Desert Heat (Complete)

{Jedediah’s P.O.V.}

Eighteen days. It has been eighteen f*****g days since Vivienne has gone missing, and I have just about lost the remainder of my sanity. I’ve been snapping at everyone, and I’ve shifted three times in an attempt to kill some of the pack members. Gunner has taken control more times than I can count, and it took Dorian or Bandit to put us in our place. Even though I’m of Alpha b***d, and Gunner claimed that we were stronger than Dorian, I’m not a titled Alpha yet. Dorian still outranked me which meant I had to obey him, and so did Gunner. Gunner had nothing but respect for Bandit and knew he was currently beneath him in the hierarchy.

Once we were able to get Adrian and several other vampires from his coven to meet us in Buenos Aires, each vampire took three pack members to the prison in Antarctica. Even the king of their coven, Louis, and his son, Henri—the prince that Vivienne told me about—came along to assist. Louis wasn’t happy that they were going to disclose the location of this damn prison to about two dozen werewolves, but Andre gave him a piece of his mind. Although it was completely in French, I knew there were a few curse words in there and I knew that he definitely called him a coward. That was a word Vivenne used a lot when she wanted to talk s**t about someone.

When we finally made it to the prison, Louis led us down one thousand feet of stairs and through hundreds of feet of the corridor. We came to a stopping point and were met with a half dozen dark witches. We took a stance, but Louis explained that they were the ones that built the prison thousands of years ago. They were at a loss as to how someone was able to get past the magical barrier that prevented shimmering and spells. Everyone’s conclusion was that a witch had lifted the spell, and a vampire from the coven had told Claude where to find Vivienne.

Henri admitted that Vivienne had bragged about finding me, her mate, and where she was living. I guess living in Las Vegas was a big thing that she couldn’t help but brag about. It also didn’t help that she gushed about the damn M&M store to some of the coven members. Because of her hybrid b***d, Vivienne was the only one who was able to consume human food and not just b***d. And, of course, there’s Andre. Members of the coven loved hearing her stories, and about how excited she was to live in America so Henri believed that someone used that to their advantage. It was Adrian who determined that whoever was helping Claude had done so willingly from the day he had been exiled. Claude had a loyal follower, but no one had any idea who it could be.

Louis, the Queen, Maribelle, and Henri all agreed with the Grand Elders of the vampire race that Claude and his accomplice needed to be extinguished. There would be no leniency. Gunner and I were relieved to hear that. Adrian, Andre, Giselle, and I made a promise to do rock-paper-scissors when it was time to kill him. Childish? Yes. Necessary? Abso-f*****g-lutely.

Thankfully, a few of us who were more experienced trackers were able to pick up Claude’s scent off the pillow from his cot in the prison cell. His stench was all over it and had barely faded. With the prison being so far underground and all the cells having magical walls, scents did not overlap. What really helped us was that there were two other scents lingering in the cell that Amy and Albert picked up on. One belonged to a human, which meant it was the witch who betrayed the Wiccan coven. The other scent was definitely another vampire, which meant it belonged to the traitor that outed Vivienne’s location to Claude.

The issue, though, was the scent of the vampire didn’t belong to a coven member of theirs. It was a member of another coven according to both Louis and Adrian; however, Louis knew exactly which coven, so they agreed to pay a visit to that coven and try to find Claude’s little buddy. Amos agreed to team up with the witches to find their betrayer, and the rest of us would follow Claude’s scent.

It has been officially 48 hours since we began to follow the scent, and it was no walk in the park. Because he could shimmer, his scent would disappear and then reappear miles away. It made tracking him even more difficult, but with Andre’s vampire genes, it made it a little easier.

We thought that he would have taken her to a different country, or even back to France, at the very least, but he didn’t. His scent lingered all over Antarctica, which meant that he had to be here somewhere, but in a place that wasn’t visible to the naked eye. We weren’t going to give up though. I wasn’t leaving this damn ice island until I had my mate, my Luna, and my pup with me.

“You holding up okay?” Dorian asked me.

“Trying,” I said with a single-word response.

“Jed, you need to stop trying to kill everyone. They’re trying their best. Amos and your entire team are with a bunch of dark witches that could turn on them in the blink of an eye. They didn’t even hesitate to team up with them. Everyone is doing their best to find Vivienne.”

“Ugh, I f*****g know that man! It doesn’t help calm me down though! In three days, it will be three weeks since she was taken. She could be anywhere between seven to ten weeks pregnant now. That means her scent would have changed to that of the pup. My pup. If this fucker finds out that she’s pregnant with my baby, he won’t hesitate to kill him or her.”

“You heard what Henri said though. If Vivienne’s vampire genes are strong enough, it will mask the scent of the pup. Because she’s a hybrid, she has the best of both species, more so than Andre does. She has a wolf spirit in her, and she can shimmer. According to Adrian, that means her vampire side is just as strong as her wolf side. Also considering what Maribelle mentioned, vampires protect their hatchlings, as they call them, just as fiercely as werewolves protect their pups. You need to trust that Viv’s vampire side and Tempest will work together to protect your pup,” he said while putting a firm grip on my shoulders.

“How the f**k are you so great with words?” I asked, making him smile and chuckle.

“I’ve been an Alpha for over fourteen years. It’s in the job description,” he replied, making me smile too and almost even laugh. “When you get your own pack, I’ll be there to help you, and my dad will too. You may even want to ask Scanlan to help.” Dorian saying that reminded me about what Gunner had told me.

