Curves & Alphas: A Paranormal Box Set: (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (28 page)

Chapter 23

They waited on the lake shore for any other survivors to arrive. When only three others made their way panting through the bushes, Sophia knew she owed a life debt to these noble beasts.

I hated to leave them,
Reinhart said
. But we all agreed that the most important thing for me to do was lead you to Virgin Lake.

Virgin Island was only fifty yards from the shore, and the water was so shallow that Sophia could wade the whole distance unassisted. She was pleased to make this final leg of the journey herself. They were met by three werewolves who escorted them across another small stream and into a clearing in the center of the small island.

Sophia was stunned to find dozens of werewolves waiting for them, perhaps as many as a hundred. She looked from one to the next; astounded that so many were here, apparently all waiting for her.

In the center of the clearing sat a werewolf so dazzling and beautiful that he seemed to be from a different world than the one in which gruesome vampires swept down from treetops and left bloodstained leaves in their wake. He was pure white, with not a hint of color on him aside from his black nose and black-ringed eyes. He was a little smaller than the grey and black werewolves that surrounded him, with smaller, more pointed ears.

As Sophia walked towards him, she had to contain her surprise. The name ‘The Pack Leader’ had conjured up images of the largest, strongest werewolf of them all, and the exquisite, rather petite, wolf before her did not fit her expectations at all. He seemed too delicate, too pure to command the respect of the whole werewolf population. However, she knew better than most that appearances were often deceptive, and tried her best to keep her mind open.

She went down on one knee before him. Her hands shook as she placed them on her knee and pressed her forehead down into them. When she raised her head, she looked into his green eyes and saw them sparkle with excitement. This, too, was a surprise. He was not a somber soul, like Reinhart, but seemed vibrant and youthful. Perhaps this was why they all followed him. Beauty and vitality were an irresistible combination.

I am Dorin, the werewolf known as The Pack Leader. His voice was serious, but with a note of excitement in it. You’re welcome on Virgin Island. I understand you’ve had a difficult journey.

Sophia nodded.
There were casualties. Many casualties. I owe my life to those werewolves.

Dorin nodded gravely.
The sacrifice the werewolves of Reinhart’s pack made in order to bring you safely to me is not regarded lightly, and they will be buried with the full honor that they deserve.

Please, will you tell me what’s going on? Why all these werewolves are here to meet me? I believe I’m Van Longshadow’s Pure Soul, and I want to know how to save him. But I also know there’s something more going on.
She asked.

It’s true; there’s more to the legend of the Pure Soul than just the saving of a single life. Much more. I’ll get straight to the point. It’s said that the Pure Soul who has the ability to communicate like a werewolf might also be the last.

Sophia’s breath caught in her throat. Dorin continued.

She might be the last because, after her visit, there may not be any more werewolves to save. You see, the legend says that the Pure Soul with the power of telepathy is also the one who has the potential within her to reverse the curse of every werewolf, thus ending their suffering forever.

‘Reverse the curse of every werewolf?’ Sophia repeated aloud, in disbelief.

Yes. Every single one. She is known as The Mother; a beautiful mortal woman with soft, pale skin like snow, golden hair, and eyes as green as a meadow after the rain.

Sophia’s world began to spin as Dorin’s words sank in.
You think I’m The Mother? I might have the power to save all of you?

He nodded.
Like you, I can scarcely believe that it could be true. We’ve waited so long for a sign of hope. Any sign. Then suddenly, maybe, just maybe, the symbol of hope herself appears in our forest. Tell me; you’ve proven your telepathic abilities. Do you match the rest of the description? Under that camouflage, do you have the pale skin, green eyes, and golden hair that would make every werewolf in this forest your slave?

She nodded.
I do.

Please, show us all.

She slowly stood up. With the weight of dozens of expectant eyes upon her, she turned and walked back to the little stream. She moved without conscious thought, but full of purpose at the same time. She removed her hat and splashed cool water on her face, washing the black paint away. She shook out her braid so that her blonde hair spilled over her shoulders in rippling waves. She took a deep breath and then turned and walked back to the wolves. With every footstep, she felt as if she was marching towards her destiny. Nothing had ever felt more certain, more real.  

As she approached the clearing, she saw that Van was standing next to Dorin, waiting for her. The blackness of Van’s coat emphasized the lightness of Dorin’s, and vice versa so that they seemed even sharper and more vivid than ever. She walked towards them, trancelike, until she stood directly in front of them. She felt every werewolf taking in her skin and hair, and shared the surge of joy and hope that filled them. She stopped and felt a grin spread across her face. She looked at Van, her heart bursting with love for him.

I love you, Van Longshadow. Whatever happens after tonight, know that my heart belongs to you.

She tilted her head to the sky, held her arms out wide, and presented herself to them; their Pure Soul. The Mother. With a song more beautiful than any orchestra, one hundred werewolves all howled together to honor her.

Epilogue

My love for Van had brought me to this unknown place, this forest of beautiful werewolves and bloodthirsty vampires. Who knew what other beasts lay in hiding in the dark shadows beyond the safety of Virgin Island? In my heart and in my sweetest dreams all I wished for was to spend my life with Van. I’d always felt in my bones that there was one special man out there for me, and now I knew that I was right. My unwavering belief in that one true love was to be rewarded.

