Finding The Alpha

Chapter One:

Three months. Three ridiculously exhausting months. I had no idea what day it was, whether I'd turned seventeen yet, or not. I had no inkling of an idea as to Shane's whereabouts and it was slowly killing me. The last thing I could remember was the feeling of bliss as Shane and I explored our new house together, I felt content that finally I had found my place in the world. Then, of course, nothing as pure and golden as that peace could have lasted and those horrendous, vindictive men had arrived at our house. At first, I thought Shane was pranking me, giving me a scare and that he’d turn around, laugh in my face and tell me it was all one big joke to welcome me into this beautiful new world where people could be kind.

How wrong I was.

One of the hunters, who was blocking out the sunshine, lifted his menacing rifle and without hesitating, without any remorse, without even an apologetic look, he shot me. The bullet tore through the air, whooshing past Shane and planted itself with great force straight into my thigh. The force of the bullet threw me backwards and I remembered landing haphazardly on the floor, a hot, searing pain rising through my leg.

Silver.

The substance burned through my leg, poisoning my blood stream, causing excruciating pain to burn through my body like wildfire. It was one of the more cruel techniques to main a werewolf – it was meant to kill. Yet, they’d shot me in the leg, if they really wanted to kill me they would have shot me in the heart, or the head so they wanted me alive. The thought scared me because if they wanted me alive, why?

My world had turned murky, my head began to swim. Shadows swarmed before me, and that was all I could remember. The next thing I knew, I was locked up in this cage like a beast. Shane was nowhere to be seen. Men, not the ones who had first locked me up, but ones not so different, often entered the cage and a woman, they held me down like a feral animal and injected me with a cloudy green substance despite my protests and attempts to keep them away from me.

They claimed that locking me up like a beast, injecting me with sharp needles that pricked my skin and left angry red sores on my arms was for the benefit of humanity. They claimed they were trying to cure me of my curse. Make me human, like them. What sort of human did this to another living person, though? Despite my… other qualities, I was still human at heart, I thought like them, acted like them and dressed like them, there really wasn’t any difference.

My cage was secluded. No lights shone in the cage, I was surrounded by a bitter darkness that threatened to engulf me. Cold, damp stone had long made my skin numb. The flimsy, white rags they had dressed me in had become my only companion, my only help and even they couldn’t keep out the cold, or the nightmares or the voices in my head. I couldn't even stand up in the cell, for my head would touch the jagged, slimy ceiling. I was forced to curl up into myself, cramping my body. Nothing in the cage told me what time of day it was, there was no noise apart from a distant electrical hum that sometimes made the floor quiver with vibrations.

I didn't know how, but they had managed to make one section of the rough, brown wall slide open to allow the men – the scientists, as they called themselves – entrance. Whoever had engineered this situation had put a lot of time, money and effort into this cage so it was terrifying to think of what else was waiting for me if I ever managed to escape this dungeon.

I wanted to cry out in frustration at how unjust the whole situation was. I'd escaped Derek, found someone whom I thought I could spend my life with, only to have it all ripped away. Once again, I was being forced into something I hated. No matter what I said or did or pleaded, the scientists would refuse to stop running their tests, I was their lab rat, I had no bargaining chip, no power, I had to obey their every command or the outcome would be death. I couldn’t let that happen, though, no matter what they did to me, I had to find Shane.

I was stronger now; their taunting, their experiments were meant to break me down, but they had done the opposite, I wasn't going to back down from them. I would win, I would escape and I'd get out of here. When it was time for my injections, I always tried frantically to stop them. I often did. Other times, though, I didn't have the strength because they'd sedate me. I had, though, often grabbed the needle from the calloused man’s hand and jammed it into his thigh. They never came back when I did that.

Maybe it had killed them – who knew what was in that lethal substance.

I wouldn't wish death on anyone, but these people were inhumane. The doctor was always a woman, with elegant features and a grace about her that I admired. Until, of course, she said: "sweetie, just calm down. This won't hurt a bit: I'm only going to inject you with some serum that's safe."

If it was safe, they wouldn't seemingly disappear every time I used the needle against them. I was a werewolf, they knew nothing of my biology, so how could they say something like that?

Why were they even doing this?

What did they possibly have to gain?

The section of the wall that allowed entrance to my 'cage' opened and three burly men entered. Two of them came towards me and grabbed one of my shoulders each. The other one stood just outside of the cage. A searing bright, white light came from the door to the cage, making him look like a silhouette. “What are you doing?” I croaked as they roughly dragged me out of the cage. No one answered me, but I heard the man at the doorway sniggering.

Involuntarily, my eyes closed as I was shoved into the hallway outside my cage. The smell of chemicals invaded my nostrils and I retched where I lay. Opening my eyes slowly so they could adjust to the light, I quickly took in my surroundings. The hallway was long, it stretched far into the distance and it was a glaring, pristine white. The whole corridor looked sterilised and pure. At even intervals along the corridor, there were steel grey doors with numbers etched into the top of them. I turned around and looked at the door I had just been shoved out of. It was exactly the same as the other doors, how many more innocent souls were trapped down here?

“Are there others here?” I whispered, raising my eyes to one of the men who had dragged me out into this corridor of horror.

“Others like you, you mean? Abominations of nature? Yes.” The voice came from another man, leaning against the wall with two others. Stocky men, holding rifles. They were dressed in the same black combat uniforms as the others. I sniffed the air tentatively – they were the same men who had brought me here. I growled low in my throat.

