The Alphas Game - Complete Set (10 page)

Once he got next to the bed her eyes flew open and she looked up at him, not recognizing him at first, but it only took a second for her senses to correct themselves. “Sorry, bad dream.” She mumbled as she looked up.

“I was just coming to check on you.”

“I didn’t know I was that loud.”

“You weren’t, but I heard you tossing and turning.” He touched her hair, brushing it out of her face.

“I’ll be fine, but can you sit with me for a minute?”

“Of course.” He was surprised but happy to be so close to her for a while. She scooted over and he sat on the edge of the bed, placing his hand down next to hers. Her hand slipped out of the covers and gripped his knuckles. He turned his palm up and squeezed her hand, hoping that it would give her a little comfort in the troubling times she found herself in.  It seemed to work because she smiled at him and he noticed, not for the first time, the scent that she carried. It was the smell of someone who was strong and capable, there was some fear there, but he couldn’t be sure about it. He looked deeply into her eyes, knowing that her human sight wouldn’t allow her to see as much as he did. Her eyes were like steel, and it was an awesome and powerful sight.

She squeezed his hand back, letting him know with a touch how much she appreciated his presence. He smiled at her and she could see the predator teeth shimmer in the little light that came in through the window. She sat up and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tight and pulling him close to her. He noticed the tiny t-shirt that she slept in and felt the bare skin of her stomach against his chest as she pulled up to her knees. He kissed her again, this time deeply, passionately taking her breath away and she pulled him down on top of her. He didn’t remove his mouth from her; instead he positioned his legs between hers, with their clothes still on. “I want you.” He mumbled it into her mouth and she reacted by running her hands up and down his shirtless back. She murmured under his lips, it was almost a moan as his hands slipped under her shirt.

He ran his hands over the dark skin of her stomach and side, barely brushing the bottom of her breasts. She  shuddered at the warmth of his hands and gripped him a little tighter, pulling his chest closer to hers. His mind wasn’t racing anymore; he knew that he was in the place that he wanted to be. She kissed him passionately, and he felt his body respond, his pants were actually starting to get tight. He groaned as he started to strain against the cloth of the sweat pants that he had on. He adjusted his body, trying to get his straining erection into a more comfortable position. They continued to kiss as she pushed his sweat pants down over his hips, freeing his manhood. Reaching down she secured the throbbing flesh in her fist and started to stroke, up and down, up and down.

Grey started to growl, a low lustful noise that was accompanied by the flash of red in his eyes. Rosie didn’t notice however, because she was occupied in her own passion, slowly bringing him to the edge of control.

It didn’t take him long to rip the shorts off  her body and push into her. She broke the kiss and moaned as he started to thrust, hard and fast, passionate and possessive. He needed to feel every bit of her, to take her over the edge before releasing his own passion. It didn’t take long at all for her to feel the first shreds of orgasm wash over her. It was ragged and wild, matching the out of control love-making that was happening. She started to groan louder, breathless moans leaving her body as she moved with him, matching his pace with equal need. He groaned again, letting loose his own seed inside of her. He groaned and rolled off her, coming to his senses and placing his hand on his forehead. With a long exhale, he scolded himself. “I’m so sorry.”

She propped herself up on her elbow. “I was as much at fault as you were.” She looked away and then started to get up. “I’m going to take a shower. Take my room key and find me some pants please.”

Chapter7

Morning came and it was shameful and slightly embarrassing. There is nothing like sleeping with two best friends to make you doubt your own humanity. I couldn’t believe that I had done that. I didn’t want to hurt Kevin, but I just couldn’t look at him the same way anymore. We don’t know for sure if the shape shifting fairy had assumed his form or controlled him, but when dealing with my feelings it really didn’t matter. I just couldn’t make myself trust him again. I couldn’t say that I didn’t still have feelings for him, but my feelings about him were conflicted.

Rosie sighed. She had gone back to her room after her shower. She needed time to think about what she had done, it felt like a betrayal, even though she knew that she had never promised anything to Kevin, but by the time morning came she had already loaded up on coffee and checked in on Hope, her home and her office and was ready before the guys were. Her mind hadn’t slowed down at all and she hadn’t slept at all. She had taken another long drawn out shower, hoping to remove Grey’s scent before she had to face the man that had been broken by this entire situation. “I don’t know what to do.” She finally admitted it to herself. “This is not a good place to be. The last thing I want to do is come between the two of them. They both seem like great guys. I just don’t get it. What’s wrong with me?” She ran cold water over her face and stepped out of her room to meet the men for the continental breakfast before they headed for the jail.

