Alpha Rising: Book 12 of the Grey Wolves Series

by Quinn Loftis

  He roared as he lunged for her. Peri manifested her own blade just as he reached her, and it slid into his chest as if he were made of butter. The man’s mouth dropped open, blood spilling out and down his chin as he looked at her.

  “You chose the wrong side,” Peri said and then lifted her foot and placed it on his hip. She shoved hard and pushed him off her blade.

  “Peri, behind you!”

  She heard Fane’s voice, and her head whipped around while she swung her blade upward. The side of the sword landed against a vampire’s neck and cut straight through, removing the bloodsucker's head. She’d have to remember to thank Jacque’s mate for giving her a heads up. She was not in the mood to be a vampire’s snack.

  Peri took the momentary reprieve from an enemy attacking her to look around the battlefield. She pushed the wet hair that had escaped her high ponytail out of her face. Lightning cast from elemental sprites lit up the sky, and she saw the carnage around her. It wasn’t only water on the ground forming puddles. There were little streams of blood running across the dirt collecting in small pools. The dirt bore black scorches where lightning had struck it, and piles of ashes that were formerly vampires littered the turf. She also smelled burning, but she couldn’t see anything on fire.

  Peri looked over to where the elemental sprites were standing. They were doing their thing—wind pushing back any foe that tried to get near them. And every time a fae threw magic at them, one of the sprites shot up a wall of ice to block it.

  “Damn,” Peri muttered. She’d forgotten how formidable the sprites could be.

  Her eyes caught sight of Vasile. Side by side with Fane, they battled two large warlocks. Peri saw a couple more warlocks coming up behind the male wolves, and she started their way. But before she took more than a few steps, Cypher, king of the warlocks, was there. He took out the two sneaking up behind Vasile and Fane with one swipe of his huge sword. His eyes met Peri’s, and he gave her a nod. He was making it clear he was keeping an eye on the Romanian alpha and his son. Not that Vasile needed it, but there was no such thing as too many allies.

  Movement from the corner of Peri’s eye made her turn to see a female vampire running toward her, teeth bared. It was attractive. Not. Peri held up her hand and shot a bolt of light at her, stopping the vamp in her tracks. Peri let out a breath as she realized they were winning. There were definitely more piles of ashes on the ground than vampires still standing. As soon as the thought filled her mind, she knew she should have ripped it back.

  Suddenly there was a loud buzzing noise, like hundreds of locusts swarming in a small area.

  “What the…” Peri heard Riven, who was only a few feet away, say and then he added, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  Peri looked up and saw what had caused her fae comrade to grumble. Coming toward them, flying through the air like angry Tinkerbells, were the pixie warriors … or at least the ones that could fly. They might be small, but pixies were no joke. Just like any supernatural race, they were supernatural for a reason; they had powers humans did not possess.

  Peri glanced at the elemental sprites. “Light up the sky!” she yelled at them and pointed. One of the sprites looked where Peri was indicating. The sprite nudged the woman next to her and motioned up. A moment later, more lightning arced through the air. Peri saw Ainsel, king of the pixies, take to the air and join with his warriors. She was glad he was helping, but it would make it challenging for the sprites to not hit any of Ainsel’s people.

  Pixies began to fall, but when they realized what was happening, they began bobbing and weaving through the air like drunk bumblebees.

  A bolt of fire soared through the air, and Peri turned to see Cypher forming another ball of fire in his hand. She knew the warlocks could wield the elements, though it wasn’t something they did often because they believed strongly in fighting a fair fight. A battle of swords. Cypher was smart. He knew that sometimes you fought dirty. Especially when a legion of pixies was about to rain down hell on you.

  Other warriors of Cypher’s warlock army began to do the same, but even with their fire, some of the pixies made it down low enough to use their magic. Peri lifted her hands and began to speak in her language. She caused the air around them to be charged with more static electricity. She had to be careful because too much, and she would cause the lightning the sprites were shooting to become a threat to everyone, not just their enemy.

