by Tamara White
I can feel his erection pressed against me through his pants, but dismiss it, assuming he’s just reacting to my closeness. I’m not going to blame a guy for getting a hard on when he has a girl in his lap. It’s nothing more than pheromones and hormones.
But then he raises his hand to grab the back of my neck. I lick my lips in eagerness, my heart no longer beating out of panic, but in anticipation.
He moves first, his lips landing on mine in a heated kiss. He slides his tongue over my bottom lip, seeking an invitation. I moan and part my lips, letting him have access. Fuck, this is so wrong, but somehow so right.
We break apart a moment later, both of us panting, and I curse myself for letting that happen. “Colby…”
“Don’t. Please don’t regret that. I wanted it just as much as you.” Then he presses his lips to my forehead and lets out a frustrated sigh. “We should go inside. I can feel my mom glaring at me from the window."
I whip around to look, but don’t see anyone. "Trust me, she's there. She likes to have her eyes on any new wolves that enter her territory."
With me still in his arms, Colby climbs out of the truck, before depositing me on my feet. I smooth my hand over my clothes to make myself look more presentable, even though if she was watching she’d already know what we were doing.
Coby grabs my hand as he closes the car door, clicking the lock. Then he leads me over to the small building.
It takes a minute, but then his words finally register in my mind. "Wait, your mom is the Alpha? What the hell? Why didn't you tell me?" I guess I probably should have realized after what Sebastian had revealed about Colby being their Alpha first since the position is often hereditary, but I guess it never clicked.
He shrugs. "Yeah she is, but it doesn’t matter. You're not applying for a position in her pack, you’re not here to challenge her and she knows you’re my pregnant friend. She won’t hurt you. Unless you want to swap packs, that is, in which case I need to know before we go in."
He pauses on the bottom step of the small building and turns to study me as if worried I might actually want to leave and become part of his mother's pack. "No, I don't want to join her pack. I was just surprised to find out your mother was Alpha. I had heard females couldn't hold the position."
He chuckles darkly. "They can be if they have enough power and are ruthless enough. My mother beat the previous Alpha in a fight, twice. There was no denying who had more strength after that. Though I imagine it helped solidify her position when she killed him after he challenged her trying to take the title of Alpha back."
Together, we walk up the five steps to a small raised landing. Before us is a large oak door with the name ‘Dr. Sarah Greer’ burned into the wood in an elegant script. Underneath it is a list of medical abbreviations that I have no clue how to interpret. But I guess that must mean she knows her stuff to have so many damn letters attached to her name.
Colby strides forward and opens the door, holding it open for me with his free hand. The moment we cross the threshold, he drops my hand and wraps an arm around my shoulders, holding me close as if he can sense my sudden nerves. The door closes behind us. I stiffen, expecting it to slam, but it just softly clicks into place.
I study the little reception area, noticing there isn’t a secretary manning the desk. Maybe they aren’t open on Saturdays?
Colby waits for a moment and I take the time to get a better look at my surroundings. While the desk is the first thing you see when you step inside, and is a bright white the same shade as the exterior of the building, the walls around the room are painted a soft brown with flecks of green that reminds me of the forest floor.
I move to take a seat in one of the comfy looking chairs that are against the wall, instead of one of the hard plastic ones that are spread out through the room.
Looking over at me, Colby sighs in frustration. “Sorry, Katie. My mother must be testing me.” He walks up to me and takes my hand, helping me out of my comfy seat. Then he leads me down a hall that I didn’t notice before.
“Does your mother always do things like this to test you?” I ask curiously. It sounds like a very dysfunctional relationship, but then again Alphas as a whole haven’t exactly proven themselves to me as stable. First there was Drew, with all of his crazy jealousy. Then there’s Colby’s Alpha, who I haven't even met yet but I already know is a bit cracked, probably from having lost his mate. And now there’s Colby’s mother. I really hope I meet an Alpha soon that inspires some good feelings because so far, I’ve had no such luck.
He shrugs his shoulders as we reach a door at the end of the hall. “Well, sometimes she does, but other times she doesn’t. I think it all just depends on her mood. That's what you get when your mother is over five hundred, though. I think she just does things like this to keep herself entertained.”
I blink slowly as he raises his hand to knock on the door. Five hundred years old? Holy crap…
After a moment with no answer, Colby sigh in frustration and just opens the door. “Mom, I’m here.”
The woman sitting in the chair behind the desk looks nothing like Colby. She has bright blonde hair, startling green eyes and the beauty of a goddess. Not that Colby isn’t hot, but seriously, I am finding myself envious as hell at the thought that she looks so amazing at five hundred years old. She looks to be in her early thirties at most.
I glance at Colby, thinking he must get the dark brown hair and blue eyes from his father then.
"This is Katie. The girl I was telling you about," Colby explains while his mother's cold eyes continue to stare at me. I had hoped for a bit of kindness, but there’s nothing but anger in their depths as she glares at me.
She grits her teeth and rises to her feet, power suddenly filling the room. It’s scorching hot and I have to fight not to react, but that ball of rage bubbles under the surface of my skin, telling me, threat, danger, attack.
