Court of Alphas: A WhyChoose Shifter Romance

by Ramsey, River

  “I didn’t want to believe it when they found me and told me they thought you’d run here,” he mutters, looking down at me in disapproval. “What the hell were you thinking? And where did Aspen come from?”

  The pup wags his tail and strains to lick Christopher’s cheek.

  “Scold me later. We have to get out of here,” I tell him, looking back in the direction of the manor. “Mace is working for the Vampire Lord, Aedan, and they want to sacrifice me and Albien.”

  “Albien?” Christopher’s eyes widen. “Where is he?”

  “I don’t know, but we can’t be in the same place. They want us together,” I try to explain, pulling him along. “We have to go.”

  Christopher starts running alongside me, looking back over his shoulder. “Alright. Come on.”

  “Where are James and Rowan?” I ask, breathless as we pick up speed.

  “We all spread out to look for you.”

  Part of me is relieved they’re not here. I don’t want Aedan near anyone I love, and the fewer people he has contact with, the better. The forest seems deeper and darker than I remember from the drive here, but just as I’m starting to hope we actually stand a chance at escape, a shadow forms overhead, blocking out the moon.

  My chest tightens with dread and we both stop running since the blackness becomes too thick to see our next step.

  “What the hell is that?” Christopher cries, stepping in front of me.

  I already know the answer, but it sticks in my throat. “It’s Aedan,” I whisper. “He’s here.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The blackness eats away the forest until all that surrounds us becomes a gaping, unnatural void. I hold Aspen close, trying to comfort the shuddering pup, but terror like I’ve never experienced before settles deep in my bones. It makes a home in the darkest cavern inside my soul and turns everything it touches into more fear.

  “Shit,” Christopher mutters. He raises his hand and whispers something I can’t understand. A blue flame appears in his palm, barely providing enough light to see the small space around us in the darkness that now feels like a solid room.

  I can’t smell the forest anymore, or hear the rustling of the trees. It’s as if the darkness has swallowed them all whole, or maybe it’s merely swallowed us and taken us somewhere else for safekeeping.

  “Did you really think you could run?” The familiar hissing voice surrounds us, and the flame in Christopher’s hand is extinguished as if by its breath.

  He puts his arm around me, pushing me back, as if he stands a chance at defending us from this thing. This monster. “Who the hell is that?”

  “Aedan,” I murmur. I shudder to say his name. It feels like it gives him power.

  “You are mine, Victoria,” he rasps. “You always have been. Did you really think there was anywhere you could run where I would not find you?”

  “She doesn’t belong to you, freak,” Christopher snarls.

  Some hidden force throws him so far into the darkness I can barely see him.

  “No!” I cry. Before I can run to him, hands emerge from the shadows, pulling me back. I struggle against them before realizing it’s a lost cause and settle for keeping Aspen in my embrace.

  “Danica,” Mace says urgently, suddenly appearing before me. He looks calm and untouched by the darkness, watching me in something akin to pity. He holds his arms out expectantly. “Give him to me.”

  “No,” I cry, turning away. The pup whimpers.

  “It’s over,” Mace says in a voice that’s almost gentle. It seeps into my soul, soothing and horrifying at once. My grip on the pup loosens as he takes a step closer. “There’s no more running. Give him to me. I’ll keep him safe.”

  Tears of frustration stream down my face. “I promised.”

  Aspen buries his snout in my neck, his cold breath falling in terrified pants as he tries to hide.

  “I know,” Mace says kindly. “And that promise will be kept if you give him to me. He shouldn’t be a part of what comes next.”

  My head spins in the same rush of nausea that twists my stomach into knots. What comes next… the end.

  But only for me. I won’t let him take the others. “If I give him to you, you have to take Christopher.” My voice sounds stronger, now that I’ve given up hope. There’s nothing left to fear. No uncertainty remains.

  “No!” Christopher seethes, trying to stand from the shadowy hands that keep grasping at him and pushing him back down. “It’s a trap, Dani! Don’t do it!”

