The Alphas Wonder Land Phoenix Mountain Book 9
Chapter 16

It’s weird.

I’ve never in my life cared about approval. I couldn’t even give two shits what my asshole brother thought of me.

When I stood there, my wolf on full display, I was nervous as fuck. I thought, this is where she screams and runs away. Calls me a monster or alien.

This is where she tells me she can’t deal with this and says good bye to me forever.

I never wanted approval so bad. My heart beat sped up and my body inside started sweating. Watching her make her slow movements was fucking torture, but I had to stay cool so my guy didn’t go off the rails.

When she put her hands on me and felt me all over, I almost wanted to cry.

Shut up! It was emotional, alright?

I kissed her hard. Gave her everything. I wanted to show her how much her acceptance of me meant. I didn’t mean for her to find out what I was. Certainly not the way it happened. But it did, now she’s all in with me and I’m so fucking relieved.

With that out of the way, it’s time to really blow her mind.

A shiny city, in the middle of the desert. Home to shifters, lycans, Phoenix wolves, Sorcerers, turned humans, shape shifters, you name it, it’s probably here.

I won’t be showing her everything of course. I don’t need her cracking her egg over it.

“Ok. Keep your eye on that road.” I smile at her and point to the mountain road into Phoenix.

She leans forward as my truck rolls between the towering valley mountain ridge.

“Oh my god.” Her jaw drops and her eyes widen as the huge city starts to come into view. “This is a shifter city?”

I nod. “20,000 and growing.”

“20,000? Did…did you just say 20,000?” She whips her head to me.

I nod. “Yes, I did.” I pull into traffic and head for the Unit. “This is just one city.”

“There’s more?” She asks.

“A lot more.” I say.

She spins in her seat. She’s looking at the skyscrapers. Her window rolls down and her head is cruising up and down the side walks. “I don’t get it?”

I glance at her. “Get what?”

She turns her brown eyes to me and thumbs over her shoulder quick. “It looks like San Francisco.” She had a deeply confused look on her face.

I chuckle. “What were you expecting?”

She sits back in her chair. “I don’t know. Something kind of grungy. Definitely smaller.”

He laughs. “What you thought we were like cave wolves or something?”

She tilts her head to me. “Maybe not that bad, but certainly not at this level. Are they flying?”

I look out my sunroof. “Uh. Yep. Yep. Shifters can fly.” I watch as a formation of C19s and 20s streak across the sky.

“This is unbelievable.” She mumbles.

“You just hit the edge of the rabbit hole, Alice. Hang on.” I grin.

She looks at me with an astonished face and looks back as the flyers circle back.

We pull into the Phoenix unit and park.

I open her door and help her out. She’s still in awe of everything.

I lean to her. “You’re not going to pass out or anything are you?”

“Um…I don’t think so?” She breathes.

We walk in and I link Zander.

‘Um…our secrets out.’ I tell him.

‘What?! How?’ He links back.

‘Council room. Twenty minutes.’ I say to him.

‘Be right there.’

Luckily, she was looking everywhere else, but me. I don’t want to explain the milky eye thing just yet.

Leaning to me, she grabs my arm. “Everyone here is a shifter?”

I nod. “Most of them.”

“Wait. Most?” her brow went up.

I hold a finger to her. “One thing at a time.”

“Sawyer.”

“Ah! No. Deal with shifters first.” I tilt my head to her.

I take her to the science hall to head up to the Alpha floor.

“LOOK OUT!”

I look and my face fills with shock as a drone flies at our heads. I grab Damica and duck.

The drone flies over and speeds into a skylight, sending glass crashing to the floor.

“Fuck!” Zane comes stomping out of his lab with his tablet.

“What the hell, Zane?!” I growl at him.

“I've been trying to get the stealth to work. It keeps switching to air combat mode and smashing shit. I don’t know what’s wrong.” He grumbles and punches buttons.

“Where is Declan?” I grit.

He waves his hand. “I don’t know. Off trying some self shrinking fabric or something.”

Damica looks at me. “What is this place?”

I look at Zane. “A crazy house.” Zane scowls at me. “Council room. Now.” I grind.

“Sure. I’ll just drop everything because you say so.” He grits.

‘Council room, Zane.’

Zane scowls. ‘I hate it when you do that.’ He growls.

She points to Zane eyes. “What was that?”

“Nothing. Let's go.”

I led Damica to the Alpha council room.

She walks in and looks around. “Wait. You have a government?”

I pull out a seat for her. “It’s a council. We have 11 members plus Ricky and Zander.

“Zander. Did you say Zander?” I furrow my brow because she seems a little freaked.

I make sure she’s comfortable and take my seat. “Don’t worry. He’s just a annoying.” I smirk.

Some of the guys walk in and of course Darcy can’t resist.

Ash takes his spot on the wall and Darcy takes his seat across from him. He has a shit eating grin on his face as his eyes flip between me and Damica.

I’m instantly irritated. “What?”

He leans his elbow in the table and points to Damica. “Hot scientist?”

“Come on, Darcy.” I flop my head in my head. I turn to Damica and apologize.

“Don’t worry about it. Trust me. Humans have hundreds of him who say a lot worse.” She smirks. She leans on the table. “Damica Fox.” She introduces.

