The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

It took about half an hour just to catch everyone up on where we were. We told them about what had happened here after she left. I told about Doc’s funeral, about the investigation into the torching of the clinic. Viper’s quick thinking with the gasoline and the oxygen had obliterated any evidence of werewolves, and the whole thing had been blamed on druggies. The estate settled with the insurance company, and that was that.

A few strangers poked around in the next few weeks, probably wolves, but they stopped coming soon enough. A woman even stopped by to see Moose, asking about Vivian; from the description, she said it was probably Beta Denise. Moose didn’t say a word about her.

None of us had heard from Snake, Vivian, Carson or Jessica since they had fled six years earlier. I was holding onto Viper’s hand with a death grip as they told us of their time in the States, the close calls they had before deciding on Grenada. I loved the island through their eyes, and before they were done I was already plotting how to go on a family vacation there next winter. Finally, Jessica told about finding out she was pregnant.

“Didn’t you use birth control?” Teri had the obvious question.

“Yes, and we stayed in human form, but no birth control is fully effective.” Her hand fell to her belly, she was barely showing. “It doesn’t matter, I’m pregnant now, and we have to plan for what that means.” She had already explained why abortion was out of the question; I didn’t have a wolf in my head, so it didn’t make sense, but they were certain about it.

“All of my equipment, all of my notes were in the clinic when it was torched,” Vivian said. “I need to fix up the clinic here, I’ve got about three months before she reaches the dangerous portion of her pregnancy. I’ve learned a lot, and I’ll do what I can,” she promised. “We need to get the baby to twenty-three weeks, then I’ll give it the shot to develop the lungs. I’ll deliver at twenty-four weeks. That’s how old Jennifer was, and we were able to keep her alive. My plan is to deliver before the SPUDS sets in, giving Jessica a chance to live.”

“You’ll need a lot of equipment, won’t you?” I remembered how much she had in the clinic.

“Yes, I’ve been making a list. I was going to start looking on Ebay and medical auction sites this weekend. I also need to go back to the licensing bureau, get my Minnesota license active again. Since I was in school, and practicing in Grenada, that shouldn’t be difficult. That way I can order the drugs and supplies I need, except blood.”

She had a lot of it stored in the clinic before, and we needed every bag trying to save the women. “You can’t use human blood, right?”

“Correct. She needs werewolf blood, type matched. I can have her donate a couple pints before her pregnancy is too far along, but I really need to find a supply of werewolf blood. IV saline can replace the volume, but it won’t help with clotting and I need that.”

“Can you talk to Packs without getting suspicions?”

Vivian shrugged. “I don’t know right now if there are any Packs that have medical staff, much less a doctor. I can make some inquiries, but if someone finds out I’m alive and in Minnesota, I become the number one target of every Pack. They know I was able to save a baby, that word got out, and they’ll want me to save theirs too.”

“Don’t you want to help,” Teri asked.

“I do, but I have to protect myself, protect Jessica,” Vivian said. “Both of us are targets, even with her pregnant, she’s still a werewolf and a registered nurse. Don’t forget they can still force mate me, take me away from her.” Carson started to growl, and Snake just pulled her tighter.

“All right, first order of business is we have to set protection for these two.” There were nods around the table at this, we were family. “I’m sorry, ladies, but you’re going to be restricted to the clubhouse. We will have at least four club members here with you, all of them strapped, all the time. Hammer, you’ll set up a rotation. Moose, you still have the silver ammunition and knives?”

“Of course, I brought some with this morning when I heard they were back. I’ll pass it out when we’re done.”

Vivian looked sad. “Does this mean we can’t ride?”

“Club rides we can do, plenty of people around, but no rallies or strangers. Carson has to go with, he can ride ahead and make sure the places we stop are clear of werewolves before we arrive. It won’t be often, it’s a big risk,” Viper said. “Also, while they are here at the clubhouse, nobody we don’t know unless they are cleared by me or Hammer, and Carson has to sniff them out first. No dropins or open houses. Got it?” He got nods all around. “Vivian, Jessica, whatever you need, you order it or we can get it for you. You’re our daughters, that’s how we think of you, which makes that baby the grandchild I never thought I’d have. We WILL spoil it, so get used to the idea.” I just nodded as Vivian laughed, I was so excited at the prospect.

