The Alpha (Time Masters #6)

Chapter 1

1

“ Y ou’re making progress, Pari, I’m proud of you.”

Pari Mae Lindir sat in her usual chair across from Dr. William Merrill. He was the kind, old, grandfather she never had. She never knew her grandparents and liked to picture Dr. Merrill in the role.

“Pari?”

She looked up. She’d been picking at her fingernails again. “Oh, sorry.” She rested her tattooed arms on the chair’s armrests as her nerves switched to her right leg. She moved it back and forth, knowing Dr. Merrill couldn’t see it from where he was sitting.

“So, what were you saying about your new friends?” He looked at his notepad. “Halden and Raina?”

She relaxed at their names. “My uncles think I’m nuts.”

He steepled his fingers in front of him. “And why would they think that?”

She drew in a shuddering breath. “Because I’m letting them stay with me for a while.”

His head tilted to the right, and she noticed the hair in his ears. She pressed her lips into a firm line. She didn’t think she could stand having hair growing out of an ear. “Why would they think that?” he asked.

She drummed her fingers on her still moving right leg. “I… sort of just met them.”

“Just?”

She nodded. “Saturday.”

He jotted something down. “Do you feel that was a rash decision on your part?”

“They were in trouble.” She shifted and tucked her left leg under her. “They’re visiting America from Germany and lost their luggage. The airline still hasn’t found it. They had to sell some of their things to my uncle just to get money to buy clothes.”

“That’s awful.” Dr. Merrill sat back in his chair. “Happened to me and my wife once. We never did get our luggage back.”

“Yeah, well, it’s starting to look like they might not either. But maybe they’ll get lucky.” She ran a hand through her short-cropped hair.

“One can only hope.” He glanced at his notepad. “So, how is having them stay with you working out?”

Her right leg kept moving as she looked at her hands, now in her lap. “I like it. I like the company.”

He wrote something else down. “And you made some new friends?”

Her eyes darted to him, then back to her hands. “I think so.”

“And they’re not taking advantage of you, as your uncles seem to think?”

She met his gaze. “I never said they thought they were taking advantage of me. I said my uncles think I’m…” she looked at her hands again. “…nuts.”

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “Pari, your Uncle Al and Uncle Leo are just worried about you. You’ve shared with me how they feel about some of the life choices you’ve made and how adamant they are to see you make better ones.”

Her insides shook, just like they always did when all the times she’d messed up as a teenager were discussed. “Yeah, I know,” she said in a quiet voice. It hurt to look at her past, and she didn’t like doing it. She didn’t need to be reminded of her screw ups…

“Do you feel safe?”

Her head came up again. “What?”

“Do you feel safe around your new friends?”

“If I didn’t, they wouldn’t be in my house, now, would they?”

He gave her a warm smile. “No, I suppose not. How long do you think they’ll be staying?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It depends if the airline tracks down their luggage.”

“Why aren’t they staying in a hotel or a hostel?” he asked.

“Like I said, they lost their money too.”

He shook his head, sitting back in his chair again. “They left their money in their luggage?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “I guess so. Their money, travelers checks or whatever. Why else would they need to sell some of their belongings to get money for food and clothes?”

“Have you seen their ID?”

She froze. “Um, no.”

“Did you ask for it?”

She nodded. “I… I think it was stolen. They were attending a Ren Faire at Prospect Park this last weekend. It must have been stolen from there.”

He tapped his pencil on his notepad a few times, a sure sign he didn’t like what she was saying. “Pari, I know you want friends, and I told you to try to make some at our last session. I did not tell you to take strangers into your home.”

A shiver went up Pari’s spine. She hated being told she’d made another bad choice. “I felt sorry for them. They needed help.” She looked at her hands again. “And besides, they helped me first.”

His bushy gray eyebrows shot up. “How so?”

She looked him in the eyes. “They stopped Jeffrey from hurting me.” More. But she wouldn’t tell him that.

He stared at her a moment before writing on his notepad. “Did he hurt you?”

She sank a little in her chair. “He… tried. But Halden stopped him.”

“We’ve talked about you getting a restraining order against Jeffrey.”

A bitter laugh escaped her. She ran a hand over her head. “Like that would do any good.”

He watched her, and she knew what he was thinking. “They cut your hair, didn’t they? Jeffrey’s friends?”

“I don’t know who it was. They wore masks.”