"Why did you bring another Alpha into my territory, Colby? You know I won’t back down from a challenge," she growls through pursed lips, as if it's taking all her restraint not to shift right here.
Challenge? Does she honestly think I'm here to challenge her? What the hell? This interaction is almost as strange as what happened when Drew first met me. He growled at me, and even though I didn’t know what he was back then, I felt an instant attraction to him. I have to wonder if I'm unconsciously putting something out there that makes Alphas react this way. Is it a pheromone of some kind, or something else? My attraction to Drew was because he was my true mate, but his first impulse had still been to attack me for some reason. There’s no attraction between Colby’s mother and myself, just that intense anger.
I close my eyes, feeling for that ball of rage within me. But before I can summon it to my aid, a hand grabs my throat, squeezing painfully tight. My eyes flash open and I see that Colby's mother has a hold of me, and is growling in my face. "I will not let you come in here and steal my pack, little she wolf."
Colby rushes forward to help, but his mother uses her free hand and sends him flying with barely a touch. His body goes through the wall, leaving chunks of rubble in his wake. The sight of it makes something inside me snap.
My body begins to heat up, and I look down at her as a golden glow engulfs my body. “Let me go!” The growled Alpha command makes Colby’s mother drop me like I’ve burned her, which wouldn’t surprise me considering the rolling heat coming from me.
She backs up a step, fear in her eyes. A second later, Colby’s face is blocking my view of his mother as he moves to cup my cheek, concern written across his face. I move my head to the side, looking over his shoulder at his mother with angry eyes.
"Now, I don't know what the fuck your problem is, lady, but no one touches me like that. I don't care that your my friend’s mother, or an Alpha of a pack. We came here for one reason only and that was because I am pregnant. We need to know if my baby is okay. That's it. I have no desire for your position, or your pack. I have my own, thank you very much
," I say, glancing at Colby with a small smile.
He grins back at me and then quickly presses his lips to mine. With the distraction of his passionate kiss, my control over the power vanishes and it snaps back inside me.
The tension in the room returns to normal, as if our power never rose up at all. Even so, I am going to have to figure out what the hell that gold glow was.
Colby smirks and stands by my side as we face his mother. But even though he appears relaxed, I can feel the tension in his shoulders belying his actions.
To his mother, I say, “Here’s how this is going to go. Either you’re willing to help me figure out if my baby is happy and healthy, or we’ll walk away right now and find a wolf who can actually offer us help rather than attacking us for no reason.”
She nods slowly, glancing between Colby and me, as if trying to figure out just what we mean to each other. Good luck, lady, because even I haven’t figured that one out.
"How old are you?" his mother asks out of nowhere, her fear now replaced with open curiosity.
"Uh, twenty. But I turn twenty-one next Saturday," I explain, wondering if she needs to know in regards to my pregnancy.
Her mouth drops open in shock and the curiosity in her eyes changes to a look of amazement. "That's not possible," she breathes out, looking at me like I'm the gold at the end of the rainbow.
"I can show you my driver's license if that would help you?" I suggest, glancing over at Colby, hoping for some kind of clue as to what’s going on. But unfortunately, his face reflects the same confusion I feel.
She shakes her head quickly, looking to Colby for a moment before settling those green eyes back on me. "No, it's not that I don't believe your age. It’s just that the level of power within you is astronomical. I've only met two wolves whose power is anywhere close to yours, and they were only just celebrating two thousand years on this earth. For you to have that much power, and at such a young age..." She trails off, leaving that thought unsaid.
If I have this much power already, then what will it grow into as I get older? I sigh, pushing the thought to the back of my mind. One thing at a time.
Colby’s mother takes a step closer to me, and Colby growls low in his throat. She ignores him, though, her gaze focused solely on me. "I'm sorry if I hurt you. When you came in here, your power was pushing at me. I didn't realize you were unaware of that. If I were you, I'd talk to your local Alpha about helping you learn to control it. As for you and I, do you mind if we start over?"
She thrusts out a hand in front of me. “My name is Sarah, and I will be your doctor today.”
I let out a relieved sigh and slip my hand into hers, shaking it quickly before letting go. “I’m Katie and I seem to have gotten myself in a little bit of a situation.” I gesture pointedly down at my stomach. “Would you be able to check me over to see how the baby is doing and maybe give us a time frame on the birth?”
Even though we’ve started over, I decide it’s best not to bring up anything about the pack around her. I don’t know whether it would be a good idea to let her know our pack is without an Alpha, especially with the way she first reacted. I know she’s Colby’s mother, but there’s a cunningness in her eyes that makes me wary. I think if she knew our pack was vulnerable, she might very well try to claim the position of Alpha, or send another wolf to.
Sarah’s expression shifts into a professional mask and she smiles at me warmly. "Okay, I can do that for you, Katie. First, we'll draw some blood samples, and while we wait for them to come back, I'll do a scan. Colby, are you sticking around for this, or are you going to go see your brothers? You know it’s been a while since you’ve visited. They miss you."
I can see the hesitation flit across his eyes before his expression hardens. "I'm not leaving her.” The fierceness in his tone seems to surprise Sarah and she looks at him, a new respect in her eyes. “Oh and Mother? If you ever touch Katie like that again, it won't be her you'll be facing in a challenge. It will be me."
