The First Alpha, page 4
Rutherford nodded absently. He didn't really understand, she knew, but it was nice to talk.
"The thing is that stem cells need a lot of energy to function, so healing leaves us very weak, just like you get when you forget to eat your supper and your blood sugar dips. We need to eat lots of food to replace the energy we use, or the cells will stop healing and we might die, if our injuries are severe enough. On a normal day, though, we just need a few hundred more calories than humans to keep us ticking over. We don't age like you, you see. Lucius is five hundred years old, for example. I'm just twenty three, but I might live to a thousand if I'm careful."
Rutherford chewed thoughtfully. "Oh yes, I remember you told me about those gents in the Bible. The old fellows."
Once again she was surprised at the way his memory worked. Some details stuck like glue while others floated away on the breeze. "Yes, the Bible, remember? All those people like Methuselah, Seth, Lamech and Noah, they all lived hundreds of years, but it's only because they were like us. The humans who wrote the Bible thought all people used to live that long in those days, but in fact not many people lived longer than thirty years. Legends built up around these special men, which is why they wrote about them. So Adam here," she said, pointing towards the slumbering man, "he looks around thirty, but he could actually be hundreds of years old." A thought occurred to her as she watched his chest slowly rise and fall. "Maybe... maybe even older." She shook her head, dismissing the thought. No, he couldn't be. She'd seen great age in those eyes, but no wolf could live that long. She looked to the old man, devouring his second biscuit. "Do you understand?"
Rutherford remained silent for a moment, staring at his biscuit in deep thought. Suddenly his eyes brightened.
"Dawn! The maid, she's called Dawn, not Pamela! Dawn Cartwright! Comes on Tuesdays. Pamela was her sister. The fat one, with the lovely big bum! Good grief, I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on... Sorry, miss, what were you saying? My mind wandered."
*
Genesis 2:7 -- And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Genesis 2:22 -- And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Adam dreamed.
Adam remembered.
He remembered everything. He remembered his childhood, and the desert. He remembered the long, cold nights. He remembered the welcome sight of the bright dawn, and the unforgiving sun.
He remembered playing with friends, bedding down in the lee of their homes. He remembered he was the only child without parents, but could not explain their absence. He remembered starkly that first shift, uncontrolled and terrifying. The sharp, rich tang of blood, and the fear in the boy's eyes as he died. He remembered fleeing the village, stumbling through the desert. He tried to kill himself with a sharpened stone, but the wound healed instantly.
He remembered learning to live with the guilt, and the pain. It became easier, as the years passed. He learned to tame the beast inside.
Adam was the first. As he grew and roamed he found others, each as fearful of their nature as he was of his own; each as confused and frightened. They banded together, these misfits, this cursed race, surviving long after those they loved had passed. They hunted, foraged, and eventually learned to control their powers; learned to control that terrifying primal rage. Some came to see these abilities not as a curse, but a gift.
Finally, after a hundred years of wandering through the wilderness, they came across the first child of their own kind; a child of shifters.
The parents, they learned, had been drawn to one another, the male even abandoning his human wife to be with his new mate. They'd discovered an unbreakable link tethering one soul to the other, even more powerful than what humans call love. Fate. Destiny. Divine will. They couldn't hope to describe it using the hollow shell of language. The bond was as elemental as the need to take a breath, and those who felt it couldn't resist its pull any more than they could reach out and hold down the rising sun.
The first two formed a union, and a child was born. However, the labor had been too much for the mother, Rachel, and she died at the age of ninety years on the day her son came into the world. The child's father, distraught, had tried to shift into wolf form, to take out his sorrow and rage on his cattle, but found he could no longer change. He didn't know how, or why, but the moment of his son's birth he had been blessed with mortality. Somehow the gift had been passed from the parents to child.
The father was Jacob. The son was Benjamin.
As the years passed Adam and his group found other children of shifters, each with a similar tale. The parents one day felt the call, and had no choice but to seek each other out. Some met in the same village, discovering their link over a chance kiss, while others crossed deserts and seas to find one another, and only when they came together did they feel complete. When they joined as one and produced offspring they lost their gift, their curse, and entered the realm of the mortals.
And they were thankful. They described it as an awakening, as if they had spent their whole lives blind, and one day gained sight. Some described the moment they joined their fated mate as if they had once more been welcomed by God into the Garden of Eden.
Centuries passed. Adam watched as each of his friends found love. He watched as they paired off, raised children and passed. He laughed bitterly as legends grew around the people he'd loved, around even himself, as the stories of their lives were taken and bastardized, written into holy books by human men who misunderstood their nature, perverted the truth to tell their empty parables.
He prayed each day to a God he no longer believed was listening. He prayed that He would finally bless Adam with the missing half of his soul, but his prayers went unanswered.
Until finally, after three thousand long, painful, heart rending years of loneliness, an answer finally came.
*
Adam woke.