“Anything else?” No one said anything.

“Then let’s get out of here, we’ve got a wedding to go to,” I said. I hopped off his lap and made the rounds, hugging each of the guys before we finally left the room.

What a difference a day makes.

Vivian’s POVThis text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

As soon as Church ended, Snake and I headed towards the kitchen. He grabbed a couple prospects and put them to work on rearranging the tables and chairs for the big dinner. He looked at what was in the big refrigerator and the walk-in freezer in back, muttering to himself the whole time. After he had taken some things out, we sat down to make a menu. “We only have about four hours to get this going,” I said. “And we need to be able to seat everyone at the same time. The good news is that Kelly said you could make some Island food if you wanted, as long as you remembered not everyone likes their food hot.”

“That works for me. I’m thinking rice and gumbo for the main course.” My mouth started watering, I absolutely LOVED that Creole dish, and his was amazing. “I can make up a huge batch, plus a smaller batch that uses mild sausage and a lot less cayenne pepper. Rice is easy to make in quantity, and we can serve it family style or have them come up and take plates of it and sit down.”

“Are you going to do your famous seafood gumbo?” Made with andouille sausage, shrimp, chicken, crab and fish, my wolf and I both loved it. “Family style would be amazing if we can pull it off,” I said. “It’s so much more social than being served.”

“Ok, so seafood gumbo and rice. I’ll make some chicken tenders and fries for the kids, we have plenty of those to use in the fryer, if they aren’t adventurous. What other stuff should we have?” He was jotting down things on a pad as we talked.

“French bread, fresh baked, we need it to soak up the juices. We can leave it in the sleeves, just lay it on the table as decoration until needed. Then they break off pieces, island style.”

“Potato salad is traditional to serve with gumbo, that’s easy enough to buy at a deli. I don’t have time to make it myself.”

I thought about it, the table needed more color and options. “A garden salad would be nice. The farmer’s market is open, we could get some fresh produce.”

“That’s good, that can be prepared while the gumbo is cooking. What about the cake? I’m not that good at them.”

I just giggled. “Sheri knows a woman who owes her a favor. She can do it, barely, but we had to leave the choices up to her based on what she had available. Sheri said that it will be ‘appropriate’ for the wedding, whatever that means.” He shook his head as he finished the list. Calling the prospects over, he sent one to the farmer’s market and the other to the local Cub Foods. “You might need to ask where this stuff is, if they don’t have enough, go to another store. And hurry up,” he said as he handed them cash for it.

“And DeWalt? You get the tough part.” I looked at him quizzically. “Go tell the bride what we decided, and tell her if she doesn’t agree, it’s White Castles for everyone.”

“Are you sure, baby? She might go for the sliders.”

He just laughed. “I don’t think the crowd is drunk enough for White Castles. Now go on and get back here. There’s prep to be done.”

It took us a while to get comfortable working in the Club kitchen again, having to find where people had put stuff. The day flew by as we laughed and cooked together.

All too soon, Sheri was pulling me out to get ready. “The wedding party is wearing black jeans, white blouses and our cuts,” she said. “Now come on, time for you to shower and get ready. You smell like shrimp.”

An hour later, I was standing in the same room, with the same man I had been with six years ago. The only difference was who was getting married. “Are you nervous?”

He just shifted in his seat. “You weren’t?”

“Of course I was. I have another joke for you.”

“Oh God…”

I smacked his arm. “At a nursing home a group of senior citizens were sitting around talking about their aches and pains.

“My arms are so weak I can hardly lift this cup of coffee,” said one.

“My cataracts are so bad I can’t even see my coffee,” replied another.

“I can’t turn my head because of the arthritis in my neck,” said a third.

“My blood pressure pills make me dizzy,” another contributed.

Then there was a short moment of silence.

“Thank God we can still drive,” said one woman cheerfully.” We both cracked up.