Page 27 of Brutal Alpha Beast (Roseville Alphas #2)

Maybe the fact that I’ve finally come clean to Ellis about the pregnancy has allowed me to think more clearly, but I have an idea that I feel super good about.

A different idea about what to do to spark the same magic again.

When I had that second, more powerful vision, Ellis and I were on our way back from a date, walking through the woods. We were close to the pack, coming from the direction of one of the nearest human towns.

“I think the spot was over here!” I call.

Ellis rushes to my side.

“I’m here if you need me,” he says.

We don’t bring the tapestry this time. I figured that since the second vision was more intense, why don’t I try and re-spark the magic from that one in order to guide us toward the vines?

I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and begin my usual chant.

As I do, I feel heat.

There’s something to latch onto; I can feel it.

This has to work.

Instinctively, I walk a little further with my eyes still closed. My magic is leading me to the correct spot.

I continue chanting and begin to sway; my body is heating up, and I feel the glow, followed by the familiar sparks.

Keep steady , I tell myself.

Then suddenly, my vision again.

The chaos, the vines, snaking around with speed. I feel that spark grow even brighter, and I latch onto it, just like I’ve been practicing.

My vision goes black.

The images are gone, but the magic remains. I’m producing it myself.

The flame is small, but it’s there. I chant louder, holding on with all the force I can muster to the energy inside me.

Then I feel something click into place. The magic is spreading, existing, the flame is growing until I finally feel release—I’m covered in my glow.

I open my eyes. My heart is racing.

Ellis is staring at me with caution; he doesn’t speak.

I’m hesitant to move at first because I don’t want to disrupt the energy that I’m holding onto.

But, after a few careful moments, I’m confident that it’s in its place.

The magic of the vines is inside me now.

Then I hear a loud pulse. Like a heartbeat, it’s drumming against my ears.

It’s not Ellis’, not mine. I gaze down at the earth, and there, leading in all directions, are glowing trails, like large veins. Like roots beneath the earth. It’s the roots that are pulsating. They’re alive.

They’re the vines!

There are so many of them, interwoven, forking in all different directions. They’re calling to the magic inside of me, beating with a pulse to show me that they’re there.

“Ellis,” I say. “Can you see that?”

“Yes,” he responds. “It’s the vines.”

Everything suddenly becomes clear.

“They’re beneath the earth. If we follow them, we can get to the source, the light in the tapestry—it holds the thing we need to destroy. Once we do, Monroe will be free.”

Ellis’ voice is a mixture of urgency and joy.

“Which way do we go?” He asks.

I look around at the glowing vines that pulsate beneath the earth. They’re spreading in all different directions. It could take hours to figure it out.

My heart is thumping.

“We’re going to need help.”

***

The vines revealed themselves a little around sunset, and now that it’s nightfall, the forest looks beautiful. The whole floor is lit up with the weaving map of glowing paths.

Ellis recruited some coven sisters and shifters from our pack.

“Wow,” Aaron says. “This is insane.”

“Where should we go?” One of my coven sisters asks me, eager to get moving.

“Let’s split off in different directions,” I say. “I don’t know which path we have to follow. Wolves, if you find anything, howl. Witches, you know how to send me a message. Let’s be quick, I don’t know how long this is going to hold for.”

Everyone splits off, and Ellis joins me as we follow one of the paths Eastward.

I move carefully; my eyes peeled for any signs of movement or life. Ellis shifts and prowls beside me.

My body is tense; the energy of the spell is testing my strength, but I push through, using everything I have to hold on. The pulsation is apparently only audible to me. But it’s getting fainter. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing.

After we walk for a while, I begin to lose hope. The path keeps stretching on—it looks like they’re going on until infinity.

We could end up walking all night. And that pulse becomes no louder than a faint whisper.

I look at Ellis’ wolf, who shakes its head. No word from the shifters, and I haven’t gotten anything from my witches.

I pause, and Ellis shifts back.

“What is it?” He asks.

“The pulsation, it’s getting quieter this way.”

“Can you follow the sound?” He asks, “To where it’s louder?”

I nod. I close my eyes because staring at the glowing paths is a distraction, and I take a couple of deep breaths, tuning into the sound of the pulse.

“Right,” I say.

Ellis guides me, as I keep my eyes closed. We move for a while through the trees, deeper into the forest, me directing him where to go with my words.

It gets louder, so loud that it feels like I’m in an echo chamber.

I open my eyes.

“Come,” I tell him. We move further and further; it’s easy to follow now. Eventually, as we move, and the sound is nearly unbearable, I see something strange.

There, glowing on the forest floor, is what appears to be a piece of a human heart. It's beating—pumping wildly, and it’s connected to all the converging, glowing roots.

I bring my hand to my lips.

Ellis and I exchange a wide-eyed glance before I edge closer.

It must be Willow’s heart. It’s the source, the thing we have to destroy.

Without second-guessing, I begin to weave a spell, one that will shatter it to pieces, but then the heartbeat stops for a split second.

Then, an explosion.

Ellis and I are sent flying backward as the heart and everything surrounding it is swept up into flames.

The sound of the explosion still echoes in my ears.

“Danielle!” He yells, rushing toward me. “You need to get out of here.”

The others have caught up with us—the witches are shooting spells at the flames, the shifters are in their wolf forms, running around the fire as they try to find a way through.