His hand slipped to his side, feeling for the gunshot wound, and met nothing but bare, smooth skin. He flexed his muscles, testing for aches and pains, and smiled when he felt none. He was healed.
As he rose to sit he felt his skin peel away from the sticky dried blood on the floorboards, and turned to see the stained wood beneath him. He frowned. The last he remembered was feeling the pain of the buckshot entering his side, hearing the baying of dogs as they chased his scent. And then...
Something else. A woman. Dark brown hair and smooth skin. He remembered something about her eyes, about her expression as she met his gaze. A feeling he'd never felt before. And then fear. Confusion. The scent of an alpha nearby.
"Ah, you'll be the fellow from yesterday!" a voice cried out enthusiastically behind him. Adam spun in the direction of the voice to find Rutherford sitting at a table in his underwear, stirring a glass of tea with a steak knife.
"Be a good chap and help me find a mug, would you? I can't find a damned thing in this kitchen. Oh, and a teaspoon if you'd be so kind, and if you could locate my trousers I'd be indebted to you for life. They seem to have a habit of walking off by themselves, the blighters. Probably bored of shuffling along at my pace, what? Ha! Quite."
Adam squeezed the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. "Where am I?" he asked, confused.
Rutherford grinned as if Adam was simple minded. "Where are you? Where are you? You're on the bloody floor, is where you are, and I hate to be the one to say it but you seem to be missing your trousers also. It's so easy to misplace them, am I right?"
Adam shook the fog from his head. "No, I mean what is this place? Am I in your home?"
"Close enough," the smiling fool replied. "I have a room here, if that's what you mean. No, this is Master Lucius' home. He's kind enough to let me stay on, though, and there's always plenty of tea. Not a bad arrangement, if I could only find the mugs. It's just not right to drink it without proper china. Doesn't taste right." He took a sip and pinched his lips with distaste. "Bleurgh, nasty stuff. Anyway, I expect you'll be wanting to see Miss Cassie, though it may be prudent to track down your pants before you do."
"Miss Cassie? Is she the woman who brought me here?" Memories of the previous day slowly filtered through his confusion.
"I'd wager so, yes, I'd wager so. Either her or young Megan. Cassie was up all night pouring raw eggs in your mouth, in any case. Never seen such a display. She went off for a nap a while ago, so I thought I'd sit in and wait in case you crapped out a cake. Here, have some tea." He poured a fresh glass and waited for Adam to pull himself up to the table.
"Thank you," Adam grunted. His mouth was dry and filled with the foul taste of raw egg. He took a deep gulp, swilled the tea around his mouth and spat it back into the glass, wrinkling his nose with disgust. "This isn't tea. This is beef stock."
The old man peered into his glass. "Is it? Oh well, that'll explain the unusual taste, then."
Adam placed the glass on the table and prowled around the room, sniffing the air with suspicion. The scent of the alpha was weak. He clearly wasn't present, but it was still dangerous to remain. "Where can I find Miss Cassie?" He turned to the old man to find him staring into his glass, humming a slow, sad tune to himself, ignoring his as if he'd forgotten he was there. It didn't matter. Even in human form Adam's nose was more than sensitive enough to follow her scent through the still air of the house. He sniffed, picking up a strong trail that led back through the kitchen and towards the staircase. He followed it.
As he passed the old man a thin, bony hand suddenly shot out and grabbed his forearm. The grip couldn't possibly hurt, but Adam was surprised at its strength. He looked down, and for a moment Rutherford's rheumy eyes sparkled clearly, his mind fighting through the fog of senility.
"You have to get away from this place," he whispered urgently, his eyes fixed on Adam's, "and take Miss Cassie with you. It's not safe here. Master Lucius is a killer! He's evil!"
The grip slackened and Rutherford's eyes once more clouded over as his arm fell limply to his side. He turned back to his glass and resumed his mournful tune, humming as if Adam wasn't there.
*
"Hello?" called Adam, pushing the bedroom door ajar. "Miss? Are you awake?"
"Wait there, don't come in!" came the yelled reply. Cassie hurriedly jumped out of bed and tugged a silk nightgown around her body. Adam had already seen her naked once but there was no excuse to give him a repeat performance, no matter how long she'd pictured it as she held vigil beside his perfect body overnight. She rushed over to the mirror above the dresser and quickly checked her reflection. There were bags beneath her eyes from the sleepless night, but otherwise she couldn't complain. "OK, you can come in."
Adam pushed the door wide open and stepped inside, seemingly unashamed of his nudity. Cassie quickly dragged a thin blanket from the bed and tossed it to him, turning her back until he wrapped it around his body.
"I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't have any clothes."
She turned to the dressing table beside the bed and rummaged through the drawers for a moment. "Lucius should have some old clothes in here. You're about his size. Ah, here we are." She pulled out a pair of faded denim jeans and a white t-shirt, but as she tossed them to Adam he released his grip on the blanket to catch them. It fell to the ground, and Cassie found herself unable to avert her eyes as his body came into view once more. Just as it had been last night it was perfect, only now there was the added temptation of his smile to tackle... and those eyes. She couldn't help but stare. At the back of her mind the wolf drooled.
