Alpha Divided

I had nightmares all night long. They plagued me.

Images of death. Destruction. My friends suffering.

But that wasn't the worst of it. Not by far. The worst were the images of Dastien cheating on me with Imogene.

Those had me waking up crying. Even when I was awake, knowing it was a dream, my heart still felt broken. The hurt lingerec I couldn't shake it.

After that, I gave up on sleeping around five in the morning, and spent the rest of the time thinking about what I was going t do.

I had a plan in place and breakfast cooked by the time Claudia came down. I just had to convince her to go along with it.

As soon as Claudia was on her second cup of coffee, I decided it was time. I want to go to the schoolhouse today. It's the bes place to meet people.

Claudia set her mug down. Luciana said you weren't allowed.

I gave her a stare that said I really don't give a f**k.

She's not going to like it, and more importantly, I don't think anyone's going to be friendly. Not in that setting.

I have to try. Otherwise, I say screw the whole coven, let's grab who we can and run.

She looked at the ceiling for a second, and I imagined her praying for patience. There's a lesson in an hour. I guess we could say that you need to learn whatever it is that they're teaching. I'll leave it up to you to figure out the rest. Claudia took a dainty bite of egg.

I gulped down half a glass of orange juice as I tried to come up with how to ask my next question, but I didn't see any easy way around it. If this goes bad, would you fight against me or for me?

She set her fork down. What do you mean?

I mean, say Luciana wants to fight regardless of anything we do. Whose side are you on? Can you fight against your own coven?

She blew out a big breath. In some ways being part of the coven is easier than having your pack bond and in other ways it's harder.

That gave me nothing. How so?

Well, from what I hear, your pack bonds can be a bit on the invasive side. You can borrow power from each other, but you ca also see too much of each other.

Pretty spot on for someone who wasn't in the pack. I'd used the packs power to help break Meredith's spell, and I got a headful of Dastien's emotions on a daily basis. Yeah. So, the harder?

She pushed her plate away. I don't have to obey an alpha like you do, but there are consequences for going against the coven. For trying to break away.

What kind of consequences?

I could lose myself. My soul. It could kill me.

This was way more complicated than I'd thought. Right. So, extreme measures have to be taken. That made me wonder... Hoy did your mom get away?

Claudia fidgeted a little.

It was probably rude for me to ask, but I had to. If my aunt could leave, then so could Claudia.

I promised to stay and help Luciana if she'd let my mother go.

And your mom let you do that?

She didn't know. I can enhance people's abilities and Luciana would never say no to more power. I told her I'd stay, take the vow, and help her if my mom was allowed to leave. I started to speak but she cut me off. it was dumb, but my mom needed to go. If she didn't, it was going to be bad. She and Luciana were fighting every day and Luciana's patience had run out. I was scared for her. So, I did it. And Raphael stayed to help me. He's the only one that knows.

That was a huge sacrifice she'd made for her mother. So, what were you going to do? You can't want to stay here.

And be her pawn? No. I don't want to be here. I don't know who I am or what I want, but it's not this. She met my gaze. My plan was to find you. You were our only hope. If you can't fix this, we're all lost. And to some of the people in the coven, she shrugged, maybe that's okay. They're fine with what they're doing. They think they're right and that witches are better than both wolves and humans. Plus, we have so much more reason to want revenge. The wolves were never persecuted like we were. We burned, and for some hiding here, it still chafes.

So what happens if you were to come with me? Stay with the pack?

I don't think anything would happen. At least not while you were alive. Luciana wouldn't dare. And I'm pretty sure that with your abilities we could find a way to break the curse without the unfortunate side effects.

Yeah. I didn’t want to try that unless it was really necessary. Those side effects were pretty extreme.

Istood to put my plate into the sink and dropped it on the floor. I winced as it rattled, but didn't break.

That unbreakable spell is really handy, Claudia said.

No kidding. I picked up the plate. Let's find out who's chafing. It can't be just a handful of you. There's got to be more. I'l offer my protection. I'll fight for you. But you have to take the first step.

She nodded. That's all we can ask for. She glanced at the clock. Class starts in an hour.

Enough time for me to clean this up and figure out a plan. Good. I'll be ready.

She got up and went upstairs.

I was almost done with the dishes when Raphael came down. You coming to the schoolhouse with us?

He nodded. Someone's got to look out for you two.

I wiped off my hands and hung the dishtowel over the edge of the sink. Tell me this—waste of time or no?

Eh, we'll see.

What's your story? You have powers? A specialty?

I'm good at defensive stuff. Claudia enhances others’ abilities.

And Daniel?

He shoved his hands into his shorts pockets. Much to his mother's disappointment, he's got a little of everything, and not much of anything.

Poor Daniel. Every time I learned something new about him, I felt worse. Right. I bet that frustrates her.

Yup. That's why she was so ready for you to marry him. Gain some power that way.

Yeah, I'm not sure it works that way. Moot point anyhow.

Claudia came downstairs. She was dressed in her usual peasant shirt and cut off skirt. Both the twins always wore a pair of worn-in brown leather flip-flops. Claudia's thick, nearly black hair was separated into two braids. Let's do this.

I stumbled as I walked, but Raphael caught me.

You okay?

Yeah. Sorry. I don't know what happened. Apparently, I'm dropping things and tripping over my own feet today.

Give yourself a break, Claudia said. You didn't get much sleep.

I was tired, but it wasn't that. Or it wasn't just that. My limbs felt like lead. They were heavy. Like I was moving through sludge. But I wasn't dizzy.

