The Virgin Goddess and the Alpha

by Rita Stradling

  All three of them regarded me with concerned expressions—concerned for me, I realized, when Luca said, “Are you okay?”

  “Everything is well, Luca. My first maiden wishes to speak to me before I leave the wood.” Truly, she had caught us almost at the very end of the forest, as there was less than a mile left of my forest. I nodded. “Stay here, please.” I didn’t wait for a response, I turned into the forest and headed in the direction I could feel her waiting for me.

  She stood on the first bough of a fir, her bark-crusted arms crossed over her chest. I leapt, bouncing up on the pads of my feet and just able to grab the branch. My momentum took me up and over, and I flipped to land beside her. The branch swayed, but I kept my balance.

  One of her mossy brows rose high on her forehead, sending fissures through the back covering her eyelids. Her bright moss-green eyes fastened on mine. “I see you’re truly going to go.”

  “Of course I am.”

  She gave me a stare that conveyed I was missing her meaning, and I was doing it on purpose. Algea was my first maiden for a reason, and it wasn’t because her aim could almost rival my own. She always confronted me with my poor decisions, whether I wanted her to or not.

  “They passed the test,” I said, still unwilling to give in to her very pointed look.

  “Only to reveal what you’re facing.”

  Ah, she figured it out as well. I’d hoped my comment about the Golden Fleece had thrown her off. I should have known that she likely unraveled the mystery before I had.

  “What are the chances that I would be called upon out of my seclusion to hunt the one beast worth hunting?”

  Her long strings of tree moss swayed in the breeze as she studied me. “A beast that can eat and kill you. Your maidens are very worried.”

  “Misandria?” I asked as she was the one most likely to try to stop me from going.

  “She doesn’t know, and I do not plan to tell her. If not for your strict order against it, I think Misandria would have killed those men and called it a misfire. I had to excuse her from duty last night. As it is, it is good that you are taking them out today, for their sake.”

  “It was not my wish to worry my maidens or you.” I stared off at the land that had held my entire existence for the last millennia. Ahead of me was a sea of pine needles and branches, each tree I knew so well. “But what is the point of the hunt if there is no risk?”

  “You risk more than your life with this hunt—but you already know that, Goddess.”

  I turned what I hoped was a stern expression on her, but I felt a lick of heat up my cheeks. “What are you talking about?”

  She paused as if she didn’t want to say the words. But then she took a steadying breath, and she said perhaps the most critical words I’d heard since I was last in the presence of my family members, “In many ways, you are the strongest woman I have ever known, in other ways you are very vulnerable. Your mind is old, but your heart is very young.”

  I closed my eyes, not wanting her to see the hurt her words caused. “Thank you for your council, Algea.”

  “I will leave you then, my goddess,” she said.

  I opened my eyes to see that she had already passed most of the way into the tree. As I watched, it swallowed all but her eyes. When she closed those, the bark was unbroken. I took a moment to shake off the unease her words had delivered. I had never known Algea to exaggerate, lie, or give false council. She knew me better than my mother did, and she found me unfit for this quest. Words such as these were not opportune to start a quest on.

  I looked back to the forest I nearly had memorized and knew I wanted to leave. The urge hadn’t started until yesterday, but it was nearly irresistible now. Impulsive. Heedless. Reckless. All words that had been used to describe me—and by the members of my family that actually loved me. Naive—that was one that had been used in the past as well, but not by my beloved family members. If the words had come from anyone other than Algea, I would not take them so well. Shaking off my melancholy, I leapt off the branch, going down to one knee with the impact, and then I rolled into a sprint. I didn’t slow when I reached the men, who huddled together exactly where I left them.

  “Ever race a goddess?” I asked as I flew by them. If they had wolf-like hearing, they would attempt to race me. If not, then I would know.

  I heard crashing behind me, and I knew the answer. When they had sprinted before, they’d barely made a sound. Wolves only made sound at the very end of their run—and these men were wolves whether they were in or out of human skin.

