The Alphas Wonder Land Phoenix Mountain Book 9

Ok. I may have declared a tiny, little war, but it was for kids, I would have destroyed the place if given enough time.

After helping to make sure the kids got to their parents and set up with either escape plans or joining with Rex, I needed to detox a little. I also needed to figure out how the hell I’m getting back without getting my ass shot off.

Anyway, I decided Damica and I needed some time alone. We kind of have to talk about some stuff.

After dinner, we snuck off into the woods.

We walked through the trees, my arm around her neck. “Is it always so cold here?” I ask as the wind blew by and straight up my sweater. We usually don’t get cold easy, but it’s definitely colder than home.

She giggles and shrugs. “I think it’s the moon. It just makes everything feel cold.”

I stop and grab her hand, turning her to face me. “Speaking of that, I have an extremely important question to ask you and you are not allowed to say no.” I lean my head to her.

“I can’t say no?” She arches her brow and crosses her arms.

I mirror her image. “Nope. You can only say yes.” I smirk.

“But what if I don’t like the question?” She eyes me.

I scrunch my face and nod. “I think you’ll like the question.”

“Fine.” She pushes her chin up with a snarky grin. “Ask away.”

I put my arms on her shoulders, rest my forehead on hers and look into her eyes. “Stand under the moon with me.” I whisper. “Become mine forever.” My heart hit my ribs hard as I waited for what felt like an hour for an answer.

She bit her lower lip. Her eyes slide to the side then came back to lock with mine. “Yours forever, huh?”

I nod on her head. “End of time, forever.” I grin.

She pulls me into her close. “What do I get out of it?”

My brows go up. “Oh, you want perks…Alright.” I lean back and hold her waist. I lower my head and think. “Let’s see…Witty banter…Fierce convictions…Really, really good sex…Whenever you want…ummm…”

She chuckles. “Ok…why me?”

I look at her shocked and jut my head into her space. “Why you?” I say.

She nods. “Of all the women you could probably have, why me?”

“Ok. Give me a second. I’ve got to get this trick question right.” I walk around rubbing my chin, thinking as she laughs.

I snap my fingers and point to her. “You’re gorgeous.”

She smiles. “And?”

I think some more. “You’re smart. Funny. You’re interesting and exciting…and…you’re the only person in my life that hasn’t punched me in the face.” I smile and walk up to her.

She slowly nods with her lips pressed in a tight smile and I wrap my arms around her.

“How’d I do?” I ask.

“Hmmm…I think…those are very good answers.” She giggles.

“So will you?” I ask again.

“Will I what?” Her brown eyes go big and she blinks at me.

“Ugh…” I tilt my head back, playfully then look into her eyes. “Stand under the moon with me!” I growl through a grin and shake her.

“Yes!” She laughs.

“Yes?”

“Yes.” She whispers.

I slide my hand onto her cheek and kiss her with all the love I have for her. That electric feeling I get creeps along my arm to the butterflies in my stomach. My wolf spins in circles. He’s purring and whining in my ribcage as I deepen the kiss. All of a sudden, it’s not so cold anymore. In fact, I’m heating with every dance our tongues do.

She runs her fingers into my hair and I wrap my arms around her body, pressing her to me.

It’s weird it almost felt like I was experiencing the fate bond or at least what I think it feels like. No one’s actually real clear on what it feels like.

More than likely it’s just the moon playing tricks on my mind. All I know is, my wolf and I agree on one thing…

Mine.

Damica Fox is mine. All mine. If I never leave this place and we never get to stand under the moon, she’ll still be mine. No matter what. I’ve never loved anyone truly in my life, but Damica? She’s my heart. My whole heart. The only way you’re getting her out of me is you’d have to rip my heart out of my chest. The only way. She’s engraved in every fiber of my being.

I pull back to just the very hint of her lips. “I love you so much. I don’t care what you’ve done or didn’t do. I don’t even care if you never tell me everything. Whatever happened to you, made me fall in love with you. It made you my little fox and no matter what, my heart will always belong to you.”

“Sawyer.” She melts. “I love you too. I never expected a hero to rush in and save me or my sanity, but I will never thank you or appreciate you enough. It’s only been a handful of months, but you’ve done so much. Things that you will never realize. You’re totally crazy, but I am so madly in love with it. Crazy in love with you. I think you had me from the beginning and seeing how determined you are to protect me and make me happy. I could never let you go. You’re mine, Sawyer. No one will ever change that.” Her lips brush mine as she whispers.

