Alpha Battle (3 page)

Eli felt as though she ripped out a piece of him when she made him get on the plane and leave
behind his best friend, Jadelyn.  The worst part for him was not being able to be there for Jadelyn after their mothers had died in the same catastrophic accident. 

He felt empty inside ever since he stepped off the plane and into the human world.  Eli knew it was because he left Jadelyn behind, but he didn’t understand why since she was just his best friend.  The first few days off the Isl
e without her or his mother were the worst, but over time, the emptiness without them lessened. 

His father found a job as an accountant and dove into his work, leaving no time for Eli
as he did before his mother’s death.  Ella also started changing the first day they arrived in the human world; no longer was she the best doting mother but a cruel one.  She had steel doors installed all through the house, so he wouldn’t be able to break them down by shifting.  Then she locked him in his room or the closet until his father got home.

Eli quickly developed an escape plan to stay away from her by throwing himself into every after-school program.  When school wasn’t in, he hung out with the only shifter in their city who lived next door
, his best friend, James, along with James’s younger sister.  They often snuck into the woods together and shifted when their wolves fought to get out.  They not only had to hide it from their parents but the humans as well, since they had no idea shifters lived among them. 

The years quickly flew by with all the activities he was in
, before he knew it, he was eighteen and able to go back home alone.  He was more than ready to leave to see his best friend, even though Jadelyn never responded to the letters he sent her over the years.  He knew when he stepped onto the Isle everything would go back to the way it was before he left, or so he thought. 

Eli ran into a problem after he turned eighteen.  Just as he was about to leave, his father
became sick.  He could’ve left him behind and let Ella take care of him, but something told him his father would die if he left him in Ella’s care.  He threw out all his plans of coming back to the Isle until his grandmother’s letters.  In the letters, she dropped certain hints to him telling him about the Alpha Battle and the Isle of Paradise had the best hospitals.

His grandmother was the only she-wolf gypsy shifter still alive.  Having gypsy blood in him meant he could either take on the role as Alpha or Beta.  It all depended on what blood his mate had running through her.  Since his grandmother wrote him telling him to come back home for the Alpha Battle, he knew his mate must be an Alpha.

Eli groaned on the inside when he thought back to how hard it was to convince Ella it was time to come back home for his father’s sake.  It seemed like she always had a con to the pros he gave her for moving back to the Isle.  The day before they left for the Isle, Eli and Ella were arguing back and forth again about returning when his father, who they thought couldn’t hear them at the time spoke up for himself.  He told them he could make his own decisions about his health, and for Eli to call for the Isle of Paradise’s private jet to be ready for them the next day.  Before falling back into a comatose sleep, his father also made sure they would drive him straight to the hospital as soon as the plane landed on the Isle.

He pounded on the walls in the shower when he thought about his grandmother’s last hint about the hospital.  If he hadn’t been so caught up in working his way up through the police force, he would have known to take his father to the hospital on
the Isle of Paradise, since the human doctors had no idea what was wrong with him.  He punched the tile in the shower, hard enough to crack it, as his mind went back to what he learned about his father today.

Eli paced up and down the waiting room in the hospital as the doctors tried to figure out what was wrong with his father. 

“Eli, are you okay and where is Ella?” Alpha Baron asked as he entered the waiting room.  Seeing the Alpha brought back both some wonderful and painful memories of Eli’s past.  

Eli and the Alpha’s daughter, Jadelyn, along with Ace and Chelsea, were best friends since they were younger
. They never went anywhere without the other.  Jadelyn and Eli were always closer to each other than they were with Chelsea and Ace.  It was as if they understood each other when no one else could.  The past seventeen years were hell without Jadelyn’s friendship.  He always wondered what their lives would have been like if Ella didn’t make him and his father move after his mother and Jadelyn’s mother died together in the car accident. 

Forced to leave, he lost Jadelyn’s friendship that day.  He didn’t know if she could ever forgive him for leaving when she needed him the most, but he needed her then, as well as now.  If he had a choice, he would h
ave chosen to stay on the Isle with her instead of leaving with Ella, who had changed over the years.

Before he left the Isle
, Ace promised he would look after Jadelyn until he came back home.  According to Ace’s letters, Jadelyn was fine, but he knew her better than anyone else did, and he knew something was wrong when she never wrote him once over the years.  After he figured out what was wrong with his father, he was going to find Jadelyn, since today was her birthday.

“When we pulled up to the hospital, Ella’s parents were waiting in front of the
hospital, and she left with them before I even got the chance to bring my father inside.  I am fine, but it looks like my father is not since they enlisted you to tell me what is wrong with him.”

“Eli, we are going to have to move your father to a more secured hospital.  It seems a witch has been slowly poisoning him since
before you three left the Isle.  We are secretly going to transport him to a secured hospital where the witch’s powers will not be able to get through to him.  Don’t worry, the doctors are going to reverse the damage.  I will stay with him to make sure nothing happens.”  When Alpha Baron learned of the problem, he arranged to put Eli’s father in a secure facility with private doctors, instead of leaving him vulnerable to the witch’s poisoning at the hospital. 

Eli punched the wall closest to him out of frustration as everything he just heard processed in his mind.  “When do we leave for the other hospital?” he said through clenched teeth.

“Eli, only authorized personnel are allowed there. Go home and get some rest, or go find your friends.  I know they will be happy to see you.”  Before Baron could finish what he was going to say, a doctor appeared and told him it was time to go.

Eli left the hospital a few minutes later for his grandmother’s home, with many questions swirling around his mind.

