Half Blood: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Alyx Riddle Chronicles Book 1), page 1
Half Blood
The Alyx Riddle Chronicles
Book 1
A paranormal romance novel
By: Alijah Sawyer
Copyright © 2019 Alijah Sawyer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without prior consent of the author.
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Cover Designed by Natasha Snow Designs
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Contents
Title
Copyright
Blurb
Book Extras
Newsletter
Cursed, Book 2 of The Alyx Riddle Chronicles
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
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Every harem has a beginning. This is the heart pounding start to The Alyx Riddle Chronicles.
~
Alyx was a girl in the dark. Tormented by the demons who sent her mother to an early grave. And ever since her mother’s death, Alyx had a growing feeling that there was much more going on beneath the surface of this boring life of hers.
Then one grim night at the Blakemore Asylum, unknown forces determined to set her on a new path guided her down into the pits of the mad-house that she worked. It was there that Alyx would come face to face with the embodiment of the darkness that haunted her dreams. This thing is what the doctors had said wasn’t real. But what if it is? What happens then?
~
Roman was broken, damaged, a dangerous wolf shifter on a single-minded hunt to avenge the murder of his father and younger brother. For two years he had searched and now the hunt was as cold as when he’d first left Pearl. Most had said he’d turned his back on his pack and ignored his duty to go on a mad vengeful hunt. And most were right.
So when he felt defeated, he made his way back to Pearl. His home. It wasn’t until his rage had burned itself out and he returned to accept his fate that his eyes began to open to the truth. He had been looking for answers in all the dark corners of the world but one. His own.
Chapter One
Alyxandra
Outside the rickety wooden window, the still of the night mesmerized Alyx as she gazed out onto the manicured lawn of the Asylum.
Slammed with the crisp earthy smell of fall, Alyx took a deep breath and tried to exhale her stress away. She reached up to push the heavy window open further, letting more of the cool breeze into the tiny office.
A breath escaped her lips.
“Alyx, did you check on Susan after she got her meds?” Carmen asked as she strutted to her desk and sat down. She exhaled deeply before reaching for the bottom cabinet drawer where she kept her bonbons and Mr. Goodbars.
Alyx dreaded these shifts with Carmen, and it wasn’t because she didn’t share.
“No, but I’ll head down after I finish initialing this book,” Alyx said, avoiding eye contact.
Carmen knew damn well that it was her job and that’s why she got paid the big nursing bucks. But it never stopped her from pawning off her responsibilities on Alyx and the other drudges of the Blakemore Asylum.
Like we don’t have enough on our hands already, Alyx muttered to herself.
She turned the page and started on a new patient’s chart, trying to rush as she went down the columns, checking off the tasks she completed. It was near the end of her shift and she had to get a head start on her books if she was ever going to get out on time.
“Please go now!” Carmen said without turning away from her computer.
Alyx looked up and saw her logging into her Facebook account.
“You have two perfectly damn good feet,” Alyx snapped, rolling her eyes.
She wasn’t up for dealing with Carmen’s demands.
“Come on Alyx. I put her on hourly checks after that shit she did in the dining room, plus she likes you,” Carmen begged. She stuffed her mouth with powdered donuts, crumbs falling all over her keyboard and desk.
“Fine,” Alyx grunted and shook her head.
Grabbing her keys and patting her pockets to make sure she had both work phones, Alyx walked out of the tiny glass office the patients called Pandora’s Box. She walked down the faded teal hallways toward the elevators that divided the west and east wings of the Asylum.
Normally Alyx would have told Carmen where she should go shove her request, but Alyx thought of her snug little chair in the break room that was calling her name instead. Leaving Carmen to deal with the last round of checks suddenly seemed more appealing.
Alyx was drained. Physically and mentally drained. Working as an underpaid mental health specialist, or drudge as she called herself, in a psychiatric hospital was wearing on her big time. Her regular paycheck barely covered her rent, so she picked up shifts whenever her boss asked.
That night was particularly hard after all the running around she did in the ward. Almost every patient on the floor decided to echolocate across the TV room at each other after watching a documentary on how whales communicate. Alyx prayed they would fire the new activities girl or whoever decided that watching a documentary on whales was a rousing activity for the mentally ill.
The rest of the patients seemed determined to get out of there. They were opening random doors, setting the alarm off at least once an hour. Nights like this used to stress her out, but Alyx knew the work she did mattered. At least, she hoped it did.
They were short-staffed that night so she found herself with more patients to monitor. Floating between two floors with half of them on hourly checks. In some delusional upper manager’s mind, a shift like this was doable. But at the end of the day, she did her best as always.
Someone had to take care of the insane.
