Please come with me Alpha" The poor man looked lost, it must not have been easy deciding to come to me personally instead of just sending me a Mesa through his wolf
His appearance was haggard, his clothes were blood stained and his eyes sunken, you could use the bags under his eyes to carry all the paperwork in my face
I turn to Mihai who gives an understanding nod, our run will have to take a raincheck "Lead the way" I say and the man nearly leaped for joy
"Thank you Alpha, Thank you, Thank you" he bowed nonstop even as he turned and half ran through the town
Everyone we passed bowed, lowering their heads fully as a show of respect, I remember following my father around the pack as a kid, watching all those people lower to heads to him felt so overwhelming, I wondered how it didn't make it uncomfortable
Now I know that he earned this praise, after everything I have done for these people, lowering their heads was the least they could do, it was what I deserved, with every bowed head it is a pack member loyal to me, and it is a remind of how many people depend on me, how many people need me, how many people that work fight for me, and how many people I would lay my life for without a second's hesitation
We passed the schoolhouses, and the children ran by us a smiles bowing briefly then running away, as they should, I much prefer their laughter to their grief-stricken wails, we passed homes and shops, canteens and stalled s, the town was thriving, a semblance of our life before the war, trading with the humans, though distasteful, it made all of this possible, I made all of this possible if my father could see me now, would he be proud of me?, of the choices I've made?
I don't dwell on the thought too much because soon we were bursting through the hospital doors
Patients' wheelchairs and stretchers roll by us, children and elderly, joyful mixed with grief-stricken faces blend into the crowd and patients come and go, I hate it here, I hate coming here, ever since my mother I've tried desperately to limit how often I came to a hospital, nothing but bad memories
We are led down winding corridors stopping in front of a steel door with a white crescent moon encased in a Laurel wreath, the symbol of the women's pack, he looks around frantically and then knocks in a specific sequence, I remember this was the secret knock we discussed for classified operations
A latch opens and is then replaced by a pair of eyes, they first look at the Doctor, then at Mi, hai, and when they land on me they go so wide they nearly bulge out the poor man's head
A series of locks click and turn followed by a hard clang that makes the entire door shudder, the door jerks then creaks open revealing an equally distressed-looking man
"G-G-G-greetings Alpha, it is so kind of you to…."
"Please save the pleasantries for another time, right now I believe there are more pressing matters to discuss?" I ask and the man's face goes blanks, he blinks once twice, and like a switch was flicked he gets in gear
"Of course, forgive me, right this way, please!!"
He steps aside ushering us into the containment unit, one foot in the door, and the smell hits you like a freight train, the smell of blood, pus, and dirt mixing to give that familiar stench of death
We pass a mass of beds lined from the entrance into a long room with white tiles stretching as high as 2 stories, nearly each bed was filled with soldiers suffering one ailment or the other
Each health facility has a room like this, a secret bunker built for housing our people in times of war, it's also stocked with enough supplies in case our people need to evacuate In case of an attack, we have food, water, clothes, and enough blankets for everyone, these bunkers were my Father's crowning achievement, I wonder how he'd feel if he found out I also converted each of them to be used as a treatment location for injured soldiers?
Would he applaud my brilliance and quick thinking to ensure that our soldiers would always have instant treatment, or would he feel wronged that I defiled the precious safe havens he created with the stench of death?
The doctors led us to the end of the hall where a small crowd was huddled over a single bed, the wails of agony were piercing, At Least 4 doctors and 2 soldiers were struggling to hold down what looked to be a wounded soldier while another tried to inject a yellow colored liquid into his arm
"What is the meaning of this?!" I demanded and they all turned to face me, even the doctor holding the needle faltered dropping his syringe, he watched it fall with a look of defeat
The others bowed as I approached with a wave of my hand dismissing them, "What is going in him.." the words climbed back down my throat as I stood over the wounded soldier
A cut ran from his neck to his waist, the cut like someone was trying to carve out his rib cage, the cut itself looked shallow it should not be lethal and yet it oozed blood so dark it looked black, the smell was atrocious, like a rotting carcass, the wound festered and sputtered with veins throbbing the length of it, it was horrific
"What happened to him? How long has he been here?!"
I yell and they all look away
"Answer me!"
"2 days Alpha" one of the soldiers answered
"2 days?, He's been here only two days with a shallow cut and he looks like he's been dragged by hellhounds?!"