  I let the crashing grow near, and then I picked up speed.

  No physical barrier divided my forest from the mortal world. There was only an unbroken stretch of brown, needle-coated dirt and underbrush leading on through towering pines. I passed through without meeting any resistance. A change in the wind from cool to dry and hot signified my passing. I was suddenly standing in high, dry grass under the shade of a gnarled oak branch.

  The forest stretched on in every direction over a hillside craggy with exposed boulders.

  The men passed through the barrier, one after the other, sprinting out of what looked like the solid trunk of a thick oak. The moment they passed through, however, they each grunted with pain and buckled forward onto the ground, grabbing their stomachs.

  “What—was that?” Aiden said with a groan.

  I couldn’t hold in a laugh. “That was my forest sending you on your way. It isn’t happy that you tricked its magic.”

  Jackson was the first to his feet, grabbing his sides and scowling. “A little warning would be nice.”

  “It didn’t tell me what it planned to do,” I said, still chuckling a little.

  All of the men looked back at the thick tree trunk that stood where we had just exited my realm. Luca and Aiden swayed to their feet, still holding their stomachs.

  “It felt like being gutted,” Luca grumbled, “and I would know.”

  I tapped my chin, regarding them each in turn. “Well, perhaps next time when you plan to enter someone’s home impersonating wolves, which are considered honored guests here, you will reconsider. And in which direction is this Los Angeles?”

  Jackson rubbed his sides, still looking thoroughly annoyed. “I thought you’d been there before?”

  I paused. “Yes, of course, in the region.”

  Damn.

  In my enjoyment of seeing my usually docile forest sending these three men to their asses for entering where they shouldn’t, I forgot myself. Truly, I had no idea where this exit from my forest led. Most of the thousands of places where animals could enter or exit only led to the wild forests of the world. We had ventured this way today, following Jackson and his brother’s lead, likely following their own scent if their noses were as good as their hearing.

  “Oh, okay.” Jackson’s dark eyes glinted as he sent a smirk my way that echoed the one that had just dropped off my face. “Maybe you could show us around a little—I mean, after we catch the beast. I know LA well, but I’m not that familiar with all of Iberia.”

  I nodded, slowly. “I would be happy to . . . after the hunt, of course.”

  “Of course,” he agreed with a nod as he gestured to deeper in the forest. “We’re over here.”

  We walked a little ways on to where a strange smell preceded an even stranger sight. Its shape and size suggested it was something to ride on, but it only had space for a single rider. They were somewhat like a horse, but made out of gleaming black metal and what looked like leather. All three sat just within a small, dry ravine that had clear tracks leading to the vehicles. They had a foreign, pungent odor to them as well.

  Aiden held up a shiny black orb with a hole at the bottom of it. “She can use my helmet and ride with me,” he said in a low voice.

  Jackson gave his smaller brother a look, and the man spun away and pulled his helmet on. The definition of ‘helmet’ had come to me: protective headgear.

  Luca let out a low barking laugh and pushed Ai
den’s shoulder.

  “Shut up, Luca,” Aiden said, sounding chagrined.

  “Don’t I get to decide whose . . . car I ride on?” It had taken me a second, but the answer had come to me. Jackson had said the word earlier, and the definition had popped into my head, car: personal vehicle.

  Jackson’s jaw clenched, and lips puckered like he was biting back a laugh while Luca coughed out a sound that distinctively sounded like a chuckle. Jackson smacked his second, brother and then he too turned around to put on his protective headgear.

  “Why is he laughing? Why are you?” I asked, leaning so that I could see Luca’s face without being too obvious about it.

  “I’m not.” Jackson’s hand pressed into the leather seat of the car; his fingers strangely made no indentation in the material. “You’re safest on my car, there’s more room on mine, too.”

  I looked between the cars. If that was true, it was fractional.

  “Do you . . .” he blew out his cheeks like he was thinking, “Do you ride a horse at all?”

