The Alpha 8: Protect. Procreate. Prevail., page 11
“In that case, I can’t wait to witness it,” I replied with a light shrug. “If it’s as good as you’re saying, then I better prepare myself.”
“Yeah, you should,” Samantha agreed with a kind smile.
As the women walked off stage, I went over to see Jack Nolan once more before I left. I wanted to tell him how incredible that was, and I wanted him to know how much I enjoyed it.
However, before I could say anything, Jack took the words right out of my mouth.
“Jesse, well done!” he cried as he slapped my shoulder. “You were wonderful.”
“Thank you.” I smiled. “At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep up with everyone, but then it felt easier as time went on.”
“That’s a sign of a natural musician.” He smirked. “Professor Collins would be so proud if he saw you here.”
“I bet he would,” I laughed. “I can’t wait to tell him all about it.”
“I’ll have to see if I can get video footage of you performing,” Jack mumbled. “I’m sure I could sort something out.”
“That would be great, thanks,” I replied.
“So, will you be joining us for dinner?” he asked.
“I plan to.” I nodded. “I’m about to go and do something with my family, but I hope to be back in time.”
“Don’t stress yourself out if you can’t make it.” Jack smiled. “Everyone needs some down time, now more than ever.”
Truer words had never been spoken.
I said a brief goodbye to Jack, and then I went to join my family before we left the performance center. My omegas couldn’t keep their hands off me, and they managed to give me hugs and kisses on my cheeks without causing any suspicion.
As expected, Brenden and Marco were parked outside, and Benji had already climbed into one of the cars.
“I just told the others to head back to the hotel,” he said. “I didn’t see the need for everyone to come along with us.”
“That makes sense.” I nodded as I placed my violin on the passenger seat. “It’s not like we’re traveling without any sort of security.”
“So how did it go, Jesse?” Marco asked. “Hailey said you were amazing.”
“Then she must have been telling the truth.” I smirked. “Nah, in all honesty, it was hard at first, but then it got easier, and I quickly found my rhythm.”
“I can’t wait to see the real thing in a couple days’ time,” Brenden called out from the other car. “We’ll all be there!”
“Yeah, try and stop us,” Marco snickered.
“I already knew you’d be there,” I laughed. “Hence why I sent everyone some money to buy tickets before we left Oregon.”
“Oooh, you guys are going to love it!” Arielle squealed. “Jesse is… Aah, he’s unbelievable!”
“I know, thank you.” I winked.
“Alright, alright, Jesse’s great, we get it.” Benji rolled his eyes playfully. “But we really need to go before I die of starvation.”
“When did you last eat?” I asked as I climbed into the front of Marco’s car.
“About an hour ago,” Benji replied. “So I’m wasting away over here.”
“I’m sure you are,” I snickered. “Okay, Marco, let’s go.”
Nikita, Arielle, and Benji came with Marco and I, and Hailey, Blair, and Aunt Eva were with Brenden. My omegas waved at each other as we pulled out of the parking lot, but the sweet gestures were quickly replaced by a competition to see who could reach the holiday home first.
“Marco!” Nikita cried from the backseat. “You totally could have made that light, now Brenden’s ahead of us!”
“Do you want to drive?” Marco asked. “Actually… don’t answer that. But look, the lights up ahead have also turned red, so Brenden won’t get very far before we catch up with him.”
And Marco was right, because before Brenden could get through the second set of traffic lights, we had overtaken them.
But then a strange sensation suddenly rolled down my back as my skin began to prickle.
It was the same feeling I’d had the other night when I returned home to Monroe.
Like someone was watching me.
“Did anyone else just get a really weird feeling?” I asked as I tried to shake out the tingling sensation.
“Fuck, like someone’s walking on your grave?” Benji asked, and I turned in my seat to see a look of confusion on his face. “Because… I literally just got the same thing. Is the hair at the back of your neck sticking up?”
“Yep,” I sighed.
“I don’t feel anything.” Arielle frowned.
“Neither do I,” Nikita replied.
It could have been an easy explanation, but the fact that Benji and I had both felt it, and my omegas were in the car, quickly put me on edge.
“Stop the car,” I ordered as I glanced out of the windows.
I couldn’t see anyone around us, nor did I pick up on any shifter scents when I rolled down the window.
“Jesse, what’s going on?” Arielle asked. “Is everything okay?”
“We’re about to find out,” I sighed.
Marco and Brenden both skidded to a halt at the same time, and I ordered both of them to get out of the cars and check the surroundings. Benji and I stood outside, and I had Aunt Eva, Blair, and Hailey sit with the others so everyone was together.
The strange feeling left just as quickly as it had appeared, yet I still didn’t want to ignore the fact that it was the second time I’d experienced something like that in recent days.
“It happened the other night,” I explained as I continued to stare into the trees around me. “But I was tired, I hadn’t stopped working, and I just assumed it was my body’s way of telling me to get some rest.”
“To be honest, bro, none of us have stopped going and going since Theo died,” Benji said with a light shrug. “We’re also not very good at this ‘vacation’ thing if we’re constantly on edge.”
“And Arielle and I didn’t feel anything,” Nikita said.
