Imprinted By The Alpha (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (The Marked One - Book 1) (11 page)

******

E
lia awoke again a few short hours later to the pitch darkness of a Louisiana night. She glanced over her shoulder to see Jasper resting soundly against the silk fabric of their sheets, marveling at his ability to sleep at a time like this. The air was alive and rippling with the scent of the new oracle coming into her power. Elia knew they would have to travel to find her, but she would go as far as it took, not resting until the meddlesome witch either bowed to them or was destroyed.

“You mustn’t let her control you so.” Jasper’s voice was raspy with sleep, and Elia turned, lying against his chest. His eyes opened, and his lips held the ghost of a smile.

Pouty, she said, “I am not controlled by her, whoever she is. I simply refuse to have some child attempt to rule over me with whatever she believes is proper. I have one thousand years of experience that she lacks, and because one day her head bursts with more power than she can understand, she has the audacity to attempt to dictate my behavior.” She gestured around her at the castle in which they resided, which the outside world believed was nothing more than a gorgeous wedding venue. It was their means of remaining hidden to the world. “Look what we have, what we built without the confinement of the oracle’s petty rules. Should this be taken from us?”

She stood and paced the room in her barely controlled rage. “It should be us, telling her how to behave. I am more powerful than she will ever be. She should bow to me.”

“We agreed...” Jasper began.

But Elia cut him off. “
You
agreed!” she snarled, whirling on him. In what society does the slave control the master?” Jasper had been watching her this whole time, and as she stared at him, Elia could see his rage boiling just beneath the surface.

They’d had this conversation before, more than once. Her beloved described her lust for power as unquenchable and claimed there was a time he’d felt the same. For centuries now, though Jasper had preached that, since they would both outlive all the others – the shape shifters, the oracles – it was better to live a peaceful eternity than a single tumultuous day.

It only pushed Elia to her limits to know that, instead of raging at the oracle as he should, Jasper’s ire fell on her shoulders. Elia refused to succumb to his way of thinking, feeling it weak and passive. Even now, rather than responding to her rant, Jasper sat in silence, waiting for Elia to calm down. He expected her to recognize the brooding silence for disapproval and rein herself in to keep from disappointing him.

Elia stared at her king, wishing she could force him to follow her lead. But he was stubborn, and she would never convince him to change his mind. Unless...

A sly plan began to take shape in her mind, and she sat on the edge of the bed, running her nails over the skin of his inner thigh enticingly. “What if we don’t kill her?” she asked.

Tilting his head, Jasper looked at her with an expression of curious wonder. She had baited him.

She continued, “Our harem could always use another. What if we simply take her rather than killing her?” The question she posed seemed to ring in the air around her as Jasper’s eyes clouded with consideration. Slowly, his lips curled into a grin. Elia had known he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add to their collection. The harem included women from their travels around the globe, but they had never brought in a supernatural before. When he licked his lips, Elia knew she had him, and she celebrated the triumph silently. She would have her way yet, and she would stop at nothing to coerce him to help her.

––––––––

E
lia traveled with Jasper by the cover and protection of night, and she guided them as she tracked the scent through the cities and countryside. And Elia found her, faster than she had believed possible, which served to excite her beyond measure. She crouched in the shadows of the forest beside Jasper and watched as the oracle bathed naked in a quiet pond. She was beautiful, more ethereal than the last had been by far, and Elia wanted to snarl at the dark brown hair and doe-shaped eyes that gave her the enchanted look.

But something else usurped the majority of Elia’s attention, and that was the power she could sense rolling off the new oracle. It was stronger than anything Elia had felt from another creature, and the aroma of her blood was intoxicating. Elia’s mouth watered as her heart pounded in her chest with the desire to drink that powerful blood. She opened her mouth and bared her fangs.

Jasper’s hand on her shoulder pulled her back. “Not yet,” he whispered almost inaudibly. “She is but a child. We must wait until she’s had her first blood, or you know what would happen to you.”

