KNIGHT
Chapter 9
Rob Bryant leaned against the edge of his desk with folded arms as he listened to each of them recount pieces of the situation, along with their respective conclusions. Jake entered halfway through the debrief-ing, but was brought up to speed.
“Alexia’s right, Rob. We have no choice but to lock down,” Neil said finally.
Bryant roughly rubbed his chin. “Fortunately it’s Sunday and most of our weekday people are already home. The rest we’ll have to make accommodations for temporarily until we can get a handle on this.” He raised darkening eyes to Neil. “Do it.”
Both he and Jake stepped outside and started making phone calls. Alexia hadn’t thought about the extent of what closing this township might actually entail. Still, it was the responsible decision.
Her respect for Robert Bryant and his concern for the people under his care leveled up several notches.
“The west and northwest entrances are locked down with guards now posted,” Neil said, stepping back into the office after several minutes. “Calkins, Hannon and Kardon are telling their people to spread the word to their managers.”
Jake then appeared. “South three and four are closed too. No one in or out. Already had to turn a few away. This is not going to be popular with our local members.”
Bryant shook his head. “We’re not here to win popularity contests. Our job is to protect all Pack members within our territory, whether they live here or not. This is in everyone’s best interest.” He looked to all of them. “Do whatever it takes to find this killer.” Then to his two Alpha Enforcers, “Do whatever it takes to stop him.”
Everyone began making fast plans. During the furious conversations, Neil touched Alexia’s shoulder to guide her over to the corner.
“I’m going to be very busy in the next few hours tightening every-thing up, so I’ll need you to stay put. No arguments, Alexia. I won’t be good to anyone else here if I’m worrying about your safety.” He lowered his voice even more adding, “No telling if we’re keeping this killer out, or in.”
She understood the frightening prospect. “I’ll stay close to Rachel and Scott. Maybe I can still be of some help to them.”
He nodded, relieved with her compliance.
“I’ll check on you when I’m done,” he said. “Don’t leave anyplace with someone you’re not already familiar with, even if they use my name, or Rob’s.”
“I got it already, Neil. You know, I can take care of myself. I’m even an expert at self-defense.” He eyed her doubtfully. “Okay, maybe not expert, but I did pass a course with flying colors. And I got one good swipe on you Friday night.”
His eyes narrowed at the reminder. “No one, Alexia. I mean it.”
“Okay, but I’m going to need to call my uncle sometime today to let him know I won’t be into work tomorrow.”
Neil handed her his cellphone. She started to protest, but he pushed it back to her. “I can get another one. This way, I’ll be able to get a hold of you.”
“Fine. I’ll give it back when I go home…whenever. You haven’t by chance found my missing wallet yet, have you?”
He quirked a slight smile. “Still working on it. Charge everything you need to me, in the meantime.”
Jake walked up to them then. “Neil, Travis Cook has some security footage to show you.”
He looked conflicted, so Alexia took and squeezed his hand, reaffirming him of her agreement to stay safely with her new friends. He ran his other hand down the length of her arm, then left with Jake, glancing back once before disappearing out of sight.
“Alexia, how are you holding up in all of this?” Rob Bryant asked, suddenly very close to her.
He lightly touched her shoulder, and she almost swooned into his. He must be pouring on the love-juice again to gain her cooperation.
She heaved a long breath. “Peachy. Just your typical weekend getaway.”
He cracked a cheerless smile. “I’d like you to spend some time with Erik this afternoon. I’m sure he’s concerned that all of this will be a little overwhelming for you.”
“He doesn’t know me,” she said.
“Yet.” He scrutinized Alexia harder adding, “I need you to try and open up to Erik more. I think he’d do just about anything for you now, including leaving the security of this place. I don’t want that to happen. I can’t emphasize enough how important he is to all of us here at Timber Ridge.”
Alexia heard what Bryant didn’t say. That Erik Leonid was the priority here, and she was only as important as his value of her.
“I’ll be with Rachel and Scott in the lab.” Then she sighed adding, “If he wants to come join us there, I won’t squawk about it.”
