Pack Alpha (An Urban Fantasy Harem Serial)

1. Chapter 1

“Hide.”

My father is firm, authoritative. I don’t question him and slide beneath the floorboards, clutching my younger brother closer. He shivers uncontrollably, crying softly.

“Sshhhh,” I whisper as footsteps pound above me and raised voices shout accusations. A woman screams, then a gunshot, then a thud above me, then silence.

“Did you find him?” A voice shouts. “Tear this place down. He’s the one we’re after.”

Furniture breaks overhead and then I see it — blood, dripping through the floorboards. The scent, I know it, then I hear a voice, my older brother’s.

“I have to leave,” I whisper. “Wait until they’re gone, then run.” Ray nods and I creep out, through the spiderwebs and mud, into the darkness of the swamp. I draw attention to myself, then run as fast as my legs will carry me, towards the light, towards the unknown.

I shook awake, the nightmare fading away as consciousness took hold and I reacquainted myself with reality.

I’d been in transit for almost a day and even though this part of the journey had been exemplary, I knew I was nowhere near my final destination.

I shoved my dog-eared copy of Meditations into the duffel bag at my feet and when the flight attendant saw movement, she immediately sprang into action.

“Can I get you something Mr Grayson?” She leaned over, her gaze resting on me and my mind raced as I tried to remember her name. Alice? Anna? What was it?

I knew she was beautiful, that much was obvious, even to someone like me. Her features were nice — full lips, sparkling eyes, blonde hair — but together, they meant nothing. Her body, on the other hand, was easy to process, but it wasn’t polite to stare, and I was a polite guy.

“No thanks, Annie.” Nailed it. “How much longer?”

“We’ll be landing in twenty minutes. Did you enjoy the flight?”

“Fantastic.” The government didn’t spring for this type of transportation that often, in my case at least, and the flight attendants on commercial definitely didn’t look this good.

Her scent wrapped around me and I could identify her perfume, knew that she was ovulating and was pretty sure that she was a vegetarian, but it was tough to tell without getting to know her more intimately.

She might be up for it, but I knew what awaited me when we landed and I didn’t want to screw it up. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she smiled, lingering for a few more seconds, then returning to the back.

I buckled my seat belt and gripped the armrests as we hit some turbulence, ready to plant my feet on solid ground.

I liked Alaska — visited a few times, once for pleasure, once for work, but never as far north as Talinsk.

The hunting was spectacular and you could go for miles without seeing a human.

That was nice, especially when you just wanted to get away, to run, to forget who you really were.

I’d tried to escape it, but when I felt the bare, cold earth beneath me, the primal rush was intoxicating.

It would be so easy to give myself over to the beast inside, to let go of my humanity completely.

That was something this attractive woman could never understand. There was no duality behind the clear blue eyes, no questioning her identity or where she belonged. She was who she was and that fact would never change.

This level of self-awareness had taken years to achieve and I snickered.

Get over yourself Max, you sound like a dipshit.

I hadn't flown private in almost a year. Actually, the last time had been to meet Isla as well — California, south of Palm Springs, simple Peer on Peer crime. That had been easy, a vampire and a demon, daylight came earlier than anticipated, case closed. From the tone of Isla’s voice, this one sounded more complicated, but she hadn’t shared many details.

That wasn’t unusual, she didn’t share much — about anything — and that had led to unpleasant surprises on more than one occasion.

Isla, on the other hand, knew everything about me.

I was like her favorite novel and there was nothing she loved more than picking through my memories.

It was simpler that way and I enjoyed opening myself up to her — words were difficult, thoughts easy.

She was my handler, had brought me into the Peerage, and was one of my closest friends.

I knew I could count on her for anything and even though we saw each other less and less as the years passed, each time was explosive.

I focused my drifting thoughts elsewhere as the plane descended through the clouds and the sun disappeared, replaced by the shade of gray you only got in Alaska — the sky resembling a formidable steel wall.

Twenty minutes later, I stepped out of the plane and onto the frozen tarmac, then looked around. It was November, not a great time to be visiting The Last Frontier. I missed my house, a cozy cabin nestled deep in Appalachia, but duty called, and I was always willing to answer.