His warning was sound. Elia knew the code of honor that even vampires must live by. One of the most basic of regulations was that they were not to feed from children. If Elia took the oracle now, she would be at the mercy of the council, despite her status as a ruler.

Even queens had something to fear, but as the oracle looked toward the shadows where they hovered, the scent was too enticing, and Elia watched painfully as the girl stepped from the pond slowly, tilting her head as if trying to get a better look.

Elia knew the oracle shouldn’t be able to see her, but she smiled seductively, the possibility that she was wrong arousing her.

“We should go back, wait for the moon after her first blood,” Jasper said and pulled her against his side.

Elia kept watching as the oracle squinted, looking deeper into the tree line. A glint of moonlight fell across the spot where Elia and Jasper stood, and the child’s eyes widened with fear. They were spotted.

“I want her now,” Elia spat, jumping from the woods before Jasper could pull her back. Her fangs bared, she moved to sink them deep into the flawless skin of the oracle’s neck.

******

S
arah had no time to react. She raised her arms over her head, and the hissing of the strange attacker disappeared. There was nothing but silence. The world darkened as she slipped into a dream state. She could see her tribe and a swirling of storm clouds above them. Something was coming, the order of things unraveling.

A light cut through the darkness, and she saw herself with a child whose eyes resembled her own and they stowed away to the holy grounds. Years moved in fast forward, and she watched the child grow into a woman, her blood growing stronger. And then the mark appeared.

The child contained the cure.

One ounce of her blood would return the werewolves to their humanity.

She saw the war, the clashing of the powers between the werewolf clans and the king of vampires. The child restored the order.

She remembered nothing further until she awakened days later in the village to the realization of her encounter. The elders knew she’d been attacked by the bite on her arm. They asked what else had occurred, why she was spared. She told them she didn’t know, keeping in mind that the oracle had great responsibilities. She would not let their fears of upsetting the careful balance of the universe prevent her from fulfilling her destiny.

******

J
asper whisked Elia back to their home, laid her on their bed, and called for the only doctor of their courts. Elia was still convulsing uncontrollably, and Jasper experienced true fear for the first time in his long life. The doctor glanced at Elia and then at Jasper, and he shook his head. “There is nothing I can do.”

––––––––

J
asper fell to his knees. The blood of the oracle had poisoned her, causing an effect more potent than silver. Elia was doomed to a long, slow, torturous death.

As Jasper leaned over the body of his beloved, she reached for him, a single tear slipping from her eyes, and she tried in vain to speak. He held her hand, pressing it to his lips, and he pulled her body to him, sobbing against her hair. She couldn’t leave him. He would never be able to replace her, would do anything to save her.

But the days passed, Elia ravaged with pain. She writhed and wailed, moments of lucidity coming shorter and less frequently with time. But she told Jasper of the prophecy, of the child to be born, and how he must avenge her. “The shifters will search for her as well. This will be our chance to take them all,” she whispered in a harsh, choked voice. But her resolve for vengeance was certain, and Jasper hardened his heart with it.

“You must find the girl,” she insisted. “You must take her blood and heal the land, rid it of those filthy werewolves. Then, you must destroy those who try to tame us. The shape shifters must die.”

Jasper vowed to her that he would follow the path she laid out, and that he would avenge her death. As she slipped away, he watched the light in her eyes fade, and he was grateful as her body went slack, just for a moment, because her pain had ended. But then he stood, and Jasper’s scream rang for hundreds of miles, the depth of his loss clear in the mournful tone. Yes, he would right this wrong and destroy everything that had contributed to the death of the only being he had ever truly loved.

******

W
ith a gasp, Sarah awoke, her eyes searching to determine where she was, looking for anything familiar. As she shivered from the cold sweat coating her body, her gaze landed on a photograph in a frame on the bedside table. Ava’s graduation. Her arm around her daughter’s shoulders as they both smiled brightly for the camera.

