I ignored and him and asked Lucy, “Are you doing okay?”
“I’ll be better when you kill him too,” she replied.
There were chuckles from around us. I was so focused on the scene in front of me I hadn’t noticed that most of the shifters in the yard had gathered closer.
“Are you all finished? Reef was annoyed of hearing his own shortcomings. “I’m ready to get this over with, and the moon is about to rise.”
“I need you to sign this first,” an attractive African American guy said and handed Reef an official looking document.
“What the hell is this?” Reef shook the paper as he asked.
“It’s a contract regarding tonight’s events. Read it over carefully and then sign, please.”
Reef hated reading and rolled his eyes saying, “Whatever,” then he snatched the pen the guy was holding and quickly signed the papers then threw them at me. I signed them myself and then handed them back to Miles. I remembered his name from the car.
Walt joined us with a young lady of about sixteen, wearing a long purple dress that matched her eyes, they were beautiful with her black cape with the hood pulled up over her head; it framed her face perfectly.
“What’s that human kid doing here?” Reef crossed his arms and glared at her.
“This is no ordinary kid,” Walt said. “Lavender is the priestess of her coven, and one of the most powerful witches alive.”
Reef huffed, “And why is she here? She’s not part of the Lupinski Clan.”
“Exactly,” Walt held out his hand and Miles put the contract into it. “I thought someone without a horse in the race would be perfect.”
“Perfect for what?”
Walt ignored Reef and laid the contract on top of his palm. The witch swiped her right hand over it with a little finger wiggle in the middle, then said to Walt, “All set, Biggie.” Walt raised his eyebrows at her, and she said, “You know, Bigfoot, Biggie? Get it?”
“I get it.”
“What the fuck was that?” Reef asked.
“A little binding spell with consequences if the rules are broken,” Lavender answered.
“What consequences?”
“A horrifying long and painful death of course.” Lavender put her hands up like duh when she was finished.
Reef appeared a little green around the gills, and I could sense instant fear and anger that whatever he had planned was no longer an option. Wow. Walt was right, he was going to cheat.
“So, are you two ready to get on with this, because I’ve got a curfew and I really want to watch this fight.”
“Is your mom going to be okay with that?”
“If she’s not I’ll turn her into a frog.”
“Lavender,” Walt said in a parental tone.
“Biggie?” Lavender gave him the look of the typical teenager arms crossed, foot tapping, annoyed expression, but when she saw that he wasn’t going to give in she laughed and said, “I’m kidding, I wouldn’t turn my mother into a frog or any other amphibian, a donkey maybe—”
“Lavender,” Walt scolded.
“Okay, Okay, Okay, I did tell her I wanted to watch it.”
“And what did she say?”
“It’s fine as long as I don’t break curfew. It’s a school night, so I’ve got until 10:00 PM.” She glanced at Reef and I, “You ready to get the show on the road?”
“I need a minute,” I told her with a smile. She was adorable even if she could turn me into a toad at will.
“Want to say your last goodbyes?” Reef teased.
I dramatically rolled my eyes, and Lavender slapped her hand over her mouth to contain a giggle. “Give me a minute Lavender, and I’ll be right with you.” She nodded, her eyes twinkling with mischief.
I went to Jenn first and gave her a big hug. “Kick his ass,” she whispered in my ear.
“Planning on it,” I whispered back. We didn’t need to say anything else. We knew each other for most of my life and already knew what the other was thinking.
I went to Jeff next. He had a calm confidence in him as if he already knew I would win as I approached. I was within reaching distance when he grabbed my hand, pulled me fast and tight to him and kissed me so deeply and felt the little cracks in my heart filling up my soul and getting bigger. The two of us connecting in a way that is only reserved for our mate.
It was the hoots and in hollers from the crowd that reminded me of what I was here for. We slowed down the kiss, and when our lips parted, Jeff put his forehead on mine and said telepathically to me, I love you.
I love you too.
You’ve got this Edi. Finish it quickly. I want to utilize the full Moon tonight too. And he sent me a vision of what I assumed was his bedroom. He and I were making love on the bed, and then he bit me to make us one. The vision was so realistic I felt little pinpricks on my neck where he’ll make me his, and him mine shortly.
I laughed as I moved back from his arms, “I’ll be back soon.” I said and heard Reef in the background acting like an ass mimicking me. I didn’t look at Reef as I walked with my head held high and confidence in my step to the edge of the dock.
Chapter Eight
The dock was about forty feet long with a large square platform, about twenty by twenty at the end for people to gather. It was a beautiful lake, almost a perfect circle with houses dotting the shoreline. I could see the entirety of the surface, but couldn’t tell how deep the water was, although, I could guess it was quite deep. Merfolk tend to hang in the very bottom of the bodies of water so it made sense that if they were landlocked they’d find someplace like this to live.
Reef’s heavy footsteps grew louder the closer he came. I wasn’t going to a give him the satisfaction of watching his approach and continued to scope out my surroundings.
When Reef reached me, he said, “I have such big plans for you, you’re going to be fun to break.” He took off his shirt, trying to make a big show of his overly muscled body like that made any difference when we were shifted.
