Alpha Rising

Chapter Forty-Four

Alvira’s P.O.V.

Bag? Check. Tickets? Check. Will to live? …Debatable. I had no idea how I had pulled all-nighters in high school. I might only be twenty-one now, but I felt like I was eighty with how my bones creaked and my head ached. Gamma Phillip was already downstairs when I came down for breakfast. Nikolai had insisted I take him, along with one of their female fighters, Mariah. Nikolai had said that I knew Mariah, but her name didn’t sound familiar at all.

Dark circles hung under my eyes. Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten any sleep last night. Between the debriefing on Moonstone’s situation, packing, and fighting with Nikolai I was absolutely beat. At the breakfast table, I had nearly faceplanted into my bowl of oatmeal, only saved by the grace that was Nikolai’s firm grip on my shoulder.

“Vira,” Nikolai said, his own exhaustion creeping into his tone mingled with annoyance. “Focus. You can sleep on the flight.” He sat down beside me and poked at his bowl. “Mariah will be here in ten minutes. Then you two and Phillip will head to the airport.” Nikolai muttered something under his breath after that, but I couldn’t quite catch it.

I heard a snap again, and my eyes drifted open. “Hnn,” I muttered, letting my cheek rest on my hand. “Tired.” This was, apparently, the wrong thing to say.

“You wouldn’t be tired if you listened to me,” he hissed, pain clear in those beautiful summer sky eyes of his. I furrowed my brow in frustration and bit back a snide remark. He saw right through that, though, and let out a huff as he turned back to his own breakfast. “I don’t want you going down there,” Nikolai finally said again.

I just let my spoon clatter into my bowl and threw up my hands in frustration. “I knew it!” I cried. “I knew you wouldn’t drop that!” My brown curls were tied up in a tight ponytail, but the force of my shaking still whipped them right into my face. I sputtered as I brushed my own hair out of my mouth and pointed my finger at Nikolai again. “You have to let me go!”

“Can you blame me?!” He was growling, hovering just above me as he stood from his chair at the table. Had I not been furious with him, I would have been extremely turned on at this display. “In the past six months,” he started. “You’ve been personally attacked twice, stalked here, and thrown into a position of power.”

It was a veritable laundry list of events; all of which were certainly true. But I wasn’t about to let that stop me. Something in my gut told me that I was supposed to be down there and helping this family. A lump in my throat threatened to suffocate me as I thought about what those parents would go through if anything happened to Marcus. “I can handle my own, Nikolai.” I rolled my shoulder out of his reach when he tried to grab me again and stood on my own. “I let you pick both of my partners. What more do you want?”

Both of his hands gripped me hard on my shoulders, and he looked like he was about to cry. Nikolai’s voice shook as he drew in a ragged breath and eventually spoke calmly. “For you to stay here.”

“I can’t do that.” My head was shaking again. I knew that if he cried, then I would too. And I just couldn’t have that. Poor Phillip was in the corner of the room, trying to silently edge away, but he stopped once I looked over at him sharply. “I can’t just send other people to do my job.”

“But you can,” he tried to counter. “We can send Mariah and Phillip, and you can just-”

“No!” I shouted, feeling my own Alpha aura surge from deep in my chest. “I made a promise to the alliance.” It wasn’t even just about this, it was about the whole task force looking for these rogues. I stood up in front of a room full of wolves who knew me before I was ever an Alpha, and had told them I would see this plan through. 

“I made a promise to that little boy’s father,” I continued once I swallowed the dryness in my throat. My arms tensed as I jerked free of Nikolai’s grasp and scooped up my breakfast dishes. “And if my going down to f*****g Mississippi can help save a little kid,” I said, slamming my bowl into the sink and breaking it. “Then you bet your ass I’m going to go there and do it.”

Before he could try to stop me again, I shouldered my carry-on bag and stormed towards the front door. Trevor appeared in the doorway as I was trying to take my leave, and unfortunately, I did end up snapping at him.

