Queen Alpha (NYC Mecca Series Book 2)

by Leia Stone

  “What are you doing here, Vi?” I asked, stepping closer. She seemed to be examining me with great concentration and I wondered how disheveled I looked. Probably I was a huge mess, looking exactly like a queen who’d just cried and been kissed all in one heartbeat.

  “Vi!” My voice was sharper than I intended, but we were on a time crunch here. If it was fae wandering around these woods, we had to make sure our people were safe. We also had to get back to do the ritual. Until we could return the mecca energy, they were going to keep coming for us.

  She smiled at me and it was a look full of knowledge. She knew exactly what Kade and I had been up to. Thankfully she wasn’t going to tell anyone. She valued my head, and would likely hope it stayed attached to my neck.

  “I was just coming to find you all so we could head back to Manhattan for the fae ceremony. We don’t want to miss the peak of the full moon. But then I smelled a magical cloak and went to investigate.”

  My heart was already hammering in my chest from my heated kiss with Kade. News of a magical cloak didn’t help with it at all. “Finn detected the magic too. It wasn’t you?”

  Violet shrugged. “No, wasn’t me. But I’ve done some pretty crazy stuff with the other magic born when we were drunk off shifter wine two festivals ago. It’s probably a prank to steal your thrones or any number of stupid tricks.”

  I relaxed a little. She was probably right. Shifters got pretty crazy under the full moon. Throw in alcohol and the magic of the summer festival … all kinds of mayhem could happen.

  Kade stepped to my side; his hand brushed across my back, and I knew he was offering me comfort. Everything had changed between us – his declaration, the kiss. We could never go back, so now it was about figuring out how to do this. Together. Whether we hid our relationship, or whether we fought to destroy the prejudice that had lived for far too long between our people. We might be bear and wolf, but we were all shifters. We were the same. My heart was telling me it was time to stop the divide and bring back what once was.

  I would have to be very careful with my council, but I felt like it could be done. Something for us to worry about tomorrow, after this ritual. In this moment though, I had never felt so at peace, like the thousand pound weight which had been sitting on my chest suffocating me had finally been lifted. That hole in my heart, well … it felt a little more filled.

  Violet was just staring at me with a big lopsided goofy grin. My best friend knew exactly what was going on and she was happy for me. We walked out of the clearing and my mind was so fixated on Violet and the king that I didn’t notice anything weird until the smell hit me.

  That distinct floral smell.

  “Fae!” I shouted, and ran through the last section of the cherry grove to come upon the base of the hill where our people were partying the night away. Except they weren’t partying, they were fighting for their lives as fae descended upon the hill.

  I turned to Violet. My best friend was glowing with mecca; she looked lethal and pissed as hell. Kade was fighting the shift, his growls rumbling across the hill and into the valleys. Now we knew why there was a magical cloak. Someone must have seen Kade and I leave the main party zone and used that moment to strike. The cloak hid their scent and the scent of bloodshed.

  “Stay and fight, or flee and try to fix the mecca?” Violet asked me, her voice low and wispy but somehow still slamming mecca energy into me with each word.

  “I will not leave them to die,” I said, baring my teeth. My wolf was fighting against my hold; these were her people. Our people. We would never abandon them.

  Violet clapped her hands together, sticky tendrils of purple energy forming between them. She had that smile on her face, the one that usually meant get the heck out of her way – she was out for blood – and it was equally awesome and disturbing.

  Bending down, she placed her hands over two thick fallen branches. “Transformato,” she whispered as a mist leaked from her palms and saturated the branches.

  Mecca wrapped around them, coating their thick crumbly bark, and then as Violet pulled her hands back they had turned from simple broken wood to deadly blades. She tossed one to Kade; he caught it and sent Nix to fly the skies. Violet handed me the other one. Its weight was solid and fit my grip perfectly. This sword would kill many a fae tonight.

  “Don’t you need a weapon?” I asked my best friend.

  When she stood, her eyes were set on the slaughter before us; her face looked ghostly.