"Please…" the soldier whispered, his skin stark white, his lips cracked and his eyes bloodshot, the eyes of a madman or one who has faced death ".... please Alpha, …..kill me.." silence fell, you could see it in his eyes, this was not nonsensical babbling, this was a man with a steeled resolve begging for death
I didn't know what to say, I wanted to encourage him but I knew keeping him alive like this was far crueler than death, so I turned to the doctors
"Follow me"
"Please, PLEASE ALPHA, KILL ME, I BEGS OF YOU, KILL ME!!!" his frantic screams chased me down the hall as he resumed trashing, instantly the other soldiers were on him pinning down his hands while he begged for release of death
"What happened?!" I yelled once the doors to the doctor's office swung shut
"We don't know Alpha, they brought him and 6 others back from the battlefield…"
"6 others?..." I asked, "...where are they?" Silence fell giving me all the answers I needed, they died, and by some miracle, he was still alive, for God only knows how long "...the injury looked like a knife wound, but no knife I know could cause a cut like that, where was he pulled from?"
"Border patrol Alpha"
"Which border patrol?"
"Gamma Barbu's Patrol Alpha"
Gamma Barbu, that's the eastern border, The Franti Luna is West of us so that rules them out, the only other option was rouged!
They are usually a mindless group of mutts outcasted by their packs for one reason or another, the reason could range from as far as treason to refusing to conform to pack rules, as trash does they trickle down the stream picking up more pieces of trash along the way, one or two is not a problem, usually the pain of being ousted from their packs causes some level of psychological so they aren't very intelligent, but when a group of them come together they become a bother to deal with
Their attacks are usually rough, and disorganized, I've heard of a few fighting with weapons, but nothing like this
A knock on the door catches our attention, I nod at Mihai who opens the door for a soldier, who looks to be a rank higher than the one strapped to a stretcher asking for death, he walks in with a bow, and I raise my brow at Mihai who proceeds to question the soldier
"State your name and rank soldier" he orders and the soldier obliged
"Squad leader Asher Adams, reporting for duty Sir"
"Explain to us what happened, the doctors said your squad carried the seven soldiers here two days ago, can you tell me what you saw that day?"
As expected of Mihai, he had already gone to work investing, that's why no matter how much he prattles incessantly I can't bring myself to make good on my threat I'd replacing him
"Yes Beta, that day my squad and I were patrolling around the border when we heard sounds of an attack, by the time we arrived at their quadrant the battle was over and the last of the rogues were running away"
"Did you notice anything strange?"
"Yes Beta, when we got there all the soldiers had shifted into their Wolf forms, while rouges didn't…"
That's madness, why wouldn't the rouges shift and choose to engage hand-to-hand? The soldier hesitated, considering whether to say what he was about to say or not, he juggled his words before finally, he said "A few of my soldiers who chased after the rouges claimed that something about them was not right, their fighting styles, how they ran, it didn't feel, normal, even their behavioral patterns, their movements were precise but they moved like beasts and then…"
"And then?"
"And then the knives, they all had these odd looking knives, the blades were red and jagged, it didn't look sharp enough to cut break but when they raised it, my soldiers, they said it had such an oppressive aura that their wolves demanded they ran away"
"Their wolves were scared of a knife?" Mihai raised a questioning brow which made the poor soldier squirm
"That is what they said Beta"
"But you didn't see these blades?"
"No beta"
"Where are the soldiers who did?"
"The soldiers who chased after the rouges fell unconscious after carrying the wounded soldiers to this hospital, they are the five laying on those hospital beds" he needed his head and the rows of beds on the right
"You're telling me dull knives inflicted injuries that wouldn't heal, caused the injuries to rot, and sapped the energy of those that so little as laid eyes on it?" Mihai was raining his voice, he gets angry when he can't understand a situation that should be simple, he's been like this since we were kids, he needs to calm down he's scaring the poor squad leader
"Stand down Beta Adams" I urged and he backed away, I turned to the poor soldier who was nearly white as those sheets "Do you remember anything else?" I ask and he shakes his head "The moment you do, come to my office, that's an order, you are dismissed" he bows then turns and walks out the door with a walk stiffer than a tin man
The doctors in the room with us looked on the verge of collapse, they were already exhausted and Mihai's outburst took the strength right out of them, so I dismissed them, I told them to give the soldier a strong enough anesthetic to knock him out for as many days and we need to treat him, or in the very least to put him out of his misery long enough that he drifts away in his sleep painlessly, it's the least we could do
"This isn't right!" Mihai threw his hands in the air when we were finally alone. "a dull knife that drives people mad, wounds that won't heal, rogues fighting wolves hand to hand? Has the world gone mad?"
I'd laugh at his reaction if the situation wasn't so dire, everything about this didn't make sense, I'm finding it hard to believe this weapon exists, maybe the soldiers were just overwhelmed and passed out, it wouldn't have been because they saw a knife, magic knife or not, what on god's green earth could it be made of cause an injury like that?!
"Moonstone"
Excuse me?!
She repeated "Moonstone"