  I ignore him, turning to face Mace. I look him right in the eye, daring him to lie to me. “What do you want?”

  “It’s not what I want,” he says in a somber tone. He looks into the darkness, like he can see something I can’t. Someone. “A sacrifice must be made. But it must be given willingly.”

  My heart pounds. So that’s it. That’s why they haven’t just gotten it over with. “A sacrifice,” I say hoarsely. “You want me to give my life and my brother’s.”

  “Just yours,” says Mace. “Albien is a vessel, not a sacrifice.”

  “What?” I croak. Just when I think I understand, he pulls the rug out from underneath me.

  “You were right before. There’s no point in lying now. It will all be over soon,” Mace says, ignoring the hiss coming from the darkness. It sounds like a coil of snakes slithering and rattling angrily, waiting in the shadows for someone to come close enough to strike. Mace ignores the obvious displeasure of his master and keeps his eyes on me. “As I said, magic cannot find its home among the dead. Forcing the two together takes its toll.”

  “Aedan,” I murmur. “What did he sacrifice in order to become a mage?”

  “Everything,” comes the rattling answer from the darkness. The voice is so full of malice it makes me shudder, but I fear him less than I ever have.

  “Show yourself,” I command with the authority of someone who knows she’s about to die anyway.

  The hissing stops and for a moment, nothing happens. As soon as I close my eyes to blink, a horrible vision assails me. The image of a face that is deceptively young with pale white skin rotting and peeling away from bone and muscle. White hair as brittle as straw flows down his awful visage like a death shroud and his sunken eyes are the color of lifeless stone. He’s barely more than thin, crumbling skin stretched over a monstrous skeleton. The toll the magic forbidden him has taken is clear.

  I gasp, stumbling back as my eyes fly open. Even the darkness seems light compared to that awful sight. A new understanding settles within me.

  “Now I see,” I murmur. Now I know my role. And Albien’s. “You’ve destroyed yourself playing with forces that want nothing to do with you, and now you want a new body to decay.”

  “Only a Magus is capable of sustaining a soul transfer,” Mace explains calmly. “Blood of equal power must be shed in order to complete the ritual, but Albien will not die.”

  “No, he’ll just be hollowed out for your rotting master to live on in!” I seethe.

  Mace’s eyes narrow. “His consciousness will merge with Aedan’s. Together, their power will know no bounds. It is a great honor.”

  “An honor,” I say with a dry laugh. “You know, it sounds like you actually believe that.”

  “Don’t do it, Danica,” Christopher growls. “They’re going to do whatever they’re going to do. Don’t give yourself over.”

  He’s probably right. But I also know that if Aedan doesn’t get his way, he’s not the kind of man who’ll just let any of us go. He’ll kill me and Albien, and everyone who matters to us, just out of spite.

  No telling what he’ll do with that power, but I’m not strong enough to make the choice I know I should. My heart aches as I realize the decision is already made. Maybe it always was.

  “There’s one thing I don’t understand,” I murmur. “If Aedan is our father, that makes us both half vampire. What makes you think Albien’s body won’t reject the magic, too?”

  “Your father?” Conf
usion shows on Mace’s face for the first time. He finally chuckles, shaking his head. “Danica, Aedan is not your father.”

  “What?” The word rushes out with my last breath. I should be relieved, but the uncertainty fills me with even more dread.

  “Your father was a mage,” Mace says firmly. “A human.”

  “A human?” I croak. Even Christopher falls silent.

  “As I said, your mother was quite adventurous,” Aedan says smugly from the darkness. I’m starting to be able to feel where he is. He’s a weight in the darkness, an unnatural source of distortion. “She fell in love with a mage her dear husband captured for his service, and when the King learned the truth, he had him executed and all mages banned from the land.”

  “No,” I grit out. I don’t want to believe it even though somehow, I know it’s the truth.

  “The poor, unfaithful Queen was filled with grief and terror for her unborn children,” Aedan continues. “Do you want to guess who she ran to for help?”