The health bracelet Alyx wore had her clocking in at 11,371 steps for the day and she had a few more hours of work to go. She knew she would easily hit 50,000 steps for a four day work week. Actually more since she picked up some weekend shifts.
Alyx had no life outside of her work. And because of that, she got her meals, workouts, and meaningful social interactions all during her ten-hour shifts. Which also meant she hadn’t been in a serious relationship in over three years.
Alyx thought she was slightly above average in the looks department. She was thick in all the right places from running after patients in the Asylum. And of course there was her wild hair. It had a life of its own and she had long stopped trying to manipulate it into painful styles.
She reached the double elevators, pressed the down button and waited. She had just sat down when Carmen pulled her superiority card demanding she check on Susan. And even though she hated going down to the basement, Susan was worth it.
The basement of the Asylum looked like it was right out of an episode from one of those dark and ominous TV shows. Dingy walls, fluorescent bulbs, the works. But it was the smell that got to Alyx. No amount of bleach or ammonia could quite erase the sickeningly sweet stench of death from the basement.
The patients who were brought down there hardly had any visitors, and with few outside eyes, it was the perfect place for the confinement of the more challenging ones. The patients the state had conveniently forgotten.
Rumors circulating around the hospital made Alyx scared to step foot in Dr. Winston Higgins Ward. The silver-haired doctor didn’t appear to have all his marbles in his jar, Susan had once said.
Despite all the gossip, Alyx could tell he believed he was making a difference in patients’ lives, so in her book he was alright.
The other drudges and a few nurses liked to gossip around the hospital about him, saying he was in his own little universe thinking he can heal the mentally ill with his unorthodox treatments. Those lot usually avoided working on his team. So that left Alyx with Carmen.
Alyx never asked what brought Carmen to Pearl. She surely didn’t fit in with the ‘normal’ people who walked the streets due to her Amazonian height.
She had expertly manufactured a happy atmosphere for when the directors did their monthly stroll to observe the patients’ progress. It was all smiles and laughs with them dosed up on their as-needed Ativan or whatever medication Dr. Higgins had prescribed. And poor Susan was her latest victim. Susan had been restrained as soon as dinner started. Over a piece of chocolate cake.
Everyone knew Susan had to have her cake before the main course but for some reason the server wanted to play by his own rules that night.
The elevator’
Alyx had reported the first time she’d seen Carmen’s mistreatment. But nothing happened. The second time she noticed the stares from her co-workers. The third time got her brought up to the director’s office to talk about professionalism in a field like theirs.
Whatever the hell that meant.
Eventually Alyx got the hint. So she kept to herself and tried to bring a little humanity to the few patients she could. Even if it lasted but a few days before they relapsed, it meant everything to her and showed some improvement. At least in her eyes it did.
Painting the ladies’ nails or styling their hair made them feel a part of a community and that warmed Alyx’s heart.
Susan was a small elderly Asian woman who swore up and down Alyx was her granddaughter. One time they had painted a picture together, and the brown paint Alyx had used for herself didn’t stir Susan away from the love she said she felt in her heart for Alyx.
So to see her get drugged up more than she already was for slapping a server didn’t sit well with Alyx. The server probably didn’t deserve the slap, but he also should have seen it coming for not giving Susan her cake. Word about the slap got back to Carmen, which landed Susan down in the basement with the ‘crazies’
Alyx turned the corner and was hit with the strong smell of death. She covered her nose with her sleeve and walked towards the last door on the left.
This shit has to be illegal, she thought and wondered if the other patients who lived down there had daily recreational time outside the foul basement.
She felt the hairs on the nape of her neck stand up and an uneasy feeling washed over her. The sound of her footsteps echoed behind her, along with a low growl she couldn’t place.
It had to be the furnace, Alyx thought. She took a deep breath, remembering that the hospital was well over a hundred years old, it had to be the furnace.
Slowly glancing behind her and finding nothing but an empty hallway, Alyx continued down the path.
Alyx heard the sound again, and this time she was positive it sounded like an animal. The basement creeped her out, especially at night. But she pulled on the last few bits of courage she had and ran towards Susan’s room. Her heart beating fast in her chest.
Using the keycard to unlock the room, Alyx slid inside, pushing the door closed behind her. The room was eerily dark, with only the faint light from the moon peering through the window. Alyx could make out the silhouette of a sleeping Susan in bed. But the sigh of relief faded as she realized the key card wasn’t in her hand anymore. She checked her pockets and did a 360-degree turn, scanning the floors in case she dropped it, but she couldn’t see it anywhere.
“What the hell?”
