CHAPTER 3: The Damn Alpha Of All Alphas

Author's POV

In the semi-darkness of the room, the only light came from a single candle and the faint swirling mist inside a large crystal ball.

A woman draped in a long black gown was hunched over it with her fingers splayed on the cool surface. Muttering indistinct ancient words under her breath, her eyes were fixed on the visions only she could see.

The sound of hurried footsteps on outside the door broke her concentration and a sharp heavy knock followed.

She hissed in annoyance, her shoulders tensing.

“Come in.” she snapped, her voice like cracking ice.

The door creaked open and another witch, dressed in similar dark robes slipped inside.

“Elsa.” the newcomer greeted, her tone full of deference and excitement.

Elsa didn't look up from her crystal ball.

“This had better be important, Moira. You've broken my focus at a most sensitive moment.”

A sly smile played on Moira's lips.

“Oh, you're going to love this. There was a disturbance last night. A massive spike in magical activity.. very unusual.”

Elsa waved a dismissive hand.

“So send one of the novices to investigate. Don't waste my time with trivialities.”

“That's just it.” Moira said, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “The center of the disturbance... it was traced to Lena's Crib.”

At the mention of the name, Elsa’s head snapped up and her annoyed expression melted away replaced by a wicked predatory smile.

“Now.” she purred, her eyes glinting in the candlelight. “Why didn't you just say so?”

***

Lena's POV

I stood with my door slightly ajar just enough to peer out into the main hall of my Crib without being seen. My eyes were locked on one person.

Darion..

He was sitting alone at a small table as he had been for days.. just sitting and drinking quietly drinking from a bottle of root beer Tormund must have given him.

The massive unconscious man who’d bled all over my floor was gone, replaced by this silent brooding mountain of a werewolf and the silence around him was the weirdest part. Usually, the main hall was a noisy mess of everyone living their lives but when Darion was in it, the room got… hushed.

Even the other werewolves who could usually sniff out pack hierarchy from a mile away were giving him a ridiculously wide berth. They’d walk the long way around the room just to avoid getting too close. It was like they’d instinctively found the most dangerous predator in the forest and decided not to make eye contact.

I hated it.. I hated the quiet tension he brought and I hated the way my skin prickled when I was in the same room with that stupid mate bond screaming in my veins like a fire alarm I couldn't turn off. Mostly.. I hated that I couldn’t just kick him out. Stupid rules..! Stupid noble life-saving rules!

A few days of this had passed. Me doing Olympic-level avoiding and him doing his best impression of a scarred handsome statue.

On this particular afternoon I was leaning against the bar nursing a cup of coffee strong enough to wake the dead and contemplating for the hundredth time how I could legally justify throwing a fully healed paying guest into a storm and that’s when it happened.

The temperature in the room dropped suddenly and sharply. It wasn't just a draft.. it was like someone had opened a door to a walk-in freezer and a hush fell over the room deeper than the one Darion caused. Then a knock echoed from the front door... a precise polite tap-tap-tap.

Every instinct I had went on high alert. I set my coffee down and walked to the door with my boots clicking on the hardwood floor. I pulled it open.

A man stood there and he was… beautiful in a pale carved-from-marble sort of way. He wore a impeccably tailored three-piece suit that probably cost more than my entire bar stock. His smile was sweet and charming even and he was very very dead.. a vampire.

“Good afternoon.” he said smoothly with his voice smooth as silk and he gave a slight old-world bow. “I do hope I'm not intruding.”

“Sanctuary is open to all who need it.” I said automatically, my professional hospitality mode kicking in despite the alarm bells ringing in my head. “Please, come in.”

He stepped inside and took a slow deliberate look around, his calm eyes missing nothing.

“What a remarkably… quaint establishment you have here.” he said. It didn't sound like an insult. It sounded like he genuinely appreciated it. “A true haven.. a diamond in the rough of this dreary world and it reminds me of a passage from Thoreau.. 'I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…'“

Yeah, this guy wasn't here for a bed and a hot meal.

“Welcome to Lena's Crib.” I said, cutting off his literature lesson. “I'm Lena. Who might you be?”

He just smiled that sweet chilling smile.

“A humble traveler, dear lady. A seeker of… misplaced things.”

The coffee in my stomach turned to ice. He hadn't come for sanctuary.. he’d come for someone.

He turned his calm gaze back to me, all pretense of small talk gone.

“I am looking for someone and I have reason to believe you are harboring him. He is extremely dangerous.. a threat to every soul under this roof. For the safety of your… charming little operation… you would be wise to hand him over to me. Immediately.”

I didn't need to ask who.. I knew amd I could feel Darion's presence behind all of this.

I crossed my arms, putting on my best confused-innkeeper face.

“Dangerous? Sorry, mister. You've got the wrong place. Everyone here is just looking for a little peace and quiet. Nobody fitting that description.”

The vampire’s smile never wavered. He actually chuckled in a soft soundless laugh then he raised his voice, his words ringing through the silent hall clear and commanding.

“Very well. I will extend you the same courtesy I would any noble adversary caught in a dire predicament!” he announced, speaking to the room at large. “You have three days, Alpha Darion. Three days to turn yourself in to me. Do not make me come back here. It would be… undignified for everyone.”

Rage hot and fierce burned through my fear. This was my house!

“Get out.” I said, my voice low and steady and I pointed at the door. “Now. You don't get to come into my home and make threats.”

“Of course. My apologies for the disruption.” he said with another infuriatingly polite bow and he turned to leave, pausing at the threshold to look back at me. “Do consider my words, Miss Lena. We will be seeing much more of each other, I suspect.”

The moment the door clicked shut the room went up into panicked whispers. A group of my vampire residents rushed over to me with their faces as white as sheets.

“Lena! Do you know who that was?” one of them hissed with her voice trembling.

“Clearly, I don't.” I snapped with my patience gone.

“That was Julian!” another vampire whispered, the name sounding like a curse. “Julian! One of the oldest! Arguably the strongest! He's… he's a legend! And not the good kind!”

I knew that name! Everyone in the supernatural world did. He was a prince of the night.. a master of ancient games I wanted no part of. I just never knew he looked like a handsome university professor.

Panic started to ripple through the Crib.

“If Julian is hunting someone here, we're all dead!” a young vampire wailed. “We have to leave!”

That snapped me out of my shock.

“Everyone, calm down!” I commanded, putting every ounce of Alpha power I had into my voice. “No one is leaving. This is still a sanctuary and we handle our problems. Understood?”

The crowd settled but the fear was not hard to miss. It was a toxic and swirling with the cold remnants of Julian's presence and the dark brooding energy of Darion.

That was it. The final straw!!

I turned on my heel with fury propelling me across the room. I didn't care about the rules anymore and I didn't care about the mate bond… I didn't care if he was the damn Alpha of all Alphas…!