Downstairs the tension was touching everyone. It actually felt physical and it was obvious that no one was comfortable in that situation. The minutes seemed to tick by like hours and it felt like an eternity as everyone sat at the same table and tried their best not to look at each other. No one talked much, instead they just got what they needed done and headed back to the jail.

Walking into the building, the entire atmosphere seemed to have changed. They were quickly shown back to the interrogation room. The room hadn’t changed at all, and actually felt slightly comforting. Still,  there was something in the air that seemed to be just a little bit off. The witch couldn’t put her finger on what was wrong, but something felt strange with the magical nature of the building. Unable to identify anything definite,  she shook off the feeling and started to focus on more personal issues. 

Left alone in the room the silence echoed against the metal walls, slowly driving everyone insane. She was absolutely certain that Kevin’s lion nose had picked up the scent of what had happened between her and Grey and it was clear that he wasn’t happy about it. She looked nervously around from her place between the two men until the guard walked into the room. “Can you come with me,  please?” His voice was almost sugary sweet with a smooth Texas drawl. He was a short man, but seemed to be well built and very nice. She wondered how he did working with the prisoners, he didn’t seem the type that could deal with deadly supernatural beasts on a daily basis and keep them under control.

Looking at both men, neither seemed to think that it was very strange, so she followed along, but there seemed to be something strange going on here. Rosie started to get a bad feeling, and she knew that her instincts were rarely wrong. “What’s going on?” She tried to keep her curiosity to something simple, a woman just trying to decide what they are doing.

“We’ve had a security breach.  It’s nothing serious, but we need to ask you some questions about that.” He ushered them out of the room and started to lead them to an elevator.

“What seems to be the problem?” Grey asked. “What kind of security breaches are these?” They were traveling down to the fifth level of the prison.

“We’re sure that you have nothing to do with it.” The guard smiled and waved them past him into a cell. Grey and Kevin walked in and started to look around, but Rosie hesitated at the door. Something about this made her need to pause. She didn’t want to go into the cell. The guard smiled at her and waved her on, but she couldn’t make her feet move that direction.

“What’s going on here?” Rosie asked. Her senses were on fire. There was something terribly wrong with this entire situation. The FBI may automatically trust law enforcement personnel, but she didn’t suffer from the same prejudice. She narrowed her eyes at the guard, trying to figure out what was going on.

“We had someone break out of prison.” The guard smiled again. “He was in this cell.” He motioned for Rosie to enter again, when she didn’t he touched her arm and physically threw the woman into the cell before slamming the heavy metal door shut. This wasn’t a typical cell with bars. It was solid metal with only a tiny window. “And now you know how he felt all those years.” The voice echoed through the door, but it had changed.

The guard sounded like a woman now, and Rosie recognized the voice. “It’s her.”

“It’s who?” Kevin asked the question because it was obvious that Grey recognized the voice and he was paralyzed by the sound.

“The woman from my vision.” Rosie explained. “That’s Ysella.”

“Are you sure?” Kevin asked.

“I’m sure.” Grey’s voice was quiet and shaking. It was obvious that he remembered the voice. “I know that voice too.” He sat down on the bunk for a moment in order to regain his composure.

“She must have broken Alfi out, damn it.” Rosie cursed about finally realizing that the feeling that she had was dangerously legitimate. She slammed her fist down on the edge of the tiny desk, knowing that it was going to hurt just before it landed, but not having the time to pull away. “We’ve got to get out of here!”

“We should be able to do it.” Kevin was happy with the chance to do something.

Grey started coming to his senses. “I’m not sure. They build these places to hold shifters.”

“What do you suggest?” Kevin asked, his anger starting to spike toward his friend and partner.

“Calling someone.” Grey pulled out his phone. “No bars, damn.”

“Don’t you think they block cell signals in the cells?” Kevin asked, sarcasm dripping from  his voice.

Grey put his phone down. “Let’s stop fighting and deal with the door for right now. We might be able to break it if we work together.”

Rosie watched the men strip and shift form, knowing that the less damage they did to their clothes the better it would be in the future and maintaining the corrective magic involved in their suits. There was something about seeing them both naked again that pulled at her loins. The problem with that was the fact that she didn’t know which man called out those desires in her more. She exhaled sharply and took a place on the single bunk, hoping to stay enough out of the way to avoid getting hurt.

