Rise of the Alpha
Chapter 13

Jude

“We’ve got to talk some f*****g sense into Blaine. He can’t seriously think he can be the only mate Magnolia can have, right? I mean, none of us have ever felt the pull to anyone before like we do for Magnolia. He expects us to just back off? To let her go without a fight? No way! No f*****g way! You might, Zeke, but I’m not. I have to see what’s there. Ya know?” I’m rambling in a chaotic rage to Zeke as we sit on our beds. Zeke’s working on something in a notebook, but I’m just sitting on my bed, throwing a ball in the air and catching it repeatedly. I’m so f*****g irritated with my best friend right now. All I want to do is wring his damn neck until he sees reason.

“Zeke! Are you even listening to me? F**k, man, pay attention!” I scold him as I chuck my ball at his head, missing it entirely, and it smacks the wall behind him.

He looks up from the notebook he’s working in and sighs, “Dammit, Jude, I’m listening, but what do you want me to do? I don’t want to lose Blaine as our brother over this girl. I’ve never felt this way about anyone, and she’s already going to f*****g flip her shit when she finds out I’m the ferret in the woods. Her scent was so intoxicating that I couldn’t stop myself.“

I’m about to tell him to just come clean to her about the woods and who he is, but our door flies open, smashing into the wall behind it. Blaine storms into the room, looking like hell, might I add. Flinging open the closet door, he grabs some sweats he discarded there earlier and changes quickly. Storming across the room, he throws himself face-first down onto his bed, groaning about bitch witches, spells, bathtubs, and Brick. How the f**k does Brick fit into this shit?

Getting up, I move to shut the door and see that there’s a doorknob size hole in the drywall from his antics. Oh, for f***s sake, who is gonna pay for that to be fixed? I move toward my bed and sit back down and stare at Zeke, who is glaring at Blaine, who’s now just laying there, growling with his face buried in his comforter. What the f**k is going on?

“What the f**k’s your problem, Blaine? And you’re paying for that f*****g drywall you just damaged, you a*****e,” I rage at him. He rolls over and sits up, leaning against the wall his bed is pushed up against. He rubs his hands over his face and sighs loudly before he looks at me, then at Zeke.

“Tonight, I went with Magnolia and Wylla to the sports complex to do a ritual that Wylla found to help Magnolia,” he tells us. Zeke and I are off our beds and on our feet, yelling at him and demanding he start from the beginning. He motions for us to sit back down, and begrudgingly, we obey.

“Earlier today, after I left the cafeteria, I ran into Wylla in the library. She was doing some research for Magnolia. Anyway, I followed her back to their dorm room, and she said she can do a scanning ritual on Magnolia that would show her any spells or other shit she has on her. I tried to convince them to wait, but Magnolia went all alpha female on me and said she was doing it. So we went to the sports complex, and Brick let us in. Then Magnolia got in the tub there, and Wylla did the ritual, and we all started hollering in pain, then the world went black. Wylla and I came to first, while Magnolia was still out cold. She woke up, and then we carried her back to their room.”

Zeke and I are looking at him like he has two heads. This is batshit crazy. What the hell were those girls thinking? “What happened when you returned to the room? But first, why the hell was Brick with you?” I question him, and Zeke nods in agreement.

“Well, Brick, as I said, let us in the complex. Then the big bastard insisted he come with us to do the ritual, so we wouldn’t get caught and he would get in trouble. So when we woke up, he was there just frozen, mouth gaping like a guppy. He led us out of the complex, and we told him to keep his lips shut on what he saw.”

“So nothing happened to him, but did to you, Wylla, and Magnolia?” Zeke asks, curiously

“No, nothing happened to the fucker. No gut-wrenching pain, or blacking out. He was awake the whole time. But enough about him. When we got back to the room, Magnolia asked Wylla if she could see anything now that the scan was complete. Wylla said she could see the block on the designation still in place, but she was going to talk to her Grandmother to see about getting it removed. Then she said she could see mate bonds, but they were faded and from what she can see, it’s likely Magnolia will have five or six mates, possibly more.”

“Holy shit!” Zeke and I whisper-shout.

“Yeah, so then I was pretty much kicked out of the room and told we would reconvene on this matter later. You guys, that shit was crazy. I’ve never experienced pain like that before. F**K! Her body was arched like it was an exorcism, and she was screaming in pain. It was terrible,” he tells us softly.

“I almost forgot that Magnolia still denies our bond. Actually, that’s not true. She said we could be mated, but that the other bonds could be the Exodus pack Alpha heir and his Betas that her Father said she’s mating.”

Snarling is heard from around the room and it’s coming from all of us. I look at Zeke, and he looks shocked that he’s snarling over this woman. “We can’t let her mate with those awful men. No way in f*****g hell,” I tell them through clenched teeth.