  I grit my teeth, tears stinging my eyes as he forces me to watch my mother’s pain. My eyes aren’t even closed, but I still see her at the door of this very manor, a dark cloak draped over her beautiful auburn hair. She looks young and frightened, her hands resting on the swell of her belly as the Vampire Lord ushers her into his home, the truth of his face concealed with magic.

  To her, he looks like a beautiful, fair-haired young man with gray eyes full of benevolence and pity. He listens to her tragic story of death and betrayal at a large table and when all her tears have been shed, he takes out a contract and a sharpened pen.

  Her hand trembles as he places the pen in her hand and tells her he can disguise the true nature of the illegitimate children growing inside of her. He promises that the magic will last for twenty-one years, until the solstice matching the night she arrived at his cursed doorstep. Her children will take their places at the throne, her cruel husband none the wiser. They will shift and grow as normal wolves, omegas beloved by the entire kingdom. The cost isn’t something she’ll have to worry about in her lifetime, as long as she signs on the dotted line in blood.

  She does, and the deal is done.

  I gasp as I’m thrown back into reality. Fresh tears cascade down my face. I never had the chance to meet my mother, but somehow, I’ve pictured her as a strong, serene queen whose wisdom is so far beyond my own. To see her as what she truly was, a young woman just like me, scared and backed into a corner, makes her real in a whole new way.

  I felt her love for my father, and for the two lives dependent upon her. Her desperation and hopes, her fear and trepidations.

  In a moment, I both understand her betrayal that brought me here, and I forgive her. She was doing the best she could, and unlike me, she had no idea of the truth of the devil she was about to make a bargain with.

  “It’s time,” Mace says calmly. “Time to make your choice, Danica.”

  “I already have,” I murmur. As I take a step closer, Christopher thrashes against the darkness with renewed effort.

  “Danica!” he cries.

  I try to ignore him, coming to a stop in front of Mace. “Promise me,” I whisper, looking up at him. “Promise me no harm will come to them.”

  “You have my word,” he says gravely, holding my gaze.

  In that moment, as we look into each other’s eyes, we understand each other fully. It’s more intimacy than I’ve ever felt with another. Everything is laid bare. The lies, the pretense, the hope. There’s just him and me and the deal he’s already made long before me.

  I pass Aspen into his arms and Mace cradles the pup protectively. He gives me a reverent nod before he disappears, and so does Christopher.

  All that’s left is me and the darkness. Me and Aedan. The endlessness shrinks fast, becoming the all too familiar shape of bars closing in around me, forming a cage that stretches over and under.

  I sit down and sink back against the bars, looking up at the rising sun as my surroundings become the walls of a dungeon. The light is only visible through a window easily twenty feet above the ground.

  As I stare up at the last sunrise I’ll ever see, I feel a strange sense of calm. There’s no more fighting now. Somehow, I believe Mace will keep his word and protect the people I love. After all, they have what they want. There’s no reason to lie now.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The shortest day of the year feels like the longest. I’ve been sitting here alone with my thoughts, enjoying Aedan’s absence, however short it is. When the door finally opens, I’m expecting it to be Mace, but instead, a shadowy hand tosses Albien in and slams the door behind him.

  “Albien!” I cry as he falls to the ground. He looks no worse for the wear, but his face is white with terror.

  He throws his arms around me and holds me tight, letting out a trembling breath. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

  “That makes two of us,” I murmur, squeezing him back. “I take it you’ve met Aedan.”

  He pulls away, his expression turning haunted. That’s all the answer I need. “You know?”

  “About the sacrifice?” I murmur.

  What’s left of his color drains from his face. “This is awful.”

  “For what it’s worth, I think you’re getting the shorter end of the stick,” I say, trying to lighten the mood. “I’d rather be sacrificed than spend eternity in that guy’s head.”

  The look on his face says he doesn’t find my joke funny. “We have to find a way out of here.”

  “There isn’t one.”

