Alpha Killer Ch. 41-45

Tania's POV

Sulphur River Pack

I woke in the morning suddenly, my stomach heaving. I pushed my way clear of Bobby's arms and ran into the bathroom, barely getting there before I started to throw up. He came up behind me, pulling my hair back as I finished retching. I leaned back on my heels and he went to the sink, filling up a paper cup with mouthwash. I rinsed my mouth out as I flushed the toilet, spitting the green stuff in the swirling waters. "Are you all right," he asked me as he held out his hand.

"Yeah," I said. "Doc warned me this would happen." I wasn't free of the drugs I had been addicted to while in captivity. Insomnia, chills, nausea, it could all come at any time and it did. My body was a mess, and Bobby was there for all of it.

"I'll give you a few minutes. Breakfast is coming up in forty minutes, so I'll check on Phillip if you want to take a shower." He closed the door and I went to the sink. I brushed my teeth, thinking about how far I had come in a few short weeks. I was off the drugs, I was free, I had a mate, a son and a Pack. If I had a wolf, I'd be complete.

Bobby and I were slowly making progress. Since that day at the swimming hole, we'd become more comfortable with each other. We slept together, but he still hadn't mated me. The memories were still too much for me to get over.

He was chipping away at my defenses rapidly.

He was a good man, a good mate. He adored me, he protected me and he was showing himself a fine man and wolf to our son. He didn't push himself in as a replacement to his father, he was just there for him. Watching him play fight with our son in wolf form was my new favorite thing to see.

Phillip had been struggling as well; he missed his mother and father and wasn't old enough to understand why it all happened. He was prone to mood changes, crying fits and even physical outbursts. He'd shoved another child in the nursery, then he'd curled up in a ball and cried for an hour.

Thank Luna for the people around us. The Alphas kept him at night, getting him through the worst of the homesickness he was feeling. The nannies and the other children were bringing him slowly out of his shell. He'd fallen in with Austin and Sandy, his dominant cousins, and the Triple Terrors were continually challenging their minders.

I finished up, thinking about what would be happening today. The Pack was relieved that Randall had made it through his change and couldn't wait to see him again. The Alphas had announced that the pair, plus Erica and four vampires, would be arriving late tonight and would be guests for several weeks. I wasn't sure how I felt about that; vampires were always our enemy, and I was taught to never trust them. Talia did, and that was enough for the Alphas. I'd just have to get over it.

I walked out into the room. Bobby had already made the bed and laid out an outfit for me. Khaki shorts, a light cotton blouse, and sheer lace underwear. I swear that boy has a lingerie fetish, and his sisters encouraged it. All my underwear was either sexy or for workouts, nothing for just lounging around in sweats. His sisters and in-laws were the ones who got my sizes and went into town to get me "a few outfits." When we got back to our room that day, the bed was covered with shopping bags, and I now had a good chunk of our closet. The clothes were beautiful, I thought as I got dressed.

I heard little feet running to the door and smiled as I walked to it. The door pushed open, and a boy in tighty whities ran in and jumped into my arms. I lifted him up and gave him a raspberry on his bare stomach, causing him to laugh and try to get away. "Where are your jammies, Phillip?"

"Too hot. Gramma kept hugging me," he said.

"Well, Grandma loves you and you're such a good snuggler," I said as I put him down. Bobby went to the dresser and pulled out some shorts and a "Wolfy Time" T-shirt along with sandals. "Are you excited about your run this morning?"

The children were going on a tracking exercise in the woods. They would go about five miles out from the Pack House as a group, where they would meet a group of adult volunteers. Each of the adults had come to that place on a different path. The pups would be assigned an adult scent to follow, and would have to track back to the Pack House while being watched. If they made it back, they got to play in the pool until lunch. Lose the trail, and they would get extra help in tracking. It was another way to teach them to function as Pack members. "Mom said I've got a great nose," he said. "Mom coming?"

"Mom is gone, honey," I said as I pulled him into my lap. "I'm sorry. Momma and Papa are here now."

He looked up at me, his little lip quivering. "I miss Mom," he said. "You not Mom." I just held him to my chest as he cried, and I cried too. There were plenty of people who deserved punishment, but my boy was getting hurt too. He'd lost his parents, his friends, his home, all gone when he woke up in a new place.