“No, nor did we,” Blair added.
Several minutes later, Marco and Brenden returned, but they said they hadn’t seen anything, and there wasn’t a single shifter scent in the air, nor did they see any tracks on the ground.
However, even though we hadn’t seen anything, I still didn’t want to pass it off as nothing.
Shifter threats could appear at any time, and it didn’t matter where in the world we were. I also knew from Hazel Wise that the SDD were constantly taking notes, and now that I had been added as a potential threat, it might have been that they needed to keep a closer watch over me.
I told everyone in the cars to remain alert and focused, just in case. I made sure to message the other betas, too, so the entire pack understood what was going on. But I also reassured them that I wouldn’t allow the SDD to fuck me around like that.
If they wanted to stalk my pack and take notes, then they could go ahead and do it. But everyone knew I had dealt with much harsher threats than some weak human agents.
It took us about an hour to reach the house after we set off again, and I barely paid attention to the race because I was too busy looking out the windows and sniffing the air. I never saw anything, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to keep looking.
From what I heard through Nikita’s shouts, it was a constant chop and change when it came to who was going to win the rice. However, as we arrived at my new holiday home, Marco performed a remarkable maneuver, and we pulled into the long sloping driveway seconds before the others.
“Yesss!” Nikita cheered.
“Take that, suckers!” Benji chuckled.
“It was a good race, but we won,” Arielle said sweetly.
I was just pleased there still weren’t any strange smells in the air, and I hadn’t felt the tingling feeling since I had ordered Marco and Brenden to stop the cars.
“Okay, holy fuck,” Nikita said as she finished celebrating and gaped at the view outside. “We need to move here. Like, now.”
I had to admit, regardless of how much I loved Monroe, this new home was incredible.
Hell, it wasn’t even a home.
It was a goddamn mansion, and I used the immaculate new home to help wash away the anxiety I had felt in the car.
The property was based in the middle of nowhere, with rolling hills on the horizon, and trees as far as the eye could see. I hadn’t spotted any other houses around us, so it felt like we were the only ones in the area.
The mansion must have had at least ten bedrooms, maybe even a couple more, and the entire building was made from soft yellow-colored brick. The house appeared to be rectangular in shape, but there could have been more in the back that I hadn’t seen yet.
Palm trees lined the driveway, there was a wrap-around balcony on the second floor, and there was a separate garage off to the right made from the same brick as the rest of the house.
I’d had no idea what the Jansen homes looked like yet, and I only wanted to inherit one of them, so I felt like I’d done a pretty good job choosing blindly.
“Holy fuck,” Blair gasped as she stared up at the property. “This is a thing of beauty.”
“Is this really yours, Jesse?” Hailey asked with excitement in her green eyes.
“It’s not mine.” I smirked. “It’s ours. And it’s free whenever we want to return here and use it.”
“I say we come here every weekend,” Nikita chuckled. “Arrive Friday, spend the weekend in the bedroom, and then fly home in our private jet Sunday.”
“That sounds like a great idea to me,” I chuckled. “I can just imagine the things we could get up to in that time.”
“Yeah, and I can imagine the positions we could be in, too,” Blair moaned. “Oooh, so many positions.”
“Mmm, don’t,” Arielle groaned. “I can’t hold back like I normally do.”
“C’mon, you horny mess,” Hailey giggled as she looped her arm around Arielle’s. “Let’s at least check out the home before we christen it.”
“But where’s the fun in that?” Nikita snorted.
All of a sudden, the white front door opened, and Marley, Serena, and Hope raced from the house.
“Hey!” Marley cried. “We wondered when you guys would get here!”
“Marley, we literally saw Brenden and Marco leave a few hours ago,” Serena chuckled.
“Yeah, but we’ve been waiting for days!” he replied.
“Hi.” Hope waved.
She was incredibly shy and rarely talked, so it meant a lot that she wanted to come and greet us.
“Hey.” I smiled. “Where are the others? It seems pretty quiet around here, even with Marley present.”
“Most of them are scattered around the house somewhere,” Serena replied. “Kahn, Leo, Thomas, and Kiri went for a run through the trees to let off some steam. But after the message we got from you, they also wanted to check the area.”
“Good idea, thanks.” I smiled. “Have you heard anything from them?”
“No, nothing.” Serena shook her head. “It’s like we’re the only ones who have been in the trees since we got here a few days ago.”
“At least that’s comforting to know,” I said with a light laugh.
“C’mon, c’mon!” Marley bounced on the spot. “You neeeed to come and see the backyard!”
“Okay,” I laughed. “We’ll come and see it, but only if you chill for a second.”
“You’re not even ready,” Serena replied. “The front is, like, mediocre compared to the back.”
“Well, now you’ve convinced me to go,” I said.
According to Serena, we could have walked around the side of the house to reach the backyard, but she also wanted to show us the entryway, too.
And I was very glad she did.
The foyer was enormous, and it ran straight through to the back door on the other side. There were glistening marble tiles on the floor, a curved staircase with a black iron banister that took us to the second floor, and a silver chandelier hung delicately from the ceiling.