Darcy nods. “Fox. I like it.” He grins again.

I lean on the table and point to his stupid smile. “Don’t make me get Sam.” I growl.

His face falls. “I’ll shut up.” He leans back.

“Whose Sam?”

I look at Darcy and my mouth ticks up. “His wife.” I jut my chin quick.

Damica looks at Darcy. “I see.” She crosses her arms.

Darcy throws his hands out. “Sorry.” He chuckles.

“Anyway.” I say shaking my head. “On the wall, that’s Ash. On the right at the end. That’s Brody. Our recent mated up sucker.” I snort.

“Hey, you wouldn’t say that if you had what I had.” He points to me.

I tick my head. “True.” I lean back. “You’re still a sucker.” I grin. “Then you have Owen, Peter, Zane, Graham, Mateo and Hunter.” I introduce the guys. Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Damica looks at Brody. “Weren't you at the museum with Sawyer?”

“Yeah. You remembered.” He smiled.

“Hard to forget the guy that found the weird railway tie.”

“The what now?” His face fell and a questioning look came across his face.

“The nail.” Damica reminds.

“Oh. Right.” Brody grins. “That thing. You figure out what it is yet?”

“No, I…” Damica starts.

“No, King. You can’t claim your wolf as a dependent.” Ricky throws up her hands.

“Why not? He’s a giant pain in my ass he might as well be.” Zander growls.

“Yes, but I’m sure the federal government doesn’t recognize him as their pain in the ass.” She shakes her head as she walks to the podium.

He shakes a piece of paper in the air as he walks behind her. “There’s got to be some way to bring this bill down. I swear, my next business expense is going to be a guillotine! Heads are going to roll, Rick! The first head I’m taking is that snake at the tax office!” He fists the paper and his eyes flare as he reads it. He takes his seat.

I clear my throat and look at Zander. He looks at me and I motion my head to Damica as I eye him.

Damica’s eyes are wide and her face looks scared. I grab her hand and she squeezes the shit out if it. I lean to her. “I promise. He’s all bark and no bite.”

She slowly turns to me. “You sure about that?”

I look at her confused and was about to say something when Ricky spoke up.

“Damica. Nice to see you feeling better.” She smiles.

Damica nods nervously.

I hold her hand tighter. “You can say hi. It’s OK.”

“Hello.” She says quietly.

She leans on the podium. “Ok. I’m sure you met the guys here. I’m Ricky and this my grumpy other half, the King of Hearts. Isn’t he sweet.” She gives Zander a sarcastic smile.

“Very funny.” He arches a brow. He turns to us. “Damica, I’m…”

“Zander Maximus.” Damica mutters.

Zander looks at Ricky and back to us. “How did you…”

“I just do.” She scowls.

“Uh…OK…” He furrows his brow.

I turn to Damica. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine.” She says.

I clear my throat again. “Ok. So as per my verbal report. Damica was attacked by shifters. We don’t fully understand how they got into the museum, but they did. Damica has seen me shift and now needs protection.”

Damica looks at me. “How did you get in?”

I nervously chuckle. “Yes…um…I have ways.” I give her a quick look. I don’t think she needs to know my whole job description at the moment. “Anyway. I can't be sure, but I think there’s a new player in Washington.”

“Ok. Do we know who they are?” Zander asks.

Damica wrings her hands. “Rex Fabian.” The table all turns to her. “They’re prisoners.” She eyes the Alphas.

Zanders brows stitch together. “Prisoners?”

Damica nods. “Yes. They’re trapped…behind the mirrors.” She looks nervous and plays with her shirt.

“Excuse me?” Owen says. “Did you say mirrors?”

Damica nods.

“There’s shifters…in the mirrors.” Brody says.

“Yes. That’s what she said.” I growl as I grab her hand again and hold it tight. I need her to know I’m completely in her side.

“You know that’s um…just a tiny bit…” Darcy starts.

“Crazy?” Damica rolls her eye to him.

Mateo leans on the table. “We don’t mean to insult you, but it’s just…”

“Trust me. I know how it sounds. I spent years on therapy because it’s just nuts. I try every day to convince myself that it’s not real. A few days ago, you people weren’t real, so now I’m not so sure.” Damica says.

“What do they want from you?” Ricky asks. “Why attack you?”

She looks at Ricky. “They think I can free them somehow. They tried once and it failed. Now, they want to try again.”

I turn to Damica. “How?”

“My blood.” She informs. “They think my blood can break the curse that put them there.”

“Can it?” Zander asks.

Damica shakes her head. “No, but that’s not stopping Rex from trying.”

“How many of them are there?” Ricky asks.

Damica shrugs. “At this point, I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“When it first happened, there were hundreds of them. Surviving in the mirror, then something happened…”

“What?”

“Hey, guys. Sorry, I’m late. Trinity is really getting impatient for the pool.”

We turn to see Jake enter the council room.

“Oh my God.” Damica stands up from her seat slowly.

“Damica?” I look at her as she faces Jake.

“What?” Jake looks at her then the room with an uncomfortable smile on his face.

“Miracle.” Damica breathes with shock coating the word.

Jake smiles again. “I’m sorry?”

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