He was still not talking at breakfast, and when we dropped him off at child care I told them what was going on. "Don't worry, we'll pull him out of his funk," she said.

"Thanks." I walked back to the Alpha Floor and joined Bobby, who was in the room with his leadership. "You needed to speak to me Alpha?"

"Yes," he said as I sat next to Bobby on the couch. I relaxed into his side, my hand clutching his. "I got this video from Alpha Clark this morning, along with a request." He put the video clip up on the screen, and I was shocked at what I was seeing.

The silver cage containing Justin Heranus was coated with blood. He was lying on the floor of the cage, naked and filthy, and he was out of his mind with pain. As the man with the camera got closer, I could see why. The leg Talia had bitten was swollen, the skin black and split open like a ham that had cooked too long. The red and black was spreading, almost to his chest. Flies swarmed him, feeding from the blood that oozed from his wounds. It wouldn't be long until maggots were eating the dead flesh while the rest of him lived. "Kill me, please," he moaned in agony.

The camera shifted to where Rhoda was chained by an ankle to a rock in the ground. She was dressed, but she was unhappy and sleeping as far away from her mate as she could get. "She's been like this since she found out what he did," Clark said. "I'm convinced she didn't know what he did to get their son." The video stopped and picked up again in the Pack cells. Beta Jack was chained to the wall, and had been beaten badly and tortured. "We found out a few interesting things about Jack Meoffe when we got him talking," Clark said. "The Alpha told him to 'get rid of her', expecting him to kill her and dispose of the body. He owed his bookie a debt and used her to pay it off. He figured as a human and a slave, she wouldn't last long anyway. We got a name, though. Joey 'Bag of Donuts' Venucci. He's a mobster out of Chicago. Make sure Randall gets the name. As for this asshole, we aren't getting any more out of him. When he wakes up, we'll take him upstairs and let him ride the post until he's dead."

"Fuck, that's a bad way to go," Dusty said.

Clark looked at the camera. "Justin won't last more than a day or two, and I need to know what you want to do with Rhoda given what we know now. I'll wait for your call." The file ended, and I was still staring at the screen. I knew Talia's venom would kill him, but that was a horrible way to die. Not that he didn't deserve it.

"What is riding the post?"

Dusty looked at his father who nodded to tell me. "They bury a pipe In the ground, set in concrete. The man being punished is stripped, his hands shackled behind him, then with a little lube he's lowered onto the pipe until his ass is speared on it. It's high enough he can't get off, even on his tiptoes. Eventually his legs give out and he sinks farther until it tears his guts apart and he dies of sepsis or blood loss."

"Damn," I said.

"He deserves every moment of pain, Tania. Rhoda, that's more difficult. She told her mate to go ahead with a plan to use a surrogate, but didn't know you were kidnapped and underage. She's lost her wolf, and will not be welcomed in any Pack again. Do you want her dead?"

I thought about it; I didn't want to kill Phillip's mom, but I didn't want her in his life either. "Where do I stand with Phillip? He's my son, DNA will prove that, but his birth certificate lists Justin and Rhoda." We talked about it for a while before we came up with a plan.

Alpha Brent called the La Crosse pack and Alpha Clark answered. "Good morning Clark, it's Brent. We've been discussing your video, Tania and Bobby are here. We agree with your sentences on Justin and Jack. Circulating the videos among the Pack will go a long way to showing this behavior will never be tolerated," he said.

"Has Tania decided about Rhoda?"

"I have, Alpha Clark. Have papers drafted up where she gives up her parental rights to Phillip and consents to a closed adoption. With her husband dead, the papers will let Bobby and I adopt him easily and get a new birth certificate. Then let her go, knowing she will never see him again."

"If she refuses to sign?"

"Then I will swear a statement out that Justin raped and impregnated me and stole my child. The FBI will get involved since it went across state lines, and DNA will prove he's mine. With Justin dead, she'll face conspiracy to kidnapping, rape and everything else that happened to me. She'll die an old lady in Federal prison."

"I see your point. I will make it happen, Tania. If there is anything else we can do, just let us know."

"I will, Uncle Clark."

"How is Erica doing? I haven't heard from her since she left with Talia and Randall."

Brent laughed. "I should have told you, but she found her mate in New Orleans. They're arriving here tonight."

I heard a squeal in the background that must have been Luna Teri. "EXCELLENT! It's about time she got some good news. I'm glad he accepted her."

