Werewolf Assassins

Chapter 12: Sam's POV

     I tossed Max, our bartender s***h cook, the towel I had been using to dry his counter and held my head in my hands. We had both accepted the bite willingly, but that didn’t make the effect any less painful, especially for me. Sofia had named me her Beta, her second in command. Max was third in command, and if anything happened to me or our Alpha, he would take the position of Beta, while I would take the position of Alpha if Sofia was killed.

     One thought kept pounding in my head incessantly, one that I knew wasn’t shared by the others in our pack. Protect the Luna, no matter the cost. I suppose that made sense. If anything happened to Alexis, our Luna, then we would all fall in the end. Until I found my mate, that is, or Max found his.

     That was the one thing that would change the order of succession, aside, of course, from Sofia having a child. If Max found his mate before Sofia died, and I didn’t, then he would become Alpha and I would stay Beta. For an Alpha to maintain control, of both themselves and their pack, they needed a Luna. Without one, the pack would fall into chaos and split as each wolf wanted to take the position of Alpha. It would be made that much worse since all of us were bitten directly by an alpha.

     The lineage was a little confusing, as werewolf blood goes back to the First Alpha, who created the first pack and then split them. The way that it worked was this: The First Alpha had a litter of pups, and those pups had pups. But that doesn’t mean they themselves were wolves. They still had to be bitten. True Alphas, as we called those who were directly descended from the First Alpha, were born of his blood and then bitten by him or his bloodline. Sofia, as it turned out, was a True Alpha. She could create alphas, of course, as all of us were, but no one would ever think to challenge her because her blood is both direct from the First Alpha and tainted with his wolf.

     Basically, she’s the First Alpha’s great-great-great-granddaughter, and the wolf who bit her was in some way related to her. Maybe an uncle or cousin or something like that.

     The rest of the pack, however, was only bitten by her and we are not descended from the First Alpha. So our claim is dulled in comparison to hers. I would have the strongest claim until Sofia birthed a child, since I was turned first. But that wouldn’t stop the other from trying to claim leadership, or from splitting off from the pack.

     I shook my head and huffed in frustration. I got lost in thought quite frequently, which annoyed myself and my friends. Pack mates now. I’d have to start correcting that. Max shot me a knowing look, then glanced toward our Alpha’s door and smirked.

     “Someone’s getting busy in there,” he chuckled, cleaning glasses behind the counter.

     I rolled my eyes and growled at him lightly. “That isn’t our business and you know that.” I rubbed my head and sighed. “Let’s go for a run, eh? I need to clear my head.”

     Max shook his head. “I need to stick around here. Lots of work to do. Besides, with our Alpha currently… Busy, one of us needs to be here for the pack. But you don’t look particularly well, so go. I’ll keep an eye on things here.”

     I nodded and grabbed my gear, strapping my preferred sword over my back and my two handguns at each of my hips. I pulled my hood over my head and moved toward the door, ignoring Jack almost entirely, and started up the dark stairs. Well, normally dark. I suppose the wolf had taken hold and granted me it's night vision. No more drunkenly stumbling up or down the stairs each night. No more drunken stumbling period, I suppose.

     The minute my feet hit the grass outside I was running. I felt free, I felt like I could do anything. In what seemed like only seconds I was hundreds of feet from the hideout, and after a few minutes I was miles. I knew the others could track me if they so desired, but I’ve always been an outdoorsy type. They’ve always known to leave me to my exploration.

     This time, though, something was different. I felt a pull of some kind, something I couldn’t quite explain. I racked my brain for anything this could mean, some kind of clue. And then it hit me. Sofia found Alexis through a pull like this. That was how she knew it was her mate! I turned in the direction the pull was dragging me and stopped running. I stood still, waiting, listening, feeling.

     Wherever this feeling wanted me to go, it was far, but it wasn’t so far I couldn’t run there. I turned back toward the hideout, our base of operations. I was fairly certain that there was a contract in the city I had agreed to take on. Maybe the pack wouldn’t think anything of it if I had just gone to complete it. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, focusing all my energy on Max to tell him where I was going.

     “Finally taking that contract in the city. I’ll be back in a week or two” I told him through the pack link. I felt his acknowledgment, and without another thought took off at a full sprint in the direction of the city, grateful I had thought to grab my gear before hand. Even with my wolf’s speed, it would still take me three days to reach the city as long as I stopped to rest and hunt. Another three days back, so as long as I followed the time-frame I gave Max, I had a week to complete the contract and follow this pull. Should be easy enough.

     I shifted mid-stride and lunged over the rushing water of a river, looking down at my reflection as I cleared the water. Jet black fur soared by, then I landed hard on the other side of the river and continued running. Before I knew it, I was too far from the pack to clearly hear their thoughts, and after a few hours, the quiet thoughts of my family disappeared, and I knew I was alone.