Sold To The Alpha
A Lost Princess Chapter 24

A loud scream jolted the trio awake, sitting up straight, Daniel scrabbled around above his head before finally replaceing the light switch and flicking it on. Screwing up his eyes against the suddenly piercing light, his gaze swept the room to see the tousled haired frames of Riley and Sebastian also sat up, concern evident as they shielded their eyes from the abuse of the light bulb on their retinas.

'What was that?' Daniel asked, throwing his blankets off of him and clambering out of the bed, heading toward the door as his comrades followed him. Opening the door carefully, Daniel stuck his head out of the gap, checking the corridor before stepping out. Listening carefully the three were greeted by silence, 'Someone having a nightmare?' Sebastian ventured as they looked at each other confused. 'Maybe' Riley agreed but his face was still troubled.

Another scream ripped though the silence, coming from downstairs, racing down the hallway, they thundered down the stairs ripping open each door until they found one that was locked. Without hesitation, Riley lifted his leg and forced his foot into the white internal door, forcing the door from its hinges as they piled into the room.

In front of them the bed and breakfast owner was huddled up against the head board, the covers pulled up to her neck as she gazed half fearfully, half lustfully into the eyes of the cloaked figure that was leaned over her bed.

The noise of the door splintering had disturbed the intruder who turned his violet eyes toward them, hissing angrily as two fangs protruded from his mouth, resting against his blood red lips.

'Werewolves' he hissed, glaring at Riley and Daniel in detest.

'Vampire' Riley growled back angrily, as the stench of death and blood filled his nostrils.

Launching himself across the bed, Riley shifted mid air into his wolf form, sailing over the mattress easily as his teeth snapped together in the air that had once been filled by the vampires human form. Looking up he saw a bat squeezing itself out of a gap in the top of the window before taking flight into the night.

Shifting back, Riley grabbed a towel that had been flung over a nearby chair, wrapping it around his waist before sitting down on the edge of the bed next to the owner who was starting to rouse from the trance that the Vampire had put her under.

Her eyes connecting with Riley's she gasped, her gaze sweeping the room, taking in the broken door and the other two strong men that were hovering near her bed. 'Where did he go?' she whispered, her voice hoarse from her previous screams.

'Scrambled out of the window and fled' Riley replied kindly as he reached for her hand, feeling it trembling beneath his own as the owner tried to calm her breathing.

Daniel walked over to the window, slamming it fully shut and locking it securely before saying, 'maybe we should all go and have a cup of tea? I have a feeling this is going to be a long night.

Nodding agreement, Sebastian grabbed the lady's dressing gown that was laying in a crumpled heap on the floor having been hung on the back of the now busted door, brushing it down before handing it over to her.

The three men stepped into the hallway, Riley sprinting up the stairs to get some clothes as the other two stood with their backs to the room, on guard, whilst she got out of bed, giving her privacy but staying close in case of further trouble.

'I'm ready' the owners shaky voice came from behind them before she stepped out of the room and led the way to the kitchen, Riley joining them seconds later. Daniel helping her to sit in one of the chairs at the well scrubbed table before walking over to the large kettle and filling it with water, flicking the switch as he turned to face the others.

'How long have you had problems with a Vampire?' Riley asked candidly.

Shock filled the woman's face as she took in the three men, 'You know about Vampires?' she whispered.

Nodding with a small smile, Riley replied, 'We've all had dealings before with them ma-am, how about you tell us what is going on, maybe start with your name?'

Nodding fearfully, the owner sat back in her chair, pulling her dressing gown tighter around her body.

'My name is Clarissa' she started, accepting the hot mug of tea that Daniel silently placed in her trembling grip, taking a small sip and wincing as the hot liquid burned down her throat. 'I have owned the B&B for ten years, before that it was my mothers, before her, my grandmothers. It's been handed down through the generations since my great great great grand daddy won it in a poker game, well that's the story I always got told' she giggled nervously.

About twenty years ago, once every three months, people started to turn up dead, their bodies drained of blood, just their empty carcasses found laying in their beds. Two tiny holes in their neck like they had been tazered or something, you know?' she asked, staring round at the listening men who sat around her at the table.

'There was never any sign of a struggle, no break in, nothing. We couldn't understand what was going on, we had never heard of real Vampires then, they were just myths passed down, like witches and the like. Something you told your kids about to make sure they didn't wander off into the woods alone.

Anyway, one night a little girl came screaming down the high street, terrified she was, running as fast as her legs would carry her, calling for someone to help her mum. When we all managed to calm her down she said a bad man had got into her mothers room and was biting her neck, he was drinking her blood.

When we got to her home, we found both her parents dead in their bed, the blood gone from their bodies. Well we thought the trauma of seeing her parents murdered must have confused the child, her mind had obviously changed the facts into what she thought she had seen. The little girl was adamant though, she kept repeating herself no matter how many times we asked, a bad man was in her mum's room and had bitten her neck!

Taking a deep breath, Clarissa took another sip of the tea in her hands, her body starting to show signs of relaxing.

'The men of the town decided that they needed to replace out exactly who this attacker was, the attack always happened on the half moon, every month like clockwork so at the next half mo on, each man took up arms and sat up all night waiting for the murderer to strike again.

