Alpha's Moon

Chapter 32

"How does this make sense?" Gabriel turned on Bertie, "Why didn't she forget? What the hell went wrong?"

"There must have been a mistake," Theo also looked at the professor, "Did you administer the wrong dose?"

"Of course not," Bertie was the only one of the men who was not in dismay. If anything, he looked excited. "Calm now, hold on and give me a minute." He approached Alex, his voice gentle, "Ma'am, do you draw pain intentionally?"

Alex looked at Bertie with confusion. For a moment Gabriel thought she was not going to answer but then she shook her head in the negative.

"Right," Bertie said as if that was utterly expected.

She was drawing pain against her will? Gabriel didn't even try to process that for the moment, keeping his focus on Bertie's path of questioning.

"And Ma'am, do you posses any other special abilities?"

When Alex remained mute, Gabriel spoke up: "Her sense of smell is keener than mine and I can't read her."

"I can't gage her feelings either," Theo said slowly.

"Right." Bertie said again. He started playing his fingers against each other, the way he did whenever he was close to figuring out a particularly difficult problem. "What about superhuman strength or speed?"

What the hell was Bertie saying? "I told you she isn't one of us!" Gabriel growled in frustration.

"She isn't?" Bertie's brows rose up to his red spikes. "You're right, she's not one of us exactly. But, there is another possibility." His fingers suddenly stopped moving and his earrings jiggled as he peered at Alex: "Ma'am if I may be bold enough to ask, have you ever been bitten by a wolf?"

Bitten by a wolf? Gabriel was ready to throttle his scientist.

"Don't be absurd," Theo scoffed, "Humans can't survive what you're suggesting."

"Bertie, check the formula you used. There's obviously something wrong with it," Gabriel sighed, angry that they had messed things up so royally. They were going to have to give her another dose and judging by how the first one went, it was not going to be pretty. He was trying to think of a way to make things easier when Alex spoke.

"Yes."

Yes? Gabriel froze, his body refusing to move while his brain tried to accept what he had heard. She was saying she had been bitten?

"Yes?" Even Bertie looked startled that his stab in the dark had panned out.

"When?" Gabriel came out of his stupor and lowered himself to sit beside Alex. His hand reached for hers, then fell into his own lap when she twisted away. She was refusing to look at him. 

"Ma'am," Bertie tried. "Could you tell me when and where you were bitten?" 

"Ten years ago," she answered after a long moment of silence. She was looking only at Bertie, her voice emotionless: "Ten years ago, on my leg."

"That's impossible!" Theo shook his head, refusing to believe what this was starting to sound like. Gabriel couldn't believe it either. It had to be a mistake with the formula, that was the easiest explanation. 

"Ma'am would you mind if I take a look -" before Bertie could finish asking his question, Alex pulled at the material of her jumpsuit and twisted so the bite on the back of her calf was revealed.

Gabriel's heart skipped a beat as he looked at what was clearly a werewolf bite. It should be impossible and yet the evidence was in front of them: Alex was half-turned!

"Bloody hell!" Bertie said in awe. "This is incredible. This is amazing. Oh, wow! I need to run tests! This is historic!"

"Shut up!" Gabriel growled, his hands shaking as he looked down at the woman who sat watching them with narrowed eyes. How? How the hell had she survived?

"This is insane," Theo whispered, his eyes going from the mark to Gabriel. His cousin was horrified and with good reason. A transformation left halfway was pure torture. No human should have been able to survive it. And even if they did, to go through full moons half-turned...the pain would not have ended.

"What is going on?" Alex asked, of no one in particular. Her back was stiff, her jaw clenched as if she was trying to prepare herself for a blow. "What shouldn't be possible?"

Ten years. Ten fucking years, his Alex had been suffering and it was all the work of a werewolf. Of a bloody royal no less! His heart twisting with shame and rage, Gabriel reached out to stroke Alex's hair. "I will make this right."

She pulled away, looking at him through wary eyes. "What are you saying?"

Gabriel forced himself to smile to set her at ease. "You will not be in pain anymore, Alex. I'm going to fix everything, I promise."