Behind The Alpha Book 2 WES

WES

My scream reaches across the sky as I try my hardest to stay on. “Oh…fuck…Damn!”

I look down and the world is so far away. Her four wings beat so fast you can barely see them. The buzzing is deafening and the wind threatens to rip me off.

“THEA! SLOW DOWN!!” I yell to her. I wobble as she makes sharp, insect turns and twists. “Whoa!...I think I’m gonna be sick...” I groan as my stomach turns over.

A screech is heard from behind me. I turn back to see a falcon coming up fast. “IS THAT NALA?!”

Her dragonfly spins around and flies backwards. She turns back around and drops back a bit.

“Please, let it be Nala.” I mutter. I don’t want Thea getting into an areal combat situation while I’m on her back.

The falcon dips and falls inline beside us. It turns its head and squawks. I throw her a very nervous thumbs up.

She flies ahead and we line up behind her.

Within the hour, Phoenix was underneath us.

Nala screeches loud as she circles the unit and approaches the helipad for a landing.

Thea does the same.

She lands and I jump off. My stomach is all kind of queasy. I roll down to my back and flop my legs and arms out on the tarmac. I raise a finger in the air. “We are taking the helicopter back!” I growl as I drop my arm down again. “This is why I’m a wolf. Ugh…”

Thea giggles and stands over me. “Get up.”

“Can’t. I’ll puke if it do.” I groan.

“Come on, hombre. It’ll wear off as you walk.”

“Jesse?” I say as he grabs my tank collar and lifts me up to my feet. I rub my gut as I hang on to him.

“In the flesh. Now, let’s get to my sister.” He slaps my back and we walk to the doors.

I link Zander and Ricky and they meet us in the science hallway.

“Wes! Give me a hug, hard stuff.” Ricky grins.

She hugs me tight. “Hey, Rick.”

“Where’s the other half?” She asks.

I look to Thea. “There…um…There wasn’t enough room?” I cough and chuckle.

She flips her head to Thea. “Is this Thea?”

Thea nods. “Yes.” She smiles.

“I’ve heard so much about you!. Oh my god. If I could turn invisible, I would have had so much more fun with the king!” She laughs and wraps an arm around Theas shoulder.

“Thank God you can’t! You give me enough of a headache when I can see you!” Zander yells from the beside me as we walk into the unit.

Ricky leans her head over her shoulder. “That’s the point, Mr. Easily annoyed.” She winks and grins at him.

He presses his lips together. “I swear. She gets worse every year.” He grumbles.

“Yeah, but you love her.” I grin.

“I do. I don’t know why, but I’d behead all of Europe for her.” He nods.

“Where’s Nala? Shouldn’t she be here?” I ask.

He shrugs. “Don’t know. She said she had some pack business to take care of. Who’s this guy?”

“Jesse. Theas brother. He’s a good guy. He’s saved us a few times. Apparently, he’s been missing for 130 years.” I tell him.

He looks to Jesse’s back and narrows his eyes. “I see.” He says.

Ricky leads us to the council room. The Alphas are all standing on opposite sides of the room as Dieti sits in one of the chairs soaking wet.

“Dieti.” Thea breaths as she takes big steps to her.

“Thea! Oh my god!” She starts to cry and grabs at her sister. Her blonde hair falls in wet locks around Thea and her milky white skin flushes pink as she sobs.

“Dieti. What happened? Where’s Titus?” Jesse’s furrows his brow.

She pushes Thea back and wipes her eyes. “Artemis attacked me in the ocean. Titus' navy was no match. I barely got away with my life. He cut me with the Reaper. I swam as fast as I could to the pool. It was close, but I got there."

“Your oyster?” Thea asks.

“It’s safe. He won’t find it.”

Jesse points a finger in her face. “You need the shore, Dieti. He won’t attack if Titus is around.”

“I’m not leaving my sea.” She crosses her arms and scowls, looking at him up and down. “No. I refuse to abandon my element just because of our father.”

“He almost killed you, Dieti! Get on land and stay put!” Jesse demands.

She steps into his space. Her eyes flash aqua blue. “You, dear brother, have no say in this. We've fended for ourselves, honorably. Can you say the same?”

“The only reason he didn’t come after you while y’all were off fending for yourselves, was because he distracted himself by beating the shit out of my ass all day, every day. When I got big and left, that’s when he came after you. As far as I’m concerned, I gave you all a fucking head start with my blood, pain and skin.” He snarls his lip and glares into her eyes. Dieti narrows her eyes and sends the same message of hatred back.

“Dieti please. Please don’t fight.” Thea steps in front of her sister who’s a good six inches taller.

He stabs his hair. “You best know who you’re dealing with, Dieti. You don’t want to get on my bad side.” He warns.

“Oh, I know, Ghost. You better remember that just because you’re a skin walker doesn’t mean that I can’t drain your life essence from your pathetic, cowardly body.” Dieti grits.

“Enough!” I yell and step between them. “Look. This is getting us nowhere. Now. I sense there’s family tension here…”

“Ha! Family.” Dieti flips her long blonde hair.

“Dieti. Shush. Please.” Thea says.

“Hey…um…I hate to interrupt”

We turn to Darcy who's leaning his hands on the table. “Can we sit down. This whole thing you guys got is messing with my Chakra.”

