Page 9 of The Alpha

Melvale awoke slowly, the voice calling his name familiar. He’d had the strangest dream and had a horrible headache. What in the Creator’s name had he been doing?

“Melvale!”

He sucked in some air and sat up. “What?!” Melvale looked around. “Oh, stab me! Please say I had a good time doing the Creator only knows what, to warrant waking up in a containment cell.”

Kitty’s shoulders slumped. “Oh, thank goodness it’s you.”

He frowned. “Who else would it be? And why am I locked up?”

Her jaw went slack. “Don’t you remember anything?”

He gave her a sheepish look. “Should I?”

Her mouth formed a perfect “O” before her hands covered it. “Gaaaawsh!”

“Gaaaaawwwwwsh,” he mimicked and tried to stand. He fell over instead.

“Ow.”

When he tried to climb to his feet, Kitty was at the bars. “Are you all right?”

He gingerly stood, his mind a blank. “What… happened to me?”

She whistled, long and low. “You don’t remember?”

He gave her a heartfelt look and shook his head.

She stared at him with wide eyes. “Oh, Melvale. Youhaveto remember.”

He approached the bars, and she backed up a few steps. “Kitty?”

She closed her eyes a moment. “It’s cool, I’m… just being careful.”

“Of what?” He looked around the cell before he turned to her. “Of me?”

She nodded. “I’d better go find someone. Dallan or Kwaku.”

He gave her a sage nod, eyes wide. “That would be prudent.” He backed to a cot at the far wall as she disappeared from the cell area. There had to be guards posted on the other side of the door, and he thought of calling one, but sensed it might be a bad idea.

Melvale sat and tried to remember what happened. They were on assignment, searching for Princess Raina of Dalrovia and the captain of The Queen’s Royal Guard, Halden Kolbeck. They were supposed to have been brought to the Muiraran palace so they could bond and eventually join, but something had gone terribly wrong. Idrishana Shin, an aging Time Master sent to fetch the couple, had accidentally dropped them somewhere within a one-hundred-and-fifty-year period. They’d managed to narrow it down to New York City. Brooklyn to be precise. Not having an exact year or even decade to search, they had to make their way through the twentieth then into the twenty-first century to find them. And find them they did.

Melvale buried his face in his hands. Had they found something else? He sensed they had…

“Time Keeper…”

He let his hands drop as Kwaku approached the cell. “You are yourself again?”

Melvale left the cot and swayed. “Oh, stab me,” he said and righted himself. “When was I not? Why am I in here?” He studied Kwaku. He was a master at keeping information tucked away until it proved useful. One never knew what was going to come out of the man’s mouth. “Kwaku, what did I do? What happened?”

Zara entered the cell area. “Melvale, you are… back?”

He shrugged. “Where did I go?”

“His eyes, Pretty One,” Kwaku said. “Dis is Melvale.”

Melvale cocked an eyebrow. “As opposed to?” He let the last word hang.

Kwaku sighed. “You have no recollection?”

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