Night and Day: The Alpha Nomad

The Search Continues with Allies

Day-

I woke early from a restless sleep. I dreamt of Night of course. She was restrained to a chair, chains around her chest and neck. I watched as men slit her wrists and drained blood from her then bandaged her up and injected her with a heavy dose of some kind of drug. It drove me crazy that I could not intervene.

I stumbled down to the main area of the pack house where I discussed a feast fit for a king. Several wolves were already in the dinning area finishing up their meals. I assume these were the ones the alpha offered to send with me.

“Good morning, Alpha Damon. We were told to wake early in case you decided to take off without us,” a female of them greeted me. “My name is Thena, these are our best warriors: Kali, Bellona, Macha, Woden and Tyr.”

“Your warriors are mostly women?” I wondered.

“Does your pack not allow women to choose the warrior path?” Macha questioned with a glare.

“My Beta’s mate is one of our warriors,” I explained. “It’s generally a choice in my pack, I guess we aren’t so lucky to have as many fierce lady wolves as this pack.”

Thena and Bellona smirked at my comment, and Woden added “not all packs could be so lucky to have as many well rounded warriors, if you know what I mean.”

I hid a laugh and accepted a plate from another female pack member filled with breakfast foods. The bacon was fried perfectly, crispy yet not burnt. Hash browns mopped up the oozing yolks of three eggs. The kitchen aid brought me a cup of freshly brewed coffee as well. I welcomed the caffeine and downed one cup. She refilled my cup eagerly.

“Man, it’s been a while since I’ve had a good cup of coffee,” I sighed with relief.

“Based on how quickly you’re shoveling down that food, you haven’t had a good meal in a while either,” Thena observed.

“It’s been a long hard road to get this far, and I’d rather not waste much more time,” I mentioned between bites. “I’ll be ready to take off as soon as this plate is finished, so if you’re joining me I would prepare while you can.”

“Ready to go whenever you are, Alpha Damon,” Kali answered while the others nodded their acknowledgment.

I finished up breakfast and thanked the kitchen aids for their hard work. The warriors and I left the pack house before most of the pack members were even awake. The sun was just rising over the flat horizon of the Oklahoma plains.

“Where are we headed, boss?” Tyr asked when we made to the edge of their pack lands.

I hadn’t felt Night since last we spoke, so I wasn’t entirely sure where to go at this point. I thought for about ten minutes where I last felt her or any clues that could lead me in the right direction. She was definitely headed East the last time I felt a connection between us, but the direction changed at one point. I wanted to believe they were now heading south. I was thinking with my head not my heart, so I looked inward and began remembering everything she told me when we first met.

She mentioned she was from Texas, my wolf pointed out. Could they be taking her back there?

He was right, she was from Texas. Everything pointed to that possibility. I began to think of her. I thought of her face, her smile, the way she touched me. The more I thought of her the more my heart burned and the glowing mark the Goddess left me resonated towards the south.

“We need to go to Texas,” I announced. “How much farther is it?”

“Usually takes our wolves about a half of a day to make it to the border if we aren’t in a hurry,” Thena informed me. “From Tonkawa, we can probably make it to the border in about six hours if we really push it.”

“Texas is a really big place, do you know where to go once we get there?” Macha replied sourly.

“My heart will tell me where to go, just follow me,” I told her calmly although her attitude annoyed me.

Macha seemed to always be in a sour mood, but Thena told me to ignore her. She has some bad blood with a pack in Texas and Thena said she vowed never to return. It made me wonder what could have happened but I thought it was better to leave the subject alone.

The warriors pointed me in the direction of Texas, although my heart was already pulsating in that general direction. We wasted no time and let our wolves lead on.

Everything looked very similar here on the plains, it was nothing like the mountains I was used to. Bellona mentioned that at night the horizon would blend with the dark sea of grasses and one could easily lose their sense of direction if they weren’t careful or knew where to go. I was grateful for the Goddess’ gift and let it guide me forward. Thankfully we were able to make it to the border just after noon.

My heart continued to direct me where to go although I had no contact with Night yet. I hoped she was okay. That dream felt so real, and something told me it was sent by the Goddess to remind me why I needed to save her.

