Alpha Battle (17 page)

Why couldn’t she get away?  She tried so hard to make it to safety but they were so much faster than she was.  It was as if she were running in place.  Her legs felt heavy and sluggish.  She should
have at least felt the adrenaline rushing through her veins, pushing her to get to safety, but she felt trapped in her useless body.

Eli yelled, “I'm coming for you, Adrianna.” 

She felt him close behind her.  If she could just get one more step—then she felt Eli reach out and grab her.  She could feel the ground coming up to meet her as they tumbled into a heap on the hard, cold ground.  She had no voice to scream, could only suck in precious air, and pray it would be over soon. 

Eli laughed as the others held her down and ripped her clothes off.  He yelled at the others that he would be first.  She started yelling for help as the first punch landed on her face.  She continued to struggle and the punches continued to land on her face and body. 

She was going to lose her youth.  Eli kept saying over and over he was going to remember being her first as he came down on top of her, as if to rape her.  Help was coming, she could hear them in the distance, but she didn't know if they would get there in time.  Eli would never let her live to tell.  She began to fight again and he hit her over and over, even punching her in the stomach and side.  The pain was too much to bear.  She slipped into darkness. 

Adrianna woke up screaming, crying, and yelling for help.  Selena was standing over her, calming her, telling her to wake up
that she was safe.  She could feel the calming spell as she stopped moving and only felt the peace of Selena’s soft touches on her face.  She could only see Eli and his brothers. 

“It’s just a bad dream, Luv.” 

When she opened her eyes, the past drifted away. 

“It was only a dream,” Selena whispered. 

Adrianna realized she was safe and in her bedroom with Selena.  She wiped her tears away.  Then the hardness settled in as the nightmare went away.  Selena watched Adrianna as she pushed the covers away and sat on the edge of the bed. 

Selena moved to the window and said absently, “Your wolf came out this time and you were levitating above the bed when I came in.  You will need new sheets again.” 

“I am sorry, Selena,” Adrianna whispered.

Adrianna wondered what she was going to do if she couldn’t get this under control.  Having these nightmares was beginning to run her life
and she refused to allow them to take that from her too. 

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Luv.  It was a bad dream,” Selena consoled her.

“More like a nightmare,” Adrianna whispered.

“The conference begins tomorrow.  Your brother, all the Alphas, and the Vampire Council will be there.  You need to prepare and speak with all the Protectors.  Security will be a top priority.” 

Adrianna knew Selena cared deeply for her like a mother cared for a child.  Selena McPherson was her best friend. 

Selena was a very powerful witch and vampire.  She saved Adrianna’s life ten years ago when she gave Adrianna some of her blood, changing Adrianna forever.  Selena was a member of the Twister’s Council and Afton Mackenzie’s mate.  She had been teaching Adrianna how to use her magic for ten years.  Selena was considered, in the paranormal world, as an authority of sorts when it came to different paranormal groups.  No
one knew her family or the extent of her powers.   

Adrianna sighed.  “I will be prepared, Selena, and the Protectors will be ready,” Adrianna said firmly, with more confidence than she felt right then. 

Gathering up the strength from inside herself, she pulled herself out of bed and began to get ready for the meeting she was dreading.

Excerpt from Reaching Rissa

Book Three in the Drekinn Series

by Jana Leigh

Prologue

Rissa snuck out the window of her room.  Who really gave a shit that it was on the second floor of the main home on the compound of the Drekinn Packs hideout?  Who cared if she was going to have to jump into the thick bushes that surrounded the house?  Who cared if her friends were going to kick her ass, and her mother would yell at her from the embarrassment of it all?  Who really cared, because Rissa was not going to be mated to a crazy fucking psycho, they all assured her over the last month that he was not who or what he seemed.  However, she wasn’t stupid.  She watched television.  There are men all over the world who lure their victims into a false sense of security, and them BAM!  He kills you!

Well, not her
—Mr. Twisted Mate had been the phantom strange man they chased for the last few years.  There was no way he wasn’t exactly what they thought he was, a fucking weirdo, she saw the tapes.  However, no, she refused to make him pull his pants down and find out if he had a birthmark like the one she had to stare at when she endured watching the surveillance videos.  The videos were just wrong. However, it was not the strange sex he seemed to enjoy that scared the piss out of her.  She thought a tap or two on the ass would be enjoyable.  No, it was the torture she’d watched that made her shiver in disgust.

She knew what she saw, and the man who appeared in front of her at Christmas suddenly had been the man who she saw electrocute and cut several Magical Beings in the last few years.  As members of the Drekinn Agency, they were honor bound to uphold the laws of the Regulation Community. 

The Community was made up of humans and only two shifters.  One was the head of the Drekinn Agency, which at the time was Ms. Praton, and Brooks, her right hand man.  Now they were banned, since everything went to hell in a hand basket a few months ago.  The situation was just so confusing when it actually happened.  However, right now, she had to deal with the present, she had to get the hell out of there.

Rissa told her friends she was not going to mate with the sick bastard, but they had both laughed at her.  She was pissed, her friend’s betrayal was just enough to push her right over the edge, see if they
get this message.  Rissa already had to endure a lecture from her mother, and if that was not scary enough, Vivi, Calli’s mom, actually gave her pointers on how to deal with a dominant man.  Rissa grimaced and closed her eyes, which was a nightmare in and of itself.  However, that added to the Treacherous Bitches, Rissa was done.

She packed a bag with supplies, clothes, and food.  She was not completely inept
as her friends thought.  She knew she couldn’t go back to New York, shit she was like on the most wanted list.  DEAD OR ALIVE…  FORMER MEMBERS OF THE DREKINN AGENCY.  Her mother loved it.  However, it did put a bit of a damper on meeting a normal man, which is what she wanted. 
That too was  completely fucked up,
Rissa thought.