I kiss her again, then we continue to walk. We enter a clearing and I sit down in the grass, leaning back on a stump. “Come here.” I pull her into my lap. “I’m not done being sappy.” I smile. I grab her head and kiss her addictive lips.

She lets out a tiny moan. Of course, that gets me going. I start to untuck her tshirt and pull it back when I’m smacked in the side of the face with something.

“What the hell?” I break the kiss and rub my cheek. It’s like I got zapped.

“Oh my God. A firefly.” Damica grins as the little bastard flies between our eyes. His ass blinking a white light.

I scowl. “Since when to fireflies actually hurt.”

Damica giggles. “Over here they sting a bit. He must like you.”

“Doesn’t feel like it.” I grumble. “Holy shit!”

We look around us and the whole clearing lit up like a disco. Fireflies flew from the grass and floated about a foot above the tallest blades.

I push Damica off and stand. Once we do, the fireflies swarm together.

“What are they doing?” I lean to her.

She shakes her head. “I don’t know.” She answers.

They fly into the blue, starred sky and move like a school of fish through the air.

They come toward us and spin around us fast.

“Whoa!” I chuckle as they graze my ass. Damica is giggling like a kid as they corkscrew around her and head back into the air.

They dip, twist and dive around the clearing like they’re practicing for some dance. Their buts blinking on and off making their swarm blink like party lights.

“Oh no! Incoming.” I laugh as I back up. They swarm me, spin around my legs and burst up my front. “Hey!” I say as I have to lean back so I don’t get zapped again.

They reach the sky and spread out. The sky slowly empties of them.

“Awe. Where are they going?” I flop my arms at the sides.

Damica slides under my arm. “Well, if they’re like our fireflies, their off to find their loves.” She looks up and gives me a toothy grin.

“Good thing I didn’t need a zappy ass.” I place my lips on hers as she laughs.

Just then we hear a small call from what sounded like a sheep or cow. We turn to the treeline.

“Oh, I forgot about them! Get down! Be quiet.” Damica pulls me into a crouch.

My brow comes together as I watch the tiny deer like creature walk into the clearing. It lets out a call. A larger one trotted out to it and sniffed it.

“What is it?” They look like deer, except with spots on their backs and stripes on their back end.

More came and the largest ones had four antlers and… ”Four eyes?” My eyes widen.

Each deer had two eyes side by side on each side of its head.

“I don’t know what they’re called, but I’ve been calling them blinking deer.” She whispers.

“You seen these?” I ask.

She nods. “When Rex was planning to ambush patrols, we’d hide in the woods. Waiting for Falcon to come. One of these times, I came across a herd. I wonder if this is the same one.”

She gathered grass and stood up.

“Dami…What?...Get back….What are you doing?” I say as she walks to the deer slowly.

She turns around and shushes me.

I thump my head with my hand and shake it.

She gently shakes the grass and crouches at one of the fawns.

The baby trots over to her and starts to eat it. She looks at me and waves me over and puts her finger to her lips.

I chew my cheek and slowly walk over to them. Crouching down beside her, I watch Damica feed the baby. Its two eyes blink one after the other. It’s creepy as fuck, but it’s cute as hell too.

The rest of the herd walks calmly into the clearing, eating their own grass. The stag watches over them, standing strong. He’s tall, muscular and impressive. I can tell he’s keeping a close eye on us. I also realize his eyes can look in several directions at once independently. They blink a lot. I can see why Dami would call them blinking deer.

She reaches out and strokes the baby’s head then looks at me. Her head ticks to the deer.

I lift my open hand then hesitate and close it. I scrunch my nose with a weird smile.

“Go on.” She grins.

I open my hand and slowly place it on the baby. It doesn’t even flinch as it eats. I huff out a quiet laugh as I pet its long ear. I can’t believe I’m doing this right now. I glance at Damica. She’s so beautiful right now. It almost feels like a dream. If it is, please don’t wake up.

The stag bellows and all the deer’s heads shoot up and look behind them. They take off across the clearing.

The baby’s mother calls it and it runs off too.

The ground trembles as the herds hooves hit the ground.

“What happened? They get spooked?” I stand.

Damica drops the grass and wipes her hands. “I guess so. Wasn’t that incredible?” She turns to me.

I rub the back of my head. “Ok. I’ll admit. I wanted to take it home and keep it. It was adorable.” I lean to her and point in her face. “Don’t you dare tell anyone. I need my angry reputation to remain in tact.”

She chuckles. “Your secrets safe with me.”

