The Alpha's Quest Collection Read online

  The Alpha’s Quest Collection

  By Jessica Ryan

  Copyright © 2014 Jessica Ryan

  All Rights Reserved.

  Published by Jessica Ryan Books

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  CONTENT WARNING: This short story contains adult material with explicit sexual situations and language. All sexually active characters in this work are 19 years of age or older.

  PLEASE NOTE: This book is for sale to ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It contains sexually explicit scenes, graphic language and may be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Title

  The Alpha’s Quest Part 1

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  The Alpha’s Quest Part 2

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  The Alpha’s Quest Part 3

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Series Note

  A Note From Jessica

  The Alpha’s Quest Part 1

  Chapter 1

  "You want a camping permit?" the park ranger asked. "Seriously? To camp in these woods?"

  "That's what I asked for," Ciara said, growing impatient. "Why else would I be here?"

  "Maybe to hike?" he asked. "Most people don't stay overnight in these woods."

  "Is this the part where you tell me the big local legend about the old woman who lives in the forest and cooks your brains? Or about the hillbilly zombie fuck crew that's going to make me squeal like a pig?"

  The park ranger tilted his head back in revulsion and curled his upper lip. "Well, no, I wasn't going to tell you any of that."

  "Then why don't people camp here?" she asked.

  "The woods are haunted," he said, his expression switched back to deadpan.

  "That's just wonderful," she said. "Listen, Dudley Do-Right, if this wasn't court ordered then I wouldn't be here, so give me the damn permit."

  His expression changed to one of anger as he started furiously stamping forms. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you, little girl. I'm going to be mighty pissed if I have to lead a missing persons search for your short ass. It's already bad enough with the missing girl on the other side of the forest."

  Ciara's stopped and looked up at the ranger, whose jaw was clenched tight as he held out the permit for her. "What do you mean, missing girl?"

  He lowered the permit as a devilish smile appeared on his face. "I guess Ms. Smart Ass here didn't hear, did she?"

  "Hear what?" she asked.

  "There was a girl that got kidnapped from the parking lot of a bar in Cedarville. They found a dead biker beside her blood. Looks like he was torn to shreds by a large animal. The local police think she might be missing in the forest. Hell, it extends all the way from here, past Bucklin and through almost to Cedarville. It's the largest in the state."

  "Of course there's going to be wild animals," she said, rolling her eyes. "It's a forest."

  "Wild animals that drag people away?" he asked.

  "Wait a minute," she said, slamming her hand down on the counter. "I heard about this story. You're just trying to scare me. The police think it's a man with a trained dog who kidnapped the girl! You're an asshole."

  "Well, I guess you know everything?" he said, pointing towards the door. "Go enjoy yourself. The man with a dog theory is one the news came up with. Remember I'm in law enforcement around here. I know what's going on."

  Ciara shuddered as he winked at her and continued to point. This guy was kind of a creep.

  "Fine," she said. "And don't stare at my ass on the way out. God knows you couldn't keep your eyes from travelling down my shirt the whole time I've been standing here."

  She smiled wickedly as his face turned beet red and she turned to leave. That should make him feel like a real ass.

  Ciara was used to men looking down her shirt. She was only five feet tall and she had pretty large breasts. She was at just the right height for most men to look straight down her shirt. When she was younger she had loved the attention. In high school she played field hockey and had a pretty tight body. But as she grew older and her life spiraled out of control she had replaced more and more meals with alcohol to the point that her rock-hard body had completely left her. Now she was just self-conscious if any man checked her out, even if he was an asshole park ranger.

  What the hell am I doing? she wondered as she stood at her car. Is this really what my life has become?

  She'd never been camping in her life, not with her parents, her friends or a boyfriend. Now she was thrust into the wilderness alone because Doctor Haley thought it was the best course of action for her to overcome her alcohol addiction.

  She hadn't had a drink in six weeks, a fact she was very proud of, but Doctor Hippie Quack was fearful of relapse. He told her she would never be completely free of her demons until she conquered herself, whatever the hell that meant.

  Doctor Haley was one of the most annoying men she'd ever met, and she was pretty sure he was a hypocrite. The first time she had met him, in his faded slacks and brightly-colored cabana shirt, she had thought, You know this guy gets high at night. His long gray hippie hair and beatnik goatee didn't help his image either.

  Yet somehow he'd decided she was fighting an inner fight with a powerful demon called alcoholism and she needed to go on a vision quest to find her inner Ciara or some bullshit like that. She didn't know what was more offensive: the fact that he insisted she do this or the fact that he insisted it was an old Native American trick for defeating their inner demons.

