Alpha's Choice

Beta's Match...Sneak Peak

Chapter 1

Xavier's POV

I crushed the message in my hand along with the remaining hope I had. There was still no sign of her. I was exhausted inside and out. Even though I didn’t want to admit the truth I knew it was time to give up and focus on other matters for now. The aching in my body and head had become so much a part of me I almost didn’t notice the constant pain. It hurt less than the betrayal. Xenobia.

I said it like a curse cast into the night for her to hear, but even if she did it wasn’t like she was responding. I wondered if I could have done anything differently to keep her here. I was crazed thinking of her and our child out there in hiding, from me. What if she chose to get rid of the child?

That idea haunted me the most. It was my darkest deepest worry. I just wanted her and this child, and however many more she was willing to give me. I wanted to tell her I loved her, and she if they didn’t change her. Was it possible to tame the wild she-wolf?

Taming wasn’t really what I wanted for her. I loved her fire and spirit. She was more alive in one strand of hair then most could strive for in their whole lives, and I had no idea how much a part of me she had become, until she was gone.

The message in my hand was in Xander hand. It was short and to the point, “Another vampire found and waiting in the dungeon, no signs of the woman.” I asked him not to rouse me from meditation, which was half of my exhaustion. Sleep only happened when I couldn’t go anymore. I ran pack duties, but all my available time I dream walked. It’s where I could sense her the most. It was how Xander found Alex.

Dream walking constantly without one’s mate was ill advised to say the least. I didn’t even have color left in my skin or eyes. I just looked grey. It was obvious that she didn’t care about me. She was just playing me, and I needed to give up looking for answers and vengeance.  This was even worse then when we were young. She led me on. She claimed me back. She made me a part of her and then immediately abandoned me. She couldn’t be feeling any better.

I had to stop dwelling on it. It was time to move on.  Especially since there was a demon in the basement that needed my attention. Ripping their heads from their bodies had become a nice way to vent my frustrations, but none had yet to give me any solid answers even under torture. I was beginning to wonder if Romulus had told any of his minions of his plans. Or do they just blindly followed orders while being starved, because each one we discovered looked like half-starved wraiths. Theirs was pitiful existence, especially now that Medi-Gene-X had shut its doors, while packs all over the globe opened their own versions of the company.

We had yet to discover what they were up to in the underground facility where Xander and Alex were kept, but their food source had to be dwindled down to almost nothing. Serums were flooding the market of all different brands. The serums pulled forward the bits of DNA that helped us to heal at an accelerated rate. It was fasted in Alpha’s of any kind, and Xander hadn’t just sold his secrets to the other wolf packs, but all the Alpha shifters. There were bears, tigers, dragons and more all in the pharmaceutical business now.

I made my way to the dungeon already tired of my own thoughts. Our cells and underground facilities weren’t made to protect prisoners from sunlight, so in a few hours this vampire was about to be having a very bad day. I just wanted to squeeze whatever bits of information I could out of him until sunrise.

Before I even made it down all the stairs, I could hear inhuman shrieks coming from the cellars. When I reached the doors, I saw Xander threatening a serum injection on the creature. He was rarely this aggressive. This one was female. She was taller and not as thin as the others. She had blond hair that looked dirty and possibly streaked with blood. There were some bruises on her face that were already healing, probably from Xander.

“What’s going on here?” I asked as I approached the scene. He had the female by the neck against the wall with a needle to her throat. “Going a little off the deep end for you today don’t you think?’

“This one was the female responsible for my capture. She as far as I know is one of Romulus’s right hands.” He shook her violently while her feet dangled off the ground.

“So what are we hoping to gain from her?”

“Anything!” He growled into her face. “And I would gladly settle for torture, especially by injection.”

“I’ll die before I’ll betray Romulus!” She spat back in Xander face. His face glossed over red, and I could see his composure dwindle to nothing in seconds.

“We have ways of making you talk, that we find rather fun. So please, continue not speaking.” I grinned at her hoping for the latter at this stage.

She was at least one of the one’s partially responsible, and she had to know something. Also, if Romulus was now sending his most dedicated soldiers, his hoard must be running very thin indeed. Unless the others were just too weak. This one had much to answer for before she would be allowed to die. “You’re going to die no matter what. It’s just a matter of whether we let you go peacefully or not.”

I saw a darkness cloud over her eyes turning them black all over and her fangs came forward. She lunged forward, testing Xander’s strength, but he held her fast to the wall. A lesser wolf may have succumbed to her strength she was no weakling wraith like the others.

“We got a live one this time, huh Xander?”

“Yes, I believe we do.” She struggled against his hand, kicking and wailing but Xander had a sinister gleam in his eyes that let me know she wouldn’t be going anywhere. It was almost a little disappointing. I wanted a piece of her too.

He slammed her by the neck hard into the wall. I heard a crack, and there was a gush of blood. Her hair became burgundy in places as the blood seeped through her hair from her head. It wouldn’t spread far before she started to heal.

“I think we should let hunger make her more reasonable. What do you say Alpha?” It was still strange hearing Xander call me that. It didn’t sit right, but for now it was my title to own. I’d worn it for show enough times, that it should feel comfortable, but it just didn’t.

Xander tossed her aside while she was still dazed and slammed the heavy metal door shut, with a heavy click of the lock. “Make it dark in here. I want her to survive daybreak for as long as we can get answers from her.” I ordered, and watched my men scramble around like piglets to comply as quickly as possible.

I turned my back to the vile creature and addressed Xander. “I think it’s time to pull the search parties back from Xenobia. If she wanted to be found she would have been by now.”

I started to walk away, when I heard that creatures sinister voice crack through the silence. “You’ll be lucky to find her corpse.” The way she spoke I knew she had more information and was something I was actually willing to kill for without warning.

“If you know something about her, it could be the difference of life and death for you. You should talk.”

“All I know is she came begging to Romulus for mercy a few weeks ago. I don’t know how she found him, but he had her beaten within an inch of her life. She’d be lucky to have survived.”

Emotions like rage and concern flooded every nerve in my body. Was Xenobia dead? Is that why I hadn’t heard from her? Was our child dead? I didn’t feel any truth to her words though. If Xenobia was dead, I would feel it right? And what the hell was she doing with Romulus yet again? “I want her questioned until she has nothing left to give up.” I responded to Xander.

The answers she gave me almost made me wish I still had none. I was sick on the inside considering all the possibilities. I escaped the dungeon unwilling to face the potential truths confronting me, and that foul creature’s laughter followed me up the stairs. I needed to escape. All the air went missing from my lungs and it took all my strength not to collapse onto the floor.

Instead I made it to my room and through myself into my bed. It still faintly smelled of her, and it was one of the few comforts I had from the pain wracking my body and soul. I hated to admit it, but now that I have had her I didn’t know what to do without her.

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THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR READING. I HOPE YOU CONTINUE TO FOLLOW THE DUMAS FAMILY SAGA.
LOVE ALWAYS,
JEWEL