Lycan Alpha Claim 3 (12 page)

Once they had eliminated the impossible, whatever remained, however improbable, must be the truth.

~Sherlock Holmes

Prologue

Julia pressed her nose to the glass, the trees a sea of green as they rushed outside her window, her momma and daddy's voices a low and pleasant drone from the front seat.

She hated the belt, it pressed across her neck in an uncomfortable place, itchy and suffocating.

“Momma,” Julia whined plaintively.

Her mother's chocolate eyes appeared over the front seat, such a contrast to the auburn hair held in her customary pony tail.

“What is it?”

Julia worked her small finger under the belt and said, “I hate, HATE this stupid strap! I want to take it off!” Julia crossed her arms, huffing.

Momma sighed, unlatching her belt as she turned in the front seat to adjust the neck restraint portion of Julia's seatbelt. As Momma got nearer Julia smelled the special perfume that she wore. At once Momma's scent assaulted her where it intimately combined with the perfume she always wore.

Daddy said from the front, “Amber, sit back down. The belt's latched, she's just going to have to deal with it for another ten minutes.”

Julia's eyes narrowed to slits. Daddy was so stubborn.
His
belt didn't bite into
his
neck! 'Cuz he was a Big Man! Ugh... Julia fumed.

Momma smiled and began to turn and Julia saw Daddy's face in profile, watching to make sure she sat down safely.

He only took his eyes off the road for a moment.

It was enough.

Julia saw twin beads of light bear down on their car as an impossibly large grill came to eat them, the chrome winking in the late afternoon light.

Daddy made a correction to the right but that threw Momma on top of him, imprisoning their bodies in a macabre dance, the steering wheel sandwiching them together.

As if in slow motion Julia saw her mother's face as Amber looked at her father.

The knowledge of their impending death appeared on their faces like an unspoken promise.

Julia screamed as the truck slammed into the car and the belt that she hated so much whipped against her neck and slammed her against the back seat with such force that the breath left her small body.

She watched her parents crushed together in a final embrace.

The metal colliding was an earthquake in her ears and something wet and warm hit her face. She opened her eyes and her parents were... everywhere, their blood like a blanket that coated her face and hair.

Her brain howled, refusing to accept what was happening. Her vision clouded. Her neck and head throbbed and her lungs were a burning inferno with the need to scream.

The last thing she remembered was her mother's hair entwined in the steering wheel like so much spun copper.

#

CHAPTER 1

Ten Years Later

Julia stuffed her wool cap down more firmly on her head and waded through the icy puddles on the way to her 1977 Chevy Blazer. Fall had edged into early winter and the dampness of the rain had solidified into a dangerous sheet of ice.

Julia had known better and instead of wearing the latest Ugg fashion boots she'd slogged on her XtraTufs. They had an unparalleled ugliness but did the job. She might keep her ass in the air instead of pegged on an ice puddle by wearing her trusty boots. She threw her backpack over one shoulder and balanced a steaming cup of coffee in the other hand. She'd lied through her teeth about the contents to Aunt Lily, who seemed to think caffeine was the devil's drink. Julia smiled at that. She thought she was done growing and besides, coffee was a mainstay of Alaskan existence. She shuffled to the driver's side and gripped the handle. Then her feet lost some of their purchase and she slid to the right, her coffee sloshing out of the slit on the travel mug.

“Shit!” Julia said, as a couple of hot drops landed on her wrist, scalding her.

Grappling with the handle she jerked the door open and threw her palm on the driver's seat, steadying herself until she could heave her backpack inside.

But her breath stilled in her lungs when she saw what waited for her.

A single rose, its tremulous form in a beautiful, ethereal tangerine color lay inches from where her reddened and chapped hand had slapped down.

She'd almost destroyed it while saving her sliding butt from falling.

A smile stole over her face and she carefully put her travel mug in the cup holder between the seats and picked up the flower.

No note.

But she knew who had laid it there.

