The Girl who became Alpha

Vanessa is gone. Dean is nowhere. Mason is probably already with the Imperials. Can life get any worse?

I crawl into bed shortly before daybreak and sob into my pillow. Vanessa's mysterious sickness is painful. And so is the truth about Mason. I hope he loves me enough not to condemn me to the ire of the lycans. But I am probably kidding myself.

I have an argument with mom that morning. When I get into Alicia's car, I'm in a mood. 'Can we skip school today?' I groan.

Alicia's eyes are red and mournful. The dark makeup around her eyes is a reflection of her internal atmosphere. 'We can't, Claire. We already have two warnings. Our attendance is shit.'

I groan louder. I don't want to endure a day of school. The urge is to crawl under my sheets, bury my head in a pillow, and cry myself a river in which to wallow.

Alicia takes a look at me and says, 'I promise I'm feeling better than you are.'

'Yeah, no kidding.' Despite myself, I chuckle at her words.

'So the ravishing werewolf who stole your heart away is an Imperial spy,' Alicia nods irritably as she drives.

'Mason,' I say, 'With-no-last-name.'

'I want a cell that overlooks a shore where I can watch the waves breaking on land every morning.' Alicia looks serious. 'Claire, promise me you will bear me witness before the Imperials that I said that.'

'And I want Mason to serve my bacon and eggs every morning,' I say.

Alicia can't help laughing. We throw our heads back and laugh ourselves silly in spite of ourselves. 'Now that's not gonna happen,' she chuckles.

'No, it's not,' I agree with soberness.

'I just hope Vanessa is fine,' Alicia says abruptly.

'Yeah.'

But for a moment there, last night, we had all seen Dean and Olligrander's memories. Once the Whites' minds—made more powerful by age or how ancient they were—grew stronger than their bodies and cracked it, immortal or not, they became lost. Gone.

But I resolve to never lose hope.

The VIP ring is already set up when we arrive. Sebastian is there, in a T-shirt that ripples with his muscles when he moves. I expect very soon that his admirers will be falling at his feet, giving him offerings. He pretends not to see me, but Seamus, his best pal, watches me with a predatory look.

I know something is up.

My mind runs through every prank in the book. I really do not have the patience for this. Everything I care about is waltzing on a precipice. A misstep and it's all over. I'm caught between the Imperials and Mason on one side, and Dean and the scientists with the governments funding them on another.

My skin burns feverishly during Mrs Ashton's History class, so I excuse myself for the bathroom. Worried, anxious, nervous and heartbroken, I hide in the female bathroom, letting out all the tears.

Dean. Vanessa. Mason. Each name is a stab in the heart for its own unique reason.

I splash my head with water from the tap in the washbowl. The water is cold but steam still rises into the air from my skin. I'm momentarily glad there is no one to see.

Someone moves behind me.

I whirl around, fumbling for an explanation, an excuse for whatever they think they saw; but it is only Vanessa White in her red dress and black jacket. She looks no less beautiful or pale than she ordinarily looks. Except for the dark veins still distinct on her skin.

My mind does a double take. Vanessa can't be in the bathroom of my school. Am I going out of my mind now? Still, Vanessa looks real enough. She walks towards me slowly and puts her hands comfortingly on my upper arms.

'Vanessa?' I croak.

'I'm only in your mind, Claire,' she smiles. 'It has always been a lovely place. I like the way you keep everything ordered.' She looks into my eyes and I get the feeling she is looking past them. 'Your thoughts of Mason are the single exception.' She moves away.

A question is forming on my lips when she reminds me she is telepathic. The scope of the distance between us awes me. Vanessa White is incredible.

She inspects the mirror behind me. Quite naturally, she steps towards it and inspects her appearance. 'So this is how you remember me: how I looked on the night of my sickness.'

'You are not really here, are you?' I question.

'No. I'm only in your mind.'

That is both a relief and a source of fresh worry. 'You aren't dead, are you?' I blurt.

She smiles faintly, appraising the entire space with all its stalls and the years of graffiti and defacement done to the walls. 'No, Claire.' She glances at my eyes and away. It is clear that she thinks it is only a matter of time.

'Are they not helping?' I ask instantly. 'The scientists and everyone else in that place Dean took you.'

'Oh, they are running new tests every hour.' Her smile is amused. Vanessa has been kind, insightful, thoughtful and considerate. Many of that might just have been her telepathy, but she is more human than many people I have met.

'But...' I prompt.

'I'm more powerful than anyone has ever known. My alpha powers made me more telepathic than any member of my pack; they also made me more able to bear the effects. I have lived centuries after the last of my pack. But even now, my powers continue to grow and my body can't keep up; my mind is a burden my body can no longer shoulder. I'm lost—don't cry, Claire.'

I sob. The tears are fat drops pouring off my face. Vanessa reaches a hand to wipe them off, but she pulls it away at the last moment. I notice that she has touched or moved nothing since she appeared.

'I'll miss you,' I cry.

'I know. I'll miss you too. And Alicia.'

The pain is crushing. Suddenly, I remember I am in the female bathroom. To any other person, it will look like I'm talking to myself, embarrassing in its own right. Besides that, the news of 'Claire Benning cried in the female bathroom' will humiliatingly make the week's headlines, and I shall not be proud.

