Alisson's Escape

An Exciting Discovery

Alisson had walked to Henry's study a thousand and one times yet it always had a way of filling her with dread. Every step she took felt like glue was stuck to the bottom of her shoes and she had an anchor resting on her head.

For the last few months, he had chosen to have his meals while he worked which meant that she had to serve him three times a day in that wretched room.

The dining room was her sanctuary and haven; albeit an unconventional one, while Henry's office was her personal hell. Like her sanctuary, it followed its own colour scheme but unlike the former with its cheery bright colours, the latter was a dark menacing mix of brown and black with splashes of grey.

Everything in the room was built to intimidate, from the hard uncomfortable couch in the corner to the looming shelves stuffed full of books and ancient writings.

Another thing that contributed to the unwelcome feeling was Henry's insistence on leaving the curtains slightly closed which only let a few streaks grace the floors and walls of the room. Alisson didn't like this room because out of all the rooms in their home she had received the most pain in this one.

She couldn't understand why; though she would never want to catch a glimpse into the mind of a lunatic, but Henry enjoyed 'disciplining' her in this room.

One of her theories linked his behaviour to a psychological thing, he always hesitated to hurt her when they were outside, like what little conscience he had held him back, but once they were in the study he was filled with an authoritative rage and self-righteous anger like he drew strength from that wide desk and unnecessarily tall chair.

She balanced the tray in her hands and walked sluggishly up the stairs, her eyes idly tracing the gold leaves on the wall before resting on the brown door she stood in front of. Knocking was difficult to do with her hands occupied so she tapped it three times with the tip of her shoe and used her elbow to bend the handle when she heard a response from inside.

She looked to her right and was greeted with the sight of Hunter; Henry's beta.

"Good morning," she said with a pleasant smile on her face as she set down the tray.

Hunter was a jovial man with a smile that lit up his obsidian black eyes. "Good morning to you too, Luna. How was your night?"

She could hear Henry grunt in response to her greeting without looking up from his desk but she didn't care as the greeting was for Hunter. " Perfectly horrid," she responded theatrically. "And yours?"

"Ghastly!" He replied with wide eyes, joining her in her game.

She giggled as she walked over to hug him. "I missed you," she rubbed his cheeks with her palms when they leaned back to look at each other. He tightened his hold on her when he heard the gentleness in her tone "I was only gone for a few weeks, you couldn't have missed me that much," he teased with a fond smile on his face.

Henry tapped his fork on his plate twice and they turned around to see him watching their closeness with a disapproving glare. His beta laughed and backed away from his mate; taking his warm embrace with him, "don't be like that, she's allowed to miss me."

Alisson huffed silently; though everyone in the room could hear it. He always made such a big deal about little things that most would consider normal. She did not have any friends because Henry was paranoid that one of them would 'corrupt' or 'taint' her. She didn't understand his definition of those words but he used it in every single argument about the topic, like it was something she was supposed to magically understand and stop talking about.

Hunter was her closest and only friend, whose perseverance and determination held their friendship together when Henry was stubbornly against it. They both had to deal with his craziness, so it wasn't a surprise to anyone when they became friends. He was her most trusted companion and stuck by her through the dark and depressing moments, she did not know what she would do without him.

"You are supposed to bring back reports from the border, not play nice with your Luna."

Hunter scratched at his chin and let out a heavy sigh, "the border is exactly how it was last time, quiet and peaceful. Honestly, I could be doing better things with my time but all you care about is sending me away from the pack grounds". His tone had a hint of accusation to it, though it remained perfectly calm, which caused Henry to let out a growl and bend the fork slightly, with his thumb.

"My silverware!" Alisson cried out.

"Shut it!" Henry snapped back, "I AM..."

"Alpha, we get it. Trust me, with how often you scream it no one forgets." He rolled his eyes when Henry got up suddenly and slammed his fists into the wood.

"You're going to ruin that desk if you keep doing that," Alisson added and stepped back when he turned towards her with a snarl.

"Have you no respect for your Alpha," he questioned with his lips pulled back showcasing his sharp fangs.

"Have you no respect for me? What gives you the right to throw me aside after everything we have been through? You send me away on missions and scouts and all sorts of trips to keep away, and all for what? Because you're a jealous little..."

Henry lunged at his throat in his half-transformed form, they wrestled on the ground and Alisson cursed and jumped into the fight, she grabbed the nape of Henry's neck to try and dislodge him from the brown-haired man.

"Stop it you two! You're not children, you are grown wolves who should have more dignity than this." She was flung back by a swipe to the face from Henry and cradled her jaw from her position on the floor.

They transformed into their wolves: Henry a large light brown beast with claws that cut into the floorboards as he tested them against the wood and Hunter a black, shaggy fur wolf that competed with Henry in size.

The black wolf glanced at Alisson, then Henry and took off in the direction of the door, it broke through it easily and ran out of the house towards the woods with the Alpha hot on his trail. It was best to take the fight somewhere they could brawl without any restriction or unnecessary damage.

Alisson ran to the window and watched as pack members jumped out of the way for the two wolves. She loved Henry; which was something she hated herself for, but he was an i***t. The food she had worked so hard to make had gone cold and would probably go to waste. She sighed and pushed his armchair back into its original position and sat in front of his desk, digging into the meal she searched through the desk and scanned the contents of the documents (by the time he returned he would be too worn out to punish her for searching, so she wasn't worried).

She stumbled across a letter sent from a neighbouring pack which piqued her interest so she sat up to view it properly. The piece of fruit she was munching on idly was held with her teeth as she flipped through the letters with both hands. Their land was flanked by two towns: one was a town made up of mostly humans and some werewolves, the other the Blue Moon pack; a pack slightly smaller than their own.

They had always had good relations with each other so she was not surprised to see that Henry had sent them an invitation letter.

Packs held meetings all the time, it was a way to strengthen bonds and keep each other up to date on the happenings of their world. Isolation was a risk no one was willing to take in their world, werewolves would have probably been found out by now or absorbed into the human world and disconnected from one another if they had not kept in contact for the last few centuries.

The average werewolf lived a lot longer than their human counterpart, their lifespan was between a hundred and fifteen to a hundred and eighty. There were a lot of wolves alive who could give testament to how fast the human world was developing, they had been around long enough to understand the risk they posed to them. For werewolves, being a lone wolf was a suicide mission and heavily frowned upon.

She squealed under her breath; quickly becoming excited. She loved when packs visited them, it was a window into the outside world for her because she had never left her pack's land; even for a short trip.

She could not keep the smile off her face as she gathered the dishes and walked out of the office, she stepped over the rubble that was previously a door and made a mental note to have someone install a new one.