Alphas Unwrapped: 21 New Steamy Paranormal Tales of Shifters, Vampires, Werewolves, Dragons, Witches, Angels, Demons, Fey, and More

by Michele Bardsley

  Brodie, I knew, didn’t like having to go into hiding. He was a “face it and handle it” man, and I liked him for it, but just now Jebidiah was right. If we were going to prove his innocence and keep him alive, we had to (for now) keep out of sight.

  “Disguising yer scent in case anyone dares to visit me …” Jebidiah grinned wickedly. “… uninvited.”

  Seeing these two together, I got the feeling that Jebidiah was a great deal older than Brodie, though how one could discern this, I’m not sure. It was, for me, just a feeling. I suppose it was what I saw in his dark eyes. There was something ancient and wise beyond the years he appeared to be, something that lurked in them, something that comes with age and experience.

  “First, Jebidiah … I want to introduce ye properly to m’lass, Calico.”

  “Go on—go on with ye. Don’t ye think I know who she is? I knew the moment I saw her that here stood Senna and Samuel’s daughter. What I’ll be asking is how the devil ye found her, but not till ye get inside. I’ll join ye presently.” He gave Brodie a shove and winked at me.

  I was totally speechless.

  Absolutely speechless is an oddity for me. I have lots of opinions. They change, they travel up and down and sideways depending on the facts that settle in, but I am rarely speechless.

  However, nothing meaningful at that moment came to mind. Words did not seem adequate. Here was another person who not only knew my mother but my father as well. He saw the resemblance between my mother and myself, and that fact alone filled me so pleasurably I was only able to smile.

  Brodie chanted a few words while I waited, expecting a secret door to slide open, but instead he took my hand, and we walked through it. Evidently the panel door I imagined wasn’t really there. Illusion is a very important part of magic.

  On the other side of the secret wall, Jebidiah’s ‘log cabin’ stretched on for what seemed like eternity. It was breathtaking and yet warm and cozy all at once. Cedar beams stretched across the ceiling. Some walls were cedar-paneled, others a soft cream covered with artifacts and portraits. One entire wall was made of stone with a huge, arched fireplace. The entire effect was charming.

  I said, “Whoa …”

  “Astounding, isn’t it? Ye wouldn’t know it to look at him, but Jebidiah is one of our oldest Council members, older than m’aunt even, and this is his special retreat—designed by no other than himself,” Brodie said and smiled broadly.

  “And how old is he?”

  “Och now, I’m thinking well over a thousand years old.”

  My mouth dropped. I had assumed he had centuries under his belt, but a thousand years was quite astounding to me. We stared at one another, and I remarked more than asked, “You trust him.”

  “With m’life … in fact, he is the one who has been working from the start to trap Blakely. It is just a matter of time. He is working on a plan.”

  “Plan to trap Blakely? What plan? You knew a plan was in motion? This is the first I am hearing about a plan.” I raised an inquiring brow at him.

  He laughed and flicked my nose. I pushed at his chest. He grabbed me and kissed me soundly, sweetly, hotly.

  A loud cough sounded behind me, and we turned to find Jebidiah towering, his fists on his hips, his feet planted firmly and widely apart. “We don’t have time for that, now do we?”

  I felt the color rush into my cheeks, but Brodie said, “I will always have the time for that … don’t ye know?” A big, naughty grin spread his lips, and I just wanted to hug him forever.

  All at once, Jebidiah put up his hand and said, “Quiet!”

  Neither Brodie nor I heard a thing, and we looked at each other and then at Jebidiah.

  “Blast his soul to hell!” Jebidiah said low and angrily.

  He stepped back through his magical wall, and we waited.

  With a tone that was deep and brusque and yet perfectly controlled, Jebidiah said, “On whose authority?”

  I looked at Brodie. He put a finger to his lips.

  A male voice answered and sounded nervous as all hell. “As ye can see, sir … the papers are in order.”

  “What I see is one, just one, Council member’s signature on this warrant, and he is not a senior member, and he is a friend of Blakely, who is the accuser. Get out of here before I have the lot of ye taken off to the gallows with the blink of one of m’eyes.”