The questions were still running through Eli’s head when the water turned cold, snapping him out of it.  Eli jumped out of the cold shower so he could get ready.  He needed a drink after learning a witch had been poisoning his father for years.  He wondered why someone would poison his father, even after they left the Isle.  Was Ella involved or did she find out someone was after them after his mother’s death?  Maybe that was why she decided they needed to get off the Isle and never come back, before they were killed, like his mother.  Why did they go after his family and why kill Jadelyn’s mother, as well?  He shook his head to try to release the crazy thoughts he was having about his father, his mother, and Ella, as he started to get ready.

Eli stood in front of the full-length mirror as he spiked up his
light-brown hair with gray streaks.  He took a step back to look himself over.  His light-gray eyes stood out against his milky white skin.  On the left side of Eli’s neck was his best friend Jadelyn’s name tattooed and on the right, his mother Kasey’s name.  He always wondered how his mate would feel when she figured out it was his best friend’s name tattooed on his neck but always hoped she would understand the weird connection Eli and Jadelyn had since they were younger. 

Each tattoo he got was a way to preserve a memory he had.  He got the tattoo of his mother and Jadelyn’s name when he thought he would never
set foot on the Isle of Paradise, as a way to cherish the memories he shared with both of them.

While looking in the mirror, Eli noticed something was missing and grabbed his sleeveless leather jacket off the bed so the tattoos covering his arms were visible.  Taking a step back once more, he admired the way his whole look came together
. The dark-blue jeans with the chains took his whole bad-boy persona to the next level.

As he stepped outside, the first thing his eyes zeroed in on was his 2012 black Honda motorcycle, on
one side of his bike was an outline of a silver wolf, while on the other, at the last minute, he changed the coloring of the wolf to a white wolf.  He never understood why he made this sudden change, but it felt right after the job was completed.  Eli ran his left hand from the back of the bike to the front before grabbing the handle with his right hand and swinging his left leg over.  Jumping on his bike and taking off for a ride had always calmed him when he lived off the Isle.  He hoped like hell this ride to the bar would help release some of the tension he was feeling from his father’s health issues.  When he realized he didn’t have to wear the helmet on the Isle, Eli chucked his helmet into his yard, feeling freer as he did so.  By the time he finally pulled up in front of the club, the day's worries were blown away in the wind. 

Chapter Three

Jadelyn applied mousse to her wet hair before pulling it into a tight ponytail in the center of her head.  Just before stepping into her turquoise halter-top dress that stopped precisely above her knees, she applied light foundation with a touch of lip-gloss to keep her look natural.  Chelsea walked into Jadelyn's room just as she was slipping on her silver pumps. 

“Jadelyn, hurry up, we have to get to the bar.  Liberty and Flynn are already there waiting for us.  Plus, Ace and I are going to give you your present at the bar.”  After hearing about the surprise waiting for her at the bar, Jadelyn hurriedly grabbed her purse and ran
toward the door with Chelsea not too far behind her.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Jadelyn noticed
Ace, along with ten of her father’s most trusted Enforcers, in the living room waiting for them.  Her father had left for the council meeting for the Alpha Battle right after her birthday dinner.  The Enforcers surrounded her as she made her way toward the front door.

Three black fifteen passenger
SUVs with tinted windows were waiting in front of the house for them.  Ace, Chelsea, Jadelyn, and some of the Enforcers all climbed into the middle SUV.  When they reached the club, the driver pulled around back.  The Enforcers in the car behind them got out first and checked around the dark alley before they could get out of the car and enter the club through the back door.  The Enforcers cleared a path on the dance floor leading all the way up to the VIP room already reserved for them by Chelsea and Ace, which was located on the second floor, and had its own bar and bartender.  As they walked up the stairs, Jadelyn noticed the room had changed since the last time she had been there.  The maple wood bar, which wrapped around the bartender, was in the middle of the VIP room.  On the right side of the bar was a dance floor made of maple hardwood that matched the color of the bar.  On the left of the bar, which was closer to the VIP room entrance, was where the lounge was located.  In the longue area, white plush carpet covered the floor with four matching white sectional chairs circling around the five different glass tables. 

When Jadelyn would go to the club, the VIP room was reserved for her and her friends to assure her safety from the other partygoers.  With the VIP room cut off from the rest of the club, having only two entrances to the room, the Enforcers could keep a better eye on her than if she was in the crowded club area.  Jadelyn hated this since she felt as though she was being controlled like a child by being isolated from the rest of the partygoers.  She was supposed to be having fun with the others, especially on her birthday but couldn’t since the majority of the partygoers detested her.  She knew they would not hesitate to hurt her or her friends, so she avoided them.  It also gave the shifters
that hated her more fuel to the already burning hatred they had for her. 

Jadelyn, so caught up in the changes in the room, didn’t notice
that Liberty and her mate, Finn, were already there until she sat across from them at the table.  Liberty was five foot nine with long perfect legs that matched her long, flowing, blonde hair, and she had the darkest eyes Jadelyn had ever seen.  Her mate, Flynn, was a lanky looking shifter who stood around six foot four with dark-brown hair and eyes.  They were the only other two, besides Ace and Chelsea, who stood by her side after learning of her latency.  Jadelyn didn’t like the fact that she would have to go against them in the Alpha Battle.  It was going to be hard battling against her friends since she didn’t want to hurt them in any way.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her father’s Enforcers dismissing the clubs VIP bouncers to take their place to guard the entrances.  Just as the bartender was handing Jadelyn her favorite drink, she started a conversation to catch up with her friends.  With their jobs and Jadelyn training for the
battle, they hardly spent time together as a group, even though Chelsea and Ace lived with her.  Jadelyn was the only one out of the five of them who wasn’t putting her college degree to use.  Instead of working, she trained day in and day out for the past twelve years—she was trained out by now.  While the others talked about their work, Jadelyn spaced out until Liberty said something that caught her attention.