∞COLLIAS∞
It was dark and late at night, around 11:00 PM when I was waiting on my beta to return after he was finished dealing with the rogues that were stupid enough to trespass onto one of my pack lines somewhere in Idaho. The flickering office light was dim around me as I went through paperwork for the pack. Bills, taxes, and local government documents among complaints and requests all piled in a jumbled stack in front pf me.
It was neverending, the second stack on the left corner of my desk seeming to mock my wandering mind for not going through the work fast enough.
I pressed the heels of my palms to my temples, trying to rid myself of the massive headache I felt throbbing between my eyebrows.
I knew it had mostly to do with stress, but something was just off with me today. I felt my mind drift countlessly throughout the day, not quite being able to concentrate on what was right in front of me. I felt the wolf I shared a soul with pacing in the back of my mind, restless in his agitation. I could almost imagine the click-clack of his claws to be the doing of the blistering pain in my head.
The wild soul in my head never spoke to me in any human language, but I knew the message he was trying to convey nonetheless. His instincts were driving him to protect. What he was protecting specifically, hell if I know. Our pack was fine. Thriving, even. The instinct he exuded almost had me crouching over my own desk to try to protect the only thing valuable in this office.
I sighed in through my nose and out through my mouth and tried to steady my thoughts enough to calm him. His emotions, if severe enough, often blend into my own. Unfortunately, his nerves were mine as well, and his lack of attention couldn't be ignored. Perhaps it was best to leave the rest of the paperwork for tomorrow.
That's what I was saying yesterday...
I winced, knowing Micah, my beta, would throw a fit about it no doubt. He begrudgingly took the less pressing work off my shoulders as it was, and to add to that made me feel like an asshole.
Although we pushed paperwork off to the each other frequently, I could always count on my long time best friend to do his job as quickly and quality as I expected, no matter how much he would silently curse me about it. Knowing each other since we were pups had given us a strong brotherly bond with the other, and after losing my own brother and him only having an older sister, it was treasured.
As if my thoughts led to his, I felt something pull on a thread that led into my mind but was currently blocked off due to a mental barrier. The thread belonged to one of the wolves in my pack and judging by its scent and feel, I knew it was Micah himself as I allowed him access into my mind.
I straightened up in my seat and looked straight ahead expectantly, though no one was here to watch me do so. The force of habit was what Alice, Micah's mate, often snickered at when I did it once and she almost fell out of her chair in surprise. I turned up the volume of Micah's voice in my mind to drown out my own thoughts.
"Alpha, there's a rogue in the jail cells right now about to sing for mercy from us. Got some new information. He says he knows how to find the I.F. leader."
"I'll be there in 5. Wait for me." I responded to him before raising my mental barriers once again.
The main building where I was doing work was the biggest hub of everything, and dubbed 'HQ' by non-locals. For the inner-community, however, we called it The Den. The werewolf community here was large compared to the smaller outposts spread around the territory in smaller towns overlooked by the human governments. We were still all interconnected through back forest trails and suburban parks, even as far as connected tunnels between the more urban areas.
The Den was more of a mix between a mansion and communal gathering place with some hotel characteristics. Every meal was an all you can eat buffet prepared by volunteers of all ages. The commons area was the size of a restaurant, with multiple TVs and couches spread out facing different directions. Usually, the pups are kept here during the day if they are too young to attend school, and everyone who comes into the packhouse has the chance to connect and form bonds with them.
The few pack members in the commons began to hush as I descended the stairs, respectfully inclining their heads toward me in greeting as I passed them. A warm voice called from the kitchen, out of my view. "Going home, Alpha?"
I peered around the kitchen corner, seeing Katherine, one of the seasoned elder women who worked full-time in The Den, leaning over the counter in a smudged apron, her white hair curled tightly around her face. She was one of the few older wolves who had survived the attack that happened eight years ago, and she had always been more of a nanny to me when I was a pup rather than an employee.
