The Alpha’s Desire 3
Chapter One
Stretching out my achy body as best I could in a shared sleeping bag, the feel of my generous soft curves moving along Lex’s hard muscles sent a glorious shiver of need rippling through my core. My still sleep-hazed eyes blinked, adjusting to the sunlight so bright that the metallic colored sheers on the windows glittered. As the room around me came into focus, the strangeness of the place gave me a moment’s pause.
The sleeping bag for one, on a strange bed, brought about momentary confusion, feeling unfamiliar, yet bringing hints of memories of last night. As I looked at my surroundings, the greys and blacks, with touches of miss-matched everything else, gave off the hint of a masculine bedroom even without the sports paraphernalia strung all over the room, from pictures to autographed balls to well-used equipment. Recollections came suddenly, battered my mind with images of last night, and made me remember just how I’d come to be here.
I shook off the vivid horror of the bloody battle of werewolves that had destroyed my own apartment last night. As if the memories of red-matted fur and brutal cries weren’t enough to roll my stomach, the fear I’d felt at the possibility of losing Lex tightened my middle into a knot. Doing my best to roll my curvy body in the casing of material we were zippered into together, I came to face him. My heart raced, thumping in my chest like the sound of a drum, reminiscent of the background music in a war scene in a movie.
War. That is exactly what last night had been, a declaration, or maybe a bating into, and all-out war between the original werewolves and the Royal werewolves. Several wolves from an original pack had come and attacked my Lex, a Royal were. The man in the black suit who had led the original had said terrible things, threatening Lex, my assigned wolf protector, and promising to take me.
The whole idea of it all, the absurdity, came flooding back, as still, even seeing all the men turned to wolves over the past few days, even sleeping with one, I still struggled to reconcile this new reality of the fantasy worlds I wrote about being true. Maybe they didn’t follow my made up lore, or even typical myths, but still, they were fantasy in my reality. Not that I hadn’t dreamt of my wolf protector all of my life, but again, that was dream land. Now, in reality, I slept curled up with that wolf, in human and animal form.
Thinking it over, in a nutshell, I saw that the original werewolves resented the easy ways of the Royal werewolves. I could easily see how their feelings of anger had come about. Apparently, while they could turn whenever they wanted, they were still slaves to the curse of the moon, and changing form was a brutal, mercilessly painful thing full of tearing skin and breaking bones. Where, on the other hand, the Royal werewolves had been created through the magic of the leader of their clan, a sorcerer. Their transformations were just that, magical, and thus easy, absolutely pain-free. Beautiful and graceful even.
I fought to regain control of my breathing as my part in all this seeped back into my mind. A descendant of the Royals, assigned a wolf protector who should have stayed to the shadows and to dreams, I’d gone and fallen in love with my wolf, as he had long been in love with me. For whatever reason, one that even the Royals couldn’t explain, that love had brought about powers, magic, that should have remained dormant. Now, these original wolves wanted me, wanted a sorcerer, to take my magic for their own.
“Calm down, my love,” Lex said, his eyes fluttering open to reveal a darker version of his usual amber color. “I know it is a big day for you, traveling to meet the Royals, a magical family you never even realized you had, but they are going to love you, and you are not only going to love them, but you are going to love the amazing place they live. Did you at least sleep well enough squeezed into this sleeping bag with me?”
“Are you kidding? For the horror show that was last night, the attack, almost losing you…” I got out, my voice breaking as I lost the words. After a couple slight shakes of my head followed by deep breaths, I found a way to continue on. “I’ve never before had to fear for my life, not from humans, let alone wolves. I’ve never been threatened, and I’ve never seen the ones I loved attacked. Yes, I lost my parents, but not in the brutal way they tried to kill you last night. And, I just got you in my life. And, what I could do with my hands, the magic that shot from me, protected me from that man in a suit…”
“Shhh, shhh,” Lex soothed. “I know it is a lot to take in, but hyperventilating won’t help.”