  “I am a weapon.”

  And with that we all charged up the hill to meet whatever fate the gods saw fit. As I neared the battle, my heart fell when I saw that more shifters than fae were dead on the ground. This was a huge attack. Hundreds of fae had descended on us, and our drunk, unarmed people were being crushed.

  Finn nudged my side and I knew he wanted me to ride him. In two swifts movements I tore the costume wings from my back and leapt onto his saddle.

  Kade, Violet, and I were all battle trained, and we knew on instinct to split up. Violet branched off to the right. After a moment’s hesitation and a lingering look, Kade branched off to the left. I could tell he didn’t want to leave me to battle the fae alone, but I was a queen. We did not cower on the sidelines. If I died tonight, I would die protecting my people. I would die with a happy heart.

  Use the mecca, Ari. You’re more powerful than any on this hill. Prove it.

  Finn was right. I was linked to the most powerful energy grid of magic ever in existence. There was a lot more energy on our side of the veil, and I would utilize it tonight. I might not be the expert Kade was, but I was trained in calling the energy and using it as a weapon. The only thing I was having trouble with was cutting the magic off so it didn’t suffocate me, but there was no time during combat to worry about that. As Finn galloped into the fighting crowd, I took a deep steadying breath and felt for that live wire deep inside of me, that electric pulse that was always a distinct current within my body. The mecca was always within me, just waiting for me to shape it, use it.

  Some of the fae had noticed me. One of them came at me, but I easily cut him down with my sword, having the height and speed advantage of riding Finn. Despite the distance between me and my friends, I could make out Kade to my left fighting hard, using mecca and sword. There was a pile of fae at his feet. We were lucky the Tuatha attacking us now were far less powerful than the dark fae who’d tried to kill us all at Kade’s Staten Island home. It felt like they were around the power level of those who hit the night of the queen’s death. Which gave us a chance.

  A flash of white to my right was Violet. She was blasting fae and taking them to their knees. Forcing myself to focus, I channeled the energy from my center and drew it in one fast motion to the surface of my being. I’d never pulled so much, so fast, and it brought with it a hot, sharp pain.

  When my body felt like it was literally going to be torn into two, I screamed and thrust my hands out, directing it at the brutal mob before me. The mecca was clever; it knew who I considered friend and foe. It bypassed my people and followed the sickening floral scent.

  I let the mecca flow from me as I lifted the sword and started cutting down fae, one after another, never stopping, not even to wipe the blood from my face. They had attacked us, hurt my people, and I would destroy them all even if it killed me. A few of them managed to land blows on me, but Finn was always right there with teeth and claws, tearing through them. Together we were a formidable weapon. Add in the mecca and it was even more. My blasts of mecca were bringing many of the fae to their knees, blood trickling from their eyes and noses and ears. This gave the shifters the opening they needed to pick themselves up and strike. Bear and wolf worked together, shifters united against a common enemy. For this moment, we were no longer divided.

  I swung my sword in figure eights. My head was beginning to ache and my body starting to sway, but I kept pushing energy. Purple coated the hilltop, turning the fight in our favor.

  “Ari, no more!” I heard Kad
e bellow. I registered his words, but not fully. I was almost too far gone to realize what I had done. There was no way to stop it. I was in a car going a hundred miles an hour down a hill and my brakes were cut. The momentum was too great. There was no way to save myself.

  A spark of clarity hit me. Finn had paused and I could sense him trying to speak with me, but his words weren’t getting through.

  Finn!

  I shouted in my head, but the mecca was a purple haze that couldn’t be penetrated. It had become this huge living thing, moving on its own now, using me as a channel. I tried to stuff that live wire back down but nothing happened. The entire hill was coated in a purple mist and now I could see just at the top, just ten yards from me, near the stage, a portal had opened. Two fae magic users were using energy to hold it open, one on either side, as the remaining unharmed fae were escaping.

