Page 11 of Alpha's Magic

Grimora had many talents, but cooking hadn’t been chief among them, spells or no spells. I no longer had the luxury of being picky though, so pretty much anything they’d given me would have tasted good at that point. It had been two days since my food supply had run out, and I hadn’t felt well enough to go inside the main part of the cave to gather berries or check Grimora’s fish traps in the rocks near the shore for more to eat. My stomach had been growling and gurgling and making so much noise that when they’d first arrived, I’d been afraid the Alphas would hear and investigate. Of course, they found me anyway and apparently, it was due to my scent.

No one had told me that would happen when I finally went into heat. Grimora had not been an omega, so maybe he hadn’t known. I wasn’t sure what Grimora had been, if anything. He seemed above all such concerns, actually, and he’d never mentioned any partner, either male or female, though there had been that old portrait in his chest. But maybe he didn’t care much about that kind of thing one way or another. Anyway, he’d been knowledgeable about Alphas and omegas when he’d told me about them, but in a bookish, abstract kind of way, like he’d read it somewhere, other than something he’d actually experienced. He could have been a beta, I guess. Though my understanding of them was minimal too. They always struck me as grouchy, slightly bitter people, mad at the world for what they didn’t get out of life.

Not that being an omega was any prize, let me tell you. The only winners in this game were the Alphas, who seemed to have it all. All the power, all the prestige…not to mention the enormous egos. My father had been an Alpha, and though he’d been kind to me, I wondered sometimes how my mother had fared. She was an omega too and was considered to be quite a beauty, but I never had the sense that they particularly liked each other. Theirs had been an arranged marriage, and I knew he would have preferred an Alpha son instead of me, though he had loved me, I think.

My mother’s family had been from Sudfarma. Her father was Alfrid, who had some claim to the throne, though my father was the true legitimate heir. It was Alfrid who had contracted with my father for the marriage, and I think it was for that reason. I’d never seen my father be mean to my mother. Not exactly, though she spent a lot of time in her bedroom alone, and often didn’t come to the table for meals, saying she had a headache. I think at first they simply had nothing in common. Later, she grew to hate him.

I think they had been trying for another child for some time, though, or my father had been anyway, but she kept losing the babies early on. I don’t think my father was much pleased with that or with her. He needed a son who was an Alpha, like him, and he was determined to have one. My poor mother had finally become pregnant again just before the evil witch came to our house to attack us.

She had come to visit my mother she said, and they stayed in my mother’s room most of the day on that last day. Then at dinner, I had seen her put the powder in my father’s cup when he wasn’t looking, and I had dashed forward to knock his hand out of the way and drink it down myself.

It was foolish, I know, and I have no excuse except for being very young.

When I changed into the monster, it was horribly painful and chaotic. Everyone was screaming and I think I remember my father attacking her. That must have been when she killed him. I don’t know why she just didn’t just kill me too. Maybe because my mother was screaming so much. I ran to my room, but she dragged me out from under my bed. I got away from her and ran wildly through the house, and everyone was screaming and shouting. I surprised everyone, including myself when I ran out into the night and managed to get away, all alone to try to hide and survive.

If it hadn’t been for Grimora and his rescue, I would probably have died pretty quickly.

I sat in my little bed of furs for a while after I ate all the food and licked the bowl and plate clean, thinking that my mind had cleared up pretty nicely by this time, and maybe I should try a getaway while I still could. I still didn’t have any clothes—the ones I’d worn in here were a stained and wrinkled mess by now. That would be a distinct disadvantage if I came across any rampaging villagers or pirates, for that matter. Not to even mention any Alphas.

I still didn’t have a plan, and I couldn’t seem to come up with one either. Maybe my mind wasn’t as clear as I thought, after all. I sat for a while and tried to think, but all I came up with was leaving for now and hiding in the woods, returning after a few days, when the Alphas had gone. I fingered the amulet hanging around my neck and tried hard to think. I could go back inside the cave and find more of Grimora’s old things to at least cover myself, and I could stay there indefinitely, I supposed. Or at least until someone came looking for me.