  “How can you say that?” he cries in frustration.

  “I’ve been here longer than you have, Albien. I didn’t get put in here, this place just appeared around me from the middle of the forest,” I say, sympathizing with his shocked expression. Aedan has that effect on people. “I tried to escape, and ended up getting Christopher mixed up in this in the process.”

  “Christopher?” he asks hopefully. “Where is he?”

  “If Mace kept his word, he and Aspen are a hundred miles away from here right now.”

  Albien frowns, searching my face. “What’s wrong with you? It’s like you’ve already given up.”

  “I have,” I admit, standing. “And trust me, it’s not from lack of trying.”

  “This isn’t you!”

  “Yes, it is,” I snap, regretting it immediately. He’s my other half and losing my patience with him is the same as turning on myself. I know that now. “Don’t you get it, Albien? Everything we’ve been through our whole lives, all the choices we’ve thought were ours to make, it’s all been leading to this point. This was planned from before we were born.”

  “That doesn’t mean we can’t change it!”

  “Yes, it does,” I say firmly. I fight with myself over whether I should tell him the truth, but I decide I don’t want the last words I speak to him to be a lie. “Our mother gave us to him, Albien. She signed a contract.”

  The confusion on his face turns to alarm when I reach for his hand. It’s a long shot, especially with the collar suppressing my magic, but since my power is coming to the surface, it’s worth a try. I close my eyes and try to send him the scene Aedan showed me. I’m not sure it’s working until he gasps and yanks his hand away.

  The haunted look on his face tells me he saw the same thing I did. “How… could she?”

  “Aedan might have been born a vampire, but he’s become a demon,” I mutter. “That’s what demons do. They prey on people at their weakest and get them to make impossible choices, thinking it’s their only option.”

  It’s funny, but I can’t help but wonder what impossible choice Mace had to make to come to this point. To become this thing, whether he realizes it or not.

  The door opens and Mace is standing there, as if my thoughts summoned him. Hell, maybe they did. I can feel all that power Aedan covets flowing freely beneath the surface now. It’s a shame I’ll never get to know what it’s capable of. What I might become, if my destiny wasn�
��t already mapped out for me.

  “You,” Albien seethes, putting himself between us.

  “Your Majesty,” Mace says wryly, even though he’s looking at me. “It’s time. Are you going to make this easy, or does it have to be the hard way?”

  “Lead the way,” I say flatly.

  Albien looks at me in disbelief, but he’s treading a path I’ve already worn down. I follow Mace out of the dungeon and up the stairs into the light. The door is hidden behind a patch of tall grass and reeds, and the manor is visible in the distance beyond a field of gold and thistle. There’s a huge flat rock in the center of a circle of wildflowers too perfect to be natural.

  “Let me guess. The sacrificial rock?”

  Mace gives me a knowing look. “Aedan will be here soon,” he says, looking at the setting sun.

  “How can you live with yourself?” Aedan spits. “Aren’t you an alpha? You’re willing to sell out two omegas, your own kind, to one of them?”

  Mace looks down at him boredly. “What would a privileged little brat like you know about loyalty? About family?”

  “Family?” Albien scoffs. “You truly think that freak cares about you? That he isn’t just using you the way he’s using us?”

  Mace’s eyes narrow, but before he can respond, I interrupt, “Don’t waste your breath, Albien. It’s a lost cause.” I look the alpha up and down. “He’s already made his choice.”

  Mace frowns, but the twilight is already falling over the woods. As the clouds chase away the last bits of sunlight, a shadow forms behind him, taking on the shape of a human being, or something close enough.

  I’ve never actually seen Aedan in the flesh, but when the shadow fades, it’s still light enough to make out his features clearly and he’s even more ghastly than I remembered. He creeps toward us, far less intimidating but still just as ominous when I see how difficult each step is for him.

  I don’t even want to know what he’s done with the magic he sacrificed his body and immortality for, but it’s taken a brutal toll. Even his breath seems labored and Mace rushes to escort him over to the stone.