Alpha Unleashed (Alpha Girl 5)

We all exchanged glances. It looked like I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t tell whether this was seriously bad or if Cosette was just being dramatic.

Claudia broke the silence. “I made the deal and whatever I have to pay, it was worth it to save my brother.” She shook her shoulders, as if she was physically pushing the tension away. “What matters now is how are we going to defeat Luciana?”

“I managed to salvage some books and things from Luciana’s house before it was burned.” I started unloading my messenger bag, piling the books and things on the table beside Claudia’s relics. “In our defense, we had a bunch of dead bodies—including police officers. We couldn’t just leave everything as it was.”

“Right.” The word was clipped. “That doesn’t really help me as my whole life has been burned.”

A wave of guilt had me hunching my shoulders. I should’ve been firmer about waiting. With the police tape leaking, destroying the compound hadn’t even done any good. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you like.”

“And the pack will help you relocate,” Dastien chimed in. “Buy houses for each of you. We’ll make sure you’re not homeless and left in the lurch.”

“That would be appreciated,” Shane said. “I’m not sure where we belong now, but I’m not above taking some charity.” He crossed his arms, showing off his tattooed biceps.

“We wouldn’t do that to you,” Adrian said. “The pack burned down your homes to hide our actions. It’s standard that we’d put you up and help you.”

If I hadn’t been watching for it, I wouldn’t have noticed the way his arm gently pressed against Shane’s side. Adrian caught me looking, and I quickly turned my attention to Raphael. If Adrian wanted to have a secre

t, then that was his choice, but I hoped he’d confide in me when we finally had a quiet moment.

“How are you doing?” I asked Raphael.

“I’m okay. How are you?”

He was playing it tough, but I knew from experience what going up against Luciana was like. She’d taken something from me, too. “Doing better than before, but a brush with true evil leaves its mark.” I paused. It probably wasn’t the best time to bring this up, but if I didn’t say something now, then I didn’t know when I’d have the chance. “I upset you at the press conference.”

He shook his head. “No.”

Maybe I was being too sensitive, but I really felt like I’d said something to hurt him. “But you walked away…”

“You don’t understand Luciana and why she’s doing this.”

“No.” I shook my head slowly. “I don’t. At first, I thought it was about the wolves, but now… I don’t know why she’s doing any of it. What’s the point of attacking humans in San Antonio? It makes no sense.” I blew out a breath. “Do you have any thoughts?”

“A few.”

I motioned my arms wide. “Please. Anything could help.”

He pulled a stool over, and sat down. “Sorry. I don’t have all my energy back yet.”

That sucked. I’d only recovered quickly from being drained because I was a Were.

“The thing you have to understand about Luciana is that she’s not a strong witch—not on her own—and she never was. Yet, she was next in line for the coven because of her visions. She saw the future in her dreams, but it was always vague. Dream visions are never all that reliable. The waking ones get you closer to the truth.” I briefly wondered if what I’d seen counted as a dream vision or a waking one, but Raphael kept taking before I could process. “Luciana kept seeing visions of war. She talked about them all the time. How she saw the wolves fighting us. She never saw the setting. She never knew the context. But she started gearing up for war.”

I knew some of this already—about her weak visions—but hearing it now that I’d experienced the vaguer side of the future, it was as if the proverbial lightbulb had been lit.

“We weren’t going to fight you,” Dastien said.

“Now that I know you and I’ve been around the pack, I figured as much, but before, we didn’t know. Some of us thought she was being crazy and ignored her, but not everyone did. Those who believed her thought war was coming and started making preparations.” Raphael leaned against the table for support. “Looking back, it seems obvious. For all I know, what she saw was the coven attacking the pack, not the other way around.”

“Which has already happened.” More than once.

“Exactly. The vision she was so afraid of could’ve easily been about the night that Daniel died.” Raphael shuddered, and I wondered if he was remembering the attack. “But the vision consumed her. She became obsessed with it. Only it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. A few years ago, she changed. She did something and the light in her eyes was just gone. I don’t know what it was—”

“I do,” Claudia said. “She got some kind of charm or artifact from my ex-fiancé. His coven had something evil, and they were protecting it. Luciana only married me off so she could get access to that object, although she never planned to really let me go.”

“That’s why?” Raphael sounded shocked.

“You didn’t know this?” I asked. They were twins. I thought they shared everything.