  Was it 1890? Were they still under the impression that the red man was one with the Earth and spirits? That fool was probably ignorant enough to call them red men too.

  But since her visits with Doctor Haley were court-ordered, she couldn't get out of doing what he asked. One unfavorable report and she was off to jail for the next few years. A weekend alone in the wilderness was a much better alternative to daily beatings because she hadn't joined the right gang.

  She got behind the wheel of her beat-up old Toyota Corolla and pulled out of the ranger station, heading for the parking lot that led to the hiking trails.

  She looked around at the trees as she drove. It certainly was beautiful in this area and it definitely had a calming effect on her. Unfortunately she didn't know how calm she would stay when it was time to sleep.

  That asshole was joking, right? Ther
e wasn't some mountain lion or large wolf that wanted to eat her for dinner, was there? She'd packed a gun just in case, but she didn't know how much good it'd do her if she was being dragged away in her sleep.

  After a short drive she pulled into a heavily wooded parking lot. If she went missing, nobody would know her car was here unless they came looking. This plan just kept getting better. Doctor Haley had insisted she camp where nobody else would be, where she could be completely alone. Did he not see the danger in any of this? She was going to see about getting this guy's license revoked. How could a doctor be so reckless?

  Luckily it was early October, so things weren't sweltering hot in Oklahoma, just mildly hot. It stayed warm in this state well into November before the biting winter hit. Ciara was used to it; she'd lived in this state her entire life. It only had two seasons: summer and winter.

  She walked around to the back of her car and pulled out her large hiking pack. She'd packed plenty of food, toiletries and even a pup tent to get her through. She'd spent hours on YouTube learning how to build a fire while also eating up anything she could find for first time campers. Unfortunately most websites said the same thing: you're in trouble if you go out on your own with no idea what the fuck you're doing.

  "Fuck Doctor Haley. He's probably the killer," she said out loud as she slipped her backpack on. "He's out there waiting for me. I've seen him looking at my tits. He's going to drag me into the forest and kill me."

  She stood there for a minute after she closed the trunk lid, staring into space.

  "Wow, I took that to a dark place," she said. "Maybe I really do need some help."

  She sighed and began to walk towards the entrance to the hiking trail. She would hike up into the forest and find a clearing to camp in. Hopefully nobody would come along and bother her. Doctor Haley had required she go for at least two nights, so it wasn't going to end anytime soon.

  He claimed when she was alone with the stars and her thoughts she would retreat within herself and find the source of all her anger and frustration. She would find what had led her to become an alcoholic in the first place.

  She'd told the nutcase she knew what had caused it: college. She'd been a good girl in high school, never stepping out of line and always doing what she was told. But when she got to college, something snapped and she went wild. It was a miracle she was still in good standing with the school, even taking this semester off. Unfortunately it was a forced semester off.

  Don't think about that, she told herself. You're supposed to be thinking happy thoughts this weekend, all happy thoughts.

  She stopped and looked up at the hiking trail which wound into the trees and out of sight from the parking lot.

  Although a drink would make this a lot easier, she thought.

  The only thing she had was some special cactus juice Doctor Haley had given her. He had told her it would help her through her journey when she was ready, but he had cautioned her not to drink it until she was completely ready to begin her spiritual journey.

  Surely the nutcase wouldn't send an addict alone into the forest with a hallucinogenic drink—that would get his license revoked! It had to be a placebo, one to help her along with this journey.

  Ciara took the lid off the cap and smiled. "I guess this is all I have. Bottoms up, Doctor Haley."

  She finished off all twenty ounces of the cactus juice, which was really sweet and tangy. She stood in place for several minutes, waiting for some familiar feeling. Hopefully the cactus juice would cascade through her entire body, giving her that warm feeling she got anytime she drank or did drugs. She shook her head and smiled, feeling absolutely nothing.

  "Nope. Nothing. I could still use that drink."

  Chapter 2

  Hawk was struggling not to shift as he made his way through the forest. He wanted to stay fully clothed until he met Beorn. The bear might take it as a sign of disrespect if the tall alpha showed up at his front door with his manhood flapping in the wind; bears were weird and modest like that.

  He stopped and sniffed the air, letting a low growl escape his lips. Rowan and his lady friend weren't lying; there was definitely evil in the air. It reached for him, prying at his heart and tugging at his brain.

  His wolf was pacing just inside his mind, leaving him on the edge of sanity. It wanted out to hunt the evil, wanted to track it down and break it between its powerful jaws.

  Hawk stopped and leaned against a tree, feeling the sweat dripping down his face. The evil was almost too much for him right now, like a thick fog that hung in the air. It was choking him, forcing him to bend to its will.

