The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

Graves. Lots and lots of graves, each equipped with the proper equipment for raising and lowering coffins already in place. “That shouldn’t be happening,” she muttered. “Even if this is supposed to be a legitimate business, you don’t gear this stuff up in advance. It’s like they’re planning for a massacre or –”

Sadie stepped up to the edge of nearest grave. It was far more shallow than it should have been. “This isn’t a final resting place,” she said to the dark hole in the ground. “This is a Turning grave.” Her head shot up. The graves were laid out on a grid, so it was easy to calculate how many there were, one hundred in all. Then she saw a mound close to a covered dais. “A hundred and one?” She walked over and took a look. That grave, while shallow, seemed to be slightly better constructed. “What’s different about you?” she asked. Looking around, she pulled her cell phone and punched Mel’s number. ‘Must still be asleep’ Sadie thought when the voicemail picked up. ‘Or maybe she’s tied up.’ Sadie grinned. She was happy for her friends: finding someone you connected with at that level was rare.

“Mel, I think I’ve got an idea about that list. I think it could be a list of potential Turnings. I know, it’s weird.” It seemed especially weird since there were more than a hundred and one names on that list. “Those letters may be initials. Check ’em against known vamps and against anyone in the Turning registry. Get back to me if you find anything.” She hung up and jumped back over the wall, heading toward her truck. ‘This is bad,’ she thought. ‘What can he be thinking? There can’t be that many openings for Turning, can there? And all at once? Maybe I’d better attend that event after all.’

On her way out, she saw a sign reading “Vallant Fencing.” “So Frost isn’t the only one involved in this.” Councilman Vallant was one of Frost’s flunkies, albeit an old and powerful flunky, and one that might warrant a little investigation.

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Across town . . .This is property © NôvelDrama.Org.

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Lord Frost hated being awoken, but when he saw the look on Dazza’s face, he figured that it was probably for a good reason.

“Explain, and quickly,” Frost growled. “We have an important night coming up and –”

Dazza just handed him a piece of paper that he had already read. “This was in the mailbox, with no envelope or postage. It seems to be from someone in the Gravestones Police Department, but not one of your men.”

“A strange policemen leaving me notes? How droll.” But Frost’s amusement declined noticeably when he glanced over the letter. Arbiter Hewitt had gotten a hold of the schedule somehow, and her dinner companion from a few weeks earlier was trying to decode it. Apparently, they had gotten it from Terrence McDermott. Frost looked up at Dazza.

“It appears that we need to clean house,” he said, as cold as his name implied. “I assume that Arbiter Hewitt has not yet figured out what it means, otherwise I suspect that she would have paid me a visit. No matter. Come Halloween, she will not be able to resist us any longer. But this human woman must be dealt with. Make it look like an accident.”

“And McDermott?”

“I have been betrayed by one of my children,” Frost said evenly. “I shall mete out the punishment myself.”

Dazza left while Frost rose. He could not walk in the sun as easily as the Arbiter could, but being active in daylight was well within his capability. Being thousands of years old had its advantages. He dressed for business, for with Frost, everything was about business. He went to his office, sat behind his desk and waited. For an hour, he sat in place, waiting for Terrence to arrive.

Terrence walked in right on schedule. Frost had perfected masking his emotions over the millennium, but he felt a dark rage. He remembered the first time he’d seen this young man, perfect in so many respects. Terrence was a warrior and a patriot, so Frost had made the mistake of thinking he would be loyal to his new lord and his new race. Frost had been proven wrong, and the vampire lord loathed being wrong.

“You wanted to see me sir?”

Frost stood up and walked around his desk. “We have a problem with the ceremony, and I thought you might be able to help.”

Terrence said. “What do you need me to do?”

Frost placed a hand on McDermott’s back and led him toward the door. Then, faster that anyone could blink, he grabbed the younger vampire’s chin and broke his neck. Terrence dropped to the floor with a thud. Frost looked down at his former bodyguard.

“You just did it.” Frost walked back to his desk and called a clean-up crew.

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Meanwhile . . .

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Sadie was sitting in her truck under the shade, staring at the gate of Councilman Vallant’s palatial estate, wondering what his part in this all was. She wasn’t expecting to actually see anything, but was just trying to get a feel for those who were most assuredly her enemies.

But see something she did. The front door opened and, with her keen eyesight, she saw two people standing in the door. She couldn’t make out the details due to the shadows except that they were definitely close in an intimate way.