  Riven must have realized what she was doing because she saw the male warrior take up arms beside her. “I will keep the enemy from you. You focus so you don’t kill us all.”

  Peri laughed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” She began to speak in her language again and focused on her power. The lightning shooting in sharp slashes through the sky seemed to suddenly be drawn toward her, and at the last moment, she pushed her power toward a group of pixies flying straight for the sprites. The pixies fell lifelessly from the sky.

  Peri didn’t feel victorious. She’d taken their lives, and it wasn’t something she ever did lightly.

  “Incoming,” Riven yelled, pulling Peri from her thoughts.

  Peri quickly reined her power in and turned to see what Riven was bellowing about. Her mouth dropped open. “Bloody hell,” she said through gritted teeth as she stared in disbelief. Because it really shouldn’t have been possible.

  “Is he riding a draheim?” Lilly asked, coming up beside them, breathless and looking a little worse for wear but showing no serious injuries. Her mate had trained her well.

  “You tell us,” Peri said. “You’re the one that has experience with these things.” Not that Peri didn’t know what it was, but she was feeling a little snappish.

  “It seems a little small,” Lilly said, tilting her head sideways as if that might somehow explain what she was seeing.

  “That’s because it’s not a mature adult,” Riven said. “It’s an adolescent dragon.”

  “Are they as temperamental as human teenagers?” Lilly asked.

  “Worse,” Peri and Riven said at the same time.

  “And who is that on its back?” said Lilly.

  “My father,” Thalion said as he appeared on Riven’s other side. “Ludcarab, former king of the elves.”

  “Riven, get as many of the fae focused on the dragon as possible,” Peri said quickly. “Thalion, keep the enemy occupied to give my warriors some time to deal with Ludcarab without distraction.”

  “On it,” Thalion said as he turned and shouted out to his warriors.

  “What should I do?” Lilly asked her.

  “Don’t die,” Peri answered as she magicked away her sword and pulled as much power into her body as she could. It was going to take a lot to deal with a draheim, even a young one.

  Just as she was about to allow her light to begin to fill the night, she heard her mate's voice in her mind. “Come and get us. And you’d better bring Kale with you.” Peri didn’t take time to look around. She couldn’t let herself think about the fact that she was leaving her comrades to face a dragon. Her mate had called, and she would answer. That was the way it was with true mates. She’d known when she went into this that she might have to leave at a moment's notice. She flashed and prayed to the Great Luna that all her friends would be all right.

  Riven’s eyes widened as Peri disappeared from beside him. He looked around the battlefield, allowing himself a moment to take his eyes off of Ludcarab and his new pet to see if the high fae reappeared somewhere else. He didn’t see Peri anywhere, but he couldn’t keep searching. He had to focus on the biggest threat: the former elf king riding a bloody draheim.

  Ludcarab circled around them, his draheim moving slowly, as if he wasn’t looming over a battlefield but instead out for a leisurely flight.

  “Where the hell is Peri?” Vale asked as he came up beside Riven.

  “I don’t know and don’t have time to care. We need to get a shield up, now,” Riven said as he began to use his power to build a ward over them. It would trap them inside wi
th their enemy on the ground, but it would hopefully protect them from the flames the flying draheim sent their way.

  Vale raised his hands and began to chant. He was the offspring of a high fae and that meant his own power was even greater than Riven’s.

  Jareth, the djinn, stepped up and joined them. “I can offer some of my power to aid yours.”

  Other fae warriors noticed what they were doing and began to chant. The wolves, warlocks, and elves followed Cypher, Thalion, and Vasile’s lead as they formed a circle to protect them while they were focused on building the ward. Riven could also hear the voices of the sprites, who seemed to be focusing on the pixies.

  As he saw the power crackle in the air, he noticed the weaving of their combined magic. It began along the ground throughout the battlefield and rose quickly, forming a capsule around them. Maybe they had a chance, Riven thought to himself as he took a deep breath, feeling more confident as the ward formed over their head and nearly closed completely. His lips were turning up in a smile as the strands inched closer together, but before the smile could fully form, a huge burst of light flashed, and the ward crumbled.

