Page 20 of Brutal Alpha Beast (Roseville Alphas #2)

“This is so embarrassing,” I groan. Ellis strokes my hair as he presses a cold towel onto my forehead. We didn’t even make it to the bedroom, and I’m sweating what feels like pools onto the couch.

“It’s not embarrassing,” he soothes, the touch of his fingertips the only thing that doesn’t feel like aching fire.

I groan.

The cold towel feels good, too.

“I hate being the damsel in distress,” I say, wincing through the pain.

This is true. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean that I want or need some Alpha shifter, saving me all the time. I have magic. I can protect myself, and others —I’m strong!

And the thing that scares me the most is that Ellis saving me and looking after me doesn’t even feel bad or as embarrassing as it should. It feels kind of ...good.

“You’re not,” he laughs. “You’re still a badass to me.”

I shake my head and turn into the couch. But I smile a little, burying it in the cushions so he won’t see. Or maybe I do want him to see. Gosh, I can’t even tell anymore. My head is foggy, my body weak, and yet Ellis still makes me feel somewhat okay.

He shifts beside me, gently adjusting the towel and brushing a damp strand of hair from my temple.

“You should rest,” he says, his hand resting on my head. “Even if you think you don’t need it.”

I nod.

Don’t leave me , I want to say.

***

When I wake up, I’m relieved to discover that the pain, for the most part, has subsided; all that remains is a little weariness and a light ache.

A pot of tea sits on the coffee table beside me, still faintly steaming. Ellis is slouched in an armchair, his boots propped up casually on the table’s edge.

He’s frowning down at his phone as he swipes.

“You’re awake,” he says, without looking up.

“What,” I stretch my shoulders back a little. “How can you see me?”

He cocks his head and sets his phone aside. “I was timing the tea so it’d still be hot when you woke. You were stirring a little, looked like you were coming to. I guess I was right.”

His quiet, satisfied grin makes me smile. It’s as though he’s won some competition, like he’s proud of himself for timing everything right.

“I guess you were,” I say, sitting up.

He didn’t have to wait around for me, though the fact that he did makes me feel warm and fuzzy. It’s confusing. I’m not even sure how I should feel about him anymore.

“How are you feeling?” He asks me, his face serious, leaning forward.

The intensity of those eyes sends a jolt through my chest.

“Better,” I nod, wrapping the blanket around my shoulders and bringing a cup to the lip of the teapot’s spout. “Definitely, better.”

I pour myself some tea and gently blow on the steaming brew. It smells good.

“I let Penelope know what happened,” he says. “She says it’s possible you could just be having a reaction to the undoing of the spell. That the intensity of it all…”

He trails off, and an understanding flickers between us in the silence. Yes, we’ve both gotten some closure, but there are still so many feelings between us that are unresolved.

“But if I’m this affected, then you should be affected too—even worse. No, this was wholly related to a vision.”

I sip the earthy tea, hot enough to soothe my dry throat but cool enough to drink without flinching.

That vision . It felt like I was on fire, a pain like the one accompanying my first vision, but so much more intense.

“Okay,” he says. “I thought that’s what it was, too. You were making the vision face.”

I smile. “The vision face?”

Ellis mock stares into the distance, his eyes blank, his face dropped.

I laugh.

What most people don’t know about Ellis is that when he’s not grumpy or commanding, when he feels comfortable with you, he can be funny. Charming.

That’s the Ellis I used to spend all my evenings with when we were kids.

“Yes,” I say. “I guess that is the vision face. Pretty hot, right?”

“You read my mind!”

We both laugh, and I feel my body loosening, returning to its full health. I’m using humor to skirt around the issue, though. I need to talk about what I saw.

“So,” I say, taking a deep breath. “The vision.”

He nods.

“The vision,” I continue, reluctantly bringing it to mind. I want to live in the warm, fuzzy, sparky feelings that Ellis gives me, not the chaos of our looming future.

“It’s okay,” he murmurs. “You can take your time.”

I nod.

“The vision,” I say. “Was the same as before, but this time more vivid. I felt the burn of the fire so strongly, the screams of chaos, they were so loud…but this time, there was also something else. Long, thick, green vines that grew in front of me, I thought they were just leading into the fire at first. I thought the whispers telling me to follow were malevolent and harmful, but then I saw the vines snake away. As much as I tried to follow, I couldn’t get to the destination. ”

“Where do you think the destination is?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. But the message was clear—the vines are paths, leading somewhere we need to go, so that we can defeat the curse. I wish I could have followed them, but the vision only took me so far.”

