Alpha Divided

I grabbed Raphael’s arm and that dizzy feeling came back. He yanked free. “What?” he whispered.

“They know we’re here,” I mouthed.

He gave me funny look. “Impossible,” he mouthed.

I started to walk away, but suddenly the schoolhouse was quiet. The side door slammed against the wall as it opened and I froze in place.

“See. This is what I’m talking about. She’s supposed to be one of us, but she’s spying, and turning our own against us,” Luciana said, and the gathered group voiced their agreement.

I turned to look at her, and was surprised to see a familiar face standing beside her. It’d been a while since I last saw him, but I’d never forget him and his chin-length blond hair streaked with gray. Especially since he was wearing another slick three-piece suit.

Rupert Hoel.

Everyone else in his family had shown up, so it wasn’t all that surprising that he had, too. But what was shocking was that he was here, with the coven. I’d been too busy chasing my tail to realize who was behind this whole clusterfuck.

This time when I yanked Raphael’s arm, he didn’t pull free. The dizzy feeling was back. Stronger.

I closed my eyes.

“Are you okay?” Raphael said.

I opened my eyes. We stood behind the last house before the schoolhouse.

What just happened?

I turned in a circle. How did I get back here?

As I realized the only possibility, cold sweat broke out on my forehead.

I’d just had a vision of the future.

Oh no. Oh hell no. This was so not happening.

Chapter Fourteen

I spun, stomping back toward my cousins’ house, but Raphael stopped me.

“Are you okay?” He asked as he gripped my arm.

“No.” I snapped, jerking away from him.

That was rude. I needed to calm down, but this whole seeing the future thing had totally thrown me for a loop.

I took a breath and tried to calm down. “I’m sorry, but I’m so beyond not okay. We need to go back to your house.”

He looked from the lit up windows, then back to me.

“I swear. We need to go back. I just…” I started walking again.

“Okay. Okay. We’ll go.”

I was already walking. Nothing could drag me back there.

In my normal visions, I was always removed—distant from what was happening. This was like living the same moment twice. Or almost the same thing. Like déjà vu on crack.

But what was even more disturbing was seeing the ass-Hoel with Luciana. Was he the reason she wanted me here so bad? Was it revenge for ruining his attempt at a coup? Or was he really teaming up with Luciana?

If someone had asked me a few hours ago if that was even possible, I would’ve said the idea was nuts. Luciana hated the Weres. But if I trusted the vision—and I did—Mr. Hoel was standing in the schoolhouse right now. With her. At a coven meeting.

If Mr. Hoel was plotting with Luciana, I had to tread carefully. He’d almost gotten four of the top alphas killed. He’d sold our location to the vampires. His endgame had always been about power, and I’d bet my life that his plan was still the same. Everything I’d overheard during my vision backed this up. He was making another play to get more power, take down the Seven, and out supernaturals to the rest of the world.

Only this time, he was using Luciana to divide the pack. Same story, different day. So, how did I beat him this time? The stakes were higher. Fighting the witches would only result in lots of people dying on both sides.

That wasn’t the way to come out to the humans. Showing them our violent side would make them afraid. It’d be witch hunts all over again.

So many scenarios ran through my head that I hadn’t even noticed Raphael had stopped walking until he spoke. “What the hell happened back there? Why did you chicken out?”

I wasn’t ready to talk about it, but I guessed it was unavoidable. “No. I just…no.” I didn’t know how to put what happened into words. “I had the worst déjà vu. It was like the Matrix had a huge fucking glitch.”

“A glitch in the Matrix?”

This was going to sound totally insane. Hearing what future visions were like was totally different from experiencing one.

I needed more visions like I needed a hole in the head.

I waited until we were down the road a little more. I didn’t want to be overheard. “I guess I had a vision. We went to the schoolhouse, but as soon as you put your ear to the wall, they knew we were there. Anyhow, it was turning into a bad scene—Luciana and the others were pissed. Then I jolted back to where we were right before you asked me if I was okay for the second time. In the exact same spot.”