Alpha Jace’s Salvation

Magical Portal

ARIANA VAUGHN

Relief is long gone by the Alpha male whose hold was beginning to crush the flexible bone of my wrist. His muscles tightened as he pushed me behind him, baring his animalistic fangs at MY PROTECTOR.

I couldn’t be sure that the new arrival in the room could save me, but if anything, I knew he had a chance because he seemed to be who Alison and her Alpha had been trying to avoid.

“Look who we have here. It's a baby hunter.”

Alpha Jace spoke back to the teeny and sleek young-looking person that I wanted to believe was an average human but also wished that he could somehow manage to rescue me by changing into a beast that could defeat Alpha Jace and Alison.

“Baby or not, I'm a hunter, and you are the prey. Must feel good to be an animal.” The guy responded.

He appeared to be the same age as me or a year or two older than I was. He said he was a Hunter. I was contemplating if that was his name or the noun that describes what he does.

As in a hunter that hunts down animals. And I knew too well that Alpha Jace was an animal.

“Come off your high horses, brat. After all, we all are animals scientifically.”

Alpha Jace remained his bossy rude self as he barked at the young hunter, growling and getting into position to protect Alison, who had begun to murmur in her weird, archaic language once again.

Others might have thought Alpha Jace was trying to protect me because I was also behind him, but I wasn’t others. He doesn't care about me, but he would do anything for Alison and the unborn heir he desired to have.

Guess I was important too. Sort of.

“Typical Alpha male, hot-headed and stupid, especially when their mate is involved. Which one is her? The witch or the poor human girl.”

“I can sense your thoughts, boy. Mum and Dad haven't taught you to hide them from a werewolf? And yes, my mate is none of your business.”

Alpha Jace cut the hunter off. The hunter was proper, though, because when he mentioned Alpha Jace’s mate, I saw his body tense and his muscles flexed to show his anger. The hunter made me realize what the Alpha before the name of my Kidnapper meant.

He was an Alpha, like the king of a pack of wolves.

His name was Jace, but to the wolves, he was King Jace. Alpha Jace.

“They did teach me how to make my prey weak and what to do when outnumbered.”

The hunter announced, eying Alison suspiciously. His action caught me off guard, but Alpha Jace had anticipated that. The hunter threw a tiny but visible needle toward a dazed Alison. As much as she disgusted me, I didn't wish her death, and I couldn't decide if I wanted Alpha Jace dead either.

Alpha Jace's hand shot out quickly to catch the needle. I assumed its poison due to my kidnapper's carefulness with the needle. He anticipated that all was alright, but none of us saw the hunter's following action coming.

It was too late. To think I believed that the hunter was here to save me. My belief changed when he fired three poisonous needles in my direction. I mean, was my life not hard enough? I was yet a victim of another crazy and dangerous man. He was no protector of mine. He was a hunter.

The hunter smirked evilly when my eyes enlarged with the thoughts of my skin getting pricked by three poisonous needles.

“No!” Alpha Jace screamed.

My face turned to him to see if needles were being shot at Alison because I thought he wouldn't have screamed that way because of my poisonous needles situation. But he was rushing back to me, and he was crying because of me.

Shocking? Not really. The surprising part was when he pushed me to the ground with a twinkle of an eye. I landed roughly on the ground but didn’t feel the needles pricking me as they should have. The hunter laughed hysterically.

His laughter was all I could hear for a while, along with Alison’s whispers, but my ears soon picked up Alpha Jace’s groaning sound before my eyes found him struggling to stand. He had three needles sticking out of his chest.

It was unbelievable that he chose to save me. My heart went out to him, and I rushed to help him up even though I was supposed to be walking away from him when he was vulnerable.

I was insane.

“Son of a b***h!”

Jace, as I have chosen to call him because he wasn’t my king and I wasn’t a wolf, growled furiously at the hunter whose name I still didn't know. Jace pulled out two needles effortlessly, and when I tried to help him with the last one, his hand stopped me.

“I should have known the human was your weakness. Why else will an Alpha come without his noble, loyal dogs like subjects.”

The hunter announced. He didn't know the number of threatening words I had heard from the shapeshifter within the few hours I had been forced to spend with him. I wasn't Jace’s weakness.

I was more of a toy.

“Don’t be fooled by the pull you feel towards him. It’s a trick their kinds use to charm females like you. Come to me. My colleague and I will save you and take you back.”

“Shut the f**k up, dimwit. She is coming with me willingly, and you should leave now before I detach your head from your body with my bare hands.”Jace declared.

Even though I was trying to think, he yanked me behind him as he rose again. A quick look at Alison was all it took for him to return to his threatening posture and mode.

“I will like to see you try, Wolf.”

The hunter resorted, bringing out another weapon and pointing it towards Alison, whose voice was louder than ever.

“She won’t be able to summon a portal if I shoot her with the right amount of poison that would render her useless forever. You can't protect them both simultaneously, and my colleagues are entering the hotel as we speak, so give up.”

