Frostbitten 3

by Destiny Hawkins

  Alexa looked up. “We’re nearly there”

  “Nearly where?”

  Alexa’s eyes flashed with excitement. “Follow me.”

  In an instant, she rushed ahead at full speed, and I was quick to follow behind.

  Actually, I was too quick.

  I wasn’t even sure where we were going, but I was sure that Alexa and I were racing.

  Bright orange, red, and yellow trees blended in a blur as I ran at full speed. Only thing I could make out was Alexa’s figure only a few feet away from me as she leapt over logs and zigzagged between tall trees, and I couldn’t help but notice how she looked like a golden light flashing across the forest. The thought made me chuckle. Two golden lights in the trees would look very odd to anyone in a helicopter above.

  “How far are we going to go?” I thought.

  “Stop now,” her thoughts echoed back.

  Suddenly, the world stopped spinning at a rapid rate, and I found myself standing before a small pond surrounded by glistening red trees. Leading out to the center of the pond was a long wooden deck that looked as if it were built for the sole purpose of standing in the sun.

  The sight suddenly grew blurry as I gasped at the beauty presented to me. There were so many colors surrounding me, the light was glistening from the dark water, and warming my shimmering skin.

  “Where are we?” I asked, quickly blinking away my tears. I wasn’t sure why I was feeling so emotional but didn’t mind. The heat growing in my chest was nice.

  “When I arrived to Alaska, I found this place, just as it is,” Alexa pointed ahead. “I was angry and lost…needed to find myself, so I left society and travelled the forests on foot for a while.”

  When I turned to Alexa, she seemed lost in a memory with her eyes reflecting the sunlight.

  “I stopped when I came across this pond. Standing just on the other side, I thought that…that I saw Esha and had passed out from disbelief.” she chuckled, “I guess a little exhaustion came into play as well. When I woke up,” she turned to me. “I met Argus.”

  A twinge of jealousy surfaced at the thought of Alexa and Loren, but then I imagined what that must’ve been like. She had lost her lover, only to think she’d finally found her. Her mind had to be filled with questions or maybe nothing processed at all. Seeing the face of a lost loved one was something she thought she’d never see again.

  Alexa turned to me with a soft smile, then looked down and gently took my hand, causing me to tense before relaxing. It was as if my hand practically melted into hers. “Come.”

  Walking forward, the two of us walked across the deck and sat down at the center of the pond with our legs dangling over the edge.

  After taking in the view a little more, I decided to break the silence.

  “Did you ever come out here again?” I asked.

  Alexa nodded. “Everyday that I lived with them. Me and his youngest sister, Lisa, used to come out here together.”

  In only an instant, I saw a flash of a woman with curly black hair and light brown eyes. I didn’t get the feeling of lust, but a deep love, like how one would love a twin.

  My eyebrows furrowed. “You knew the rest of their family?”

  Alexa nodded. “I lived with them. Argus was the first that I got to know, then I learned about Loren and doppelgangers when I asked him about her.” She chuckled. “Lor was welcoming and sweet, Kastien wouldn’t stop hitting on me, Aramus was nice to talk to, Agron was simply a gentleman, and Kahlien was like having a competitive little brother. The others in the pack back then kept their distances, but Lisa wasn’t afraid to befriend me. We had grown close.” She lowered her eyes to the water. “She understood me, and I could open up to her.”

  I chuckled. “I bet Loren was jealous.”

  “She was. Loren was just a replacement for Esha, I guess. I had no business getting into a relationship when I wasn’t over her.”

  I gazed at her for a moment before turning back to the water. “Are you now? Over…her?”

  When Alexa didn’t answer right away, I turned back to her. “No. I don’t think I will ever get over Esha. When I think of her, I will always feel heartache, but it’s not so bad that I can’t love anyone else. Not anymore. Moving on now…it’s okay.” She finally turned to me, her gaze intense and innocent at the same time. This must’ve been the real Alexa. The one before she was turned into a vampire.

  I knew that Alexa wasn’t as vacant as she tried to make herself seem, but I had no idea that she was filled with so much light. So much purity. The true version of her shined the brightest.

  Alexa opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated and turned back towards the water, then she chuckled almost nervously. “Want to see something that Lisa loved me to do?”

  I snapped out of my trance and furrowed my brows, then cleared my throat. “Sure.”

  Alexa held her hand out over the water, then took a deep breath and began raising droplets around us that glistened in the sunlight, appearing as bright blinking Christmas lights.

  I still hadn’t taken my eyes off of Alexa but could see the view in my peripheral. My mind just couldn’t move on from her last words. Why was she able to move on from Esha now? Was it because of time, or because of me? Or maybe it was both.

  Am I even who she wanted to move on with?

  While still holding her hand in the air, Alexa turned back to me with the same intensity as before. “Yes, you are.”

  When my fluttering heart began to pound, I wondered how long I had been waiting for this moment. When had I even started? I knew that I wanted this because of the relief I felt pouring over me, but…

  “I’m in love with you,” Alexa’s thoughts echoed in almost a whisper.

  Those words were enough to stop my heart alone, leaving me breathless and wordless, and when Alexa began to move towards me, I was completely motionless.

