Heir to the Alpha” Episodes 3 & 4: A Tarker’s Hollow Serial

by Black, Tasha

  The force of her landing nearly took the wind out of her. But it was enough to knock the moroi away from Javier.

  “Cress,” Javier whispered in wonder.

  She scrambled up and stood over him protectively, the choppy water wobbling the deck beneath her as she fought to stay upright.

  The moroi shuddered to its feet in a series of stuttering movements. When it was facing Cressida it hissed with fury and moved toward her.

  She stood tall before it, in spite of being out of ideas.

  She was vulnerable as a human.

  She would not be able to rescue Javier as a crow. Even if she could pull off that trick again, she couldn’t exactly scoop him up in her little talons and take off.

  Her wolf claws would find no purchase on the slippery deck.

  She scanned the boat for weapons and spotted a fishing knife on one of the seats.

  She lunged for it, then brandished it threateningly at the moroi.

  The thing paused, studying her with its inhuman eyes.

  It hit her again that this monster had been masquerading as Lincoln Monroe. How could she have ever believed it was human?

  Beside her, Javier struggled to his feet.

  Cressida knew the knife was no match for the moroi. It was definitely going to kill them both now. But she was going to make sure she did as much damage to it as possible on her way out.

  The temperature dropped. Her breath plumed in the frigid air.

  She had seen this before - with the shadow demon. But something was different this time.

  Even the moroi swiveled its head around in confusion.

  Cressida readied herself to attack, and noticed that her footing was actually steady.

  Somehow, the boat had stopped moving.

  She watched as a sheet of ice spread across the surface of the water, encircling the entire boat with a crackling sound.

  A path, only a few feet wide, led from the circle around the boat, over the dark water, and back to the shore.

  Ending at Grace’s feet.

  Holy shit.

  Cressida had seen Grace do some heavy magic, but this took the cake. The ice was already creeping up into the boat itself.

  “Be ready to shift and run like hell,” Cressida whispered to Javier.

  He nodded.

  But the moroi was still between them and the safety of the icy path.

  Cressida raised the knife high and screamed as she lunged straight for the moroi.

  The creature braced itself to catch her, its mouth twisted in a horrible smile. It was clearly not afraid of the knife.

  Exactly as Cressida had hoped.

  When she had nearly reached it, she shifted at the last second into her wolf form.

  She managed to catch the monster off guard, her massive form sending it sliding backward, onto a newly formed patch of ice at the edge of the boat.

  It lost its footing, soundlessly wheeling its limbs in the air for a second, before tumbling over the side of the boat backwards, like a scuba diver, sliding right over the narrow path and disappearing through the ice and into the inky depths.

  The ice reformed before Cressida’s eyes, closing the hole the creature had made. She didn’t know if the moroi could swim, but decided not to wait around to find out.

  She turned to Javier, who shifted in an explosion of ripped clothing and sandy fur, and leapt over the side of the boat.

  He nearly slid off the ice, his claws clattered madly for purchase, but he somehow found traction at the last second.

  Cressida followed him onto the icy path, careful to land on wide-spread paws so as not to slip into the frigid water.

  Once she was on the path, she nipped at his heels and they raced toward the shore.

  There was no way to know whether the moroi was rising out of the water to consume them. No way to know whether the next step would be the one that sent Javier skidding into the sea. No way to know whether Grace’s magic could hold out.

  The rough ice tore at Cressida’s paws until they were numb. The journey seemed to go on forever.

  At last they reached the shore. Javier scrambled a few yards ahead, then lowered his shaggy body to the sand, panting faintly. He shifted back, but didn’t get up. The moroi must have really sapped his strength.

  Cressida launched herself off the last couple of feet of ice, shifting mid-leap so that her bare human feet kicked up the sand as she landed.

  She reached Grace just in time to catch her friend as she collapsed under the strain of the spent magic.

  Grace had such a huge presence, but she felt so tiny, like a doll in Cressida’s arms.

  It had been too much for her, and Cressida knew it.

  There was a deafening crack as the ice bridge melted and sunk into the ocean like a time-lapse of a pond in the spring.

  She scanned the surface of the water for any sign of the moroi.

  There was nothing.

  “What the hell was that?” someone called from the direction of the park.

  Glenn.

  Shit.

  But it was too late. The stalwart officer was heading down the beach for them, wind ruffling his brown hair, a worried look on his handsome face.

  She hoisted Grace up in her arms and headed toward him as Javier pulled himself to his feet beside her.

  Cressida and Javier were both naked, but she was pretty sure their nudity would soon be the least of Glenn’s worries.

  “Come on, Javier,” she said over her shoulder. “There’s someone here you need to meet.”

  “What happened?” Glenn observed Grace’s unconscious form with distress.

  “Help me get her back to the motel, and I’ll explain everything,” Cressida said. “But you’re not gonna like it.

  Chapter 2

  Erik awoke to the sound of the back door banging.

  He reached out a hand, but he knew Ainsley was gone before his hand closed on the empty sheets.

