Alpha Rising

Chapter Five

Alvira's P.O.V.

Cold wind rushed past my ears as I leaned on my arm, elbow resting on the car door after the window was rolled down. My eyes closed tight and I let the scent of pine and dirt filter in with every slowly drawn breath. The sensation of the car moving was all that registered as I ran through the conversation from over a week ago again.

There was screaming, growling, crying. Mother had burst from the house when my father and I started to slowly circle each other. It was the telltale sign of an incoming duel, and we were struggling to fight the instincts that our beasts were calling to. Had it not been for her and for Alban… Goddess, I wonder what would have happened.

I remembered Al’s arms under mine, gripping me by the torso tightly and holding me back. There was the feeling of pressure on my neck, and there was the heat of a thrown punch still stinging on my bruised knuckles from my outburst against an innocent wall just last night. I dropped my chin in shame just thinking about what I said and what I did. 

Dad stormed out of the garden that night, looking far more hurt than I would have anticipated. And ever since, it was like walking on eggshells around him. My father's Beta, Stephan, had been acting as a makeshift go-between during the last days of my and Alban's college exams. His eyes held a disappointment whenever he looked at me, disappointment laced with understanding. But what did it mean? I'd never struck out at my parents like that before. What had-

“Vi?” I heard the call finally and snapped back to attention, looking to the left where Nell sat behind the steering wheel. She glanced my way briefly before turning back to the road. “You with us?” Her question made me hum and nod in acknowledgment. “You trailed off.” Alban and I had broken the news to her the night before the trip. It was directly against our Alpha’s orders, but I needed Nell on my side. To hell with what Dad wanted.

Alban’s hand hit my shoulder as he leaned up from the back seat and I reached up to pat it gently. It was his idea, us getting away for a few days. Not that it took much convincing when it came down to it. Mom was all for the idea of putting some space between me and my father for the time being. Even as we packed up Nell’s SUV, Mom seemed more than a little upset at Dad. She was giving him a hefty side-eye and had been rather short with him when he asked her about where the three of us were off to.

I broke my silence with a forced laugh and shifted in my seat so that I could better see Nell and Alban. “Yeah, I’m here.” I tugged on the seatbelt with one hand, c*****g my head to the side and trying to let my worries fade for now. Classes were over for the summer now, thank the Goddess, and we were headed up into the mountains for a long weekend at one of the family cabins. “What about you,” I teased her, lightly tapping on her shoulder. “Think you can survive being away from your other half so long?”

 It should have been the four of us. Me, my brother, Nell, and her new mate. I could see it in Nell’s eyes, she wanted to bring Joseph along to start getting to know him. But Aunt Emily was stubborn. She wanted his first weekend home to be with the family proper. 

Who could blame her? She’d been without her baby for the past year. Not only that but it had been the first time Joseph had stayed so far away from home since he was born. I looked back over at my friend almost a little wistfully. She was lucky to have found her mate so suddenly and so close. I knew Joseph well. Before he went overseas, he was as close to me as my own brother was. I was grateful that she had found her other half in any member of my family, even if it hadn't been my brother. 

Alban let out a solid laugh, leaning forward to jut his head between the seats and stick his tongue out at our friend. “They practically had to peel him off her when you were in your E-con final, Vi.” The rise of his eyebrows was suggestive but jovial. Alban didn’t have a malicious bone in his body to actively mock someone so close. But he still ended up asking the question that we were both thinking. “What’s it like? The connection.”

 Silently, I urged an answer with a curious look over at Nell. There weren’t many who actively chose to get as close to us as Nell did, with us being the Alpha’s children and all. Most were cordial with Alban, but a lot of them just thought of their own gain. Nell was different though. Her loyalty and her closeness to us both was something that we both cherished beyond anything. She was our only true friend that we knew wouldn't try to use us for her own advancement. And that’s what made it so easy to ask her these questions and to rag on her just a little bit. Nell scoffed, and a blush rose on her cheeks when she looked down for the briefest moment. 

“Like nothing I’ve ever felt before,” she said. “I was just sitting there, talking with your little brother while he was eating, and then it was like I could smell this…” One of her hands rose as she seemed to almost try and pluck the right word from thin air. “I don’t know. It smelled like salt air mixed with something sweet. Like I was surrounded in the warmest childhood memory.” Nell looked over at me, and I could see the glow in her cheeks. “It felt like home.”

Nell shrugged her shoulders before continuing. “And when he walked in, it was like nothing else in the world even mattered anymore.”

A sniffling sound came from the back seat, and I caught sight of my brother wiping at his nose. “Oh my god, you big softie!” I teased, reaching back to punch his leg. “Are you crying?!” 

"No!" Alban said muffled through his hands. Liar.

Nell looked back for half a second, a smile splitting her lips wide as she let out a short laugh. “Is he?” 

“To hell with you,” he said through one hand, shaking with laughter and batting me away with the other. “Both of you. And hey!” He pointed forward out the windshield. “Watch the road!” But I could tell that he was just as hopeful as I was that we’d get to experience the same joy and completion as Nell and Joseph. 