Ellis is deep in thought, the sunset streaming in through the windows, wrapping us in a golden, warm glow.

Despite what I saw, nothing feels clearer. Ellis clenches his jaw and nods a little as he digests what I’ve said.

“Do you think it could be leading us to another tree that we need to destroy?”

“I thought that too,” I say. “But I can’t be sure. Why vines? Why not roots? It still doesn’t make sense, although there is a certain feeling I have now.”

“What’s that?”

“I know we’ve tried looking for vines already, but I feel like I have this connection to them now. I don’t know how to explain it, but I bet if we go looking, I’ll be able to decipher the right ones. By feeling.”

Ellis nods slowly, thoughtfully. “That makes sense. Maybe there’s a magical link now, maybe the vision opened something up in you.”

I wrap my hands tighter around the mug, letting its warmth ground me. “That’s what it felt like. Like something clicked into place. Like I’ll know the right path when I see it. I think. I don’t know. It’s worth a shot.”

Ellis smirks.

“What?”

“It’s just funny that no matter how much we try and chase down the answers to this thing, it always reminds us that it’ll reveal itself in its own time. To you.”

I shrug. “Yeah, pretty frustrating, but we should take our small wins where we can.”

I glance up at him. His expression is steady, and he meets my gaze without hesitation. “Yes,” he says. “We should.”

***

At first, I was hesitant to go hunting with Ellis in the forest at night—it’s not like I don’t love nature at night time, I usually do, but my vision has spooked me, and I’m feeling cautious, to say the least.

Not that I told any of this to Ellis. I still want him to think I’m strong.

“Are you sure you got this?” He asks me as we walk further and further away from the pack into the woods.

“Yeah,” I shrug. “Why not?”

He raises an eyebrow. “Maybe because I was nursing you back to health only a couple of hours ago?”

I scoff. “You were not nursing me.”

He sort of was.

I’m still not over how good it felt to be looked after by him, the him that fully knows who I am.

“Maybe nursing is too strong a word,” he says, the moonlight illuminating the smooth texture of his skin. “But still, you were in a lot of pain.”

“I know,” I say, taking a breath. “But I’m fine now. And we don’t have time to waste.”

The truth is, I don’t feel fine. I feel strange... like there’s a powerful energy that’s burrowed itself inside of me. It’s hard to explain, as it often is with witchy stuff, you never know what’s magical and what’s a typical human sensation—like exhaustion.

I opt for it being exhaustion. We really do not have time to waste.

We move through the night, slowly, and I spark a ball of white light in my hand to illuminate the way.

Every time we come across a vine, or something that looks vine-adjacent, my heart skips a beat. I freeze, waiting to feel some pull. But nothing comes.

“Do you mind if I shift?” Ellis asks me. “It’ll help.”

“You don’t have to ask me that.”

Ellis gives me a look, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Just being polite, because, you know, you won’t have anyone to talk to.”

I smile. “I think I’ll be fine.”

“Suit yourself,” he nods. I turn away, pretending to inspect an area of forest land, and then there’s the sound of rustling, accompanied by a loud, resounding thud.

Ellis drops down in his coppery wolf form beside me. He shoots me a look, illuminated by the orb, as though I’m supposed to know what it means, before he trots on ahead further into the night.

“Show off,” I mutter, trailing behind him.

I look around again for the special vines. Maybe this whole idea was stupid, I think to myself. Maybe we should have come when it wasn’t night.

Then suddenly, I see something in the distance; it’s faint, but there’s a light coming from the sky.

“Ellis, wait,” I say.

His wolf stops.

I raise my orb a little higher, directing it through the surrounding trees. I squint my eyes to look.

What the hell is that?

The white light is brighter, an external one, that’s not coming from my orb. Once I’m able to make out what they are, it's too late.

“Shit,” I call, “Ellis, hold—“

But he’s already rushing toward the monsters as they fall to the ground. There are six of them, growling and screeching with a deafening sound that pierces through the night.

My heart thumps.

I have a spell, but it requires Ellis to stay back. Something I know he won’t do.

They’re closing the distance, Ellis charging at them, the shadow monsters pacing toward him. If he bites one, the spell won’t work, and they’ll keep multiplying again.

With my orb in one hand, I cast the spell with the other. I have a clear shot, and I murmur the words I’ve practiced beneath my breath.