When morning came, everyone gathered in the square except one family, the Robertson's, making their way to the house, they broke down the door, found the slain bodies of both parents and all three children laying on the living room floor, positioned there by the killer. On the wall a note was scrawled in blood, 'try to interfere again with my meals and I will slay every member of every family. Give me one adult every three half moon's and I shall leave the rest be, which ever house has a window open will be your offering! People were terrified, someone really was going around and killing people to s**k their blood, not only did we have a killer, but he was some sort of psychotic entity with a Vampire fetish.

A meeting was called, everyone trying to decide what to do, no-one left the town hall even as the darkness fell around us, no-one knowing how to keep out town folk safe.

Suddenly a bat flew in one of the open windows, hovering over the stage before transforming in front of us into a tall, thin white faced man, shrouded in a black cloak.

'You got my message I presume?' he has asked icily glaring round at us, his violet coloured eyes sending shivers through us all.

One of the men, pulled out a knife from his pocket, charging the man and burying the blade deep within his skin. For a moment, we were all hit with a feeling of shock then relief, but it as short lived. The stranger picked up his attacker like his was a rag doll, threw him across the room where he hit the wall, sliding down it unmoving, blood seeping from the wound in the back of his skull where he had collided with the brick work. He was dead.

The stranger looked around us all as he slowly pulled the blade from his side, the wound was bloodless and the knife clean.

He dropped the knife to the ground and raised his voice so we could all hear him. 'I am Valdar' he had said, 'I am your neighbour and just like everyone else I get hungry, only once every three months though, I could feast more but I see no need' he had added. 'You people will feed me, every three months you will select one adult who will remain in their room, their window open for me to feast upon. In return I shall leave the rest of your town alone and I swear to never feast on a child, as lets be honest, I need them to grow up and make more of you to keep my supply going' he had said with a sneer.

'What are you?' one of the men had asked as fear had engulfed us all.

'Isn't it obvious, I am a Vampire' the man had replied

'And if we don't bend to your terms?' our Mayor had asked hesitantly

'Then I will slay every last one of you and move on to the next town who will hopefully be more accepting of my offer' he had replied indifferently before transforming and flying out of the building into the night sky.

We had argued all night, some wanting to hunt the Vampire down, try to kill him, others too fearful to try saying we needed to just accept his offer.

The next day a group of men went with wooden stakes, the only thing we had from our stories that might kill Valdar, their drained bodies were found the next day in our town square, with a note saying, 'you are trying my patience'.

From that moment on, we agreed to the terms, four people a year was better than everyone and our children would be safe.

Riley looked into Clarissa's face, seeing the fear still etched into her eyes.

'So it was your turn tonight?' he asked quietly.

Nodding her head, Clarissa lifted her eyes to his, 'I was selected, every house hold has a number assigned to it, each quarter a number is selected at random to choose the house hold that will sacrifice, if there are two adults in the house, they must choose between them who will remain in the room as payment. My number was picked, I was ready but then you knocked my door asking for refuge and I admit, I didn't want to be alone while I was taken, I didn't mean to scream but when I saw his eyes staring at me I lost control of my voice' she said angrily. 'I have now put my entire town at risk because I didn't fulfil the contract' she muttered before suddenly scrambling to her feet.

'I need to go to him! I need to let him take me' she gasped as Riley grabbed hold of her and forced her back into her seat.

'No, you need to stay here, my friends and I need to go visit Valdar' he said firmly.

'He'll kill you' Clarissa whispered, wide eyed, 'I can't allow that, please let me go' she said starting to wrestle against Riley's grip.

Daniel stepped forward, placing a calming hand upon Clarissa's shoulder, before crouching down next to her, taking her hands in his. 'Clarissa' he said softly, drawing her eyes to his gaze, 'Vampires are not the only thing that are real in this world!' he said simply before standing up, removing his shorts and shifting into his wolf as Clarissa's face paled a small squeak coming from her lips as she started to push her chair backwards, away from the large animal in front of her, who sat unmoving on the kitchen floor before shifting back into Daniel and quickly getting dressed again.

'Don't be scared of us Clarissa' Riley said quietly, 'we will not harm you, but we can possibly help you, if you will let us!

Staring at Riley and Sebastian, Clarissa swallowed hard before forcing out words, 'are you all Werewolves?' she asked fearfully.

Riley nodded his head in agreement but Sebastian raised his hand above his head and said, 'not me, I'm one hundred percent human over here' causing Clarissa to shuffle closer to him.

'But I will say, I have been with these lads for a few days and I have got to know them well, they are good lads, and if they say they can help you then you should let them' Sebastian continued looking at the scared woman beside him. 'Give them a chance Clarissa, different doesn't mean dangerous'.

Slowly forcing her eyes to Riley's, Clarissa nodded slightly at him, 'if you can help us, would you?' she asked a faint tremor of hope in her voice.

'I will do everything in my power to help you' Riley promised with a small smile, but first I think we should all get some sleep, night time is when he is strongest so I'd rather pay him a visit when its too my advantage' he said.