Her fiancé, Jason. Actually, it was a secret. Lily would have ten different kinds of cows if she knew how serious they were.

She looked around, her breath coming in white puffs in the crisp air. The snow having not committed itself to falling yet, the promise still hung there in the air. It would be like him, Julia thought, to pop up and grab her from behind, twirling her around just as she discovered his present.

But he wasn't there.

Huh, she turned the keys and jacked up the heat all the way. Five minutes and she'd hit the road, head to Homer High. She was spoiled. Usually Jason picked her up but today she had to head over to the DMV and get a stupid emissions test. It was amazing they even allowed her to drive her gas-guzzling truck. She sighed. Soon, she'd be with Jason.

*

school

Julia tore off her multi-colored itchy hat as she waltzed into the school. The familiar smell of kids, books, lunch and all the other school fragrances wafting across the air, the chill of late fall left outside the doors.

She fluffed her champagne-colored hair, hoping to eradicate the hat head she'd tagged herself with on the way over.

“Hey, bestie!” Cynthia cried.

Julia laughed, like she hadn't just spent all day and a night last weekend with Cyn? She acted like they'd been separated for months.

“Hey Cyn,” Julia said slowing, letting her catch up.

As usual, Cyn was dressed to the nines. High heels, ridiculously tight-ass pants and the latest, off-the-shoulder top with a crazy zebra pattern. It made Julia dizzy looking at it.

“What?” Cynthia looked at Julia's face.

“Your top, it's like some kind of optical illusion or something.”

“I know, right? It's hot-hot-hot,” she snapped her fingers after each word for emphasis. Julia rolled her eyes, there was no cure for her Fashion Awareness.

Julia considered herself Fashion Challenged. Yessiree. Irrefutably. Getting everything to match and be comfortable was of utmost importance.

Of course, once Julia mentioned Cyn's shirt, then she was honor bound to give Julia the once-over. Scanned from the top of her head she had almost escaped the wrath when Cynthia's gaze landed like a lead weight on her boots.

“Argh!” she shrieked in horror. “You wore your Tufs to school again! And don't give me any of that horse shit about how we're seniors and absolved of everything,” she rolled her eyes dramatically, “fashion is the exception. And those,” she waggled her fingers at Julia's offending footwear, “are for...for...”

“Gardening only,” Jason interjected smoothly, his arm sliding around Julia's waist. He'd heard the XtraTufs speech before.

“Don't you defend her either!” Cynthia lambasted him and Jason, all mock innocence said, “Who me?” his hand to his chest.

Cynthia's eyes narrowed to slits. “You're no help, Jason Caldwell, she could wear a shapeless sack over her whole body and you'd still think she was gorgeous.”

“Guilty,” he said, his forehead dipping to peck Julia's head, still fuzzy from the hat.

Julia leaned back against his chest, her head tucking comfortably underneath his chin and sighed. This is where she'd wanted to be from the moment she opened her eyes. Against him, soaking up his warmth. Letting it seep into her bones and chase the coldness of the morning away.

Cyn snapped her fingers in front of Julia's face, “snap out of it Jules!”

Jason laughed, Julia was known to mentally wander. It was becoming an annoying theme lately.

“What? Cranky witch!” Julia teased, taking a swipe at Cyn with her woolen hat.

She ducked smoothly, accustomed to Julia's abuse. “Okay... so, did you get that English paper done we started on Friday?”

Julia dug around in her backpack until she found a crumpled piece of paper at the bottom and turning, she slapped it against her locker, smoothing it with her other hand. Jason's big hand was a warm presence on her shoulder, kneading it softly.

“Are you kidding? Terrell will never accept that mess,” Cynthia said, throwing out one hip and putting a hand on the jutting point.

Julia shrugged a shoulder. “It's a rough draft. Besides, keeping the standard low like I do assures me gravy when I turn something in.”

Julia smiled at her awesome logic. School just didn't appeal. It was something she survived until she could graduate. It was Jason that was going to University of Alaska Anchorage. He was set with a full ride.