Twisting my fingers in a circle, I fire, a green zap pierces through the night, looking as though it’s heading for the back of Ellis’ wolf.

“Ellis duck!” I yell.

Just as it’s about to hit him, and as he’s about to hit the monsters, he leans forward.

The green light slices the shadow monsters in two, and they disintegrate around him.

I release my breath. My heart is pumping. I rush toward him.

“Ellis, are you okay?”

He shifts back into his human form as he shakes and regains his balance.

“Woah,” he says. “What the hell was that?”

I open my mouth to speak, but then close it. I still can’t believe that the shadow monsters are gone. That he’s okay.

“That was a new spell,” I finally say. “I figured out how to get rid of them without them multiplying. But it requires the spell to come first, not your bite.”

“So I almost ruined it?” He asks.

“Yep.”

He smiles, like he’s impressed. “I know we weren’t exactly on best terms when you must have figured this out. But next time, tell me. It’ll be useful for us both.”

“Yeah,” I say casually. “Okay.”

I try to bite back a grin because I like it when he’s impressed with me. I can’t explain why. Maybe it’s stupid, but his approval means a lot.

“You cool to keep going?”

“Yes, of course,” I reply. “These vines aren’t going to find themselves.”

We continue walking, and I still feel that strange energy again.

We walk a few more paces, and then there’s this strange constriction across my chest. I shake it off, but before I can move, it feels like my heart is tightening. Like there are strings being wound across it. Like a hand is pressing it between the sides of its palm.

“So,” Ellis says absentmindedly, “maybe left?”

My vision turns black, my hand falls, and there’s no more light from the orb. There’s that energy, louder, impossible to ignore.

Then I see myself, it’s a vision, I’m standing there, and there’s a light that’s tracing around until it finds its way to my stomach. Then a heartbeat.

Thumbs, fingernails, a small face. I’m zooming inside my stomach and see the first forms of life. It’s tiny, only a spec. Then I’m back, gasping for breath as I’m kneeling on the forest floor.

Ellis is beside me, rubbing my shoulders. He doesn’t speak; he waits.

“I’m not feeling well,” I say.

“What did you see?”

I’m pregnant.

Can I tell him? Not when the future is so unstable. Not when I have no idea how he’ll react. I can’t face this today.

“Nothing,” I mutter. “I think we should go back to the cabin. You’re right, my body isn’t ready.”

“Of course,” he says, supporting me as we head back in silence.

I let him guide me, as I sink deeper into my thoughts.

I can’t believe it. I’m pregnant . As if things weren’t already complicated enough.

Once we get back, I excuse myself to use the bathroom—one of the hidden ones upstairs.

I call Monroe.

After several rings, she picks up.

“Danielle,” she says, her voice a little croaky. “Now’s not a great time.”

“It’s urgent,” I whisper. “Really urgent.”

“Okay,” she sighs. “What?”

“I’ve just had a crazy vision. It’s real, I know it is, I can feel it. I... well... I’m pregnant. I don’t know what to do. Should I tell Ellis, should I wait? How can I even think about raising a child with everything going on?”

“Oh,” she says, then there’s a beat of mismatched silence. “Are you sure?”

“Yes!” I nearly exclaim. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so sure of anything my whole life.”

“That’s tough,” she says with a soft tone, almost absentmindedly.

“Yeah,” I respond, nodding as I look up at the ceiling. I squint my eyes to stop the tears. “What do you think I should do?”

“I’m not sure,” she says.

I don’t know why I was expecting her to have answers. But I need something .

“Look,” she says. “I’m sorry, can we talk another time? Right now isn’t great.”

“Oh,” I murmur, feeling as though I’ve just been slapped. I don’t know what I was expecting, but something feels off. I just told her I was pregnant, and she wants to hang up?

I feel angry, upset, but I bite those emotions down, and then I just feel genuinely confused.

“Are you okay?” I ask her. “Has something happened? Is something wrong?”

“Fine,” she says shortly, taking a deep breath as though she’s going to say something else important. But then she stops.

“Talk soon,” she says quickly.

My phone beeps, and then she’s gone.

Strange .

I stare at my phone, speechless and confused. Then I put it down and stare at my reflection in the mirror, hardly recognizable. ,

I stare at my stomach, which looks the same, but feels so much more precious now.

I shake my head.

Why is Monroe not here for me when I need her? Does she feel like she’s been abandoned?

It’s as though the world is crashing around me.

All of this is completely insane .