~Mercury~
I woke up to the sound of Jane's voice. "Wake up hun. Beck is here to take you." I turn over and see Jane standing over me. Her gentle way of talking and care make me feel calm.
"You remind me of my mother," I say to Jane in a sleepy tone as I sit up on the edge of the bed. Jane laughs lightly.
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"A good thing. She was very kind, always had a smile on her face, and always made me feel warm. I miss her." I bite my lip and look down at my hands.
"You talk about her in the past tense." I hear Beck say. I look up and see him standing a few feet away by the door.
"She passed away 5 years ago when I was 13."
"I'm sorry. You must miss her." Beck says and he walks towards me.
"Yes but I'm okay. I've learned to deal with the grief better than some." I think of my father and how he drowns himself in whiskey every day. I definitely think I'm doing better than him, kidnapping aside. I go to stand up and I feel a little wobbly but overall a lot better than yesterday when Beck found me.
Beck leans down and places a pair of slippers at my feet. "I noticed you were barefoot and I thought you'd like something to cover your feet. They're already pretty banged up." Beck chuckles. I look down at my feet and he's right. Jane bandaged my feet but they were pretty cut up from running barefoot in the forest for 5 days.
I slide my feet in the slippers and smile at him. "Thank you. That's very kind of you to think about."
"Anytime," he looks at me. "Unfortunately one of our Alphas had to take off on some last-minute, unexpected business. So you'll just be meeting Elliot today." He holds out his arm from me to hold, "Shall we?"
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Beck leads me to a car waiting at the front of the building. The sun is starting to set. I didn't notice yesterday when he brought me in, but we were only on the second floor. The tower is about six stories high. The top floor looks like it's made of mostly mostly windows, which makes sense since Beck called it a guard tower. Guards need to be able to look out in all directions.
Beck opens the passenger door of a black sedan for me and I climb in. Five minutes later, we're driving through the town I saw through the window in the tower. The town has a bunch of little shops and stores. There are tons of people walking around, going about their lives. We drive the rest of the way in a comfortable silence. I've only known Beck for less than a day, but I like him better than anyone I've met back home. After about fifteen minutes, we start to pull into a long driveway. At the other end of the driveway is the biggest house I've ever seen. It's made from dark reddish brown brick with loads of greenery and flowers outside. It looks seven stories high. I couldn't believe this is a house. It looks like an extremely fancy hotel.
"This is the house your Alpha leaders live in? This is insane!" I say to Beck. He lets out a breathy laugh.
"Its not just the two of them. So many other people live here. There are a bunch of people always in the house. It's never empty. The top floor is only for Alpha's though. No one else is allowed on the seventh floor." Beck explains to me. I look back at the house and it takes my breath away again. The house is beautiful.
We come to a stop at the front of the house and someone is standing there waiting. Beck gets out and walks around the car to my door. He moves pretty fast for such a big guy. I didn't even have my seatbelt off before he's opening the door.
"Thanks," I look to the boy standing by the stairs waiting for us. "Is that Elliot?"
"Haha, no." Beck laughs. "That's Mav. He's only a kid. 16, I think? He's the valet." Beck hands his keys and some money to Mav, then gives him a fist bump. "Thanks dude."
"No problem." Mav calls back with a smile. He gets in Beck's car and drives it away while Beck leads me up the steps to the door. He stops at the door and his eyes suddenly look glossy.
"Beck, are you okay?" I ask worried. I grab his arm in case he falls. Not that I'd do much to help him. He's gotta be at least 6'0, whereas I'm barely 5'3.
Beck snaps out of it and looks down at me. "I'm all good, don't worry. Elliot is in his office. That's where we're going to meet him."
I nod and just brush it off, even though that was a little weird. It almost looked like he was having an internal conversation. His eyes were glossy and almost clouded over. We step inside the door and there are lots of people in here like Beck said. Some look like maids, others look like regular people. The house is very well decorated. Looks like a woman did it. It's very warm and inviting.
