Alpha Rising: The Wolf Runs
Chapter 20

KRISNA

The door opens and Astra walks in with her head held high and a wicked smile on her face. She looks right at me as she moves closer to the cell. When she is standing directly in front of the cell her eyes flash to Alore’s.

“I see you haven’t mated yet.” The disdain in her voice is noticeable. She is not trying to hide it.

“I won’t as long as you have me locked away like some animal.”

With disgust in her voice, she says. “Dear, you are an animal. You just happen to be able to mimic human form most of the time.”

I have never heard anyone say that about me or anyone that I know. Astra really thinks we are beneath her, and probably more so since she is able to perform magic.

“Mother, don’t ever say that.” Alore spats towards her.

Tsking at him, she waves her hand like she can’t be bothered. “You have feelings for her since she is your mate and, oddly enough, you feel that bond with her.” Her words sound loudly in the room and I know the guys are catching on to the anger rising in me.

“You will pay for this.” I hiss at her. Astra’s eyes slit as she looks at me. Without missing a beat, she hisses at me.

“Fine, so the hard way it is.” She turns and nods to a guard and points at Kale. “Take him.” Turning to me, she smiles. “He is fully mated to you. You will feel everything that he does and the longer you evade mating, the more I will do to him.”

The guard moves into the cell and grabs Kale. Kale struggles and when the guard hits him over the head, I feel the phantom pain as I watch Kale fall to his knees. We are connected and the fact that she knows this alarms me. How did she know so much about the nature of wolves.

Pulling Kale out of the cell the guard starts moving him out of the room. I watch as he tries to start shifting only to be stabbed with whatever they use to prevent us from shifting. He again looks weakened. Looking at Astra again I scowl at her.

“I will kill you if you hurt him.” For a moment her eyes flare and I see the look of hesitation but as quickly as it came it vanishes again.

“Still doing this the hard way. Well we will see how much you can handle when you feel the pain of your mate.” She turns for a moment her eyes landing on Ruse. “Soon I will take him.” I watch her storm off and take Kale. Confused and hurt.

“How does she know so much about our kind, how do you?” I snap at Alore.

He calmly looks at me. “My mother was taught by her mother and she taught me.”

Pacing now I try to run through scenarios and make a plan of escape, falling flat everytime. “If she wants a baby so badly why does she not make one? There are unmated wolves who would mate with your mother.”

“First of all, gross.” Alore says trying to make light of this conversation. “Secondly it only works if the wolf is mated to the magical one. My mother does not have a mate in the shifter world, she tried to locate one for herself and for Alana. Nothing came about so she checked me and there you were. She didn’t tell me of course, I figured it out myself when I met you. My b***d sang to yours.”

“What does that even mean?” As much as I don’t want to know, the fascination of learning more about my mate eats at me.

“It is like mating but different. You wolves feel the bond through your hearts and invisible bonds only you can feel. A magical person like me feels it in our hearts and our b***d sings and feels like rushing water through our veins. Mating with you forever would be you marking me and us sharing b***d.”

“We have to drink each other’s b***d?” I am disgusted and horrified at the thought of doing that.

Laughing again Alore shakes his head. “No, we make a cut in our palms deep enough for decent flow and we place our palms together to share the b***d.”

Smiling, I sit down on the bed. “Well that sounds much better than drinking b***d.” I lean against the glass and stare at Alore. “We need to figure this out. We need to get out of here.”

“I think Alana is going to be our best bet.” He says with confidence but even I can hear the uncertainty in him. I don’t see a light at the end of this tunnel. I could mate with him and gain some time, but if I do and wind up pregnant and we still don’t replace out way out of here then we will end up dying in the end anyway since Astra will never let us live long enough to be able to come up with a plan.

“Krisna. We will figure this out.” Juniper whispers. “Renwick and Thorin will come for us.” I snort at the names, they may come for Juniper and Kale, but Alore and I, they could care less. “Collin will be with them too.”

That is true Collin won’t let them not save me. He will be with them, and I know they are coming, it’s just when will they actually get to me. Closing my eyes it seems like this is an impossible situation, it is also frustrating. We are stronger but they have the ability to keep us from shifting which makes us weaker since they use magic against us.

When my body starts hurting again I keep the noise in. I don’t want to let the guys know that my heat is acting up again. It is going to be bad again until I fully mate with all of my mates. I curl up and lay my head down against my knees. There is not much to be said when you’re locked up with not a clear ending in site.

Alore moves over to me and he starts to rub my legs in comfort before moving to my feet. The feeling of touch relaxes me. I lean back and start to close my eyes, that is until a sharp pain in my mind jolts me up.

“What the hell?” I touch my side feeling heat and so much pain that it nearly cripples me.

”What happened, what’s wrong?” Ruse hits the glass to his cell and stares at me.

“My mother happened, she is starting to test how much she can do before Krisna gives in.” Alore’s voice lowers and he sighs. “Unfortunately I know she will even go as far as not keeping him alive.”

The shock that he says this stills me. “You think she would kill my mate?”

“Look around Krisna, she has two more to spare and the next one will be him.” He motions over his shoulder at Ruse and the b***d drains from my face. He is being serious and I can see the truth written all over his face.

I know what I am going to have to do, but doing it while it will work makes me mad that I am being forced to mate in order to save another mate, even for the time being.

“I know that look.” Ruse says. “What are you thinking about doing?”

“I’m thinking I am going to have to mate but I have sort of a plan now it just has to work.” Something is developing in my mind but the first thing is to try and get Kale back.

