The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

“Melissa –” he started.

“I’ll go,” she replied before he could even finish. She kissed Mary’s bloodied but eerily compassionate face and then got in the passenger side of the car. She had an excuse ready that she shouldn’t be separated from her creator, but Grom didn’t even ask. No one wanted Sadie to feel alone.

The car-ride was a unnerving experience for Mel, as she watched the fire behind Sadie’s eyes flicker and almost extinguish. She looked like she wanted to cry but had almost forgotten how. And she kept looking out the window and up to the sky. She wanted to be that free again, soaring amongst the angels.

———– —————-

The next night . . .

———– —————-

When Sadie got out of the patrol car after it pulled back into her driveway, she ran from it like it was a snake. She didn’t mind cars, but didn’t like being trapped in one. She didn’t like not having a choice.

She had been forced to spend the day in jail while a very confused group of law enforcement personnel, lawyers, and reps from the Arbiter’s Bureau tried to figure out what to do. The Arbiter representatives were firm in their belief that Sadie would be punished, but it turned out that saving a girl’s life, however illegally, cut her some slack. There had been no one injured as a result of her actions, and there had been no planning or malice. Bail was set, and it was paid before anyone could even blink. A consortium of townsfolk from Gravestones, led by the werewolves, had hurried to her aid. She had thanked them so much that her jaws ached, and she promised them that she wouldn’t skip out on them. It was Vladimir’s sister Anya who had said something that made her heart feel a little less heavy.

“Girl, we KNOW you wouldn’t skip out on us. That’s why we’re here.”

Melissa had never left Sadie’s side, sleeping in a cot next to the vampire’s cell. Sadie knew that Melissa wasn’t the one that needed comforting. She was stronger than most people realized. She was just there because Sadie needed comforting. Mel said that Mary wanted to come visit, but they both knew how bad of and idea that was. Bringing a wraith into a jail, even a city lock-up, was a monumentally bad idea.

Vladimir and Mary were waiting by the trailer when Sadie and Melissa got back. The rest of the pack had to get back to their lives, and the police were out on the streets in force. It turned out that Sadie wasn’t the only one worried about the newly-discovered mass Turning, and a lot of folk were eying their fanged neighbors with hostility. Battle-lines were being drawn in the streets, and their was enough tension in the air to stop traffic.

“Hey,” Sadie said, not really meeting anyone’s gaze. She was back on her own soil, and she needed a moment to collect herself.

Mary floated over, touching a finger to Sadie’s chin with one hand while grasping Mel’s hand with the other. “I’m sorry this has happened, and I am sorry for the loss of your friend Terrence.”

“Did Dazza scream?” Sadie’s voice came from behind the straggles of hair covering her face.

Mary looked dazed for a moment, like she was remembering what it was like to be drunk on rich red wine. “Oh yes,” she whispered, touching one of her now clean fingers to her mouth, “he screamed.”

Melissa trembled. However inadvertently, she had caused that man’s death by willing vengeance upon him. She’d never had anyone’s blood on her hands and soul before.

Suddenly, Sadie was next to her, eyes fixed and burning with a kind of anger that Melissa couldn’t comprehend. “Do . . . not . . . mourn him,” she hissed. “He brought this on himself.”

“How did you know what I was thinking?”

“I’m . . . slightly sensitive to you right now. It will pass. I think it will.”

“You think?!” Mel was a little freaked out. “You can get in my head like that and you THINK it will pass?”

“What? Mary’s good enough but I’m not?” Sadie still sounded angry, but it was more of a general anger.

Mary got in her face. “She’s scared,” the wraith said coldly. “She’s had a lot to deal with, and you’re the one who needs to help her through it. I remember what being a vampire is like, but I’m not one anymore.”Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

Sadie sighed. She just needed a target, and Mel had been it for a moment. “Melissa, it won’t be a problem. It shouldn’t last too long, and if you concentrate on it, you can shield me from your thoughts in the meantime.”

“What do you mean ‘shouldn’t last’?” Mel said, a little panicked still.

“I’ve only ever Turned one person before!” Sadie said, her throat choking on the excuse. “And it was a long fucking time ago!”