A familiar feeling of warmth in my body and tiny sparks in my fingers appear. Oh god, please no. I don't want to freak Beck out. He might tell this Alpha guy I'm crazy and lock me up again. But then the feeling changes. It's like a pull. Something inside of me is pulling me towards something. I just don't know what. I can't figure it out right now.
"Offices are on the second floor. Let's go. Alphas don't like to wait." Beck leads me to the stairs. This Alpha guy is starting to sound like a prick. If he wanted to meet me so badly, why didn't he just come to the guard tower?
I let Beck lead and I follow him up the staircase. The pulling feeling is still there, but it feels like I'm heading in the direction it wants me to. Maybe I'll be able to figure out what it wants after all. We get to the top of the steps and we head towards two big oak doors. Beck stops in front of the one on the left. There's a gold plaque on the door that reads 'Alpha Elliot'. This must be his office. The other door must be the other Alpha's office. I think Jane said his name was Arthur.
The pulling feeling is stronger but somehow softer. Like I'm so close to what it wants me to find. Maybe it's behind this door. Could it be the Alpha?
Beck doesn't knock, he just stands there. I look at him confused and his eyes are glossy again. What is going on with him?
Just then, Beck snaps out of it and opens the door. If these Alpha guys are the leaders, isn't it disrespectful to just open the door unannounced?
"Alpha Elliot." Beck lowers his head. I look up at the man he called Alpha Elliot and the pulling feeling just snaps. It wanted me to find him. He must be the most gorgeous man i have ever laid eyes on. He's really tall, like 6'5 at least. He's got dark curly hair messily styled on his head and bright blue eyes. He's wearing gray dress pants and a blue button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. His olive skin looks so smooth I want to reach out and touch him. He's built like a brick wall, he's so muscular. Just as I'm looking this man up and down, he steps around his desk and walks towards me faster than I'm prepared for.
"Mate." Elliot says breaths out.
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~Elliot~
I sigh and lean back in my chair. I've been here all afternoon working. I haven't even had time to go eat dinner yet and it's already 6:45pm. Beck is supposed to be bringing that girl that stumbled into our territory last night at 7. When he told my brother Arthur and I last night a girl collapsed in front of him, claiming to have escaped from her kidnappers, we just told him to bring her to the guard tower to hydrate and send her on her way. She had to be human. Magical beings aren't usually kidnapped by humans. Us werewolves are hard to trap. We are significantly bigger, stronger and faster than humans, and we can shift into our wolves for and even bigger advantage. I didn't think this girl had anything special about her until Jane, our pack doctor, mind-linked me and told me this girl isn't a human. But she acts like she is. Jane thinks this girl, who she said's name is Mercury, is of magical blood. Not a werewolf, but possibly a fae or a caster. A caster is like a witch, but they don't like to be called that. They changed their names when the word 'witch' started being used as an insult. So they changed it to a less threatening term. Fae beings live with their own kind, like werewolves do in packs, and they usually have some sort of indicator of what element they can control. There's fire, earth, wind, and water. Usually a tribal marking or a piece of jewelry. Casters live more independently. Some of the really skilled ones are advisors to Alphas. My pack has Greta. She's very old, in her 90s, but she's wise. My grandfather chose her to be an advisor when he was Alpha. My father was young. We like her and she knows the pack well, so we have never thought about replacing her.
If this Mercury girl is a caster, why didn't she tell Jane? She had to have known she was in werewolf territory. Why else would she come this way. Unless she doesn't know?
"Sorry to disturb you, Alpha. I am here with the girl. Where should I bring her?" Beck says to me through the mind-link. Beck is our top warrior. He's only 19 but he's well on his way to taking over for our commander when he retires.
"Bring her up to my office." I say back through the link. I had hoped to meet this strange girl with Arthur. But one of our allied packs were invaded by rouges this morning and he went out with a group of our men to help. So it's just me.
Suddenly, the sweetest scent hits my nose. It's smells like lavender and sage. I stand from my seat to go look when I'm interrupted.
"Alpha, we are at your door." Beck says through the mind-link.
Fuck. "Come in."