Alpha Battle by Marquaylla Lorette Page A

though the years they spent apart never happened, until the unanswered questions floating in Jadelyn’s head came to the front of her mind.  They continued on their way to the swings when Jadelyn’s wolf was calm enough.
    While they were on the swings holding hands to please their wolves, Jadelyn turned toward Eli and said, “So my father told me there was something wrong with your dad, and he was in the secured hospital.  What happened?”
    “It all started a few years ago with a few coughs and shortness of breath.  I thought it was a cold like the humans got since we were living on their lands.  I decided to take him to the hospital as it became worse, but the human doctors could never figure it out.  A few days ago, he couldn’t get out of bed, so I decided it was time to bring him back here for help, no matter what Ella said anymore.  When we arrived here, I learned a witch had poisoned him over the last eighteen years.  You know, when I learned what happened to him, all I wished was that you were there with me,” Eli answered while he took in everything about Jadelyn.  She looked so different in his eye, yet the same, and it confused him.  Jadelyn was so reserved now; it was as if she waited for him to pass judgment on her.  When they were younger, she was an outgoing daredevil in her own right.  One who jumped in head first without thinking about the consequences or what others thought about her.  He remembered when they were younger her smile would light up her eyes, which caused everyone around her to smile, or when she got this look in her eyes that let everyone know she thought about doing something incredibly dangerous and stupid but totally fun.  It suddenly clicked in his head that what he saw now in her eyes was a look of wanting to do something dangerous and fun.  Eli knew his Jadelyn was still in there and the fleeting look he caught just proved it.  He was going to bring his fun loving, dangerous, and not-caring-what-others-thought-about-her Jadelyn back if it was the last thing he did.    
    “He will be okay.  You guys are here now, and you know my father will do everything in his power to make sure your father gets better.”
    “I know, just being next to you helps ease the burden of what is going on with my father,” Eli said as he pushed a lone hair out of her face. 
    “Eli, you never really got my letters…  And why didn’t you come back when you said you would?” Jadelyn asked.  She had to know because in the back of her mind, she still thought maybe he didn’t come around because of her latency.
    “No, I never got any of your letters, and all of mine always came back to me unopened.  I wondered what happened to them and who would want our letters?  I didn’t return because Ella wouldn’t let my father come to the Isle of Paradise, and I wasn’t going to leave him alone with her.  I hope you understand since something about Ella seems different, and I didn’t want to chance it,” Eli said as he turned to look at the ducks that played on the slide a few feet away from them. 
    Jadelyn did understand.  She would have done the same thing for her father.  “I don’t know, Eli, but I am starting to think that maybe whoever was poisoning you father withheld our letters from each other, and we will have to figure out why.” 
    Eli wanted them to have a good time before they started going over the scenarios of what happened.  He got off his swing and then pulled Jadelyn off hers. 
    “How about we go have fun for a little while and forget about all this until after the battle tomorrow night.”  Eli still held Jadelyn up by either side of her coat.  His wolf tried crashing into his mental barriers to get out.  Eli, nor his wolf, could take it anymore. He pulled Jadelyn closer to him, bent his head down, and crashed his lips to hers in a searing kiss.  The kiss didn’t start out slow as he had planned.  This kiss started out as he meant to go in this