I wasn’t going to take the bait and took my own shirt off followed by my pants and under clothes. As soon as I was completely naked, I peeked over my shoulder at the crowd. Jenn was standing next to Jeff, they smiled and waved. I nodded then took the three steps, and a big bounce off the diving board and dived into the cold crisp water. I hadn’t finished my initial dive when Reef jumped on my back, causing me to suck in two lungfuls of water. He grabbed my hair and was straddling me like a child would ride their dad playing ‘horsey.’ The shock from getting jumped from behind, his weight on top of mine, and the water in my lungs had me disoriented, and I was free falling through the clear cold dark water.
It was a tactic that would’ve worked with most plesios, but I was no ordinary dinosaur, I’m a fucking Alpha.
I shifted instantly, probably faster than ever before, causing him to fly off my back through the water and slammed into the sheer rock wall of the lake from the force of it. He was shocked that I could transform so quickly, but he only let the feeling linger for a moment before growing angrier beginning his own shift sloppily. He himself could shift more rapidly than the average shifter but compared to me, his took an eternity.
I could have played dirty like Reef by attacking before he was changed, but I didn’t want any doubts about my victory. Instead, I used the opportunity to study the playing field. It was a magically converted marble quarry; you’d never know it from the surface. From the shoreline, there were fifty feet before the bottom dropped down deeper than I could barely see. It looked like the minors had dug in straight down the center of a mountain in a giant circle for its minerals. The floor was utterly smooth except for piles of rocks here and there. There had to be a little magic involved in this lake’s creation, at least with how much water it held or how crystal clear it was.
Reef had finished shifting, began circling me, and I countered. He was so cocky, sure of his victory, sure of his position as Alpha, and there was an underlying sadistic nature lurking in
the background as well, but every once in a while, the hint of uncertainty came across loud and clear. He was one of the largest of our kind ever at forty-nine feet long from nose to the tip of his tale. His head alone was nine feet across, and his gaping jaws were snapping showing me sharp gigantic teeth with every bite. His neck was short, only fifteen feet, but it was muscular, and it wielded its head like a mallet. His four flippers were powerful, unyielding, blade-like, making it appear as if we fly through the water.
I was quite a bit smaller than him. My nose to tail only spanned thirty-feet, but that meant I was agiler. I coordinated my flippers to pump all the same time causing me to shoot up through the water like a missile breaking the surface and did a flip while I sucked in a breath of air and diving back into the water with my target in sight.
Plesiosaurs are apex predators; extraordinarily fast and deadly, but we’re also vulnerable and could be killed with a single well-placed bite. Our major artery runs the length of our neck; protected by vertebrae and muscle but if you clamp down at the correct angle with enough pressure, you can tear through the flesh from one side and bite through the vertebrae on the other causing it to splinter severing the artery causing the victim to bleed out within seconds.
It took Reef more than a moment to realize what I was going to do, causing him it to react clumsily swimming to the right awkwardly to avoid a direct strike. I made a big sweeping turn to the left, came around in a big circle meeting Reef face to face.
We began to circle one another, once again using our deadly jaws and flexible necks to snap at each other from varying directions. We can use our tails like daggers or bats depending on how we wielded them. If you hit someone broadside they’d feel like they got hit by a truck, but if you stab at them with the tip it could slice right through them. Reef managed a direct stab to my left back flipper tearing the cartilage straight down the middle. It hurt like a motherfucker, but I didn’t let it faze me and earned a direct hit of my own along his belly near his kidney. I’m not sure I hit anything vital or not, but it did seem to slow him down a little.
Reef did a backflip through the water and circled underneath me. Coming in from below he tried to bite at my injured flipper, but I quickly turned and used my tail to hit him square in the jaw sending him flying from the impact.
I could sense he started to feel scared and I was glad. He made so many of my people feel so afraid for so long, he deserved to be tortured a little before he got off easy with death. I smiled at the thought.
Reef saw it and gave me an evil grin in return Why are you smiling? Feeling good about how fast you swim? He said telepathically to me, confidence in himself screaming through.
I shivered involuntarily. I never had Reef in my head before, and he felt so creepy, but I answered with bravado. Honestly, I was thinking about the moment I get to kill you, and it made me smile.
That is not going to happen. The confidence Reef felt at that moment, worried me it was like he knew something I didn’t. All of a sudden, he dove down deeper into the water and I quickly pursued not quite sure what was happening. Down and down we went, past where the light from above reached, and the temperature dropped significantly. I was thankful for the gulp of air I had, it should last me another ten minutes or so. Reef had only a small breath of air since he first entered the water, he would need to head to the surface soon, so I was confused as to why he kept swimming down away from the life-giving oxygen.
I was a faster swimmer than Reef, and it didn’t take me long to overtake him. I knocked into him from behind biting his neck, but I missed the artery. He jerked in such a way that my jaws let go, and he lost his balance and went topsy-turvy tumbling to the very bottom.
He used his tail to push off the lake floor and picked something up with it in the process. A moment later I knew why he was so happy when he flung what looked similar to an ordinary ball until it broke apart spraying me with some kind of substance. Numbness set in almost instantaneously everywhere it touched and then spread to the point of nearly complete paralysis of my entire body.
