The Alpha's Desire 2 (12 page)

The chill of fear and loss melted into the hot bluster of my fury, luring me into the pelting thoughts of blind retaliation born of the mere suggestion of a world without him. The man in the suit pushed at me. My hands went out to protect myself, but he easily overpowered me and brought me to the ground. I squirmed to no avail. I heard Lex, as my wolf growl and groaned, fighting against the paws that trampled him back down. Looking over through the tears in my eyes, I could see my wolf’s eyes, dim, barely gold anymore.

They tortured him with pain even as they hurt him emotionally with me.

“You can watch from there, magical wolf, as I take your girl, your charge, for my own,” suit said as he fiddled with his pants and then made a move for mine.

I could only hear the cries from my wolf as I put every ounce of energy I had into fighting off a man I was no match for. Each sound in the room, every bite of this man’s touch, every one of Lex’s emotions and mine, rolled into a tornado in my stomach. Literally like a woman possessed, I gave into the energy inside, let it spin into an untamed torrent. With a scream, I forced it out of my body.

The next thing I knew, the man moved from my body, and I heard a loud thud a few feet from me. Opening my eyes as I scrambled to my feet, I saw that he laid on his back, flung over my overturned couch. He shook his head and groaned as he brought his legs up to curl into a ball and then roll to the floor. I watched him out of the corner of my eyes as I stared at my hands. No words could possibly explain the energy there, the warmth that tingled, like I’d been both electrocuted and burnt, though no harm had come to me, and no discomfort lingered.

Looking for a way to get back to my kitchen for a knife, since I wasn’t sure I could pull that magic thing off again, and still unaware of what I’d exactly done the first time, I found myself blocked by a row of snarling wolves. The one who had manned the door now threatened me at the forefront, as I’d obviously hurt the boss. The suit seemed fine, though, just dazed from the impact of his fall. He’d sat up, but cradled his head in his hands.

Who’s the tough guy now?
I mused, taking a victory while I could.

I looked over to Lex, and the three wolves flanking the one on me, but still guarding my wolf, too, waiting for the suit to call their next move. My wolf laid there, weak, on his side with blood matted in most of his fur. His eyes were dark, and he still struggled to get to me from time to time until one of the other wolves would do something to cause him pain enough to stop his fruitless efforts. He looked at the point of death. Yet, each time he got an ounce of strength, could even think through his pain, I guessed, he still fought to save me.
With his dying breath
, I realized as tears returned to sting my eyes.

He’d said he could die. I guessed his injuries just had to be bad enough, like any of us, even if his body could sustain a lot more. Tears overflowed onto my cheeks, practically hissing from the warmth that burned there. The suit looked up at me, finally making me scramble back to the door of my bedroom. The door still closed, I sank into a crouch. I didn’t know what would happen next. I didn’t want to know. My breathing grew more and more labored as the world in this room stood still, waiting for a man in a black suit, a tad rumpled thanks to me, to get it together and bark out his next order.

Instead, he stared at me as the other wolves stared at him. Out of the corner of my tear-filled eyes, I got a glimpse of Lex, my wolf, motionless. A sob tore from my throat that made every man and animal in the room jump and take a more defensive stance. If they were actually afraid of me, maybe I could fake all powerful until they at least left so I could get to my wolf. I let another sob tear from my throat, binding it to a scream. My throat burned with the effort, but I stood through the sheer force of the sound I’d made.

The four wolves charged me, but stopped just inches from where I stood. They protected suit asshole it seemed, no matter what. They’d take the possible blow of my powers, die to save him.
Loyalty, it surely isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
, I thought, taking in the collateral damage of such an honorable trait. Still, I’d die to save my wolf, just as he lay there dying, having tried to save me. At this point in the battle, I believed none of us would make it out alive.

Chapter Eleven

Looking at my hands, unsure what to try next, I felt more than saw my front door slam open, startling even me. Once again, in a blur of hair and teeth and claws, a fight broke out between more wolves than I could make out. It seemed there were an endless stream of them here, these days. My wolf remained unconscious on the floor as wolf took wolf. Pairing up in a deadly dance, each one that entered took out another one already here. Blood squirted as fur tore, exposing muscle and bone. My floor shook as bodies fell, and I curled my feet under me, waiting for the blood bath to reach my feet.