Beyond that—well, I wasn’t sure. The cave was my home, but what if the villagers tried to come and kill me now that I was here all alone? I could keep hiding out, and that might work for a while. Food might be a problem, though. Grimora had taught me how to fish and forage for plants. I thought I could probably manage to feed myself a little, and Grimora had a lot of jars and cans of food in the storage area that would probably last a while. If I were able to trap some animals, maybe I could trade their fur in the village marketplace, like Grimora used to do. He’d shown me how, but I’d hated every second of it. I felt too much pity for the animals. They’d look up at me with their desperate little faces, and I would let them go when his back was turned. I just couldn’t hurt them.

He never got angry—just explained to me that we needed the money he could get for their fur. He went on and on about the “circle of life,” and how everything was born and eventually died in this great loop of all living things, and I didn’t not believe him, but I’d have to opt out of that circle of life and eat fish and vegetables and fruit instead.

If I did manage to trap the animals and then kill them in their cages—a huge, disgusting “if,” because I was pretty positive I couldn’t do something like that at all. Besides it would also entail finding a village to sell them in, since the one closest to me had been destroyed. Probably couldn’t do that either, as I had no idea where to look for a new village. Now that my appearance was human, perhaps I could manage to find someone to ask. Frankly, it all seemed like a lot.

The only bright spot was that I was having some small indications that my magic had found its way at least partially back to me now that I was in human form, and that it was waking up inside me after its long hibernation. For one thing, there was the way I’d been able to project my thoughts into the Alpha’s head without even really trying. Surely that was a good sign. I hadn’t tried to do any magic yet—I’d wait for that. But I was hopeful for the first time in many years.

If I had my magic back, and if I could practice it a little and hone my skills, it could help me in so many ways. My father had pretty strong magic, though it had done him little to no good against the more powerful and wicked dark magic of the queen. Perhaps if I could have helped him, I could have joined my magic to his, and we could have managed to fight off her attack. But if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride, as my amal used to say. She always finished with, “And if ifs and ands were pots and pans, there'd surely be dishes to do."

Which made no sense at all, really, but that was my amal for you. I wasn’t sure, but I think it meant she wanted me to stop talking so much and asking endless questions and get back to my schoolwork.

Anyway, I was excited and a little frightened by the possibility of my magic returning, but I knew better than to get my hopes raised. Maybe I could just take it one day at a time and see what happened.

First things first though. I thought I should probably get out of this cave before the Alphas did those unmentionable things to me. I didn’t know exactly what those things would be—Grimora had turned red in the face when I asked him, and he’d just said, “Bad things.”

Not really helpful. And scary to boot. Maybe he’d been trying to scare me a little though, knowing how curious I had always been.

But I didn’t really relish the idea of going out in the dark. Not tonight. It would be better to sleep until dawn, at least, and then try to make my escape. I lay back in the furs and closed my eyes, willing myself to rest for a few hours and let the darkness and stormy weather pass before I tried to leave.

Chapter Five

Asher

I hated mysteries, so I lay awake a while wondering what had happened with Grimora. Had his death been the result of natural causes or something much worse? Right now, we had more questions than answers, but I was determined to find out. If the person in the back of the cave was the one known as Banshira, then it was dangerous for him to stay here where a mob or even worse, bounty hunters, could so easily find him. It was an invitation to disaster. Any Alpha who happened by would take what he wanted, and an unclaimed omega, with no bite mark showing possession was an easy mark. I hadn’t seen him yet, but even if the boy really was hairy and ugly, like Brandon and Roxbury said, he could still be fucked and abused by some unscrupulous Alpha. A hard dick had no conscience, and nobody would be around to stop it.

I still felt a strong compulsion to see this omega and talk to him and I didn’t know why. It was puzzling and odd, and I’d never felt this way before about any other omega. All I knew was that I had to find him and put my hands on him. I’d figure the rest out later.

“I think we need to bring the omega out here,” I said, as we sat by the fire. Lex glanced over at me in surprise.

“You’ll scare him half to death.”

“I’ll try not to, but I have too many questions. If that body on the beach is Grimora’s, then how did he die? The omega could be in danger, and we could be too, just by being here. Besides…I need to see him, Lex.”

"I can see that you do. But why? What is there about this omega that has you so agitated?”

“I wish I knew. I can feel there’s something about him—can’t you feel it?”

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