  “But, sir—” the man (foolishly, I thought), dared to argue.

  “BUT?” Jebidiah roared. “Ye’ll not be invading m’privacy with this worthless piece of paper. Ye go and tell the piece of garbage that signed this that I’ll be having his head in an emergency meeting I am calling now. Right now.”

  Silence followed, and a moment later Jebidiah stood before us and chuckled, appearing not at all concerned, “They are serving themselves up to us on the proverbial platter, don’t ye think?”

  “How so?” Brodie asked.

  “Wait!” Jebidiah put up a hand to stall further conversation. He closed his eyes, and we stood quietly.

  “Ah,” he said after a few moments. “I have mind-linked with all the senior members. We meet now in chambers. Stay here. Don’t go anywhere. This is our moment.” He turned to me and bent over my hand. “Calico Renley, pleased I am that ye and Brodie have found one another. I know ye have questions, and I’ll try and answer them, but now is the moment to strike.” So saying, he vanished in a puff of dark smoke.

  I looked at Brodie, and all I could think to say was, “His smoke is dark. Yours is purple.”

  Brodie burst out laughing and hugged me tightly before he said, “I’m curious to see what yers will be when ye find it, but ye know, lass, ye don’t need it. Ye can travel worlds with yer shifting ability.”

  I sighed. “I don’t know exactly how to do that …”

  “Never mind. Ye will … in time,” he said and then frowned and added, “I’m told the Fallen, like the Druids, go through a period of training, years and years of it. But ye are a royal. Some abilities are ingrained in ye, waiting to be released.”

  “I’m hungry,” I said in answer to this, because both of us heard my stomach growling.

  Brodie burst out laughing, and as he hugged me tightly, I wondered how we were ever going to be free just to be.

  Chapter Eleven

  I WAS IN JEBIDIAH’S rear garden, walking. The late afternoon was soft and breezy. The scent of roses was everywhere. It was simply lovely.

  Jebidiah had asked for a few moments with Brodie. I didn’t know what they didn’t want me to hear, and I was a little miffed about being excluded.

  I don’t know what made me turn around, because I don’t remember hearing anything or smelling anything but the roses.

  My heart stopped as I looked at a taller, slightly older-looking version of myself. Her hair fell in red torrents of silk to her waist. A gold band over her forehead designated her as a princess of her realm. Her eyes were sparkling silver and filled with power except for the fact that they were also wet. Tears spilled over her beautiful cheeks as she stood staring at me.

  I was momentarily stunned because at her back, now retracting, were silver-tipped white wings. I only got a glimpse of them before they vanished.

  “Daughter, I could not stay away. He doesn’t—didn’t—know I am alive, but he’ll have sensed it as soon as I entered this realm. He is more powerful than you can imagine, “ she said. “Oh, my sweet child, I have watched you grow into the woman you are … my Calico, my dear and only child.” She held out her arms, and I ran into them. No questions. No doubts. No hesitation.

  “If only you knew what it took for me to stay alone in Ireland,” she whispered into my ear. “I had to keep apart and watch you through a mirror, never touching you, never speaking to you, afraid to use my magic to help you lest my father sense me in the universe.” She stroked my head, and the scent of her was exotic and intoxicating.

  This was my mother, my mother who wanted me and sacrificed what she wanted to keep me safe.

  I
sobbed into the woven material of her green sundress. Sundress? Wings? This was all too much. For a minute, the world began to spin, and I thought I just might pass out.

  However, this moment with my mother, whom I had missed all my life, was too important for me to allow that to happen. But before I could speak, the atmosphere exploded with a sudden rush of power. It was as though all the energy around us had been absorbed and then immediately released.

  I felt a web of magical might weave itself around us even as my mother shoved me behind her and said in a hushed tone, “Quiet. Say nothing.”

  We had hardly had a moment together. What was happening?