Nell had started making kissing noises at him, and I reached back to pinch his cheeks just like our Grandmother used to. It was dumb, and it was juvenile, but hadn’t we earned that right?

The three of us erupted in a chorus of laughter, and the conversation continued on from there in one of the more pleasant and relaxing ones that we’d had in that entire month. We were separated from the drama, from the trials and the problems forced upon us by the Elders and our Alpha. For the first time in months, it felt like we were just normal young wolves out on a year-end vacation with not a care in the world. That carried almost the rest of the drive to the cabin, the lighthearted conversation a much-needed reprieve from the trials of the past few weeks. 

When the car rolled to a stop, Alban was the first to hop out. He left the door hanging open and whooped loudly, sprinting off down the path towards the secluded hideaway that was ours for the next few days. 

“Goddess save me, I wish I had his energy,” Nell said with a sigh. She reached back for Alban’s bag and slung it over her free shoulder. She pushed her braid back and snatched her sunglasses from the visor with a satisfied hum as the last cloud cover we had seemed to vanish. 

“Right?” I replied, shouldering my duffel and moving to house the cooler from the trunk. “Maybe if he had that much energy in the gym, he could keep up with me in the ring!” I called the jovial insult out to my brother, who simply decided to flip me off from a distance. Already, he was tearing off his shirt and bee-lining for the lake.

I looked off down the beaten path from the parking pad and watched as the dirt twisted and turned off underneath thick trees. The sunlight that pierced the canopy cast the entire camp into this warm ethereal light that instantly took me back to the summers of our childhood spent here. The lake was only a short walk from the large cabin, and visible from the enclosed back porch. Alban sprang from the short pier, hollering in joy before he landed with a resounding splash in the otherwise placid water. 

Nell was right behind me, and I heard the beep of the car’s lock. Good. This was precisely what I needed. The two of us went about setting up the cabin; putting the groceries and whatnot away and just airing out the living room by throwing the big bay windows wide open. We saw Alban’s phone in a wicker basket near the front door and took the hint. Both of our ringers were set to silent, and we tossed our cells in there right beside his. Nobody needed to bother us this weekend. 

Taking another hint from my twin, I ducked into the bedroom just off the main living space and changed into one of the bikinis that I’d brought with me. Black, simple, and a halter top. I slung two towels over my shoulder and grabbed a couple of water bottles on my way out the door, whistling a light and airy tune as I made my way down to the pier. With a running start, I dropped everything I was carrying and sprinted off of the edge of the pier. 

Cool water filled my senses and dulled everything as I plummeted into the blue depths. My eyes were clenched tight as I swam further from the pier. All around me I could hear the muffled splashes and laughs of my brother and my friend. There was a whooshing rush of bubbles and water as another body came plummeting into the water behind me. I could only assume it was Nell as I finally resurfaced with a sputtering breath. 

“Took you long enough,” Alban said, a handful of water already aimed directly at my face. 

I coughed and spit out the lake water, rubbing my eyes until I could see clearly again. “Would have gone faster if you’d actually carried in your own bag,” I chided. The way his eyes widened let me know that he hadn’t even realized the speed at which he’d abandoned us, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I only let him sweat it out for another minute or so before laughing and tossing my hair back over my shoulder. “Just make it up to us later. I hate hauling firewood.”

His eyes practically lit up at the insinuation. That boy loved a good bonfire. “You got it, Vi.” Alban swam closer, seemingly to get out of the way of the bubbles that were trailing where Nell still swam underwater. 

While I was laughing, I felt the tug on my ankle. There was only a brief instant before I was pulled back under the water. Just barely long enough to take a breath. Nell’s laugh rang as she surfaced, but I was already planning my revenge. With a mischievous little grin, I kicked away from the pair and swam back around to come up behind her. As I burst up from the water to splay myself over her shoulder and drag her down with me, I let out a less than graceful mocking roar. The two of us tumbled beneath the surface, rolling with each other until our lungs burned for air and we came crashing up into the warm May air. 

I wanted nothing more than for that mood and that day to last a lifetime. But, like everything, the light eventually began to fade and the air took a chill once the sun had disappeared fully behind the mountain range. It took some convincing to get us out onto the shore, but Alban reminded us of his promise to kickstart the night’s campfire. 

The three of us sat around the glowing flame once night fell fully. The smell of the smoke and the crack of the burning wood cut through the otherwise silent lakeside. It was all that filled me and all that I focused on. Even when Nell started to talk about her finals, I only let my attention half focus on the words with my muttered agreements spoken muffled around the gooey s’mores that came with any proper camping fire.

This was all I needed right now. Calm fun, no connections, and nothing to worry about. Even the faint snap of twigs in the treeline didn’t catch me off guard. We’d seen some deer grazing in the brush at dusk, and I was certain it was one of them. Oh, goddess, how I wish it had just been the deer. 

My wolf snarled in my mind just a second before something heavy fell across my shoulders with a deep and painful thud.