Bryant smiled warmly, patting her shoulder. “Excellent, I’ll let him know. In the meantime, we’re all going to be doubling-up with sleeping accommodations, so you may have a roommate. Of course, I’m sure Erik would be more than happy to have you stay with him, if you’d be more comfortable having your own space. His house is quite large.”
Okay, now he was pushing it.
“No thanks, it’s always great to make new friends.”
He lifted his chin. “I’ll let the housing organizers know then.”
Bryant gave Rachel and Scott a few more instructions before he finally released them all. Alexia followed them and was about to head out the front door of the Lodge when she spotted Deena Hudson standing beside one of the oversized couches. The desperate look on her face drew her up short.
“Alexia, you coming?” Scott called.
She waved him on. “I’ll meet you back at the lab.”
“I can wait. Neil said—”
“It’ll just take a second, I promise. I’ll catch up.”
Scott seemed reluctant to disobey a direct Alpha order, but he left with Rachel anyhow. Alexia waited until they were both gone before heading over to Deena who looked at her with large eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Alexia whispered, taking her hand.
“They won’t let me go home,” she answered. “They said we’re in lockdown. What does that mean?”
“Oh, Deena, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think…There’s been some trouble, and they just want to make sure everyone’s safe. I’m sure it’s temporary.”
“Steven got here ten minutes ago to pick me up,” she said, tears welling. “But they told him at the gate that I couldn’t go home and he needed to leave. I was going to close the restaurant for him tonight so he could go meet his friends later. I promised. Now he can’t, and he’s so mad.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure he’ll cool off, then apologize for being so selfish about this,” Alexia said. “He can suffer without his boy’s night out one time.”
“But what’s going to happen if I can’t work at the restaurant tomorrow? Or the next day?” Deena covered her face with her hands for a moment before shaking her head. “I can’t afford this, Alexia. The rent is almost due, and I can’t even get my car fixed. That’s why Steven’s been driving me around. How long is this going to take?”
“I…don’t know. I don’t have any answers.”
She rubbed her freckled forehead until it reddened. “What’s worse is they said I’m going to have to stay here tonight and sleep in the shelter bunks over in the back warehouses. Alexia, I’m a Zeta-two, practically human. Those other women, they’ve never liked me much. The higher ones can be really mean.”
Alexia brightened, able to help her friend with this small dilemma at least. “What if I had them assign you to stay in my room?”
“Here in the Great Lodge?” She shook her head quickly. “They’d never allow it! You have to be at least an Omega-four.”
“Well, if I’ve learned nothing else, it’s not what you are, but who you know that gets you places. Trust me, I’ve got you covered. Meet me back here tonight, and I should have you fixed up to room with me. We’ll have our own slumber party, okay?”
She swiped at a stray tear. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
“Maybe because you were nice to me yesterday when I was scared and alone. That’s what friends do, right?”
She cracked a trembling smile and nodded.
Breathing with relief for having at least helped Deena Hudson from her impulsive request of a lockdown, Alexia headed for the clinic. The cellphone in her pocket buzzed, startling her for a second, forgetting that she even had it.
Pulling it out, she read the quick text, not sure if it was meant for her. This was still Neil’s phone after all.
You promised to stay with Piper. Get your miniature ass to the clinic now, before I come back and haul it there over my shoulder.
“Ugh, that man is so..!” Alexia froze and looked around, then up at the sky.
How did he even know? Did he have a drone on her or something?
She decided not to push her luck and double-timed it to the hospital. Erik was waiting inside the lab talking with Rachel when she was buzzed in, his meaty guard standing at-ease in front of the door.
Bryant sure didn’t waste any time.
“Hey there,” she called.
They both turned to Alexia. Erik’s face beamed with a warm, enchanting smile. She could actually see why her mother had been so taken with him once upon a time.
“Great, you’re here,” Rachel said.
“Yeah, you can call off the big black dog now.”
“Excuse me?”
Okay, so she hadn’t been tattled on. Which meant that control-freak man was stalking her every move of his own accord.
