The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

He linked a few people, then looked back at me. “My car is being brought around, and Teri is going to wake up Tania to see if she’s coming.”

“We may have to drive separate,” I said. “We can’t wait.” We were already out of his office; the Luna would be ten minutes behind us with Tania and their Beta. We jumped into the waiting SUV and took off for the airport.

We were still in town when I got another call from the unknown number. “We just landed,” she told me. “Send the Alpha and Tania to the plane, Hangar Four. They’re both still out, I left a note in her pocket with the time and doses of sedatives they were given for the Pack Doctor.”

“Alpha Clark and I are close, I will send him to the plane. Teri and Tania are ten minutes behind us.”

“No one else?”

“No. You don’t have to worry about us, we aren’t going to arrest you or turn you in, Talia. We want the same thing you do.”

“I think you seek justice, I seek revenge,” she said. “Have him drop you at the main gate, I’ll be in the parking lot outside the terminal on my Harley. I hope you’re not scared of riding a motorcycle,” she said.

“Hardly, I’ve been riding them on my family’s ranch since I was six,” I said. “I’d love to ride with you.”

“Talk, Randall. We need to talk, so you can realize why this thing between us will never work. I’ll see you soon.”

“Love you, Talia,” I said. She hung up without replying, but I meant what I said. She was my mate, I loved her, she was MINE and I wasn’t letting her go. I didn’t care what she thought it was that would drive me off, it wouldn’t.

Fifteen nervous minutes later, we were pulling through the gates and into the La Crosse Regional Airport. I was looking around for my mate, and I spotted her at the other end of the parking lot. “Let me out here,” I asked.

“Good luck, Randall. Treat her right.”

“Yes sir,” I said as I unbuckled and jumped out. I walked across the lot towards her, every emotion in the world going through me at the same time. My wolf was forward, he smelled her, he wanted to smell her, run with her and mate her. I pushed back the images he sent as I walked towards the beautiful, strong woman that Talia had become. In the daylight, she was a vision. She was wearing black jeans with a silver belt, calf-high boots and a black Harley T-shirt. She was leaning against the seat of her motorcycle, a Softtail with metallic purple paint. Her blonde hair blew away from her shoulders in the late afternoon breeze, and Ray-Bans hid her blue eyes from me.

She was everything I could ask for and more.

She got off the seat of her Harley as I came closer, biting her lip nervously as she looked at the ground. “Hello,” I said as I came up to her. “Smooth, boy. Real Romeo.” I shut my wolf up and reached out, my fingers lifting her chin up to look at me.

Tingles ran up my arm as I touched her, and she let out a soft gasp. I moved my hand to her cheek, the tingles multiplying, as she stood frozen in front of me. I reached my left arm around her as I moved close enough for her body to press against mine. I bent down, burying my nose in her hair as my hand pulled her nose into my shoulder. “MATE,” my wolf confirmed. He was over the moon having her in his arms, and he couldn’t wait to run with her. I took a deep sniff, sorting through the complex scent that was my mate. The part my wolf recognized was prominent, but underneath it was something else; something that smelled of death, but not quite.

I pulled back from her, sorting things out in my brain, when it finally hit me. It had been years ago, I was just a pup, but the smell of the blood on my father’s skin came to my mind. It couldn’t be. “Talia?” I cupped her face in my hands and looked in her eyes. “Why do you smell like vampire blood?”

She looked away from me. “Not now,” she said. “Hop on.”

She straddled the low-riding Harley and I got on behind her. Wrapping my arms around her felt wonderful, and I enjoyed every moment of our ride. She took us back to the Interstate and up Highway 61 a few miles until we turned off. “Great River Bluffs State Park?”

“We need to talk, and if you argue with me, I can toss you off the cliff,” she said. I just snorted and pulled my arms tighter around her muscled stomach.

She paid for a day pass and drove to the parking lot. We got off and she led me up the trail. “I need to tell you my story,” she said. “It isn’t easy, and I’m not going to lie to you. If you want me, if you love me like you say you do, you’ll let me explain everything.”

I reached out my hand for her. “I’ll listen to everything you have to say, but you have to promise not to run from me. One way or another, we come to a decision today. I don’t want another night to pass without knowing if my mate will accept me.”

