Authors: Aileen Erin
Alpha Unleashed
First Published by Ink Monster, LLC in 2015
Ink Monster, LLC
34 Chandler Place
Newton, MA 02464
ISBN 9780990635277
Copyright © 2015 by Ink Monster LLC
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Also by Aileen Erin
The Alpha Girl Series
Becoming Alpha
Avoiding Alpha
Alpha Divided
Bruja
Alpha Unleashed
The Shadow Ravens Series
Cipher
Coming Soon â The Ghost Society Series
Invocation
For Jeremy.
Thank you for being my rock. I can't do it without you.
I love you the most.
Contents
Chapter One
Ice-cold water rained down on my head. Someone was screaming.
“Tessa! Wake up!” The command rolled through my mental bond to Dastien, and I gasped.
Blinking the water out of my eyes, I tried to figure out how I'd gotten in the shower. It took a second for my sight to clear. Meredith's crystal blue gaze stared down at me.
I reached for the knob with a shaking hand and turned it all the way hot. “Jesus. That's the fifth night in a row.” My voice wobbled.
Hands held me against a hard chest, and I knew from the feel of him Dastien was holding me under the stream. This had become a necessary part of our nighttime routine.
He kissed the top of my head. “You scared me this time. I almost had to get the doctor.”
“No! Don't do that. Ever. She'll come at me with one of her shots.” If there was anything that would turn this bad situation worse, it was Dr. Gonzales and her little messenger bag of horrors.
“Do you remember what you were dreaming?” Meredith asked. She sat next to the tub in our small shared bathroom.
I shook my head slowly. Every night had been like this since I escaped from
la Aquelarre'
s compound. I hoped it was some sort of PTSD, but the fear that still coursed through my veins made me think it was something more. Something worse.
I only remembered pieces of my dreamsâhints of blood and terrorâbut nothing concrete enough to tell her. My visions had never been so vague, but they'd been changing ever since Dastien bit me, turning me into a werewolf. For a while, I hadn't seen anything. I thought they were gone for good. Then, the visions came back, but only when I focused on trying to have one. And thenâweirdest of allâI'd started seeing stuff that happened in the future.
The only thing I'd
seen
since Luciana stripped me of magic was about Peru. If I'd gone instead of Claudia, everyone at St. Ailbe's would've died.
I took a deep breath and immediately regretted it. “Do you smell that?”
Dastien ran his hand across my forehead, pushing the hair out of my eyes. “Smell what?”
“Sulfur.”
Meredith and Dastien stilled for a moment.
Shit. If the smell was part of my “dream,” then I was either dreaming of my last run-in with Luciana or whatever she was cooking up for next time. “You aren't smelling anything?”
“No,
cherie.
I don't smell anything but you right now.” He turned the knob, shutting off the water, and then stood up, pulling me with him. “Let's get into some dry clothes. Then we'll talk, because pretending this isn't happening isn't working.” Water dripped on the floor as he moved. His T-shirt clung to his body like a second skin, showing off each ripple in his muscles. He stripped off his shirt and threw it in the tub with a wet plop before wrapping himself in a towel. Then he grabbed a second towel from the rack and turned to me, holding it open.
I closed the distance between us, and let his warmth sink into me. He was right. Ignoring whatever was up with me wasn't working. Not even a little bit. But talking about this stuff made it real, and it was so much easier pretending that the last few weeks never happened.
That I'd never gone to stay with the coven. That my powers hadn't been stripped and stuck in two stupid jars. That Daniel was still alive, Raphael had never been attacked, and Claudia was still here.
Tears welled but I refused to let them fall on principle. A pity party wouldn't solve any of my problems. I blinked them away as I thought about what could be causing my nightmares.
I followed Dastien into my room.
“Holler when you're dressed.” Meredith left our adjoining bathroom for her room, closing the door behind her.
“Sure thing,” I mumbled, still too caught up in my own thoughts to really focus on anything. The first time it happened, Dastien and I had torn up his cabin searching for a
gris-gris
. We hadn't found anything that looked remotely cursed, so I thought it was a just a really bad dream.
But five nights in a rowâ¦
Dastien grabbed a pair of his sweatpants and quickly pulled them on. “Do you want me to help you get changed?”
My cheeks burned. “I've got it.” Even if he was my mate, we hadn't gone through the whole bonding ceremony yet. He was determined not to cross the line until we did, but we were True Mates. Two halves of one soul. So, we already had somewhat of a bond. With it, we could talk silently to each other, feel each other's emotions, and I could see where he was when we were apartâbut that last one wasn't a normal mate thing. That was an enhancement my witchy-ness provided.
