Alpha King by Sara Fields
Chapter 10
Ava
I descended the stairs two at a time. I’d put on every piece of armor that Lawson had made for me, enjoying how it all fit me almost too perfectly. I wore a thin cotton shirt and stretchy pants beneath the dark leather pieces, but the bulletproof vest was the most impressive part of the whole thing.
I could feel a thin layer of Kevlar inside it, but there was a layer of flexible steel spirals encased within it too. I thought it would hinder my movement when I’d first picked it up, but when I’d slipped it over my head and strapped it around my waist, it did anything but. It was so well contoured to my shape and it moved with me; I felt all the more powerful in it.
When I walked down the stairs though, the mansion had erupted into a flurry of activity that could only mean one thing.
The Venuti were on their way.
Lawson strode through the foyer toward me with purpose. He held a black leather case in his hands, and I looked at him with interest. He cocked his head toward the kitchen and by the time I made it to his side, he had it spread open on the table. He picked up a belt and lashed it around my waist without a word. When it was firmly in place, he picked up a gun.
“This is for you. I had one of the best gun makers in the States put it together for you. It won’t jam, not even once. It’s single fire, so make every shot count,” he said as he slid in a fully loaded clip of sunfire bullets. He picked up several more clips and placed them in holsters all along the belt for me, along with a second fully loaded gun.
“Slide your hands along the belt. Take note of the places where I put the clips for you. Do that now, little mate,” he instructed.
Slowly, I did as I was bidden, familiarizing myself with each clip along my belt. Next, he flipped a couple of wooden stakes into his grasp and started pushing them into place along my belt too.
“Take note of the stakes as well. Make sure you know where they are so when you need them, you’ll be ready,” he commanded.
I did as instructed, slowly feeling the smooth base of the sharpened stakes.
“I have one last gift for you. I discussed your sunfire bullets with Genzo, who has a mind like yours that is geared toward innovation. He created something just for you,” Lawson explained. He lifted his arm, holding a thick, very sharp knife in his grasp. “Using similar technology to that developed your sunfire bullets, he made you a sunfire blade. In order to use it, you must bury the blade in all the way to the hilt in your target. That alone will not kill them, but when you press on the release on the bottom here, it will activate and blast the unlucky vampire apart. This will only work once, so use it wisely.”
He passed the blade to me, and I looked at it in wonder. The button in question was on the bottom of the hilt, and I lightly passed my thumb over it. I nodded my head once, showing him that I understood.
“There is a hidden holster inside your vest for it, here,” he continued. Carefully, he took the knife from my fingers and slid it inside an opening just above my belt line. It fit perfectly, likely made to the knife’s exact specifications.
“I can’t believe you had this all made for me,” I sighed softly.
“I take care of my mate, no matter what she needs and today, she needs to take out her revenge on the pointy toothed fuckers that tarnished her family name,” he growled.
His words invoked the fire I’d put aside for weeks. I’d focused on building up the members of my pack, on teaching them how to make weapons that would give them an edge over the vampires they would fight against and just generally finding my way in my newfound family.
I lifted my eyes to his, finally allowing a small grin to edge at the corners of my lips.
“Abso-fucking-lutely,” I answered, giving into every ounce of animosity I felt against the Venuti. It was their fault I’d lost my father and they were going to pay for that.
He shifted beside me, echoing my sentiments with a growl more vicious than I could have even imagined. I was grateful it wasn’t directed at me because I wouldn’t want to face something like that. Instead of fighting against him though, he was at my side. The bond between us fluttered at the knowledge that we were going to battle against the Venuti as one.
“I’m proud of you, Ava. Fight hard and make them pay for what they did.”
Lawson’s voice echoed inside my head. I turned, studying the expression on his wolf face.
“I can hear you,” I whispered. His eyes darkened and I could have sworn he was smiling at me, the corners of his mouth lifting up in a toothy grin that looked more like a snarl than anything else.
“We’re bonded, my beautiful mate. You bear my mark now and that means that even as a wolf, we are never truly apart. I will hear you wherever you are. Don’t be afraid to call for me if you need me.”
My heart swelled.
