Alpha's Fire

Blood Markers

Run, she needed to run but...She couldn’t. Prue’s arms and legs twisted trying to move but it was like she was waist deep in a muddy swamp. Her heart thundered and deep unrelenting panic set in. Large, crushing arms wrapped around her, pulling her back. She thrashed as they squeezed with a python-like grip. She thought she’d burst from the red hot pain pulsating through her. She couldn’t bear it. A whimper slipped pass her clenched teeth as she was thrown against the ground.

A harsh, nasty cackle cut through her. That voice. That face. No. No. No.

Black insidious eyes burrowed into her. His large frame was towering over her now. A black leather whip unfurled from his bear-sized hands. Prue gulped, her mouth going dry and sticky as he sneered, enjoying every second of the terror he inflicted. It was as if he fed on the pain. More hands grabbed for her, pulling her to her feet, tying her arms to two polls in the middle of the village square. She wept, her heart and body aching as wolves gathered to watch. Someone ripped the cotton shirt from her body, leaving her top half bare for the world to see. Prue searched the crowd for help, with pleading eyes but their faces... They were just shadows. The only ones she could see were the Alpha’s - sitting in his throne like chair while his second and third sneered and laughed, readying their whips. 

But her mother though, she could see her mother. Hope bloomed in her chest. Her eyes. Why won’t she look up? She must have been screaming because her mother began shaking. Not shaking, sobbing, sobs shook her body from where she knelt on the ground next to the Alpha, ‘the only place a Luna should be seen,’ she remembered the cruel Alpha saying.

The whipping begun at the Alpha’s nod. The breath was taken from her as leather met flesh. She bowed her back, the pain screaming down her body, rocking her to her core. She didn’t even have time to inhale before another whip cracked and her stomach lit up with agony. Unbearable throbbing heat crushed and squeezed her body. Prue wept, tasting the salt of her tears as she desperately tried to gulp down air. She could barely think straight. She prayed for help, but the wolves only watched on silently. She was going to die. 

But then Keira was there and the village centre was empty. Keira wrapped a grass green blanket around her, it smelt of oranges and musk and instantly soothed the gapping flesh wounds on her back.

When she opened her mouth to speak, it wasn’t Keira’s voice that spoke. No. It was a deep voice - a man’s, “You are safe Prue.”

*****

Dazzling sunbeams trickled through the windows when Prue awoke. She lay their basking in the warmth, the feather bed, the clean cotton sheets. It was bliss. 

That draught worked a treat. 

Prue turned on her side burying her head in her pillow. It felt warm and smelt like oranges and musk - like Henry she realised. She studied the room, making sure she was alone.

It was probably just from the other night, she reassured herself. Not even she was convinced but she didn’t want to think about why else her bed smelt of him. Henry being there when she was asleep was... She shuddered. 

Prue washed up and dressed slowly, taking her time to don her fighting leathers. She’d awoke feeling rested but restless, all at the same time. She felt like she’d dawdled too long . She wanted to get her signed parchment, granting her freedom from Henry and the Elders’ Council, before it got too complicated. She liked being on her own, she relished in her independence, and wanted to keep it that way. Prue went into autopilot, strapping her weapons to her various body parts, while mulling over what she’d learnt so far. 

Three attacks. Two sentries - one with a missing jacket - and one Beta. Prue slid a hidden blade into her knee high boot absently mindedly. 

She couldn’t help but think about how they’d all had their throats slit - such a quick brutal death. And, none of them had struggled. Did they know their attackers or was there another reason the killer had got so close without raising alarm? Prue pulled her ‘emergency pack’ up from off the floor near the door and methodically checked everything she’d ever need was in there. 

Then there was that sour milk button from under the Beta’s bed with the initial E.L. Probably left by whoever had snuck into the room and lay in wait, probably wearing the stolen jacket from the sentry. But why? She was strapping various weapon holsters on containing, throwing stars and needles along with two daggers, to her belt rethinking and mulling over every event that had happened. She had to be missing something. 

Was it a power play by a neighbouring pack? A test of strength perhaps? Or could it have been the Beta who they were targeting? Was the assignation personal or a message after? Too many questions Unanswered. Henry believed it was an inside job so it points towards sabotage. Who would benefit though if he was overthrown? A question she’d have to ask Henry. 

Prue still felt like she was missing something.

Why didn’t the Beta wake, why didn’t the others in house at the time? Henry had said they’d been having a family dinner before the Beta had been murdered with their step family. Could they be connected?

Prue finished checking her bag and meandered over to the window the intruder had come in from. She opened it wide and hung her out searching for anything, no matter how small. 

Nothing.

She caught sight of a blonde wolf slinking between the trees in the forested area behind the pack house. She was being followed by two black cubs, one after the other. The slightly smaller cub was trailing at the back nipping at the other cub’s legs playfully, causing mischief one second and appearing a model student the next. She watched on as the one young wolf goaded the other into retaliating and then played innocent when the older wolf whipped its head back at the squabbling young. She smiled to herself. She watched as they disappeared into the shrub.

Wondering where those rouges had gone, she found herself hoping the three wolves didn’t stray too far and kept safe. It occurred to her then. The rouges. She had been hunted not once but twice, they had appeared at her cabin and then attempted to hunt her down when she fled.

Prue looked down at the wood below the window, feeling and touching every crevice. She sighed, rubbing her temples. Nothing.

Maybe I could just steal the contract, she mused. It was no doubt hidden somewhere in Henry’s office. She made her way over to her bathroom to splash cold water on her face while begrudging thinking of the pesky Elders’ Council who’d gone behind her back and left Henry with the key to her freedom. Why him?Sulking over the sink, wondering how hard it would be to forge Henry’s signature on the document, she looked up in the mirror to see a red mark on her forehead, scowling she rubbed at it with her fingers. Instead of coming off though, it only made it worse. 

She scowled and realised it as coming from her hands. There was red on her fingers. 

What the... is that... Prue sniffed her fingertips carefully...blood. 

She made her way back over to the window she’d been inspecting moments ago, her long blonde hair falling over her shoulder as she reinspected the area. There it was, nearly invisible until she knew what to look for - a blood marker. Telling the rogues which room to go into. 

God damn it.