  “How dare you!” A bold voice reverberated in the air. “Senna … all these years you allowed me to believe you were dead? How could you?” He stood tall and broad, with braided blond hair at his neck, in clothes that looked almost medieval. He was ageless, and yet I sensed he was many centuries old. His wings were enormous, and unlike my mother’s, his were silver-tipped but black. Such iridescent black and so impressive.

  He wore a small crown on his head, and his dark eyes were fierce and at that moment angry.

  I knew who he was. He could be no other.

  He was my grandfather. Here was my grandfather, who if he knew who I was … would see me dead, perhaps even kill me himself. He had no choice. He had issued the edict that no inter-marriages with Morelakes would be allowed and certainly no hybrids would be tolerated.

  My mother had protected me from him all my life, and now?

  He took a step forward, and before I could think what next, we were traveling through space and time. It was a gentle flash of a moment. I felt weightless and helpless, but it was not uncomfortable, and, I realized, it felt natural to me. So much more natural than traveling through portals.

  * * * * *

  I landed on my feet. My mother stood right beside me.

  Where?

  I looked around at the large, luxurious chamber, which reminded me of one in a castle I had visited in Ireland with Lyla. One of those stately structures that still stood and was open to the public for tours.

  It appeared that the lifestyle in Nether Blue was lost somewhere in time, very different than the modern Morelake.

  My mother hurriedly put her arms around me as though to shield me, I suppose, from my grandfather. My grandfather? The sound of the word in my mind stirred up conflicting emotions.

  “Stay away from her,” my mother shouted at him.

  He repeated what he had uttered only a moment ago: “Senna!” His voice was a roar. “Why? How could you?” He paced. “Where were you all these years?”

  “In Ireland, watching my child grow up through a mirror. I dared because I had to keep her safe from her own grandfather—from you!” Her words were wrenched from her gut.

  “Your child? With that Morelake?” He looked and sounded astounded. “But … you knew the law.” He turned toward me and stared. For a moment he didn’t speak, and then in a hoarse tone he said, “You broke my law, a law I pronounced when you were just a babe. How could you? I gave you all my love and attention …and then what did you do but sully your name by marrying a Morelake … a Morelake—”

  “You were wrong to issue such a law, and a Morelake did not kill my mother. I have been investigating her murder all these years, as you should have been. You found it easier to believe a Morelake murdered her, but it wasn’t … I finally have proof that it was a Fallen, one of our own.”

  He eyed her for a moment. “Who is this Fallen?”

  “His name is Tide, and I couldn’t accuse him till I was sure, but just recently I saw and heard him in conversation with a Morelake. I recorded their images, and you will see and hear them. They were in collusion. They want a war—they want you and the new king of Morelake destroyed for obvious reasons.”

  My grandfather’s dark eyes narrowed, and his cheeks reddened. “Senna, how long have you known?”

  “I told you I wasn’t sure until recently. As I said, I was gathering proof because I knew you wouldn’t listen … and then suddenly Calico arrived in Morelake, and she was my first concern.”

  “You gave her up because you thought she was in danger … from me? Her own blood?” He screamed as though in anguish. “You cut us both with that action. We both shall forever bleed because of what you have done.”

  “No, I bleed because of you … my own father has ruined my life and taken everything I care about from me.” My mother broke down and sobbed.

  I hugged her to me and turned furiously on the king. “If there is blame, it is yours,” I told him. “When you see that, accept that, you can make it … perhaps not right, but better.”

  The king’s shoulders drooped, and he no longer looked so very furious. In fact, I thought he looked … broken.

  I released my mother and took another step towards him, hoping for an advantage, hoping to make him relent. “Can’t you see what you have become? Would she—your wife, my grandmother—have wanted this?” I wagged a finger at him. “I was deprived of my own mother. She was deprived of me … and whether you like it or not, you were deprived of a grandchild.”

  “Disrespectful, deceitful daughter has bred a disrespectful little hybrid,” he said in a voice that sounded rough and harsh. I stared him down; I suppose I was so angry I forgot that he could probably kill me on the spot. “Defiant wee brat,” he added.

