An Alpha in a Pear Tree Read online

  She’ll be with us in spirit, I told myself.

  I was so intrigued by the part of the letter that told me to hurry up and save my baby cousin that it was hard to focus on the sad news it contained about my aunt’s death. Perhaps the force inside me was a way for my mind to protect itself from grief. I was still very much in denial about that part: I knew it, but I didn’t want to face it, so I didn’t care at the moment.

  “Was this your dad’s sister?” Charles asked me. “I didn’t see him dropping you off at orientation, but some people say you have a dad.”

  “Had a dad,” I told him, not wanting to get into that whole story. “He’s not exactly present in my life anymore. And this was my mom’s sister.”

  “Oh, okay, so you have a mom? I heard you didn’t.”

  Jesus. How fast did rumors spread around here and how much information about my life had I divulged over one too many drinks on $5 Margarita Nights at Cowgirl Jane’s, the dive bar close to campus? With people I thought were my friends but who were clearly just into the gossip.

  “I don’t,” I told him. “I mean, obviously I did have a mom, too, at one point, but I don’t anymore.”

  And not for any meaningful time of my life, since I can’t even remember her.

  “So, what? Are you some kind of orphan or something?”

  Charles asked it the same way he would ask if I have two extra heads, and the look on his face matched what it would probably look like if he was asking that, too.

  “Kind of,” I told him, as I downed the Corona Light. “You could say that, I guess.”

  “You are really weird,” he said, moving closer to me. “But whatever. If you’re still down to fuck, I am, too. I’ve stuck my dick in plenty of weird, so that doesn’t scare me off.”

  “Congratulations,” I told him, suddenly deciding to jump into action.

  I walked over to the hook near the door where I kept my purse and keys. I felt like going out into the night right then and there and putting my aunt’s address in my car’s GPS and driving until I ended up in this allegedly godforsaken place everyone warned me not to go.

  But then I realized I had to pack a bag and some supplies. I would need to Google some YouTube survivalist videos on how to become a prepper, because I had no idea where this journey would lead me or how long it would last. And I wasn’t about to ask Charles or anyone else for their advice – because I knew they would just think I was crazy, and they would probably even be right.

  “What does that mean?” Charles asked. “Congratulations?”

  “Nothing. Just wanted to say good job on your sexual exploits. All that weird you’ve stuck your dick in, without getting scared. That’s impressive.”

  “So, do you still wanna fuck or not?” he said, sounding confused.

  “My aunt just died.”

  “And?”

  I just looked at him, wishing my eyes were daggers I could throw at him.

  “So now you don’t want to fuck?” he demanded. “Not even a comfort fuck?”

  “I doubt it would be very comforting.”

  “Listen, bitch, if you don’t want to fuck, you should have said so, instead of wasting both our time.”

  I opened my front door and pointed a finger out into the hallway.

  “You’d better go, then, before I waste any more of your time, or before Narc-y Shelly comes back and calls the campus cops on you.”

  “You fucking cunt,” Charles said, but my threat had obviously worked, because he moved towards the door, leaving his empty beer bottle on top of my mini fridge, of course. “Wait ’till all the other guys hear about how you gave me blue balls. You idiot tease of a bitch. You’ll never get laid at this school. You’ll turn into an old dried-up prune of a spinster.”

  “I didn’t realize it was the 1800’s,” I told him, just as Shelly appeared at my door. “Back when that threat carried some weight. These days, most of us women are glad not to have to put up with men like you. Haven’t you heard?”

  Shelly smiled at me when I said this, obviously stifling a laugh. I never thought I would be happy to see her, but I was eating my words today.

  I couldn’t believe I had thought I wanted to let an asshole like Charles take my virginity.

  If there was anything good that came out of my aunt’s death, it was that at least someone had cared enough to inform me about it, and at least Shelly had had the bad-but-turned-out-to-be-good timing of bringing me the letter Melchior had sent me right before I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life.

  “Did I hear that you might need my help?” she asked me, raising an eyebrow at Charles. “Is someone getting a little over-aggressive while studying the laws of gravity?”

  “Yes,” I told her. “As a matter of fact, he was pushing the… um, physics… on me a little bit too hard.”

  “Okay, then, be on your way now, sir,” Shelly told Charles, who pushed past her with a grunt. “And I’ll just pretend not to notice the two glasses of beer you have out, Marilyn, since that’s not allowed, according to the dorm room rules you promised me you were going to follow. I’m sure you were corrupted by that, um, gentleman who just left.”

  “Thank you, Shelly,” I told her, meaning it.

  “Do you have any more?” she asked, winking at me.

  “Here you go,” I said, taking out the last of the bottles from my fridge and giving it to her. “To thank you for your help.”

  I wasn’t going to need it, anyway.

  Or maybe I would, but it would be a bad idea to bring it along.

  There are laws against wandering around with open alcohol, I thought. Plus, the glass would be too easy to accidentally break.