Mr. Basketball. Julia turned to look at him and wondered for the millionth time why he'd want her. He was so gorgeous and she was so... her. It didn't matter that Cyn thought she was pretty. Whatever. Cyn was her BFF, that's what they do, cheerlead.

Julia still didn't have A Plan. She knew she couldn't wait to get out of Aunt Lily's place and begin a life with Jason.

Cynthia gave an elaborate roll of her eyes and caved, saying, “You can try all your down home weasel-like charm on Terrell while Jason and I turn in real papers. Unwrinkled papers.” She cocked her brows up to her hairline and looping her arm through Julia's, she dragged her to block one.

The Dreaded Language Arts. Everyone knew there was nothing artful about it. Jason laughed as they trudged to class, Julia's arms linked with theirs.

CHAPTER 2

After Jason

Julia's chin touched her chest, lank strands of hair swirling around, her arms jerked up and chained above her head. Her hands had lost feeling hours ago. A cloak of numbness stole over her body and her mind screamed, her body aching for food.

But she'd be damned if she'd take it from her captors.

The Murderers.

The creature came to her, his teeth gleaming in the low light of where they kept her.

She looked at him, her eyelids at half-mast, as piercing silvery irises bored into her gaze. Julia felt the weight of their desire fill her mind, pressing without mercy against the fragility that was there.

Forcing his will.

“You must eat, Julia. You will eat,” he said in a fierce whisper.

“Why don't you... Go. To. Hell!” she rasped, as loud as she could. Weakened by lack of food, her voice held all the emotion that she couldn't scream, buried in the air grown pregnant with contained frustration and violence.

Violence against her.

“Let me convince her,” the one named Pierce said, his stare covering her body like decaying liquid.

The leader, William, turned and stood in one fluid movement. “I have seen your methods with other Blood Singers. We will not use that here, with this one.”

Pierce smirked. “You grow attached. She is a vehicle for our needs, nothing more. She is human.”

William took Pierce by the collar of the shirt he wore and dragged their faces together until they nearly met. “She is much more than that. What if she is The One? Look at the sign upon her head.” He shook Pierce in disgust and pushed him away. Pierce reared back and opened his mouth and something burst from the flesh as he hissed his displeasure.

Fangs.

Julia swallowed. She felt like she was in a nightmare she couldn't escape from. She protected herself by dwelling in her memory bank. It was full. There Julia felt rich. It was there that this new reality couldn't impede.

William and Pierce looked at her quickly. “She pulls away inside herself again! Fool! I almost had her!”

It was as if Julia could see through a glass, though darkly. Black water covered her vision and the horrible creatures that had torn her away from a future of love and contentment, to a new one of terror and uncertainty, rushed toward her and she let the water cover her consciousness. They were as dim orbs of pale flesh as they sprinted to her side.

She fell back in the well of her mind, the liquid forming a barrier between them and her memories.

For now, the memories won.

****

senior year, springtime

Cyn bent her head over the textbook and then looking up, scowled at Julia. “This is simple, you're over thinking the stuff.”

Julia was beyond frustrated. She'd flunked lame-ass Algebra II when she was a junior and was on the eve of graduation, still struggling though the concepts. Cyn at her elbow, ramrodding it down her throat wasn't helping the learning curve.

Julia's brows jacked down over her whiskey-colored eyes. “I don't get it! They put the alphabet in math and now it's a big jumble of nothing!” she wailed.

“How in the righteous world did you pass One?”

Julia gave her a sheepish look.

“You're kidding me, right? You cribbed off of Jason?”

“Like when am I gonna use this worthless crap?!” Julia said, throwing her pencil down.

“You're not! That's not the point, Jules. The point is Getting The Grade. We're American, we're not supposed to be the intellectual global force. We just get the degree, then go on to college and get
that
degree,” she shrugged her shoulders,
simple, right
?

Julia crossed her arms underneath her breasts. “You don't see what's wrong with that picture?”

