It was an argument that nobody had expected to have that kind of ending. That night the pack house was filled with an oppressive silence that the others decided to find another place to stay for the night. After the argument, Amber did not hesitate to call over Zael and Zayier.
"Assign two of our pack warriors to guard the door, without my permission, he can't leave that room." It was a shocking command that both of them could only look at each other.
"Are you sure about that Alpha?" Zael braced himself and asked the question that both of them wanted to ask.
Amber frowned as she glared at her Beta, "Are you questioning me?" She had been ruffled because of what had happened with her mate and now her Beta was questioning her decision.
Zael's question was swallowed as he gulped in fear at how the Alpha was looking at him. It was just a question but her reaction was too intense for him. Both of them stood in attention to do the Alpha's command and did not attempt to ask any more question.
Zayier sighed after they stepped out of the office, "I did not expect the Alpha to be this over the top."
"Let's go," Zael did not dwell on it and instead pulled his brother towards the room where Xander was.
They opened the door and saw that the man was sitting on the floor with his back on the wall. He heard the opening of the door but he was too tired to open his eyes to see who it was. Arguing with that woman had drained all of his energy and he was tired of thinking already.
"What do you want?" he asked after waiting for a while. He had thought that the people who came would come at him in anger because he had offended their Alpha.
"Don't take the Alpha's words into heart. All of those were only said in the heat of the moment," Zael spoke first. He was not a peacemaker but he would do what he can to at least salvage the situation.
"I'm not a person who holds grudges but your Alpha had stepped out of line and no matter what you say, you can't cover for the words she had said or how she had tried to kill me. As she had said, her words are the law in here, so are you here to watch me and keep me from escaping?" It was already difficult for him to trust any of their words since they follow their Alpha and was loyal to her. He could see it from the way they came to try and fix the situation and on how they had kept on refusing his requests while saying that he needed the Alpha's permission.
Zayier shook his head, "There is no excuse to what the Alpha has done but remember this, she will never harm you. She would die first before she could allow that."
Xander's shoulders shook as he laughed at the statement, "She already did." He opened his eyes to look at the them. He grinned at them and shrugged his shoulder and stopped talking to them entirely that he even covered his eyes with his arm. He had completely ignored them until they left the room. Soon after, two guards were stationed to guard Xander's room with instructions of not letting the man out.
A day had already passed ever since he was detained on his room and not once did Amber came to check on him which was a good thing because his anger had yet to subside. They might start to argue once again if she tried to visit.
This was exactly what Amber was thinking thus she had buried herself in work instead of visiting her mate. In addition, her wolf had been unsettled ever since the argument. Amber could feel her pacing inside her mind.
"You're giving me a head ache by what you are doing right now and I've got papers to read and review," Amber sighed. She was tired and now even her wolf was not giving her any rest.
'Our mate,' she growled because up until now she could not believe that someone was able to talk to them like that. She had not experienced anything like that.
Amber leaned on her chair and tapped the table with her pen. Ever since she had shifted, no one had shown any disrespect towards them. Aside from her being an Alpha's child, her wolf was also unique, a rare color and a rare dominance. She was very different from other Alpha wolves because she was stronger and her presence could affect any other Alpha, some had also predicted that she might become an Alpha King.
But all of this had been forgotten when her parents died, she was crowned Alpha of Ceurian and she focused all of her attention to the pack. The support she had in the past that pushed her to be the ruler of all werewolves weakened as more and more oppositions voiced out their discontent. With all of the chaos, she decided to let it go and remain as the Alpha of her pack which satisfied everyone since they saw no desire from her to take the position.
With that nature, she had a difficult time accepting disrespect and whenever she felt like someone was challenging her, she would not hold back and let her dominance shut them up. But all of these did not work against her mate, he was not affected by her pressure nor her strength which made her wolf uncomfortable.
"That must be because he is our mate and we can't exactly do anything about that." Amber was also at a lost because it came as a shock.
Because of the distraction, she decided to forgo working and have a run to clear her mind. She was hoping that after she had round throughout their territory everything had calmed down. Amber nodded to herself as she stood up and went down. She easily transformed to her wolf and dashed through woods.
From where he was standing, Xander saw the silver wolf leaving and the memory of her almost choking him to death flashed in his mind. He could only shake his head as he headed to the bed and once again lied down since he had nothing to do. He was only a weak human who can't even defend himself from a woman's attack.
The silver wolf howled in joy as she felt the wind caressing her fur. She loved running and being free in the wild. It was a relaxing activity for both of them and through this way she could temporarily forget everything that has been bothering her after that she will come back with a clear mind.
On her way, she stopped a few meters away from the Lurea Woods and stared at if for a moment. The dark forest had not changed, it still gave her the eerie feelings but she could not stop herself from looking. There was strangely something alluring in the forest the longer one would look at it. She was too focused that she almost missed a strange smell in the air.
A deep growl escaped her throat as that smell reeked of blood and something dark. She growled towards the direction of the woods as she connected with the mind link.
'Zayier, come to Lurea Woods now, bring with you our tracking squad.' After hearing the order, Zayier did not waste time. Together with the tracking squad, they arrived at the Alpha's location.
"Alpha," Zayier called out when the Alpha did not even look at them when they arrived. She was focused on the woods while growling at nothing in particular.
'Spread out, there's something in the woods and it has entered our territory. It has the smell of blood and darkness, look for any traces of it. I want it to be found as soon as possible. It is a smell I have never smelled in our territory so it would be very easy to identify it. Once you find any traces of it, inform me.'
"Do you know its form?" Zayier asked to make it easier to for the tracking squad to locate it.
'I have not seen any form but the smell is distinctive.' She did not see anyone or anything from the woods but the smell came strong and lingered for a while until it slowly dispersed in the air. But if it is part of the 'darkness' then it might have already entered their territory without them noticing.
Zayier nodded and looked at the warriors. The command was received and they spread out to look for it. The Alpha on the other hand focused all of her senses in finding that 'thing' while Zayier stayed beside her to defend her against any threats since 'darkness' was involved.
'Darkness' was something that had existed ever since the ancient time and every creature had been guarding against it because it can exist in any form. It has been a long time since something like this has been involved in anything. Now that even the Alpha had smelled and noticed it, this only means that something stronger had appeared.
They had experienced something similar to this in the past but most of the 'darkness' that had come were weak and often in the form of small smoky dark animals. They were easy to deal with.
Zayier had also suspected that this 'darkness' might have something to do with the rogues but he can't be sure because the Alpha had not noticed it the first time. Something might have happened for something dangerous to appear in their territory.
While they were busy with the search, a black smoke had already traveled towards the center of Ceurian and continued to float as if it had no direction but once the smoke entered the area of the pack house, it changed direction and headed to an open window on the second floor.
There a man had fallen asleep after he got tired of doing nothing. The smoke lingered above the man as if it was observing him. It stayed there doing nothing until it slowly floated down and entered the unsuspecting man's body.