Whoever had thought new carpet a good idea should be fired. It would have to be replaced again in less than twenty-four hours. As would the furniture, as would my protector if this battle didn’t end soon. Even though several wolves took out only four, it seemed an eternity that I couldn’t get to my wolf, blocked by fangs and claws that gnawed and clawed.

The man in the suit pushed past me, where I huddled, dazed, transfixed on only one solitary spot in the room. He threw open the door after a few seconds of wrestling with the knob. I watched as he opened my bedroom window and crawled out, one leg at a time until he’d stepped onto my balcony. I don’t know what he did from there. He couldn’t jump three stories, but I assumed he had an escape plan. The thoughts went through my head in wisps as my grief took them out. Even fear of the unknown and this latest war in my living room barely registered.  As no one touched me, even so much as turned my way, I fell to sitting and softly sobbed.

Care for my safety gone, I let the vicious ache take me as the disturbance of his mental state faded from mine. My thoughts, my reactions to the growling and biting and wrestling in the room, registered and went, though I didn’t react to any of their abrupt and rather harsh noises. In time, however short or long, the fight died down. Six wolves remained standing as others laid bleeding on the floor. My new carpet was red already, a deep crimson shade that looked only wet with blood.
My Lex, my wolf, my lover
, my thoughts cried as the wolves turned into five men and one woman by magic, all as naked as the day they were born.

The woman moved to me as the men went to Lex.

“Don’t hurt him anymore,” I screamed.

“No, honey, they won’t. We are your family. We came to help,” she soothed as she laid a hand on my cheek.

Family?

“Lex?” I begged, unable to think through anything else.

One of the men moved to me then, slowly, with obvious trepidation.

“He’ll live,” the man said. “While unconscious, his wolf form, the magic it’s brought from, is healing him. Any step from absolute death, we can heal from. It is only when our hearts stop beating that we can die. His heart is weak, but it beats.”

“Can I?” I got out, reaching out my hands toward my wolf.

“Of course,” the woman exclaimed, though she’d kept her voice low and gentle.

My nerves appreciated the effort. My legs grew thankful too, as the man and woman helped me to my feet and guided me to Lex. I crumbled down beside him, placing a gentle hand on his bloody snout. He stirred under my touch. I looked up at the man and woman with fresh tears in my eyes.

“He feels you,” the man said. “And, it will help him to heal to know you are there. If you don’t mind, will you please excuse us to grab the clothes we stashed in the next apartment before we turned? Then, Vivian, and myself, my name is Riker by the way, will come back in. The rest of them will make the calls, get the cleaners back in here.”

I nodded and then looked back down at my wolf. I could see his breathing in just that short span of time had grown more stable. Placing a shaking hand on his heart, I cried again to feel its steady thump under my fingers. Still weak, it beat.

“I love you,” I cried as I gently petted the fur over his heart. “Thank you, my brave warrior. You nearly gave your life for me against unspeakable odds.”

He groaned then, and I felt a tremor shake his body. Before I knew it, my hand rested on the man, my Lex. Still battered and bruised, his flesh torn at his neck, as it was up and down his arms and at various places on his chest, but at least none of the wounds seemed to bleed anymore.

“I love you, too,” he said, his voice weak.

He didn’t move, just stared up at me with those amber and gold eyes of his growing brighter.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you,” he mumbled, though I could tell that each syllable hurt.

“No, the odds weren’t fair. You tried. You’d have died trying. You nearly did,” my voice broke over the last word on a stray sob.

“I failed,” he whispered.

“No, you didn’t,” I stated, putting power behind my words.

“I saw you, though. You saved yourself. I’m so proud of you.”

“I don’t know what I did. One moment I focused on the energy, and the next, the burden of his slimy weight was off of me.”

“Your magic, your power, it ripped from you in streaks of bluish-white light. It threw him from you and onto the couch,” he said, his voice already getting stronger.

“You could see it?” I asked.

“Don’t furrow your brow at me, of course I could see it,” he said. “How did you not?”

“I closed my eyes,” I laughed.