“Nothing. Just a sec,” she said, then pulled out her cellphone and sent her own text:
Here at the clinic now. Keep your own fat ass where it is before I blow it the hell off. Have a lot of dangerous chemicals as my disposal. Wolf jerk.
“Okay, ready,” she said, tucking the phone into her jeans pocket. “So where’s Scott?”
“Making a coffee run for us. It’s going to be a long afternoon and evening.” Rachel then looked from her to Erik as if ready to burst. “Well, I wanted to wait until you were both together for the unveiling, so…Erik Leonid? Congratulations, it’s a girl.”
It took a few seconds for her words to fully sink in. Then Alexia blinked hard, her mouth popping open. “Oh, so he’s really..? Wow, okay then. I’m not sure what to say.”
Erik touched her shoulder lightly. “Your life does not have to change because of this, Alexia. I know you already had a father who loved and cared for you as I never could. I do not wish to replace him in your heart. However, maybe we can learn to appreciate each other. And in time, we can come to care for each other in an appropriate way. One thing I know, you can never have too many people in your life who love you. I only wish to be one of them.”
His words were wise and endearing, but she just couldn’t handle them at that moment. Too many other questions needed to be answered first.
To be kind, however, Alexia nodded, and this seemed to satisfy him.
She turned to Erik’s personal bodyguard, standing there expressionless as if he hadn’t heard. Then she turned back to Rachel, lowering her voice, “But this isn’t supposed to happen, right? Human-were-being pregnancies. Have you figured out that mystery?”
Rachel shuffled through a few computer printouts. “Somewhat. There were a few anomalies in the initial data, so I followed a hunch and ran other tests.”
“And?”
She passed over a paper with several DNA graphs. “Alexia, you’re seventy-nine percent lycanthrope.”
Alexia checked the data, reassured by the one that read, “And I’m human.”
“But mostly lycanthrope.”
Her eyes shot up to Rachel’s, doing the math.
“Yes, your mother carried the wolf gene,” she concluded.
Alexia turned back to Erik. “But you said she was full human. You said you could tell by her smell.”
Erik nodded to Rachel. “Yes, even Rebecca’s trace was human.”
“What’s that?” Alexia asked.
“A signature scent that typically can only be detected by a life mate,” Rachel explained. “Sort of personal fingerprint only they can make out for reasons we still can’t define. Another project of mine in process.”
“So my mother was human then.”
“Let me start at the beginning,” Rachel began. “When a non-shifting lycanthrope continues the non-shifting gene by producing with other NS’s, after three generations the possibility of the shifting gene resurfacing is practically nil. That’s when we move our Zeta-zeros into normal human society. In essence, that’s what they are. For their family’s own safety, they aren’t allowed to speak of their lycanthrope heritage to their children and grandchildren, so the secret is eventually lost.”
Alexia numbly shook her head. “So how could my mom have this gene inside her to pass to me then?”
“I asked myself that same question. Our Were High Council has each Pack keep extensive ancestral records, so I did some digging.”
Rachel pulled another document from a manila file folder and passed it over. “Alexia, your mother’s grandmother was what our Pack would classify as an Epsilon, although her Pack had different ranking titles.”
Her stomach gripped at the thought. “My great-grandmother was a werewolf with a different Pack?”
“Yes, Melodie Bankley was a wolf born from the Malone Pack based in Virginia. Records show they expelled her for marrying a human and refusing to annul the marriage. She and her new husband Jared Quinn then moved further south into one of the neutral territories.
“Since humans and were-kind never produce offspring, it was assumed their lineage would end with them, so no further records were kept and no interest to follow up was made. By only by our Were High Council. Human records showed they indeed produced a child—your grandmother, Corinne Quinn who later married Andrew Hartford and had her own daughter, Rebecca Hartford, your mother.”
“Then my mom was mostly human.”
“Pretty much all, yes,” Rachel confirmed.