We didn’t stop to check out the rooms just yet, but Marley pointed out the living room to the left, the kitchen and dining room to the right, and he also said there was a door in the kitchen that took us to the gym.
There were eleven bedrooms upstairs, including a master that took up an entire section of the house. Apparently the closets alone were bigger than some of the other bedrooms, and every bedroom had access to the balcony.
“But now, this is what you’ve all been waiting for…” Marley said with a smirk as he placed his hand around the handle of the back door. “Ta-da!”
“Oh, shit,” Blair coughed out a laugh.
“This is what I’m talking about,” Nikita said.
Arielle and Hailey were lost for words, and so was I.
The backyard seemed to go on for miles before it ran into the forests, and I couldn’t even tell if the trees were part of my land or not.
Half of the yard was covered in stone tiles, but there was an enormous circular pool that took up the majority of it. There was also a hot tub, a swim-up bar, enough sun loungers for everyone to take a seat, and at one side of the pool there was a collection of fake rocks with a diving platform and even a slide.
Further down the yard was a tennis court where Jackson and Kassidy were in the middle of a match, and some more chairs with an unlit fire pit in the middle.
“This is beautiful,” Aunt Eva sighed as she glanced up into the sky.
“We’re definitely having a pool party,” Benji announced. “I say we have one right now.”
“Yes, yes, can we, Jesse?” Hailey asked.
“Sure.” I shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”
“Fuck yeah!” Blair cried out. “I’ll see if the other girls can lend us a bikini for the night.”
“Oh, speaking of other girls,” Serena said suddenly. “Kristina found something in the basement that she wanted to show you, Jesse.”
“What did she find?” I frowned.
“I don’t know.” Serena shrugged. “But she wanted me to tell you.”
“Okay,” I replied. “Is she down there now?”
“Yeah.” Serena nodded. “She literally just went down there before you guys pulled up.”
“Perfect, thanks.” I smiled.
My omegas were far more interested with the pool, and the potential party, so I left them with the others as I went off to locate the basement. Marco told me it was the door at the back of the staircase, so at least it was easy enough to find.
A set of red-carpeted stairs took me into the basement, and the same carpet carried on throughout the underground floor.
“Kristina?” I asked as I glanced around.
The basement instantly made me think of cigar lounges, with green leather couches, bookcases that took up entire walls, and golden lighting in the corners of the room.
It was either a cigar lounge, or Jonathan Jansen had used the basement to play poker with his buddies whenever he had stayed here.
“Hey,” a faint voice called out from the other side of the room. “I’m in here!”
“Where’s here?” I chuckled as I spun around in a circle. “All I can see are bookcases.”
I was certain there weren’t any other doors, but then it all made sense when one of the bookcases suddenly swung open.
“A secret room.” I grinned. “Nice.”
“Come on in, you need to see this,” Kristina urged me over.
I thought that might have been Jonathan’s secret stash of cigars, but it turned out to be much better than that.
It was a secret door to a fucking gun cellar.
“Ffff… Fuck me,” I chuckled. “That’s a lot of guns.”
“I know, isn’t it amazing?” Kristina squealed.
There must have been at least forty guns, maybe even fifty, and all of them were safely nestled on the walls in size order. They all looked like rifles to me, but I wasn’t a gun expert, so Kristina had to explain everything about the firearms in front of me.
Apparently we had a mix between AR10s and AR15s, some of them had Leupold optics whereas others had Vortex, but they basically just looked like expensive rifles with nice optics on top.
Kristina also mentioned something about Daniel Defense, FN Herstal, and the Bravo Company, which I assumed were the manufacturers, but I didn’t know for sure.
“Basically, they’re all top, top rifles,” Kristina snorted. “And I cannot wait to teach everyone how to use them. I’ve taught kids how to fire a gun, so I know what I’m doing.”
“Really?” I asked as my eyes widened.
“Yeah,” she replied. “My family and I used to go to shooting ranges every summer, so I’ve literally grown up with some sort of gun in my hand.”
“I didn’t know that,” I said. “I’m impressed.”
“Thank you.” She winked.
But then, before either of us could say anything, a frantic voice began to shout through my mind.
Jesse! Kiri cried out in fear. Jesse, are you there?
What’s wrong, Kiri? I asked as I made my way out of the gun cellar.
Werecoyotes! she replied, and she sounded close to tears. Seven of them!
What? I asked. Where are you? What’s going on?
The werecoyotes are chasing us through the forest at the back of the house, Thomas explained in more detail. They just appeared out of nowhere!
Okay, just stay calm, I ordered as I sprinted out into the yard.
Everyone around me all had the same look of fear in their eyes, but Benji and Brenden had already shifted and were simply waiting for my command.
Quickly, Jesse! Kiri pleaded. They’re right behind us!
Don’t worry, I’m coming, I growled as I kicked off my shoes.
Then I crouched to the ground as I allowed my wolf form to break through my skin.
Chapter 7
The second my powerful paws landed on the stone tiles, I took off down the yard with Benji and Brenden right beside me.
Everyone stay inside! I ordered. Lock the doors and do not go anywhere on your own! Kristina, empty the fucking gun cellar if you have to, and be prepared to shoot anyone who even attempts to come into the house.