  “You don’t want to drink it together?” she asked, looking lonely and hopeful. “I don’t mind sharing. I’m a lightweight and would get drunk if I had this whole bottle by myself, anyway.”

  “I would, Shelly,” I told her, and I really would, even if just as a way to thank her, out of pity for her obviously lonely state. “But I have something I need to do.”

  I reminded myself that apparently, there was a baby — and some other people, including someone with the strange name of Melchior who would be in a pear tree — who urgently needed my help.

  I had no time for sharing a contraband beer with my normally rule-following RA at the moment. Nor did I have time for anything that typical college students might want to do at the moment.

  Truth be told, I was glad to have a reason to get the hell out of this place, even if I had no idea what might await me in the very different place I was heading to.

  Chapter Four

  Melchior

  “Call the orbs back,” I commanded my pack.

  My order was met with grumbles and complaints, per usual, from different members of the pack.

  “But I doubt they’ve been able to gather much information.”

  “I’m sure if they’d caught any sight of her, they’d quickly be back on their own.”

  “Let’s give it more time.”

  I stretched out my legs as best as I could, without falling out of the pear tree I was in, while I listened to their many complaints that all melded together into one long similar one.

  I so wanted to turn into my wolf form, so that I could growl at them and get them back into line. They were so pompous and disobedient, circling the tree on all four legs while I was up here looking like an idiot in human form.

  I had climbed up here as a wolf, of course, and that had helped me get my bearings. But then I shifted into human form so that if Marilyn was walking through this part of the woods, she could easily see me and not be freaked out.

  I doubt she knew what a shifter was. I doubt she knew anything about what was in store for her, and I needed to break the news to her in a gentle way.

  My pack members told me I was fucking crazy to be sitting up here as a human for so long. The orbs we had sent out to roam the forest looking for Marilyn have cameras that can pick up footage and bring it back to us
, so we would know long before she was coming and there was no need for me to be perched up here all day and night.

  But I was paranoid that there would be some kind of technical malfunction, even though the whole set-up worked by spells, anyway. I was also worried that Jessalyn would sense that Marilyn was here before I did, and that that would mean disaster for certain.

  My entire pack was working a spell that should keep Jessalyn in the dark about Marilyn’s journey into the forest, just as it had kept her from knowing about all the letters that Marla had sent Marilyn over the years.

  Poor Marla. She had done what she could to fight off Jessalyn’s evil, but she had never been able to leave her grasp and in the end, it was her undoing.

  Still, at least we had hope.

  We had Marilyn.

  But did we?

  I didn’t want to be arrogant and assume that just because I’d sent her the letter, she would listen to my request and make such a dangerous journey. I knew she didn’t know much about what went on in Bethel Forest, and I wasn’t even sure if she knew of its existence, beyond it being the return address on the letters Marla had sent her over all these years — and thank fuck that Marla had risked her life long before she actually lost it, by doing that.

  But I did know from the contents of her letters in response to Marla that Marilyn felt drawn to Bethel Forest and that she wanted to help save us. Even though she likely didn’t even know what it was — or who it was — that we needed saving from. I doubt Marla had felt safe enough to go into those details in her letters, especially knowing they could be intercepted by Jessalyn.

  “Here,” said one of the pack members — Elias — as he threw an orb up at me. “I called one back for you.”

  I caught it, which wasn’t hard, since it was aimed in my direction and had been trained by our spell to report back to me with any information.

  I was annoyed that he’d only gotten one orb despite my command to call them all back, but I guess that was better than nothing. My pack had definitely been disobedient lately, and I’d been too depressed about what had happened to Marla to reign them in.

  “I doubt you’ll see anything on there,” Elias said, as if explaining his defiance. “We’ll get another one later, after it’s had time to travel further, and maybe we’ll see her on the outskirts of the forest at that time.”

  I actually happened to agree with him, but patience had never been my virtue. I felt antsy, stuck in a pear tree, although its fruit was delicious and at least I had a lot to snack on.

  I wanted to make sure I was doing everything I could to find Marilyn, and protect her, before Jessalyn got to her and ruined everything. But I knew it was a fine line to walk, since Marilyn would be naïve and innocent, and too much information at once could scare her away, or, if revealed in the wrong manner, could even turn her to the dark side.

  I reached up for another pear and took a bite while I ordered the orb, “Show me Marilyn.”

  I didn’t expect it to be able to do as I requested, but to my surprise, there was Marilyn as recorded by the orb: wearing a red cape with a hood over her head, as if to protect her from the unpredictable elements of the forest.

  She was running and she had a flashlight and what looked like some kind of Mace or other spray to ward off enemies — I was impressed at her level of preparation — and she was trying not to trip over branches as she made her way, looking up now and again, as if to make sure she was following the North Star.

  She had made good time, much better than seemed humanely possible.

  But now that I thought about it, that only made sense.

  Good girl, I thought, as I watched her hurl her way to me.

  She had answered my call, and then some, going beyond what I had hoped for from her when I had written her the letter.

