Avoiding Alpha

“Nothing ever is.” I looked at Dr. Gonzales. “How much time?”



“I’m going to move her to the infirmary and keep her sedated, but her metabolism won’t let that work for long.”



“That’s not answering my question.”



Her gaze was full of pity I didn’t want. “Two days? Give or take a day.”



“Donovan won’t make it back before then,” Dastien said. “And even if he did get back in time, I don’t know how he could fix this. He doesn’t have magic to break the curse, and I couldn’t get her wolf to listen to me at all. I’m nearly as strong as him.”



Holy shit. My chest was tight. There wasn’t time to panic, but I was already beyond that. I was nearing a full on freak out.



My heartbeat rang loudly in my ears.



I got up to pace again. There had to be a solution.



The only people who could help were my cousins who belonged to the local coven. Dad took a job at St. Ailbe’s so that we could move from LA to Texas, which meant that I could get closer with my bruja family. That had never happened. Dastien bit me before we could be reintroduced.



That said, my cousins had helped us before. They’d given me intel and a pretty cool bag of tricks that saved our butts with the vamp situation. I hadn’t met anyone else from the coven, but it followed logic that they’d help me again.



This was good. This was a plan. This I could do. “I’m going to call my cousins. Maybe their coven did this to Meredith, but they’re my family. It might make a difference if I’m the one asking them to fix it.”



“No. That’s a crazy idea. Your cousins might have reached out before, but the rest of them…non. They’re the ones who did this to her in the first place. They let her suffer for years without a second thought.”



“I’ll convince them that what they did was wrong. I have to.”



“I don’t want you to take too much of this on yourself,” Dr. Gonzales said. “I think you need to start to prepare yourself for what’s going to happen.” Her words were carefully said and evenly paced, and they made me want to hit her. I didn’t like what she was insinuating at all.



“Meredith was there for me when she had no reason to be. She stood by me, and I won’t repay her friendship by giving up. I’ll find a way fix this.”



“Tessa…” Dastien said.



“Don’t you start,” I said. “I can do this.” I wish I really knew that for certain, but I’d do pretty much anything for Meredith. I’d grown up an outcast because of my visions and she’d been the first person that wasn’t a member of my immediate family to accept me. She was kind and caring and thoughtful and funny. She deserved to be happy, and she deserved her mate. I was going to help her get that. If I had to beg my cousins for help, I had kneepads. I wouldn’t let pride get in the way of saving my best friend.



Dastien got up, brushing a kiss on my forehead. “Call them, and then we’ll talk again.”



“Okay.”



He headed into Meredith’s room, lifted her into his arms, and left with Dr. Gonzales.



My alarm went off, telling me it was time to go to the cafeteria before class.



Screw classes. I’d grab some food in the common room downstairs. I had a curse to break and not much time to do it in.



Chapter Three



In times of crisis, I’d found it best to keep moving forward. I wasn’t sure what the right first step was to help Meredith, but I had to do something. Eventually, I’d figure out what would work. I had to.



Calling my brother was at the top of my list. He’d know how to reach the cousins and might have some advice, too. When I first got bitten, he’d hung out with our cousins a few times.



I grabbed my cell and hit Axel’s number. He didn’t answer. I hung up and called again. No answer.



Shit. He was probably still sleeping off last night’s party.



I didn’t have my cousins’ numbers. This was probably dumb in retrospect, but the two times I’d seen them, I’d been kind of distracted. The first time I’d been in a rush to save Dastien from being eaten by a den of vampires. The second time they’d saved me from getting my ass beat by Imogene.



If anyone would know how to get in touch with them, Mom would. But she’d ask questions—which was why I’d tried Axel first.



Screw it.



Mom picked up on the first ring.



“Is everything okay?”



I almost laughed. “Why’s that the first thing you say when I call?”