Conquest of the Alpha

by Jessica Caspian

  He was just about to strike, when he saw in the distance Tanner coming back, which made it necessary for him to let the police officers do their job. It was just too risky to show his hand, and Tanner would not risk taking him on himself, but instead would go back and gather a posse to do it. They probably thought that he was dead, but they were about to find out just how wrong they were.

  When they got to the police station, Julia was still unresponsive, being led with a shuffling motion into one of the rooms down the hall. She couldn’t get out the image of what she had seen, and the strangest thing of all was that she didn’t remember a damn thing. It was as if another part of her had taken over, something feral and out of control. It was only when she came out of her fugue state that she saw the destruction and senseless death of Chance at her feet. He was torn apart, and she still had bits of his skin sticking to her fingernails.

  The door opened up, and a hefty officer with a gray suit sat down with a file in front of him. “I would say that you have been a busy girl, and you are going to spend the rest of your life behind bars for what you did. I don’t care if you think you are crazy, and that sort of thing doesn’t fly with me. The officers that brought you in told me that you haven’t said a word, and to be honest I don’t care if you ever do. This is pretty clear-cut, although the actual cause of death is under investigation. I have seen my fair share of murderous rage, but I have never seen the likes of what you’ve done. The photographs are very explicit, and I think you should see what you’re responsible for.” Detective Banner was used to grilling suspects, and had a knack for making them confess without doing much of anything.

  His best technique was opening up their eyes to their crime, and the only way he knew to do that was to lay it down in front of them. Spreading the photographs on the table, he watched for any kind of reaction from her, but there was nothing but a blank stare.

  If she was trying to act like she wasn’t there, she was doing a very good job and even had him fooled. “This is not an act of a sane person, and at the very least you will be spending your days looking out the window of a sanitarium. My job is to make the case against you, but you have already done that for us.” He sat there and looked at her, thinking that maybe she would slip up and give away the fact that she was a cold-blooded killer. After a few minutes, he got up with a sigh of exasperation, taking his leave and going out to find that a psychiatrist had been called to look into the case.

  “I’m Tanner Williams, and I have been requested to do an assessment on this young lady. If you don’t mind, I would like a few minutes with my patient, so that I can determine if she is fit to be put into a jail cell.” Tanner had many aliases, and it just so happened that one of them was a well known psychiatrist that had lost his life in a skiing accident a few years ago. His credentials would hold up to a casual inspection, but if they were to dig deeper, then they might come up with the fact that he was supposed to be dead and buried in a graveyard near his hometown of Corpus Christi.

  “Take your time, but I don’t think you’re going to get much out of her. She didn’t even react when I showed her the photographs of her crime. That’s pretty cold-blooded to me, and she deserves whatever punishment comes her way. You might be able to mount an insanity defense, but as long as she’s off the street, I know that I will sleep better.” He moved his hand over his slightly thinning hair, thinking that he needed a cup of coffee and a doughnut before calling it a day. He had no idea that Tanner was here to make sure that Julia was not incarcerated for too long.

  Tanner didn’t understand how it was possible for Julia to keep her true self under wraps, when it was taking every bit of willpower on his own behalf to keep the beast from leaping out to defend her. The full Moon was still visible, but half of it was now covered by clouds. This was the only thing that was keeping him at bay, although he still looked down at his hands and could see that hair was still quite prevalent. His fingernails kept moving back and forth, almost as if they had a will of their own to transform into the beast.

  Going into the room, he saw Julia still staring straight ahead at the photographs on the table, her leg twitching and her body trembling. He knew those signs better than anybody, and there was really only one way to snap her out of it. Raising his hand, he took a deep breath and then slapped her across the face three times in rapid succession.

  “Owww…what the hell did you do that for?” The blank stare on her face turned into recognition, blinking her lids and then finally pulling herself out of the black abyss that she had fallen into. “I can’t believe I just did that… I just can’t believe I just did that to Chance.” Her psyche was shattered, but there were still pieces that could be put back together. “I don’t remember doing it, but I have his blood on my hands as a reminder.” Julia lifted her hands and showed the dried red substance, along with bits of skin that still hung there.

  “I didn’t like Chance, but I can’t believe for one second that you did this under your own free will. Perhaps your wolf and his didn’t get along, and somehow you became the Alpha.” Tanner was trying to find any reason to explain her actions, but what he had seen on those photos were more than enough to convict her in any court of law.

  Julia began shaking her head, and then suddenly slammed her two fists down onto the table. “That’s just it, even though I don’t remember it, I know for certain that I didn’t have a chance to change. I was just in the process of feeling the effects of my first transformation, when suddenly everything went black. I wasn’t there anymore, and then when I did come to, I could feel this copper taste in my mouth, and Chance was lying at my feet. You should just kill me, because I’m not sure if I can live with what I did.” Julia was feeling this red hot rage, a desperate need to get away, which was bringing about the change.