“Morning Vir-”

“Move, Trevor!”

“Oop, okay, okay!” He nearly dove right out of my way, and I could hear him ask a question as I stormed away. I didn’t hear the reply, but I did hear Nikolai and Phillip yelling at him to just shut up.

Rage still coursed through me as I slammed the front door of the packhouse shut. In my frustration and anger, I had all but bowled over some poor wolf in my path. The two of us tumbled to the concrete, and I acted as quickly as I could to throw my arm out behind her head to keep it from hitting the ground. It worked, though I felt like I might have sprained my wrist in doing so. 

“Oh my god,” I heard the woman under me say with genuine care. “Luna, are you okay”

Luna? She called me the– I shook my head and my eyes shot open. I was met with the most beautiful set of caramel eyes I’d ever seen. They were warm and wide, full of concern for me. I scrambled back off of her and did my best to help her up with my non-injured hand. It wasn’t until she was standing and I truly got a good look at her face did I recognize her. 

“You’re the other wolf who volunteered at the meeting,” I said. Even in the dim morning light, I could sense the same strong features and beautifully rich bronze complexion. Her hair was done differently this time, sitting free in tight corkscrew coils that hung to the tops of her shoulders. 

“The very same,” she said with pride, dropping her bag to the steps and taking my injured arm in her hand. “Mariah O’Neal,” she introduced herself to me officially. "I've been out bouncing between the other packs, building up the files on the attacks"

Impressive. “Alvira Lundine,” I replied, but she only laughed. 

“Oh I know who you are,” Mariah said with a smirk. “All us she-wolves who fight do.” I suppose my quizzical look spoke volumes despite my lack of words, because she was just shaking her head as she gently pressed at different spots on my arm. “You’re a female Alpha!” Mariah exclaimed. “We all WISH we could have that right.”

“You...do?” I questioned, wincing once she pressed closer to my wrist. It didn’t pop or crack, so I assumed I was fine, but it was definitely tender. 

“Hell yeah, we do.” Mariah leaned back down to pull something from her bag, and I realized it was an elastic wrap bandage. She took care and wrapped my wrist tightly, looking up at my expression periodically to monitor my pain. “You were the talk of the social club even before you were acknowledged,” she added. “I told them all how you put those Alphas in their place at the meeting back in May.” Admittedly, that thought did make me smile a bit. 

“Well,” I said once she was done with my wrist. “I’m glad to be able to put a name to that pretty face of yours.” The compliment must have caught her off guard because she stared at me for just a moment. “Oh, oh no I didn’t mean to offend.”

Mariah shook her head after a second and raised her hand up apologetically. “No offense taken,” she said. “I promise.”

It was then that Nikolai and Phillip managed to come out and find us there, chatting away like we were old friends. “Ah,” Nikolai said. “I see you finally found her.” I could see a bit of the pain still in his eyes, but by the look he gave to Phillip, I think that maybe he’d had some sense talked into him. 

“Alpha,” Mariah said, bowing deeply. “Thank you for asking me to accompany the Luna and Gamma on this mission.”

My mate straightened, motioning for the she-wolf to rise up. “No,” he said. “Thank you for helping to keep them safe.” Mariah was practically beaming at that statement, and it was clear that she was very proud of her role to be played. “I want all three of you to be safe,” he finally said as we filed into the car that would take us to the airport. “And I want you to bring back that boy.”

I lingered beside the car a moment after the other two were seated, and stood in tense silence with Nikolai staring pleadingly into my eyes. I knew he wanted me to back out, but I just shook my head. Resigned, he sighed and let his shoulders slump before leaning in and kissing me tenderly on the cheek. 

“Come back to me safe, Vira.” His words were laced with the fear of loss that any sane Mate would have. I didn't need to return his concerns though, because when I looked up at him with confidence in my eyes he was already starting to smile softly.