Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“You just saw that it hurt Joaquin, why would you touch it?” Shawn snapped at him as he kissed the wound on Dietrich’s finger.
“Well, I thought that maybe it was activated by the heat in Joaquin’s body. I am much colder than him and therefore should have been fine if that were the case.” Dietrich shrugged like he didn’t care.
“Stop doing stupid things.” Shawn rolled his eyes at him. I saw that the wounds on both Joaquin’s and Dietrich’s hands were already healing, which was good, but that was just not right.
“Dietrich, could this water have been modified? Like with magic, runes, or something else?” I wasn’t sure if I was right or not, but it was a theory that had just popped up in my head.
“You mean like, did they use holy water?” He laughed. “That stuff doesn’t work. In fact, in my youth, before I hid what I was as well as I do now, I drank holy water in a church to show the parishioners that it would have no effect on me. It was how I got them to trust me and to stop believing that all nonhumans were evil. It was actually a good time.” Dietrich’s laughter wasn’t helping here.
“Yes, in a way. What if these killers have figured out how to make an effective holy water by infusing it with rune? What if they have a weapon that none of us will ever suspect?”
“I..I don’t know if that is possible. But I think we need to figure it out.” Finally, Dietrich was looking scared.
“I want to take this bark for testing. I need someone to see if there is magic or something being used in it. I need to know if they did something to it to make it burn us.” I walked toward the tree then, calling just the claws of my wolf forward. I needed to use those claws like a knife.
Carefully, very carefully, I cut the words from the tree and held it carefully. I didn’t want it to burn me at all.
“Here, wrap it up and send it to someone that can test the water on the tree. This crime scene was preserved for a reason, and I think this message was the reason. They wanted us to be hurt by their words, physically and emotionally.”
“That is just sick.” Joaquin shook his head. “These bastards are starting to piss me off, even more than they already had.”
“I know, Joaquin, I know. And this is just another reason why we are going to be finding them. We need to put an end to this.”
“Yeah. We will find them. And when we do, we will extract all of their secrets. We will make them tell us what they did and why they did it.” Joaquin was angry. I don’t think it was just because he got a boo boo just now, but it very well could have. Sometimes, men were giant toddlers that let their emotions rule their worlds.
“Come on.” I called out. “We need to get back. I am sure that there is going to be another call soon enough.”
“Yeah. We need to be ready to go.” Shawn said as he took Dietrich’s hand. Dietrich, for some reason, couldn’t stop staring at the tree. It was like he was thinking very intently about something, and he wasn’t sharing it with the rest of the class. I knew he would tell us in time, when he was ready. Still, it was really annoying at the moment. I needed information more than anything here, and, there, he was withholding it.
****
Joaquin
****
We left the clearing as a group. Riviana was walking with Talia and Alexio. I was sort of in a bad mood at the moment. Alexio had deliberately ignored Riviana. He had let Talia come into the woods and follow after us.
Then again, Riviana was not actually his queen. Still, he had worked for us for eleven years now. He had been a model employee and an exemplary guard. I don’t know what came over him to make him start acting differently. Well, I guess it could have been Talia. Maybe she had more clout with him than my Little Bunny did.
No matter what the issue was that caused Alexio to disobey Riviana’s orders, he needed to be reprimanded about it. I needed to make sure that this didn’t happen again. We couldn’t risk having Alexio with us to protect Talia, if he wasn’t going to actually do as he was told.
As I was thinking about this, and about what I might say to the man, we walked back to the Alpha’s home. There was a little more work to be done here, but my Little Bunny and I were leaving a lot of that up to the others. Shawn, Shane, David, Vincent, and Gabriel were able to investigate for us. And Dietrich, after he talked with Riviana, would be able to assist them.
…..
Sometimes, like right now, it paid to be in charge. Delegating things in situations when there was way too much work for one person was a very good option to have. And likewise, having multiple people to dictate too was even better.
The guards were interviewing everyone here, getting all the information that we needed. There was no body to see, and the crime scene yielded nothing new. All in all, that work wouldn’t take too long. We would be out of here before too much longer.
When we got back to the house, I called Alexio over to have a talk with him. Riviana seemed to be doing the same with Talia. I had a feeling this was going to be when she reprimanded her for her actions like I was about to do with Alexio.
“Hey, Alexio, come talk to me for a moment.” My voice was calm, but I knew that my expression was firm and annoyed. That didn’t seem to faze the demon at all though. He just walked over like it was nothing at all.
“Yes, King Joaquin?” He still addressed me properly, so that was a plus. He hadn’t just suddenly abandoned all of the respect that he had for us.
“What happened earlier? Riviana told you to keep Talia out of the woods.” I got right to the point. No reason to beat around the bush.
“Hahh.” He sighed and looked at the floor. Sometimes, I found it annoying to talk to this man. He was like a foot taller than me. Dammit! I was the king. I was the Alpha. He should not be that much bigger than me. It was such bullshit that it pissed me off. “Alright. I know that. I know what Queen Riviana said. And I reminded Talia of that as well. But, well, Talia is going to be my queen. She will be the goddess of the underworld. And that actually outranks Queen Riviana, to me anyway. I am not a wolf. And that means that when the time comes, I need to follow the leader of my people, of my world.” I had a feeling it was something like that.
“Did Talia tell you that?” I glared at him. “Did she remind you of her future position and rank to make you listen to her?” The anger was bubbling inside of me. I just didn’t know if it was at this man or at my daughter.
“Yes. She did.” He was looking right at me, and I could see that he knew what was going on. He messed up. He shouldn’t have done that.
“You played right into her hands, Alexio. You let her manipulate you. Yeah, OK, she will be your queen. But she isn’t right now. She is just a fifteen year old girl that is training to be a goddess and queen. She won’t rule your people for a long time. And because she wanted to disobey her parents, she manipulated you.” I had to beat this into his head.
“I know.” Wow, he wasn’t going to deny it.
“If things like this are going to keep happening, Alexio, then I can’t trust you to guard my daughter anymore. You need to stay strong. You need to be tough and firm with her. It’s for her own good. She doesn’t yet know what is and isn’t safe for her. She needs you to help her there.” I swear the man paled instantly. And that was saying something. The man was already pale to begin with.
“I swear to you. I will keep her safe. I will not let her persuade me like this again. I will make sure that she stays away from things that she needs to be kept away from. However-.” He was on a roll there for a moment, before he added that last word. That was when I interrupted him.
“However?” I spat the word back at him. “What could you possibly have to bargain with here?”
“I would like you and Queen Riviana to think about Talia here. She is training to take over the underworld. That means that she is going to see the worst that the world has to offer. She will know death. She will know pain. She will know suffering. And I personally do not think that you are doing her any favors by hiding it all with her. Yes. I know. When I learned about the things that she had heard from the souls she freed, I was horrified. Like you, King Joaquin, my first thought was to protect her. But I was wrong.”