Chapter 11 – Alexi
Chapter Eleven
Alexi
About twenty-seven years ago…
Alexi twisted his lips in self-disgust as he reviewed the carnage that he had made of the bedroom. There were five young women draped over various parts of the suite, the sofa, an armchair, a large coffee table, and, of course, the king-bed.
This is what happens when you neglect your needs for weeks , Alexi thought. Needing immediate help to clean-up the mess, a potential disaster if not done right, Alexi sent a telepathic message to Owen for urgent assistance.
He had neglected to feed because he had been busy rescuing women and children trapped behind deadly war zones in Africa and Asia.
What was particularly challenging about the rescue was the presence of one of his turned vampires, Adam Dressler, who happened to be the last of his turned vampires, a vampire who had since dedicated his life to trying to destroy Alexi and his sons. Alexi had spent weeks fixing the devastation Adam had instigated in an attempt to make the war zone more arduous and impossible for the innocent lives to escape.
As a full-breed vampire, he needed to drink blood daily to keep his bloodlust under control. However, weeks went by before he remembered his need to feed. By then, it was too late to prevent his frenzied hunger.
Hell, it was the reason he and his sons usually maintained their own blood concubines, a collection of three or four women, for convenience and easy access. They often switched out their women every three to six months, as the human women couldn’t remain blood concubines for longer periods without their mortality being compromised. These were women who thought that they were mistresses of wealthy men and had no idea that they were, in addition to being sexual partners, also the food source of a powerful vampire and, in his son’s cases, powerful dhampirs.
Intending to replace his blood concubines, which he had recently released, Alexi hadn’t gotten around to replacing them during those busy weeks. He had only taken a break from his rescue mission when Luka had demanded his presence in Las Vegas to represent the Petrovs in their recent hotel acquisition.
As his bodyguard, Aidan always traveled with Alexi. However, Luka had called while they had just picked up about eighty women and children to transfer to a secure location. Aidan had remained behind in Afghanistan to ensure their safety.
It was while he was attending the contract signing that Alexi’s bloodlust had hit hard and fast. Alexi had left with barely enough control to make the necessary call.
Using a trusted escort service, which was dependable not only for their reliability but also for their discretion and confidentiality, Alexi ordered not his usual three women but five. He had been concerned that in his frantic need that if he didn’t kill the women, he might turn them into a mindless minion or even a vampire.
Hours later, with his frenzied lust for blood and sex partially sated, the red mist of his bloodlust had abated enough that he returned to some coherency. It was the potent scent of sex, sweat, and blood that permeated his senses first.
“I have no excuse,” Alexi said with a grimace.
Owen looked at the room again and then returned his gaze to the one being he respected more than any other being. “I don’t understand,” Owen started hesitantly. “Where is Aidan?”
“I left him behind, and now I think I made a mess of things.” Alexi again shook his head. It was bad enough that the women were still unconscious, but there wasn’t a piece of furniture in the room that wasn’t broken in some way. He hadn’t moved from his position against a far wall in the room, well away from the windows, as dawn was fast approaching.
“I can hear their heartbeats so at least they are still alive, but I can’t tell whether I hurt them or, if I did, how bad is it,” he told Owen ruefully.
Owen moved around the room and carefully inspected all five women. “They are only in a deep sleep with no injuries or signs of distress that I can detect. No broken bones at least. So, it’s not as bad as it looks,” Owen said quietly. He was having a hard time reconciling the carnage he saw before him to the man that he knew Alexi to be.
The violence indicated by the broken furniture and general waste in the room was far outside the norm of the man he knew. Alexi was never unkind, never careless, and certainly not a violent man unless provoked. The Alexi he had known for more than five centuries was a gentle soul. He must have been completely out of his head with bloodlust to do something like this. And then Owen heard an unexpected heartbeat. He stilled in shock.
“What is it? What did you discover?” Alexi demanded, still glued to the far wall as pale dawn light started to leak through the heavy drapes of the suite. As a full-breed vampire and a vampire for more than five centuries, an ancient, no part of daylight could touch Alexi’s skin without burning it.
Owen cleared his throat. “One of the women is pregnant.” His concern for the unborn fetus made his voice sound paper-thin. He turned over the dark-skin beauty to further examine her.
“My child?” Alexi asked, even though he knew that that was impossible unless the woman was his fated mate.
“No,” Owen answered with certainty. “From the size of her waist, she is about three months along.”
“And my venom hasn’t killed it?” Alexi sounded both hopeful and stunned. There was a reason a vampire usually avoided pregnant humans, because their venom was usually fatal to an unborn fetus. Not only would Alexi’s venom enter the mother’s bloodstream, but the amount of blood he would have taken from the woman would have deprived the fetus of much-needed oxygen, and that, too, would kill the fetus.
“This child must be strong to survive not just your venom and feeding but to also survive the rough sex. That’s unheard of,” Owen whispered in awe.
“Find out what you can about the woman,” Alexi said, sounding tired and worried. “We need to know how my venom effected the fetus and take appropriate action.”
“We will take care of this,” Owen vowed.
Alexi stared at him silently for what seemed like long minutes, but Owen waited quietly for him to gather his thoughts. He knew that Alexi was more than troubled by what he had done.
“My sons cannot know of this,” Alexi finally said. “This is too shameful.”
Owen nodded, completely understanding Alexi’s viewpoint. He didn’t think that any of them, Alexi’s sons or the elite wolves, were ready to know that Alexi had lost control like this. He was their leader, their mentor, and their moral compass. None of them were ready for this.
Owen had no idea what he would say to his brothers or the other elite wolves about the kid, but this, the how of it, was one secret he would take to his grave.