Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
I frowned and slowly sat up.
I was on a compact dirt floor in some kind of cavern. There were tunnels connected to where I was, stretching in three different directions.
I had no idea where I was or what stretch of cave I was meant to take.
There was no scent coming from wherever I was, so getting my bearings that way was out.
I inched toward the three tunnels, peering down each one.
My shadows hovered around me, as uncomfortable as I was about not knowing where we were.
I went to step to the right tunnel, but a scent passed my nose. I sniffed and tensed.
Lorelai.
I couldn’t sense her physically but the scent was definitely there, wafting out from the first tunnel.
So I took that one.
My shadows were wary which made me that way too. They moved ahead, spreading over the dark tunnel of rock and sediment.
But nothing popped out and the flame torches kept burning at intervals along the tunnel.
I tried the links in my mind but every single one of them was shut down.
My chest tightened as I tried to reach Lorelai, the twins, anyone but there was nothing. My head was empty of everything except my ‘what the fuck’ and ‘where the fuck’ questions.
I edged my way down the tunnel until my shadows led me into another cavern. This one was much deeper, darker.
And it stunk.
Like rot, death, and blood.
I covered my mouth with my palm, trying to stop the gag from escaping. My stomach turned anyway.
The taste of it was on my tongue and the urge to turn right back around had me glancing back over my shoulder.
But the way I had come from felt wrong. Like my shadows didn’t want me to turn back. They were all I had to rely on so I did, carrying on into the cavern.
The ground turned downward and I slipped on the loose dirt. I rolled, my body taking the impact of each rock it crashed into until I slammed against something cold.
It rattled when I hit it, and I slowly opened my eyes.
A pair of bright white eyes stared back at me.
I gasped and shoved back from the cage.
I almost toppled off the edge of a stone ledge. I shrunk away from it and turned back to the eyes.
It was hard to see when it was so dark, but the eyes were connected to a small frame. A boy with long white hair that was tangled and matted to his bruised face.
I was freezing in the cavern, but the boy was wearing nothing but a torn pair of pants.
He was skin and bone with bruising all over him, cuts and slashes. He had blood stains over his face, a cut down one cheek that was weeping.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
His eyes widened even wider, and he quickly held his long bony finger to his lips.
‘Shhh,’ I heard him whisper in my head. I frowned and looked around us.
He was trapped in a black cage, but he wasn’t the only one. There were heaps of them embedded in the cavern with similar captives inside.
“Who are you?” I asked.
The boy frowned, turning his head from side to side like he was trying to figure me out.
‘Witch,’ he mouthed.
A witch? I had met witches, and they did not look like this. They were powerful with the realm magic keeping them young and beautiful. They were big on perfection.
“Where am I? How did I get here?” I asked in the quietest voice I could manage, trying not to feel all the eyes that were on me. The others were watching now, their long fingers curling around their cages.
‘That depends who you are,’ the whispers said.
“Alpha Braxton Trux from the Water Pack,” I said. I wasn’t sure what they needed of my title to figure out why or how I was there so I gave them the officials.
The ‘witch’ shhhhed me again then pointed to his head.
‘Speak in your mind. We will hear you,’ the boy said.
I nodded.
‘You are winterborn. Mate to Lorelai Valarian. Father to Zale and Enzi Valarian,’ the boy whispered, his voice echoing still.
“So?” I demanded, not sure what their intentions were. Whatever it was, I wanted to make sure I set a clear boundary.
They were not up for discussion.
‘That is why you are here. You are connected to them. And so are we,’ the boy said.
‘How?’ I asked.
He pointed to his head again.
‘We help where we can but we are not as strong as we were. We must be careful,’ he said.
‘You have been helping us? You’re on our side?’
The boy nodded and the room stilled.
“Your witch died, a sacrifice was made. Balance demands we help your fate,’ the boy whispered.
I sucked in a breath, ‘You help us because of Tabitha?’
The boy nodded, ‘We made a promise, an oath we must keep. So we are punished and locked down deep.’
He said more riddles and I was trying to piece them together but my chest started aching, my head pounding.
The boy moved up against his cage, closer to me, ‘We must send you back now,’ he said.
I shook my head, reaching for the cage, but the boy pushed my hand back.
‘I can help you out. Help you escape,’ I offered.
‘It is not our time, we will wait. The realm is the only one who decides our fate,’ he whispered, but the words were fuzzy.
I shook my head, trying to clear it.
“Wait,” I said out loud, trying to keep my shit together. But I was losing it.
My head pounded more painfully, my stomach turned. I knew I didn’t have long.
“Who is doing this to you?” I asked quickly before I could go, but the little boy just smiled.
He gave me nothing before a blinding white flash ripped me from whatever alternate reality, vision-type thing I had been put in.
It felt like a single blink, and my eyes flung back open.
I coughed and sputtered as I woke, disoriented for the second time.
But this time, I knew exactly where I was.
“Spitfire,” I wheezed out, my lungs tight in my chest as I held her sobbing body close.
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?