He began to laugh, too, but then stopped short with a moan. Just then, Vivian and Riker walked back in, fully clothed. Riker wore a simple jeans and t-shirt get-up, covered with a flannel shirt. The look suited the scruff on his face. Vivian, well, she was beautiful, all slim, but athletic. She too had on jeans and a t-shirt, but hers was dressed up with a soft pink sweater that made her blond hair and blue eyes all the more feminine.

“Riker,” Lex said, then tried to get up. “Sorry... good to see you, man.”

“Good to see you too, alive that is. I thought we’d lost you to see the mess you were on the floor there when we got here. Anyway, let me help you up. We’ll get you cleaned up so we can catch each other up.”

“They sent in back-up?” he said on a groan as Riker and Vivian helped him to his feet.

By the way she touched him, nakedness was not an issue at all with these people. I guessed that when you turned back to human naked every time, there was nothing to hide from each other after a while.

“They worried about you and just what might happen next, after the first unprecedented attack,” Vivian added. “I think we got them all, at least the ones that were here tonight.”

“No, the ring leader, the guy that stayed human dressed in a black suit, he got away through my window somehow,” I added to the conversation.

Riker nodded as he got Lex to standing. Another man rushed past us into my bedroom.

“I’m going to get you in the shower,” Riker said to Lex. “I have extra clothes, of course, so let’s get you cleaned up as you finish healing. We can all talk after that. There is much to discuss.”

“Want that pizza?” I teased.

“Of course he does,” Riker added. “Just don’t have it delivered.”

“Oh, shit, my apartment again. But, what about everyone else who lives here? Are they all okay?”

“That was the final tip-off we had, even as we were already on our way. Someone called in a gas leak, told everyone in the apartment they’d have to leave until further notice,” Vivian explained. “I’ll go get the pizza while Lex gets that shower. Is the place on the corner any good, Christina?”

“Sure,” I said.

Then, before I knew it, I was alone to survey the damage, as I couldn’t give into my torrent of thoughts. It would be pointless to worry and speculate when the answers were just one shower away, whatever they might be.

I trudged to the sink in the kitchen, shaking off the sights of destruction around me. I wanted a shower in the worst way, just to wipe off that man that had tried to force himself on me, but the sink would have to do. After scrubbing my hands three times with dish soap, the good kind that was blue and antibacterial, I took to splashing water repeatedly on my face.

The scent of rain claimed on the bottle, whatever that was, barely masked the metallic smell of blood. It reminded me of playground days, the smell on my hands after swinging from the monkey bars. Where that thought came from, who knew, but who could judge me right now? Certainly not me. I hadn’t the energy for it, or to stop my restless mind from flipping through the images of suit guy, Lex, Riker, and Vivian, as well as the angry, fighting wolves. Growing dizzy, I braced myself on the sink.

Grabbing for the roll of paper towels, I pulled off way too many and soaked them in the water. With fury, I scrubbed at the skin on my neck and arms. I wanted to burn my shirt. Walking to the bedroom, I realized that no man had returned from there. My window remained open, so I went over to shut it. Guess the man had gone on a hunt.

Pulling off my shirt and pants, having not even shut the door, I threw them in the trash can beside my mirror with a haste that hurt my arm. Listening to the water of the shower, I thought of Lex and I there, even as I mindlessly threw on the first thing my hand reached in my closet. An old sweatshirt two times bigger than the size I actually wore and an old pair of jeans made it onto my body before I walked back out to the living room.

My front door open, two men stood guard in the hall. Nauseous to the point of possibly needing a bucket, I stumbled out between them.

“Sorry, the smell, it’s too much,” I sighed.

“Of course. We have a few men set up in the apartment next door making calls, so why don’t you go in there and wait? It’s clean, well, as clean as a human slob would leave things anyway. Still a hundred times better than your place. I’m so sorry that this has happened to you,” he ended with.

“Yeah, me too,” I agreed as I walked a few steps to the next door, also open.

The two men there with phones to their ears nodded to acknowledge me as they gestured to the couch for me to sit. One hurried to throw dirty laundry off it before I got there, not missing a beat in his conversation as he did so. I practically fell onto the dingy, greenish couch, slipping into a well-worn spot. I didn’t know the guy who lived here, other than to wave when we passed each other in the hall, but at the moment that seemed like a concern for a child.

Letting my eyes close, dry now from too many tears shed, I drifted into the black haze of my ramshackle mind.