Alexia looked over the graphs. “But if that’s true, I still wouldn’t be more than a few percentiles above fifty. That’s why my mother smelled human.” I looked to Erik to confirm. “Right? You said she smelled human.”
He nodded. “Rachel, how can this be?”
“After more digging, I found this.” She produced one more document. “This was your allegedly human great-grandfather, Jared Quinn.”
“Allegedly?” Alexia repeated suspiciously.
“Quinn’s real name was Michael Novalar of the Novalar Pack in Sweden. Alexia, he was a full-shifting, instinctive wolf. Their High Alpha heir, in fact.”
“Wait, what?”
Rachel grinned wide, producing photocopies of older documents. “This is where it gets really interesting. There were two brothers—Michael, the eldest and heir, and Christoph, the younger and more ambitious.
“At the death of their father, there was a mutiny and war within the Pack. Christoph gained the upper hand and took over, ordering his brother’s immediate execution to avoid any further threat to his new position. But with the help of some loyalists, Michael escaped to the United States and took on a new identity. It was there he met your great-grandmother, pretending to be human.”
“Whoa. But if she was a wolf too, how could she not detect his true genetics?”
“As a low-level wolf, she might not have possessed the olfactory ability to scent his lycanthrope anatomy.”
Rachel set the document down to gesture with her hand. “But here’s the really puzzling part. Somehow your grandmother was completely resistant to her father’s lycanthrope shifting genes, yet carried them and passed them to her daughter, who then passed it to you. Which means she’s more of a mystery than you are.”
“Like a throw-back,” Alexia remarked.
“That’s right. In any case, you have a lot of wolf in you, girl. And with your great-grandfather and your birth father being full, instinctive shifting wolves..?” She shrugged, shook her head.
“But I can’t shift or do anything,” Alexia said.
“You’re young, still an adolescent physically in were-kind. Who knows what you might eventually be able to do.”
“But Neil said you have to be under the age of twenty-two to shift for the first time,” she continued to argue.
“For most of us, yes. Everyone is different. You, most of all.”
Her hand shot up. “Wait, Neil also told me about some ritual needed to make a shifter baby though.”
Rachel asked Erik, “Did you ever perform the Tricanta with Rebecca Hartford?”
He winced. “One time, yes. She was curious, and we enjoyed a very creative, passionate sex—”
“Ugh, ugh! Stop, please!” Alexia said, covering her ears. “I have no desire to hear the graphic details of you and my mother doing the deed, thank you very much.”
Rachel rushed over to the nearby computer terminal and began typing at an impressive speed. Her fingers stopped and her mouth gaped as she turned back to them. “Alexia, I calculated the approximate date of your conception, plus or minus two weeks. During that time there was a full, Blood Moon. And a lunar eclipse.”
Erik muttered something in Russian while raking a hand through his hair, then turned a widening stare to Alexia. “I did not…” He let go of a long breath. “That would explain some things.”
“Not to me. So what are you saying?” she asked, watching them both exchange several pointed looks.
“That in some ways you’re as much of a question now than you were yesterday. Maybe even more so.” Rachel laid a hand on her arm. “Alexia, you need to prepare yourself for the possibility that you’re a great deal more than what you’ve seen before in the bathroom mirror. Hey, don’t look so concerned. That’s a good thing.”
Maybe from her perspective, but from her human uncle’s? Her friends back home?
Could she even go back home, back to her old life without worrying what might happen some night during a full moon?
“Townsend, Gamma-Three-MB,” came from the intercom next to the door.
The guard looked to Rachel who nodded, and he opened the door. A disheveled Ian rushed inside, and he and the guard exchanged an odd look before he turned to Erik.
“You’re needed back at the office pronto, boss,” he rushed out. “Word’s gotten out about our shutdown, and two of the partners demand to speak to you. They’re threatening to pull out if you don’t talk to them personally, like right now.”
“Who?” Erik asked.
“Kurt at Carter-Mackey and Sam Stewart of Harding Lumber.”
Erik sent her a look of apology. “We have much to discuss now, Alexia, but I am greatly needed elsewhere at the moment. I will contact you as soon as I am free.”