I do not need a reminder, thank you, I thought ruefully. I don’t need to watch them drain her dry to compel me to find her.

We made it to Wichita Falls in just over six hours like Thena estimated. We pushed hard to get this far, I could tell the others were slowing down and needed to rest before we continued. My heart urged me to go one, but I would need the warriors help once I found Night, so I had to resist running off and there was no way to link with them in case we got separated.

Another pack greeted us just south of Wichita Falls. They were weary of us initially and ambushed us when we entered their territory. I could tell the wolves were hostile but I had to try to get their assistance, if not ask if they’ve sensed another wolf in their area.

“Please, listen to me,” I begged arms raised. “I am an Alpha from the mountains out west. I do not mean to cause your pack any trouble, but I am desperate for information, assistance or anything you can offer me.”

One of them approached and shifted so we could speak, “make it quick, we don’t appreciate intrusions here.”

“I understand, and we’ll be on our way as soon as possible,” I explained. “My mate was taken from me back in my own territory. I think she was brought through the are and was just curious if anyone sensed a new wolf in the area? Or maybe even seen or heard of a truck with a metal shipping container coming through the area.”

The wolf laughed, “are you serious? We get trucks through here all the time, that’s nothing unusual. And no one has mentioned any rogue females in the area. Not since the one from the piney woods went through here about a year ago. We all heard she was exiled so killing half of her pack. If we caught a whiff of that trailer we would skin her ourselves.”

I snarled, “try it and see what happens.”

The wolf growled back at me, “who are you to tell us how to protect our pack?”

“I am an Alpha you should show more respect,” I retorted.

We were nearly at each other’s throats when Thena and one of their females came to hold us back. Thena glared but knew better than to join in. Since this pack neighbored her own she did not want to start a war between them, especially when she was just helping a complete stranger.

“Look, we were just wondering, so if you aren’t going to help we will move on,” she mediated between us to try and deescalate the situation.

The other female turned to us and mentioned, “Well you know there was that one container that stopped at one of the hotels in town. Usually containers like that come and go, they don’t stop in town. Especially not for a couple hours like this one. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but now that I think about it there was one male that hopped out of the back at the container that smelled like blood. I thought I was going crazy, and tried to ignore it. It was definitely wolf blood, but that was all I could smell was the blood. There wasn’t any other signs of a wolf being there.”

My eyes lit up, “thank you so much, that is the lead I needed. Do you know where it was headed when it left?”

She turned to her pack members and appeared to link with them. There was a minor dispute but she appeared to end the discussion with them and turned to me, “I will show you. I don’t mind joining you. I know what it’s like to lose a mate to a couple humans, so I would like to get some kind of justice for him even if it isn’t the same group of humans that took him from me.”

The male I argued with glared at me snorted. He clearly didn’t agree to offer assistance to my cause, but I appreciated the female’s help. She told me her name was Taysha named for an local native tribe’s word for “friend” or “ally.” She felt an obligation to help us. Two of her pack members stepped forward and agreed to join us as well, but only to protect Taysha. They were very protective of her and I eventually discovered she was the Alpha’s daughter.

We took off south in the direction of the truck. Taysha told me it stopped here a couple days ago but we should be able to catch up to it. My heart leapt at the prospect of being so close to finding Night. It made my resolve burn deeper and I felt confident we would get her back soon.

By nightfall we made it to central Texas, by this point my heart pulsated uncomfortably. We had to be very close to the truck at this point. For a moment after the moon rose into the sky I felt a faint connection to Night. She was not responsive but I felt a heaviness around my wrists, ankles and chest. I wanted to run to her now that I could feel her, even if it was faint.

“We’re close, she’s close,” I mentioned when we stopped briefly. “I need to go to her.”

“We can’t push on like this, we need to rest so we are fresh in case we need to fight,” Thena insisted. “Remember we don’t all have that Alpha blood.”

“I could go on with him and you could catch up with us,” Taysha suggested. “I’ll leave Marco and Zac behind so they can link me for directions.”

The others agreed that would work if I was insistent on continuing the search. I was grateful for everyone’s help, and took Taysha east into the piney woods.

I’m close, Nightingale, hang on, I reached out, but I wasn’t sure she would even hear me.