Grey’s bones started to pop and rearrange while Kevin’s hair started to grow. It was strange to watch two different types of shifters change side by side. It was the first time she realized exactly how different the process was between a lion and a wolf. They seemed to go through the same steps, but in a different order. Kevin grew the hair first, while Grey’s body shape shifted first. It seemed strange, but both men looked like they were in pain. She knew that it didn’t actually hurt as much as it was uncomfortable; at least that’s what the shifters she had talked to about it had always told her. She backed away. It wasn’t a large cell, only ten by ten, which didn’t give her much room to get out of the way as the men that she was with got larger. They started to tear at the door, ripping and angry with every motion that they made, but it didn’t seem to be working very well.

She knew it wasn’t going to work, but there was no use trying to reason with a couple of grumpy shifters. She let them try for what felt like hours, but when she checked her phone it was actually closer to five minutes. The men shifted back and recovered themselves in their cheap suits that almost screamed FBI. “That didn’t work. What else can we try?” Rosie asked, trying to relax a tense situation with a smile.

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about these cells.” Grey dropped his head.

“Yeah, you don’t know how to get out of things, but you sure know how to get into them.” Kevin snapped at the wolf, his nerves frayed.

“That isn’t going to help anything.” Rosie stepped up and tried to wedge herself between them. “We need to handle this the right way.” She was ready to take charge. “They’re going to come and check out the cell within the next few hours. We should be fine waiting until then. We don’t want to damage the prison and risk letting more prisoners out. Let’s just stay calm and we’ll be just fine. I promise.” It was a long tirade of security and truth, but the fact that if the prison went on lock-down they might not be found for hours was something that she didn’t want to bring up.

Chapter8

The wait was nearly unbearable and the men kept staring at each other. It was obvious that the breaches  of trust had been too great to bear and that the partnership was already over. I couldn’t help but sigh and hope that a full-fledged fight didn’t break out right in front of me. It was a nightmare and I didn’t want to be trapped in it anymore. I kept squeezing my eyes shut and opening them again, hoping that this would end, but every time I opened my eyes I was still in the same room, sitting between two shifters who would randomly growl at each other, constantly watching and waiting for the other one to start a fight. I just hugged my knees and tried to keep my body between them, even if that meant that I was sitting on the floor. I wouldn’t be much more than a tripping hazard if they decided to fight, but a fight in here would probably kill me anyway.

“How long have we been waiting?” Grey picked up his phone, the only thing he was really able to do was check the time. “It’s only been an hour, damn it. When are they going to notice we’re missing?” He was restless, but there wasn’t enough space in the ten by ten cell to pace.

Kevin grunted. “They probably think that we broke him out. They aren’t looking for us in the prison.” His words had an edge of anger behind them. “They’ll find us eventually, then we’ll have to try to get out of this.”“If we just stay calm I’m sure they’ll find us.” Rosie rose from her seat on the floor. She had no idea how she was going to keep the two caged animals calm, but there had to be a way. “The last thing that we need to do is start fighting among ourselves.”

“We should write down every detail that we can remember.” Grey suggested it, knowing that he didn’t want a fight any more than Rosie did. From the look on Kevin’s face, however, avoiding a fist fight might not be possible. Kevin, looked like he was ready to destroy something. It was obvious that the man didn’t care what anyone there thought about him.

“That’s an excellent idea.” Rosie hated the fact that she was starting to sound like a teacher. If felt like she was standing between two children trying to find anything that would distract them from the coming fight. “Let’s start to work on that. I’ve got paper and pencil.” She pulled out her small bag that she carried everywhere. It carried the basic tools of her trade, pencils, paper, cameras and other various tidbits that she would find useful on occasion. They had carefully searched it and had taken out several things that could be considered weapons, but a great portion of her necessary equipment stayed with her. She knew that she had to do something to keep this from getting out of control. She ripped off a piece of paper for each trapped individual and passed out pens and pencils, of which she kept extra in her little bag.

“Why do you keep this stuff?” Grey asked, trying to bring the subject to avoid the tension that had fallen between the partners, over the woman who was in the room that they were all trapped in. They could still hear alarms ringing outside. Someone had figured out that there was someone missing and they had thrown the entire jail into lock down until they could make sure that everyone was secure. They would probably be making sure to check out everything.