Growing up with my parents as the Alpha and Luna, I had very little friends who could stand my then uncontrollable aura of dominance except Micah and my brother, so I spent some of my childhood as her assistant, helping her cook for the pack with the help of a few of the adults in charge of keeping the den orderly.
She doesn't take to flattery, no matter how much I've complimented her over the years. Now, she brushes off the compliments with a shake of her head and a huff before she requests for me to either help her with the next meal or get out. She was baking something now, though, and from the smell, it seemed to be her famous pecan brownies.
"Not quite yet, Mrs. Katherine, I need to catch up with Micah. Be sure to not stay so late." I respond, making my way to the door before she's able to scold me for the same. I'm almost through the door when she calls for me.
"I suggest you better be goin' home soon too young man! No one wants a workaholic as their mate. Now my Wally-" She tutted to me from the kitchen.
Called it.
I felt my lips turn up into a rare smile. I try to inch toward the door before she begins ranting about her husband, but I can't help but call back to her.
"Katherine, I'll be lucky enough to get a mate who can share the workload so we can both get home early together. She might even write faster than me and get twice as much done."
When I hear the huff coming from her mouth, I can picture the old woman putting the accompanying hands on her hips over kitchen counter. "If I hear you make that poor gal do all that office work for you, you won't be getting any brownies from me for the rest of my days."
I winced, knowing she was dead serious. I didn't want any rumors going around that the pack's Alpha had a major sweet tooth. I'd have accepted crazy requests long ago if it were accompanied by sugar. My wolf whined in my mind, feeling my embarrassment. "Bye Mrs. K," I said while closing the front door softly. I started toward my car, the old 80s two door CJ sitting by the curb of the road, glittering softly.
While driving, I felt my wolf sitting down and swishing his tail impatiently. He loathed vehicles of transportation when he could run it himself, as most werewolves opted to do the latter anyways. He also really wanted a bite out of the rogue that had arrived, the salivating drool feeling thick in my throat as I tried to swallow it down.
Soon. It was a confirmation and a promise.
∞
When I got past the guards at the front door to the jail, I allowed myself to expel the dominating aura that hung around my body like a large shadow. On the uppermost levels there were outskirts pack wolves who had been charged with minor offenses, and the lower into the jail you went the greater the criminals offenses were. The deepest level belonged only to the rogues, who would never see the moon again, or live long enough to wish for it.
The elevator descended slowly, Micah's scent getting stronger when the doors opened at last. Following the trail Micah left, I found myself in front of a door with the number 404. I opened the heavy steel door without knocking, knowing Micah had been able to sense my aura since I arrived at the front gate.
A bloody, flesh torn rogue sat on a hard steel chair propped against the wall. The male's hair was wild and greasy, looking as though it hadn't been groomed in months. I'm probably not far off that mark. His long face was gaunt, stretched too thin over his sharp cheekbones. The emptiness in his eyes gave him away, the sure sign he was on his own and a lone wolf. Most rogues carried the look only if they had subjected their lives to horrible fate.
There was no saving his blackened soul.
Newly made rogues always carried an air of rage in their eyes. Bloodlust and murdering intent were the first steps in becoming rogue. They began to hate everything so fiercely they were unpredictable in what they would destroy. Whether it be furniture, humans, werewolves, or children, it was all the same rage toward everything.
Once they were rogue for at least a couple of years, the hate usually gave way for hate toward themselves. The mangled rogue in front of me was an example of what the years of being alone did to them. Their sickness wasn't a mental illness that could be combatted with medicine. The rogue sickness was a cancer in their body that couldn't be removed. He would sooner kill himself then save his own life even if he had the option.
His fate was to soon die, but how he died was up to me.
My canines sharpened at that.
He's looking at us.
Micah growled lowly, bothered by the wolf's lack of respect in shifting his eyes away. Good, this one still had enough balls left to give me the information I needed without dying too quickly. The scent of Micah's bloodlust made my wolf release a chilling snarl in my head and stand at attention.
