by Sam Crescent
Evernight Publishing ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2016 Sam Crescent
ISBN: 978-1-77233-705-1
Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs
Editor: Karyn White
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE ALPHA’S VIRGIN WITCH
The Alpha Shifter Collection, 7
Sam Crescent
Copyright © 2016
Chapter One
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
Lucy Wolf stared at her only friend, Bianca, and smiled. “It’s time I moved away from here, I think. It’s not right for me. Not really.”
“You’re sure you’re allowed to leave? We’re a very private pack, Lucy. I don’t imagine you can just walk away.”
She sighed, and then took a sip of her coffee. It was hard for her to make a decision like this. At twenty-three years old, she was more than ready to leave Wolf Valley to go and find some clue as to who she was. Twenty-three years ago her parents, who happened to be wolves, had found her abandoned by a creek, so they were not really her birth parents. They had told her many times she had been wrapped in a blanket covered with blood, and she wasn’t even screaming. Her parents had actually stumbled onto her while they were running through the local forest. Neither her father nor her mother told her anything else about where they found her. She’d been a baby, so there hadn’t really been a reason for her to go hunting for a life outside of the pack.
Then problems started for her when she was around fifteen. The pack attended a school just outside of Wolf Valley that mingled them with humans. Lucy had believed she was a human. She’d never been a wolf, and most of the pack, except for her parents and Bianca, had treated her like an outcast for most of her life, and there was no reason to believe that she was anything other than human. Then everything changed, and Lucy became aware of the fact she was the wolves’ enemy.
The bullying and snide comments had been building for years, and something just snapped. Lucy had been down by the lake with Bianca when the alpha’s crew had decided to go. They had called her names because of her weight and because she wasn’t a wolf. Once young wolves hit puberty they started to go through the transition. She knew that Caleb Marks, the Alpha’s son, had changed into a wolf at a young age. In time he would take over from his father, but until then, he was being trained. He was older than she was by three years. Lucy had ordered herself not to even think about him. What was the point? Caleb would be an Alpha, destined to run the pack. There wouldn’t be any chance of her even registering on his radar. He’d only be interested in pack females who were strong and able to run with him come the full moon.
She and Bianca had been enjoying the sun, listening to music when some of the females of the alpha’s crew had started to taunt her. They called her a homeless dud, a fat bitch, useless excuse for living. Lucy had heard it all before, and she ignored it. When they had started on Bianca that had been the last straw.
For ten minutes they’d called Bianca a human lover and many vile names. It was then one of the girls had walked over to them and tried to pull Bianca into the water.
“Do you remember how you told Patricia to back off?” Bianca asked. She must have been thinking about the same incident as Lucy was.
Lucy did remember. On the day her heart had been pounding, and she had felt the rage build inside her. It was like it had bubbled under the surface waiting to be released. Her only target had been Patricia, for hurting her friend.
“I remember, and she told me to ‘fuck off, fatty’.” The entire event stuck in her mind.
Lucy had been shoved, and Bianca had let out a cry of pain. Bianca was a wolf, but Lucy had heard others refer to her as a submissive wolf. She wasn’t a fighter.
Lucy had been angered, enraged, and unable to control what happened next. Her body had not been her own.
“You told them to back off, and it was magic. You threw your arm out, and something pushed Patricia. You didn’t even touch her. There was no wind on that day, but it was like you had brought it with you. Your hair was rustling.” Bianca shook her head.
Patricia had been her enemy.
“I remember someone saying something about my eyes,” Lucy said.
“Your eyes did go scary. It’s the way they always go when you’re doing magic,” Bianca said. Her friend laughed. “Patricia had tried to make out that she wasn’t afraid of you, and rushed toward you in an attempt to catch you off guard.”
Lucy had reacted, or at least her body had. She turned to a fallen branch, and as if she was lifting it, she had thrust it at Patricia. The other girl had been in shock, and when that didn’t work, a fireball had appeared in her palm, and she’d thrown it at Patricia.
“Even to this day it gives me goosebumps,” Bianca said.
It wasn’t one of Lucy’s best memories. There had been outcries for her banishment. Lucy was a witch, and witches didn’t mix well with wolves. Witches were wolves’ natural enemies.
Caleb’s father, Matthew Marks, had listened to her parents, and even though he clearly wanted her gone, he’d not banished her. Lucy hadn’t done anything wrong, but what scared the wolves was the fact they were supposed to be able to scent out a witch. They were supposed to have a unique smell of rotten flesh or something like that. None of the pack scented her.
Eight years later, they were all still looking at her as if she would explode into a cackling, wart-riddled witch. So far, nothing. After the event she had thought Bianca would stop being her friend, but if anything, their friendship had grown stronger.
Out of the two of them, Lucy was the stronger, as Bianca was a submissive. It finally became her place to take care of her friend, and she loved it.
“They were trying to get rid of me once before,” Lucy said.