“Mr Grayson, it's good to see you.”

“Ms de Witt.” I had a form of face blindness that made it difficult to differentiate specific facial features, but my sense of smell was outstanding and I immediately recognized her. It also helped that I’d probably be able to pick her out from a lineup just by the way she walked.

She was short, barely five feet tall. Officially, I’d never seen her out of her six inch heels, but it was our unofficial meetings that I most anticipated, and I was certain that she felt the same way.

As she slinked towards me, I licked my lips.

Even in that heavy coat with fur trim, her long auburn hair falling in copper waves over her shoulders, she was one of the sexiest women I’d ever met and she innately commanded my attention in a way that no human woman ever could.

“Fur. Really?”

“It’s not wolf,” she teased, resting her hand on my chest as I submitted to the gentle mental probing that I always expected when we first met.

She wanted to catch up, to see what I’d been up to, if there was anyone new in my life.

When we spoke, my words were carefully curated, but my thoughts were raw, unedited.

That was what she was after and I let her take a peek.

I owed her everything, and I’d do anything she asked.

I could lie and say that I was drawn to her intelligence, her sophistication or even that she had saved my life, but to be brutally honest, it was that body.

A brief rundown of her physical attributes in order of attraction would be tits, ass, legs and it's as crass as it sounds, but when you can't recognize faces, you work with what you’ve got.

I guess that's one point for disability.

“Did you get the brief I sent you?” She asked as we walked towards a small hangar to the right of the private terminal. I had my bag slung over my shoulder and the wind sliced through me, but I enjoyed it. My blood ran hot.

“Yeah, but it was…brief.”

“I’ll fill you in once we get settled.” Her voice was clipped, lacking the usual warmth. It would take some time to pull out the woman I knew, but I was up to the challenge.

Ostensibly we had been assigned to Talinsk Island to recommission a satellite array in a desolate corner of the Bering Sea.

Isla would stay for a day, until I had a handle on the situation, then, if necessary, return for periodic check-ins.

This could take a while and there was no need for her to hang around, even though if it was up to me, she’d never leave my side.

“I hope you brought a warm coat, it’s much colder there.” Even though we were close, it always took her some time to warm up, to let down the protective wall she’d built around herself. I understood, I was that way too.

“I don’t need it,” I said, giving her a grin. “I’ve always been warm blooded, it runs in the family.” She shivered again and attempted a smile that failed as another freezing gust of wind blew past.

“Every time I come to a place like this, it takes two weeks of sauna visits to get the chill out of my bones. We don’t do as well as you in these situations.

” That was good to know, I knew so little about her that I was always at a disadvantage.

“Have you heard anything about the disturbance in the midwest?”

“Albert mentioned it when he got in touch last week, but I haven’t been paying attention. Vampires aren’t really my thing.” She smiled, they weren’t hers either, but we had to be aware. Things could get out of hand easily and our job was to make sure they didn’t.

“I’ve heard it’s more than vampires. I’m heading there once I get you settled. There’s a chance…” She didn’t get to finish her sentence as a man waved us over and we had to table this conversation for later.

There were some things humans didn’t need to know.

It wasn’t that we thought we were superior, but the average human tended to ignore what they couldn’t understand.

That ignorance made them blind to an entire society that existed in parallel to theirs, one that I had become intimately familiar with over the past few years.

The world was filled with things that couldn’t be explained and we had a word for them: Peers.

It was a broad term, applied to any of the paranormal beings we encountered, but was sufficient for when we needed to speak discreetly.

We walked across the tarmac, towards a group of even smaller planes and I groaned.

“Really? We can’t take the jet?” I’d already been in transit for twenty hours and didn’t feel like cramming my big body into the sub-compact airplane in front of me.

“Maybe we could stay in Bethel for a few days? You know, catch up.” I winked at her and she slapped my arm.

It felt so good to be around her again, to breathe in her soft fae scent.

She was the only reason I was here and I’d do whatever it took to be with her.