'Don't fret, Claire. Everyone thinks this bathroom is the last place they want to be right now.' Vanessa's smile is smirky this time.

I gasp. 'Are you doing that to the whole school?'

'Only the girls actually,' she responds with false modesty.

If Vanessa's telepathy can distinguish between sexes, then it is even more incredible.

'Or I'm just very skilled,' she smiles, watching my thoughts as I make them.

'Since I can also find people, I know where Mason is,' she says later.

My heart beats faster. 'Where?'

Vanessa's eyes bore into me. 'You love him,' she states. Those eyes are dripping with pity, and it catches me off guard. I swallow a lump. Vanessa looks like a bearer of painful news; she isn't saying it, but I can feel it at the edge of my mind.

'Tell me everything, Vanessa. Who is Mason?' I whisper.

'Very well.' Her accent is briefly foreign there. 'Mason is seventh son of Augusta Lycaone, matriarch of the royal Lycaone family of Europe. They are greater than the pure werewolf families; they are pure lycan families, and Mason is an embarrassing mistake of Augusta Lycaone herself.'

'How?'

'It would have been better if Mason's father had been a werewolf, someone from the original wolf families; but he was human. He didn't even become a werewolf along the line, but was human till the end. Had it been any other person, this dalliance would have been damning. It only served to point out that the Imperials see themselves above Imperial law. The lycans are ashamed of Mason, and he always seeks opportunity to prove himself loyal. It is quite ironical that he ceaselessly proves himself a loyal errand boy instead.'

'What connects him with Dean?' I remember something Olligrander said. Dean and Mason are ancient acquaintances, sworn friends who are bitter enemies.

Vanessa sighs. She sees the scope of my questions in my mind. This is how she entirely understands every question that I don't need to ask.

This moment is the longest I have talked with Vanessa. Everything she and Dean and Olligrander have kept to themselves, she is revealing without hesitation.

'Someone has to know, Claire. Might as well be the next alpha.'

I take a step back at the sudden revelation. 'I—what? No. I mean...err...maybe. I get why—still...' I stumble vocally. My thoughts are twisting and branching in every direction.

'You would have preferred a warning, I know, and maybe you'll get one another time, but you know how sudden this was,' Vanessa says.

'What happens to Dean? And why can't Olligrander lead us?' I demand.

Vanessa places her hands on my arms again. A reassuring smile spreads across her face. 'Dean and Olligrander have prepared you for this, Claire—or why do you think they taught you so much? And I'm teaching you now. I will leave some of my memories with you for good measure. Olligrander, Dean and I have been expecting something like this all along. It doesn't make the sorrow any easier to bear, we are not fully prepared, but we are ready.

'Dean tried one last time to save me by going against the law of the Imperials. He will have to give himself up to them. But first, he will make sure that you will not be made to pay for what he did. Olligrander will give you advice. He will always be there whenever you need him.'

'And you?' I interrupt.

She smiles. 'My memories will live on in your mind, Claire. I won't be totally gone.'

When I leave the bathroom, my mind is swimming in fresh memories that seem like they belong to me but were never mine. And I know a lot. I know who Mason is, how cold he can be: he is a serial heartbreaker. And I know that the only person he truly respects as much as he hates is Dean.

Mason and Dean grew up together. The lycans played the two friends like pawns in a game. They always made it a competition between the two. Mason may be half lycan but Dean is of a pure werewolf line of alphas. Among their peers, they were extraordinary, and their powers are almost equal.

If Mason lost, Dean won. If Dean lost, Mason won. This was the game the lycans made their brother and his best friend play, the game that would ruin centuries of their lives. It wasn't fair, but the Imperials were above Imperial law.

And Mason is currently staying the next state from me.

I wonder how he will appreciate an august visit.

****

I'm still very distracted by everything that has happened. The school hallway is abuzz with activity. On a regular day, I would be eavesdropping on a dozen conversations at once, but this day is about as abnormal as it can get: a dying girl miles away makes a telepathic connection with my mind and passes to me some of her memories; and I'm very certainly the next alpha of my pack. It wouldn't surprise me if I woke up to realize it was only a dream.

I yank open my locker and an envelope tumbles to the floor. I bend to pick it. Glancing up and down the hallway, I can't detect whoever might have put it there. Why couldn't Vanessa also have passed some of her powers to me? I would be able to see into the minds of everyone in the hall. But even if she could, it probably wouldn't be the best idea.

When I open the letter, I find six photos in it. It is no trouble at all to recognize Mason and me, lips passionately locked together, feeling each other's body in the library we used to meet at. This kiss was on the second occasion we met in the library. My heart aches.

CLAIRE SLUT! is written all over the photos.

A slip of paper is still in the envelope. This one reads, 'You will do everything I say.' The irritating penmanship is of course Sebastian's.

As a rule, the Imperials and their families don't take pictures. At least, they don't make their pictures public; how better to tell a person is immortal than to see a picture they took a millennium and a half years ago? If Mason and his family take pictures, they probably hang it where outsiders can't see it or keep it in a vault or destroy every picture constantly. I know these from Vanessa's memories.

And here, in my hands, is a picture of Mason, looking as sexy as seduction. I am going to pay for this.

Mason would be mad. The Imperials would be mad.

This is every kind of trouble.

I am mad.