Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
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“I had an idea, Queen Riviana.” He spoke formally, which is something that he often did when he was feeling inadequate.
“Gabriel, please drop the title and just talk to me.” He knew that I hated it when my friends and family were so formal with me. I would accept the strangers using the title, but not people that have been so close to me and Joaquin that our kids considered them aunts and uncles. That just felt wrong.
“I know Riviana, and I am sorry. Sometimes, old habits are hard to forget.” He smirked and came to sit at the table that was near the window at the back of the room. “I came to tell you something that occurred to me recently. Something that I should have realized sooner. However, somehow, I just didn’t think about it until just recently. Now that I have, though, I feel like an idiot for letting it wait this long.”
“You’re not an idiot, Gabriel.” I sat across from him and patted his hand. “We’ve all been busy, and we’ve had a lot on our minds. There is nothing at all to be self-conscious or worried about. Just tell me what it is that you thought about.” I didn’t want him to feel bad about this. He just needed to tell me what it was as soon as he could. That way, if it was important enough, I could do what needed to be done with the information.
“Well, you see, I was thinking about the fact that those people, the Jaegans, use runes to do the things that they do. The one killed himself with a rune, but they also use them to kill our kind.” He had a serious look on his face as he spoke. I could tell that he really had thought about this topic long and hard.
“Yes, I know that They used them in ways that I never thought were possible. It means that we have all had to start thinking about this differently.” I let him know that I was following along with him and was ready for him to continue.
“Well, the thing is, runes are a very old and very ancient type of magic. A lot of them date back to the War of the Realms. They were ancient magics used by the Gods and the Demons. Humans, who were caught in the crossfires between the two as the war raged here on earth, had to learn to use the runes for themselves so that they could stay alive.”
“Wait, the War of the Realms?” I was confused about that. “I haven’t heard about a War of the Realms.”
“Well, you haven’t studied history as much as I have. Not to mention, I have spoken to Alex and Rudy about this matter as well. They were both knowledgeable about it because they are Demons. Alex, oddly enough, had been created to fight in that war. He knew a lot more about this subject and I talked to him about it in great lengths. I made sure to add that to the ever growing archives that the Sentinelle continues to house.” I thought briefly about those archives and the time that I spent learning from them when I first got married. Joaquin and I had needed to train at the Sentinelle so that we could stop my father, since at that time he was still alive and causing us a lot of trouble.
“Alright, so there was a battle between the realms, and in that the humans learned to use the runes. What runes did they use at the time?” I was not sure if I was going to get a straight answer or a vague one, but at least this was moving in a positive way.
“They mostly used things for extra strength, added defense, and things like that. There were also reports of a true sight rune that made it so that super naturals and the like couldn’t hide from the humans. They would be able to see what they were no matter what was going on around them. I think that the Jaegans are using a variation of that rune to see when they are near a nonhuman. It will make it easier for them to find their victims. However, we can use that rune as well.” Gabriel was excited about this as he started to excitedly explain all of the things that he had been thinking about. He really was a smart man and could put a lot of puzzle pieces together even if he didn’t have a lot of information to start with.
“How could we use that rune? What purpose would it do for us? We can smell and know when there are others of our kind nearby.” I wasn’t following on the true sight rune. It wouldn’t help us to know where all the nonhumans were. Most of us already knew that information. Him included.
“It’s not for that purpose, Riviana.” He smiled at me and seemed to have a slightly mischievous look on his face. “You see, we can use the true sight rune to find the Jaegan, even when they are wearing those special cloaks of theirs. They can’t hide from us in plain sight like they did before. We will see them, no matter what.”
“Hmm, that really is a good idea.” I nodded at him. “Are there other runes that you think will come in handy for us?” Now that we were talking about this, it would be best to go all the way down that rabbit hole. We needed to know what all we had to do, how many runes we all needed.
“Well, you have shields that you could put on us, but we can’t know if they can work properly for us when fighting runes, so I think the ones for defense will be good as well. And that might be a good defense against that special light that they have.”
“The light?” I was confused for a moment before I remembered that part of Talia’s visions. “Oh, that’s right. How they made it so that their victims were in a sort of trance. Yeah, that is something that scares me. What if they flash that light on us when we go to fight them? We would all be left defenseless against them. I know that Joaquin has been wondering about that as well.” I had been trying to think of a good way to go against these people since we found out who and what they were. We needed to stop them, no matter what they had planned, it couldn’t be brought to fruition.