“You never know when you’re going to need it. Sometimes just giving someone a pen or pencil at the right time can give you the information that you need. It gives me conversation starters and if I lose one I always have another to take notes.”  They wrote in silence, using the walls as solid surfaces. There wasn’t much else that they could use.

“Done.” Kevin’s voice was gruff; it was obvious that he wasn’t much calmer even after the distraction. His emotions were still raw and bleeding and it came out in his voice. “I don’t see why we had to do that.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked pointedly at the werewolf in the room.

“OK, is there anything else that we can do?” Rosie asked the men, hoping to keep them occupied enough for someone to find them.

“Ummm, I can’t think of anything.” Grey was purposefully trying to avoid the lion’s gaze, but the room was so small that it was almost impossible as they moved around.

“OK, then, let’s play a game.” Rosie’s mind raced. She couldn’t think of a game so she let the idea settle in the air, trying to defuse a loaded bomb.

It took almost a minute to get a response to her suggestion, but it wasn’t anywhere close to being pleasant. “I have an idea for a game.” Kevin’s voice was a low growl. “Let’s play twenty questions.”

“Ummm, that seems like a loaded game. Let’s try not to start a fight.” Rosie didn’t have any pleasant way to say it. She looked at Kevin and smiled, but it pained her. His presence still made her pretty uncomfortable, but she put up with it, knowing that it wasn’t his fault.

“I want to play. I want to know why.” He looked at Grey.

Grey looked down at his feet. His toe was tracing figure eights on the ground. “I can’t give you a good reason. I don’t know what came over me.”

“Hey, it was my choice.” Rosie butted it, but they both ignored her. She wanted to stand up for herself, tell them that she had a say in this as well and that she was as much to blame as the men that were about to fight over her.

“Why would you do that to me?” Kevin’s face grew red and flushed. “How could you betray me like that again?”

Grey didn’t answer; he just looked down at his feet. The truth was that Kevin wasn’t saying anything to him that he didn’t say to himself. Rosie responded instead. “I’m a grown ass woman. I can make my own choices. This was as much my fault as it was his.”

“This isn’t any of your business.” Kevin snapped at her. His eyes only traveled to her for a moment.

“Hey, you back off. This is between you and me. You don’t have the right to talk to her like that.” Grey’s head snapped up and he stepped forward. His eyes flashed red.

“Maybe you should keep your hands to yourself.” Kevin’s words were threatening and mean. There was liquid hate filling his voice.

“Maybe you should learn how to forgive. You’ve been taken as badly as I was and she doesn’t trust you anymore.”

Rosie stepped up, slipping her body into the tiny space between the two. The room wasn’t that big to begin with, but it just seemed to be getting smaller and smaller as time went by. “Stop it! Just stop it! You two can fight this out later, but for right now we have to focus. This is what Ysella and Alfi were trying to do, and you don’t care. They want this to happen. That’s why they used you like they did.” She looked at Kevin, knowing that he was the one whose anger was starting to get out of control.

It was in that moment that the miracle happened. They heard the door start to creak open. Everyone looked up, completely distracted from the fight that was about to happen. Rosie couldn’t even express how happy she was when she heard the guard start to talk. “There you are.” One of the guards noted. “What happened here?”

At first, the responses were a rush of words. Everyone in the room was eager to have their piece heard. The guard who found them quieted them with a well-placed motion and started asking questions one by one. It wasn’t easy to answer all of the questions that needed to be answered, but they got there and were eventually released, having assured every person in the jail that they weren’t purposefully involved in the escape. 

*

I had never in my life been so glad to be home. Everything seemed to be going so poorly. Alfi had indeed escaped and his sister used us to make that happen. That didn’t matter in that moment. It didn’t matter that I had to listen to the director yell at us over the phone for almost an hour before I had a chance to respond and defend myself. None of that mattered. I was home, and I couldn’t be happier for it. Hope met me at the airport and she drove me home, eager to hear every detail. I was happy that she was starting to recover, but she wasn’t quite there yet. She still needed to finish dealing with the issues involved with finding a dead body on the front step of her job. This hasn’t been a great adventure, but what I do know is that our part in this is probably over.

The office was filled with the same familiar sights as always. “Home at last.” Rosie flopped into one of the large puffy chairs that she had recently replaced in her reception area. Hope wasn’t there, mostly because she didn’t feel ready for it yet, but she was able to do most of her job telecommuting from home. In fact the only thing that woman couldn’t do from home was screen people coming into the office. There was no line of defense between the random people who walk in off the street and the private detective. It had been a few years since she had operated this way, but she figured that she could get a handle on it.