  A massive gust of wind threw them back, and Riven stumbled. His arms swung, windmilling backward as he forced himself to stay upright. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that others weren’t so lucky and had ended up on the ground, though most were scampering to their feet.

  The clouds that had seemed dark before began to grow in their blackness. The lightning cracked across the sky and somehow felt sinister. The magic filling the air was no longer that of the sprites but was evil. It slid over Riven’s skin like thick oil. He threw up a shield around himself and then glanced around to see how the magic was affecting the others. Jareth was doing something that was making his skin glow. His jaw was tense and his back ramrod straight. Riven decided the djinn must be trying to control his power so that he didn’t destroy the city. Movement beyond Jareth caught Riven’s eye. Thalion had his bow drawn and double arrows ready to fly at the draheim, as did the other elves.

  “Aim for under the neck,” Thalion yelled. The arrows released, soaring through the air. But before they could hit their mark, the projectiles froze and then fell. Jareth whipped out his hand, using his power to push the arrows away so they didn’t accidentally impale anyone not on team Ludcarab. Riven continued to watch the elf king, trying to figure out how he’d stopped the arrows. That wasn’t elf magic. He didn’t have to wonder long. He got his answer a moment later when Alston appeared, and he wasn’t alone.

  Chapter 2

  “I feel like I must be prepared for anything and everything at all times. At some point along the way, you’d have thought I would have realized that I am not an all-powerful being and, therefore, cannot be all things in all situations for all people. I am but a dormant female Canis lupus. It doesn’t matter how many times I try to remind myself of this, it still pisses me off when I’m caught off guard.” ~Jen

  “They’re gone!” Cyn bellowed as she suddenly appeared in the war room directly beside the table where Jacque and Jen were currently sitting, having just realized that their pack had been betrayed to the Order.

  Both girls were on their feet in an instant, their chairs falling to the floor from the force of their rising.

  “Who’s gone?” Jen asked, her hands already shaking because she knew what Cyn would say. Call it a mother’s intuition or just the understanding that she’d learned to always expect the worst when someone was running around screaming out thing’s like ‘they’re gone’.

  “The pups,” the fae warrior, who was usually so calm and stoic, breathed out around a sob.

  Nissa, the high fae Peri had left to help protect the stronghold, appeared a second later. “Alston,” she said through clenched teeth.

  Cyn nodded. “Alston and Skender. They blew the door off the nursery, and Alston bound us before we could wield our own weapons or magic. Then they grabbed the pups and left.”

  “I felt him,” Nissa said. “But I couldn’t get to him. I tried to flash to his location, but it was as if he had nullified my powers. The sensation evaporated, and I was able to move again. I checked on the children first and then followed Cyn’s magic here.”

  Jen felt Jacque’s hand on her shoulder and realized that her friend’s hands had phased to full-on claws and fur. Jen closed her eyes and took several deep breaths to calm herself.

  “They’re just … gone,” Cyn mumbled again, as though she were trying to convince herself there was some kind of mistake.

  “Did they say anything?” Jacque asked.

  Another fae warrior, Talia, suddenly appeared next to Cyn. “You flashed before I could show this to you.” Talia held her hand out to Cyn. A folded piece of paper sat clenched within it.

  Jen snatched it before Cyn could move and quickly unfolded it. She read it three times, her mind frantically trying to grasp the words through the haze of rage and fear. “He says we are to come to Arizona and bring Sally if we want to see our children alive and unharmed,” she read, looking at Jacque, who appeared about as calm as Jen felt.

  Before anyone could respond, Sally and Costin came running through the entryway to the war room. Sally’s eyes were the size of saucers, and Costin looked ready to skin someone alive.

