by Tasha Black
It fought her hard. She reeled it, dragging and tugging. But it was like a minnow with the strength of a whale.
“What are you doing to her?” Owen asked, with fear in his voice.
Sadie was so still and tiny, it frightened Grace a little too. But she had no strength left to talk. No room for anything in her body or mind besides the pursuit of this small, evil thing.
At last she felt the thing begin to give way. Suddenly Sadie’s body began to jerk and twist.
“Hold her still!” she called, with the last of her breath.
Julian was instantly there, holding Sadie’s shoulders still.
The pulse of Sadie’s heart monitor quickened.
“I’ve almost got it,” Grace huffed.
“You have to stop!” Owen howled, “You’re killing her!”
There was a horrid low tone as the heart monitor flat-lined. Then an alarm went off.
Grace ignored it all. She had it, the awful thing was in her clutches. Everything else was only meant to distract her.
Footsteps approached the door.
“Clauditis,” Julian said, pointing at the door. The knob turned twice but it remained shut.
“Wh--wh--” Owen began.
“HOLD HER STILL!” Grace yelled, and ventured a glance away from Sadie. She locked her best policewoman expression on Owen.
There was pounding on the door.
But Owen joined Julian and Grace over Sadie’s body. He held her hips to the table.
Grace called on a reserve of strength she hadn’t known she had. Sweat dripped from her forehead, her upper lip, and even ran in droplets down her back.
She felt the horrid thing release.
A tiny, silver droplet emerged from the wound on Sadie’s head. It turned to smoke. Before it dissipated, it took the form of a snake and struck at Grace’s face, dissolving before it made contact.
They all started.
Then the door burst open.
“What’s going on in here?” asked a very stern looking nurse.
Owen’s lips moved but no sound came out.
Then Sadie’s eyes flickered open.
“Will someone please stop all that pounding?” Sadie asked politely.
“Go find the doctor, Alberta!” Owen said, finding his voice at last.
Alberta stared for a moment, then turned on her heel and marched away.
Grace hugged Sadie close, “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she whispered in her ear.
“There’s not much time,” Sadie said, pushing her away. “You have to get the key.”
Grace slipped her phone out of her pocket and tapped the contact for Ainsley.
“Just tell me where it is,” she replied.
CHAPTER 25
The sun dipped behind the college woods as Ainsley left Volker’s house, Camilla Parker Bowles tucked under her arm.
The warmth of the little dog helped to ease some of the stress she’d been building up all day.
The x-rays had come back clean. In a way, Ainsley felt relieved. She hadn’t given much though to how they would get the key out of the dog if they found it. It had been a long shot, anyway.
Hopefully Grace’s hunch was paying off. Ainsley snuggled the dog a little closer thinking about how much she must miss her mistress.
A sharp note of perfume and spice alerted her to Ophelia’s presence just before she appeared from around the corner.
“Ainsley, you have a pet,” Ophelia remarked. “How... quaint.”
“Oh, no,” Ainsley explained. “I’m just watching her for a sick friend. A packmate.”
“Walk with me,” Ophelia said.
“Of course,” Ainsley replied, adjusting her pace to keep up with Ophelia’s long strides.
Just then, the familiar voice of Sting, belting out the chorus of Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic exploded out of Ainsley’s phone.
Grace’s ringtone. Shit.
Ophelia raised an eyebrow.
“A friend changed the ringtone as a joke,” Ainsley explained as she tapped the screen to decline the call.
Ophelia eyed the dog, then the phone. “You have...interesting friends.”
“You have no idea,” Ainsley said before she could stop herself.
They walked on in silence for a few minutes toward Ainsley’s house. Overhead, the streetlights turned on, one by one.
“Ainsley, what do you know about your duty?” Ophelia asked unexpectedly.
“To lead and protect my pack,” Ainsley answered immediately.
“That is the duty of an alpha,” Ophelia acknowledged. “But what about the duty of the pack?”
“The pack has a duty?” Ainsley asked. Even as the words left her mouth, she knew what Ophelia must be talking about.
“The location of each wolf pack is no accident, Ainsley,” Ophelia began. “You should have learned this from your parents, but here we are.”
Ainsley felt a pang of regret. Her own stubbornness had cost her her relationship with her parents. And now it was too late. They were gone.
“There are darker things in this life than you know,’ Ophelia continued. “And we wolves are strategically positioned to be the first line of defense between the dark ones and the rest of the world, should it come to that.”
She was talking about the thing under the field house. That’s why the pack had always been in Tarker’s Hollow? Why they couldn’t just relocated to avoid unwanted attention? Was she a glorified, furry prison guard?
“It has been this way for hundreds of years,” Ophelia said. “But lately, we have had cause for concern.”
“Concern?” Ainsley asked.
“Of course,” Ophelia continued. “There are always those who seek to exploit the dark power to their own ends. And those forces are stirring, as if they are preparing for something.”
Ophelia looked her in the eyes, taking her measure. Ainsley hoped she wasn’t left wanting.
“Most wolves live without the burden of this knowledge. But you are the alpha, Ainsley Connor. You must be prepared, so that your pack, such as it is, can fulfill its duty.”
“Prepared?” Ainsley asked carefully.
“You are a natural wolf, Ainsley, and your lieutenants have trained you well in the mundane skills. You’re mastering your senses and developing your physical strengths. But there is more to being a wolf than heightened senses and quick healing.”
Ainsley paused to take that in. She was semi-awestruck that Ophelia was happy with her hastily learned ‘mundane skills.’ But what else could there be?
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Magic,” Ophelia said simply.
“Magic?” Ainsley asked, incredulous.
“More specifically, resistance to magic,” Ophelia told her. “It’s one of the reasons we are so well suited to our role as protector. Wolves and magic don’t mix. Most wolves have some innate resistance to magic, but like your tracking and fighting, it is a skill that can be developed. I can help you.”
They emerged from the woods, and cut across Ainsley’s backyard to the enter on the front porch. Ainsley wanted her superior to see the grandest part of the house first. Old real estate habits died hard.
Ainsley smelled the presence of the two men before they had rounded the corner, and her hackles rose instinctively.
They stepped into the front yard to see Charley Coslaw and Garrett Sanderson standing in the middle of her lawn.
CHAPTER 26
A low growl built in Ainsley’s throat as she set Camilla Parker Bowles down on the grass. What the hell were these two doing back at her house? And why was Charley carrying a shovel?
Camilla Parker Bowles made a bee-line to the rhododendrons in the flower bed.
Ainsley finally realized what the little dog had been trying to tell her all along.
The key.
Sadie had buried the key in Ainsley’s rhododendrons.
Ainsley knew every second was precious. She needed to get the key before the warlocks
did, or risk the whole future of Tarker’s Hollow.
But Charley was already at the edge of the flower bed, bending over to see where the dog was digging.
She could blast him, but she didn’t dare use her magic in front of Ophelia.
Garrett began to murmur a familiar spell at Ophelia.
Ainsley had just enough time to protect her alpha.
Or to protect her pack.
She made her decision and started to move.
CONTINUE the story in Episode 3!
Fate of the Alpha: Episode 3
AFTERWORD
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ALSO BY TASHA BLACK
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Don’t miss the exciting conclusion to the spellbinding Fate of the Alpha story!!
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Set in Bella Andre’s Game for Love world, Winter Heat is the story of a young artist that falls for a bad-boy snowboarder with a dark secret. If think you know enough about me by now to take a guess at the secret, you might be surprised!