"Well, he's a little different too. They are making it work, and they are both happy from what I hear."

"And Randall?"

"He's fine. They were able to fix it so Talia can fully mate with him, and they have. They're coming too."

"All right, I'll let you guys go. Talia, you and your family are always welcome here if you decide you need snow again."

I laughed. "Thank you, Uncle. The heat down here is intense, but you don't have to shovel it." We hung up the phone, and I relaxed back into the couch. "We have to give Randall that name."

"I agree." Brent called Talia's number, not knowing if Randall would be busy.

"Dad?" Her voice sounded tired.

"Hi Talia. I just talked to Alpha Brent. He got a name out of Beta Jack." He told her the details.

"Thanks, Dad. I'll see what my mate knows about it, and get Eduardo looking. The man is a whiz with computers."

"He's your next target?"

"He is. We take down the training complex, then find the customer list. Tell Tania we'll get these bastards."

I smiled. "I know you will, Sis. I love you."

"I love you too. We'll see you late tonight."

Our business done, we walked to the home of Mildred Childress, one of the Pack Elders and historian. She had told us at breakfast that she needed to talk with us, but not why. Her home was small, with flowers out front and a wide porch with a pair of rocking chairs. She was bringing out a tray with homemade lemonade as we arrived, since Bobby must have warned her over the link. "Elder Mildred," Bobby said with a bow of his head as we got to the stairs.

"Bobby, bring that girl up here and sit her down," she said with a smile. "Go inside and get a chair for yourself unless you want to stand."

He smirked, then sat down and pulled me into his lap. Mildred huffed, then sat down and offered me a glass. "I've been looking into what happened to you since I heard you were coming," she said. "Giving up your wolf happens sometimes, having your wolf taken is quite different. I wanted to know if it was possible to get your wolf back."

"It's not," I said. "It's never happened."

"Oh, these young people don't know their history," she said with a wave. "It can happen, it's just that the circumstances allowing it rarely happen. I talked to my friends in other Packs, and Natasha in Kiev found something in her Pack archives. It was a case, like yours, where a young woman had been captured and was forced to drink wolfsbane to kill her wolf. The attacking Pack killed the wolves of all their captives, thinking they would destroy the Pack forever."

"That's horrible," I said.

"This happened in the fourth century. It's written down because she got her wolf back."

"How?" I leaned forward, hope suddenly there.

"She found her mate."

Ch. 42

Tania's POV

Elder Mildred's Home

My jaw dropped open. "Wait a minute, how can a mate return her wolf?"

"Our wolves are given to us by Luna herself, but how do wolves recognize their mate," she asked.

"By smell," Bobby said. "As soon as I scented her clothing, I knew she was mine."

"But why? Why does her scent call to you? How do you KNOW it is your mate?"

I thought about it. "I don't know, we were always taught that our mates' scent would be recognized by our wolf. We talked more about what happened AFTER you found him than anything else."

"True, because we still have rules regarding mating, and it is important mates are respected. There are theories as to how we know our mate's scent, but I believe it is because we share a part of them." I squeezed his hand and looked at him. "Most Packs teach that you are born with two parts to your soul, your human and your wolf parts, right?"

"Yes, of course."

"Yet we find some who have human mates, and they give them their wolf in mating?"

"True."

"Others do not find their mates, they choose another wolf or a human. They can change a human, but the mating is never the same as with a fated mate. There is a bond, but it isn't as deep or as satisfying as those with true mates. There have been multiple studies on this over the years; choice mates are not as happy as true mates, but we've always assumed it was because they knew they abandoned a true mate out there somewhere."

"It makes sense, my parents stressed the importance of waiting for your true mate. It's why when the Council tried to push Talia to mate Alpha Todd to unify the Pack, she refused." I laughed. "Well, that and he was more than twice her age and a major-league asshole."

"I'd like to give you another theory, one that I think fits the data better. I believe we are born as werewolves with three parts to our soul, two major and one fragment. The fragment is a piece of our fated mate's soul."

Bobby caught on first. "So when you meet your fate mate..."

"Your wolf recognizes the soul of his mate that is already with him. In essence you find what you are missing, and the mating unites the pieces in both of you."

I looked over at Bobby, it was a more romantic way to think of it. "So Bobby has a piece of my wolf soul in him?"

