Chapter 242 – Owned by the Alphas Novel Free by Jen Cooper

Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel

LORELAI

The poison worked quickly, spreading through every pack member who had consumed the water. But it didn’t kill them; it was worse. It made them scream in pain for hours. They couldn’t shift; they were pale, howling messes that didn’t heal.

And there was nothing we could do.

I had pushed magic and shadows through them; I had tried to heal them, but it couldn’t find anything.

Whatever was poisoning them was undetectable.

I stormed through the hospital, my mouth dry, as it was every day now.

We had no water source, nothing to quench the thirst that wasn’t ale or wine made before the water was poisoned.

We couldn’t wash clothes. We couldn’t water the gardens.

We had found that out too late.

Half our crops were wilting and dying, our food sources dwindling by the day.

It had only been three days, and we had no water for our livestock either.

The humans were fine; they weren’t affected, which made us think whatever had happened, the vampires were at fault.

They attacked every day. They knew we were weak, knew something was wrong with the pack. They pushed against my magic border around the top of the city walls and didn’t stop for hours, keeping me strained and pissed off.

They were taking us down, and it felt like they were barely trying, losing nothing.

We had everything on the line.

If they won? We would lose the city, live as rogues, escaping into the forest to survive every day. It felt like we were doing that anyway.

I ran to the rooms with the wolves, rushing in with some clean pails. We had to wash them out using rope, sinking them into the trough, then letting them dry hanging before we could grab them. Or we burned.

I shook my head, overwhelming anger taking over me. My body shook as I dropped the pails in the room.

Fuck, this emotion stuff was impossible to control. I ran from the hospital, bursting out of the door and down the steps. I needed to breathe; I couldn’t look at the wolves while they were so sick.

It reminded me what a failure of a luna I was.

I was meant to protect them. And they were in so much pain we couldn’t even openly access the pack link because it brought us all to our knees.

I turned around the buildings of the city. All stone, wood, and thatch work with moss decorating the sides.

It was beautiful and ours. All we had to do was keep the evil out. But how could we do that when they knew every weakness to exploit, and we couldn’t touch them?

We couldn’t storm their castle; we didn’t have the numbers.

I could use my magic to get us in, but then I would be tapped out by the time it came to taking out Silas.

And that was who we had to end. He was the one orchestrating this entire thing.

And taking advantage of it.

I turned, looking at each part of the city, my heart swelling with pain and love as if the idea of saying goodbye to this home was enough to make my chest feel like it was being crushed.

I had never had a true home.

Sure, the village had been where I lived, and my mother had always been my family, but that place was full of memories that weren’t comforting.

I had been scorned, shunned, had eyes rolled at me more often than not, never picked for any group, always scolded. All because I was winter born.

There, it had been a curse.

But here in the city? It was a gift. One I thought could save the wolves and our home.

I was starting to think that wasn’t true.

I crouched to the ground, taking deep breaths as the anger and frustration rolled through me in waves of red. I tried to break through it with reason so I didn’t shift, but it was fucking hard.

I wanted to run, to feel the world through my wolf, let it solve my problems.

I was knelt on the cobblestone in the shadows of winter stretching between the flame torches and the city walls when I heard it.

A whisper.

“The water,” it said.

I shot up, narrowing my eyes around me. My shadows and magic broke from me, swirling around me, ready to get whoever was whispering, not showing their face.

I scowled at the darkness.

“The water,” it whispered again in a soft, broken voice.

I stepped forward over the cobblestone, my boots loud in the silence.

I checked down the alleys, walking between the wolves’ homes that in this area of the city were two-story townhomes.

There was no one there.

“I’m going fucking crazy,” I said to myself.

Then strong hands wrapped around my waist. I gasped, spinning to face the assailant. My shock melted into a smile when Kai grinned down at me.

He spun me, pressing me into the wall in the alley, smothering my mouth with his.

I kissed him back, raking my nails down his bare back as he lifted me onto his waist.

“We can go crazy together, Little Luna,” he breathed against me.

I nodded into the kiss. “Did you hear the voice too then?” I asked.

He pulled back and frowned. “What voice?”

I stared at him, not sure whether he was fucking with me or not, but he seemed serious. He got a cute little worry frown between his brow when he was being serious, and he wore that now.

“Nothing, keep kissing me,” I said, pretty sure I must’ve imagined it.

He hesitated, then did as I asked, kissing me again. His tongue pushed into my mouth, dancing with mine as I held his bulky shoulders.

“Not in my alleyway, you two. Go on, shoo,” an elderly lady came out of the tall stone house we were against with a broom. She brushed Kai with it, shooing him, literally.

“Sorry, Gloria.” He smirked, then put me down and grabbed my hand, leading me out of the alleyway.

Gloria was one of the few wolves that had stopped shifting a while ago and triggered the aging process. They were mostly left to their own devices and carried a wicked attitude, usually because they had been through a lot to get them to the decision to stop shifting.

Kai looked down at me, leading me through the streets.

They were somber streets and had been for a while. The darkness seemed thicker, the torches flickering in warning. There wasn’t as much music being played, and there were more fights.

Most gave up before it could become serious, though. Nobody had the energy to fight each other. Not over trivial things when the vamps were picking us off.

Juniper’s tavern was the busiest building other than the hospital. Not just the drinks, but the brothel.

Drinking and fucking was the only thing that seemed to help them control themselves.

“Which is exactly why I came to find you,” Kai smirked.

I grinned up at him, being led to the mansion.

He took me inside and up to the suite where Brax was. He had the twins lying down on the bed, playing with them.

“Derik’s at a council meeting that is going around in circles, and there’s nothing to do since I still can’t shift, so I thought I’d hang out here with the twins,” Brax said, then eyed mine and Kai’s locked hands. “Unless you need the room?” he offered.

I smiled and shook my head.

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