  Tanner had seen the look before, and needed to calm her down before she did anything that would result in more deaths. “Julia, you need to bring your emotions in to check. Look into my eyes and breathe deeply with each breath becoming the only thing that you can feel.” Once again, his eyes peered into hers and saw something malevolent and evil looking back at him. It was the same thing that he had seen at the picnic table, and still he couldn’t figure out what it was that was giving her the air of something more than just a werewolf.

  Her fingernails were long and menacing, and they began to scratch along the surface of the wood. This was not going to be easy, but somehow his words and soulful eyes gave her the strength to pull back before she took on the form of half vampire and werewolf. If this were to happen, there would be nothing that anybody could do to control her, as her blood lust for death and destruction would be too much for her to bear. She finally managed to bring her pulse down to a manageable level, her head bowed and her hair flowing freely over her forehead.

  “What we need to do is get you out of here as soon as possible, because I don’t think that that investigator is going to rest until you are behind bars. He would probably ask for the death penalty, and I can only imagine what that would do to the beast within. I don’t even want to contemplate what they would see during the moment of the change, and everything that we have been hiding for these past years would be for nothing. We have enough problems as it is, and we don’t need human beings hunting us down like wild dogs.” Tanner was now trying to hatch a plan, something that would allow him to get her out of here without being noticed. Going over to the window, he momentarily saw something in the sky, but it was gone before he had a chance to recognize what it was.

  “Maybe it would be better that I stay right here in answer to my crime. I have to be punished for what I did, and I have to find some way to accept that I am this thing that is capable of murdering somebody in cold blood. I need to atone for my sins, and the only way to do that is to confess and let the chips fall where they may.” Julia had been quite religious in her youth, and now those teachings were coming back to bite her in the ass. She found that she could only find comfort in his words, feeling the weight of the
world on her shoulders, but yet still knowing that he was there to protect her. “This was meant to be, and this is all part of the bigger picture.”

  “I don’t go in for that kind of nonsense, and I believe that we make our own fate.” Tanner couldn’t believe that god would allow this to happen, which meant there was something evil out there pulling the strings like a master puppeteer. “We can talk about this later, but for right now we need to get out of here.” Wedging his hand underneath the window frame, he released a part of the power within him, enough so that he was able to break the lock with only a small click to announce that he did so. “It’s not the most ideal situation, but we really don’t have any other choice. Before you tell me that you are staying, believe me when I tell you that I will force you out this window by any means necessary.” He was still scared inside about what he saw in her eyes, but he wasn’t about to let her know just what he was feeling. Taking a firm stance, he was giving her no other way out.

  “I will go with you, but don’t expect me to like it. I don’t know what I’m capable of, but what I saw of what was left of Chance, it scares me to think about it.” Julia stepped over to the ledge, and he motioned with his hand for her to go first. “Just don’t say I didn’t warn you. I have no idea when this will come over me again, and I pity if you are anywhere in the vicinity.” Julia let herself slip through the window, her fingernails hanging on for dear life, before letting go and dropping precariously on to the fire escape below. She was there no longer than a couple of seconds before Tanner joined her, moving quickly down the metal railing, and then leaping the last floor to the ground.

  “I want you to put this on, and make sure that your face is covered the entire time.” He passed her the same helmet with the tinted glass, getting onto the motorcycle and driving away without squealing the tires or making any unnecessary noises that would garner attention. “There has to be a reason why you did this, and we will get to the bottom of it. I know somebody that might be able to shed some light on this, but her methods are a little sketchy to say the least.”

  Julia didn’t care about anything, and all she could do was see Chance’s death at her hands. Holding on to Tanner’s waist, she should’ve been thinking how nice it was to finally be in his arms again, but nothing mattered anymore. When she heard the sirens, she knew that they had figured out that she had gotten out of the building somehow. It was even possible that somebody had seen them get onto the motorcycle and alerted the authorities.

  The only advantage that Tanner had was that he had a little bit more maneuverability than they did in a car. What was most worrisome was that he had to lose them before they had aerial support. If that were to happen, there would be virtually no place that they could hide and it would be almost inevitable for them to be caught. That wouldn’t do, and the secrecy behind the werewolf existence had to become a priority, no matter the cost or what it would mean to their own personal safety.

  “Julia, this is going to get bumpy, and I don’t want you to let go no matter what you feel or see happening in front of you. In fact, I would suggest that you close your eyes and just hold on, because I’m going to do some very dangerous things to get away from these police officers.” Julia did as requested, feeling the bike lurching and leaning to the side. If she had seen how close he had come to crashing the motorcycle, she would have had her heart in her mouth at this very moment. She grabbed onto his waist as hard as she could, tearing into the fabric of his leather jacket and into the very skin of his body.

  Tanner grimaced, but wasn’t about to tell her to loosen her grip, because what he was doing was putting them both in jeopardy for the sake of the secret that couldn’t be allowed to get out. A woman named Calley was the only person that he could trust, but first he had to get there still in one piece. He glanced over his shoulder, seeing that the police officers vehicles were getting closer, but he now saw ahead of him a possible means of escape.