  “Where are our children?” Sally asked, her words coming out in between gasps of air. She must have run the entire way from the playroom. Gypsy healers, for all their inner strength, simply didn’t have the physical stamina of wolves. “They’re gone, and I thought Cyn agreed to tell us if they were leaving…” She realized Cyn was standing right beside Jen. “Why are you here? Why aren’t you with Titus, Slate, and Thia?” She growled as she glared at the fae warrior. “And why in the bloody pixie babies are you crying!” Jen understood Sally’s confusion over Cyn’s show of emotion. The fae female rarely, if ever, showed any emotion.

  Costin wrapped his arms around his distraught mate and pulled her back from where Sally had stepped into Cyn’s personal space. “Answer her,” Costin said, his voice deadly.

  Jen was the one who spoke. “Alston and Skender have taken them.”

  Sally breathed out in a desperate plea. She looked at Cyn and Nissa. “Why didn’t either of you stop him?” Her eyes focused on the female high fae. “Aren’t you supposed to be powerful like him? What freaking good are you if you can’t protect the most important people in this damn mountain?” Jen began to speak, but Sally whipped her head around and drilled Jen with an angry glare. “Why are you just standing there doing nothing, Jennifer?”

  The growl that Jen’s wolf emitted was beyond her human control. The beast didn’t appreciate Sally’s implication—that Jen wasn’t concerned for their little ones. She was worried out of her freaking mind. But she needed a moment to process the situation. Her mate was far away on a battlefield facing an enemy that was forewarned of their plans and prepared for the fight. Now, her daughter was in the hands of that same enemy.

  “Give me a bloody damn minute to think!” Jen yelled. Jacque placed a hand, which had phased completely back to her human form, on her arm as if to say, “Sally’s not the enemy.” Jen knew that, of course, but she also knew her friend needed to take a step back and think before she started accusing her of doing nothing.

  “He said to bring Sally to Arizona,” Jacque said. “Decebel and Fane just showed us the field where they are about to go to battle.”

  “Nissa and I can trace Alston’s magic,” Cyn added. “But we need to get back to the room and follow it before it fades.” Cyn looked at Talia. Her tears were now dry, and she seemed to have pulled herself together. “You need to let Alpha Alina know what’s going on. We don’t have time to tell her.”

  Talia nodded.

  Cyn held out her arms, as did Nissa. Jen and Jacque placed a hand on Cyn while Sally and Costin each placed a hand on Nissa. They flashed and ended up in the playroom. “Don’t let go,” Cyn said, and then they flashed again.

  Jen considered for about a sec
ond that maybe they should have thought their actions through a little better before chasing after the evil high fae and traitorous wolf, but she dismissed the thought as soon as she pictured Thia’s perfect face in her mind. If there was one hair harmed on her child’s head, Jen would pull Alston apart limb by limb. She’d make Skender watch, so he knew exactly what would happen to him.

  When her feet were on solid ground once again, Jen opened her eyes, which she hadn't even realized she’d closed, and gasped as she took in the battle raging around her.

  “Do you see them?” Sally asked, her voice full of the urgency that Jen was feeling.

  “No,” Jacque said. “Wait, there.” She pointed to the right, and Jen followed the direction. Alston and Skender stood in the middle of the fray, holding the three children in their arms. Alston held Thia, and Skender had Slate and Titus.

  Jen’s wolf pushed forward and snarled. “I will end them.” Nissa held out her arm to try to stop her, but Jen was not having it.

  “Get in line,” Sally snapped as she and Costin started toward the treacherous wolf and high fae. Jen and Jacque began to run. Jen didn’t know where Cyn or Nissa had gone after she’d stomped past them. But whatever the fae were doing, Jen hoped it helped.

  The seconds it took to reach the two males seemed like hours. But when they were finally mere feet away, Jen had to fight her phase. Her wolf wanted free. It needed to rip into the man who held their pup and pull his entrails from his tender stomach. It wanted to wrap them around his neck and strangle him, watching the life fade from his miserable eyes. Thia’s face was red, her eyes puffy from crying and tears rolled down her face. As soon as she saw Jen, she reached out one of her chubby, little hands to her. Jen was so going to disembowel the POS holding her child.