  It wasn’t until her soft lips pressed against mine did I snap out of it, instantly melting into her.

  Sprinkles of water showered down on us before she slid her hand up my cheek, stopping with her thumb placed over my temple. I trembled with chills, almost purring, when I leaned deeper into her, my hand sliding up to the lower half of her torso.

  I was nervous and didn’t know what I was doing, but I realized that I’d wanted this for so long that I couldn’t pull away and I couldn’t resist her touch.

  “I love you too,” I thought back.

  Alexa only slightly pulled away with an almost heartbreaking expression. Were those words something she’d been waiting on? Words that didn’t mean much to her coming from Loren, but everything coming from me.

  When she kissed me again, the water beneath us began to freeze and Alexa had to yank her foot out just in time before the entire pond was frozen over.

  I blinked, shocked at what I had done with just my toe. It was all that was in the water so that had to be what caused it.

  Alexa looked below with wide eyes, and I thought I’d upset her before she burst into laughter. A very light, sexy, French-sounding laugh. “Is this what’s going to happen every time we kiss?”

  I never heard her laugh like this before.

  I chuckled, nervously at first, before I saw the humor in what I’d done. It was actually kind of embarrassing. I had frozen over a pond from a kiss. “I…” I shook my head. “I hope not.” My eyebrows shot up. “Wait…again?” I knew that I was asking a stupid question, but I needed confirmation. I needed to know that this was real.

  Before, I kept telling myself that I didn’t understand my feelings for her because I couldn’t imagine loving a woman this way when I was a junky human, but things changed and a relationship was formed. I changed, and of all the things that had happened since then, loving Alexa felt like the most unreal thing of all.

  “Only if you want to,” Alexa said. “I would never force you to do anything.”

  “I know. I trust you.” I bit down on my lower lip. “And you would never have to force me.”

  Al
exa leaned into me, this time a purr rumbling in her chest. Her expression had somewhat shifted from innocent to vampiric, which was nothing more than a turn on.

  When there was the sound of a single leaf crunching behind us, we both snapped our heads back to find a black wolf standing at the beginning of the deck with angry blazing eyes and bared teeth.

  I tensed when Alexa grabbed my arm. “It’s Loren.”

  The wolf growled as if ready to attack, but instead, rushed off into the woods.

  I turned back to Alexa in question.

  Her jaw tightened. “We need to get back.”

  Chapter Ten

  When we got back to the mansion, I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I knew to be on high alert. We walked straight through the glass doors that led to the lounge room and walked over to the others who stood around the coffee table.

  “What’s going on?” Alexa asked.

  As we walked further into the room, I found Loren still in wolf form, standing beside Argus.

  Argus was tense but held his composure. He had one hand tucked into his pocket with a loosened red tie around his neck, and his eyes were glowing brighter than the others. There was also a dark energy in the room and when I took a peek at his aura, I found that it was more black than gold this time.

  Argus took a deep breath when his eyes roamed over us, taking in our glowing appearances before speaking. “There’s an emergency. Two M.O.D.’s visited the witches coven that works for me.”

  “How do they know it’s M.O.D.’s?” Lor asked.

  “They don’t. I was given a description of them, which described a lot of Alexa’s characteristics when she is engaged in a fight.”

  The silence after was like a blow to the stomach, and I could feel Alexa’s fear and anxiety rising in my chest. The emotions were almost crushing and only worsened at the realization that we weren’t safe anymore. I guessed after weeks with no word or information on Bardelos, we had begun to feel safe. Like the soldiers had gone elsewhere on their hunt for us.

  Now, we knew that they hadn’t, and reality was beginning to sink in.

  Argus turned back to the others. “It is our duty to protect them as they have protected us for many years.”

  “What if it’s another ambush?” Agron asked.

  “We will split into teams. One group will stay back while the other goes in to extract the witches. If it is an ambush…” He turned back to Alexa. “Alexa, we will need you to be with the backup team. Your telekinetic powers should outdo theirs.”

  I sighed, the protectiveness in me rising. If Argus knew what she was feeling right now, he wouldn’t send her out on the field. Alexa wasn’t a coward, but this subject was enough to weaken her legs and freeze her in her spot. “What are their abilities?”

  Everyone turned to me. “One can use pain inducement, so we’ll want to catch her off guard, and the other can turn parts of his body into metal.”

  Alexa’s jaw clenched. “Adrian,” she thought. “And Celest.”

  “I was told that one is a witch and the other is a werewolf,” Argus explained. “The coven leaders’ mental connection to me went out before she could say anything else. We need to get to them now.” He turned back to Alexa. “Do you think you can beat them?”

  Alexa’s lids lowered and her face went blank. “Bardelos used to make us fight each other. I know how to beat them.”

  The room tensed with silence before I stepped forward.

  “Let me go with you,” I quickly said.

  Before Argus could open his mouth to speak, Alexa snapped her hand over my forearm, her nails digging into my flesh.

  I winced and turned back to her, instantly reading the objection on her face. “But —”

  “No,” she said, a side of her I still hadn’t grown used to pushing to the surface.

  I tilted my head to the side, my expression forming into a worried frown. “But this is what I’ve been training for.”