We stop when we hear something in the trees that concerned the deer. It concerned me too. It sounded like something was just bulldozing its way through the forest.

I take a few steps closer and tilt my head. The bashing of brush and trunks seemed to come like footsteps.

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Damica says.

“Another deer herd?” I look back at her.

The growl from the dark forest confirmed this was no deer. “Maybe we should get out of here.” I say stepping back and grabbing Damica.

“Good idea.” Her tone was laced with worry and concern.

We start to back up when it breached the trees. It’s green eyes glowed bright in the deep blue. It’s elongated wolf head snarls his lips. It’s overly long arms with massive claws, rips into the tree trunks as it pushes itself past them.

I flare my eyes and my wolf surfaces. My eyes glow red gold and I feel my guy beg for a fight.

The creatures extremely long legs carry it into the clearing.

“Damica. What is that? It looks like a demented Lycan.” I have her behind me, backing up. I’m not taking my eyes off it.

It sees us and sniffs the air.

“If what I was told is right? We’re in deep shit.” She grips my shirt. “It’s a night flyer.”

“A night flyer?” My eyes look wildly at it.

Its growl fills the clearing. Its wolf ears perk up.

It licks its lips and raises a hand. Its claws grow even longer then his gaze turns to us.

“Shit.” I can tell what he’s thinking. “Damica?”

“Yeah?” She gulps.

“Fucking run!” I yell and spin around. She turns.

The creature roars and it hurts my ears. Damica is in front, tearing through the forest.

I hear the crashing of the forest behind us. I look. The night flyer is coming up fast. It’s teeth bared.

“FUCK! RUN!!” I yell.

It’s knocking small trees and taking chunks out of large ones as it chases us through the thick woods. His snarls and barks are everywhere.

“HERE!” I grab Damica and we veer off the path to thicker trees. The creatures barrels through behind us. He’s shoving trees out of the way like they’re sticks.

I look back. “No fucking way.” I look forest again. “Keep running!!”

“WE NEED A PLAN!!” Damica yells.

“I’M THINKING, DAMN IT!” I yell back.

My mind searches for any ideas as we duck around trees, jump through brush and rocks. The beast is hot on our ass. I can practically feel his breath.

To my right, I see the trees thin. I grab Damica. “There!”

We run for it and the trees part to a large open field.

The night flyer lets out another roar and I hear a weird sound. I look behind me. “Where is it?” It’s gone.

Damica stops and looks. “I don’t know.”

I look all around the field. “Did it give up?”

I take a step and the fucking thing falls from the sky, lands on its feet and roars in my face.

“SHITTTT!” My eyes go wide and stumble back. “RUN!”

We run again across the field. It roars through the dark clouds above.

“THEY CAN FUCKING FLY?!” I growl to Damica.

“NIGHT FLYERS!!” She yells back.

“THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN GOOD TO KNOW, DAMICA!!” I yell.

“SORRY!!” She shouts over her shoulder.

The night flyer lands in front of us and we skid to a stop. We turn and he flies over us and lands on the other side.

I push Damica behind me. I’m sweating and my wolf is losing his mind.

“Back the fuck off, buddy.” I growl as my eyes glow.

He looks at me with his glowing green eyes. He shakes his head and drool flies from his bared teeth. He stalks closer.

“I fucking mean it. You don’t want to piss me off.” I glare at him.

He lowers his head in a challenge and let’s out a deep, rumbling growl.

“Remember, you fucking asked for it.” I snarl.

I burst out of my clothes and my wolf lands in front of the creature. His jaws are already snapping and raging.

“SAWYER, DON’T!” Damica yells.

Little too late for that. My guy is raging for scaring my girl.

We stare each other down. I’m not sure if he expected me to shift, but he seems to be moving with a little more caution now.

His dark fur glistens in the blue light and the wings he hid in his back, stretched out to their full length. If I had to wager a guess, this bastard has a 15 foot wingspan at least. Does that scare me, damn right it does, but that only makes me angrier.

‘Your move, buddy.’ I say in my head.

‘Your last move.’ The voice in my head sounded sick and demonic.

What the fuck? He can link me?

He ran at me and I jumped at him. My wolf’s teeth sunk into his neck as I let all my weight pull him down.

His clawed hands grabbed my side and my head. He tried to break my lock that I had on his flesh. My wolf was shaking him hard. He cried out in pain.

He grabbed my scruff, digging his talons into me. My wolf yelped and let go. He brought me up high in the air and drove me into the ground.