  My legs began to violently jerk as I struggled to stay on Finn. I had gone too far this time. I might have saved my people, but the mecca was going to rip me in two. Then, as if this moment couldn’t get any worse, Violet’s scream cut through the dark night, forcing chills up my arms. I could only watch in horror as the two fae who had opened the portal wrapped some type of glowing magical bands around my best friend’s arms and legs and shoved her through the portal just as the hole closed.

  It all happened so fast I couldn’t be sure it was true. A cavern of sorrow opened inside my chest. Kade reached me then; his huge hands came up to either side of my face, tearing my gaze from where my best friend had just been.

  I looked into his eyes, those deep molten copper eyes, and the pain threatening to destroy my body eased the slightest bit. I tried to gasp for small breaths; I wasn’t sure if the mecca or the loss of Violet had robbed me of oxygen. I couldn’t think straight. Kade’s eyes suddenly flared with spikes of purple and my legs stopped shaking, but his forehead broke out in sweat.

  “No!” I tried to rip my face away from his. I couldn’t lose them both. No one could control this amount of mecca, not even Kade. It was everywhere in an inexhaustible supply. But his hands clamped down harder and I watched in horror as his amber eyes went purple. Both of us were buffeted by a huge gust of wind, and I realized Nix was there. Her ten foot wingspan stole the moonlight from around us, and the next moment happened so fast I had no time to process it. Nix flew at Kade’s face, landing on his head, and something snapped so hard I was thrown backward, and everything went dark.

  Chapter Eleven

  Fire can reduce the strongest tree to ash.

  Consciousness returned and I floated in a sea of calm for a few beats, but as awareness filtered in, so did the memories. Violet! I forced my eyes open, trying to lift my head from the soft linen pillow beneath it. A sharp stab of pain rocked through my body, settling into my brain. It was like a migraine on steroids, and I wasn’t sure I could sit up without throwing up.

  I finally got my eyes open, and was in a half sitting position. “Violet!” I called out as I tried to take in my surroundings through the pounding pain. I was in my room at the Island mansion.

  Movement from the couch off to the side caught my eye. Calista crossed to stand at my bedside. Her face was haggard and streaked with blood. Her eyes were red-ringed and puffy.

  “Violet’s gone. A lot of them are gone.” Calista’s voice was broken, a hollow shell.

  Pushing through my pain, I attempted to leap from the bed. Calista caught me as I stumbled, but I made it to my feet.

  “What do you mean, a lot of them? What about Winnie?” Warmth brushed against my leg and it was Finn, pressing himself against my comfortable night clothes, supporting my weight.

  Calista’s chin was trembling. “Winnie is fine. She’s already on a boat back to Manhattan. Violet was taken, maybe more. We haven’t accounted for everyone yet. And Ben is … dead. He was ambushed by at least a dozen fae. We lost more than five hundred wolves and three hundred bears.”

  I sagged back into the bed at her news. Ben. No, it couldn’t be true. Ben and Derek both killed by fae. Violet snatched into their world. My heart was breaking, I could feel the fissuring cracks as my body bled for my loved ones. Drawing on the strength of my crown, I searched the pack bonds, filtering energy around the alphas as I tried to sense my people.

  Calista was right. Where Ben’s bright shining energy used to be, there was only emptiness. Emptiness everywhere. Over five hundred lost on the night of the summer festival. Our celebration would now go down in the history books as the most awful battle we had endured since the dark days.

  Fighting through my shock and pain, I forced myself to stand. On my own. No support from Finn or Calista. “Okay. I need to know exactly what happened last night. How the fae appeared, and if anyone was around. We’ll need to interview the wolf and bear shifters…”

  “You have no time for that,” said Calista. “The council and Selene are waiting for you. They have called a trial for dissolution of crown.” This time my advisor couldn’t keep her composure. A single tear trailed down her cheek; her sorrow was palpable.

  “Based on what?” I asked, my voice surprisingly steady.

  “Unfit to rule.” Another few tears trailed along her cheeks.

