The Other Alpha

Chapter 2

It had been aeons since the vampire was drawn to the empire’s homeland. And this time, it was not some head of state summoning him but a princess. A princess of magic. He had heard tell of such bonds but had never felt one himself. He was above such things, or so he had always said, to be bonded to a mortal child no less, never.

The search for the Princess, through his own instincts and the rumours that swirled, had finally led him to the county of Yorkshire, more precisely, the edge of pack lands in the Yorkshire Dales.

The faint stench of death still clung to the trees; it was old, maybe a month or so gone now, but something big had happened here. Under this scent, Cairan smelt wolf, the pack, obviously. There was something else too, something old, not as old as him but still old compared to the wolves, nature but not the nature of here. Fae. And hellhound, both twinned together in a mix of fire and tree, forest fire. And finally, the Princess. An unmistakable scent, the indescribable edge of royalty that Cairan would never forget, no matter how long he lived, and the edge of violets that must be her personal scent.

The vampire cloaked himself in that way only the very old could, hiding his scent mostly – it wasn’t perfect, but it would get him through the gates; wolves were not known for liking strangers on their land. He walked the edges of the pack lands for hours, waiting; he didn’t know what he was waiting for, but he had learnt over the years to trust these vague instincts.

Mrs Black, to her credit, stood her ground: “Do not forget who feeds you, boy. Lupi Ira means wolf fury. It can happen to a wolf when they lose their Mate or a child. It is rare, and most wolves lose their minds before the fury subsides. They are dangerous. Only the strongest can walk away from a fight, and I dare say no one here could survive our Luna right now.”

“It can’t be, though, because she doesn’t have a wolf to get the fury from”, Mark pointed out, Xavier nodding unhelpfully.

“The Princess does have some wolf DNA, though; her tests revealed this much. Could that be enough for her to be in this state of fury?” Blaze seemed to be thinking aloud, not really expecting an answer.

“Well, now, no one really knows. Some human Mates have been known to die when they lose their wolf Mate, so we can’t know for sure how the Luna would respond,” the doctor put in.

Loki listened to the conversation going on in the corridor, but all he could see was his Mate in pain and suffering. He climbed onto the bed beside his new Mate and pulled the stiff form of Ash into his arms.

Again, the screaming started, just as suddenly as last time. Ash moved away from Loki, her eyes fixed on the machines and wires, a look that would put warriors on their knees. Mrs Black gave the doctor a look, filled with concern. “Get them out of the room now”, she told the man, indicating the team of nurses trying to coax the still screaming and glaring Ash back into her bed.

Before anyone had a chance to speak again, Ash raised her hands wordlessly, and the steadily beeping monitor in the corner exploded. She pulled the drips from her arms, and the stand flew across the room. The wires that had been connected to the machines smouldered into Ash around her, dropping off her body.

The nurses ran from the room at the first bang. Doc held the door wide, shutting it firmly behind them. Loki and Blaze watched, transfixed by the destruction. Shadow whined softly at the door of the hospital room, his nose in the air. The glimpses of Ash’s face that the boys got only made them more concerned. Her eyes were dark black and vacant, and her face expressionless. As a piece of unidentified machinery flew past their heads, missing them by inches and embedding itself into the wall behind Loki, Blaze took the hellhound’s hint and dragged a protesting Loki from the room by the arm.

Next, the remaining machines hit the floor and smashed into tiny pieces. The bed flipped onto its side, the sheets ripping in midair. Ash reigned destruction on the room for nearly an hour, every time the gathered crowd thought there was nothing more she could possibly break, she found a new way to destroy something. The curtains were pulled down and torn, and the track for the bed curtain even hit the ground. The drip stand was bent in two, and the rails were pulled off the bed.

Ash woke with a start; she didn’t think she had been asleep, though. She was standing in the middle of the destroyed hospital room, plastic cutting into her soles painfully, the light was rudely bright, and the insistent cry of the machines by the bed was far too loud.

drip… drip…. drip….

Something was splashing against the floor. Ash spun in a circle as she tried to identify the source of the sound. The spinning made her dizzy as the lights, suddenly much brighter than she remembered, blurred together. She lifted a hand to her head, as if to steady it.

Outside the room, Loki stood up straighter “Hey… Doc… everyone”, he called excitedly. Not that the doctor or anyone needed the notification. The group of nurses, Blaze, Shadow, Xavier, Mark and Mrs Black were all fully aware of what was happening in the hospital room. Their eyes hadn’t left the window into the room either.