The hunter exclaimed, raising his weird gun higher. I haven't seen many guns in my seventeen years, but his gun was the normal one that security officers carry. It was weird.

“I'll be long gone by the time they reach here, and yes, be thankful that I’m not in the mood to ruin you today, but I guess using your weapon against you wouldn't count.”

Jace responded as he threw three needles back at the hunter. The hunter didn't see that one coming, but none of us knew that Jace's attack would make the hunter pull the trigger, either. It happened so fast.

The hunter screamed when the needles landed on his chest, right above his heart. But Alison called too. A screeching sound made me close my ears to prevent them from bleeding.

Jace left my side to tend to the bleeding witch while the young hunter talked into his phone, calling for backup and describing where we were to his people. This is crazy.

“Alison, are you alright?”

Jace asked as Alison's face began changing to her usually pretty face. She was gasping as she did earlier in the hallway, yet again, my feet were glued to the radiant floor.

“A-alpha. We are in grave danger. I can sense them coming from every corner of this town.”

Alison informed her Alpha as he held her in his arms. The hunter, on the other hand, was mixing an antidote to the poison the needles were laced with. He was growing weaker by the second.

“Save your breath. You’re bleeding, and we still need to find a way to avoid fighting with more hunters.” Jace said to Alison.

I didn't have anything to say or do. I was the watcher of the scene. This was my chance to leave without looking back. Jace was preoccupied with Alison, and he wasn't threatening me anymore. But he would find me if I left and there was no home to return to, not when I would be taking danger back.

“Ariana, get over here. You don't want him to shoot you, either, do you?” Jace shouted at me. I wondered if he was allergic to talking to me with the same calm and collected tone he always used with Alison. I have never witnessed him shouting at her.

“He won't shoot me. He offered to save me, and I think I would go with him.” I uttered, even though I still didn't know what to do, nor did I know which side I should choose. The hunter could kill me, so it was possibly a game of probability with him, but I was likely to lose my life still if the best of the hunting crew arrived.

I would be caught in the crossfire between both groups. The winning team wasn't sure either.

“Don't be so sure, girl, because I have taken back my offer since I realized you aren't human. You are one of those abominations.”

The hunter told me, shaking the root and foundation of who I was and my life.

“You’ve got to be hallucinating. I'm perfectly normal and wouldn't have known about them if he didn't shift into this gigantic beast.”

“Move away from him, Ariana!” Jace barked at me just as the hunter threw a knife my way. I dodged it as I inhaled harshly and loudly.

“He’s lying, right?” I asked Jace, who had left Alison's side to drag me away from the maniac that spewed meaningless words about me

“Deal with it, weakling! We have bigger problems right now. I don't have time to nurse you!” Jace responded, but my eyes were on the hunter, searching for something in his bag. His antidote must need one more ingredient.

There was no way I was one of them. Alison and Jace seemed to be firm with the ability to do things that I watched in movies. I couldn't do any of that. I wasn't one of them.

My father was also the weakest man anyone would ever encounter, and my mom wasn't exactly as strong as these creatures seemed to be.

“I'll try to shield the hall's entrance so the hunters won’t be able to come in while I complete what I started,” Alison said to her Alpha while I stared at them or, more accurately, into space.

“Help her up, or would you rather stay here and be killed by the hunters?” Jace shouted at me. Again.

He and I helped Alison to her feet, and I watched her focus her gaze on the door. She chanted her spell, and the door closed with a banging sound that got the attention of the mean young hunter I had come to dislike.

“I will let you escape!” The hunter whispered as heavy footsteps entered, banging on the door.

Alison had begun to make a portal that she claimed would take us to their home, and she was fast about completing the process this time because she said she couldn't keep the shield spell up for long.

Jace and I held Alison as the hall became windy. The young hunter drank his mixture before struggling against the strong wind to reach us. I took my eyes off when after seeing him fall face flat three times, it was just in time to see Alison’s portal forming.

The circular portal is from the wind. I guessed, and it appeared stronger within two minutes. Alison stopped murmuring when the portal was stable, and she announced that it was time to go home.

The problem was that wherever this magical portal led to wasn't my home, and I wasn’t excited to leave with them.

Alison went in first, claiming he has to control where the portal goes, and Jace went in after her, offering me his hands, but I hesitated long enough for the young hunter to grab my leg. Jace pulled me into the portal, but the hunter didn't let go of me.

Jace's hold was more robust, and he could pull the hunter into the portal with me just as the shielding spell Alison cast on the door wore off.

“Dave!” One of the other hunters shouted when they rushed into the hall, but it was too late to hunt down their prey or save one from disappearing into thin air.

“Dad.”

The young hunter, whose name happened to be Dave, whispered, looking at the man that called for him, but it was too late. The last thing I saw was the face of a sad father who had just lost his child to enemies.

“My dad wasn't like him.” I thought as the portal closed up, swallowing us all.