People began to rush by. Men and women alike were loading clips and sliding them into place before they cocked their guns.
“Is there a safety on my gun?” I asked.
“No.”
“Good.”
“Come. I have the perfect place for you to rain down fire on our enemies.”
Without thinking, I swung myself up onto Lawson’s back. He turned the corner and rushed up one staircase after the next until he burst out onto the roof. Several members of his pack followed, remaining in human form as they did so. We fanned out across the roof, with Lawson and me taking our place at the center. By the time everyone had settled into their positions, I counted at least two dozen pack members spread out evenly along the roofline.
I looked out and a quiet squeak of momentary fear escaped me I saw just how many of them were coming for us.
There were at least two hundred. Maybe even two hundred and fifty.
“Don’t fret, mate. I have you by my side and that makes us far stronger than them.”
That single thread of fright withered away, and I gave it no more thought. My brave nature reared its head and with confidence, I pulled both loaded guns from my waist. I took aim and held for my alpha’s cue to fire.
“When you’re ready, give the command, Ava. Today, the Crescent Moon Pack follows you.”
My heart exploded in my chest. I’d fought against him so hard, but he’d conquered me in the end. I loved this man. I would love him to my last dying breath.
I leveled the guns, making sure to aim carefully and I pulled the triggers. With smooth precision, the bullets tore out of the barrel and sailed straight into the skulls of the two unfortunate vampires caught in my sights. In an explosion of light, their heads imploded. If I had the time, I would have admired that small victory, but I quickly moved onto the next. All around me, guns started to fire, and a significant number of the Venuti began to erupt into a fiery display of light, blood, and gore.
Gunfire popped all around me and when I’d unloaded the ten rounds in my clip, I released the empty ones and swiftly replaced them with the full ones on my belt.
Then the Venuti started firing back.
I watched in horror as men who I had befriended were shot beside me. I knew that the vampires were shooting them with silver bullets and that they probably wouldn’t get back up. With vicious intent, I leveled my gun on them and kept shooting, not willing to back down for even a second. Every bullet counted and I took out as many as I could. I was the best shot up here and soon enough, I ran out of bullets.
Someone else rushed to my side and handed me two fully loaded clips. I reloaded and took aim, but the vampires were getting so much closer, and it soon became clear that they were coming from all sides.
Fuck…
My first estimate had been far too low. Now I was certain that the Venuti had brought more than five hundred vampires with them. The pack members on the roof continued to pick away at them and reinforcements continued to bring more clips up to them. Quickly, I dismounted Lawson and rushed to the other side of the mansion, trying to pick off those that were scaling the walls. I was able to stop a number of them, but we had been so focused on the incoming horde that we hadn’t remembered to check our backs.
They were starting to gain on us. From the perimeter of the property, a rush of wolves tore into the back of the vampires. They caught them off guard, ripping a number of vampires’ heads from their torsos before they turned around and began firing into them. Several wolves were hit, and I prayed that they wouldn’t be fatal. If the bullets hit in places that weren’t vital, they could be removed and if the wolf was lucky, he or she would survive.
I kept firing and when I ran out of bullets, Lawson kicked a few more magazines in my direction. When I finished those, I climbed onto his back, and he leapt off the roof and landed on his feet several stories below. I wrapped my hands around the stakes at my waist and pulled them free, slamming the first into the vampire nearest to me as I leapt off Lawson’s back. I sank that stake deep into the vampire heart and yanked it out as he fell to the ground in a heap.
I fought hard, twisting and turning and ignoring the sweat that was dripping down my brow from the southern heat. Lawson stayed by my side, ripping into one vampire after the next with his teeth. He moved so quickly that the vampires he fought against never stood a chance. They couldn’t even get their guns up fast enough to take aim before he tore their heads off at the neck.
Had I not been fighting for my own life, I would have stopped to admire him.
From up above, some of the shifters lifted the heavier weaponry I’d designed myself. I smirked when I saw the barrels of the semi-automatic machine guns come into sight, knowing that they were loaded with the wooden bullets soaked in garlic oil. The constant popping sounds of their gunfire went off and the vampires on the battlefield with me screeched in surprise.
They hadn’t been expecting that.
