Torrent (Alpha Love - a Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance Book 4)

This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons--living or dead--is entirely coincidental.

Torrent copyright @ 2015 by Olivia Stephens. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Part 4 of the
Alpha Love
series

CHAPTER ONE

I try not to fall asleep. I know that he needs me, that he needs help, that he can’t cope with all of this on his own. But I’m worn out by the events of the day; my body is tired and my brain even more so. Tired isn’t even really the right word, exhausted is more like it. As I feel my eyelids getting heavier and my body starts to sink down into the softness of the couch, I try to fight it, try to keep myself awake. But hard as I try, I find my body giving in. I’ll sleep, just for a little while, just for a few minutes. I let myself go, too full of fatigue to fight it anymore. I slip into blackness, the sweet oblivion that’s deeper than the ocean and wider than the world.

Instantly I’m back at Shale’s drilling site. I’m not supposed to be here. It’s dangerous here. I have to fight the urge to turn around and run. I remember falling asleep, I know that this is a dream, but it all feels so real. Every little detail looks just as it should. “No one can hurt you here, Sofie, you’re safe.” I repeat the words to myself, wondering why it’s so hard to believe them.

The sky is dark, darker than it has any reason to be, and there’s a sense of heaviness in the air. It’s almost oppressive, giving the sensation that something is about to happen. As the thought crosses my mind I hear a familiar sound, the high whistle pierces the eerie silence hanging over the place. There’s a wolf’s howl and before I even have time to turn around, a gun is fired.

Lola is lying by my feet; her eyes wide open in fear, bleeding out in front of me. I kneel down at her side, covering the bullet wound in her chest with my hands, putting pressure on it, like I was taught in first aid class. But her body is cold, ice cold. I don’t have to check her pulse to know that she’s dead. Her lungs have taken their last breath and her heart has beaten its last beat.

Angry tears fill my eyes and I lean into the comforting hand on my shoulder. Ashton is here, I think to myself, relieved. Ashton will know what to do. But as I turn to him for comfort, I stop in my tracks, struggling to catch my breath. The grinning face in front of me isn’t Ashton; it’s the last person I want to see in life or in my dreams. And yet here he is, no matter how much I wish that he were a world away. Luke smiles at me, looking like I’m his next meal.

“Look at what you’ve done!” I rage at him, pointing at Lola with a hand stained by her blood. My arms are shaking, not from the cold but from anger and from the horror of it, the permanence of the sleep that Lola now finds herself in.

But Luke doesn’t reply, he just keeps smiling that disconcerting grin of his. There’s no warmth in it and it doesn’t reach his eyes. I shiver in spite of myself, wanting to wrap my arms around myself and then remembering the blood on my hands.

All I can think about is how much I hate the man standing in front of me, the man that has forced the pack out of hiding, the man that is hell-bent on destroying them. A sound comes from my throat, an angry growl, like a wolf.

Luke looks at me slowly, unworried. He raises his hand, waving the gun at me as if to remind me of who is in control. He looks amused, as if my suffering is funny to him. I can feel myself losing control of the tenuous hold I have over my temper. What are you going to do, Braun? Luke’s mocking voice rings in my ears. He hasn’t spoken but I can hear him in my mind as clear as day. You’re not like them. What do you think you can do to me? I’m not afraid of you.

His words penetrate right to the very the core of my being. I know that he’s right. I know that he’s stronger than me. There’s nothing that I can do. I’m helpless and the awareness of that simple fact makes me sick to my stomach. Luke’s hand shoots out and grabs my wrist, twisting it, hurting me. I try to shake myself free but he’s holding on too tight. I can’t get free of him. He pulls me towards him, trapping me against his chest in a simulated embrace.

“Close your eyes, little girl. It’ll all be over soon.” His voice is a whisper in my ear, barely there.

I nod slowly, knowing that this is what I should do, that there isn’t any other choice. I can’t outrun him and I can’t fight him. The only thing that’s left is to give in to him.

