Page 8 of Mated By the Alphas
I look human, except I’m larger than most of their kind. Too broad. Too tall. Too dangerous to pass unnoticed for long. That’s why the Third Form exists. Without it, every room I walk into turns silent. People stare. Blending in is impossible.
“Home,” I growl under my breath. I don’t know what she is, but if it’s this hard to maintain my Third Form when I’m close to her, I need to stay as far away as possible.
I close my eyes and concentrate harder. I focus on human weaknesses, summoning them to the surface. My strength bleeds out of my frame first, the towering height compressing as bones shorten and settle into a more believable shape. Muscle pulls tighter against my frame instead of bulging with the brutal density of my true Human Form.
The hair that falls halfway down my back shortens, dark waves pulling in until it barely grazes my collar. My beard trims itself down to rough stubble along my jaw. The glow in my eyes dulls, the burning amber fading into a muted black that only hints at the fire beneath it.
When I open my eyes again, the beast is gone. I pick up my clothes, put them on, and walk over to the fire escape. Even in this weaker form, I’m stronger and faster than most humans. I’m on the ground in a matter of seconds, and I vanish into the night before anyone even notices me.
My home, if you can call it that, is a penthouse apartment that overlooks Chicago’s north side. I never feel comfortable here. My body craves the wind that blows through the forest, the scent of fresh rain, and the feeling of dirt beneath my paws instead of asphalt. Despite that, I walk through the doors of my building like any other human eager to get home. I get on the elevator, swipe my card, and wait for it to take me to the top floor.
As soon as I step off the elevator, I realize I won’t get the peace I need. I’m not alone.
“Remy,” I growl, seeing my brother sitting in the dark, sipping whiskey. “What are you doing here?”
Remy’s in his Third Form, just like I am. I was our parents’ firstborn pup. Remy arrived a few years later, while I was stillyoung enough to enjoy playing in the snow and chasing leaves in the wind. Before I realized just how cruel the world is to our kind.
“I was going to finish my whiskey and leave, since I assumed you weren’t coming home alone,” Remy says. “You rarely do when you’re out this late.”
“Still doesn’t answer my question,” I say, pouring some whiskey into a glass and sitting down across from my brother.
“Pack business,” Remy says.
My grip tightens around the glass. For a moment my wolf stirs again, restless beneath my skin after tasting freedom. “There is no pack business. Not anymore.”
“Tonight, there is,” Remy grumbles, an edge in his voice. “There’s a Scion in Chicago.”
My grip gets even tighter. If I wasn’t in my Third Form, I’d shatter the glass. Does he know about her, too? Did he sense her, just like I did? It shouldn’t be possible unless he was as close as I was, and I would have been able to sense his presence if he was anywhere nearby. I take a drink of my whiskey to stall for a second.
“A Scion?” I ask, trying to keep my tone casual. “Most of them stay away from Chicago. That’s why we hide here. Do we know what kind of Scion it is?”
“Vampire. Not very old, but he’s turning people and building a brood. We know what happens when that goes unchecked,” Remy growls, downing more whiskey. “It’s only a matter of time before the Crimson Templars show up.”
“Fuck,” I mutter, but I feel compelled to share my experience, too. If there’s multiple Scions in Chicago, I need to make my brother aware, even if I don’t know what she is. “I ran into a Scion tonight, too. That’s why I came home alone.”
“A vampire?” Remy questions.
“No, not a vampire. I don’t know what she is, but she… she caused a reaction. It was hard for me to maintain my Third Form around her,” I admit, shaking my head.
“That could be more dangerous than a vampire,” Remy growls. “But that means… only a she-wolf can cause that kind of reaction in our kind. Are you sure that’s not what she is? We’d be able to tell, wouldn’t we?”
“Yes,” I reply. “I remember what it was like when we were around she-wolves. This wasn’t the same. It was… more enthralling. Like being trapped in a fog and she was the only light I could find.”
“I’ve never heard of a Scion like that. Or a reaction like that,” Remy says.
“Me either,” I admit. “I would have gone straight to the elders, if they were still around.”
“You’re the elder now, Hayden,” Remy sighs. “And you’re still our Alpha, even if the pack is in disarray. That means you’ve got to decide what we do about the vampires. And what we do about this other mysterious Scion.”
“The vampire we have to deal with immediately, especially if he’s turning instead of just feeding. It has to be young vampire, otherwise he wouldn’t be foolish enough to build a brood in Chicago,” I say, downing more whiskey. “The girl, I’m going tokeep an eye on. I’m not sure she’s a threat. She easily passes as a human. She may not even know that she has Scion blood.”
“Eliminating her would be easier, especially if you struggled to maintain your Third Form around her,” Remy growls.
“You didn’t feel what I felt,” I mutter. “Dormant instincts rose to the surface. It wasn’t like when we seek out humans for companionship. It was similar to what our father used to describe. The feeling he got when he realized our mother was his mate.”
“That’s not possible,” Remy says. “Wolves can’t mate with other Scions. Besides, all you’ve heard are old stories. None of us have ever felt the pull of a true mate, and we all felt something die inside us the night the last she-wolf was killed.”
“I know it’s impossible, brother,” I growl. “That doesn’t change what I felt.”