  I let her information process. The council and Selene had decided I was unfit to rule and now they would challenge me. It wasn’t an easy process, and without hard evidence they wouldn’t succeed. Nope. This was a show of their strength, pushing me back for my display of dominance yesterday.

  “Calista, listen to me...” My voice remained strong. The petty annoyances of the council and Selene were so far down my list of things to worry about. I had no idea where Kade was, my best friend had been kidnapped by fae, and another one of my most cherished friends was dead. Everything else paled in comparison.

  Calista swallowed hard and met my eyes.

  “We’ll get through this,” I said to her, and she blinked a few times, before wiping at her eyes and nodding. My strong, clever advisor was back.

  There was a knock at the door and my gut clenched. An unfit trial was a low blow after the shifter world had just lost so many people. The moment I was declared innocent, I was firing the entire council and killing Selene with my bare hands.

  “Enter!” I shouted through gritted teeth.

  It was Sabina, which only served to further piss me off. “You’re wanted for questioning,” she said, her white hair billowing slightly around her. They had sent the magic born to make sure I showed up and didn’t use mecca to create a scene.

  Striding from the room, I made a point to step out in front. No one was leading me to trial. Once I descended the steps from the opulent second floor, I made my way into the formal living room, my head held high, pain buried deep inside. None of them would know how much my heart ached at the sight of the entire council, Selene with her familiar on her arm, and six of the lead alphas from the boroughs, all preparing to strip me of my crown.

  Calista, Finn, and Sabina, who had followed me into the room, remained at my back as I addressed the group. “How dare you? How dare you declare an unfit trial as we all grieve the loss of our people? We’re at war, there’s no worse time for a coup.”

  Selene seemed to have taken extra care with her hair and makeup today. Her red locks were pinned up in a mass of loose curls, her clothes very formal. She strode over and took center stage, just where she always like to be. She pinned me with a glare.

  “Where were you when the fae attack began, Arianna?”

  I growled. “That’s ‘Your Majesty.’ You haven’t stripped me of my crown yet.”

  The council did turn slightly disapproving looks on her, but none of them said anything. It was like the decision was made before I even heard the reasons.

  “Where were you, Selene? I didn’t see you when I blasted the entire hill with mecca magic and ended the attack! Saving thousands of shifters.”

  Three of the alphas smiled, before being cut off by glares from the council. Maybe I could count on some of them to be on my s
ide. A declaration of unfit to rule had to be unanimous.

  Selene touched her cheek. “Where was I? Hmm, good question.” Suddenly she gestured to the large flat screen TV on the wall and I noticed there was a remote in her hand.

  With one click the TV flared to life and I was looking upon the broken-down cabin, two figures on the screen. One was Kade and the other was me. Oh crap. I knew exactly what she had filmed here. It was the moment just after I had told him I hated him. Selene had been in the bushes watching us, recording us.

  “I love you,” Kade said on the video, and just about every person in the room gasped. I even heard Calista huff from behind me. Finn snuggled closer to my side, both for comfort and because we both knew that we might have to fight our way out of this room.

  The next images on the video recording sealed my fate. It showed me reaching up and kissing Kade with a ferocious intensity. A kiss of passion. A kiss of love.

  Selene paused the screen so that it stopped on us mid-kiss and turned to me. “Arianna, of the red line, you are unfit to rule the wolf shifters. Your affair with the bear king has blinded your judgment and allowed a war with the fae to brew and seep over into our lives, costing us greatly. I call for a motion to dethrone you and banish you from the boroughs. From the mecca. All in favor say ‘aye.’”

  “Wait!” I commanded, stepping closer to Selene as realization hit me. “It was you who cloaked the energy so I wouldn’t sense the fae attack. You and Sabina…” I shot a look at the magic born, who remained expressionless.

  My protests were pointless, completely ignored as the ayes began rolling in. One by one the council and alphas agreed with Selene’s motion. Right up until there was one alpha left.

  It was Roger, a diehard separate race fanatic. I realized now that Selene had only invited the alphas who were hardcore about the rules. I knew I was screwed, but I tried anyway.