  What the fuck is happening? he thought. He was struggling just to control his wolf. He was an alpha; he had complete dominion over his wolf. He wasn't some young whelp who couldn't help but shift at the tiniest smell that aroused his wolf.

  Hawk had gone this long in life without giving in to his wolf, without turning into an animal. But right now he felt it inside of him. He felt the animal wanting to escape and show the world how powerful it was.

  He closed his eyes and leaned his back against the tree, trying to push all thoughts out of his head.

  Was it Leena who was causing this? Or was it something else? Who had taken her? Hopefully these answers would become apparent the deeper he got into the forest.

  The deeper I get, he thought. The deeper he got, the stronger the evil got. He had only heard tales from some of the older wolves.

  His grandma had been the one to first tell him the tale about the day the Dark Elf had tried to enter their forest. The creature had brought with it dark magic that had twisted the forest. She described getting lost on a routine hunt because the forest had turned into a shadowy maze. In the end they were able to catch the creature and tear him limb from limb. But she had always warned him that a heavy evil presence would begin to manifest itself physically in the world as it radiated its power through the Earth. He was beginning to see that this could be the case now.

  Hawk took a deep breath and continued forward, hoping to make it to Beorn's cabin by nightfall. He had run into Rowan pretty far from his home. Why had he traveled so far out? What was the old bear after?

  He continued, making good time as his lean and muscular body pushed him through the forest. He was probably in better athletic shape than any of the other alphas on the council. Some of them, like Forest, had let themselves get older and fatter as they got complacent with life.

  The Skyvale pack was always on the lookout for trouble. Hawk had instilled it in his group to keep a watchful eye out for any trouble in town. That's why he was so bothered by the fact that someone had managed to sneak out of town, kidnap a prominent member from an enemy pack and sneak her back through town and into the forest without him or his pack ever knowing.

  If all of my pack is on the up and up, he thought.

  He didn't want to entertain the notion that someone in his own pack would betray Bucklin; it was inconceivable. On top of that, he had an emotional bond with every member of his pack. It wasn't as strong as the one that two mates had, but he knew if anyone in his pack was in trouble at any time. It was something all alphas had.

  Aster had known that Rowan had killed the Satan's Angels lieutenant long before Rowan ever 'fessed up. It was hard to get anything by your alpha.

  Rowan, he thought, stopping to think of the would-be alpha.

  He knew Rowan was strong, much stronger than even some of the alphas, but he remained as top enforcer. It shocked Hawk that Rowan had never made a claim; he would definitely win it if he challenged. Still, he found himself jealous of his companion.

  Rowan had found something special, something that most wolves dreamed of. He'd found a mate who was absolutely perfect for him. In every way Eva complimented Rowan and made him happy. The bond between the two was obviously very strong, strong enough for anyone to see. He could feel it the night Rowan came to his house, just listening to the way he spoke about his mate.

  Hawk had planned to be alone his entire
life. Sure, his inner wolf screamed for companionship and demanded to mate, but that wasn't the way of the Skyvale pack. Very few of them ever mated. He'd had a few defect to other packs when they decided they had to take a mate. They were the lone watchers, made to defend the town behind its back. They were seen but not heard, the silent watchers of Bucklin.

  It was a lonely existence, one that he didn't wish on anyone else. The members of his pack knew it. They were a new pack, created from a unique opening when Bucklin had first formed. Membership was strictly voluntary—you weren't born into the Skyvale pack like you were others.

  Hawk stopped and stared through the trees at the hot afternoon sun. He had a long trek ahead, but he planned to make it to the old bear's house by nightfall, and then the party would really get started.

  Chapter 3

  Ciara hadn't even thought to bring a chair; instead, she sat on a large rock inside a clearing just off the beaten path. It seemed like as good a place as any to set up camp and try to begin her vision quest.

  Instead she found herself staring straight ahead at tree line, zoning out as the sun beat down on her. With her fair skin and red hair, this probably wasn't the best place to be zoning out, but she didn't have anything better to do.

  I'm going to be sunburned by the time I'm done out here, she thought. Yeah, that's a good way to get me to quit drinking, cause me pain.

  This was going to be boring and she still didn't think she could figure out this big secret reason she had turned into a raging alcoholic. Maybe it was growing up in a hardcore church family who wouldn't even let her watch the Smurfs growing up?

  "Fucking Smurfs," she muttered.

  Her mother had been decidedly anti-Smurfs. She had told Ciara that there was too much black magic in the Smurfs cartoons, which meant she couldn't watch them. Her mother even claimed to know a lady from Dallas who had a kid who joined some satanic cult because he watched the Smurfs. He had decided he wanted to cast the black magic he saw on the show and ended up with the wrong people.