“Yes, that light. And I think that the protection runes would help us with that. I don’t want anyone to fall victim to those people. I don’t want any more of us to die at all. And we only have a little bit of time before we have to face them at that park. I don’t know if that will be the final battle, or if it will just be the first strike that we make. What I do know though, is that it will be a pivotal point in all of this.” Gabriel had made a compelling argument, one that I had absolutely no reason not to agree with.
For the next several minutes, Gabriel and I talked about what it was that we needed to do. We discussed how we were going to apply the runes, since carving them into our flesh was likely a bad idea. We talked about where the runes should go on all of us, as well as the children, and not just my children either. I was going to have these marks put on as many kids as possible. I didn’t want anyone in my city to get taken by those people. I didn’t want one single more person from my kingdom to die at the hands of those monsters. We were going to put an end to this, we were going to protect everyone, no matter what.
After Gabriel left, the talking done for the time being, I sat at my table alone while I thought some more. This was something that we couldn’t postpone. I had to put as much of this into effect first thing in the morning. And that meant that I would have a lot of phone calls to make, starting with those that ran the school.
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Joaquin
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By the time that we all made it to the park that Clovio had mentioned, there was no one there. The park was supposed to be closed, but that hadn’t stopped those Jaegan assholes from using it. And it wasn’t stopping me and the guys from searching it as well. Not to mention, if the cops showed up to stop me from doing my job, I had several people to call and fix the situation. I wasn’t concerned at all.
OK, I wasn’t concerned about being caught and arrested. I was concerned though, just about other things. I was concerned about Clovio and Warrick, not that they deserved that from me. I was worried that they might have been hurt by the other men in their group. And since we needed their help to finish this shit and to save my people, I needed to make sure that those two boys were safe. I was going to protect them to the best of my ability.
Not to mention, whether I liked it or not, I had to protect Warrick for Alyssa. He was her mate. Her actual mate. Not like Talia who was trying to force it to happen because she liked the boy. Alyssa and Warrick were mated for real. I knew this for a fact the moment that I saw them together. The way that they were looking at each other, the connection and love that they had for each other was real. And that was why Alyssa had been hurt so deeply when she found out who and what Warrick really was.
Alyssa had looked like someone had destroyed her. She had looked like a part of her had died and the world would never recover. I knew that look, it was a look that Riviana and I had a lot when we were first together. Our wolves wanted each other, but neither of us would give in to the other. It had almost destroyed us completely and I never thought that we would recover from it. We did though, we made it through that tough time, and we are so much stronger because of it now. And I know that Alyssa and Warrick will make it through this as well. They just need to be patient. And if he loves her, Warrick will do whatever it is that he has to just to make sure that Alyssa is happy.
…..
“They’re gone, Joaquin Though you already knew that.” Riley came running back to me from across the park. “There were a lot of them here though. Enough that I think that we can track their scents and see where they went.”
“Yeah, I agree.” I nodded at him. “We should split up and follow them. I will go with-.” I started to explain things when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Knowing the messages that I had gotten earlier I wasn’t about to postpone this. It could have to do with those people as well.
Sure enough, when I took my phone out of my pocket, it was a message from a new number. It wasn’t Clovio this time. This message had come from Warrick, and he seemed to have sent me an audio clip.
“What is it?” Riley asked as he looked at the phone in my hand.
“Well, I guess we will be finding out soon, won’t we.” I downloaded the clip and pressed play on the screen. I had the volume low, since we would hear it no matter what. There was no reason to let anyone that wasn’t part of my group hear the message. I couldn’t risk that. Not to mention, the message that had accompanied the audio recording had me feeling nervous.
“I thought that I needed to record this. The others that just joined us in Colorado Springs have some nefarious plans that they are going to enact. We were worried about you and the girls. I hope this helps a little bit.” I thought that this sentiment was nice of him. Then again, he was in love with Alyssa, so he was on our side more than his family’s. I guess it was beneficial to have a mole on the inside for us.
I looked up just before the message started to play, Trevor and Noah were coming toward me while Carter, Landon, and Valerian were just a little further behind them. They were all almost here, so they would all hear the message that Warrick sent me.
It seemed that the majority of the recording was done by one man, but there were a couple times when others would talk. They were all men though, and they all had similar accents, so I knew that they were all from the same place.
VOICE 1:
“鈥損ast time that we stepped up our game.”