The Island Of Alphas: A BBW Paranormal Romance Read online

  And it seemed like Eric, if anyone, should have. After all, Clearwater was "his" section of island. He was the one who'd hired me to try to solve the fertility problems of the women under his leadership. It seemed to me that he definitely should have mentioned to me the existence of wild animals before I'd set out on a hike. It seemed to me he should have mentioned this to me the very first day I'd arrived.

  Fighting an increasing feeling of something surrealistic, a feeling that was definitely mixed with more than a bit of fear, I sprinted on down the path toward my bungalow. It had taken me a half-hour or so to hike as far as I'd come, and I knew it would take at least fifteen minutes or so for me to run the way back. I didn't care, though. As long as I kept running, kept running as fast as I could, I knew I'd be okay.

  Glancing up at the sky, I couldn't see any signs of the dragon following me or anything, and I didn't hear any sounds of the wolf I'd seen, either. I knew it was certainly possible neither of them had even seen me. It was early evening, after all, and the jungle was only dimly lit by the sun's last rays.

  Still trembling from shock and fear, I told myself I just needed to get back to my bungalow, where I planned to catch my breath, then seek out Eric, and explanations. However, I didn't have to wait quite that long.

  When I was maybe five minutes from my house, I spotted him just up ahead on the trail. I slowed, breathing deeply, trying to fill my lungs with air. Sweat snaked down the back of my neck, and I paused to blot it with the back of my t-shirt before decelerating my pace to a walk. One of the many things I loved about the island was that it was warm, but because of trade winds, it wasn't humid; but at the present time, because of my exertion, it felt like it was. Instead of shorts and a t-shirt, I felt like I was wearing a track suit.

  Eric, though, didn't look similarly overheated. Not at all. Shirtless, wearing only jeans, he leaned against the trunk of a jungle palm, looking slightly worried, though cool as a cucumber at the same time.

  When I reached him, he stood up straight, his dark gray eyes radiating concern. "Are you all right? We've had reports of some strange animals in the village, and I-"

  "I just saw a wolf in the jungle, and a dragon. Don't you dare try to tell me I'm crazy. Don't you dare try to tell me I just saw something that wasn't really there, because of the heat and the sun. I know what I saw. I know it. I'm not crazy. I know I saw an actual wolf in the jungle, not more than twenty feet in front of me, and a dragon flying overhead. The dragon had bluish-grayish wings with pointed tips...I'm positive of it. I saw it that clearly. So, please explain. And no bullshit. I am so not in the mood."

  With a look of discomfort mixed with something like resignation, Eric opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, I realized there were a few other things I wanted explanations about as well.

  "Oh, yeah. While you're telling me just why in the hell I just saw a wolf and a dragon in the jungle, you can also tell me a bit more about Black Lake, because I get the feeling that everyone's not telling me the full story about it. Not you, not Laura, not Bev, not any of my patients, no one.

  “And another thing, I'd also like to know why I haven't seen an airstrip anywhere in Clearwater, even though we had to have flown in on one in the jet. Or, at least, it seems like we had to have. Unless there's something really strange and supernatural going on here that you haven't told me about."

  The fact that I still hadn't spotted an airstrip had kind of nagged at me all week, though as busy as I was, each time it came to mind, I quickly forgot about it.

  Looking deeply into my eyes, Eric didn't answer right away. "Do you believe in the supernatural, Liz?"

  Surprised by the question, I hesitated before responding. "I guess I've always been open to the possibility of it. Are you telling me that’s what's going on here? That there's something supernatural about this island?"

  With the setting sun making his dark eyes spark with hints of gold, Eric took a step closer to me and extended a hand. "Why don't we head to your house, and I'll tell you everything."

  A bit reluctantly, I took his hand. I still wanted to retain our professional boundaries, simply because I still felt like I should, and truthfully, I knew the feel of Eric's fingers entwined with my own was going to make that difficult. The sight of his bare chest was already more than distracting me a bit from my mission to get answers to my questions.

  Not to mention that him offering me his hand was now making me wonder if Laura had really been correct, that Eric wouldn't mind if things between us took a turn from being strictly ethical. But then again, I reasoned, maybe he'd just offered his hand specifically because he knew it might distract me and prevent me from thinking of any more questions to ask him. Maybe he figured he was going to have plenty of explaining to do as it was.

  Regardless of the reason he'd offered me his hand, it soon did jumble my thoughts and prevented me from thinking of any more questions. While we walked back to my bungalow in silence, my thoughts quickly became even further jumbled by peeks at Eric's very well-defined abs and the hard contours of his bare chest.

  Despite the fact that I'd just been through a rattling experience, and try as I might, I found that I couldn't not look. I could definitely understand how a woman could become addicted to Eric's body.

  Somewhat to my relief, when we reached my bungalow, he took a white t-shirt that had been dangling from his back pocket and put it on. However, my relief was strangely mixed with a definite pang of regret.

