Alpha Dominik

5

With Jason's screams still ringing in my ears, I am led by the Alpha and his Betas toward the institute.

I have a thousand questions on my mind, all clamoring for my attention at the same time and that makes it difficult for me to concentrate so I can ask any out loud. With so many unanswered questions and I don't even know where to start, I offer no resistance when the guards lead me through the gardens, yet Beta Stevens' hand is clinging tightly to my shoulder as if I were going to run away at any moment.

I turn around in the direction Jason disappeared as if just by doing so he was going to materialize there and I could see that he was okay. That they hadn't hurt him. But I can barely see a glimpse of the high walls of the building the guards took him through when Stevens swings me around and I have no choice but to keep walking toward wherever they are taking me.

The first thing I notice when entering the building again are two things: First, that we do not enter the way I thought. For some reason, I assumed that they would take me to the Alpha office to discipline me or to the crowded room of the Delta, also to discipline me. But for this we would have to take the west entrance, instead, we are going through a side entrance that hardly anyone uses. I have barely used it a few times to enter the peripheral kitchens, but those only work when the institute receives other herds and the small warm rooms are put into use to supply all the work, and I have no idea why we would go there right now.

Second, that the institute is empty. Wherever we go, in all the rooms nothing is heard but deathly silence. I sharpen my hearing and can only hear a few people near me; I hear the heartbeat and breathing of the guards here and in other surrounding rooms, but no one else. If there are other Wolves in the institute, they must be in the special soundproof rooms.

That is if there is indeed someone in the entire building.

Silence innervates me. Less than ten minutes ago the institute was as full of life as ever, I had seen it myself and in less than a second it seemed that everyone had been evacuated.

Whatever is going on, it can't be good.

Still silent, his Alpha and Betas turn down a corridor that I had not seen and we begin to descend steep stairs carved out of the earth itself.

The narrow underground corridor is completely dark and the hot, humid air has a hint of an unpleasant odor that I cannot identify.

He's going to kill her! 

I remember Jason's desperate screams, the pain and anguish in his eyes as he tried to plead with his father in vain and I stop, terrified. My hands are sweating and my heart overflows, this is not going to be a simple reprimand like the other times Jason had accidentally gotten me into trouble. This was something truly great.

"Come on!" Stevens pushes me and I almost trip, causing my heart to beat harder. "Move!"

"Hey," It's Jamison's voice in front of us and I hear him climb the narrow stairs to reach us. "I'll take it"

Regardless of cares or niceties, Stevens pushes me toward the other Beta and quickly continues nimbly down into the dark. Jamison catches me before he can fall and straightens me up.

"Quiet little girl" he whispers to me under his breath so that the others cannot hear us and he affectionately squeezes my arm. Despite his large build and extremely deep voice, Jamison has always struck me as a father figure ... although I must admit most strange. We hardly spoke, but whenever our paths crossed he would greet me or offer to help me when he had to carry something heavy. I try to calm down, safe in the knowledge that although I don't know what happens if Jamison is here he can't be that bad, right?

But despite his comforting words, I can't shake the feeling that I am nothing more than a sheep led to s*******r.

We continue our descent and I realize that this steep staircase is in a spiral. Jamison lets me put a hand against the scratchy stone to support me as we go down and after a few eternal moments in which I don't dare to say a word, I see light ahead.

Not knowing whether to feel relieved or more terrified, the Second of the Alpha and I finished going down, the narrow staircase finally widening to a fairly large room.

It takes me a moment for my eyes to get used to the artificial light shining from the ceiling and once they do, I wish I was back in the dark.

I'm in the Cave. 

Jason and I had only heard myths about it, as did most of the Wolves in high school. All we knew was that the Cave was a place within the institute where the Alpha carried out interrogations and punishments ... and now here I am.

I stare in horror at the long, thick chains hanging from the walls, bolted to the stone with handcuffs strong enough to hold a transformed man or Wolf.

The floor is covered with dark stains and I finally realize that that unpleasant smell I was smelling was the smell of old blood from the multiple tortures that occurred in this place.16

The Cave is the place where the Wolves who disobey the laws of the pack are punished, but only those most serious crimes and that I knew, since I had arrived at this institute, had never been used.

Needless to say, I was not very happy to be there.

"Delta" The Alpha is standing in the middle of the room and pointing to a Machiavellian-looking chair. It was made of wood with metal grips on the armrests and legs to hold a person, probably during interrogation/torture. With the light shining down on her, in the middle of a gloomy cave deep inside the Institute, she looked like something out of a horror movie.

I look at the Alpha and then at the chair of the horror, and back at the Alpha. I want to say no thanks, that I prefer to stand still but I know very well that I cannot refuse a request from a superior Wolf, much less the Alpha of my pack. So, steeling myself, I walk to the chair trying not to let my knees fail and I sit down.

I must admit that it is not as uncomfortable as I imagined.

"Delta Lia" The Alpha begins standing in front of me with his hands crossed behind his back. "Are you aware of the expansion project started this year?"

Flicker. That is not what I expected to hear.

"Ehhh ... no?" I answer quickly, wishing more than anything in the world to get out of this place, but I sounded silly even to my ears, so I try again. "Well yes, what you Alpha had announced earlier This year, we planned to buy the surrounding land to expand the property?"

There had been a conference on this in January when many Wolves were planning to leave because they no longer agreed with the Alpha Rogers way of governing. This project, although he would never admit it, had created it as a political campaign to boast of being the only Alpha in the human territory with more than 100 hectares of territory or something like that. Jason had been very vague about it.

Jason. I can't forget his face when they took him away, will he be alright? 

"Correct." The Alpha said as satisfied with himself. "Everything was progressing according to plan until about a month ago we ran into a problem. Do you know what happened?" He asked me as if he expected an answer. "As if I knew why the hell he was here or why he was talking to me about expansion plans"

"No" I answered, unsure.

"It turns out that a pack found out about our plans and wanted to cooperate, or so we were led to believe. We planned to bring the two packs together and create cooperation like never seen before"

His eyes are dreamy and the only thing missing is the hand on his heart and the tear dramatically falling down his cheek.

The Alpha has always been more of a charlatan than a good leader and it doesn't help that he's always a little bit of a stretch. But this is no time to laugh, not when I'm sitting in a torture chair so I keep my face impassive like I believe every word. 

"But they betrayed us." Now his voice turns sour and I straighten up in my chair. "They found a hole in our property contract and threatened to take everything away from us." He looks at me expectantly.

"Can you do that?" She asked incredulously. The lands on which the Institute was built have belonged to our pack for generations, both in contracts with humans and with Wolves. How could a strange pack take possession of our lands just like that?

"Legally?" He seems to think it over for a few moments. "Yes. It is a dirty and honorless move, but the law is unfortunately in their favor, and if they wanted they could tear the Institute out of our own hands"

I nodded, trying to process the information. While years in the pack had taught me not to trust a word Alpha said, Jason if he had mentioned something about a deal gone wrong, this may be it.

"And there is nothing that can be done to avoid it?"

At that moment the Alpha smiled as if he had said exactly what he expected. I didn't like it at all. 

"Actually yes" Jason's father now seemed to almost jump with enthusiasm. "His Alpha has offered us a deal, we have to offer him something in exchange for the lands"

Suddenly, the air seemed to suffocate me, and, fearing to hear the answer, I forced myself to ask.

"What do you ask in return?"

"Or it's simple really." He smiles from ear to ear. "To you"