Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
I pulled out the candle and stuck it in the candle holder on the little table, lighting it with the matches beside it.
There was a wooden rocking chair next to it with some cushions on the floor.
Tabitha took the chair, but I couldn’t sit, I was too nervous, so I paced.
I had only ever heard stories of vampires, I had never seen them before. I had no idea what to expect, whether they were going to be terrifying or bloodthirsty, whether they were going to try and kill the alphas.
That thought made me shiver, my heart beating so hard.
I chewed on my lip, tapping my nails against my arm that was wrapped around my waist, pacing back and forth as I waited to hear something, anything, happen.
And then it happened.
A loud thud hit the floorboards above me, and I covered my mouth, holding back the squeal.
All my life I had been told how scary the vampires were, how they were the worst creatures that the world had created and to fear them, avoid them, go along with crazy virgin rituals to avoid going to them.
And now I was beneath a house that was being stalked by them.
Going to the werewolf city hadn’t prepared me for that possibility. And that made me wonder if I was even still in the werewolf city.
I had no idea how far out I was. I had never even known a swamp existed, and the wolves had made sure I had no idea where Tabitha lived.
I spun to her, and she was rocking in her chair, her stance relaxed, but her eyes narrowed like she was seeing so much more than I was.
“Where are we? Why are there vampires here?” I whispered, moving closer.
Tabitha eyed me with those wise eyes and held her finger to her lips in a shhh gesture. I swallowed hard and followed her gaze that traveled upward. Slow footsteps creaked on the wood above.
“Alphas.”
“Leave.” Derik’s gruff voice was so deep and low it almost had me bowing to it.
“Now is that any way to treat a guest? The swamp is neutral territory, we are breaking no laws,” the responding voice said, and it was much higher. It was pretty and smooth with a seduction to its wording.
I looked through the floorboards, where I could just see a black leather shoe and slacks. There was a red velvet cape covering the floor next to the tiny parting I was looking through, belonging to the vampire.
I didn’t believe there was only one, but it was the only one I could see.
It was powerful too; I knew that by the way my shadows turned and twisted within me. It was almost painful, a sharp sensation, a warning that kept the goosebumps raised on my skin. Kept my adrenaline pumping.
“I was under the impression that dinner was an open invitation. Especially since you brought a human so close to our borders.” I could hear the smirk in the voice, and I sucked in a breath. They knew I was there.
I stepped back, tears welling as images of blood and death gripped my mind.
“You were mistaken, Silas,” Brax warned.
“Oh, I don’t think so, but being a befouled wolf, I can imagine being wrong is your forte,” the vampire said, in a way that sounded like an insult, but I had no idea what it meant.
Why was Brax a befouled wolf? What the fuck was a befouled wolf?
My alphas had questions to answer when we got out of this, but the first one was definitely going to be what the fuck were they thinking bringing me to neutral territory where vamps could get to me?
At Silas’s comment there was scuffling, a roar, and some furniture being broken.
“Kai, it’s okay. Don’t touch him,” Brax warned, and I could just see him through the cracks in the wood, holding a fuming Kai back.
Kai’s eyes met mine through the boards, and he relaxed into Brax, stepping back, his glare going to Silas.
“It seems we have a bit of a problem, Alphas,” Silas started, and there was something in his voice that got to me. Like he thought he was going to win.
“You see, that beautiful dome of power you have over your territory, protecting your villages and cities, surged on the night of the blood moon.
“Now I don’t know about you, but I know of only one other time that much power surged through my territory from yours, and I suspect you know exactly why that might concern me,” Silas explained.
I was a little lost. I assumed he was talking about the power from my offering, but I didn’t understand why it affected the vampires. And that was annoying as hell.
I didn’t know nearly enough about the accords with the vampires. In fact, I only knew the blood moon ritual.
“We have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Ah ah ah, Derik. Come on now. I have been alive for thousands of years, and even your ancestors knew better than to lie to me. I am no fool, and you would do well not to forget it,” Silas warned, his voice changing a little, his tone almost a hiss as he delivered his words perfectly, his back straight.
I wanted to see his face, but there was no way I could see that far up, and I was facing my alphas, not the vamp.
He sounded like an asshole.
“And you would do well to forget what you think you felt, and fuck off,” Kai growled.
Silas hissed, properly this time. “You do not talk to me, savage!” he spat, black wings spreading out behind his robe.
They looked like bat wings, with sharp ends. He took a deep breath, then rolled his shoulders and pulled them back in, brushing down his impeccable pinstripe suit.
“I will speak with Derik. Those are the rules,” he reiterated.
“Or what?” Kai taunted, and the vamp went deadly silent.
And then the poisonous taste coated my tongue, the sterile smell filling my nostrils.
I grimaced at the way it sank in my stomach like acid, made my skin crawl.
More footsteps entered Tabitha’s home, and I turned to her.
How the hell were they even getting in? I thought she had an alligator, and as a witch, I expected her to have a little more protection. Where were her traps and magic? Her disappearing cabin thing she had done before?
I eyed her, and she gave me a knowing smirk, holding her finger to her lips again.
I stowed the question in the back of my mind with the ever-growing list that was already there for once the vampires were gone. And there were more of them now, at least five.
Kai chuckled and cracked his knuckles. “Cute. I’ll pick their flesh from my teeth with your bones,” he warned, a malicious grin spreading on my alpha’s face.
I should be disgusted or turned off, but it had the opposite effect. I grinned and licked my lips, watching him dare the vamps.
Silas just laughed, then turned to Derik. “Keep your hound at bay, Derik. We are in neutral territory, and I am simply asking questions.”
“I’ll order him to rip your throat out with his teeth before I heel him, Silas. Now enough of this bullshit. What are you here for?” Derik demanded.
Silas chuckled darkly. “The winter born. I know you have her,” he said, and then the fight erupted.
Derik launched himself at Silas, his teeth gnashing out a growl so feral it rattled the wood of the house. Kai grinned and went for Silas’s backup.
I stepped back, sinking back against the wall, shaking, unable to keep up with who was hurting who. That’s when Tabitha laughed.
“Well, I thought it would be Kai to break. I would’ve lost money on that bet, and that has happened exactly never,” she said with a hefty sigh and a smirk, getting to her feet.
I frowned at her, swallowing back my tears. “What are you doing?”
“Going to break up those fools before they destroy more of my house,” she said, hobbling to the stairs before climbing up them.
I went to follow, but she spun to me, quicker than I had seen her move. “Not you, winter born. I’ll handle them.”
“Then why didn’t you before this?!” I cried in a hushed cry.
She smiled. “It wasn’t time. I needed one of them to break. Like I said, I thought it was going to be Kai, but no matter. It is done.”
She smiled and walked up the stairs, shutting the door in my face before I could stop her. She stood in the middle of the chaos before clearing her throat.
“Excuse me, gentlemen?” she asked quietly, and I had no idea what the crazy woman thought she was doing.
I could barely hear my own thoughts over the roaring and crashing, let alone her voice. That’s when she sucked in a huge breath.
“Excuse me!” she growled.
Everyone stopped. Brax hauled Derik back into my eyeline through the floorboards.
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?