  “Of course.” I almost laughed at the absurdity of the question.

  “Well, I’m sure you already know this, but this car drives faster than a horse and makes more wind. Do you . . .” he gestured down to my dress, “do you have any way to make sure your dress doesn’t go flying back and onto my wheel?”

  He pointed down, and I realized that there were wheels, two of them on each car, though they looked nothing like any wheel I had ever seen. It was very unlikely that my dress would catch in the wheel if I were sitting on that seat, but I had a feeling that Jackson was very politely telling me that if I didn’t secure my dress, it would fly up on me.

  Leaning down, I grabbed the loose material and tied it around each leg until I had something resembling loose trousers.

  Jackson crossed over to tower over me.

  “Hello,” I said a little confused as he stopped close before me.

  “Hey. Let’s protect your head.” He lifted up the helmet but waited for me to respond.

  I couldn’t help but grin at that. “I’m the only one here who’s immortal.”

  He hesitated, still holding the helmet up before me. “Then do it as a favor to me. If anyone spots me wearing a helmet while a passenger on the back of my … car doesn’t, it’ll be bad publicity for me.”

  With the precarious and deadly situation his pack was in, it made sense that he would care about the way things looked. If the human population turned against them further in their weakened state, his pack could easily be wiped out. “I suppose I could let you put that helmet on me, if you must.”

  He grinned wide and pulled the opening down over my head. The helmet hugged tightly to me, feeling strangely tight yet not uncomfortable.

  “Feel okay?” Jackson asked as he leaned into my view, looking through what must have been dark glass.

  “Yes,” I said, nodding for good measure in case he couldn’t hear me through the helmet.

  “All right, climb on then.” He stepped away from me to reveal that both of his brothers had climbed onto the cars just as one did with a horse.

  Jackson climbed onto his, pivoted back and tapped the seat behind him. “Sit right here.”

  I’d lived thousands of years and hunted the fiercest creatures on Earth; there was no need to be afraid of a car. Though they weren’t looking at me, I felt all of their attention on me as if they were anticipating me running the other direction or something. Taking a steadying breath, I walked over to Jackson’s side, threw my leg over and straddled his car. Jackson was only inches from me, my legs around his hips.

  He looked back over his shoulder. “Mind if I position you right, so we’re safe?”

  In my head, I planned to say: just tell me what to do, please. But what came out of my mouth was, “Go ahead,” and to my embarrassment, the words came out breathy and not at all like my voice.

  His hand came down to wrap around my bare ankle on one side and my knee on the other. He tugged me gently forward, so my body was nearly flush against his. “You need to be very careful of your feet. Don’t move them from where I set them, okay?” His hands slipped down my ankle to my foot, and he lifted it onto a piece of metal that jutted out from the side. He lifted my leg at the knee until my other foot found the jutting metal. “Now, hold onto me around my waist.”

  “All right,” I whispered as I wrapped my arms around his waist. I did not know exactly how to position my hands, so I splayed my hands over his waist, hoping I could keep my balance without having to grip onto him. Any tighter and my entire front would press against the length of his body. As it was, my breasts almost brushed against his back, and I had to be very aware of the space so as to not close the distance.

  “You got a good hold on me?” he asked over his shoulder.

  “Yes,” I said.

  He turned his head, and I thought perhaps he muttered, “Yes, you do.” But the other two men made their cars roar with a sound almost like thunder.

  Jackson reached forward, and his car began to vibrate lightly under me. It felt almost like a living creature, but not quite.

  Automatically and unintentionally, I squeezed my knees around Jackson’s sides.

  His hand came down, almost rubbing my knee. It was a motion that spoke only of comfort, and I wanted to be indignant that he touched me without my express permission—but, strangely, it comforted me, and I felt my rigid muscles relaxing.

  He turned the bar his hand rested on, sending a thunderous sound through the forest.

