day.” I nodded toward the empty end of the tunnel. The Slitherkin that had helped us were gone, at least for now.
Stella yawned, hiding her mouth behind her hand. “They have so many voices, speaking all at once.
They’re easily distracted. And, they don’t like being so close to the surface, so we’re lucky they consented to taking us anywhere.”“It was fast, I’ll give them that.” Xander handed her the last half of a peanut butter sandwich.
“And safe from the High Council seeing us,” Lanie added.
The High Council had no idea the Slitherkin even existed. It seemed like a sweet irony. The creatures that helped us were hidden from the council by its own ignorance. If only they hadn’t been so determined to hide away and keep the real knowledge of the world hidden from us, they might have learned so much. Instead, they’d chosen to stagnate.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?