Page 104 of The Alpha and His Childhood Sweetheart

I reasoned my feeling away because Everly had become a good friend. Then the person coming to save them started rambling. I looked over at the Red Run group and knew they felt the same way. I discreetly used my nail on my thumb to distract from the pain in my head.

Melanie was living her dream and she never ramble anymore. I’m just running on adrenaline because Everly and Julianna are in danger. It felt hard to breathe. This woman knew their names and faces. Then I wanted to laugh watching the girl work. Tears pricked my eyes. What was my problem? Rhea growled when my headache got worse. I was going to have to see Ethan, the pack doctor, about these headaches.

The woman gave Julianna two doses of something then all hell broke loose. Pride I could not explain filled me as I watched the woman fight back. She seemed a little bitter towards Everly for some reason, while being protective of her.

Rhea agreed, “She did give Everly her the bullet proof vest.” I couldn’t relax even when I heard the pop signifying Julianna and Everly were back. Hell, I couldn’t even tear my eyes away from the screen. I saw Tristan show up out of the corner of my eye, but I was solely rapt on the screen.

This woman was amazing. Her fighting style screamed at me. It was familiar. I couldn’t help but think I’d seen this before. I just couldn't remember where. It was right there in my mind, but the pounding I now felt in my ears stopped it from coming to me.

My heart screamed when the Hunters demanded she surrender. Rhea and I both screamed, “NO!” when she jumped out the window. It was too high to fall from. She was going to get hurt. I couldn’t speak as we waited for her to surface. Tears slid down my cheeks when she didn’t.

I was nearly hyperventilating knowing she didn’t make it. I wanted to curl up into a ball and cry my eyes out. God, if I didn’t know better I’d think I was pregnant right now. I knew I wasn't though so what was with these emotions? Rhea linked, “LOOK!”

I did and saw the woman surfacing on the other side of the lake. I relaxed a little, but I knew she wasn’t out of danger. Then a motorcycle came roaring over the ridge. I tensed until she ran for it. Limping the whole way. Concern filled me knowing she was hurt.

Rhea snorted, “With a jump like that of course she’s hurt. She’s not human though. She’d be dead if she was.” We saw them leave and I had to believe it was to safety. Her shots were so accurate I knew she was our sniper.

That relief bubbled up and nearly made me laugh out loud. Our sniper was back which meant she was ok. Alexander wasupset, but I understood that. Like me, he had drawn parallels. I had never been so glad Melanie was far removed from this and safe in New York.

Rhea linked, “Uhh, look at Everly.” I followed my wolf’s advice and noted she was now visibly pregnant. Haley must have given her an extra boost of healing. She looked like she might have a month before she delivered and that seemed generous.

Everly and Julianna were confused about the shooter’s supernatural DNA. They’d thought she was a wolf and that felt right to me. The confusing part was they said she didn’t have a wolf. They also said she was wearing colored contacts too, so her eyes weren’t really blue.

Rhea asked, “Could it be Ashley?” I replied, “Why would she care about us?” Rhea didn’t have an answer for me. My heart broke when they said our sniper was hurt. We’d been right about that, but I didn’t want to be. It made sense that’s why the sniper hadn’t been around. Haley thought it was possible she’d been whipped. Had she been found out? Alexander popped out.

Rhea growled, “We have a name now for who gets our wrath.” We did and it was Dante. I hoped to take a crack at him myself one day. My dad linked, “We will guard Everly just like they are Julianna.” Both women seemed annoyed they got guards, but I’d sleep better knowing they were safe.

Dakota linked, “Don’t worry, sis. I’ve already got a guard shift ready for Everly and T’s new place.” He’d been building them a house with his own crew. His degree was in construction management. Rhea grumbled, “I want more vials of whatever gave Julianna her powers back. I want one for mate and our family.” I did too.

Maybe I would put out word myself wanting information about the circle group instead of EJ and Alexander. Maybe the sniper would meet with me. We knew from experience the girls from the Ring were more comfortable with women.

Maybe that’s where this is coming from. She didn’t want to meet with them, but I needed that type of serum to protect my family. That had to make sense to the sniper. I needed to protect EJ just as much as he felt the need to protect me. Maybe woman to woman we could reach an understanding.

EJ grabbed me and we popped to Alexander. I stalled when he rubbed his face. Did he get headaches too? How had we never discussed our headaches? Mine began to pound and I shoved all that away to comfort him and offer suggestions for his anger.

We headed off with our allies once Miach got the location for the coordinates from the card Everly gave us. It took EJ, Alexander, and their mom to bring down some magic around the area. I linked Eric, “Isn’t it odd the sniper knew they could get this down?” He replied, “Yes, it is. They’d have to know a lot about their powers.”

I questioned, “Is it possible they just knew Aiden could do it?” He replied, “It could be, but that doesn’t feel right.” He was right, it didn’t. As soon as they finished the smell of death reached us. Rhea linked me, “I’m barely holding in a snort of derision. Does mate really think we’d run off? He actually told us to stick by him. I love him, but that’s crazy talk thinking we’d leave his side.” I agreed with that.

We found twenty men dead in the building. All head shots. There were differences though. I knew exactly which ones were the original sniper. They were all dead center. Our sniper was good. I had to smile, feeling an unexplainable pride again.

I read the letter for EJ and Alexander over my mate’s shoulder. It answered a lot of questions about the group. Rhea linked, “What are they talking about? We are on the same side! Of course we’d want to be friends.” She was right.

The end of the letter surprised me. There was a lot of sass about how we wouldn't find them unless they crawled into ourlaps and said hi. That was confidence on another level. It took balls to say to an Alpha.

Honestly, it sounded just like Melanie. I had to smile knowing she would absolutely say something like that to someone. Not to EJ, but she would say it. Rhea linked, “Wait, Alexander asked all the questions they answered with this letter?” That prickled something in my brain again. God that was getting annoying. I offered options that had potential, but I knew they weren’t accurate.

We searched the building until Haley lost it wanting the package opened. Rhea linked, “Thank god she said something. The Beta and Gamma wolves were going to drive me batty.” More wolves had shown up to held with the search.

Honestly, I was about to open it myself. The gift was Laxenread. Relief slammed into me like a thousand bricks when they explained what it was. The sniper had given us the serum! Rhea linked, “Wait, this is a serum named Alexander?”

I replied, “An anagram for his name. Mel will HATE that there’s a Fairy this obsessed with Alexander.” Rhea reasoned, “But she’d be happy he had this.” I scoffed, “She’d probably make it herself.” Something about this was making my head pound.

I left those thoughts alone and circled to the Resistance. So, they had a Witch, because of the ward. A Fairy because of the anagram and a Werewolf that didn't have a wolf. Was I wrong? Did they escape the Ring together? Or were they born into a family that worked for the Ring and were rebelling? Or was it something else altogether?

My thoughts circled back to Melanie because I knew she was smart enough to come up with this. I didn’t know anyone who cared more about Alexander smart enough to pull this off besides her. I shrugged that off as my headache came back. I was being silly. Melanie didn’t know anything about this.

Rhea linked, “We asked about her experiments. She said she was done with them and solely focused on dancing.” I blew out my breath knowing she was right. Besides, Melanie would’ve told me if she was working on this.

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