  There was an accident up in front, keeping cars gridlocked, allowing Tanner to speed by them with a blur of motion that soon had him racing past a wide eyed police officer holding up his hands to stop him from coming any closer. The officer ahead leaped out of the way at the last minute, feeling the rush of air as the motorcycle past, as the other police cars came to a complete stop behind the other vehicles. There was no way that they could stay on the motorcycle, because they would already have radioed ahead for reinforcements.

  He was going to miss driving his baby, but it was a sacrifice that had to be made for the good of everybody. He felt different, and looked up to see that the clouds were coming apart, which meant that he had to find someplace safe in order to change. There was an underground garage, and he breezed through the toll taker, tossing a couple of quarters, before driving down into the bowels of the building. He parked beside two big trucks, pushing the motorcycle in, so that it was virtually undetectable.

  “You can open your eyes.” He climbed off and helped Julia off the motorcycle, leading her into a corner where he had to fall down onto his hands and knees. She instinctively moved down and put her hand on his forehead, with him looking up with a state of shock and confusion. Somehow she was able to stop the change from happening, blocking his transformation and keeping him his human form. “I don’t know how you did that, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. We need to find another vehicle, something that would not be missing for quite some time.” They began to walk back and forth, looking at various vehicles and trying to ascertain which one could be used better to their advantage.

  “What about this one?” Julia was now standing beside a white panel van, still not knowing what came over her and how it was even possible for her to know to kneel down and touch his forehead. It was so natural that she thought it was part of what she was, but the way that Tanner was looking at her was convincing her that none of the others had that power. “It has a layer of dust, and I would say that it has been here for a few days at least. I think that means that whoever parked it here is not coming back for quite some time.” It was like a hidden part of her was coming to the forefront, able to see things for what they were and making the right decisions.

  “You have a good eye, and if I didn’t know any better I would say that you were a private investigator in a past life.” He took off his jacket, rolled it around his fist and then smashed through the glass of the van. Reaching through, he cleared the broken shards, before opening the door and climbing inside. Julia went around to the passenger door, where he opened it and started the engine by bending down over the console and playing with the wires. “Don’t ask, and you might say that I have a unique skill set from a misbegotten youth. I wasn’t exactly the poster boy for good behavior, and sometimes I let my good judgment get away from me. I suppose that’s what got me into this situation in the first place, as I just couldn’t leave well enough alone.” Seeing that there was a ballcap on the dash, he tucked his hair back and made sure that his facial features were covered when he went through the locked partition.

  The toll taker didn’t even look up from his paper, only reaching out his hand and being presented with a few coins that Tanner had found in the console beside him. Not wanting to press his luck, Tanner pulled back into traffic, looking into the rearview mirror to see that two police cars were now coming down the block. He had to hold his breath, hoping that they wouldn’t see them inside and decide to make a discreet stop to find out if they were the ones that they were looking for. Thankfully, it looked like the stars had aligned in their favor, as the police cars passed them without even giving a second glance. Tanner believed that they were concentrating on finding the motorcycle, having no idea that they had ditched it for another mode of transportation.

  “I want to explain, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out why I did that back there. It was almost like I knew that if I touched you I could stop the change from happening.” Tanner saw her as an enigma, some tiny puzzle that needed to be solved. Something was definitely not right, and
there was more to her than he could see. He could only hope that Calley would be able to help, but he wasn’t even sure she was going to open the door. They didn’t exactly leave things in the best way, with him slipping out the door in the middle of the night after a night of lovemaking that had them both out of breath and breathing deeply. He had a deep seeded need for his freedom, and it wasn’t as if he could actually tell her what he was.

  “I wouldn’t worry about it, and I’m sure that it’s just a latent power.” Tanner had never heard of such a thing, and he didn’t even know that there was anything out there that could stop the change from happening. This was entirely new territory, and way out of his league to deal with. “My friend is a practitioner of the black arts, and if anybody can uncover the truth, it will be her. She might be reluctant, as we have a checkered past that goes back a ways. I won’t let that deter me, as we need to know what we’re dealing with.”

  Julia wasn’t sure what she was, only that there was this feeling inside of her that wanted to escape. It wasn’t the same red hot rage of the beast inside of her, but more animalistic and wild that couldn’t be contained. She felt it was so close to the surface that it was a wonder that she didn’t lash out and do the same thing to Tanner. “I just want to know what’s going on, and if that means dispelling my beliefs, then I guess I have no choice.” She could feel this urge building within, and Julia looked over and could hear his heart beating the lifeblood through his veins.

  They went through some very unkempt roadways, some merely just two tracks leading into the middle of nowhere. It was like they had crossed through civilization and into a world that was never known before. The fact that Tanner knew where he was going was a testament to his tracking abilities, as this was a labyrinth of paths that not many people would be able to make heads or tails out of.