"Tell him." Micah snapped sharply at the boney rogue, his voice fairly gruff and viscous as an adder. He was completely different in front of enemies than his normal chill demeanor. The change in attitude was expected, he hated rogues almost as much as I did for what they had done eight years ago.
I could see when the exact moment the rogue realized who I was.When he saw who exactly was staring at him with an icy look full of hatred and pure malice. The sight of my glare alone was enough for the young male to shake in terror as he soiled his jeans in front of us. I felt my claws prick past my nails.
My normal cobalt blue eyes started to lighten to an icy hue. It was caused by my wolf looking through my eyes as well, eager to tear apart the rogue once he was finished telling us all he knew. The terrified male began to stutter as he bared his neck in complete submission to me. The empty eyes of the murderer presented to me widened as his body continued to shake.
"P-P-Please, A-Alpha Belikov..." He gasped, sucking breaths in wildly, "A-Allow me to die quickly. I-I will tell y-you all I know once y-you agree to let me d-d-die a quick death." I said nothing, not granting the rogue the pleasure of hearing my voice.
"That depends on how much the information you tell us is worth it," Micah snarked at him, the bloodlust curling around his scent spiking with each word. The rogue gulped, trying to calm himself down. I mindlinked Micah to calm his bloodlust for a moment, showing nothing on my features that I did so as I gazed at the trembling male on the steel chair.
"T-There are rumors, A-Alpha Belikov sir, that there is a breed of sh-shifter that is a fox." My wolf jumped in my mind, his tail and ears raised in alarm.
Not in surprise, but in caution. This information was sensitive to Alphas and Lunas only, with a select few betas as an exception, depending on if their line was pure enough.
Micah's blood was pure Beta, his father and mother coming from a long line of Betas that served powerful Alphas. Beta blood that mated with Beta blood only, and never anything lower, were called purebloods.
The only thing pure about him was the amount of bluntness coated in his DNA.
Fox shifters were sensitive information because of their rarity. They were once all hunted down and killed, known to be extinct by any other werewolf. There were less than 20 in the world last I had heard, the population doubling and halving again depending on the decade.
"One of these f-fox shifters is said to know The Leader." The rogue gulped roughly, trying to make the information seem worthwhile, "I-I don't know his name, but h-he's an ally of The Leader. All in the Iron Fang know him as T-The Second. He also is c-called C-C-Copper by the higher ranks." It took him a while to spit out the name or perhaps it was a code name of the bastard.
Not knowing if his name was given or made up by his own fucked up self just made me more ticked.
The rogue went quiet, finished with stuttering out his last words. He knew what was coming next. I nodded to Micah, showing him with my eyes the hidden message to kill him. Whether Micah would torture him before killing him quickly wasn't my business.
After all, he needed all the relief he could get before seeing the unfinished work on his desk tomorrow.
∞
I had left the dreadful building when my wolf froze, his icy eyes going wide, tail sticking ramrod straight out inside my mind. I scanned my surrounding wearily, looking for a threat.
None was shown.
The trees on the land around me seemed to shiver in anticipation.
Something is wrong.
Confusion repelled through me as I scanned my surroundings, was there something he sensed that I hadn't? My wolf was in defensive mode, deeming whatever was nearby a true threat to myself.
My question was answered when a horrible, searing pain shot through my veins. My wolf roared, it's howl ripping through my mind, filling my ears and senses. I felt him pushing me to shift, shift, shift.
I heard distant screaming in my ears accompanied by a white noise that scraped my ear drums.
The screaming was from myself.
Controlling the beast inside of me proved to be rather difficult. The pain that filtered through my body left me powerless to stop him. I shifted on the sidewalk 8 steps from my car, tearing my clothes to pieces in the process. They lay in scattered heaps across the ground. My wolf form began staggering and growling at unseen enemies.
What the hell is going on with me?
More shudders racked through me as pain gripped my heart, killing me from the inside as I felt my soul shred in two.
Dread leaked into my brain. No.
No no no no no.
