Kiss Of The Alpha : A YA Paranormal Romance

Chapter 100: Chapter 100

Heather

"I came to bargain," I said.

She slowed her run to a fast walk. "Seeing things my way?"

I shook my head. "No, but I want to save a good friend. An innocent girl."

Luciana scoffed. "She’s not innocent. None of the wolves are."

Brent started to growl and I elbowed him. I instantly regretted it. It was like hitting granite. I rubbed my elbow, trying to gain the feeling back.

"If you release Serena from whatever was done to her, I’ll come here one day a week to study."

Luciana shook her head. "No. You stay here. For good. I suppress your wolf, and I’ll put Serena’s back to sleep so she can live."

I tried to maintain my cool, but I could feel Brent’s bubbling anger bleeding through our bond. "That’s not a compromise."

"Did I say I wanted to compromise?"

I had to calm down. I took a moment to look around the compound. A few people gathered on the street to watch us talk. More people were staring through windows.

I raised my voice as I spoke, hoping that if Luciana wasn’t going to listen to what I was saying, maybe someone else here would. "You can’t expect to lead if you’re not willing to compromise."

"I don’t negotiate with monsters."

Rage rippled along my skin. "You’re killing an innocent girl and you dare call me—us—monsters." Three calming breaths were all I allowed myself.

"Serena is the true mate of Donovan. One of the Seven. Killing her will win you no friends. Are you and your people prepared to make enemies of all the wolves? Not just this pack, but every pack? You wanted me here, so here I am. I’m offering one day a week in exchange for you to release Serena from the curse."

"No."

Murmers went around the group. Some of the coven members looked wary.

Daniel put his hand on his mother’s shoulder. "We should accept her offer. Having Donovan as an enemy is not an option."

"No," Luciana said. "She needs to let go of her wolf and take her place in the coven."

"I can’t do that." Taking my wolf away was not an option, and Luciana was crazy for thinking it was. "It’d be like cutting off one of my legs just for the hell of it. I’m not doing it. I’m a wolf witch—equal halves of both. You don’t have the right or the power to separate me from my wolf."

"If you were so powerful, you’d be able to break the cage Serena’s wolf is in," Luciana said. "But you can’t even see it to break it. You can’t even find it. That’s not power."

Break the cage? See it?

Break the cage. I could find it?

That was it. Holy shit. Luciana gave me what I needed.

I was a combination of wolf and witch. I combined alpha powers with witchcraft. I hadn’t learned much about either, but I knew that my alpha powers gave me control. And control was what I needed to guide my witchcraft.

Donovan hadn’t been talking about merging types of witchcraft. He’d been talking about me specifically mixing my witchcraft with my alpha energy. Just like I’d done to contact him.

Oh my God.

Leslie and Xander had been right all along. I could break the curse. I’d just been thinking about it the wrong way. I’d been looking at it from either an alpha way—by getting an alpha strong enough to calm her wolf—or a witchcraft way—by using spells and potions to get her wolf to settle down.

In the middle of this fight with Luciana, I was instantly calm.

A smile spread across my face. Serena’s wolf was locked up. Chained inside her. All I had to do was find the cage with my witchcraft, and help her break it and call her wolf forward by using alpha powers. And if I didn’t have enough alpha energy, I could pull it from the pack.

It all made sense now. I just hadn’t seen it before.

I’d been running from the wolf stuff since I became a wolf and it was high time I embraced it along with my bruja side.

Luciana was still rambling on, but nothing she said mattered anymore. I wasn’t listening.

"Goodbye, Luciana." She stopped talking to stare at me. "Turns out, I don’t need your help. And you’ve just made an enemy for life." I turned my back, trusting Daniel and Brent to keep watch. "Let’s go."

I grabbed the keys from Brent and hopped in the car. I floored it through the gate. The burn on the way out barely registered.

"You’ve got a plan."

I nodded. "Yes. Call the school. I need every wolf in the area in the courtyard by the time we get there. Everyone you can find. All the Cazadores. Everyone."

"On it." He pulled his cell phone from his pocket, and started making calls.

This could work. Holy shit. This could be it.

Brent’s phone worked overtime for nearly the whole car ride. We knew our time was limited. He checked in with Dr. Gonzales and she said Serena was still alive, but had only an hour or two left.

I sped down the road, not caring about getting a ticket. There was no slowing down.

When Brent was done with his calls, we were minutes away from campus.

"What’s the plan?"

I tapped my fingers along the steering wheel. "I’m going to need your help. I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I have a theory."

He turned to face me. "Tell me."

I glanced at him for a second before turning back to the road. "You can make me change if you wanted to."

"Yes. I could."

"You could make just about anyone, right?"

"Yes."

"Even if they didn’t want to."

"Oui. Of course. Yes." He paused. "I think I know where you’re going with this, but I already tried that with Serena... Actually, I tried to calm her wolf. Waking it up would only hurt her worse."

"See, that’s what I thought too. But Luciana talked about the curse like she trapped Serena’s wolf in a cage, and all I had to do was release her. I think if I connect with Serena again so that I can ’see’ Serena’s wolf, and then I use witchcraft and break the cage while I use alpha power to force the change, then the cage will crumble. The curse will break." I was on to something. If Brent agreed, this could really be it. "You weren’t enough on your own to affect her change, but if we got enough of us together, I think we could make it work."

"I don’t know. It makes sense in theory, but do you think you can connect with her enough to see that?"

I hoped so. "I saw all kinds of stuff when I was with her. Memories after she first changed. With her brothers. Hanging out with her mom. I think I can get to her, and once I do, it’ll be about timing. It’ll take some doing, but I think we can." I paused.

"This could work. It’s just... Shit," he said as his phone rang. He switched to French, talking for a few minutes before hanging up.

I pulled into the big black gates at St. Francis’s. The lot was completely full. Cars were blocking others in and there was no hope of finding a place to park. I didn’t look for one. Instead, I drove up the path that led to school.

There were people milling around. As soon as they saw me, they stopped and stared.

Jeeze. Enough with the staring already.

Brent nodded at them when we got out and they headed off without a word.

"Everyone’s in the courtyard. Go get Serena and bring her."

Brent took off sprinting, and I ran the other direction. When I got to the end of the path, the trees cleared and I stopped.

Where had Brent found all these people? There had to be six or seven hundred. Our school had barely three hundred. I swallowed. It seemed a little odd that the newbie wolf was going to use all of them, but I could do this. At least I thought I could.

My gaze darted from face to face as I started toward the crowd.

One by one, people started muttering and pointing my way. I was sure that with the way the St. Francis’s rumor mill worked, everyone here knew who I was. I wasn’t sure if that made me uncomfortable or more confident. Probably the former.

They made way for me as I stepped into the middle of the clearing.

I spotted a familiar head of wavy blond hair and met Xander’ gaze. Leslie was next to him with all four of Serena’s brothers. They nodded at me, and I tried to look confident—chin up, back straight—but I wasn’t sure if I pulled it off at all.

Adrian was standing beside Serena’s brothers. He stuck his thumb up in the air with a grin.

Good God. How was he smiling when Serena was barely alive?

If I couldn’t pull this one off...

Rosa’s words came back to me, and I pushed my fears aside. Confidence. And light. Put my faith, my will, my heart into the work. I had love for Serena. I’d connect with her, and free the wolf from her cage.

Butterflies took flight in my stomach as I waited. I tried not to worry about everyone watching me. I was used to being watched. I could do this.