He raises the gun to the side of my head and I feel the cool metal against my skin. The last thing I see before he pulls the trigger is his face, smiling at me indulgently as the bullet drills into my brain. After that, there is only darkness and the feeling of falling down a deep well, a place that I know I’ll never get out of, and no one will ever find me here, not ever.

“Holy crap!” Sofie sits bolt upright on the couch, her hand going instinctively to her temple where the gun had exploded against her head. There’s no hole, no blood, no sign of what she has just experienced. Of course there wouldn’t be, it hadn’t really happened. It had just been a dream. But the hammering in her chest definitely isn’t a figment of her imagination, it’s real and it takes a few deep breaths to calm it down to a normal beat.

Her surroundings start to seep into her mind. She’s on the couch in Ashton’s house where she had collapsed in exhaustion what feels like ages ago. But the time on the news broadcast that Ashton’s watching tells her it’s been less than an hour. She feels wrung out, even more so than she had before she’d fallen asleep and her headache is back in full force, splitting her skull open.

Ashton is still staring dully at the television screen, watching as the eager reporters replay images of what went down at the drilling site. They’d called in all manner of experts to explain what they’d all seen. Some tried to give a different answer, a more intellectual pseudo-psychological answer, not wanting to be laughed out of whatever field they were supposed to be an expert in. Others just called it as they saw it and the word had stuck. Werewolf. A word that had been securely relegated to myths and legends was now out in the world and there was no way of getting it back.

Sofie pads over to Ashton quietly, slipping her arms around him from behind and resting her chin on his shoulder. “Anything new?” As she asks the question she takes in the virtually empty whisky bottle hanging precariously from his fingers.

“Other than the fact that they all hate us and think we should be hunted down like animals, no.” Ashton’s voice is bland but there’s a hardness at the edges of it, a hint at the rage that he’s feeling inside.

“You need to get some sleep,” she reminds him gently, reaching out to take the bottle from his fingers but his hand closes around it tightly, not willing to give it up.

His whole body tenses and she knows, instantly, that he has no plans to move. “I’m not tired.” He doesn’t return her embrace, acting as if he can’t even feel her arms around him. “You should get some rest. It’ll be morning soon.”

Sofie opens her mouth to reply, to tell him that staring at the news in the hope that it’s going to change or wishing he had the ability to turn back time isn’t going to help him or the pack. She thinks about telling him that he needs to stop wallowing, that what they need is a plan, not a subscription to the news networks! But, in one of her better judgements, she closes her mouth, not allowing herself to say any of the thoughts that flash through her mind. He’s been through a lot in the past few days and now the weight of the pack and of its future weighs on him and it must feel like a ton of bricks.

She wants to lose herself in his arms, in his kiss, in him. She needs him, more than she thought it was possible to need another soul. But this isn’t about what she needs, it’s not about her. She knows the kinds of decisions that Ashton is going to need to make in the morning and she wants to be there for him. She wants to tell him that he needs to sleep, that he’s no good to anyone running on empty. But one look at him sitting rigidly in the chair, his attention focused solely on the screen tells her that there’s no moving him until he’s good and ready. The man is built like a barn, all hard muscle. When it comes to brute strength, he wins hands down.

So she steps away from him, her fingers still buzzing with the contact between them. “Come to bed soon,” she tells him under her breath. He doesn’t move, makes no suggestion that he’s heard her, but she knows that he has. His senses are too keen not to have picked up her words.

In the bedroom, Sofie barely makes it out of her clothes before she crashes on the bed. She buries her head in the pillow and inhales deeply, it smells of Ashton and that in itself is enough to make her feel like everything is going to be alright. She has complete confidence in him. But what about everyone else? The unhelpful voice in her head nudges her, annoyingly. She chooses to ignore it, instead repeating her new favorite mantra in her head –
everything is going to be alright, everything is going to be alright
.