“Fine, go,” she said, waving him off.
He and Ian left with the bodyguard in tow.
“Do you want to go over anymore of this?” Rachel asked.
Alexia shook her head. She needed time to process what she just learned. And she had promised to take care of Deena’s housing situation. Now was as good a time as any.
Alexia laid on her side in bed in the dark unable to relax and fall asleep, her mind buzzing like a nest of angry bees.
The call to her uncle hadn’t been easy, particularly after he reamed her for not returning his three different voicemail messages. She assured him that she had lost her phone and was now using a loaner.
Then she explained about running into some old friends of her mother’s and asked for a week off to spend more time with them. Again, he wasn’t happy, but relented after a lengthy lecture about responsibility and a reminder of the agreement made with the judge to remain under his direct supervision for the next eighteen months. Along with her upcoming appointment with the probation officer.
Alexia felt like a two-faced ogre for the lie by omission, but what else could she do?
The three-quarter moon illuminated soft rays through the filmy gold curtains, and she tried to allow the calming light to lull her to sleep. She stared at the red digital numbers on the nightstand alarm clock, watching the minutes and then the hours tick by, her mind even more wired than before. After tossing several more times in bed, she listened for Deena’s heavy breathing, but heard nothing.
“Hey, are you awake?” Alexia whispered.
“Yeah, sorry,” Deena whispered back from the nearby cot. “Am I keeping you up?”
She sighed. “No. I just can’t sleep.”
“Neither can I. It’s so hard to sleep without Steven.” She sighed. “God, I miss him. I’m so pathetic, right?”
“Not at all.” Alexia smiled at the thought of waking up next to someone you loved each morning. Not that she ever had that kind of relationship before. Even Ryan had always cut out for his own place after…“You love him a lot then?”
“Very much. We’re going to get married soon. Well, once we can afford it. I’m kind of working on that now.”
“Better invite me to the wedding,” Alexia said. If she was still around, of course.
She frowned at the possibility of it. What if they never let her go?
“Of course! Although…” Deena was quiet a moment. “Alexia, can you keep a secret?”
“Of course.”
“Steven isn’t…He’s a human. Full human. There, I said it.”
Funny how such a normal description of a person had become a derogatory classification in less than forty-eight hours.
“Do you think less of me now?” she asked at the long pause.
“No, of course not,” Alexia said. “But does he know about you being a wolf? And about this place?”
She sighed. “Yeah, I told him about a month ago. Not that I’m much of anything anyhow. I’ll be asked to leave the Pack once we out ourselves, but I don’t care. It’s not like I’m important here or anything.”
Alexia rolled on her side to face Deena. “That must be hard to deal with, the thought of leaving everything and everyone you’ve ever known behind forever.”
“Yes, but at least I’ll have Steven.” She snickered quietly. “You know, he didn’t believe me at first, thinking I was just having some kind of PMS episode or something. But then I had my cousin Rhonda do a partial face shift for him. She’s a Kappa and can change her eyes and ears. He almost wet himself.”
They both cracked up at that.
“But then he came around and thought it was pretty cool. I had to make Rhonda promise not to tell anybody that she shifted in front of him. A human has to be cleared by the Lower Council first in order to become someone-in-the-know.”
“Telling Steven about you before they approved of him can get you into trouble then?”
“Deep trouble,” she confirmed. “I would immediately get expelled from the Pack. And then if his background check doesn’t come clean, I could be tried for treason.”
“What would happen to Steven?”
There was a long pause. “He would be terminated.”
“Seriously?”
“It’s the way it’s always been done in order to safeguard the secret.”
How horrible.
What a huge risk Deena took in confessing her lycanthrope heritage to her human boyfriend.
“So why did you tell him?” Alexia asked.
She could see Deena smile even in the shadows. “Because you don’t hide who you are to someone you truly love. You don’t hide anything.”
A nice sentiment. If only Ryan had thought the same way and had confessed his own difficulties in keeping up with the program and the outrageous school bills.