  Once we were both seated on the couch in my living room with both of us kind of turned, facing each other, Eric didn't waste any time and got right to it.

  "We're shape shifters. I am and so are all the men in my group. We're human men who can also shift into wolves. I'm the alpha. The wolf you saw in the jungle earlier was one of my men, Nate. I've told him to keep an eye on you whenever you're out of the house. He's sort of been your personal security detail, even though you haven't realized it. I know he didn't intend you to see him today. My guess is that he spotted the dragon shifter overhead and became a bit distracted.

  “Everyone in the village was a bit distracted and rattled to see a dragon above our territory, even though this was one I'd given permission to, because he wanted to look at Black Lake from a different angle, and he agreed to share information with me. I was worried that seeing him in the sky might scare you, though. That's why I came to find you. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

  Right then, I was feeling decidedly not okay. In fact, I was having to work awfully hard just to keep my breathing at a normal pace. I felt as if reality had been turned on its head. I felt like I didn't know which way was up and which was down any more. My mouth had suddenly gone dry. I couldn't quite wrap my brain around what Eric was telling me.

  I asked him if he could please bring me a glass of water, and he said of course and got up immediately. I watched him head out to the kitchen, wondering if it could really actually be possible that he was a wolf shifter, half-man and half-wolf. The idea seemed profoundly bizarre, and that was putting it mildly.

  At the same time, there was something profoundly exciting about the idea. The idea of Eric being a shifter made him even more attractive to me than he already was. There was something about it that made him even more sexy to me than he already was.

  He soon returned with my water and handed the glass to me. "I know what I've told you has probably put you into a state of shock, and understandably so. I'm very sorry. Upsetting you is the last thing I wanted to do."

  Taking a sip of water, I realized something. Something that instantly made me angry.

  "So, you've been keeping this pretty major secret from me since the day we first met. Which was the day you should have told me about all this. You should have been upfront and honest with me."

  He made a sound between a sigh and a chuckle. "I'm sorry I hid everything from you, but would you have come if I'd told you the truth?"

  I didn’t answer, realizing the answer to that question was a defin
ite no. If he'd walked into my clinic and had announced he was a wolf shifter, I probably would have suspected him of suffering from some extreme delusions. If I hadn't seen the dragon shifter with my very own eyes earlier, I probably would have thought Eric was delusional right then.

  I took another sip of water, set the glass on an end table, and turned to face him again. "All right. Please tell me everything. Everything about the lake, the airstrip that doesn't seem to exist, and how you shifters came to exist."

  Leaning one muscular arm on the back of the couch, Eric took a deep breath. "It started out as an experiment in defense during the Cold War, and these are the details I know. The United States government discovered this island, and wolf shifters were already living on it. Those original wolf shifters still live on the island on the west side.

  “Once our government saw how valuable shifters could be during a war, they sent a team of scientists here to the island to create more, which they did. We wolf shifters of the second group were created, along with a group of dragon shifters, and a group of bear shifters."

  "What do you mean exactly by 'created?’?”

  "We were once human men. American soldiers who volunteered for a 'top secret experiment' as our superior officers called it at that point. Once we were turned into shifters, volunteer women, some of them in the armed forces and some of them not, were brought over from the States to be mates for some of us. That way, we could produce children to increase the shifter population even further, since all boys born to human women mothers and shifter fathers turn out to be shifters themselves.

  “For a while, everything was fine. We were all happy here on the island, sure that we'd soon be able to help our country during a time of war. But, the Cold War ended. The scientists all suddenly abandoned their bungalows here on the island and returned to the States.

  “That was when all of us left behind realized that we couldn't get back. All of us except designated leaders and alphas, that is. I'm the only one from here in Clearwater who can come and go from the island to the States, through a portal. Visitors, like you, can also come and go. That's why you haven't seen an airstrip; there isn't one. There used to be, but it's all grown over now."

  "So...you brought me here through a portal? But then what happened to the plane we were on?"

  "It landed back at the airport, with us on it, after a few hours. Then, I did what I need to do to go through the portal from the States, which is face dead east, eyes closed, while turning a special stone from the island in my hand. Being that I was touching you at this point, with my hand on your shoulder, you went through the portal with me, which put you into a deeper sleep than you already were. For some reason, going through the portal renders most outsiders nearly unconscious for several hours."

  "And you weren't worried that the pilot thought it was funny that we just essentially vaporized?"

  "No. The pilot is an associate of mine and is paid very well for his discretion. He knows all about the portal and my need to bring outsiders through it at times."

  "So...so, shifter leaders and alphas can go through the portal, and outsiders can, too, but no one else on the island?"

  "No. None of the other shifters or women who were here at the time of the scientists can exit through the portal. They just don't go through it, and we don't know why.