"I believe so. Being able to change someone with no wolf proves you can transfer a part of a wolf soul, even if it is your own. The example I found proved it is possible to transfer a wolf soul of your true mate and give her that back."

"Why can't anyone bite me? All the doctors said it wouldn't matter."

She shook her head. "I can't tell you for sure. Maybe the wolf soul recognizes someone else should be there. Maybe the hole in your soul cannot be filled by a different soul." She finished her glass. "I believe that when you take a choice mate, the rejected soul is pushed out and dies. That is why no one has ever found a fated mate after they have mated another. It's all my theory, backed up by history and lore. There's only one way for you to find out, and you're bound to do it anyway."

I nodded. "We need to complete the mating."

"Yes. Worst case, I'm wrong and you stay human, and he stays your mate. You can have the best life you can, given the differences in your lifespans. Best case, he gives you your wolf soul back and it fits like the last piece in the puzzle, because it belongs there."

"Will it be enough?" I didn't want to get my hopes up and have them dashed again.

"How much is one percent of infinity, Tania? One thousandth? If your soul is boundless, so is a piece of it. Whatever Luna wills, may it come to be." She took the empty lemonade glass back from me. "Now scoot, you two. You have better things to do than listen to an old lady rambling."

Bobby shifted under me, the talk of mating had gotten him excited and I could feel him pressing it into my thighs. "I can think of a few things we can do," he said as he waggled his eyes.

"When I'm ready," I said. "I'm human now, you can't just fall back on the bond to get what you want. You have to use romance, you have to date me, seduce me and love me."

"No problem," he said. "Any plans for lunch?"

"Why sir, are you asking me on a date?"

"I am. I was thinking a picnic by the waterfall. I'll have the kitchen pack some food for us."

I smiled, I loved that place. "I would love to picnic with you." I stood up and leaned down and gave Mildred a hug. "Thank you for looking into this for me, you've given me hope again," I said.

"Love finds a way, Tania. It always does."

Bobby thanked her, and we held hands as we walked back to the Pack House. He must have linked the kitchen, because a basket filled with food and drink was waiting for us. Another bag contained towels and a blanket. "We're taking my truck this time," he said as he grabbed the stuff. We loaded up and took the dirt road away from the Pack House, stopping at a small parking lot. "It's not far from here," he said.

The noon heat was oppressive, and my clothes were soaked by the time we got there. He set the supplies in the shade on a rock. "Swim first," I said. He agreed, and we stripped off our clothes. I knew what to expect this time when we jumped into the pool together. It was a shock, then as we got used to it, it was better. We didn't swim long, pulling ourselves out on a rock to dry off. We stayed nude, it was cooler that way. He laid the blanket down on a patch of grass and moss in the shade, then we sat and ate. The kitchen had made Italian sandwiches with pasta salad, fruit and cookies. "That was excellent," I said as I finished. I gathered the stuff and put it back in the basket, bending over with my back to him. I might even have wiggled a little, knowing from the little growls he let out that I was pushing him.

I turned around and walked towards him. He was looking at me, his wolf forward, eyes black with lust. I straddled his legs, lowering myself until I was sitting in his lap with my hands around his neck. "Bobby," I asked quietly. "I want you to mate me."

"Are you sure? I can wait until you are ready. I don't want to hurt you or set back your recovery."

"I was thinking on the way here about how messed up my view of sex is. I've never had sex with someone I loved, and often the sex hurt me. You I love, and I know deep down you won't hurt me. I need to replace the nightmare with the dream, love. I need you to claim me, make me yours. Mate me, big boy."

His eyes lit up and a huge smile spread on his face. "I love you, Tania. I'll make this good for you, just tell me if it is too much and I need to stop. I won't be mad." He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me, our tongues exploring each other as his hands moved over me. I wrapped my legs around his waist, my sex rubbing against his hard cock beneath me. I moaned in pleasure as I rubbed him. "So beautiful," he said as he started kissing down my neck to his mark.

He laid me back, holding my wrists in one hand over my head as his other explored my body. I moaned loudly as his mouth sucked on a nipple then gently bit it. It was like an electric shock went down my body to my sex, which was opening and preparing for him. He moved his fingers through my lips, spreading the juices around. I was building quickly, and when he hooked two fingers and found that spot on the top I broke. "BOBBYYYYYYYY!"