  “I’m not ready for you to go out there yet. Not against them. Bardelos sent Adrian and Celest because they’re powerful. No, you cannot go.”

  “Alex—”

  “Stay here.” This time, she was commanding me.

  The thought of her doing something like this stung worse than I thought it would. I could feel her power over me, trapping me in this mansion and forbidding me to protect her.

  When I snapped back to the others in a panic, they all wore a sympathetic expression, like they wouldn’t speak up for me.

  “But I’m an M.O.D.” I spat. “I can’t just let her or any of you go out there without me. I can help!”

  Argus sighed. “You will be staying behind with me. If they need us, we’ll help them then, but we all mustn’t go in at once.”

  When Alexa began to speak, I whipped around with a hiss, suddenly surprised by my actions, but not enough to calm down. “He could be there!”

  “That’s exactly why you’re staying here,” she said calmly, only I could tell that she was anything but.

  “You all need to get moving now. Agron, you will lead the way there. It is Claudia’s coven that was attacked.”

  Agron nodded. “Understood.” With that, he turned away and headed towards the door with the others following behind him.

  Panic and worry shot to the surface when Alexa turned away, and I quickly grabbed her wrist. When she looked back at me over her shoulder, I squeezed tight.

  Alexa licked her lower lip. “I love you too.”

  With that, she turned away and flashed out of the room in the form of a golden light.

  ~Frostbitten~

  I sat in the lounge room alone for hours, staying focused on my connection to Alexa. So long as I could feel her, I remained calm, but if the moment came where her signal was lost, I would find a way to get to her — sire bond or not.

  Argus acted as if everything were okay, like this was normal for him, which was why he was in his office right now working on something that probably didn’t have anything to do with the situation at hand. I figured that he was able to sense them just as I could sense Alexa and would probably shoot to the rescue if he was worried that anything went wrong.

  That was one of the main reasons that I stayed so calm. It was clear that Argus loved his family, and there was no way that he would leave them to get hurt or send them into battle without being confident that they would win.

  It was during nightfall, just after twelve in the morning when Alexa’s signal began to fade in and out. It felt like pulsating heat, warming the inside of my body before instantly growing cold, then back to warm again.

  At first, I tried to come up with a logical reason as to why she was fading in and out, but when Argus marched into the room, I shot to my feet in worry.

  That was when Alexa’s connection went completely cold.

  “What is it?” I asked, already panting.

  Argus’ golden eyes were bright, and his animalistic side was at the surface. The way his fingers curled at his sides and his canines gleamed was my first warning, not to mention the dark energy pulsating from his body and polluting the air.

  Argus didn’t speak. He looked at me through large pupils before growling and marching towards the glass doors to open them. The moment that he made it to the doors, I spotted Agron with his face and hair covered in blood as he limped in our direction.

  Panic filled me as the others begin limping from the woods naked and in human form, all covered in blood, scratches, and bruises. The only person that hadn’t come limping from the woods was Alexa, because she was unconscious in Lor’s giant arms.

  My stomach turned at the same time that my heart stopped in my chest, and I found myself momentarily frozen before rushing towards the doors only to find that I still couldn’t walk through them.

  This was confirmation that Alexa wasn’t dead, and when Lor brought her inside I found that she was breathing, but barely.

  “What happened?” Argus growled. “You told me that things were handled.”

  A
gron growled back. “It was but – they had back up. A lot more back up. We managed to save a few witches, but for the most part we barely got out alive. I think they knew that we were coming and that Alexa would be there.”

  Argus deeply inhaled through his nostrils. “What happened to her?”

  Loren slowly walked through the open doorway with splatters of blood covering her body and soaking the ends of her hair. Her golden eyes were on me, her canines stretching further out of her mouth before turning to Argus. “She froze. Choked is the word I’m thinking of. She didn’t fight like she used to and has apparently grown weak.”

  I hissed before taking a step towards her, closing in the gap between us. Loren stared down at me, unfazed but not unguarded. “She shouldn’t have gone out there. None of you know what she’s been through.”

  A low guttural growl rumbled from her chest. “She’s fought them before. There’s no reason that —"

  “That’s different. When we were attacked a few weeks ago, history was basically repeating itself, and she hasn’t been the same since.” I snapped my attention towards Argus who was watching me intently. “You said that you could sense fear? You had to know that she wasn’t ready for this and probably never will be. I should’ve gone in her place.”

  “Well you didn’t,” Lor said. “Which is no longer important. Alexa needs to feed from you. Our blood will only make her weaker.”

  I turned to Alexa to find her looking as if she were sleeping peacefully against Lor’s chest, but her hair was soaked in blood and she was covered in scratches. I also couldn’t help but notice that she looked deathly pale.

  “Get her up to their room,” Argus commanded. “We will discuss the mission later. I assume none of you were followed?”

  Agron nodded while the others remained silent.

  Lor began to head towards our room with me following behind. When we made it to the room, he gently placed her down on the bed, then turned to look back at me. “You can handle it from here?”

  I nodded, and then walked past him as he headed for the door. Before he left the room though, I looked back over my shoulder at him and called out his name.