Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
“Are only allowed to maintain the balance, not interfere. What happens to one, happens to all here. So either it hasn’t killed whoever pissed them off or the vampires purposely did this, came up with bad intentions knowing we would be vulnerable and they would be able to stall long enough,” Derik explained, and I gulped.
“So we’re just going to sit here and wait?”
My alphas looked at each other before Brax nodded. “It’s safer.”
I sighed. Maybe it was, but I couldn’t survive on no food like they could. There was water in the hut, the witches had granted that reprieve, but it wasn’t enough to stop my stomach rumbling.
“Can you still taste the vampire?” Brax asked, and I shook my head.
“Not since we heard it ages ago,” I said, and Brax nodded, stuck in his own head. I didn’t pry.
***
The storm finally cleared after what felt like hours, and even then it wasn’t completely gone, it was just less.
We dressed in our soggy clothes and climbed from the hut. It was already warmer, a hint of sun trying to break through the snow.
I sucked in the fresh air, looking around at all the snow. It had covered everything.
It was kind of beautiful when it wasn’t so deadly.
I let out my breath and turned to the alphas, who were all frowning. A queasiness settled in my stomach, filtering weakly through the link that was barely there.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, and Brax stood up, holding his hips.
“Being separated from our wolf is hard. A little dangerous,” he admitted, and I felt the fear in him.
“How dangerous?” I demanded.
“If we’re separated for too long then we die,” Kai said, not sugarcoating it, before grunting and shaking out the headache that pierced my brain and his.
“This link has its downsides,” I murmured, holding my stomach as it intensified.
Derik frowned at the movement, then stood up, somehow separating me a little further from the link. It was the only magic we had now, and even then, it was minimal.
“We should get going. We have no idea how much time has passed, and we need to get back,” Derik said, and headed off up the snowy, never-ending hill.
At least the rocks were gone.
I followed him, just as anxious to get back. The alphas kept pace with me this time, and I tried to keep my distance. The closer I was, the more I felt their nausea and headaches. They were horrible.
We hadn’t been moving long before Brax was vomiting. He wiped his mouth and swore under his breath, scooping up some snow before spitting it out.
“Are the vampires going to be like this too?” I wondered, hating the idea of facing them when the alphas were feeling so human.
“They will. Their body will function as a human and not run on blood like normal.
It makes them sick too. We should be better by the Summit,” Kai said, refusing to show any of the weakness I knew he was feeling.
I looked over at Derik for a split second, right before the hill abruptly stopped, opening up to a huge clearing on the Summit, coming out of nowhere.
I sucked in a breath and stopped behind Derik, who straightened his spine.
The vampires were already there.
They looked less intimidating too, and I wasn’t sure whether I was meant to be reassured by that or not because they looked pissed about it.
I walked forward between the triangle of my alphas surrounding me, keeping my head down, refusing to inspect the vampires like I so badly wanted to.
They stood in a straight, two-row formation. They all wore red robes, all looked forward at the rock barrier that separated the sides of the Summit.
“Where are the witches?” I whispered.
“They’re here. You won’t see them unless you’re about to die. They hide from our human sight up here,” Brax whispered.
“I can feel them,” I whispered back, the weight of magic in my shadows making them–and me–dizzy and lightheaded.
Brax frowned and looked around as if he should feel something but couldn’t. “You shouldn’t be able to.”
I shrugged and kept walking, until we were facing the vampires on our side of the Summit.
Silas stepped forward and put his hand on a stone platform like the ones I had taken my oath at on the blood moon. Derik did the same on our side.
They both grimaced as they cut their palms open and placed the blood side on the stone.
A shimmering sheen, not unlike the portal we had come through, dropped between the sides.
“The blood offering has been accepted. Our intentions have been read as pure,” Kai explained, and I swallowed, looking up.
Silas’s eyes snapped to mine the second the veil between the sides dropped, and I knew what it meant. He had felt the link. I swallowed hard, all of their eyes falling on me, the glares making my heart race, my palms clammy.
“You linked yourself to the winter born?” Silas demanded, and the eleven other vampires behind him looked like they were each choosing which part of me they were going to tear off first.
Silas pinned me with a hard stare, and I knew he was seeing my death, wishing for it, promising me it would hurt.
A lot.
42. The Message
The mountain shuddered as Silas glared.
I shrank back as the wind howled and the clouds darkened. I tried not to look as terrified as I was, but I don’t think I was doing a very good job at it, especially if they could still hear my racing heartbeat.
We had made the link to make sure the vampires couldn’t take me from the wolves, but what if we had accidentally pissed off the witches by doing that? I shuddered at the thought as Derik stepped slightly forward. In front of me.
“Dangerous wolves. A move like this could be construed as an act of war,” Silas warned, but Derik shook his head.
“Or an act of love. Either way, it is done. You cannot have her,” Derik stated, and Silas smirked.
“Dirty fucking wolves. And you say we can’t be trusted?”
“You can’t.”
“Then how is it that you have two winter borns in your territory and we have none?”
I listened to them argue, getting more and more nervous.
How could they reach any kind of agreement when I was already spoken for and my brother had no intention of being caught by anyone? Surely there had to be something that didn’t involve either of us being killed?
“The circumstances have changed. Lorelai is ours. You have no claim on her now, so she will no longer be a part of our negotiations or conversations,” Derik said in his alpha voice that told everyone there that he meant what he said.
“Naturally,” Silas conceded, but his eyes met mine and I swore the irises moved, swirling with something beneath them like he was letting me know it wasn’t over.
Kai growled, his body vibrating next to me in warning.
Silas smirked and turned back to Derik. “And the brother?”
I tensed at the hostility in his voice when he said it.
“That is what we need to discuss.”
“Among other things.” Silas was so calm and collected, smooth with his quick responses.
“Elias has taken root in the winter born’s shadows, possessing him…and them.”
Derik ignored his other statement.
Silas’s eyes narrowed, his smirk turning grim. “For what purpose?” he snarled.
“We don’t know. All we know is that he has been taking humans for sacrifices.”
“Not much as usual then. And I assume he has managed to curate a conduit dagger for these sacrifices?”
Derik simply nodded. The whole Summit was tense as the vampires whispered among themselves.
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?