Kiss Of The Alpha : A YA Paranormal Romance

Chapter 90: Chapter 90

Heather

When we got to the infirmary, Leslie and two girls that I didn’t know were in Serena’s room. They were lost in discussion as they pawed their way through my books. One of them was pouring over the textbook, while Leslie had my family’s Book of Shadows and the other girl had the blue book.

So much for no one messing with my stuff. I shot Brent a look before turning my anger on them. "You went through my bag and grabbed my personal property?" I practically growled.

They jumped, and dropped the books, keeping their gazes on the ground. Except for Leslie.

She held onto the book and slowly closed it. She wasn’t strong enough to meet my gaze directly, but she stared at my forehead. "We were working on helping Serena. What you’re planning is wrong. I can’t let you try to suppress her wolf when she wants out."

I tried to push the wolf down, but fur rippled along my forearms. My control today was total shit. "I’m trying to help her, not kill her. Anything else we try will end in a funeral. And I don’t think I gave any of you permission to dig around in my bag."

"They were given to a pack member. They’re the pack’s books now," Leslie said.

Was she trying to piss me off?

"Man, that was a dumb thing to say," Adrian said.

Xander grunted as the cold fury beat inside me.

The fur spread, but I wasn’t ready to change. I couldn’t—wouldn’t—let myself change.

Brent cleared his throat. "You want to think very carefully about what you say next, Leslie."

I took the fallen books from the ground and grabbed the Book of Shadows out of Leslie’s hand. "You two will leave here now and never speak of these books again." I let my alpha power roll out as I said the words to the two girls.

"Yes, ma’am," they said, but they were frozen in place.

"Go. Now."

Brent held my hand, and I barely hung on to my human form.

Once they were gone, I turned to Leslie. "What the hell is your problem? I know we don’t get along, but we’re after the same thing."

"No. We’re not." She met my gaze for a split second before looking down. "I know you’ve gotten close with Serena, but I’ve been friends with her for years. We spent our summers together. I know what this has done to her, and I know that if there was an attempt to try and fix it, it’s now."

"And you’re willing to take that risk?"

"Yes."

I looked down at Serena’s pale form. She was drugged, and couldn’t speak for herself. Maybe my reasoning was off. Everyone else thought so.

I couldn’t afford to screw this up. "Guys? I’m a little out of my element here. If I’m wrong, then I’m wrong. So, let’s vote."

"A pack isn’t run by vote, cherie," Brent said.

"Well, this isn’t a pack. This is us being Serena’s friends." I turned to Adrian. "What do you think?"

He looked around the room and then crossed his arms. "Given what we know, I’m with you. Safest option is best."

"Xander?"

He ran his hands through his hair, making his blond waves stand on end. "I hate this. I really hate this."

I knew the feeling. There was no doubt that this whole situation was messed up.

"If we’re going on what we know right now, I think there aren’t any good options," Xander said.

Leslie growled in the corner but didn’t speak up.

"But for the record," Xander continued. "I want to be on Leslie’s side. I want to find another way besides making a bad situation worse. I just don’t know that there is one."

I nodded. "Agreed." The guys were with me, even if they didn’t want to be. "Brent?"

"I agree. It would be good to find a way to get around this, but for now if you can help her in any way, then that would be good."

"You’re not helping her," Leslie yelled. "You’re making her worse. I’ll not be a part of it." She slammed the door so hard the door splintered around the knob.

The room was quiet for a second.

"Well, that was super fun," I said. I rolled my shoulders back, trying to ease the tension. "Am I doing the right thing?"

"I think so. Breaking the curse is dangerous. Calming the wolf has worked for years," Brent said.

"Her parents and three of her brothers won’t get here until tomorrow, but her oldest brother is close. His flight should land in a few hours. We’ll talk it out with him when he gets here. They can try to calm her wolf, too, but I don’t think it’s going to work." He made a face. "None of them are stronger than me."