I fought on even harder, my confidence renewed. I spun and sank my stake into more vampires than I could count. I made every single step count. I maneuvered with purpose, dancing through the ranks of vampires as if I’d been made for this.
“Keep going, Ava. Keep making me proud.”
With a roar, I launched off my feet and stabbed a rather large vamp with my stake. He was so muscled that my stake didn’t quite sink in far enough, but Lawson threw his body upward, using the base of his paw to slam the wooden weapon in far enough to kill him. I stared down at it for a second, almost in surprise.
I wouldn’t be able to wrench that one back out.
I reached for my belt and grabbed another. The continual blast of gunfire from above was comforting. A vampire sped toward me, and I sidestepped to avoid him, only to have the contents of his skull explode across my cheek. I hastily wiped it off of me, knowing it was probably still streaked across my face.
I turned back, only to see Toboe about twenty feet away, a lopsided grin on his face.
“Thanks!” I called out.
“No problem, boss lady,” he answered and in seconds, he’d shifted back into his wolf form only to tear into another vampire. His fighting style was rather majestic, smooth and swift, almost as if he was dancing through the battlefield. I didn’t watch him for long, because I was quickly distracted by another vampire rushing my way. I clocked him in the jaw hard and spun fast, feinting in one direction before I stepped back and slammed my stake straight into his heart. He was thin, rather gangly, and not particularly strong so he went down easily.
The sky was getting dark, and the first few stars were beginning to twinkle high above. The moon was already well above the horizon, bright and full and giving off enough light for me to be able to see pretty clearly.
I fought through several more vampires trying to make their way into the mansion. It felt as if we were making headway for a short while, at least until a second wave of vampires swooped in on the perimeter of the property.
They were carrying much bigger guns than the first wave had been.
I stiffened, knowing that things were about to get far more intense. They didn’t wait to begin pulling the trigger. The constant pop of gunfire echoed heavy in the air, and it was quickly returned by my shifter family. The vampires screeched in agony once my garlic-soaked wooden bullets struck them at first and those screams only grew louder when they began to splinter inside them. Several of them paused long enough for the sentries above to shoot a sunfire bullet straight into their skulls, but they didn’t get them all.
I dove into the fray, trying to take care of as many of them that I could. They were caught off guard by me and I took advantage of that, driving my stake into one Venuti Clan member after the next. Lawson followed after me, his snarls vicious as he tore into the monsters that threatened his pack. It seemed to be going well and I began to hope that all of us were going to see this through. I ignored the sweat dripping down my back and focused on knocking out a particularly nasty fighter that had taken down at least one or two of the wolves.
I met his eyes and he knelt down, cocking his head to the side like a slithering snake. I grimaced, studying his graceful movements as he slinked in my direction. He was tall and lanky, but the muscles of his arms were solid. His red eyes bore into mine, and a wicked smile spread across his lips that left me feeling chilled.
I didn’t like it. He was going to have to die next.
I waited for him to come to me. Cocky monsters like him couldn’t resist a fight. I slid my hands along my belt, remembering the knife in my vest. I didn’t want to use that yet. There was one last clip of sunfire bullets, and I swiftly loaded it into one of my guns. The vamp had chosen that moment of distraction to race toward me, but I’d expected that and when he was within a few steps of me, I turned quickly on my feet so that he rushed past me in his haste. I leveled my sight with the back of his head and pulled the trigger, ending him in less time than it took for me to draw in a breath. My only regret was not being able to see the look on his arrogant face when he realized that I had won.
The battle raged on all around me. When it finally ended, there were going to be a great many dead, both wolf and vampire alike. The constant gunfire and ceaseless screaming would haunt me for a long time, but now was not the time to focus on that.
I had to kill as many of the Venuti as I could. They’d killed my father and now they were trying to kill my second family. I wasn’t going to let them.
I used the rest of my bullets to take out several more vamps that were carrying heavy-looking guns. They exploded in a brilliant show of light, and I moved on quickly, knowing that every second counted in this battle between the Venuti and the Crescent Moon Pack.