Climbing out of the chair, slowly and with aching muscles from stress,  she walked back into her office, leaving the door open so that she could see anyone that happened to walk in, and went to her desk to try to get some work done. She groaned with frustration when she noticed all of the paperwork that she had to catch up on. There was so much to do and she just didn’t know how she was going to do it all. She started through it, trying to hurry her way  as much as possible when she heard the jangle of the door. Looking up she squinted against the light, noticing that the still-steaming  partners had entered her office. She gathered up her paperwork and motioned the men back to meet her. “Have you found anything out?”

Kevin looked at her. She could tell that he was still bothered by the events involved in and surrounding this case,  and the interactions of the people who were dealing with it. “Not yet.”

Rosie looked down at the papers in front of her, carefully thinking about her next words. “I’m pretty sure that they left town.”

“I think so too, but I’d like to know for sure before I pass this off to someone else.” Grey intoned, carefully glancing at Kevin as he spoke.

“I would like that, but somehow I’ve got a terrible feeling about all of this.” Rosie noticed that the men seemed to be closer to speaking terms already and she was pretty sure that they had found an opportunity to talk about the problems that they were facing. It wasn’t going to be easy, but it had to be done if the FBI’s dream team was going to get back on track. She hoped that the men weren’t above dealing with this in a professional manner.

Grey rubbed his fist with an open hand. It was still sore, even though it had been a day since the men had worked out their issue. Neither man had won, but they did seem to be feeling a little better, having fought out the frustration of being in love with the same woman. “It doesn’t feel right, letting them get away with everything they’ve done.”

“I know, but I don’t see much other choice. I’m not flying around the world trying to find them, and my only source that was willing to tell me anything about them is dead.” Rosie pushed her hair behind her ear. She tried to look contemplative, but in reality, she was just as frustrated as the rest of them.

“I’m just glad that we can pass this off.” Kevin was lying, but no one called him on it. This case would haunt all of them for the rest of their lives and there wasn’t much that they could do about it.

“You guys hungry? I could order something.” Rosie offered.

“I could eat.” Grey smiled weakly, he was still thinking about what Alfi and Ysella had gotten away with. “What do ya’ll want?”

“I don’t know.” Kevin answered his mind still a million miles away. He had spent the morning trying to do all of the paperwork required from a case that had become the most complicated of his career. “I’m gonna go, I’ve got more paperwork to take care of.” He shuffled  his way out of the office, carefully checking the door before he left. 

Grey cleared his throat. It was obvious that he was nervous. “Are you still going to be staying at my place?”

“I think I am. I have to go pick up some stuff from my place first,  though.” She needed another outfit. The night before had been uncomfortable in the worst way, but she still felt a little safer there than she would have sleeping alone at her house.

“I’ll give you a ride. I know that you aren’t using your car right now.”

“They took it into evidence cuz they think that I was transported in it.” Rosie shrugged. “I feel like I’ve been living in cabs and I don’t know what they expect to find in there.”

“This should be a little easier on your wallet then.” He grinned and held the door open for her. They went outside. It didn’t take her long to get what she needed from her apartment, but it was still a little nerve-wracking to even be in the place. He carried her small bag to the car and they drove a mile or so to his place. The entire time, Rosie was staring out of the window, waiting carefully for the right things to say, a way to express her gratitude because he had opened up his home to her.

They arrived and nothing had changed. The apartment looked untouched, but still they checked every room, searching for someone who had hidden themselves or anything else in the apartment. They found nothing and she headed for the kitchen, but the fridge and cupboard were bare. Turning around she ended up face to face with Grey. “Hey.” The word came out as a surprised stutter.

“Hi, find anything good?” He asked, trying to ignore the closeness in the tiny kitchen.

“Same thing that I found last night.”

“Ah, so we’re having nothing with a side of nothing, right?”

“That sounds like it’s about it.” Rosie smiled at the joke. The man had made her life a little easier since she had met him. Kevin was more mysterious, but he was also a moody man who could get very frustrated and quiet when things didn’t go his way. Grey was open and kind, with a more outgoing personality, but he used his humor to keep people at a distance. She would have been happy if they could have taken the good half of each man and sewn it together into the perfect date.