Alpha Erased (Alpha Girl 9)

“She’s asleep, and she doesn’t remember me.” I wanted her to want to kiss me or at least be conscious for it. “No, I haven’t tried—”

“She’s not asleep. She’s dying. Fix it,” Samantha said. “Kiss her.”

Fuck it. I was supposed to kiss her, so I’d kiss her. I’d done it countless times before.

Cosette and Samantha moved to the far side of the pouf to watch with Chris. I didn’t want to do this with an audience, but I was doing it. I needed Tessa to live.

I slid out from under Tessa and pressed my lips to hers, but she didn’t wake up.

I stood and turned to Cosette. “Who do I need to kill to break the spell?”

“You can’t kill my mother.” Cosette crossed her arms. “You’d die.”

My knuckles started popping, and I felt the shift start. “I can try.” My voice was more growl than not.

“You’d die!” Cosette kept yelling at me, but I didn’t care. Either she would take me to her mother, or I would find someone else who would. Meredith was living next door to the entrance to the Lunar Court’s underhill. I could figure it out.

“There were thirteen of you,” Samantha said, but she was talking so softly that I could barely hear her under all the yelling.

“What?” I turned to Samantha, trying to shove the wolf back down so that I could talk to her.

“In the spell that linked you all together. Thirteen. Right?”

I shook my head, not because she was wrong but because we’d been over this. “We tried a spell—multiple spells—all together before. It didn’t work.”

“But you didn’t have her. Now you do. You have to do something now. Tonight. The kiss didn’t work. So, try one of the spells again, but with her.”

“Van!” Cosette yelled.

Van appeared. “We’ve been over this. I’m not a taxi, Coco.” His sword was in his hand. Blood dripped down its blade. “I told you not to call me again unless it was an absolute emergency and—”

“She’s dying,” I said.

The sword vanished from Van’s hand. “What? That can’t be right.”

“We need everyone in Texas.” I picked up Tessa’s limp body and focused on the sound of her breath going in and coming out. In and out. She was alive. I had her. I would fix this. “Now. Please.”

Van gave me a slow nod. He knew—he understood everything that was on the line right now. “Everyone hold on to me.”

“Wait,” Samantha said. “I can’t—”

“Everyone.” Van’s command was sharper than his sword and left zero room for argument.

We each grabbed onto a bit of his arm. Instantly, the world toppled and turned, but I held onto Tessa.

The three times that I’d traveled with Van, I thought I’d die. But this time, I didn’t feel a thing.

We appeared in Texas in front of our house. Mine and Tessa’s. The one she hadn’t seen before.

“I’ll be back,” Van said, and he disappeared.

He came back a few minutes later with Shane, River, Elowen, and Kyra from the Sanctuary. Then, Beth and Blaze. Then Lucas and Claudia.

Somewhere among all of it, Axel came out of the house and knelt beside us. If he had questions, he didn’t ask them. We were too busy trying to save Tessa’s life to explain, and I didn’t have any words.

Claudia threw her bag on the ground beside us and started digging out supplies. The other witches joined her—including Samantha—quickly prepping for a spell. The fey huddled together, discussing magic. And there were werewolves just standing around.

I sat on the ground, cradling Tessa to me. She was breathing. Her heart was beating. It didn’t feel like she was dying. It didn’t feel real that this could be happening now. But Samantha wouldn’t lie about this.