Sarah’s eyes widen at that and she glances between Colby and me, clearly trying to figure out what we are to each other. “You would challenge your mother over some girl not even a third your age?”
“Yes,” he states simply, squeezing my hand and pressing his shoulder against mine.
"Is she your true mate?"
Colby glances at me quickly with an expression akin to hope, but before I can interpret it, he looks away. He remains silent and so I speak up. “I already have a true mate, as well as two others that are mated to me and a fourth guy who is well on his way to being mated to me. Colby has a true mate of his own, as well as a regular mate back home waiting for him.”
“You have four mates?” she sputters out, her eyes widening in horror. I fight not to frown at her judgmental response. I knew that humans were going to be weird about me being with more than one person, but to have a wolf, an Alpha no less, look so horrified by the thought brings it all home for me. What I’m doing isn't at all normal.
I lift my head in defiance, straightening my shoulders. “Yes, I have four mates. Is that a problem?” I ask, a thread of anger in my voice.
She shakes her head slowly, looking lost in thought. "Let’s get this blood drawn and I'll explain." She moves over to a cart in the corner of the room and pulls out the necessary tools to draw blood. As she sets everything up beside a chair in the other corner of the room, I move to the chair and take a seat. I'm glad now that I chose to wear a tank top.
Once I'm seated, Sarah feels the bend in each of my arms, looking for a decent vein. As she does this, she begins to speak, ignoring Colby's presence directly behind her.
While this is happening, his gaze is firmly fixed on me. My heart races from the intensity in his stare. We are really going to need to talk about that kiss.
Sarah runs an alcohol wipe over the crook of my right arm, "The reason I was surprised about your mate status is because of your age. The newer generation tends to struggle with the old ways, even though females have become increasingly more rare. Typically it’s not until we get older that males become more accepting of sharing the females, finally realizing it’s either share or risk not having a mate at all.”
“Why are females so rare?”
She glances up and smiles at me for a moment before focusing back on the task at hand. “Females are rare because they often die in the womb or in childbirth. We can carry anywhere from four to eight children in one litter, usually at least one of them being a female. But when the pups are born, typically only the males survive. The occasional female will make it, but that’s very, very rare. We don’t quite understand why, considering other races seem to have no issues with conception or giving birth. But while our kind can get pregnant easily, keeping the pups alive is an entirely different story.”
I turn my focus to Colby, my eyes watering. I can’t bear the thought of losing something I’ve already grown to love. How could the gods do something like this? Haven’t they taken enough from me already?
“Do you mind me asking who your parents were? I would love to speak with them about your birth.” Her question, while innocent, hurts me more than she could ever know. Luckily Colby is there to answer, since I can’t seem to manage any words right now.
"Mom, Katie was adopted. Her adoptive parents were human, and died in a car crash, along with her first mate. All we know is that Katie's biological parents were both Alphas who gave her up because she was born as a null. She doesn't shift."
I’m startled when the vial his mother just pulled away from the needle in my arm suddenly drops to the floor. Blood begins to pool at her feet, and after a moment she drops to her knees. She bows her head, while Colby and I just look at her in confusion.
“Ah, are you okay?” I ask, not quite sure what she’s doing. Is she cleaning up the spilled blood? If so, then why doesn’t she have a cloth of some sort?
She lifts her head and looks up at me in awe, with tears in her eyes. “We have waited for your return, Goddess.”
/> I turn to Colby, who is looking at me with just as much confusion as I feel. He mouths the word, ‘goddess?’ in question. I just shrug my shoulders, no clue what his mother is going on about.
“Um, no offense, but I’m not a goddess. I’m just pregnant girl who needs a doctor. Can you please stand up? It’s starting to really freak me out.”
Thankfully she does as I ask, but as she stands, the look in her eyes is one of pure reverence. “A goddess born of power will rise and draw power to her. She will continue to grow in strength until she faces Him, the one who will rain destruction on us all.” Her words sound rehearsed and again, Colby and I look at each other, confounded by her words.
Her green eyes lift to meet mine dead on, this time with a glazed look in them. “You are the vessel for the power of our goddess. Soon, the time will come for you to return to your beginning and seek the answers you will need in order to defeat Fear.”
Once she’s finished speaking, her eyes clear and she stumbles, her legs unsteady. Colby is there to stop her from falling over. As she looks at me, a furrow appears between her brows. “Sorry. I think I must have zoned out. What were we talking about?”
Colby and I both glance at each other, both confused and a little worried about whatever the hell just happened. Was she possessed? And what the hell was all that ‘goddess’ trash? If I really were a goddess, then I would have been able to help keep the three people I loved most alive. No, I’m no goddess, just a regular ordinary girl.
Colby refreshed his mother’s memory, informing her once again about the fact I couldn’t shift and that my adoptive parents had passed in an accident. Now she’s staring at us, her brows furrowed as if there’s something important she’s forgetting, but she doesn’t have the same strange reaction as she did last time.
“Your parents and mate all in one go? I am so terribly sorry for your loss,” she says, sympathy evident in her voice.