But her eyes don’t close and she doesn’t lapse into the deep sleep that her brain and body are crying out for. Instead, her eyes remain wide open, staring at the ceiling, her mind replaying her dream of Luke killing Lola and then her in cold blood. She had felt so weak and feeble, unable to get away from Luke or to hurt him. She was no good to anyone like this, not to Ashton and definitely not to the pack. She lets her mind float back to the vote that they had all taken just a few hours ago, the vote that would have ended in Sofie being turned, becoming a Lycan had Gus not voted against it. She knows that he was just doing it to show his loyalty to Ashton, a loyalty that had been tested in recent days, but that didn’t stop his veto from hurting.

The light of dawn creeps through the curtains, spraying the ceiling with rays of orange and pink. Sofie is still awake and she’s still lying alone in bed. She can hear the faint murmur of the television and she doesn’t have to look in on Ashton as she goes to the kitchen, to know that he’s still watching the footage, again and again. He’s torturing himself with it, as if it were all his fault and he deserves whatever punishment is due to be meted out to him. She looks out at the calm, beautiful morning as she puts the coffee on. It’s hard to believe that this tranquil, peaceful setting is being threatened by a man that isn’t even worthy of their time or their thoughts let alone their lives.

“You look like you need this more than I do.” She hands a steaming mug of black coffee to Ashton, standing in front of the television to get his attention.

He blinks slowly, as if he’s waking up from being hypnotized. When he catches sight of Sofie’s concerned face he smiles up at her, taking the coffee gratefully. “Thanks.” His voice cracks, throaty from lack of sleep. He drinks deep from his cup barely noticing that the dark liquid is scorching his throat. He needs the caffeine and the physical pain is a nice distraction from what he knows he’s going to face at the pack meeting.

Sofie watches him, analyzing his movements. “How’re you doing?” She tilts her head, as if that’ll give her a better vantage point into his thoughts and feelings.

“Can I plead the Fifth on that?” Ashton looks up at her, his cornflower blue eyes crinkling as he tries a wry smile.

“Not with me,” Sofie shakes her head, closing the distance between them and sliding onto his lap. She settles herself against his chest as he pulls her close to him. But he remains silent, his face thoughtful. “Don’t shut me out,” she insists, pulling his attention back on to her, not letting him escape into the dark recesses of his mind.

“This feels good,” he sighs contentedly, bending down to kiss her softly on the lips. It’s a tender kiss, full of feeling. “It would be so much easier if this was all I had to think about.” The way he says it makes it clear that’s not the case.

She has to fight the automatic response that makes her feel unimportant, that makes her rudely aware of how far down his list of she comes. She manages to stop herself; she knows that her reaction would be immature and selfish. But that doesn’t make it any easier, to know that the pack is always going to come first, before her.

“What can I do? Let me help you. You don’t have to deal with all of this on your own.” Sofie looks at him seriously, avoiding her natural inclination just to melt against him. She listens to his heartbeat, concentrating on the feel of his fingers as they sift through his hair, trying to remember everything about this moment, just like she does with every moment she spends with him.

“Well, that depends, are you still be pissed at me over the vote?” Ashton’s humorous tone is in stark contrast to the frown lines developing around his eyes.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t help.” Sofie doesn’t see any point in lying; she wouldn’t insult Ashton’s intelligence. He can sense her moods as easily as she can tell the time. It’s part of the connection that they share, their closeness. “I’ll do anything to make all of this easier on you. Just let me in, Ash.” She locks eyes with him, trying to transmit the depth of her meaning with her expression.

His protective arm around her tightens as he looks up at the ceiling. “There is something you can help with. But we’ll talk about it after the meeting. I need to gather the pack and give them some direction before they all start running around like headless chickens.”

“Don’t they have reason to panic a little? Their world as they know it has changed...forever.” Sofie nods towards the television screen that’s showing the footage of Hector changing into a wolf and Lola from a wolf into a woman on a loop. The whole story is laid out for the viewing public, there’s no question that werewolves are among them. The only question is what they’re going to do about it.

“They need something to focus on, a plan. The wolf part of them will be climbing the walls, wanting to go and take revenge on Luke, those hunters and whatever man, woman or child stands in their way. I can’t let that happen.” Ashton’s expression is grim and he moves to get up from the chair, virtually lifting Sofie up with him.