She gulped for air as she realized she was home. The dream had been so real, the memories so potent, that her heart pounded even now, and goose bumps raised from her skin. The reminder was evident, and she could waste no more time. Now, she knew what was going to happen and why she had felt such fear.

When the mark appeared, the vampires would come. She would have to prepare Ava, for that mark was due any time. She couldn’t let the war begin and surprise her daughter. If Sarah didn’t take control of the situation, she might lose her daughter, the only thing she had ever truly loved.

––––––––

A
va carried a tray up to her mother’s room that contained freshly brewed coffee, a croissant, and some fruit. She pushed open the door and smiled at Sarah, who was now perched against the headboard. It had been a long week, and Ava felt like she’d been walking on eggshells, trying to make sense of the events in her life while also catering to her mother, who was not recovering.

She hadn’t heard from Caleb during the week, either, and that irritated her. After everything he’d told her, she would have thought he would be in much closer contact.

But as she sat on the end of her mother’s bed, Ava knew there had to be more to the story. She wanted to know the whole truth. She could see in her mother’s eyes as they bored holes in her that Sarah was aware of Ava’s many questions. But Ava was tired of waiting. Her mother wasn’t getting well, and she’d decided that today would be the day she got her answers.

“Thank you for breakfast, honey,” Sarah said with a weak smile.

Ava nodded. “Are you feeling any better today?” She knew the answer, but she still asked.

“A little,” her mother said, taking in the spread on the tray as if trying to decide where to start. Ava knew she was lying. Her mother’s appetite had faded with her health, and she’d already shrunken. Ava watched as her mother reached for a strawberry, then took a small bite of the croissant and a tiny sip of coffee. Her hands still trembled, and Ava’s chest ached at her mother’s attempt to alleviate the worry she felt. But the frailty her mother showed in every movement only drove the fear home. Ava was going to lose her.

Determined to call the family doctor, even with her mother adamantly refusing to see him, Ava had scheduled a house call. But the doctor had found nothing of concern and simply suggested bed rest for several days until her energy was restored. Ava knew there had to be an underlying cause and had a sneaky suspicion that Sarah knew exactly what that was.

“You know, Ava, you took an entire week off work, and you’ve been waiting on me hand and foot. It’s time you got back to the grind,” Sarah said, sipping at the coffee.

Ava clenched her jaw at her mother’s stubbornness. “I go back tomorrow. Lil’s fine. Rhonda’s been filling in.” She fidgeted with her hands in her lap, nerves creeping into her spine as she prepared to pose the questions that had nagged at her all week. She was worried about her mother’s response, since Ava felt her mother was going to fight to protect her secrets.

After a few moments, she blurted out, “Mom, what is it that you’re not telling me? Are you sick with something the doctors don’t know about? Why are you hiding things from me? I don’t think anything could frighten me as much as just being clueless.” She stared at her mother apprehensively.

Her mother drew in a long breath and laid a hand on Ava’s lap. “Believe me when I say I’m not sick, just growing weaker.” Ava drew back, confused. If she wasn’t sick and was resting, how could she be getting weaker? Ava leveled her gaze even with her mother’s, and the older woman said, “I think it’s time you learned the truth, Ava. I’ve waited as long as I could and probably shouldn’t have kept it from you this long, but it certainly can’t wait any longer.”

Ava waited with bated breath. Her mother continued, “Do you remember any of the old stories your father and I used to tell you about Willow Falls? About things that supposedly happened in the folk tales about this area?”

Of course she remembered. They had been her favorite bedtime tales, and since discovering the existence of werewolves, followed by her mother’s show of some sort of supernatural gift, Ava had begun to question the fairytales and how much truth they hid. “I remember you telling me about a supernatural force, and about many creatures that lived here in the past.”

Sarah nodded. “Right. Well, I’d love to say that some of them were stories, and more of them were embellished, but every word of them was true. Ava, Willow Falls has hidden a great many secrets for a very long time. This town holds more history in supernatural lore than anywhere else in the country. Not bad for a little place with two stoplights, huh?” she chuckled.