  He scrambled out of bed and followed. She was ahead, but he wasn’t worried about losing her. He could track Ainsley anywhere.

  He was worried about why she was out wandering the woods in the middle of the night, especially with all that had been going on recently. Nothing good could have brought her out like this.

  Someone must be in trouble.

  Why hadn’t she stopped to tell him what was going on?

  It hit him that she probably didn’t know. Ainsley hadn’t gotten a phone call or a text.

  She was feeling the call through the bonds she had with her pack.

  The idea gave him a shiver.

  Ainsley was always implying that Erik somehow made a better alpha than she did. But Erik had never had that kind of connection to his pack. He didn’t think any alpha ever had.

  Ainsley was special. She was unlike any wolf he’d ever known. Maybe it was the magic, or maybe it was something else.

  And that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

  Erik was proud of his mate’s gifts, but at a time like this, the implications were frightening. If the Federation knew the depth of what Ainsley could do, would they ever let her out of their sight?

  He didn’t have time for unhappy fantasies to get the best of him. Ainsley had slowed down in a little clearing alongside one of the walking paths near the amphitheater.

  A single post lamp lit the stone walkway just beyond her. The soft light was enough to show that something was leaning against the trunk of the big maple at the edge of the clearing.

  “Brian,” Ainsley breathed.

  For a moment Erik thought Ainsley was seeing her old high school boyfriend, Brian Swinton. He knew Ainsley had a nightmare about him from time to time.

  But a step closer showed it was actually Brian Stevens, a Tarker’s Hollow wolf whose human boyfriend, Owen, was the pack’s liaison at the Springton Hospital. Owen had helped Ainsley, Grace and Julian sneak poor Sadie Epstein-Walker out of the hospital last fall during the full moon. He was a good guy, a human who well deserved to be trusted with p
ack secrets.

  Brian was a large man, with soulful brown eyes. He was big enough to have been a linebacker, but had a gentleness to him that reminded Erik of his mother. Brian was in his human form, a panicked look on his face. He appeared to have been tied to the tree.

  He looked up at Ainsley’s approach.

  “It took Owen. The thing took Owen. I tried to shift, but I… couldn’t…”

  Erik moved in to untie him, but whatever held him wasn’t rope. It was thick and sticky, almost like a thick rope made of cotton candy. Ainsley looked to Erik, relief at his presence obvious in her eyes.

  “What thing, Brian?” Ainsley knelt close to Brian as Erik worked on his restraints. “Was it another shifter?”

  Erik got out his knife and began to work on the rope, but he didn’t make quick progress. It was like cutting through a steel cable.

  “I… I don’t know,” Brian said. “One second he was right beside me, the next, he was being pulled up into the trees. Then something pinned me to this tree, and I couldn’t break free. I thought I would shift, but it was like my wolf was tied up too.”

  Erik almost dropped the knife. The memory of losing his own wolf was seared into his heart, a nightmare he didn’t often revisit.

  Only, when it had happened to him, he’d had no sensation of it being restrained. His wolf was just gone.

  Maybe whatever happened to Brian was only temporary. He certainly hoped so. The time Erik had spent without his wolf had been like missing half of himself. He would never want another wolf to experience it.

  “We’ll get you out, don’t worry.” Ainsley stroked Brian’s arm.

  At last Erik worked through the last of the bonds.

  “That should do it.”

  He caught the scent of other wolves in the woods, coming to join them - responding to Ainsley’s unspoken call of distress.

  “Thank you,” Brian said.

  They helped him to his feet as the trees around the clearing began to fill with sets of glowing, lupine eyes.

  “Something is suppressing his wolf,” Erik mused. “Do you think this is the warlocks again? Someone from Charley and Garrett’s order?”

  “It doesn’t feel right.”Ainsley shook her head. “Besides, they got what they wanted in the end. The moroi is free. If they were going to show up anywhere, it would be at one of the other portals. No. This is something different. Something new.”

  Her voice carried despair, and it was hard not to notice the way Ainsley’s fingers spread protectively across her belly. She was tough as nails. It was hard to watch something getting to her.

  “Something’s in the woods, it’s got Owen Blaine,” Erik told the gathered pack mates. “Spread out. Try to pick up its scent.”

  Though they weren’t his to command, the gathered wolves sprung into action immediately.

  Erik shucked off his jeans to join them.

  The concerns of the human world receded a bit and he followed his nose. There were so many wolves in the woods already, each carrying his or her own special bouquet.

  And there was nothing unfamiliar. A whiff of Owen Blaine was present but nothing else. Just trees and campus and wolves and wildlife, with nothing amiss at all.

  He went on making wider and wider circles, until there was literally nothing else to check.

  Then he left the others to recheck, and shifted to join Ainsley again in the clearing.

  She was speaking to Brian in a low voice as the big man stooped with grief. She looked up as Erik joined them, a question in her eyes.

  “Nothing,” he shook his head. “If it stuck to the trees, that would make it harder to track, but not impossible. But we’re not picking up anything at all.”

  “Like it just vanished?” Ainsley studied him in disbelief.

  “Like it was never here.”

  ***

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