  I did not see or hear contempt from him. Instead, I witnessed a tearing emotion enter his dark eyes. “Did no one teach you to respect your elders, your king?” he said on half a sigh.

  “Respect has to be earned,” I snapped. I was still furious with him.

  All at once he straightened, and in a resounding voice called for his guards.

  Uh-oh!

  I had to escape. I simply had to escape. And I was taking my mother with me.

  Something magical and scientific clicked in my mind. Shifting is what Fae use for transportation. I wasn’t taught that early on, and yet there it was in my head. I knew my mother could shift us, but he could track her shifting. He wouldn’t be able to track mine, as I was pretty sure mine would be awkward and unfamiliar to him. Ha.

  It was nearly December, and I would reach my majority in a few weeks. So I dove into that hidden compartment, one that had always been there, one I knew now was my Fallen Angel side, and grabbed hold of my mother’s hand. “Not this time, Mom. He is not separating us this time, and I can take us where he won’t have a clue we have gone.”

  I knew instinctively that it was true. My mom might not have realized that the home she had prepared for me in Ireland was a place her father would not easily find, but I did. The king had never known about the house in Ireland, and that would buy us some time.

  We landed in my bedroom and stared at one another. My mother put her hands on my cheeks and said, “How decisive you are … so brave and beautiful.”

  “Will he be able to track us here?”

  “Not immediately but, yes, eventually. He has a very powerful orb, and now that he knows I am alive, he will do everything he can to find us.”

  “Then we have to shield ourselves very specifically,” I told her. Before we could discuss how to do that, I got a familiar scent, and then I heard him step into the room. He had gotten past my wards. How?

  A portal. An open-mouthed portal gaped dark and ugly at his back.

  In a whirl of gray smoke that cleared even as he moved, stood Warren Dreede.

  * * * * *

  I had forgotten about the threat of Warren Dreede.

  How had he found me so soon?

  All at once, squid-like tentacles swiftly had me enfolded in their spiked lengths. I couldn’t think or move for the moment as shock swept through me.

  My mother screamed, but even as she raised her hand to thwart him, Warren and I were in the portal, hurtling along its thick and slimy membraned walls. Dark magic … everything about the portal spelled out an ancient sorcery and one quite dangerous to utilize. Black sorcery has a wa
y of invading the mind and making a home there. It is quite thoroughly addicting.

  Kicking and screaming did no good as I bounced against the walls. The portal swept me through its length like a gale wind. I had no power against its force.

  How had Warren acquired such power?

  I landed with a thump and rolled on hardwood floor before I was able to right myself, jump up, and get my Ebony in hand.

  Where was I? I scanned the room, my wand pointed before me. I turned sharply, making sure no one was at my back. Where was he?

  I was alone in his bedroom … or what I presumed was his bedroom. Where was he?

  Black, white, and grays dominated the décor of his large bedroom. Glass shelves sported various magical artifacts on either side of a six-foot big screen. His huge bed loomed in my sight against one wall, and it too carried the black, white, and gray theme.

  A door opened, and he stepped into the room and stood, his legs spread apart, his arms folded against his hard and naked chest, a chest covered in intricate ink.

  “You are even more beautiful than when you first ran from me.” His voice was soft, even caressing, but those hazel eyes of his had a dark, unfathomable layer.

  I frowned as I gazed back at him, and I put on a show by putting my chin in the air. I had to stall and keep him talking. Should I feed his ego? After all, he was an attractive man dressed at the moment in nothing but a pair of jeans. I was pretty sure he was susceptible to flattery.

  I said, “You have everything you need—good looks, power. Why take me by force? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Why? Can you really ask? I more than want you Calico,” he answered on a grimace.

  “I don’t get it,” I told him. “You are what any woman would call hot. You could have any woman you want.”

  “I know, but I want you, and one way or another I am going to have you and teach you how to love me. I will do anything it takes to accomplish my ultimate goal.”

  “You can’t be serious. I can’t be a goal!”

  He shrugged. “Your magic, that unique power of yours, vibrates the air around you. Yes, I want your power beside me, ruling with me, but, Calico, I love you. I have always loved you.”