“I don’t know what to do. This woman is infuriating. She’s strong, but then you mention her f*****g father, and she does what he says. Does she not know that if she was mated to me, she would be part of the Stonehaven Pack? She wouldn’t be feral or packless. But she’s still so sure she has to do as her pack says. It’s f*****g infuriating,” Blaine fusses.

“Well, it seems as if our girl is a hot commodity. We have to lock her down first, so she can’t mate with those bastards,” I demand. Blaine is across the room and on my bed straddling me, giving me a good hard hit to the nose. I instantly feel the b***d leak from my nose and the crunch I heard had to be him breaking the bone.

“Goddammit, Blaine!” Zeke exclaims as he comes and pulls Blaine off of me.

I’m holding my nose to avoid soaking my sheets in b***d. Once he’s totally pulled off of me, I shift into my demon form. I can feel my two horns push through my skull and my tail pop out and wrap itself around Zeke’s leg. Last, my wings spring from my back and nearly knock my two friends over as they take up much of the space in this room. I look over at Blaine and Zeke; Zeke’s chuckling and Blaine just rolls his eyes. “Okay, you’ve made your point. Now shift back, a*****e,” he grumbles.

Quickly shifting back, I resume my human form. “Sorry, but someone decided to be a d**k and break my nose. I wanted it to heal quickly and properly,” I argue. We’re all back to sitting on our own beds in awkward silence. No one is willing to break the tension in the room while we stare at one another.

“We need to talk about what she’s doing to us. Might I add unknowingly at that,” Zeke, of all people, declares. When neither Blaine nor I add anything, he continues, “Look, we all obviously have a pull toward her, and you are sure she’s your mate, Blaine. So what do we do? Also, Jude, I thought you liked the witchy roommate?”

Blaine shoots me a look that’s giving me ‘yeah, what about her?’ vibes. “Umm, I’m an Incubus. We often have more than one mate or partner to satisfy our energy needs. Maybe Magnolia will let me play with Wylla while she watches or we could get back to the Jude sandwich idea I had.” Ignoring the growling my best friend is raging with, I babble on. “I don’t know what the deal is with the wolf, okay? I have this extreme pull to her, and I have a slighter one to the roommate. I just don’t get it. I’ve never felt a connection with someone before. So maybe it’s a mate thing with Magnolia and just an attraction to Wylla? But I can’t just let it be. I want to pursue it and see what’s up.”

“Listen, what if we just let things play out? Blaine, you said yourself, you’re her mate, and that she has five to six other mates. What if they are Jude and me? Wouldn’t it be easier and better to share your mate with your best friends than strangers? Especially if she’s part of this Exodus pack. I mean, we all want her and are protective of her. No matter what, she’s your mate for sure, so we would die to protect her, but wouldn’t it be better if she was our mate, too?” Zeke asks. What he says is making sense, and I’m open to it. Sexuality and sharing aren’t new to me. I’m a f*****g l**t demon, so I feed on s****l energy. But it would be f*****g amazing to share my partner with my friends.

We’re both looking expectantly at Blaine, who appears to be deep in thought. “Fine,” he grits out. “But I want it to be natural, and that goes for me, too. I want her to want us and to fall for us, and not be pushy or force her into anything. She’s had enough of that already. I’ll try to calm my wolf, but he’s been very snappy lately. I’m hoping once Magnolia accepts us as her mates, he’ll relax. Wolves also share mates, so I’m thinking he’s just bristly since we haven’t been accepted one hundred percent,” he admits.

“Okay, so we’re going to share her if we’re all her mates, and even if it’s just you that’s her mate, I’m good with that. I think we should back off and just be helpful to her. Let her find her footing at the school first. See who she wants to be and ‘can’ be outside of that cult of a pack she comes from,” I plead. Blaine and Zeke are looking at me like I’ve lost my marbles or have shit on my face. “What?” I demand.

“Nothing, man, that’s just, uhm– very unlike you to be serious and not a jokester or incubus–y. HA! Is that a word? If not, it’s definitely what you are.” Blaine cracks up at his description of me.

“Laugh it up, assholes. Something about the gray-haired wolf has caught my attention. I just want her to be here, and I don’t like what I’ve heard about this pack.” I bristle, shooting daggers at both of them.

“Now that we are all on the same page and not trying to murder one another, let’s go to sleep. You have to see them tomorrow to finish talking about what happened tonight, and I know we want to be there, too. Classes start tomorrow, and I have a feeling it’s going to be very interesting with Magnolia and Wylla around,” Zeke says as he stretches out on his bed and slides under the covers. Blaine and I agree, and we slide into our beds. Zeke claps twice for the lights to turn off.

F*****g ferret…