“Doesn't matter what I think. I just work the system.”

“Huh, we're nothing but a bunch of sheep, manipulating a broken system.”

“Speaking of manipulating...” Cyn said, a contemplative expression crowding her features.

“Ah-no. I am not going to dress up,” Julia said.

“Listen, we're almost done with this math cram...”

“It's a cram all right,” Julia said.

“Anyway,” Cyn said, drawing the word out dramatically, “this is your last final before graduation. Prom is coming. Let's get you hot and sexy for your man-toy.”

Maybe Julia shouldn't have told Cyn about the secret engagement. But she told Jason if she didn't tell someone she'd burst. Now it was an endless barrage of teasing.

“Jason's not a 'toy', Cyn.”

She scrunched her face. “Okay... ooh, touchy. Calm yourself.”

Julia blew a stray hair away from her forehead. She had to give in to Cyn or she'd be after her ass until she chose a dress.

“Okay!” Julia threw up her hands. “I'll go.”

“That's not good enough. Tell me what I need to hear. You could go and watch me pick out a dress and worm out of everything.” She gave Julia steady green eyes.

Damn
, she had her there.

“Okay, I'll try something on and choose a dress for prom. Happy?”

“Repeat after me: It will not be a sack,” she said in her droll way.

Julia fumed. Did she really think she'd pick out some shapeless sheath?

“I do,” she said.

“Hey! I didn't say anything...”

Cyn made a circling motion with her index finger alongside her head. “Saw your wheels turning.”

Huh.

She repeated the sack thing and Cynthia smiled.

Onward and upward.

*

Jason

Jason poked the stick into the fire, mercilessly stabbing the coals, trying to decide if he should put another piece of driftwood on or not. He looked at Jules, talking animatedly with Cyn and Kev and smiled. The hell with it, he'd put on another chunk. She'd wander over here eventually and be colder than a brick of ice.

Couldn't have his girl cold. That was against guy-code. Keep your chick warm, fed and most of all, protected. He let his gaze linger on her. He couldn't believe she'd be his soon. They'd graduate, then get married. His parents would be steamin'-pissed but they'd get over it. It was always what
they
wanted anyway. He'd been the good boy. He'd done basketball until his body still felt like it was on the court when he laid down on his bed each night. He'd sucked up the grades, played his ass off and helped his girl limp through Math and Science. He smiled, thinking of how much Jules hated the Math-Science grind. He took her profile in, blonde hair that wanted to be red, that damned wool cap covering some of it. Her legs encased in jeans that dragged along the sand and her bright red puffy coat. It was her face above the collar of her jacket that Jason's eyes stroked with love.

Her face. He knew Julia was The One the moment she moved to Homer when she was almost nine. Sullen and alone, living with her aunt, she'd been new with no friends. He'd been a gangly and awkward nine. He'd started as her champion then and never looked back.

Now and forever.

As if sensing his thoughts, Julia turned to look straight at him and a smile broke, her amber eyes like glittering jewels in a face caressed by firelight. Her face asked a question and he gave a slight shake of his head,
it's nothing
, his look said. She turned away, the ghost of a smile still playing on her lips, then she burst into laughter at some dumb thing Kevin said.

He looked away from her and added two more chunks to the fire. It burned brightly and became hot.

*

Cyn

Cynthia watched the two of them jammed together like sardines and smiled. She was happy for Julia and Jason. They'd been two peas in a pod since fourth grade and Jules'd had it tough, she deserved the happiness. They made a cool couple. Jason was six-foot two and towered over Jules at only five-four but she never seemed short. Cynthia had never met anyone more alive, more independent. It was amazing her Aunt Lily had picked up the torch after Jules' parents passed. Cynthia had to admit that Lily rankled her ass sometimes too. She was so strict on Jules, like she'd ever do anything? Hell, she was a secret prude. She hadn't even done the deed with Jason. Dating three years and nada.

There's willpower for ya!