“I’m not leaving,” I say. “ We have to do this.”

From my hands, I expel water onto the flames.

“Try to cool it off!” I yell to my sisters, “We need to get into the middle of the heart!”

The witches follow my lead, shooting water onto the fire, and I see a path forming through the flames.

But just as I’m about to go, I notice something familiar. There’s a shift in the air, an unnatural, chilling breeze.

My stomach drops.

There above the flames, forming one by one from the smoke, are those monsters. They’re screeching, a deafening sound as they plummet from the shadows.

I try to cast the spell I’ve practiced, but they aim for the wolves first.

“Wait!” I yell.

But they don’t hear me.

Their howls echo through the night as they leap forward at the beasts, jaws open, tackling and charging from all sides through the air.

Then, everything erupts into chaos.

Spells zap through the night like shooting stars. Wolves are colliding with shadow monsters, bumping and crashing onto the floor.

“Lead them away!” Ellis commands.

The wolves run, and some shadow monsters follow, but some stay.

They dip in and out of the fire, coaxing the witches toward them. I aim more water at the fire, and shoot at the monsters in my path. But there’s no use; they keep multiplying.

My witches are outnumbered.

To my right, just as a monster is about to engulf one of my sisters, Ellis leaps, grabbing hold of one of them and throwing them through the air.

Mid-air, I fire my glow until it shatters and cracks.

“We need to get through the fire!” Ellis yells.

I try to hurl more water, but a shadow monster swoops in and pushes me out of the way. It’s on top of me, hollow eyes staring into my soul as its monstrous jaws spread open.

Then Ellis grabs it and throws it into the fire, where it's zapped by a magical glow. Ellis helps me up.

“We’re not going to be able to defeat them.” He says. “Can the witches help us through?”

Without telling them, my coven sisters already know what to do.

They’re on all sides of the fire, forming a circle as best they can despite the chaos. Their hands are raised, eyes glowing as they begin to chant in unison—a protective spell.

“They’re doing a protective spell,” I tell him, zapping a shadow monster behind him.

“Watch out!” He yells.

I turn and zap one behind me, too.

My vision is turning hazy, my body weak—barely holding on. The whole scene is like my vision, filled with fire and chaos.

“We have to go through,” I tell him, gaining my strength. “They’ll protect us from the fire, but we need to be quick. The shadow monsters could get to them first!”

I wipe the soot from my face. Ellis is beside me, blood on his shoulder, but standing strong.

I place my hand into his.

We hold each other’s gaze and, in one look, communicate a thousand words.

We will get out of this. We will raise a child together.

Then we run, I zap shadow monsters darting at us, and Ellis covers my back, turning to push more out of the way.

We’re in the fire, but there’s a protective white glow around us as we move through the flames. They lick wildly everywhere, clouding my vision, making it difficult to see.

But still, I hear that heartbeat. That pulse. I follow in its direction. My sisters’ chanting spurs me on.

“There!” I yell.

The fragmented heart is exactly how we left it, burning in flames. It’s pulsating wildly, still alive, but I can see that beneath the fire, it has turned black.

I zap the heart with my glow, but it reflects off it, and there’s another explosion that pushes us back.

We’re still protected by the glow, but it falters a little—looking as though it’s fading.

I hear one of my sisters’ voices. “We don’t have long!” She yells.

The shadow monsters are screeching, and I hear one of my sisters scream. Then, through the fire, I see one coming.

Ellis transforms into his wolf, sinking his jaws into it before it can hit me and tossing it out of the way. Ellis makes for the heart, but once again, it pushes him back. He shifts back as he hits the floor.

My heart sinks for a second before he’s back on his feet.

“Danielle!” I hear from outside. “Hurry!”

In my panicked mind, my thoughts jumble. The heart is rejecting my spells. What am I supposed to do? The protective bubble is fading, and I start to feel the heat of the flames.

We could die in here. All three of us.

Then it comes to me.

“Ellis!” I yell over the noise. “Go at the heart again, on my mark.”

I step back.

He nods.

“Three,” I shout. “Two,”

I raise my hands.

“One!”

As he shifts and hurtles forward, I catch the moment that Willow’s heart is about to expel him away. It’s turned in his direction, ready to fire.

From my hands, I expel all the water I can. It floods through me, takes all the energy I have left. I grit my teeth. Waves cover my surroundings, the heart, the fire, until that’s all there is. That’s all I can see.

I scream. Holding on. I don’t want to stop, in case it isn’t enough. More and more water flows, flooding the place like a tsunami. I’m drenched, but I’m still weaving.

“Danielle!” I hear Ellis yell from somewhere.

My focus is back, I’m immediately released from my trance, and fall to the earth.

My vision turns black.

It’s done.

When I open my eyes, at first, all I see is smoke.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see that the heart has turned into ash, and the black smoke is spiraling its way up into the sky.

The fire has gone.

I cough.

To my right, lying next to me, is Ellis, his eyes flickering open and gazing into mine. His face is covered with black soot. He edges his fingers closer to mine, and my heart swells, despite everything around us, at the feel of him.

Then he places a protective hand on my stomach.

Despite the pain I’m in, I also feel joy. If I could, I would smile.

We did it together.

I hold his hand and gently close my eyes.

Then, I feel myself being picked up and carried off.