I glanced down at Serena. I’d met her brother in the vision. Although the word ’met’ might’ve been a stretch. "Yeah. I’d feel better if we got the okay from her family before we did anything to her."

"We should still get the potion ready," Adrian said.

"If they agree, then we’ll be good to go. And if not...it’ll keep us busy while we wait."

"Yeah. Let’s go," Xander said as he gingerly opened the broken door.

We left the infirmary and walked to the next building over. Classes had all let out by now. Everyone else on campus was eating, studying, or working out.

The metaphysics lab was at the end of the hall. That way, if someone accidentally blew something up, not as many classrooms would be destroyed. When my lab partner told me that during my second week, I was shocked. What about the students in the classrooms? He told me in a you-gotta-be-kidding-me voice that we were werewolves. Healing wasn’t a problem.

Still, I hoped we didn’t blow anything up with our attempts at potion making. Healing fast didn’t mean we couldn’t feel pain.

Adrian opened the door and turned on the lights. The fluorescents flickered a few times before burning at full strength.

Heavy-duty metal tables took up the room, each one with two stools. It looked like a chemistry classroom from a normal school, complete with beakers and Bunsen burners on every table. The only difference was what actually went into the beakers.

"Can I see the book?" Adrian asked as he sat at one of the tables.

I opened up my bag and pulled the little brown book out. "Be careful with it," I said as I handed it over.

"Of course."

Brent grabbed the stools from the table behind us. We sat as Adrian placed the book gently on the table. It still had little yellow pieces of paper sticking out from it marking pages.

"We have three options, but only one really viable spell. At least that’s my opinion." He opened to the first one. "This is a basic healing spell." He tapped the page and turned it so that I could read it. Little scribblings filled the margins. It called for dried sage, holy water, and an egg.

An egg? Brujas were weird.

I skimmed the description. It was a spell. There were steps to be performed and words to be said, but nothing that required any pre-mixing in the meta lab. As far as things went, this one seemed much easier than I’d thought it’d be. Anyone could do this.

It was too easy. "She doesn’t need to be healed. She needs the wolf to chill out so that she’s not fighting against the curse. And this spell doesn’t mix any kinds of magic." Donovan hadn’t given me much, but I was going to trust what I did have.

"That option’s out. Right?"

"Yeah. That’s what I thought, too." He flipped to the fourth piece of yellow paper. "This one is the most complicated of the bunch."

"Dude. It says eye of newt," Xander said.

"Seriously?" I looked closer. "I didn’t know that was an actual thing."

"This one would be awesome, but it calls for the blood of the caster," Adrian said.

I ran my finger down the ingredients. Sure enough, there it was. Three drops needed. Short of going back onto the compound, holding Luciana down, and taking her blood, I didn’t see how I could possibly get that. "Yeah. We went over this one already. Not going to happen. Unless you’re saying that there’s a way around it."

Adrian shook his head. "No. But I want there to be. The potion uses the blood to break the hold the curse has on the afflicted."

I stood and paced the room as I tried to think of a way I could convince Luciana to give us some of her blood. I could bargain for it.

She wanted something from me. I wanted something from her. There had to be a way for us to work it out. I pulled my hair down from its messy bun and ran my fingers through the tangles before putting it up again.

I turned back to the guys. "Maybe I can make a deal with—"

"No. Just no." Xander turned to Brent. "You can’t let her go back there. The vibe there wasn’t even close to cool."

"I tried to tell her not to go earlier, and she went anyway," Brent said. "But, for what it’s worth, cherie, you shouldn’t trust someone who would bargain with you over the life of someone else."

I chewed on my lip for a second as I thought.

"You’re right." I went back to the stool. "We’re desperate, but not that desperate. Not yet." I leaned forward on the table.

The cold metal was a shock to my warm skin. But the fact that I got zero visions because I wasn’t trying to have them was another shock. I had control. I had bruja powers and alpha ones. I could do this. "And the last one?"

"It’s our best shot," Adrian said.

"Show me," I said.