Out Running the Alpha

The kindly Ones

I stared in amazement at the page. This was the diary of my ancestors. The ancestor that Mason appeared to be obsessed with and that I was apparently linked to in some way. Unfortunately, the diary was in french, so I would have to translate it before I would be able to learn anything from it.

I found a french to English dictionary and quickly headed back to my room. I wasn't sure why but I just had a feeling that I should keep this a secret from Mason. After a few hours, I had done a relatively decent translation of the first entry.

Dear friend is how I will start my entries in this book. Of course, no one will ever read this, but it makes it easier to write down my thoughts and feelings on paper if I pretend that I am writing to a dear friend. Keeping this diary wasn't even my idea in the first place, but rather my soon to be mother in law, Queen Catherine de Medici. She insisted that a young lady should have a safe place to hide her thoughts and while I'm sure she intends to find and read what I write in here, but too not write in here would be a terrible insult. Some say that Queen Catherine is a witch. I'm not sure if it's true, but either way, I'd rather not cross her, seeing as I am to marry her son. It isn't what I want, but it was arranged by our parents. The most handsome man I've ever seen arrived at court last week, and he's made it clear that he would like to court me. His name is Mason. He offered to take me away from court to his estate in England, but there is no way the Queen would ever let me go. Even if we did manage to escape, they would hunt us to the end of the world. I've rebuffed his advances for both of our safety, but he hasn't shown any sign backing off. He's becoming increasingly bold, and I'm worried that my fiance the dauphin Louis will notice something and either take the information to the Queen or take matters into his own hands. I'm not sure which would be worse. The Queen is cruel, but Louis is every bit her son, and he now views me as his. If he thought another man trying to take what he considers as his the results would be disastrous.

I closed the diary, my heart pounding in my chest. While reading this, I felt like I was actually the girl who had written in this diary. I had just thought that she was an ancestor that I shared an uncanny resemblance with, but reading this made me think that there might be more of a connection between us. Maybe figuring out the relationship between Antoinette and me would be the key to figuring out what was going on with me.

I spent several hours translating the journal, and while it was interesting, it didn't offer me any new information. Antoinette just talked about her growing feelings for Mason and the stress of having to discourage his advances while trying to hide them from the rest of the court. But what was clear was that Antoinette had loved Mason, and Mason had loved her in return. That would complicate whatever relationship Mason and I had. If Mason really thought that I was Antoinette, there was no way he was going to let me go. I couldn't deny that I felt a connection to Mason, but even if Antoinette were connected, yet if we were somehow shared a soul, I had been raised in the 21st century and not 16th century France. I couldn't be that girl, and it scared me to think about what Mason might do to make me that person.

I dressed for the day surprised to see there were substantially more people at the manor than there had been the day before. By people, of course, I meant vampires. Some of them appeared to be part of Mason's household staff, but there were too many of them just for that.

I walked towards Masons study, hoping he would be there since I was too afraid to speak to anyone. I might have trusted Mason not to kill me, but I had no reason to believe that any of these other vampires wouldn't rip my heart out given half the chance. I was still a werewolf from a long line of werewolves. I was their enemy, and I was on their turf.

I knocked hesitantly on the door frame seeing Mason inside talking to another vampire. He looked up his face brightening when he saw me, "Britney, come in." He shooed the other man out who looked at me with barely hidden contempt.