"Thank you," he said, tugging the jeans up his legs, keeping his eyes firmly on Cassie as he tucked his thick, heavy penis beneath the denim before zipping up. He pulled the thin shirt over his head, and Cassie couldn't help but admire the way his muscles slid smoothly beneath his skin as he moved. Despite his obvious discomfort at being in the home of an alpha - she could smell it on him - he seemed to enjoy her admiring glances, and Cassie was uncomfortably aware that he could pick up the nuances of her scent just as she could his. She knew the throbbing sensation between her legs was nothing compared to the signals she was sending in her pheromones. It wasn't Adam's fault, but she couldn't help feel a little pissed off at him for the way he made her body react to his presence.
"So I expect you'll be leaving now, now that you've healed?" The quicker she could get him out of the door the better, and not only for fear that Lucius might discover them together. She was honestly afraid that she may not be able to find the strength to resist Adam, were he to make a move. His pull on her was magnetic, despite his scruffy, unshaven jaw and the dried blood caked on his side.
He nodded, taking a step closer. "Yes, I'll be going. I just wanted to thank you for helping me heal. Without you I don't think I'd have survived. I owe you a life debt that can never be repaid."
Cassie found herself matching his step forward, bringing him just an arm's reach away. So close, she thought. If only I could touch him, just once more. If I just... reached out my hand. She squeezed her hands into fists, pressing her sharp nails against the soft skin of her palms to distract herself. "It was... it was my pleasure. I'm glad I could help." I just need to see that body once more. Just a quick peek.
"Well," said Adam, slowly walking backwards towards the door. "I hope we meet again someday." He reached the threshold and began to step through.
"Wait!" Cassie blurted out, with no clue what to say next. "Er... don't... look, there's no need to go just yet. You look like you've gone days without a wash. Why don't you take a shower before you leave? You're covered in blood. There's a bathroom just through there." She pointed towards the door to the en suite, and quickly drew back her hand when she saw she'd squeezed so hard her nails had drawn blood. Adam didn't seem to notice, but he looked uncertain.
"What about Lucius? Your... your husband?"
Cassie felt her cheeks flush. "He won't be back for days. And no, he's not my husband," she said, spitting the word with an edge of hate. "Not until the Long Night."
Adam shot her a questioning look. "Long Night?"
"Yes, the Long Night. The night of the full moon?" She couldn't believe any wolf was unaware of their most sacred time, the night all ceremonies took place. All marriages, sacrifices and meetings of Council. How could he not know?
"Ah. I... I've never heard it called by that name."
Cassie was surprised. The Long Night had had that name since the tribes were formed. "Your tribe doesn't follow the rituals?"
Adam shook his head. "I have no tribe."
Cassie gasped. No tribe? She'd never met a lone wolf before. Didn't even know it was possible. Only those rare few older than the formation of the packs, the ones who'd been around before the war, hundreds of years ago, had been born without a tribe, and all of them had joined when the truce was reached and the lands had been divided into territories. Those who refused had been slaughtered.
She recovered. "That explains your scent. I could tell you weren't from one of the Five Tribes. I just assumed you were from overseas."
Adam gave her a half smile. "Oh, I'm certainly from overseas. There was only one tribe where I came from. It no longer exists." His eyes unfocused for a moment, staring far into the past before he snapped back to the present. "In any case, I'd love a shower. Thank you for the offer, Miss."
She felt herself flush a little. "Cassie. Please call me Cassie." As soon as she spoke she cursed herself, well aware she was fawning over him. Get it together, woman!
"Thank you, Cassie," Adam grinned, holding her gaze for just a breath too long before turning to the bathroom.
*
Cassie sat on the edge of her bed, her nightgown wrapped tightly around her body as she listened to the gushing water through the door. She couldn't help but picture Adam's firm, muscular body, his tanned skin pinking under the hot stream. Just through that door, just a few steps away.
She shook her head as if to evict the fantasy from her mind. She knew she shouldn't be having these thoughts. Quite apart from the fact that she was betrothed to Lucius, a man who could have people killed as easily as speaking a word or baring his teeth, she'd only just met Adam. She'd only know him a day, and for most of that time he'd been unconscious. He could be anyone.
So why can't I stop thinking about him?
It wasn't as if she'd never seen a naked man before, not as if she were simply entranced by the sight of a man's body so close to her own. It wasn't even as if she'd never had the chance to sleep with a man. She'd had boyfriends, several of them, but whenever she got close to them something always seemed to go wrong. They'd drop out of school or get arrested, or some crazy thing. One of them had even died. After a few years of heartbreak she decided to save herself for her fated mate. At least she had, until her mother had made the decision for her and chosen Lucius as her first. Now, though, it was as if she were suddenly a horny animal, desperate to rut and writhe beneath the stranger in the next room. Lucius would tear out her heart just for picturing herself with Adam.