Without warning, a group of vampires surrounded me. Out of bullets and armed only with a wooden stake, I quickly realized that I was outnumbered, and things were about to get rough. The vampires consisted of both men and women, all very strong and from the looks of it, quite old. Their skin had an opaque papery consistency, more so than most vampires. I also noticed that the red in their eyes wasn’t quite as bright as the younger ones, almost a dull blood red rather than the brilliant scarlet of a freshly sired vamp.
One of them walked forward and looked me up and down. There was something familiar about her, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
She looked like she’d come from money, her black pantsuit some designer label that I didn’t remember the name of. The fabric was covered in muted gray stripes, making her appear tall and lean, and accentuating the elegant curves of her body along with it. Her eyes weren’t like the others, bright red and intense as she stared back at me. Long blonde hair wound down her back, soft waves that probably took a long time to perfect. She was really quite pretty, but I could sense nothing but danger as she peered back at me.
“I didn’t expect to see the likes of you here in the wolf’s den,” she purred, and I didn’t like how unsettled her voice made me. I swallowed bravely and lifted my chin, gazing back at her with a look just as hard as hers.
“Well. Surprise,” I quipped brazenly, not caring that the rest of the vamps around me stiffened at the challenge in my voice.
Her eyes hardened and she cocked her head to the side, appraising me with interest. Her expression was cold and unfeeling. The other Venuti kept looking toward her and I quickly realized that she was the one in charge of this massive attack.
“Ethan Winters’ daughter,” she murmured, her voice laced with expectation. “Now you are most certainly a prize.”
She lifted a finger and a vampire grabbed me from behind. I reacted solely on instinct and lurched forward, throwing the unfortunate soul straight over my shoulder. It turned out the one that had grabbed me had been a woman and when she landed flat on her back, I forcefully stabbed a stake right through her heart.
I stood back up, taking my bloody stake along with it.
I stared back at the woman, rolling my upper lip in her direction. I studied her face a bit more, taking note of the high curve of her cheekbones and the plumpness of her lips. When she was alive, she’d probably paid for her fair share of plastic surgery.
“My name is Ava Winters. Who are you?” I asked boldly.
Her smile widened.
“Lola Claiborne,” she answered simply.
Immediately, I recognized her last name. Her father was the governor of Louisiana. He was well liked by the human faction, but his daughter’s reputation had followed him around like a dark cloud. She liked to spend money and party in the quarter like it was going out of style. More than once, she’d walked out on a tab or left a hotel room a mess and her father had needed to deal with it for her with an endless amount of dollar bills.
Apparently, it had finally caught up to her and the Venuti had taken her for themselves, probably to get the governor on their side.
She began to circle me, and I followed suit.
I could tell from the swiftness in her movements that she was still a fairly young vampire. She still wasn’t used to humanizing the way she moved, each one happening a bit too quickly and a bit disjointed to the eye. Her fledgling status would mean that she would be harder to kill and stronger than most of the others.
I wasn’t about to back down though.
I could sense Lawson on the outside. His incessant growls of fury were met with shrieking from the vampires, but I knew he was working his way in. Toboe’s snarls joined his, and before long there was a small group of shifters trying to break into the circle that held me captive.
I decided to focus solely on Lola. She’d moved slightly closer to me, and I focused on her steps, memorizing the speed and distance between each one. They were shortening as she grew closer, and I took a step outward in order to make her work a bit harder. She chuckled quietly and I quickly jumped in her direction to test her reaction time and speed.
She was prepared for me and swung outward, but as she did so, I noticed her fumble a bit on her left ankle.
I’d remember that.
“You should join us, Ava. We’d treat you like a queen in the ranks of the Venuti,” she murmured.
“I’d rather die,” I snarled, and her grin grew wickedly. A cold chill passed over me at the sight of her pointed teeth as she stared directly at the vein in my neck.
“I could arrange that first,” she threatened, and I practically snarled at her myself.
“It was my idea to turn your father into a monster,” she replied quietly, lifting her fingers and studying the red of her painted nails like they were the most interesting thing in the world.
“Your idea?” I scoffed.
“It was something my lover and I came up with together to force my father into an unbreakable alliance with the Venuti. It was the perfect way for me to become a vampire in the most spectacular way too,” she replied.