I had a bell rung or two, but my wolf wasn’t letting that happen twice.

He ran around the night flyer and jumped on his back. He grabbed the bone of one of wings and tried to rip it off.

The animal screamed then took to the air.

HOLY FUCK!!

He’s rising, diving and turning, Trying to shake me off, but I wasn’t letting go.

His leather flesh wings flapped with my wolf’s teeth still attached. My wolf whines as he sees where the ground is.

The sound is like a hurricane. The wind is even stronger. His flapping is hard and violent.

‘Don’t let go! Don’t fucking let go! Tear him apart!’ I hype my wolf up because he can feel him start to doubt this plan of his.

He got his paws stable as the creature circled high above the tree tops.

I got my paws under me and planted them on the night flyers back. I anchored my canines and gave one hell of a pull.

I’m hit with blood as the wing I have, starts to rip from his body.

The night flyer lets out a sickening cry of pain and circles again.

As we pull the wing, we eye the ground coming in fast.

“FUCKKKK!”

The flyer crashes into the field. Dirt and grass explode like a crashing wave.

We roll for what feels like forever then separate.

My wolf lays there for a second then stands up.

The creature gets to his feet too, holding his shoulder.

My wolf’s eyes narrow as he spits the night fliers wing on the ground at his paws.

My wolf huffs out a growl and shakes his head.

“SAWYER!” Damica runs across to the field toward us.

My wolf digs his claws in and runs at the now disabled night flyer.

He swings an arm at me and I dodge it. I get the meat of his thigh.

He grabs me and throws me to the ground again. His thigh heals instantly.

He picks me up by the neck and slams me again, again and again.

I feel rib bones start to break. The pain is unbelievable. I have to shift.

Fuck…I’m losing here….

I can barely breath as he lifts me by my neck.

He moves me close to his muzzle. His hot breath makes me sweat.

I grab his lips in my hands to try and hold him back.

I feel a claw on my chest. The tip of it making a circle where my heart is.

‘I think your heart will taste even better now.’ He links.

“Fuck…you…” I grind out.

He growls loud and I close my eyes waiting for my death. I have no way out.

Then I hear him scream. I fall to the ground, coughing and holding my neck.

I slowly raise my head and the beast is on his back thrashing and crying out. His one large wing slamming the ground, desperately trying to fly.

My eyes widen as I find out why. On his arm, Damica bites down. Her eyes are glowing blue and white.

I stand and watch in complete confusion as I see the creature start to melt away.

His wing shrinks back into his body. His dark, blue fur recedes into his skin. His skin turns from black to pink.

I swallow as I see his distorted limbs form the limbs of a man. A young man. Maybe 18. His muzzle retracts and his sick growls become screams. He’s arched back and twisting on the ground. Damica has the flesh of his forearm in her teeth. She’s holding it down on the ground. He can’t even pull it away. It’s like she’s pinned him there.

His breathing is labored. His skin is steaming in the cool, night air. He lowers his back to the grass. It looks like what he was feeling is going away.

He lifts his head in confusion. He looks at Damica with wild eyes. “What are you?” He chokes.

He looks familiar, but I can’t pin point it.

Damica pulls her teeth out and in the deep blue, I catch a small, elongated canine. She does have teeth.

She stands. “I saved you.” She mutters.

“What? How?” He tries to stand.

“I cured you.” She says.

I walk up and stand over him, holding my ribs. “Who are you?”

He looks up between the two of us. “Cayden. Cayden Preston.”

“Preston. Any relation to Gideon?” I ask.

“Yeah. He’s my dad.” Cayden looks at me with even more confusion.

I nod. “Your dad’s a night flyer?”

He shakes his head. “No, only we are.”

“Who's we?”

“Me and my brothers. We're Quads.” Cayden supplies.

Damica looks at me. “What’s he talking about?”

“Damica Fox, meet one of the Preston Quadruplets. Shifter/Lycan hybrids. Though it seems their hybrid genetics took a turn for the worse here.” I inform.

“What did you do to me?” He stands and stretches his pained body.

“You’re human now.” I say.

“Human? What the fuck? You turned me?” He growls at Damica.

“I’m sorry. I had no choice. You were going to kill him.” Damica defends.

“What the hell am I supposed to do now?” Cayden looks at us.

I eye him and arch a brow. “Come with us.”

He stares me down then eventually he nods.

We all walk back to the barn to figure this thing out.

Now, that I know how Damica works, we may have a huge problem on our hands.