Page 39 of The Alpha

Dallan let his hand drop. "Nay..."

"Wow, what smells so good?" a man’s voice called from the other room.

Markhel knew that voice. "Shona's adoptive father."

Dallan nodded. “And her mother, in case we need two drivers. I fetched them with Kwaku and Zara, and we’ve brought more food.”

Evan poked his head around Dallan. “Hello there. You two must be the ones Shona and Dallan were looking for last week."

Dallan looked down at Evan Whittard, then squeezed out of the room and disappeared.

"Hi, Markhel," Evan said happily. He set a bag of groceries on the counter.

Markhel gave him a hint of a smile. The poor human probably didn't have a clue as to what was going on. No matter, he'd find out soon enough.

Halden left the kitchen, and Evan's mate Maggie came in. "Markhel, hi." She put a second bag of groceries on the counter and turned to Raina. "And you must be the princess." She gave Raina a little curtsey. "Dallan and Shona grabbed us and here we are. We're to play chauffer?"

Markhel sighed and stood. "If you will excuse me?" He left the kitchen without a word and found Dallan in the first bedroom. "You should not have brought them, Time Master. It is too dangerous. You do not want the people who took Melvale to know who they are."

"We need drivers, Markhel."

"I can drive."

Dallan's eyebrows shot up. "Can ye now?"

"Yes. Can your mate?'”

"Nay, when Philip Brennan had her under his control, she was not allowed to learn. I can operate a motorcycle, but..."

"I understand," Markhel said, cutting him off. He was no stranger to Time Master Dallan's malady of closed spaces. "You should take the Whittards home."

Dallan rubbed his forehead with a hand. "Aye, yer right. I just... I dinna like no being able to sense Melvale. I think its addled my brain.”

"You cannot sense him, because he is not himself."

Dallan's jaw went slack. "Och, that’s logical. What am I looking for then?"

Markhel turned toward the room where Maida was sleeping. "A surge of power, the likes of which you have never felt before. It might be brief, but one of our hearts should always be on the lookout for it."

Dallan sighed. "Why do I get the feeling there's so much more to this than I've been told?"

Markhel headed for his mate. "Because there is, Time Master. Much more."

14

Pari awoke slowly. Everything was quiet, the lights dimmed. Was it morning again? Was it night? She didn’t know at this point, nor could she remember much.

Her vision began to clear, and she realized she was in her cell, on the floor again. A shape came into view. The alien man.

He lay on his side in front of her, on the other side of the thick glass wall.

Her eyes went wide when she remembered he tried to break through it yesterday.

Pari struggled to sit up and looked around. The lab was empty. It must be nighttime. She looked at the walls of the alien’s cell. “No…”

There were no cracks, no damage of any kind. Had they replaced the whole thing? She studied the wall, noticed how it went into the concrete back wall of her cell at one end and a concrete pillar at the other. “They did replace it.” Her eyes went to the end of the bed. A tray of food sat atop it with a bottle of water, like yesterday.

Pari shook her head. “No, the day before.”

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