Her eyes went back to the bed as Susan suddenly sat up, her wrist restraints falling to the ground. Before Alyx could utter a word, Susan rushed her and pinned her against the door, her face pressed up against the small glass opening.
“My sweet pea, so glad you came to check on me. I knew you would. We mustn’t waste any time. Look across the hall. Tell me, what do you see?” Susan asked, holding Alyx’s arms out to the sides.
This crazy little old woman had some strength to her. Alyx thought.
“Susan, please let me go,” Alyx demanded calmly. She was doing her best not to overreact and let the situation get out of control. The last thing Alyx needed was more paperwork when she was about to leave.
“Don’t you hear me Alyxandra? Look! What do you see?” she asked again.
Alyx tried her best to wiggle free but she was stuck. Susan was barely over a hundred pounds yet she held Alyx against the door as if she was a linebacker pushing his opponent across the field.
Deciding that playing along with Susan’s game might be her best option, Alyx stared out the small window and saw a similar door across the shadowy hall. Her vision became blurry and her eyes burned before focusing on the door. Alyx silently cursed herself for forgetting her eye drops at home as her eyes felt as if they were on fire.
Once her vision cleared, Alyx saw Dr. Higgins and another man standing over the bed of the new patient she had helped admit the night before.
Why was he here so late? she wondered.
“What are they saying?” Susan asked from behind her.
“Susan, you’re hurting my arm,” Alyx protested.
“Listen Alyxandra. What do you hear?”
Alyx didn’t know how she was going to get herself out of this situation. She contemplated yelling for help as she looked through the glass window again at Dr. Higgins. He should hear her and come to help. But, Alyx realized she was actually seeing through the door and not just through the glass opening.
“What the fuck? How in the hell is this happening?”
She saw the ink stain on Dr. Higgins’s lab coat and the penlight he often twirled between his fingers after examining a patient. There was no way she should have been able to see him so clearly, as if he was standing before her, with no door obstructing her view.
Alyx looked away, convinced her eyes were playing tricks on her. But curiosity got the best of her, and she focused back on the two men in the opposite room as their voices exploded in her head.
Did they say where they found him? Dr. Higgins asked the younger man.
Alyx couldn’t see his face, only the long black coat with a glimpse of an elaborate tattoo that traveled down his neck.
A mile outside the compound. No one knows how he got past the barriers.
A witch must have helped him. Look at his eyes, see the fixed pupils. Dr. Higgins said while holding the patient’s eyelids open. If you look a little closer, you can see the storm within. He’s fighting an internal battle he will not overcome.
He kept saying the same thing over and over until this happened. The dark stranger said, his voice flat and detached. What about the Faes? Could they have sent him?
Alyx didn’t remember anything being off with the new patient. He was unresponsive to verbal and physical stimuli.
Sure.
Just stared blankly off into space. Probably sedated for the transfer over to the Asylum.
It must have been some incantation. His stringent form seems familiar. A spell I’m sure your birth pack would enact in dire situations. There’s no way we can find out why he risked his life coming here. Only the witches can undo this, and it’s obvious he knew of the consequences he took by enacting this spell. The Fae were once able to summon this amount of energy to cast spells, but not anymore. This has to be the witches’ doing.
Wait a sec, Higgins. Did you say spell? No offense, oh wise one. But why do you keep insisting that we made love potions and healing elixirs? We never prayed to any god, the younger man said with a loud huff. He walked away from the bed and started pacing by the door, clearly annoyed.
Whatever the hell they were talking about was giving her the heebie-jeebies.
Have some respect for your pack’s history Dante. Dangerous times are approaching. One must not forget their lineage. Your father never did, in fact he surrounded himself in texts this very spell possibly originated from.
I’m well aware of my family history.
No need to wake the wolf. Just passing some knowledge your way, Dr. Higgins said and turned away from the man.
Alyx recognized the look on his face. He was in deep thought. He had the stare going on in full effect. The other psychiatrists had made videos of him doing busy work in his office and stopping midway, staring off into space just like many of the patients he treated. Similar to a petit mal seizure, only Dr. Higgins said he had been doing that his entire life and it had never caused him any harm. Alyx thought it looked like he had slipped into another world, leaving this one behind. Something she was all too familiar with herself.
Yeah, I hear you, the younger man. So what does the girl have to do with this?
Marshall has the answers to your questions. It seems that the walls suddenly have ears, and possibly eyes.
Alyx watched as the dark stranger turned and looked in her direction, nostrils flaring. Even though two solid doors were clearly between them, she felt his hot gaze burn into her chest. Seeing and hearing through doors aside. And with his face in clear view, Alyx found him handsome, although she wasn’t normally into the tattooed bearded gang member look.
