Page 21 of Unexpected Alpha's Claim

“Precisely,” Helena agreed. “I am not doing this again, firstborn. This isn’t my fight. It’s yours. I strongly urge you to take your healer to safety. Your enemies know her scent. They were planning to kill you both tonight, but I ruined their plans. If they find her again she won’t live to see another sunrise.”

“Hold on a minute,” I interjected, my voice louder than usual. “You mean they would break into my house and kill me? Am I understanding you correctly?”

“Yes, dear,” she nodded. “I know it may sound farfetched to you, mortal, but it’s what shifters do. Do they see a threat to their secret? A threat to their way of life? They eliminate it. It’s as simple as that.”

“But, take me to safety?” I asked, my gaze intensifying. “What do you mean by that? I can’t exactly disappear. I’ve got to start work soon and I can’t lose my job. And don’t tell me they’d attack me in a medical center full of people.”

“You’re right. They wouldn’t,” Helena said, glancing at Raul. “Shifters do prefer stealth, overall. They’ll avoid anything too public that might draw unwanted attention. They prefer to operate under the cover of darkness. They are, after all, children of the night.”

“They sound more like the mafia to me,” I commented, running my hand through my hair. “Anyway, I need to get back to my house. I’ve got friends over. I have to tell them that I can’t spend tomorrow with them.”

“I’ll take care of that,” the witch promised with a reassuring nod. “Now, please, take my hand. I’d like to show you your hideout.”

“We’re walking?” I wondered, glancing at her first and then up at Raul.

“You’ll see,” she smiled as I set my fingers into her palm.

A blinding flash of light forced me to clench my eyes shut momentarily. Opening my eyes it was swirling down and over me. A deep red that was also encircling the witch’s figure. I should have been terrified. I should have laughed at the mention of the word “witch.” I was brought up to believe there was no such thing. That all such things were figments of wild imaginations or the modern Wiccan movement. Stories people made up to account for things they couldn’t explain.

Yet I didn’t feel fear. I didn’t have the mood to laugh, either. Helena had shown me how powerful she was. She had neutralized two wolves, without breaking a sweat. And, oddly, Ifelt comfortable around her. Comfortable enough to believe that this hideout would be a safe place to be.

15

MONICA

“What the hell…?”

I looked around me in sheer wonderment, at the witch who stood in front of me, Raul was on my right. We were in a wide hallway that had torches in golden cups along the walls. Shadows from the flames danced across the oak floor.

“I won’t be long,” Helena announced as a plume of red smoke shot down over her head. Just like that, she disappeared, making my heart plunge into even deeper confusion.

“I suppose you know more about this than I do,” I addressed Raul. My voice was riddled with frustration.

He didn’t look any less frustrated than I was. He half-shook his head, half-shrugged, then sighed.

“All I know is that this used to be my grandpa’s sanctuary,” he said. “Which is a fact that I found out last week. I always knew he had a lot of secrets, but it seems there were a ton that he either didn’t want his family to know about or that they didn’t want to know. Like his relationship with Helena.”

“That’s another thing that doesn’t add up.” I pointed out. “How old is she? Thirty? Thirty-five? She can’t be more than forty.”

“Monica, she’s a witch,” Raul repeated the fact as if it wasn’t already known to me. “She’s been using spells to stay young, but Helena’s not the problem. Mypackis.”

When he said the word “pack” there was a rough growl to his voice and his eyes flashed with what I could only define as murderous intent. He balled his hands into fists and his lips curled back far enough to reveal his canines.

“Okay. Let’s focus on that,” I suggested. “What can you do to ensure your survival? Or, more importantly, both of ours?”

“The same thing I’ve been doing since my early twenties,” his response was swift and certain. “Fight. The night you found me outside your house I’d just fought those two wolves you saw tonight.”

And look how you fared with that.I thought but didn’t say. I may not know much about shifters, but he was a man, and no man wanted his masculinity questioned. It was clear to me that this wasn’t the kind of problem you could tackle head-on.

“I understand that, but don’t you think you should do something more…” I paused, thinking of ways to phrase it properly. “Final?”

His eyes widened with surprise and the snarl faded. He grimaced but still didn’t speak. My heart thumped hard in my chest as I waited for his answer. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough time to give me one. Once more there was a red plume of smoke that sprang up from the floor. As it cleared, I saw the witch first then I noticed two other familiar figures on either side of her.

“What?” I asked, surprise raising my voice an octave.

Erica and Stacy both looked as bewildered as I felt.

“She wasn’t lying…” Erica muttered, letting go of Helena’s hand. “Girl, what are you doing here? Whatisthis place?”

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