"Come on, mutt," growled one of the burly men. He was sweating - they all were - and black grease was smeared over their faces like war paint.

I bit back another growl as he heaved me off the floor, not wanting to prove his point about being a mutt. I was not some wild beast, despite what they believed.

I struggled against him. "Let me go, I'm not an animal!" I screamed. With a snort, the man holding me dropped me to the floor once again. I sagged against the cold, silver ground and curled up around myself. I could do it. If I summoned the strength for one last shift, I could potentially over power them and make my escape. It was risky, though. I hadn't planned anything and I had no idea which way was out. Did they have any guards? How many hunters were there? Did I even stand a chance?

"Alright, mutt. You've had your fun, now get up. Or else I'll drag you." There was no misunderstanding that that was a pure threat, meant to scare me. I wasn't going to take any more of it. I growled, low in my throat and let my pure wolf instincts take over. I knew that this would end up in a mess; I wouldn't even be able to remember anything that I'd done here when I gained control back. I was going to give the wolf whole control, something that people rarely ever did because of the risk of losing your human self.

When the wolf took over, your human mind slept. It was a little like being knocked out, you'd still be physically there but you'd have no idea of anything that was happening around you...Or, in a werewolf's case, you wouldn't be aware of anything you'd do and it was extremely hard to regain control, especially if your wolf-self became intoxicated with the power you were granting it.

That power included the access to killing people.

It was a scary concept, but nonetheless it was the only option I had left. I needed to get out of here; to find Shane, to be free. I'd gone through this once already, I wouldn't allow myself to be controlled again. I needed Shane. I wasn't afraid to admit it, after so long without him, I'd begun to realise just how much I really did love him.

With that in mind, I let the beast take over. Closing my eyes and brining the wolf to surface, I let the control over her go, I allowed the wolf to fully overpower me and gave her access to her full power. A feral, monstrous roar left my mouth. My body cracked, shifted and soon Skylar was no more. My fangs elongated and my claws - sharp as cutlasses - made themselves known. My stark black eyes shone with malice. The green of my eyes had completely disappeared, a clear sign that the wolf was in control.

The men in the room with me grinned and each pulled a gun from the straps on their backs. "Aye, looks like we've got a fight on our hands, lads!" My head snapped to the leading hunter, the one that had shot me however long ago and without a moment’s hesitation, I leaped onto his chest, slung him to the ground and savagely tore his head off. It rolled across the floor with a sickening squelch.

The five other men stared at his body in shock, their guns hanging loosely in their arms. I snarled, snapping my teeth and prowled towards my next victim. They all looked the same in the eyes of the beast. Fat, stinking apes. As fast approaching as I was, one of the more lankier men aimed his gun and, with shaking hands aimed at me and pulled the trigger.

Something between an estranged howl and a ferocious growl tore its way out of my mouth. The bullet had skimmed the top of my back, with my enhanced vision, I watched a few silky black hairs sail to the ground. A burning, tingling sensation erupted where the bullet had scathed me.

I set my gaze on the ape whom had attempted to end my life and threw myself at him. I first bit down on his hand, tearing it from his arm, his bitter sweet blood filling my mouth and spat it out across the room. I watched as blood gushed from the wound, creating a puddle on the pristine floor. The ape grew pale, and before he could scream, he sagged against the floor, breathing faintly. Two of the men left gazed at their comrades and started running down the corridor, fleeing the scene. Cowards.

Only two left.

"Jerry, we got a problem on our hands," an ape stated, backing up towards the wall and trapping himself.

Sweat rolled down both of their foreheads and backs, like pigs. The stench filled my nostrils and even though the smell made me sick, the lust to kill them was more overwhelming. I turned to face them and stood in an attack position with my ears pulled back and a snarl leaving my mouth.

"No s**t, Adam," spat the other ape. He c****d his gun and pointed it at me. "I'll shoot the thing, you grab the guards, and those f*****g traitors, deal?" Before the other ape could reply, I jumped at him. I used my mouth to start tearing at his chest; my target his heart. With my back legs, I kicked hard at the other ape and heard a sickening snap as I broke his leg. I let him painfully scramble away, intending to kill him afterwards.

After tearing the ape’s uniform and breaking the skin, swallowing his muscles and tendons, I finally located the ape’s heart. Closing my muzzle around it, I ripped his heart out of his chest and swallowed it whole. Growling, I turned to the other ape who had slumped against the wall and stared, open mouthed at his fallen friend. I started walking towards him slowly, my paws thudding on the ground, his heart beat became erratic with panic. He was to meet his doom. I dipped my head and placed one paw on his chest. I could feel the blood pulsing beneath his skin.

The ape frantically searched at his neck and clasped his hands around a silver chain that was hidden beneath his uniform. Closing his eyes he began to mutter under his breath “please, God, forgive me. Forgive me for I have sinned.” Inhaling his fear and panic, I growled and swiftly cut open his throat with one of my sharp, threatening claws.

Panting, I took a step back from my last victim as a blaring alarm sounded, turning the whole corridor the same shade of red as the blood that trickled along the floor. Taking a deep breath, I let out a long, mournful howl signalling to the other wolves that were trapped here. A few howls answered me back in understanding. They knew that I would come back for them, when this was all over I would return and save them, but if I stayed now I’d be killed or thrown back into a cage and no one would know what was happening down here.

So, scanning the room once more, I checked for more apes, and when upon, seeing none I bounded up the stairs and started my escape to freedom.