If he just hadn’t tried to cut corners by selling the drugs he stole from each patient he took care of little by little…
“Have you ever been in love?” Deena asked.
Alexia laid her head back on the pillow, feeling like an elephant was sitting on her chest. Her eyes welled, and one tear escaped down her cheek. “Once. At least I thought I was. Now?” She shook her head.
“What about Neil Duran? I’ve seen him hanging around you. He’s really cute.”
Cute? No, not even close. Gorgeous beyond belief would be more accurate.
After their conversation last night, Alexia knew he had substance as well as looks now too. She still couldn’t believe he graduated from Yale with a law degree. And here she naturally assumed he was just another dumb, buff jock.
Yet with all that going for him, Neil Duran was extremely selfless and kind, although way over-the-top overprotective.
She smiled, remembering him gently bandaging her scrapes that first night. Then playing all Suzie-homemaker while grilling cheese sandwiches and stirring tomato soup. When he shifted in front of her, holy guacamole, did she all but drool and howl at the moon herself.
Oh yeah, he was a very lethal threat all right. If she wasn’t careful Neil Duran could very well get under her skin, make her want…
No. She swore she would never let that happen again. Better to keep that wolf man at arm’s length.
Besides, they would make a ridiculous looking pair. Neil was definitely the kind of tall, hunky man who drew most women without even wanting to, while she was just an average looking and very, very short...
Well, they just weren’t a matched set, that’s all. It was best not to even venture the thought.
“Neil’s not my type,” Alexia finally said. “Besides, I’m not sure if I was ever meant for that Disney fairytale kind of love that other girls seem to find. You’re lucky, you know.”
“Really lucky,” Deena admitted. “But sometimes I don’t know where I belong—with my Wolf Pack or with my human boyfriend. By the way, you were right. Steven did call me back to say he was sorry for being such a creep about this afternoon. He was really worried about if I was doing okay with all of this. I told him about you and me rooming together, and he says thanks for doing this for me.”
“See, didn’t I tell you? Everything worked out all right in the end,” Alexia said.
“Yes, but…Oh, I shouldn’t have said anything about him knowing about me and this place. If anyone ever finds out…”
“You’re secret’s safe with me.” Alexia leaned up on her elbow, looking over at Deena’s shadowed figure. “Here’s my secret. I’m part human and wolf. Today I found out that my birth dad is Erik Leonid, a full-shifting gifted Alpha, but my mother was all human. They say I’m the very first hybrid in history, an impossibility.”
“Is that why all the fuss over you? Wow, you’re probably having a worse time trying to figure out where you belong than I am.”
“That’s an understatement.” She sighed, shaking her head. “No. You know, I say forget all this were-being social class garbage. We’re all just people trying to find our way in this world. So if you and Steven love each other, who cares where you belong? You belong with each other, that’s the end of it.”
There was quiet for a long moment. Actually, Alexia couldn’t believe her own words. They helped her sort through some of the confusion of her own complicated life.
“Thanks, Alexia. That makes me feel a whole lot better. You really are a great friend.”
Alexia frowned, not sure about that. A good friend would have recognized the signs of another’s struggle with finances, tried to do something to help. Not quietly ignore the obvious and take the blame and consequences out of guilt.
The image of Ryan’s brown eyes staring vacantly as she stood there frozen flashed through Alexia’s mind like a haunting, vivid video on a constant loop. She could still see her worn backpack on the ground, pills spilling from dozens of bottles out of it. Ryan’s death grip on her bloody scrub pants. The knife jammed into his larynx as two orderlies burst into the O.R. scrub room at the nurse’s scream…
Alexia rolled onto her side, squeezing her eyes shut, trying to force out the ugly memories. When that didn’t work, she mentally listed all the bones of the body one by one, moving onto the nervous system, the vital organs and all their respective counterparts. This was something she did to exhaust her brain, distract it from the replaying the horrific scenes of that one life-defining moment.
And although it sometimes worked long enough to allow Alexia to doze off, she always woke the next morning to face the real monster in the bathroom mirror.