“That was eight years ago, and they didn’t succeed.” Bianca nibbled her lips.
“What’s the matter?” Lucy asked, concerned for her friend.
“I guess I’m nervous.”
“Why?”
“You’ll be gone, and everyone who bullied me will want to pick up where they left off. It helps having your BFF being a kickass witch. No one messes with me.” Bianca offered a smile, but Lucy saw the fear there.
After the incident Bianca would come over to her house, and locked away in her bedroom, they would try to work on her magic ability. Neither of them knew that much about witches, but they had tried. Lucy had sat in the center of her bed, trying to call the flame that had come to her palm near the creek. Of course it took her many hours, and days, trying to bring it back. Only when she was angry did she actually call on the witch within her. There were times a flicker would happen or wind would seem to gust around her, but nothing like when she attacked Patricia.
“You could come with me?” Lucy said.
Besides her parents, Bianca was the only person she had stayed at Wolf Valley for. This wasn’t her home, they were not her people, and she had a family or a coven out there somewhere.
“Me? Leave the pack?”
“It could happen. It’s not so scary.” She sipped at her coffee, conscious of the various gazes landing on her. Lucy hated this. People were waiting for her to explode or to curse them. This café was the only one in Wolf Valley. Most of the time Lucy stuck with g
oing down the valley toward the human town that had shopping malls, but Bianca preferred to stay near her pack. It was a hold that Lucy had never felt. She wasn’t part of the pack, and never would be.
The door to the café opened, and Lucy turned to see Caleb and his best friend, Guy, entering.
She took another bite of the toast that she had ordered, and returned her attention to Bianca.
“It is scary to me,” Bianca said. “I’ve never left town or the pack.”
Chuckling, she reached across the table. “Then how about we do something radical, and you come with me to the human mall this afternoon? It’ll be fun.”
“I don’t know.”
“Come on, Bianca. We’re twenty-three years old, and you’ve been stuck behind a desk ever since we left high school. You used to be around humans then.”
“Only because we have to get used to them. I don’t know.”
“I’ll buy you whatever bag you desire. It doesn’t matter the cost, I will pay for it.” Lucy saw her friend cracking. “Lunch is also on me, and dinner.” She did whatever she had to do to get her friend to spend some time with her.
“Fine, I’ll, erm, yeah, I want to come.” Bianca smiled. “Shopping.”
“First step is shopping, the next step is getting you to move with me.”
“Don’t hold your breath.” Bianca laughed, and it was nice to finally see her friend happy. It had been too long since she’d heard Bianca let go.
“When’s the next full moon?” Lucy asked. She knew Bianca hated the full moon as when she turned into a wolf she experienced unimaginable pain. Lucy hadn’t seen it before, and she had a feeling if she did, she would freak out.
“In another two weeks.”
“It’s not getting any easier?”
Bianca shook her head. “No. At least I don’t have to run with the pack or anything. When it’s the full moon, I can do it at my time, and there’s no rush.”
“I really wish I could help.”
“You don’t have to change. That has got to be something, right?”
Reaching across the table, she held her friend’s hand, wishing she could give her a lot more support.
****
“You’re staring,” Guy said.
Caleb averted his gaze from the blonde who was sitting with Bianca. They were two unlikely friends, and yet they couldn’t be separated. For years Lucy Wolf had been a constant interest to him, and he didn’t have a clue why. He’d hidden his curiosity, pretending to hate the little witch, but he’d not been able to fool Guy.
“What’s going on with Bianca?” Caleb asked.
“Nothing.”
“The way you try to avoid her, that’s not nothing.”
“You do know I can smell the claiming heat from you, right?” Caleb chuckled as Guy gave him a filthy look. “Does Bianca know?”
“No.”
“She’s your mate?”
“Yes. The little sub is my mate.”
“You’re not going to claim her?”
“Are you going to claim Lucy?” Guy asked.
“Lucy’s not my mate.”
“How do you know?”
He looked across Guy’s shoulder to stare at Lucy’s back. She was laughing with Bianca, and he noticed several of the pack staring at her. The pack were all unnerved by her witchy ability. He’d never been afraid of her powers, and knowing she was a witch didn’t bother him. His father had been aware that she was a witch even before Lucy had.
Her parents, the wolf pack, had known the truth. There were many secrets surrounding Lucy, and she didn’t even have a clue that many within the pack were duty-bound to protect her, including him.
Guy knew, as his father was Beta to the pack. Her own knew, too, parents, as did Caleb’s parents and also several pack elders. They were duty-bound to protect her.
“I’ve never had the mating heat, nor do I feel the need to take her.”
“Yet during the full moon you go and wait near her home, staring up at her bedroom window,” Guy said.
His friend should know as Guy had spent many full moon nights sitting with him as they stared up at Lucy’s window. Sometimes she was sitting at the window, staring up at the moon. She never looked toward them, always at the moon.
“I’m doing my duty.”