  “They're essentially trapped here, here in this...this different dimension of sorts, which is the way we've come to think of the island. It used to be accessible by plane or boat, which is how the place was discovered, and how the scientists came here. But once they left the island, the portal, which the leader of the dragon shifters discovered almost by accident, is the only way for us leaders to come and go."

  A stiff breeze blew in through the living room windows, fluttering their sheer curtains, and Eric glanced at them before continuing with a hint of sadness crossing his handsome features.

  “We've tried and tried to find a scientific explanation...a way that the dimension can be broken somehow, for lack of a better word, so that everyone can leave. And fortunately, when the scientists abandoned their homes so abruptly, they also left behind tons, literally tons, of gold bullion. It was intended to be payment to us shifters for our services, so all of us groups of shifters split this gold, which has given me the funds to hire private scientists over the years to try to figure out how we can all of us, not just us leaders, can get back to the States.

  “But it's all been to no avail. It seems that other than us leaders, who will never abandon our people, everyone is stuck here. And in the meantime, we've had other problems to deal with."

  "What kind of problems?"

  Inhaling deeply, Eric frowned. "I'll tell you, Liz...but you've got to promise me you'll try not to be scared."

  *

  I scoffed at Eric, incredulous. "I've seen a wolf shifter and a dragon shifter today, and I've learned about the existence of the same. Now you want to tell me something else, but first, you want me to promise I won't be 'scared?'

  “Eric, do I seem like a woman who's easily scared? I didn't exactly fall to my knees when I saw the wolf and the dragon out in the jungle, and I haven't exactly shivered myself off the couch here while you've been telling me about shifters and the island."

  A bit irritated, I crossed my arms over my chest.

  With his full, delectable lips twitching with the hint of a grin, Eric breathed out the faintest of sighs. "You're right. You're right, and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have thought or implied that you might be a bit scared by what I have to tell you next. I know you're a brave woman, as evidenced by the fact that you came here to a strange island, sight unseen, all by yourself. So, I apologize. Will you accept it?"

  Of course, I would. It was very hard to stay irritated at Eric for long. Not with the way he was sitting on the couch, facing me, one muscular, long leg tucked under the other. Not with the way the ocean breeze coming in through the window was just very gently rippling his thick, dark hair.

  I nodded, unfolding my crossed arms. "Of course, I accept your apology, and I'm sorry I took offense over such a minor thing. Although I haven't really been scared, exactly, I guess my nerves have been a little rattled today."

  "Very understandable."

  "So, please tell me now about the problems you were talking about. Other than not being able to get your people off the island and back to the States, and other than the fertility issues, what kind of other problems are you dealing with?"

  Eric's neutral expression changed to one very serious, and when he spoke, his deep voice was low and quiet.

  "The only way I can describe things, is that we have 'supernatural problems.' Soon after the scientists left, horrifying things began happening around the lake, which had always been dark and forbidding. Two women fell in and were swept under by some current, and a third very narrowly escaped. The bodies of the two women who were swept under were never recovered. Then, three bear shifters...three incredibly strong shifters...were last seen around the lake, then never seen again, and again, no bodies were ever recovered.

  “We could only assume they met the same fate as the women. There were even a few other losses after that. Then, maybe two decades ago, creatures began rising from Black Lake, creatures we simply call the Gray Forms. They rise as shadows at first, then take solid shapes as they get closer to the different villages on the island, trying to attack and kill."

  My mouth suddenly became a bit dry again, and I grabbed my water and took a sip. "What kind of solid shapes do they take?"

  "Women, bears, wolves, and even a dragon...all the shapes of those who've been lost in the lake. However, the people lost in the lake were benevolent souls, for the most part anyway, and these creatures are not. Their intent is clearly to kill, and as they take solid physical form and are incredibly strong, occasionally, they have.

  “My men and I have to use every last ounce of our strength to keep them from the village. We have to patrol the areas around the lake constantly, and battle the Gray Forms
back when they emerge. In fact, if it wasn't for being so occupied with this constant task the past couple of decades, some of my men who are science-minded probably could have figured out a way to get us all off the island by now."

  I'd noticed that Eric and many of the men in the village were gone a lot and seemed frequently to be very busy. I'd been wondering exactly what they were up to in the jungle. Laura told me that nearly everyone in the village had a job of some sort, and I supposed I naturally thought many of the men worked in agriculture in various capacities, since there were so many fruit trees and other sources of food in the jungle. Now, I felt more than a bit silly, having thought the men were off harvesting coconuts or something when really, they were guarding the village from murderous supernatural creatures.

  With his expression still one of extreme seriousness, Eric continued. "One of my men who is particularly gifted at science and physics has even done some work and made some very promising discoveries in one of the underground labs that was formerly used by the scientists. He’s also one of my strongest shifters, and is therefore needed to help patrol the lake and fight the Gray Forms most all the time. Meaning, that for the past twenty-some-odd years, he hasn't been able to make much headway in trying to figure out a way to get everyone off the island and back to the States."