Astra

Ipull the knife from the shifter in satisfaction. I know she felt it, I know that right now she is wondering what else I’m going to do.

“F**k you.” The shifter spats at me. I see the anger and the pain in his eyes and it is enough to give me the rush that makes my b***d heat. I will kill him to make her mate with my son. I want that baby. I put a procreation spell on the cell almost guaranteeing that she will end up pregnant.

Together this child and I could conquer this land, maybe even more. I could take out all the shifters in the neighboring lands and expand mine. The goal is to create a hidden kingdom where I rule and all magical beings feel safe to come out and become part of my community.

I know there are others out there like me. Not as strong but like me. Looking around the throne room I see the emptiness that it holds. There are no people here who are like me and want to meet with me. No, I am among commoners, useless people.

I have a vision for the future. I don’t want to be trapped here, forced to only this part of the land because shifters are all over. They never took kindly to anyone that is not a shifter, seeing us as beneath them, and humans they don’t care about magic either, in fact most are scared, and others call me crazy.

“You will die for this.” Moving out of my thoughts I turn my attention to the shifter now who still is bleeding all over my floor. He is a handsome man. His hair is solid brown with the slightest honey streaks going through it, his face is covered with a full beard and I can see the tattoo running along his neck.

I walk around him as the guards restrain him. I can sense his wolf gaining strength which means he will need to be dosed again. I run my hand along his shoulders loving the feeling of power there. It really is a shame I don’t have a shifter mate. The power in these males cannot be matched.

My husband is strong and intelligent, sure, but he lacks strength like this. Non human strength. This all could have been avoided if fate gifted me a mate, but of course my son who does his own damn thing would be the one. Even Alana would have been better if she was gifted with magic. I can easily control her, but Alore is a whole other problem.

“If I could have the baby that will come from my son and your mate being together, I would take you.” I say, looking him in the eyes, letting him see how serious I am.

I hear the deep growl before he snaps at me. “Don’t f*****g touch me.” He wheezes at the end and I notice the wound still hasn’t fully healed. With the magic I am using he is unable to fully heal because I am blocking that part of him.

“Mother?” I turn seeing Alana in the room now with me, her eyes glued to the shifter.

“I’m a little busy Alana.” I say hoping she takes the hint and leaves. I don’t really converse with her. She is no use to me with her magic not there. Her father would disagree and spends most of his time with her. I know he loves her more than I and for that I dislike her even more.

I poured everything I had into Alore. I taught him everything and you would think that he would be more grateful, but of course he isn’t.

“What are you doing to him?” She moves closer to me seeing if she can take a closer look. “I’ve never seen a shifter mother, can I see him?”

“He’s not entertainment Alana.” I snap at her getting frustrated. “I’m busy.”

“Mother, why is he bleeding?” Her tone is concerning and it pisses me off.

“Alana, I said to leave.” I block her sight of him making sure further inspection stops. “This is what needs to be done, it’s for the better of our people.”

“By keeping my brother locked up, you think this is for the better of our people. Alore is not going to help you.” She backs away a little as she stands up for herself for once by voicing her opinion.

“That is where you come in. You will convince your brother that this is for the best.” I know Alore will listen to reason when it comes to Alana because again she is his favorite. Not the mother who created you.

“Don’t do it. Your bitch of a mother is going to kill us all when she gets the baby.” The shifter at my feet spats. Alana’s eyes widen as she looks between us.

“Is this true mother?” She steps closer again.

“Of course not silly, what would make you think I would harm your brother. Now the wolves on the other hand will need to go once we get your nephew or niece.”

“Why?”

Fed up with her questions I lose my patience. “Leave now, Alana. Go talk to your brother and try to remind him that what I am doing is in his best interest.”

Alana pause for a moment not moving. Her eyes focused on the shifter and after a moment her eyes fall to the ground and she nods her head before turning to leave. Turning back to him I tell the guards to hit him with the stuff that Alore made now that his wolf is coming to the surface again.

I honestly don’t think that this will have to go on much longer. Wolves that are mated whether they want to be or not feel deeply for those they are mated to, and knowing that I’m hurting her, one mated is going to hurt her.

“Take him back to the cells and let her see that I am serious. We will come back and get him in a few hours and try a new technique.” I walk away listening to the guards drag the shifter away. I head to my room knowing my husband is not there. I need the time to breathe.

My powers are weakening and it is making Alore stronger. I never believed my mother when she said that when our child surpasses us in magic we give some of ours to them and in turn it weakens us. Not much but enough for us to feel the decline. Having this child means it would strengthen me and I can continuously siphon magic from them leaving me at my best.

Looking around my room the loneliness plays against me, making me wish for something that I won’t have. I was a young girl once who thought that I would replace love and for a while I thought that I found it in my husband, but slowly that faded into a kernel size.

I turned bitter when I knew Alore was the magical one and that he was a boy, for generations in my family it has been a woman who held the magic, and I could hear my mother taunting failure every time I looked at my baby.

I decided to put my energy into him, making him the best that he could be and making him the most powerful. When he started to do magic on his own and research I felt pride and hopeful. I thought he would be the one to make changes in this world, that is until he started to get into sword play like his father, wanting to be a soldier and train with them.

I hated it and never wanted it but he wouldn’t leave them alone. Always sneaking around and when I would say something to his father he would look at me exasperated and say boys will be boys. Let him learn it won’t do him any harm, but it did, he lost focus and by age ten he was doing whatever he wanted.

I was always pushed to the back and now it is time for me to have something of my own again, a chance to have another child and raise them to worship me. Teach the child my ways and share my vision, I don’t care what I have to do to get it.