  Jackson looked back once more. “I think you’re going to like this, Artemis.” I could only see a small amount of his profile, but I could see his lips were turned up in a smile. And then we sped forward into the ravine.

  “Ha!” I said in surprise. I’d expected a car to feel like riding a horse, but it felt nothing like that. Instead of the uneven gait I had anticipated, it moved forward smoothly over the dirt and leaves that piled into a makeshift road at the bottom of the ravine.

  Our pace was not too fast, perhaps that of a cantering horse in an open field.

  “Keep your body loose and lift your butt off the seat if you can; it’s going to be a little bumpy here,” he called back as the bike headed for a stretch of the ravine where water had washed away the sediment leaving bare rocks.

  The seat’s vibration intensified and I found myself squeezing onto Jackson so I could lift my behind off the seat. It wasn’t that the vibration was uncomfortable as much as very strange against the juncture between my thighs. That same tingling warmth started low in my body, and as I pressed myself into Jackson, it only grew faster. If I had ever felt that intense stirring in my core, I couldn’t remember it, and now, humiliatingly, I was overcome by it near constantly around men that could likely smell it on me.

  As if to confirm my thought, Jackson called back, “You’re very distracting back there.”

  “My apologies.” My cheeks heated, and I tried to give him some space on the seat while keeping my butt hovering over it.

  He chuckled, and I think he said, “I’m not complaining,” but I couldn’t be sure because of the wind and the sound of the car.

  The moment the rocks gave way to smooth ground, I sat onto the seat and scooted back until only my fingertips grabbed onto him. He didn’t let me keep that distance for long, though, as he called back. “Hold on tight; we’re going to speed up and jump out of the ravine.”

  “All right,” I said, as I slid forward and wound my arms tighter around him. He was so wide. Even through his jacket, I could feel the hard cords of muscle. It felt almost indecent to touch him at all while these sensations were building in me. My thoughts were too ridiculous, and yet I couldn’t stop them from running through my head.

  “Lift off the seat when I do,” he called back as the car picked up speed.

  As the ravine curved right, we aimed straight, directly for the side of the embankment.

  He rose in his seat, and I echoed his movement just before we hit the emba
nkment. “Hold on tight,” he called back, and then we were flying.

  I held on tight to him, but mostly for his sake. I didn’t want him distracted and endangering his own life as it was obvious that he was needlessly worried about my safety. I was no stranger to flying at high speeds; I wasn’t a stranger to hitting the ground and breaking all of the bones in my immortal body, either.

  The car impacted more smoothly than I expected it to, definitely more smoothly than a griffin or even Mishal did. I heard what I was pretty sure was Aiden whooping as, I guessed, he flew over the lip of the ravine behind us. We raced along a deer path between trees, dodging in and out of shafts of sunlight beaming down through the gnarled branches.

  The dry grass whipped over my bare legs as the path narrowed. We jumped over another small mound of rocks between two oaks and flew forward to land on a very smooth road.

  I looked around wildly, completely perplexed. “This shouldn’t be here,” I said. In my confusion, my hands slipped off Jackson’s stomach, but he grabbed one of my hands and put it back on him.

  “Don’t let go here; we need to pick up speed.”

  “This shouldn’t be here!” I repeated, louder.

  “What shouldn’t be here?” he called back.

  “The road! Human civilization, it shouldn’t be here.” It didn’t make any sense. The entrances to my realm were always at the heart of every wilderness. Wild animals found it on instinct, usually at least once in their lives. But this one couldn’t have been fifty miles from the road.

  “This is a fire road; the main roads are quite a bit further out. Hold on!”

  There was a loud whirr as the car picked up speed and we raced down the fire road. Jackson leaned low, and I echoed his movement, hoping to lessen the wind resistance.

  I felt the presence of many animals as we sped through their forest: foxes, a family of bobcats, many birds, and one large mountain lion who had visited me in her youth. I felt her recognize me as well, and as we turned the bend, she peeked out over the road from a low hanging branch.