She looked up through her mascaraed eyelashes at Kevin, her steady and at-hand date for prom and sighed. He was absolutely hot. She wasn't letting him get away. Cynthia had all the titillating details for Jules later. She'd act bored and then listen raptly while she dished on her love life. A slight frown bunched her eyebrows together. She'd have to ride Jules' ass about going to Soldotna and picking out a prom dress. She was insisting on Vegas for the wedding (she was sure to get out of getting a dress). Cynthia did a mental eye-roll. But Jules wasn't getting out of prom. Cynthia had tried to talk Jules out of marriage for shit's sake. I mean, what, she'd been eighteen for six months? What's the rush? Cynthia thought it had something to do with both her parents being killed when she was young. It had really scarred her. She wanted something to hang on to, something tangible and real.

Cynthia wasn't sure getting married at eighteen was the answer. But even she had to admit, she couldn't do wrong with Jason. He worshiped Julia. She looked at the two of them together as she snuggled in next to Kevin and watched Jason touch Jules, cupping her face like a fragile egg as they began to kiss.

“Looks like they've got the right idea, Cyn,” Kevin said, waggling his eyebrows.

Cynthia gave him a mock punch. “You just want to get lucky!”

“There
is
that,” Kevin replied, only half-joking.

“Ah-huh, that's what I was talking about.”

He dipped his head and gave her a peck on the lips and she turned on the rough driftwood log where they were perched, the warmth of the fire beating against her back and drew him against her. His mouth found hers and they twined themselves against each other. The sky lingered above them as black velvet with stars sprinkled about.

*

dress-up

Julia thought she'd slit her wrists if she had to try one more dress on. She paced the room in a huff. She should have never said yes. Cyn had her dress-napped the instant they came into the boutique. Remember, Fashion Aware. Of course, everything looked good on Cyn. With her tall, lanky frame, she could get away with anything. She'd chosen a shell pink, full length gauzy thing that made her look like a princess.

Or, a queen, judging by the way she was beating the hell out of Julia with her scepter.

“Come on Jules, I'm thinking one more?”

“NO! I promised I'd try on dresses. For you! Now look, what is this... number fifteen?”

Cyn had the grace to look ashamed, flashing both hands twice.

“Twenty!” Julia all but shrieked.

“Right. Well... you're totally hard to find something for! I mean, who has your coloring anyway?”

Julia huffed, her eyes taking in the pile of gowns growing in the corners like obscene shrouds. “Okay... one more. Then we pick
whatever
from the pile!” Julia said, her palm striking out at the material like it was alive.

“Okay. But if you're only gonna try on one more dress, it's going to be green.”

Julia groaned. She hated green.

Cyn brought out her hands in supplication. “I know you hate green but just trust me, K?

*

Cyn

Cynthia insisted on she and Jules going together to prom so they could make their grand entrance and blow the dudes away. She'd also taken the initiative and ragged Julia's ass until she caved and let her do the make-up and hair for both of them. She wasn't letting her bestie into prom with anything resembling hippie chic. Julia was going to look put together and polished if it was the last thing Cynthia did.

Cynthia dug around in her huge purse until she found her makeup bag and dragged it out, throwing it on Julia's vanity with a resounding smack.

Julia eyed it warily. Pointing to it she asked, “what's all that crap in there?”

“Make-you-beautiful-stuff.”

The corners of Julia's mouth turned up. “That's a technical term, right?”

“Hell yeah!” Cynthia enthused with a wink.

Julia sighed, she knew she'd look like a French whore by the time Cyn was done with her but she'd released the reins and Cyn was firmly in charge of Prom Fashion. She had an errant thought wondering about what Jason was up to. Definitely not this.

“Woman-up, Jules! I'm not taking a skin graft or something. Seriously, you act like you've never worn makeup before.”

There was a significant silence.

“Okay, that was sorta lame. You, the makeup queen.”

Julia slouched and Cyn poked her in the back. “Posture, princess.”

Then she set to work. Foundation, powder, eyeliner... false eyelashes.