I knew what this was. Horror filled my bones, my mind recognizing the feeling from the same one that happened 8 years ago.
The pain was worse, though. Much, much worse than any injury I had ever encountered. Worse than seeing my dead father's corpse with his throat ripped out lying atop my beautiful mother's sliced up body. It was worse than seeing her severed head a few feet away from her body, her eyes filled with terror and her hair stained red.
A single word kept ramming into my brain, over and over again. It was my wolf, communicating with me the only word it knew.
Mate. Mate. Mate.
My senses doubled and tripled in intensity. The static increased in pressure, I felt my bones quiver as I had the distant feeling I was running.
I could still taste the food I had hours ago, feel each grain of sand beneath my paws. I could hear the hoot of an owl 10 miles away, and smell it with the same intensity as if it were in front of my nose. My alpha instincts kicked in as I felt my body seem to bulk up like a pro boxer, my blood racing through my body.
I felt my claws tear up the dirt I sprinted across, searching and searching for wherever my mate would be.
She is dying. My mate was dying and I could do nothing to stop it.
I was powerless.
I felt the bond connecting us together thinning rapidly, and my wolf roared aloud in anger at it, as if commanding it to stop.
I felt the strength leave my body entirely as my soul began to shatter.
My mate was dead. She was dead, and I haven't seen her face yet. I wasn't going to see her face, or hear her voice for the rest of my life. My wolf let out a bloodcurdling and sorrowful howl that vibrated the trees in the silent night. I felt threads of pack links pulling on my mind all at once, probably in response to my chilling howl.
The thousands of pack members were all trying to mindlink me at once, wanting to know if I was okay and what had happened.
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck-
Mindlink. I needed to mindlink my mate. I knew it was impossible, I haven't yet met her even less been with her long enough to establish a link together. I concentrated on searching the threads in my mind, looking through each one to find the brightest, the one that called to my soul to complete it.
I felt my wolf sprinting through the territory, dashing over trees and streams to an unknown destination. Racing across riverbeds and up rocky cliffs, he kept going without pause.
To the far left in a dark corner of my mind grew a fog around a particular thread I wouldn't have looked at twice if it weren't for the golden mist surrounding it.
It was her.
This rope of white light that threatened to snap away from me was my mate. Mine. I needed to do something, anything at all to keep her here in this world. I kept trying to reach for it, to no avail.
I was focused on what was going on inside of my head while my wolf did god knows what with full control of my body.
I didn't care.
Whenever I reached for the bond it would slip away, just out of my reach. I felt my fingers brush against it, but they only passed through open air in the shape of the white rope that extended far, far away from me. I was mentally sprinting after it now.
I felt breathless, the pain of having my mate ripped away from me kept rippling through my body. Chasing after the rope of light as it continued to become farther and farther away from me. I began to hear screaming in my mind, the voice in my mind was muffled so I couldn't read the thoughts.
My heart wrenched in recognition of her sweet voice filling my mind like a whisper on the wind. They were full of panic, frantically trying to escape death's clutches. I struggled to use my enhanced hearing and pick out the words.
Anything, anything at all that could help me find her-
"-Can't end like this! I have so much left to see, things to learn. I still need to do something with this stupid degree! I haven't even told my grandma goodbye! I have..."
The voice grew foggy once again, but that was all the confirmation I needed.
It was her, my mate, fighting for her life while I could do nothing but listen in utter terror. I concentrated on the white rope in front of me that lead to her mind, imagining it as a live, physical cord. I grasped it even as it tried to slip through my mental image of hands, and pulled.
I pulled, and pulled, and pulled.
My arms straining and veins pulsing, I gathered as much mental strength as I was able and pulled the rope toward the direction of my mind, where I could keep it safe with me, her with me.
Surely she couldn't leave me if I help her soul like this.
I pulled until the last of my mental strength left me, pulling her toward me, toward my mind where she could breach and listen to anytime she desired to.
The glistening white rope disappeared as I fainted, my wolf form collapsing to the ground.
∞