“What about Patricia? She’s expecting you to put the mating call on her. Are you going to do that?”
Caleb wrinkled his nose. Patricia was one of the strongest of the new generation of pack, and she believed her rightful place was by his side. Ever since Lucy had thwarted her attempt to claim dominance, she’d been trying to prove what a strong female she actually was. The truth was, none of them stood a chance against Lucy unless they worked as a pack to attack. Witches were strong, the strongest kind of paranormal beings, but until they inherited their powers and learned to harness their craft, they were forever in danger. Lucy, being away from any coven, was vulnerable.
“I’m not mating with Patricia. You’ve got no chance.”
“She’s not going to take no for an answer. You gave Cora a smile the other day, and Patricia made the girl bow down to her strength.”
“Patricia needs to be careful. My mother will not allow her to take her place.” There was only one true pack alpha female, and that was his mother.
“Now that smack down I’d pay to see.” Guy signaled the waitress, and they ordered some coffee and muffins.
While Guy ordered for them, Caleb watched Lucy as she tucked some hair behind her ear. It was the last weeks of summer, and she wore a pale pink summer dress. The thin straps didn’t hide the large scar on her back that she’d gotten when she had fallen out of a tree at ten years old. He’d been there and had watched her climbing the large tree near the park where kids hung out. He’d been thirteen, and had been terrified for her, but she’d been determined to climb.
One of the branches had been infected and weak, so when she put her whole weight on it the branch snapped, cutting her back on the way down. She ended up breaking her leg and arm, not to mention cutting open her back. Her parents and his father had been so damn worried. Throughout the whole episode, she hadn’t screamed at all. It was the first sign that she was a real witch.
Some witches were able to mask their pain so that they couldn’t feel anything. He’d never seen it done, but Lucy had screamed during the fall and knocked herself out. Then when she woke up, she showed no signs of having any pain at all. From what he’d been told, she had thought they had filled her with morphine. To start the procedure, the doctor had given her some morphine, but the effects would have worn off. She hadn’t known that he’d been in the room, watching her. Lucy didn’t have a clue that he’d spent most of his life watching her at some point or another.
Even when they’d gone down to the creek that fateful day, he’d been curious. When he saw her finally use her powers, he’d been fucking aroused. She looked so beautiful, and when everyone had been afraid when her while her eyes had darkened as the magic started to take over, he hadn’t been. He’d been aroused.
“You’re staring again.”
Once again he averted his gaze, and found a coffee in front of him.
“Have you heard that Lucy is planning on leaving the pack?” Guy asked, continuing to talk.
“What?”
“I’ve heard her parents talking. They’re worried she’s going to head out, to look for her coven.”
They stopped talking as the waitress put down their breakfast.
Wolves had a faster metabolism, so they had much larger appetites. Caleb loved good food. Relished it, and he enjoyed his mother’s cooking. He’d also tasted Lucy’s cooking, and she really was a superb cook. Every year in the summer they had a potluck weekend in celebration of the full moon. Lucy always cooked for the potluck.
“That’s dangerous.” Lucy couldn’t leave the protection of the pack, not without properly harnessing her powers.
“You know some of the pack want her gone. They believe hav
ing a witch within the pack is dangerous,” Guy said.
“Witches are the most powerful.”
“Exactly, and that in itself poses the threat.” Guy shrugged. “Most of the pack have treated her as an outsider for as long as I could remember.”
“She’ll take Bianca with her.”
Guy glanced behind him, and they both turned in time to watch Lucy and Bianca get to their feet.
“Do you want to follow them?” Guy asked.
“Yeah.” Getting to his feet, he threw down some money, and made his way out of the café. He didn’t know why he wanted to follow Lucy, but it was an instinct to go and protect her. “Bianca’s your mate.”
Guy sighed. “I can’t let her go with Lucy.”
“You’ve not even claimed her.”
“She’s a sub.”
“And you’ve screwed a lot of the pack females who would fight her for a chance to call you their own.” Caleb was careful with the women he screwed, and he always made sure that the women knew he wasn’t going to take them as a mate.
He’d never found his mate, and the only female to hold his interest was the one woman he’d never actually spoken to, Lucy. He was three years older than she was, and had seen her from afar, yet they’d never actually talked.
She probably thought he hated her, which wasn’t true.
Caleb wasn’t even afraid of her witchcraft.
Guy climbed into the car, and together they made their way out of the Wolf Valley toward the next town. Lucy was driving as Bianca had never been able to pass her test. She truly was a submissive little wolf.
Some of the women Guy had fucked would tear Bianca apart, and in that moment Caleb understood why he hadn’t initiated the claiming with her.
“What will you do if Lucy leaves?” Guy asked.
“What will you do if Bianca leaves with her?”
“I can’t let her go.”
“You can’t force her to stay here when she’s not happy. Lucy and Bianca are the best of friends, and that is not going to change, not by a long shot.” The two had been inseparable from a young age.