“Where are you going?” Sofie looks at him watchfully as he steps away from her, squeezing her hand.

“To take a shower, I figure I probably look about as bad as I feel right now.” He shakes his head ruefully, running his hands through his sandy hair, leaving it sticking up at angles that would have been comical at any other time.

“You look worse.” Sofie looks at him flatly, she never had been very good at sugarcoating; it wasn’t really her style. “You want some company?” Sofie looks at him meaningfully, hoping that he’ll say yes and they can lose themselves in each other, if only for a few minutes. They’re both so full of tension they could use a release.

Ashton smiles wolfishly, a signal that he would like nothing more than to take comfort in Sofie’s arms and in her body. But as soon as the smile appears it’s gone, a shadow stretching over his features. “Tempting as that is, I think I just need to be alone, get my thoughts together.” He doesn’t look at her as he turns and walks out of the room. If he had, then he would have seen how her face fell at his words.

The night before he had said that they belonged together, that she belonged with him and now he was pushing her away again. She couldn’t help but think that he was trying to keep his distance from her. But why? She shakes her head, reminding herself that there’s no need to be paranoid. They’ve been through a lot, that’s all, he just needs some time to get his shit together. But there’s a nagging feeling of doubt in the back of her mind as she gathers up the remnants of the first aid kit discarded on the coffee table after Lola had been bandaged up.

Why wouldn’t Ashton tell her what he needs her to do and how she can help? Because the pack needs leadership and that’s what he has to focus on now. The two sides of her brain continue to argue with each other as she heads towards the guest bedroom to check in on Lola. Sofie hopes that she hasn’t heard the exchange between her and Ashton, she’s not in the mood to talk about it.

“Don’t worry, he’s always been stubborn.” Sofie has barely closed the door behind her before Lola’s words are out of her mouth. Of course, Lola was a werewolf, her hearing was excellent. There was no way she hadn’t picked up the voices from the room next door.

“How’re you feeling?” Sofie smiles, ignoring Lola’s comment and switching into professional mode; the role of woman on a mission is more familiar to her than that of the neurotic girlfriend.

Lola swings her legs out of the bed, standing up gingerly. “Good as new, Doc.” Her confident words are undermined by the way she’s swaying slightly on her feet and the grimace in her features as she jolts her arm.

“Right, if by new you mean crappy. Sit back down before you fall down.” She pushes Lola’s good shoulder gently, feeling her resist at first and then give in to it. “I need to change the dressing so try to stay as still as you can, this might sting a little.”

Lola nods, gritting her teeth as Sofie unpins the gauze dressing and unwinds it slowly. The material that comes away is bloody but when Sofie reaches the actual wound it looks as if it were weeks old rather than hours. She sucks in a breath of shock. “I know you guys heal fast but jeez, this is amazing.” The skin around the bullet wound is already starting to close up, healing at a rate of knots. “If you rest up you’ll be up and about in a couple of days.”

“A couple of days?” Lola repeats the phrase as if Sofie had said a million years. “I can’t lie here for any longer, I need to be with the rest of the pack, to get ready for whatever’s coming next.” Lola’s fists clench and unclench like she’s carrying around too much energy and needs to expend it.

Her words mirror the conversation that Sofie and Lindsey had the night before. Lindsey had promised to put her faith in Sofie who she said was the key to the pack’s survival. Sofie had told her to be ready for whatever came next, she just wasn’t sure exactly what that was going to be.

“Doc? You hear what I said?” Lola looks at her with a curious expression on her face.

Sofie brings herself back to the present. “I’m not a medical doctor, I’m a scientist, as the interesting scar you’re going to be left with on your shoulder will attest to.”

Lola gives her a sidelong look, making it clear that she knows Sofie’s mind was elsewhere and not on the botched stitching job she’d done on her shoulder. But she’s smart enough to keep her mouth shut. She lets Sofie clean the wound and re-dress it, only grumbling a little when she tells her to rest.