Alpha Alexander

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The next morning, a thick atmosphere settled over the pack house. Alpha Alexander left our bed early to make a conference call with Alphas from other continents—a concept that still sounded so foreign to me. When he woke at an absurd hour, he kissed me on the crown of my head and trailed his fingers lightly down my bare back. I tried to keep him in bed, but he broke away with a promise to return before I woke up.

When I finally did wake up, the sun was just starting to rise above the trees outside the large window. I grumbled and rolled over to discover an empty bed. My body echoed with aches from muscles that hadn't been used in a while but were definitely overused last night. I stood and hurried into the bathroom, my bare skin protesting the cool morning air. I showered quickly and wrapped one of the larger towels around my torso as I stepped in front of the wide countertop. As my hand rubbed the fog-covered mirror, removing the condensation from its surface, my arm slowed at the sight of my neck before my entire body froze completely.

"Oh my god," I whispered, stunned. The mark that once looked muddled like a Rorschach inkblot test was now clearly tattooed on my skin, its image sharp and outlined in a purple so dark it was nearly black. I'd seen the image before in horror movies and one of my all-time favorite TV shows, Charmed—it was a pentagram, practically branded on my throat. It was tilted, almost completely upside down, with a thin half-circle connecting around three of the five points of the star. My mind flooded with references of pentagrams in pop culture, and they all came to the same conclusion: A pentagram was the symbol of black magic.

My fingertips brushed lightly against the bruised flesh of my throat. I took a stabling breath and forced the nervousness tumbling around in my stomach to calm until I could visit the library and tear through every textbook to see what could explain why my mark was one, nearly three times the size of Julie's or any other female's mark that I've seen, and two, what a pentagram symbolizes.

I dressed and quickly braided my wet hair before slipping out of the bedroom and into the library. I shut the library doors and roamed through the rows of books until I found the section dedicated to mating. I pulled several books off the shelves, scanning their contents before replacing them. After an hour of scanning, I finally gave up. None of these books had the information I needed. I wanted to ask Alpha Alexander, but I assumed he was still in his meeting, so I left the library and wandered downstairs to find some breakfast. Once in the kitchen, I pulled out cereal and read the colored comics until I heard multiple sets of footsteps coming down the stairs.

"My, my, my. Don't we look radiant this morning?" came a familiar voice.

"You look well-rested, milady," said the second voice.

I glanced over my shoulder, frowning at my two friends as they entered the kitchen.

"Soooo," Kellan started as he sat at the counter beside me. "How was your birthday?"

I narrowed my eyes at his tone. "It was lovely. Thanks for asking."

"Oh, I'm sure you had a great time," Jason added.

Suddenly, Julie came racing into the kitchen. "STOP! Stop it right now!"

I blinked at her sudden appearance. "What the hell is wrong with everyone?"

"Oh, nothing," Jason sang as he pulled a bowl out of the cupboard and poured some cereal.

"We just wanted to know how her night went," Kellan said with a mockingly offended tone. "If there was any exciting news she wanted to share."

It clicked. "You assholes." I smacked the back of Kellan's head because he was one closest to me. "Who fucking told you? If it was Alpha Alexander, I swear to God . . ."