I dug through my closet as Dastien turned his back, a gentleman to the end. After stripping off the wet stuff and tossing it in my hamper, I pulled on a pair of sleep shorts and a tank.
When I turned back, I blinked at the sight of the rainbow tie-dyed throw pillow in the center of my bedâthe color was shocking compared to the painful whiteness of my room. Before I became a Were, I needed to be able to bleach my things free of any vision-inducing elements, so white had always been more about practicality than an aesthetic choice. The pillow was the first decoration I'd gotten since I gained control of my visions. Now, I wanted to hurl it across the room.
I wasn't in control anymore.
Dastien reclined on my bed, and I crawled up next to him, hugging the rainbow pillow to my chest as I tried to hold it together. “We're dressed,” I yelled.
Meredith peeked in and her hair fell forward. Her current dye job was black with streaks of hot pink. It looked fantastic against her pale, white skin. She was tall and thin, built like a runway model. On any other person, it might've been intimidating, but Meredith was my first friend here. My best friend, besides Dastien.
“So, what's the deal with the night terrors?” She asked.
“I don't know.” I picked at the seams of the pillow as I tried to come up with an answer that had some substance. How could I forget something that affected me so much? Even now, all I could remember was the smell of sulfur. And the fear.
“What about your visions?”
“Still MIA.” Although, I had a theory about what was happening. Not a great theory, but one in general. Worry gnawed in my gut, but I had to voice my fears. “Maybe having my magic taken out and put back in changed things.”
She sat on the foot of my bed. “But you don't think they're gone for good?”
“No. The magic is there. I felt it come back when the jars broke, but I wonder⦠No. It's stupid.”
“It's not stupid,” Dastien said. “Just tell us. We can't help if you won't talk to us.”
“The thing is⦔ Crap. I wasn't even sure how to put this in words. “I feel it building in me sometimes. That little tingle that means a vision is coming the way it did before you bit me. But then the feeling goes away. Now, I'm wondering if I'm pushing it away. Maybe what I'm seeing is really bad, and I don't want to see it? Maybe my mind is protecting myself? Onlyâ”
“That makes sense,” Dastien said. “You can't contain that kind of magic. It has to come out somehow. So, nightmares.”
“Which does me no good.” I tucked a strand of wet hair behind my ear as I processed my thoughts. “I mean, visions that I can't see are useless.” And I'd never needed to see the future more than I did now. There were too many alphas on campus to agree on a course of action, and half of them thought that holding tight was the best plan. Which meant we were left sitting around like a bunch of morons, waiting for Luciana to make her next move.
Stupid. So freaking stupid. Not to mention frustrating. I hated doing nothing.
All the kids at school were on edge. Classes were canceled, but everyone was running the Cazadores' obstacle course and training like they knew what was coming. The Cazadores patrolled at night, but walked through campus like God's gift during the day. The alphas that had gatheredâsome of the ruling Seven alphas were here with other key alphas from around the worldâspent their days arguing in the conference room, accomplishing absolutely nothing. Fights broke out every few hours as the tension brought out the wolves in all of us.
In other words, the pack was a hot mess, and it didn't look like anything was going to change any time soon. Not unless I changed it.
“If I could figure out what I was seeing, then maybe we could actually start doing something.” I threw the pillow across the room in frustration. Maybe lack of sleep was making everything worse, but I couldn't shake the sense of danger. “Are the Cazadores still watching my parents and brother?”
Dastien grunted. “Of course. They're protected around the clock. Just like you wanted.”
“And Tia Rosaâ”
“Left yesterday for her family's estate in Mexico. Remember?”
“Right.” My great aunt had wanted to get far away from Luciana. At least that worry was gone. My family was safe. Whatever the vision wasâit was about me.
“I know this isn't ideal, but the Seven say we wait, so we wait,” Dastien said.
“Donovan doesn't agree with that, does he?” I asked Meredith. She was True Mates with Donovan, one of the Council of Seven alphas that ruled over all packs. I wished he were here, but tonight was his turn for the wee-hours patrol.
“No.” She drew out the word. “But apparently he doesn't always agree with them. And since you and I are friends, they think Donovan isn't a fair judge of the situation.”
“That's stupid.”
“Right?” Meredith shouted the word. “That's exactly what I said.”
“I have to figure out what I'm dreaming.” If it was the past tormenting me, then I could deal with it. And if it was something that was going to happen, at least we could prepare.
“How?” Dastien asked.
That was the question. “I don't know.”
“We could try yoga.” Meredith led the afternoon yoga sessions. I'd gone to a few when I first got to St. Ailbe's, but hadn't had time in a while. “It's very centering.”
She might be right. At this point, I'd juggle oranges while hopping on one foot and singing the ABC's if it'd fix me. “Okay.”