Claudia was right. It was exhaustion. I'd been through a major emotional upheaval the past couple of weeks and it wasn't going to get any better any time soon. It was weighing on me. That was all.

The schoolhouse looked prettier during the day. It had a large porch on the front and the wood was painted a bright white that gleamed in the sun. Large windows let a ton of light into the main room, which was filled with tables. Kids worked in groups of threes. A few older ladies walked around, pointing and making comments.

Follow me, Claudia said.

I did, and Raphael took up the rear.

Claudia didn't knock. She just walked in. Everyone stopped.

One of the women rushed to the front. She was wearing a pair of wide-leg jeans and a flowing top with a paisley print. Her hair was fully gray, but it hung long and wavy down her back. Claudia. Raphael. You know that Luciana doesn't want her here with the other students. The woman moved toward us with her hands out, as if to say we shouldn't go any farther.

I understand that, but Daniel has been having trouble teaching her a few things, and we thought it'd be best to bring her here. She needs to learn, and what better way than how I did? Claudia gave her a brilliant grin.

Whoa. Way to throw the guy under the bus, Claudia. But it was working. The lady had stopped trying to herd us back toward the door.

The lady rubbed her hands along the front of her jeans. Yes, well...

Look, I don't want to put anyone out, but I've been kind of hiding in their house, and I'm going a little crazy. The learning isn going well, and I just want to meet some more people. If this is my coven, then shouldn't that be normal?

Yes, but you're not... mean...it's just that Luciana—

Why don't we just let her try a little bit? Claudia asked in a voice that was so sweet it was almost sickening. If she wasn't meant to be here—if it wasn't good for our coven—wouldn't Luciana be here already?

That stopped her. I..Yes, of course. That's very wise of you, Claudia.

Way to go, Claudia. I spotted Cosette and Elsa at a table in the back of the room. Daniel and Shane were in the back, too. I wondered if Daniel would be pissed at Claudia, but he gave her a thumbs-up.

I'm sorry for being less than welcoming, the older woman said. I'm Mary. If you find a spot, maybe with... She looked around the room. With Cosette and Elsa. Then we can continue on our lesson. We're working on a spell for spiritual healing. Spiritual healing? Trying not to roll my eyes took way more effort than it should've. I walked around the room and took a spot.

If I made it through this class without being completely condescending, itd be a miracle.

Spiritual healing? Were they serious? No wonder Luciana had them all under her thumb. They didn't know how to do anything. At least Daniel had gone straight to protection spells to keep anyone from messing with me or my things.

This was going to be a long day. I hoped it was worth it.

To put it nicely, I wasn't going to be healing anyone anytime soon. Thank God that wasn't why people were coming to me for help. Nope. I was just supposed to fix the whole coven.

I cleaned up the ingredients we'd used in the potion—placing the unused stuff into their labeled jars and burning all the od leftover bits in one giant cauldron that had been “tainted’ by the day's work. As I stepped away from the table to leave, a girl got in my face.

You're not welcome here. Don't come back to the schoolhouse. Her black hair was pin-straight. It fell in a sheet down her back. Her eyes were a little too far apart and her nose a little too hawked to ever allow her to be called pretty.

I'm supposedly part of this coven. I'm here to help, I said.

We don't need your help. You're wasting your time.

Then why did Luciana drag me here? I'm happy to go home.

As soon as she grinned, I knew she knew something about it. Don't worry about that. After the month is done, we don't ever want to see you again.

The rest of the class had gathered around her. Besides the people I knew, only the one old lady and two others stood off to the side, looking awkward. The rest looked as angry and put out as this girl did.

Right. So I do my time, and then I go home.

If you're still around by then...

still around? That sounds a lot like a threat. Are you insinuating that my safety is in danger while 'm here?

You're the precog. Shouldn't you be able to answer that? A few people laughed.

It was surreal. I'd been made fun of a lot in my life. This scene wasn't anything new to me. In fact, it was almost tame. I'd been slammed into lockers. Beaten. Accosted. Had a few unwelcome guys try to grab me. Kiss me. Worse. But this?

It was safe to say that I'd never been bullied or made fun of because I couldn't see enough. From experience, I knew that the best reaction was to not react. So I forced myself to keep breathing.

I've seen enough. I know what's to come, and I'm not the one who should be worried right now. I moved toward her. Excuse me, I said keeping firm eye contact. I'm leaving now.

She looked away and stepped back. Bitch, she muttered as I walked past.

Don't worry. I've been called much more creative things. I could hear footsteps behind me, and took a deep breath in. from the scent, my cousins, Cosette, and Elsa were following me. I wasn't sure what Shane and Daniel were up to, but I wasn't turning around to find out.

Well, that went just about as well as could be expected, Claudia said, breaking the silence when we were halfway to her house.

It wasn't so bad, I said.

What do you mean? Cosette said.

Yeah, those people sucked, but did you notice the ones along the sidelines?

Beth, Tiffany, and Yvonne. Yes. I noticed, Raphael said.

They'll be in with us. So, that's more than I had this morning. The rest seem like a total lost cause. I'm assuming most of the adults who disagreed with Luciana found a way to leave—like your parents, Mom, and Tia Rosa—and the rest here are complacent.

Yes, Claudia said.

I blew out a breath. Well, it wasn't a total waste. We'd learned some good stuff. Maybe not all of it was actually good good, but knowing was half the battle.

Claudia called Mom from Luciana's house about getting more food and Mom promised to come by tomorrow with a truckload.

Until then, I needed to get a game plan. Those dreams were still haunting me. I needed to find out how to make sure none o “my nightmares came to pass.