  I felt a tugging at my heart that I wasn’t expecting. Looking at her, the outline of her curves under her robe, even, tugged my cock into perfectly erect and hard mode, but that was to be expected.

  She was a beautiful young woman, and in the prime of her life sexually. Something told me she was inexperienced and truly innocent in that arena.

  It made sense I would feel lust for her gorgeous, curvy body. And an overwhelming urge to protect her, since I was the whole reason she was here, and since everything depended on her, as our last hope.

  But I wasn’t expecting to feel something else for her.

  Love?

  No, that was impossible.

  I wasn’t the type to fall in love.

  Plus, I didn’t even know her.

  Not anymore, anyway.

  And yet I felt I had known her — or at least known of her, and all the possibilities she could represent — for her entire life.

  I had known her at one point, but it was a very long time ago, before she left the forest, which I still consider to be her home. Once a forest dweller, always a forest dweller, in my mind, but I was sure that her life was so different that she couldn’t imagine being back here. I wondered if she would remember knowing me.

  In any event, I hadn’t known her since she left. I had no business thinking I could love someone who I hadn’t even seen in so long.

  But I couldn’t help lusting over her, and I didn’t plan to try not to.

  It had been so long since I had felt attracted to anyone at all that I fully intended to indulge in my lust for Marilyn, even if nothing could come of it.

  Chapter Five

  Melchior

  As I watched Marilyn running in the video that the orb contained, I realized she was going to get tired. She needed to conserve her energy.

  She had no idea what kind of journey— and what kind of fight— lay ahead. I appreciated her coming quickly, but I didn’t want her to burn herself out.

  “Return to Marilyn,” I commanded the orb. “And make her sleep.”

  Waving my hands, I summoned a sleep spell, and put it into the orb, which would release it like a gas when it got near her, causing her to fall into a deep sleep.

  “Here, Elias,” I said, throwing it down to him. “The orb has another mission now.”

  He let the orb go, where it bounced off into the woods to return to Marilyn. I would get it back soon, to make sure that the spell had worked.

  “So, you really saw something in the orb?” Elias asked, a look of wonder appearing in his dark wolf eyes, his furry brow creased in confusion. “How did she get here so fast?”

  “She is our one great hope,” I reminded him. “We have no idea what she is capable of. The fact that she could find Bethel Forest and get here so quickly means that she’s likely capable of way more than we could imagine.”

  “So, what now?” he asked.

  “Now we wait. Go see Silas and ensure that the spell we put on Jessalyn is still working. Also, take the rest of the pack members somewhere else. I don’t need their help right now; Marilyn won’t be here for quite some time, and I just want to rest.”

  “Of course,” Elias said, turning his head and growling a bit, to command the rest of the members of the pack to follow him.

  “Sleep well, Melchior,” some of them said to me.

  “Rest up.”

  “We’re ready whenever you need us.”

  I noticed that they had changed their tone, from the mocking one in which they were ridiculing my impatience earlier, to a more respectful one that let me know they respected my authority now.

  It was a shame that they couldn’t be like this all the time. I sometimes felt that not only was the forest falling apart around me— I put a hand on the trunk of the pear tree, which already felt thinner, and as if its bark was disintegrating even more due to just the touch of my hand— but that my pack was, too.

  Nothing in Bethel Forest had been right since Marilyn had left. And it was my hope that her return would change that.

  Not to mention that the mood had been very, very sour ever since Marla had died. This was the beginning of the end, unless Marilyn— and the baby— could save us.


  I climbed down out of the tree once the others had left and set up a little shelter underneath it. I would sleep here tonight, while Marilyn also slept, still far away from me, but on the path to getting much closer.

  I felt better knowing that she was safe.

  And I also felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time.

  Raging desire.

  I reached down and felt my cock— my big, hard, human form cock— which was something I hadn’t done in a very long time. I hadn’t sensed the point. All the women in this forest were under Jessalyn’s power and leadership. There was no way I would be with any of them.

  Plus, none of them were as beautiful as Marilyn looked in that orb.

  I couldn’t get her out of my mind.

  I told myself to behave.

  I told myself to shift back into wolf form so that I could curl up under my shelter and sleep soundly.

  But I wanted to remain human because Marilyn was human.

  I wanted to be with her.

  I wanted to be in her.

  About an hour later, I still hadn’t been able to get any sleep. Elias reported back and let me know that it didn’t seem as if Jessalyn had any clue that Marilyn was in the forest, so that spell must have been working. He also brought back the orb that had had the sleeping spell.

  “It seems to have worked as well,” he said. “The gas was released, at least. I’m sure the footage will confirm it, but I thought you would want to be the one to inspect it.

  “Thank you,” I told him.

  He was right.

  But the way he said “inspect” it made my cock hard again.

  Fuck.

  “The rest of the pack is sleeping in different clearings all around, about a mile in each direction,” he said. “So, you can rest assured that if anything happens, we’ll let you know. Try to sleep now. Just like you said Marilyn needed to rest up, so do you.”

  “You’re right,” I told him. “I appreciate your help.”