He sat back again and rubbed a hand over his face a few times. “When?”

She stilled and stared at the edge of the desk in front of her. “Right after our last session. I was walking home, and there’s an alley between a couple of buildings a few blocks from my place. They grabbed me, pulled me into the alley, and cut my hair.” Her breathing picked up, and she hoped she wasn’t going to have a panic attack right here in front of her therapist.

“Pari, why didn’t you tell someone?”

Her eyes narrowed on him. “What good would it do? I don’t know for certain if it was Jeffrey’s friends or not. It could have been anyone.”

“We can get restraining orders…”

“Do you honestly think that will stop them? What if they go after Uncle Al or Uncle Leo?”

Dr. Merrill stared at her a moment. “Has Jeffrey tried to see you again since this Halden and Raina came to your aid?”

Jeffrey had, that very morning in fact, and once again, Halden came to her rescue. She didn’t want to open that can of worms so shook her head. She hated lying but hated being berated for making bad choices more. Maybe this time Jeffrey finally took the hint and would leave her alone.

She glanced at the clock on the wall, their time was almost up.

“Pari, I know how hard this is for you. But as tough as it is to hear, you get the behavior you put up with.”

She closed her eyes as her throat thickened with emotion. Yeah, Jeffrey was entirely her fault. But she wasn’t sure what to do about it. She’d yelled at him, hit him to get him to stop trying to kiss her when he caught her alone, but he never stopped. Even after Uncle Al gave him what for one day, he was back after a couple of weeks. He knew when Uncle Al left the shop because he could watch it from his parents’ jewelry store across and down the street a few doors. When Uncle Al left to run an errand or get some lunch, Jeffrey would slither across the street like a snake and come into the shop. Sometimes he was pleasant, other times the viper coiled, raised its head, and tried to kiss her.

Lately he’d been getting even more demanding about the whole kissing thing, and still insisted they were an item even though she kept telling him they weren’t. After she really gave him an earful about two and a half weeks ago, she thought that was that. She’d finally be rid of him. Then she got jumped and got an impromptu hairstyle. To make matters worse, Jeffrey came into the shop the next day and was as sweet as can be, even telling her it didn’t look so bad. She should color it a happy color since it was summer and how a happy color would look great with her big blue eyes. So, she did. She colored it yellow. But not because it was a happy color, but because she was pissed off.

“… so we’ll talk more about this in your next session.”

Pari looked at Dr. Merrill and nodded. She had no idea what he’d just said. She’d been too lost in her own thoughts.

“I hope you continue to grow your friendship with your houseguests. I know you’ve been lonely, Pari. But remember, they’re guests, from another country. That means they’ll be returning home.”

She nodded. “I know.”

He left his chair. “Our time is up for today. Same time in two weeks?”

“Yes, that works.” She pulled her leg out from under her and shut her eyes against the prickly sensation of renewed blood flow. She stood, shook her left leg, then limped toward the door.

“Be careful out there,” Dr. Merrill said. “And I still want you to think about asking your uncles to come to a session with you.”

She nodded. “Sure.” Pari opened the door and slipped into the hall. She didn’t look back as she hurried toward the elevators. She was glad Halden and Raina were cooking dinner tonight, as she was always spent after a session with Dr. Merrill. This one wasn’t pleasant, and as usual she fought with herself over what to do when Dr. Merrill challenged her on things.

When she took up whatever challenge he gave her, she always felt better and learned something new about herself. But she also hated how her weaknesses raised their ugly heads. Her vulnerability, her fear of change, her fear period. It ruled her, and some days even her meds weren’t enough to help. When she recognized the panic attack Raina was having when she and Halden first showed up at Uncle Al’s shop, she saw herself in that moment and wanted to help her. Maybe by doing so Pari would learn how to help herself.

She entered the subway at the Spring Street station and made her way through the rush hour crowd. She usually window shopped in the high-end stores to kill time until the crowds thinned, but she had to hurry home to Raina and Halden. For one, she was hungry, and two, she was curious as to what they’d come up with for dinner. She wouldn’t be surprised if they got takeout. Then she remembered neither of them had a phone, so there went that idea. Unless they picked up something and brought it home. Either way it worked for her. Good company and decent food. She liked it, and wished Raina and Halden could stay. But Dr. Merrill was right, they would have to return to Germany at some point. She just wished she knew when that was. Then she could brace herself for the loss.