Alpha Bait

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Sarina was ready to go when Wade came downstairs to grab a sandwich. She hadn’t been able to convince Brody that she’d be fine with her brothers, so he’d brought the twins, Jedidiah and Brody Jr., over for Amanda to watch. They seemed to be the only bright spot in her life as she grieved the loss of her son.

“Be safe,” Sarina heard her mother say. She stood off just a bit, holding a boy on each hip, her eyes showing her concern.

“We’ll keep each other safe, Mama,” Sarina promised. She kissed her mother’s cheek and each little boy’s forehead before she rejoined her mate and siblings.

“Wait!” she heard a rough, loud voice say. Sarina turned to see her father, Romeo Traverse, standing in the archway that led to the kitchen. “You’ll not leave this house until I’m ready to go with you. That hell-b***h murdered my son and the rightful heir to this pack. She’ll pay for her transgression by my hands.”

No one said a word as they waited. Sarina had never seen her father so cold and callous. She hoped it was only because they were about to start a hunt for one of the most evil instigators of their kind anyone knew.

Sarina knew very little about Lilith. She knew that before she was born, Lilith had gone by the name Elena and that she’d been intimately involved with her father’s twin, Damon. Apparently, from stories she’d heard, her father had seen the evil in her heart and killed her. Damon, as she’d expect, was furious and isolated himself from his family for years. He didn’t surface again until Romeo found his own true love, Amanda. Damon kidnapped Amanda in hopes of seeking his revenge for the death of Elena. No one knew until much later that Elena hadn’t died and that she was, in fact, Lilith. She’d been biding her time, pretending to be a halfwit assistant to Dean, Amanda’s half-brother, all the while keeping her true identity disguised.

After Amanda and the other Radiants used their powers to defeat Dean, Lilith revealed her true self, claiming to have always been in love with Romeo and making bold claims of ownership over him. Eventually her father and mother, along with the other Radiants were able to kill Lilith. How that wench came to be back among the living, Sarina didn’t know and while she wasn’t exactly sure she wanted to find out, she wasn’t about to let her hurt anyone else in her family. Losing Jason had greatly affected them all, especially Amanda. And Sarina knew she’d do whatever it took to bring her brother justice and restore the smile to her mother’s face. If it was all she got out of Lilith’s death, it’d be enough.

They made it to the place where Jason had been murdered, in less than two hours. Romeo ordered everyone to search for her trail while Sarina and Brody told both him and Wade exactly what had transpired. “Brody was in a trance for a while, as if Lilith had some sort of grip or spell on him. Then she just appeared in this blood red dress, looking like a seductress. She leapt onto Jason as if he were primed for s*x,” Sarina blushed. It wasn’t normal for her to discuss such intimate topics, especially with her father and brother. “The more I tried to reach him, the more she clung to him, whispering her lies into his ear. I tried to help him get free from her and that’s when she tossed me against the tree as if I weighed nothing. She had me by the throat with one hand and when Jason came at her, having changed into his wolf; she simply caught him in mid-leap and broke his neck.”

“Which tree was it, the tree you hit?”

Sarina looked around the area, closing her eyes to focus. She recalled the events with vivid clarity, her heart breaking as she remembered her twin coming to her rescue only to be cut down in the prime of his life. Then her pretty green eyes opened and she walked over to a tree and rubbed it with her hand. “This one. This is where she threw me.”

Without so much as a warning, Romeo changed and sniffed the ground for her scent. He walked back and forth, nosed leaves out of his way, sniffed again. Then, just when she thought he’d change back and she’d have to let him borrow her jacket, he sat down, lifted his head and howled. The sound was the heart-wrenching sound of a man who now knew the musky scent of his child’s killer. “Lead us on, Romeo,” Brody said, grabbing Sarina’s hand.

They followed Lilith’s scent for miles, reaching a huge clearing far east of the caves where Sarina had been rescued shortly after delivering her twins. Sarina saw her father’s eyes as he stopped and sat down. He couldn’t exactly talk to her, but she understood he wanted her to wait while he went forward alone. She didn’t like the idea, but she nodded her head in understanding. She reached forward and ran a hand down his back and smiled when his tongue licked her hand. “Be careful,” she said as he headed out at a soft trot.

Sarina found a place on the edge of the forest where she and Brody sat to wait. She leaned into him, thankful for his strength. They’d been through so much since the twins’ birth that she often felt they barely knew each other now. Lifting her head, she pressed her lips to his and felt the heat flash through her body. His hand played with her long, dark hair, tugging it playfully. When she opened to him, he gladly took them deeper, eliciting a soft moan from her. “I’ve missed you,” she said, a soft smile on her lips.

“I’ve missed you too,” he said, pressing his brow to hers.

Sarina settled against his chest again, feeling his arm wrap around her. She nodded off, knowing her father would be a while yet.

>>

Sarina woke later to excruciating pain, her head felt as if someone had pulled all her hair out by the roots. When she looked around though, the sight before her chilled her blood. The wolves that had accompanied her, and Brody lay dead, slaughtered like lambs at the butcher. “What do you think?” came a cackling little laugh. Sarina turned to see Lilith in a gold gown that left little to the imagination. “I did it as a present for your father.”

“My father is repulsed by you. Do you really think he’ll come to you when you murdered his son?”

“Oh, doll,” she laughed. “He’ll not only come to me, he’ll beg me to mate with him. Don’t you know how it was between us?”

“I know you had some ridiculous fascination with him. Apparently you haven’t learned to move on. Slow-witted, aren’t you?” Sarina yelped when sharp nails raked across her face, scoring her cheeks with deep incisions.

“Watch your tongue, you worthless spawn.”

“You don’t own me, you b***h!” Sarina yelled through the pain searing her face. Anger and grief mixed a dangerous potion in her heart as she reached out to deal her own amount of damage. When her hand passed through what would have been Lilith’s middle, Sarina quickly pulled her hand back.

Lilith just stood there laughing. “You naïve little whelp. You know nothing of the power I wield. Why don’t you go home and leave what’s between your father and me for us to settle ourselves? You always were second best you know. Had I not been so impatient and angry, I would have used your brother’s body for so much more. A waste really. But it did bring your father here, so I suppose killing his spawn, one of them at least, wasn’t as impulsive as I thought.”

Sarina held in her anger. She knew now that the woman before her was an illusion at best. She’d need to study to know if hurting her was possible when she was nothing but vapor. Even so, she couldn’t wait to get a piece of her. “I have no doubt that my father will tear you limb from limb when he gets his hands on you. I hope he peels your skin off of you while your flesh bakes in the sun. You’re a black plague to our kind and it’s obvious, even if not to you, that you need to be eliminated.”

The laugh was back, grating on Sarina’s ears. “I can’t wait to see you try, you spineless little whore.” Just when Sarina was about to give attacking her another try, she woke with a start, her body still cuddled next to Brody. She shook him hard, startling him from his own sleep. Collapsing against him, she sighed before telling him what happened. She rambled so fast that the whole story was out before he was able to get through to her.

“Sarina, she scratched you.”

“What?” Sarina asked, pressing her hand to her cheek and wincing in pain. “How in the hell? Brody, she was like an apparition. I tried to attack her and my hands went right through her as if she were a mist. Whatever witchcraft she’s using, it’s pitch black and dangerous.”

“Will your mother be able to handle it?”

“I don’t know, but we need to find my dad and get back to my mother. We need the Radiants, all four of them, and I need to talk to my dad.”

An hour later Romeo showed up and listened to Sarina’s story, showing anger at the deep s***h on her face. “She’ll pay for every one of her transgressions where my children are concerned,” he said, his voice fatally serious.