But untold dangers still stood between Van, me and our happy ending. I knew that this night was just the beginning.

~~~

Find out what happens next in Drawn To The Alpha part 2 here:
http://amzn.to/1Hs4TZz

Book 1

Willow Brooks

Chapter One

The inky black of the night sky was all I could see as my body scraped against the sharp edges of the rocky and root-littered mountain. Glittering stars in the sky mixed with the ones forming over my eyes as pains shot throughout my battered and increasingly sore body. Each scrape of a rock, each slide against the root, intensified the growing bruises while something dragged me higher and higher. The outer afflictions intensified, merged together into one ball of continual, growing agony, threatening an odd slip into injury-induced insanity, which I craved if it meant numbness. As dizziness descended, the sky seemed to grow closer, and my plight grew more real. I found that I could no longer wish it a nightmare, which was ironic, as I wished to lose consciousness.

Fear swirled like a tidal wave around me. My head about to explode, I swore my hair would just rip from my scalp as a large animal continued to drag me by my long tresses. I couldn’t see the long curly black strands gripped in his teeth, but I could imagine the horrific scene as I felt his or her or its saliva drip onto my scalp, while the beast’s hot breath blew periodically over my head. When my shirt caught again on yet another exposed tree root, rather than stop, the animal yanked me up toward it so that I could smell its breath, something similar to a dog yet far worse, more rancid, like the beast’s last kill. The iron scent of blood, so evident, incited panic in my lungs, which were already burning as they battled for air.

My hands gripped what was left of my tattered shirt over my chest as I struggled for each breath. The torment from the beating my body was taking mixed with the tight pull of my muscles, derived from panic. Maybe I had fallen into a delusional state, or maybe I was just losing touch with reality, moving further from consciousness, but in those moments of clarity, the times that I could see clearly what was around me, somehow the picturesque beauty of the scene got through, became some sort of deranged lifeline in my frail attempt to hold it together, to fight for my life against this thing. I’d never been this far above New York City. I’d never been one for hiking or even trail walking. My life didn’t leave time for such things, even if I’d been a nature lover. Which I wasn’t. I could appreciate it, even create it in digital worlds, but had no real desire to be actually in it at any given point in time. The indoor, virtual worlds, were fine for me.

I’d only seen such beauty as what was around me now in pictures. At night at home, my hobby of creating video games had me often researching different locations, different types of scenery that I could recreate within a computer world. So I’d seen such beauty photographed but had never found the time to explore it myself, even if I’d been so inclined. The soft irony of my situation, and how I was getting to see the vast beauty of the real world around this mountaintop while dragged by what had to be an imaginary creature, as if it had stepped out of one of my games, struck me, adding stinging tears to the ones already dribbling down my cheeks, my eyes watering from physical misery.

In the night sky, tonight only a crescent stuck out distinctly against the blackness. The lines of trees battling to stay alive, crooked, fallen, broken, sent a message to my psyche, which was damaged at the moment, giving birth to the irrational thought that nothing survived here. From what I could tell in this light, green existed only in patches. Apparently, life had to fight hard to exist in this soil.

I doubted that the altitude had changed much, but I swore there wasn’t enough air. The animal holding me didn’t seem to have any trouble though, as deep growls vibrated from its core, pushing another wave of steamy air over my head and face. With each growl it shook its head, not enough to break my spine, but enough to pull more muscles in my neck and my shoulders and my back, making each of them as they bumped over the earth, one solid pit of misery at this point. I could no longer point to a specific spot or injury that hurt. I didn’t think anything was broken, thankfully. It was more surface wounds, mere scratching and bruising, that had begun to overwhelm me.

All at once my upper body fell hard to the earth. After hitting, after the pain reverberated through me. I rolled maybe two turns of my body, due to the incline, before coming up against a jagged outcrop of rock. Hands that had only been scraped on the outside this far clutched onto the rough edge, and I let the rock cut into my skin, my last chance to hold on to my life as I found myself looking over the edge of a cliff down, to the black abyss. I assumed the shadows that teased were treetops, given the sound of trees blowing in the wind along with a rushing noise that threatened water below.

My life didn’t pass before my eyes, instead the vast nothingness that laid out before me, the dark swirl of images, began to come in seemingly crystal-clear. I looked over a forest, yet from this angle I couldn’t get my bearings. I might as well have been floating over what promised my death at this point. I felt that secure. Save for being conscious of one breath after another, letting the burn of it keep me awake, I realized with a profound sense of despair that no one was around these parts to save me even if I screamed. All I had was a frail, increasingly painful grip on a rock and the beast behind me that had brought me here.

“We are going to end this once and for all,” the animal behind me said.

It spoke!

Turning my head, my muscles each protesting the small act, I looked at the large animal now sitting there looking down at me. The basically white wolf had fur tipped with black and gray that covered its back and the top of its head. It sneered at me, if that was even possible. Eyes a cloudy blue squinted at me, glaring, showing nothing but hate and contempt for either me or humans in general. Who could tell at this point?

I was facing death with no hope of salvation, and all I could hope for at this point was that it came swiftly, that this beast would stop toying with me, dragging me around, teasing me with my own demise, which would end this torment. I saw the end of it all as my only way out; the fear was just that real. I had no real concept of how I had come to be a part of such a storybook, or grisly fairy tale, situation. I couldn’t find it in myself to figure out how life had gotten to this point, this extreme.

Not that long ago, beastly creatures only existed in the video games I created. Tonight the dangerous realm of werewolves was my reality, as that seemed the only option offered. I’d die like a hero in one of my games, only I had no magic potion to bring me back, to regenerate life so I could attempt to fight it again. Sadly, I’d yet to find a way to fight at all.