I lay there limp in the water sinking until I was flat on the bottom.
He was swimming above me laughing in my head, I can’t believe that worked again.
Again? I asked, and then it dawned on me, This is how you defeated Alpha Angus?
Reef swam up close enough to run his tail the length of my body and then moved his head closer to mine, Do you want to see what I did next?
You forget something.
Yeah, what’s that?
You signed a contract this time with a cheating clause.
Did you not to notice?
Notice what?
None of the observers are in the water, we are all alone.
What difference does that make? You signed a magical contract.
It was bound by a child, most powerful witch alive my ass. Besides, how will that be enforced if nobody is here to witness what I’m about to do to you?
“Oh, my God dude, that’s so not true.” If I weren’t paralyzed, I would’ve jumped at the sudden specter of lavender floating and glowing between Reef and I. “And screw you, too.” She crossed her arms, huffed, and stomped her foot on nothing because she was floating there.
What the Fuck is this? I heard in my head from Reef, and apparently, Lavender did too because she responded, although, it was disorienting to look at her because her mouth was moving but I heard her voice in my head. It was like she was a hologram floating between us. You didn’t need to be an omega and have the ability to understand how pissed off she was.
“I was born into this, numbnuts, and have studied my craft since the day I was born. I bound your contract, I am the most powerful witch alive, and you are a fucking idiot to think you could outsmart me.” She glanced at me, “Could you not tell my mom I said that? I have no more money for the swear jar this month.”
Not a problem, I smiled and replied telepathically.
“I appreciate that.” She smiled at me and then glared at Reef, “Just so you know, Reef, it’s not only me watching. I have been projecting the entire fight above us on the camouflage shield so everybody here could watch. Shifters are up there laying out blankets watching the action and eating popcorn.”
Reefs expression remained neutral, but his emotions were being broadcast to me loud and clear. He knew he was fucked unless he could come up with a plan. I needed to pay close attention to him.
Lavender spoke again, “They aren’t the only ones watching, the Lupinskis and I felt that the shifters of your pod should bear witness to the fight that could change their lives for the better, so it’s being broadcast there as well.” She gave him an evil grin and let the implications of what she said sink in.
Soul shaking fear rushed through Reef. Not only had everybody at the pod witnessed his attempt to cheat, but he admitted to using an illegal means to kill our last Alpha. While Alpha Angus wasn’t perfect, he didn’t deserve to be taken out in such an undignified a manner.
“Walt’s never going to let me hear the end of this,” Lavender said.
“The end of what,” I asked.
“He and Graham so knew this was going to happen.”
“How do you mean?”
“I was all like, he wouldn’t be so stupid to cheat with me here. No one is that stupid. But I guess you are.” She shrugged at Reef. Then me again, “Do you want me to get whatever that stuff off of you?”
I would be much appreciative.
Lavender wiggled her fingers me, and I could move once again.
Thank you. I glared at Reef, I didn’t think my opinion of you could get any lower. You are not a real Alpha.
Reef tried to appear tough by expanding his muscles and glaring me, You have no idea what it means to be an Alpha.
I wanted him to know that I was a real Alpha by showing him, but then I had my own moment of worry when I realized I hadn’t practiced, hell, I never even tried to use my Alpha power.
How the Fuck am I supposed to do this, I th
ought.
Jeff answered You told me all about doing it before.
Where did you come from?
I have been listening the entire time.
Can everybody hear you?
No.
When have I ever used it?
How do you think you’re able to resist your old Alpha? Or the little power Reef had? You didn’t have to stop and think before; you just did it. And you’re even stronger now that you’ve also become an omega. Our power comes from our connected energy, you’re tapped into the power two times over by being both an Alpha and an Omega. So, believe in yourself and put your feelings behind your anger to show that little bastard who is the real Alpha.
He was right of course. If I trusted myself, believed in myself, my power would come thr— oof!
Reef used my distraction when I was talking to Jeff to ram me in the side with his tail spinning me out at an awkward angle. My tail went straight through the hologram specter of Lavender–it mended quickly back together–and she observed without saying a word. When I stopped turning, I faced Reef from about forty feet away.
Fuck this shit, it was time to show him what I really could do. I opened myself up to all the emotions from around me as far as I could reach. I’m not sure how far that meant, I know at least I was feeding off all the shifters, fey, and everyone else above us, but I think I reached further than that. The emotions almost became palpable within my blood, and I began to feel newfound confident attitude shining through when I said, Your oxygen has to be running out soon, Reef.
I’m fine. Uncertainty came over Reef’s emotions, Reef didn’t know how, but he could tell I was different from a couple of moments ago.
I let all the emotions he had, and everyone else’s surge when I asked, Will you still be fine when you stop using your—I thought about the time he maimed Mr. O’Donnel for leaving the pod without permission to get his daughter lifesaving medicine—your right front flipper.
The results were instantaneous. Reef’s right front flipper laid limp, and the water and his other three needed to work out of sync to stay facing me. What are you— what the Fuck?
Covet the Curves: a Romance Collections Anthology Page 9