Alpha Rising

Chapter 2

My mouth was dry as I scanned him desperately. It couldn't be.

He seemed to be in the same shock, his dark eyes wide open. Tommy looked older, more worn. I nearly choked on the feeling of missing him, the lump in my throat rising as I tried to summon words. My poor baby, what had they done to him?

"Tommy I—" I tried to speak.

He cut me off swiftly, holding me in his arms, his height lifted me up off my feet. He swung me gently as he nuzzled my neck. I could only cling to him in sheer amazement. I genuinely was out of words.

"Sweetheart, I looked for you everywhere. Where have you been?" His chest rumbled with each word and I felt the homesickness wash over me in waves. I held back a sob. I didn't even know I could feel this kind of strange despair.

My Tommy, the last time I had seen him, he hadn't been quite so built. Back then Tommy had worked out like he was preparing for the end of the world but yet he retained some cushion. He used to joke that he was a little pudgy so he could be my personal pillow. Now, I could feel his muscles rippling through the fabric of his clothes. I held him tightly, praying and hoping this wasn't a dream. He smelled the same, pinecones and pheromones and rain drops on trees. Everything else felt wrong.

I swallowed as he put me down to examine me more closely. I couldn't quite look him in the eye. Everything had changed. Tommy was one of them.

His gaze must have landed on my cuffs, and he nodded to the guards around me, his eyes glazing over in a telepathic message to free me. They unlocked my chains and I rubbed my wrists still trying to piece the story together.

He firmly but gently took ahold of my chin and brought my head up to look at him. I looked at Tommy and gasped. His eyes had the slightest red ring around them, a tell tale sign of an alpha. He was a born wolf. How had I not known?

On the other hand, his eyes softened when they set sight on me. He looked distraught like he wasn't able to believe what he was seeing. I couldn't blame him, I was in the same position.

"Tommy I—" My voice was scratchy from disuse, "Where have you been? I was looking—" I couldn't finish, ending my sentence in a sob.

I felt embarrassed for crying like a child, but this was all too much for me to comprehend. Life after the supernatural had taken so much from me. My whole mission to break laws and defy the pack survived on the pain that festered inside of me after he had been taken from me. The tears rolled down my face as I blinked and tried to keep some semblance of composure.

His reaction didn't look too far from what I was feeling inside—a gut-punch.

"The baby," he said softly.

I shook my head. It was gone. Long gone.

In truth, that had probably been for the best. Times were hard for humans. Another mouth to feed and a child running loose wasn't a good thing to have. It burned me up but there weren't many options. I made my own funeral for the baby but the idea of what could have been haunted me still. 

Another thought plagued me further. How had I not known about him?

Tommy and I had met in college, we bumped into each other at a frat party and hit it off immediately. I had just turned 21 and somehow still I knew within weeks that this was the man for me.

I had held onto my vodka cranberry like a lifeline pushing through the sprawl of gyrating bodies. I felt like a sardine and just wanted to get out to the balcony for some fresh air and maybe a drunk ciggy. Impatiently I began to shove my way forward and the inevitable happened. I crashed into a hard body and spilled my drunk absolutely everywhere.