“Hey, speaking of Scanlan, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“What’s up?”

“Gunner told me that after we find Vivienne, we need to go back to Red Mountain.” Dorian furrowed his brows and gave me the most flabbergasted look. I couldn’t blame him. All of this confused the hell out of me too.

“Why on earth would you go back there? And with Vivienne? Are you trying to piss off Michaela?”

“No, this has nothing to do with Michaela. Though, I wouldn’t put it past her to try and start s**t with Viv. But, no, that’s not the reason.”

“Then why?”

“Gunner says that I’m the rightful Alpha, or rather that we’re the rightful Alpha of Red Mountain,” I replied. Dorian gaped at me with his mouth hanging open. “I know it sounds f*****g crazy, but Gunner admitted that he knew we had Alpha b***d and that Allie is right.”

“Allie? What is she right about?” Dorian c****d his head.

“That my parents aren’t my parents.”

“Are you f*****g serious!? Gunner said that!?”

“Yeah.” Dorian was at a loss for words. “Trust me, I know, man. I was speechless too.”

“Hold on, if your parents weren’t actually your parents, then who were they?”

“I have no f*****g clue. I mean, they’re the only parents that I ever knew. But I know for a fact they’re Omegas,” I said while rubbing the back of my neck. “Do you … I mean … Could they be alive?” I asked without any confidence in my voice. Dorian sighed and just looked at me with eyes full of sorrow.

“I honestly don’t think so, Jed. If what Gunner is saying is true, that you’re the rightful Alpha to Red Mountain, it means your biological father would be the Alpha as well. But we already know that Scanlan isn’t your birth father because you were mated to his daughter. You wouldn’t be mated to your sister. Selene would never condone incest, and the biological makeup of our human sides detests it naturally. Well, that is unless you’re f****d up in the head. But that’s not the point. What I was trying to point out is that if Scanlan is the Alpha now, but your bloodline is the rightful Alpha lineage, then that means Scanlan challenged your father and beat him. Either your parents were banished, or they were killed.” I couldn’t stop my shoulders from slumping and lowering my head in sadness.

“I was afraid you were going to say that.”

“I’m sorry, brother. Even if they were banished, you know rogues don’t last long.” I nodded my head. “But, I am wondering how a mid-level Alpha like Scanlan could beat your father, a Supreme Alpha. He wouldn’t have been strong enough, or even fast enough. I’ve seen you move man. If you’re even half as powerful as your birth father, then there is no way in hell Scanlan could have beat him fair and square.” I looked at him and, this time, it was my turn to furrow my brows.

“What the f**k are you trying to say, Dorian?”

“I’m saying that it’s highly possible that Scanlan cheated.” I have no idea what came over me, but I felt a surge of pure, unadulterated hatred coming from me and Gunner. It was bad enough that Scanlan may have dethroned my father, but also cheated?

“If that’s true, then how the f**k could the Elders allow a cheat to become Alpha!?” I growled.

“They might not know. It wouldn’t be the first time someone cheated to dethrone another Alpha. Scanlan may very well have been your father’s Beta or even an Omega. We don’t know. But what I do know is that it’s not unheard of. Wyatt’s mate, Rylee, had something similar happened to her father. A neighboring Alpha used an official challenge to conceal premeditated murder. The only reason why he was found out was that his anger got the best of him during an official investigation, and he outed himself.”

“Are you f*****g serious?”

“Yes.”

“So, you’re f*****g telling me that there are Alphas out there who shouldn’t be Alphas at all!?”

“Yes. There could tens of hundreds of Alphas who earned their place illegally or found legal loopholes. The fact of the matter is, if you’re the rightful Alpha of Red Mountain, you need to challenge Scanlan. Once you beat him, which I know you will, then you’ll need to force him to tell you what happened to your birth parents.”

“But what if you’re wrong? What if it wasn’t Scanlan who killed my parents or banished them or whatever?”

“We’re going to have to confront him. Or if you feel so strongly about it, you can do it yourself,” Dorian said nonchalantly. I was starting to get a f*****g headache over this.

“Dude, one thing at a f*****g time. Let me find my mate and my pup, then we’ll think about a plan to confront Scanlan, or challenge him, or whatever. None of this s**t will even matter if I don’t have my mate.”

“Spoken like a true Alpha,” he said, smirking. I smirked back and nodded my head, thanking him for talking to me.

“Yo!” We both turned to see Brandon and Mikey approaching us.

“If you are done having a bro moment, Aries picked up the scent again,” Mikey told us. Dorian and I nodded in response and followed them to where Aries and the others were waiting. I wasn’t sure if Brandon and Mikey had overheard anything, but I knew that even if they had, they wouldn’t say anything to anyone. As of right now, everything about Scanlan and how he became Alpha was nothing but pure speculation. Either way, I felt it in my bones that he knew about my parents, and why I ended up with a pair of Omegas as parents. It also started to make sense why I felt like my parents didn’t love me and always fought because of me. I wasn’t a screw-up like I had thought. They fought about me because I wasn’t theirs.

I also started to question Michaela’s mom, the deceased Luna. Did she know about my parents? Did she take that secret to the grave with her? Was that the reason why she took me in as her own when my parents were killed? Did she feel responsible for me being utterly alone at an age where I needed a male role model? So many questions were left unanswered, but I intended to get answers to them all. That is after I found my Luna and officially made her my wife.