Finding My Alpha

Familiar Stranger

Annie disappeared behind our bathroom door with a bang. Haylee jumped slightly but said nothing, she just sat there with fresh tears brimming in her icy blue eyes. An unfamiliar golden tint was resting in her pupils and her usual soft brown curls were tightening into dampened spirals. Her exposed olive skin on her arms, face, and neck was covered in a thin layer of perspiration. Her thin lips were pressed into a tight line and that’s when something occurred to me. When I’d started telling our story Haylee was enamoured, hanging onto every word, but when I started in on the details of Selene and Lycas’ love story her face had started to sour and the light in her eyes faded.

“You hate me right now don’t you? You hate me and Annie, but you don’t even know why, do you?” I asked, leaving my spot on the vanity chair.

“I’ve always hated you both, your shitty bedtime story just reminded me of that!” Haylee replied as she scooted backwards.

“You’re…. You’re a descendant of Galliard aren’t you?” I inched closer.

“W-what? W-what are…. What are you t-talking…. t-talking about?” she sputtered moving away some more.

“You are, aren't you?” I moved closer still.

“Stop that,” she said, scooting further away.

“Annie! She’s of Galliard, quick we need to intervene!” I called out to my sister before I jumped on top of Haylee and pinned her arms to the floor. Annie burst from the bathroom and speed crawled to Haylee’s head. She placed her hands on Haylee’s temples and I pressed my forehead against Haylee’s. 

“It’s been quite some time since we’ve come across a child of Galliard. You know us don’t you Bane of Galliard,” I asked as I stared directly into its eyes.

“You know nothing, spawn of Ahroun! You murdered our father, murdered him all because the goddess said so! Father was innocent! Innocent!” the voice shouting at me didn’t belong to Haylee, it was coarse and filled with malice.

“Haylee, if you can hear me I’m going to tell you another story. This story is about the beast hiding within you, the beast full of resentment and hatred. I can help you, but it’ll take me some time. Hold onto my voice as best you can. We will save you,” I whispered these words close to her lips as I sent a distress call out to Alpha Kingslee. 

I had warned him long ago of these rare occurrences. He had requested that I notify him immediately if we ever came across a Bane of Galliard so he could be present to see its undoing. His response was instantaneous and soon he and Beta Markus were walking through our door. As they sat at our sides I proceeded to tell them of what the situation was, but then I sensed a frantic mind-link being sent from the room. It was coming from Haylee. I intercepted the message and as I infiltrated the connection I was shocked by what I heard.

‘They live! The daughters of the goddess and the slayer live….’ I let the other part of the message continue so I could track its location. This would be pertinent information for Annie and I as well as Alpha Kingsley. This was not our first intervention with a Bane of Galliard, Annie and I had dealt with them as pups. Another task that the Ahroun pack took upon itself was tracking down and releasing wolves under the control of Galliard’s Bane.

‘Find me and you shall find them….’ I cut off the end of the message that revealed our coordinates. After all of our encounters with the Bane of Galliard, never had I come across them working in tandem with each other. Something was wrong, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it, I had to help Haylee, before she was consumed and driven mad.

“Haylee, listen to me closely. The day that Lycas Ahroun slayed Samartine Galliard, Samartine did not die immediately. He escaped and died in the arms of his pregnant human wife, Abeka. Before he died his lover granted him permission to bite her and turn her into a werewolf. This act also affected their would-be half breed child. However this bite was no normal bite, in it lied Samartine’s undying hatred and disdain for Selene and Lycas as well as Thormund, Farrough, and Phorus whom he considered traitors because they stood by and did nothing to defend him. 

His feelings were so raw and intense that they passed on to both Abeka and her newborn son, Samas Galliard. As they passed on their werewolf gift to others the intense hatred followed. The four remaining Canidae called it Galliard’s Bane and those afflicted the Bane of Galliard. It was ignored at first as a madman's curse upon his kin since those afflicted by it went mad and became mindless rogues. However as time went by more and more dead werewolves descending from the four kept turning up. 

Phorus investigated the dead bodies and found that their wounds showed no signs of healing. Since all werewolves can regenerate almost immediately from any wound, he knew that these were wounds inflicted by another werewolf. As wounds inflicted on werewolves by werewolves heal very slowly or not at all. Lycas bore the responsibility for the deaths and began hunting down the Bane of Galliard. Using his newly granted demigod powers he would drive out Galliard’s Bane from those who weren’t too far gone,” I stopped talking and allowed the rest of my powers to work.

Annie had opened Haylee’s mind and I’d walked in. Since Galliard’s Bane was not a memory I had to hunt it down. In the past whenever I found Galliard’s Bane it was hiding deep within the subconscious of it’s victim. It’s hold resembled black smokey tentacles that wrapped itself around and through its victim’s mind. I found the first traces of the tentacles just outside of the walls of the subconscious. I followed them into the depths until I was face to face with a black moving mass of tendrils, writhing and wriggling about like worms. As I went to touch it, a bright red pair of eyes landed on me. This was a first as the others never even acknowledged my presence. 

‘Daughter of the goddess and the slayer, your time is coming,’ it hissed at me. ‘The others will find you and kill you this time.’

‘Not if I kill them first,’ I said back before I stuck my hands into its inky blackness. 

“Father Ahroun, I send your kin’s Bane to you,” I whispered as a white light engulfed the darkness.