Picture it, Christmas morning, opening presents
, and having fun with family and friends, the first fun they had for months.  They were on the run from the whole fucking world, and in their own little compound, a sliver of joy had been there.  Rissa loved Christmas, now it was the bane of her existence because she would always remember the day she found out her mate was a psychopath murderer, on her favorite holiday.

They teased her mercilessly for a month and
thus, the reason for her escape.  The dreaded holiday if you didn’t have a date or a mate—Valentine's Day.  She refused to acknowledge the fact that they were mates, so therefore she did the only thing she could, planned her escape.

For the last few weeks
, she hoarded food slowly in her room and then she made sure she dug around and found simple camping gear and other supplies.  Now she was ready.  Thankfully, it was right when she knew the Twisted Mate was set to appear.  He supposedly was undercover with the Ulfer. Right, as if he could have been undercover for the last few years while the Bondi King tortured and killed many of their own—Shifters. 

Rissa paused and waited
, listening closely to make sure no one was lurking in the corridor waiting.  She knew her friends had been making plans for her and the Twisted Mate to meet again.  The meeting had gone so fabulously before, you know, however, they thought it would work now.  Rissa snorted, her friends were just this side of fucking nuts themselves, especially if they thought she would go quietly.

Rissa peered over the windowsill again and took a deep breath.  She could do this, if not, she would probably be bound and gagged by her friends tomorrow, that
’s when they set the whole meeting up.  Well, she was not going to be there.  For the last few weeks when she shifted and ran, Rissa scoped out a place for her to hide.  She found one by the south border of the compound’s land.

To make a long story short, Calli, Cherri, and herself had been employees of the Drekinn Agency.  The Agency was developed to monitor and regulate the Shifter and Magical Community with the humans. 
Nowadays, the world's infrastructure was a lot different.  Each of the countries had an ambassador, and they sat on the World Assembly Congress, or the WAC.  In July 20, 2236, the WAC was formed because the economic crisis finally reached epic proportions and all the countries collectively declared bankruptcy.  It was a tremulous time, and all due to the war they had waged on the
Breyting
, although no one would admit it.  Each country tried to round up the
Breyting
and cage them.  None of them realized that it was impossible to round them all up.  Some humans had the DNA strand and didn't even know it.  Basically, they shot themselves in the foot, and then the
Breyting
helped them reorganize.

Callie and her friends had wanted to be a part of the Drekinn Agency from the first day they saw Ms. Praton announce she was heading up the Agency for the regulation of the
Breyting
and
Ulfer
world.  The humans had no clue how to deal with them, so they quickly handed it over to Ms. Praton.  There were positive and negatives to that.  Basically, if everything was running smoothly, then the WAC patted them on the back for thinking of letting the animals police themselves.  However, if a highly public
Ulfer
incident happened, they tried to flex—it never worked.  Ms. Praton was one scary dragon when she was pissed, well, her name was actually Pilar, but that was another story. 

For years
, they had done their job, making rank, and rising in the company until they were all at the top of their field.  Calli was the Head Enforcer, Cherri the Lead Medical Advisor, and Rissa was the Head of the Technological Section.  Then it all went wonky when Calli’s mate showed up.  Rissa loved Kade, however, he was the catalyst of sorts when it came to this whole prophecy drama.  Who the hell knew what they were supposed to do, other than survive? 

The Ulfer
were shifters who for one reason or another had a missing gene in their DNA, it made them just a bit crazy, and the head of the crazies was a man called the Bondi King.  Mr. Twisted Mate was the Bondi King’s right hand man.  The Ulfer wanted to use the humans for their own gain.  They basically thought that humans were the inferior race.  It really was a mess.  Humans couldn’t regulate the magical community so they had the Drekinn, now somehow all of that changed.  The contract was taken away from the Drekinn and given to another company, the Prentiss Agency, which was led by the Bondi King, even if the humans were unaware of it.  Rissa and her friends were on the run, labeled as Most Wanted, because they refused to be nice, little sheep and follow. 

They all escaped
New York City to a huge compound hidden right inside New York State and they could still go into the city, although in disguise.  Rissa refused to hide in the city alone—it would be stupid.  In addition, she thought as she climbed out the window, balanced on the ledge, and looked around, stupidity did not run in her family.

Walking
through the main halls was not going to be possible, because they would notice she was carrying the huge backpack containing all of the items she needed in order to survive in the wild for a few days—she hoped.  Now here she stood on a ledge, looking down, wondering how her life had taken such a wrong turn.

She knew it started all those years ago when she met Calli and Cherri.  It was their fault; it would totally serve them right if she never spoke to them ever again
—which could certainly happen, if she broke her neck jumping down from the second story of the compound’s house.  Taking a deep breath Rissa got ready to jump when she heard Calli and Cherri’s voice coming from inside her room.

“Damn it
, Ris, where the fuck are you?” Calli bellowed and Rissa paused.  She didn’t want to make a sound, their damn wolf hearing would give her away, and she would be damned if she got caught now.

“Calli, she
's hiding because she knows she made an ass out of herself on Christmas and doesn’t want to face the man again.  I mean who would, 'Weeiioo, Weeiioo', that's enough to have a hard on go soft when you scent your mate.  Then she challenged him in front of the whole fucking Pack?  WOW!”  Cherri laughed.

Shit, she wasn’t afraid to meet the man, why did they insist on
refusing to believe the obvious?  He was a butt ass, crazy murderer who she was not going to have little murderess or murderer cubs with.  She refused to produce a clan of killers—it was that simple.  Plus, did they forget the whole sex vid? Really. 
Bitches
, Rissa thought and then opened her mouth to say it again to them when she remembered where she was. 
Shit, hiding, duh
.