Vlad stepped in, not wanting things to get uglier between the two friends. “How long?”

Sadie stopped. Mary and Mel knew some of the truth, but they hadn’t told Vlad. He deserved to know.

“Longer than you think,” she whispered. “Vlad, before you risk your neck for me, you should know that –” She paused, unable to force the words out into the cold night air.

“Know what?”

Mel stepped forward. “She isn’t exactly who you think she is.” She stood beside her vampiric mother. “When Captain Grom told me to find her birth certificate for Frost to get him off her back, I found something else.” She looked at her friend.

Sadie had to take the next step. “Sadie Hewitt . . . isn’t my real name. Sadie Hewitt died a hundred and twenty years ago. I took out the rogue that killed her and took her name.”

Vlad cocked his head. This was NOT something that he’d been expecting. “And your real name is –”

“Better not said out loud,” she replied. “There are reasons I hid, Vlad. Frost isn’t the first vampire in this world that wanted me out of it.”

Vladimir gritted his teeth. “So this has all been a lie?”

“No,” she said firmly this time. “This person . . . Sadie Hewit . . . it’s me now. I say what I think and what I feel, and that hasn’t changed. Not about anything or anyone.”

The werewolf simply didn’t know how to react. “How old are you? What are you running from?” That was a question that scared him. Sadie didn’t strike him as someone who’d be afraid of much.

She looked at him, then and Melissa and finally Mary. “Come to the Halloween festival,” she said. “Next week, I stop hiding.”

Everyone around her heard exactly what was veiled in her speech: a threat.

‘She’s not afraid,’ Vlad thought, countering his earlier beliefs. ‘She’s angry.’

“Melissa, it might be better if you stayed the day with Mary. You are strong enough to survive –”

It was Mary shaking her head. “I do not fear losing her heart, even though it no longer beats. Melissa my love, proximity to your parent will make you whole. But as always, the choice is up to you.”

Sadie watched the two lovers discuss the issue without saying a word, with the dancing of their eyes their only form of communication. She looked to Vlad. “I’m sorry,” she said. “After all the crap I’ve given you about needing to be yourself . . . it’s almost ironic. You’re a good man, and I hope you find happiness.”

Vlad sensed that she was genuinely sorry about lying, but he was equally as convinced that she hadn’t lied about everything. She was as genuine of a person as she had ever been. There was just more to her story than he’d guessed. He stepped forward, grabbed the sides of her face and kissed her.

Sadie was in too much shock to do anything initially. His strong hands kept her face pointed directly at him and his lips were firm and demanding. She melted into her own lips and desire rising to meet him like a beach welcoming the waves. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d given herself so utterly to something as seemingly innocent as a kiss, but she felt herself being swept into it until her mind could no longer get its feet underneath her.

Vlad let her go. He wasn’t normally a Casanova, but he was no slouch either. He’d been out of practice though. “Stop talking as if you aren’t going to be around anymore. You’re the most interesting woman I’ve ever met. I may not know you completely, but I want to.” His voice was low and husky, and it held warm promise.

“But you’re married –”

“I had a little discussion with Teresa right before I took over the pack. I really think that relationship . . . isn’t good for either of us anymore.” Saying it out loud should have pained him, but it didn’t.

“But your word to your friend . . . her brother –”

“I did everything I could. I denied everything that I was and wanted to be what I thought he expected of me. I hope his spirit forgives me when the day comes and we chase the stars across the sky . . . I think he will forgive me. Teresa didn’t deserve a brother who cared for her so much, and she doesn’t deserve me.”

Sadie’s skin was growing very warm. “So, are we expecting a messy divorce?”

“No. I told her I knew about the affair and that I’d take everything if she decided to keep being a bitch.” He smiled. “That’s right, I get to call her a bitch now. Anyway, I’ll make sure she gets enough to get started. Most of my important possessions are tied up with the pack, hence untouchable by human law.”

“So,” she said, shy for the first time in a long time. “you’re going to be single? Soon?”

“Very much so,” he said, liking the way her body fit against his.