“Get a room,” she murmured as she got ready to start up the truck again. The sun was almost down, so it was time to go to the pack meeting. But something held her eyes for just a little while longer . . . something about the shape of one. It was something familiar. She backed the truck up a bit, getting a good view of the gate. A woman got into a car that a human valet had pulled up to the curve and was pulling away as the door closed. When that car pulled around, Sadie’s jaw almost hit the seat.

“Teresa?!” What the hell was Vlad’s wife doing . . . ‘You know perfectly damn well what she was doing!’ She gunned the truck, fighting the urge to run the woman down and wrap her vampiric hands around the bitch’s neck, restrained only by the knowledge that Vlad might take it personally. ‘How do I tell him? DO I tell him?’ she questioned as she drove over to Vlad’s sister’s house. It was the longest drive of her life, with her inner turmoil bubbling in her stomach and making her want to vomit. She didn’t understand how anyone could fail so utterly to appreciate what they had.

Finding the local pack’s stomping grounds was pretty damn easy. Every pack tended to have one member with a large amount of land for such gatherings, and everyone else chipped in to help maintain it and pay taxes on it. This particular den was way out on the undeveloped edges of Gravestones and stretched out as far as the eye could see, with no neighbors nearby to complain. Cars filled the driveway and were parked on the sides of the road leading through the area. Sadie grinned in spite of herself as she found a spot, seeing a rusted old ford parked right next to a sporty little BMW. For werewolves, the pack surpassed all other boundaries.

She jumped out of her truck and strode down the driveway, black tanker boot leaving slight imprints in the dirt beneath them. She had apparently been spotted, as Todd bounded down the steps to meet her. He wasn’t fooling her in the least. She knew that his friends were watching and he’d gain some prestige by being “tight” with the hottie. She didn’t care, and gave him a big hug anyway.

“Glad you could make it,” he said. “Mom’s been itching to meet you.”

“She’s got fleas?”

A couple of people chuckled. “Oh, this is gonna be fun,” Todd grinned back at her.

“Where’s your uncle?” she asked as she wiped her feet on the “Beware of Inhabitants” floor mat.

“Ivan and some of the other big dogs cornered him the second he showed up and are talking politics. Seems some of the western packs are grumbling about how the vampires have gotten to full of themselves around here and they’re putting pressure on Ivan to stand up to them. But Ivan is so wrapped up trying to get Vladimir to take over that he hasn’t even noticed. Can you talk to him?” Todd asked, looking concerned. “Uncle Vladimir seems to put a lot of stock in you.”

Sadie stretched her neck in both directions like she was getting ready to exercise. “I don’t know Todd. I spend enough time trying to stay out of vamp politics that I’m not sure I’m qualified to participate in were’s.” She saw his face fall. “Listen, if he asks my opinion, I’ll give it to him. But I make no promises that –”

“There you are boy,” a voice came, interrupting Sadie. The woman behind it was tall and lean, reminding Sadie a great deal of a coursing hound. She flicked Todd’s ear before continuing, “I thought I told you to put another couple bags of ice in each of the coolers.”

“Mom, I’m twenty-five years old. The ear flicking thing has got to . . . Owh!” He covered his ears after his mother tweaked them a second time.

“You’re never to old for me to take you out to the wood shed and teach you to mind your elders,” the mother growled, but she really couldn’t hide her affection. “You can talk to your girlfriend later and . . . what’s so funny?”

Sadie was chuckling. “Girlfriend? For this young pup?”

“I’m not that young!” Todd practically shouted. He regained his composure. “Mom, this is Arbiter Sadie Hewitt. Sadie, this is my mom Anya.”

Anya raised one eyebrow. “This is the Arbiter? No wonder half the pack in the Gravestones walks around with milk-boners half the time.”

“Mom!” Todd was blushed furiously. “I . . . I’m going to go get the ice.” He glanced at Sadie. “We actually DO have a wood shed, so I’d better hurry.”

“You raised him well,” Sadie beamed.

“How so?”

“He’s terrified of you.”

Anya gave a toothy grin of her own. “It’s one of the simple joys of motherhood.” She offered her hand. “My brother’s told us a lot about you. Have you met his wife?”

Sadie wasn’t surprised that Vlad hadn’t brought up their argument with his family. “Yep.”

“What do you think.”

Sadie made sure Vlad wasn’t in listening range. “Bitch. Bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch beeeeeeee-atch.”

Anya wrapped a strong arm around Sadie’s shoulders and drug her through the house to the backyard. “I think I like you.” They emerged onto a massive deck overlooking a sizable chunk of forestland, winding up next to some massive barbecue pits. “How do you like your steak?”

“Show it what the fire looks like, then offer it up as an Azetc sacrifice.”