“Your lover?”
“Nicolai. I think you might remember him. You’re the one that shot one of your fancy bullets straight into his skull,” she snarled.
I grimaced and her face turned dark.
“I’d planned to come for you and make you suffer for killing him, but I’m delighted to get that chance far sooner than I anticipated. I’m going to enjoy this,” she murmured, lifting her chin. Her eyes glinted with a deranged delight, and I took a step back, trying to figure out my next move.
At that moment, Lawson and Toboe leapt forward and landed on top of the shoulders of a couple of small vamps in the ring. Without even a second’s hesitation, they tore through them, and I took advantage of that momentary distraction to rush straight at Lola.
She tried to swerve away from me, but I’d expected that. I kicked her left ankle as hard as I could and when she attempted to twist away from me, she crumpled just enough for me to grab at her upper arm and throw her to the side.
All her life, she’d been primped and cared for. She hadn’t trained like I had. Sure, she was a vampire, but she wasn’t prepared to fight against the likes of me.
I wound my arm around her neck and practically dragged her up by it. She sputtered and coughed, but I didn’t show her any mercy. With practiced swiftness, I pulled the sunfire knife from my belt and pressed it against her throat just hard enough to elicit a single droplet of blood.
She froze, suddenly realizing that she was in far deeper than she thought she was.
“You can’t kill me with a knife,” she spat viciously, but I detected just the slightest grain of fear in the way her voice shook.
“This isn’t just a knife,” I answered simply.
The wolves descended on the vampires surrounding me, ripping them apart and decimating their ranks in a coordinated attack. The Venuti had no time to recover and for a fraction of a second, Lawson held my gaze with his.
“End her. Make her pay for what she did to your father.”
I didn’t need to be told twice.
My hand flew back and with every single ounce of strength left in me, I buried the blade of that knife straight into Lola’s skull. She screamed, but there wasn’t enough time for her to stop what was coming. My thumb wound around the base and pressed the button at the bottom firmly and it clicked.
Just like the sunfire bullets, a massive ball of light started to consume her. It was far larger and so bright that it mimicked the rising of the sun in the dead of night. Her remains sizzled away in the savage heat and she collapsed to the ground as the light began to fade away. All that was left was a headless corpse in the end.
I stared down at her for a long time. Lola and Nicolai were the entire reason behind my father’s death. Now that both of them were dead, I felt like I could breathe, like a massive weight had been taken from my shoulders and I sighed quietly in my victory.
I knew what had happened now. I knew my father wasn’t a monster and that was all I wanted in the end.
The world went silent. The vampires stopped fighting. I’d killed their leader and they were standing around now, listless and uncertain.
I began to speak.
“I want the remaining Venuti to take a message back to their leaders,” I began. Lawson and Toboe moved to either side of me, sitting down and observing all around me.
“You will leave the quarter and never come back. The Venuti have lost New Orleans and it is now the territory of the Crescent Moon Pack. Find refuge elsewhere. You are no longer welcome here.”
I stayed silent for a moment, letting my words resonate all around me.
“Additionally, if a Venuti Clan member wanders into our city without special permission, they will have signed their own death warrant. There will be no feeding on locals, no more killing of tourists so that you can eat. None of that. You will leave and never come back,” I shouted, and the vampires took a step back.
I looked around, taking in the expressions of all of them watching me. Some were terrified, others furious, and yet even more seemed to be ambivalent.
“Now go,” I roared.
Slowly, the vampires began to disappear, one by one, several pairs and even a few small groups took off together. Before long, the only people left were the shifters and me.
In the minutes that followed, I stayed silent, watching as the wolves gathered in front of me in a massive group. I looked out at them, and they all lifted their heads, howling in unison for me.
It was more than just a simple howl. It was the manifestation of their respect for me as their alpha’s mate, as their leader in my own way and my heart swelled with love and loyalty for every single one of them.
I was truly one of them now.
“You were wonderful, mate. I’m so proud of you,” Lawson told me.
I smiled, feeling nothing but love in my heart. I reached for my alpha, climbing up onto his back. He made his way back toward the house, taking me away from battle and back into the safety of my new home.