Peter turns to him and arches a brow. “Chakra?”

“That’s right.” He stands and crosses his arms. “Sam says I need more grounding then the boys will respect me more, so I’m taking yoga classes.”

“Need more than yoga for that.” Ash snorts.

Darcy narrows his eyes and whips his head to him while ash leans on the wall. “My boys love me, alright. It’s just a time of power struggle. I’m trying to be the bigger Alpha.”

The room snickers and chuckles.

“You guys don’t get it.” Darcy shakes his head and sits in his chair.

“Ok. Let’s all just relax.” Jake says. He sits in his chair as Owen takes the podium.

“Ok.” Owen starts. “I understand you needed help Dieti. What could we do that Titus can’t?”

“Our father will go through the elements. Thea. Magda is here. She left her volcano to hide in the mountains. He will try for her next. We need to get to her and get her to safety.” Dieti looks to Thea.

“Sister. She’s deep underground. We can’t get to her. How can father do it?” Thea leans on the table.

“Raw diamonds. A lot of them. Magda sees these as seeds she can grow her element. You lure her to the surface. Her instinct is to gather these. She can sense them for miles.” Dieti looks around the table.

“Yeah and when she figures it’s a trap, she torches your face. Just leave her alone and head Artemis off at the pass.” Jesse says, rocking in his chair.

“She’s not that bad, Jesse. She’s calmed down…a bit.” Thea says.

I lean to her. “She…Um…Really torches your face?”

Thea shakes her head. “She has a slight problem keeping her emotions in control…it’s fine. She’s not as scary as Jesse’s making her out to be.”

“Sweet Pea. She makes Hades look tame, alright. Don’t sugar coat it.” Jesse shakes his head.

Owen looks around the table. “So, is this plan? Lure lava girl out and what? Convince her we can keep her safer here?”

Dieti nods. “The reason myself, Nala and for the most part, Thea were free from Artemis' attacks was because of the Kings and the soldiers. If we can get my sisters here and contained, Artemis cannot find the elemental anchors he needs to finish his plan.”

“What is his plan exactly?” Jake asks.

She sighs. “He wants our mother brought back. He can only do that when all six of us are dead. We become detached from our elemental anchors. He’s then free to take them, collect them and combine them to reform our mother.”

I turn to Jesse. “What about you?”

He shakes his head. “I was born a man. Nymphs are born women. I missed out on the blessing of my mothers magic and my father reminded me of that daily.” He ticks the corner of his lip up quick. He glances at me and then back down at his hands on his chest.

“Jesse. Stop.” Thea whispers.

“Ok. Ok.” He waves her off as he grumbles.

Owen turns and leans his elbow on the podium. “Does the monarchy care to help us with this?”

Zander leans back. “Why do you guys always look at me?”

Sawyer snorts, “Do we all look like the type to carry raw diamonds?” He motions around the table.

Ricky leans to him. “You won’t win. You might as well get your stash.”

He shakes his head. “Fine.” He stands up and dips his hand into his Jean pocket and throws a black baggie on the table. “Any more than that, and I’m going to have to question whether, I’m being used or not.”

“Dude.” Brody snatches the baggie with his brow up. He opens it. “No way.” He looks wide eyed at Zander.

“Gimme that.” Jake snatches the bag and pours out the diamonds. “What?!” He scrunches his face.

Zander sits down. “What? It’s my emergency stash.”

“Emergency?” Darcy leans on the table. “From what?”

“You know. Dragon attacks. Angry mobs…Her.” He thumbs his finger over his shoulder to Ricky.

“Ha ha. You really want the couch again don’t you.” She scowls.

“I’m just joking.” He kisses her. “Besides I just gave my hotel money away.”

Ricky slaps his arm and he cackles while he flinches away from her.

Zander puts up his hands. “Ok. Is that suitable for bait?”

“Yes. It will do. She will need suitable housing.” Dieti says.

“Ok, we got rooms here…” Owen says.

Dieti shakes her head. “No. She needs a tank of molten rock.”

“Excuse me?” Jake asks.

“Not a whole tank. Just a pool of lava and a rock she can sleep on.” Thea corrects.

I chuckle. “Thea. We can’t just contain lava. That’s crazy…”

“Not so crazy. We have the material that we developed for the Vampire armor. I bet that could hold a tank.” Ricky says.

“What about the others?” Dieti says.

Ricky scratches her temple. “We…will…figure it out when the time comes.” She smiles.

Thea looks to her sister. “Can you survive in the pool?”

Dieti nods. “I believe so, yes.”

“Ok.”

I put my arm around Thea. “Let’s get your sister’s.”

Jesse rubs his forehead. “I hope you people know what your doin'.”

“Yeah. We’re a step ahead of Artemis.” I tell him.

“Naw. Ya just leading the snake to the feast. Gift wrappin’ the ladies to him. Ya leave ‘em be and go after him.” Jesse crosses arms.

I turn to him. “We tried that, Jesse and got our asses handed to us. At least here, we got weapons and more manpower protection.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.” He grumbles and stands. “I need a beer.”

He walks out of the council room.

Thea hugs my arm. “I believe it’s a good plan.”

I kiss her head.

I hope it is because if it’s not, we all might be in a world of hurt.