“All right,” she said with a shy smile. Her hand felt perfect in mine. “When Tania disappeared and my parents were killed, I was is shock. I was sixteen, I never expected to be in that situation, and I didn’t know what to do. My aunt and uncle kept me at their Pack for my protection, while Beta Todd took care of things at Tomah. In retrospect, that was the worst thing that could happen, because my Pack looked to him for leadership instead of me.”

“I’m pretty sure Beta Todd is behind your parent’s death, but I don’t have proof yet,” I said.

“He’s going to die, I might keep him alive long enough to find out who else was involved.” The trail got steeper as we climbed up from the river valley, it was beautiful here. “By the time I tried to assert my leadership, the Council and Todd worked together to make sure it didn’t happen. None of them were comfortable with a female Alpha, much less one my age, so I was given an ultimatum. Mate with Beta Todd to unify the Pack, or he would take it with another at his side. I issued the challenge. I wasn’t going to take him as my mate ever, and I wasn’t going to let go of the Pack. I fought as hard as I could, but I lost.”Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“Erica told me how bravely you fought.”

“Erica was braver than I was. When I woke, I had been exiled. The backpack she left for me helped me make it to a gas station, and that is where I met someone who would change my life. For their protection, I’m not going to give you their real names or their location.”

“I won’t say anything, not unless you let me.”

“It’s better you don’t know. I was injured and weak, and who pulled into the gas station I was sitting at but a female vampire.”

I froze, forcing her to stop. “A vampire? She didn’t kill you?”

“I amused her, evidently, and I was in no shape to fight. She offered me refuge, and I took it. I traveled with her to her coven and met the leader. I had made a blood vow to avenge my family, and he offered to train me, so I was strong enough to do it. What had I to lose? I was a rogue, I’d lost my Pack and my family, and I couldn’t do it as I was.”

“You joined the Coven?”

“I agreed to perform services for him in exchange for training and his blood.” She stopped and turned me towards her. “Vampire venom is deadly to werewolves, and ingesting their blood is distasteful but harmless. However, the blood of a Vampire Master, injected into the body of a werewolf, creates a hybrid.”

“His blood is in you? Wait, you have a heartbeat…”

“The changes that occurred were like changing a human into a wolf, but much more painful. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced; the pain lasted for days. When I woke, I was different. I’m not a vampire, I’m still a werewolf, but the blood made me a little, well, vampire-ry.”

“Like a hybrid?”

“Exactly. I’m stronger than a werewolf, I gained vampire speed, my aging has slowed and my bite is toxic to werewolves now. It doesn’t kill them quickly like a real vampire bite would, death takes a week or so. The change is permanent; I didn’t regret it until I saw you that night, because to bite you now would doom you to a slow and painful death.”

She would never be able to complete the bond. No wonder she thought I would reject her. “You can’t bite me, but I could still bite you?”

“I think so. It’s not like we have a lot to go on, this had only been done a dozen or so times in history before me and most of them died in the transition. It was worth it, because as you know, I can defeat Alphas easily now.” That was true, she waded through Packs like a hot knife through butter. Fast and brutally effective, she was an unmatched fighter. “I trained for a year, then I started killing the people he wanted me as my part of the bargain. They weren’t good men, and the Vampire Council wanted them dead without starting a war. Using me gave them deniability. I did what I was told. As I got older, I spent more time searching for my sister and finding ways to make money so I wouldn’t burden the Coven. I had just finished winning a private poker tournament when I found my sister.”

“You don’t know how happy I am that you did, because that led me to you.”

“I just was happy she was out. I took her back to the Coven and got her through the heroin withdrawals, then I took her home. I got enough information to her to know her son was alive in Copper Mountain territory, so I knew I had to get him first. Now that he is home, I’m going to kill Alpha Todd and Alpha Justin. I can’t do that with you, I’m untouchable. Even being seen with me is enough to put you in danger. If I mate you, they’ll still kill me, and that will kill you.” We had reached the East Overlook, it was empty and the view was amazing. “That is why you must reject me, here and now. I am an abomination, a creature with the form of a wolf and the bloodlust of a vampire. I will never be accepted by a Pack, I will never be an Alpha. The Council will never forgive what I have done at the behest of the Vampire Council. If that wasn’t enough, I can’t even complete a mating with you.” She looked at me, tears in her eyes. “I love you enough to let you have a chance at life, Randall. I, Talia Ann Stillwater, reject..”