Ultima Trials

The Letter

The Growling Letter

Camden’s POV

I jumped up and covered my son’s body with my own. I learned a long time ago, Noah didn’t care about hurting children so long as he got his way. The nurse let loose a growl and the doctor froze in his tracks.

“I don’t care who the hell he is, you will not harm one of my patients. Period.” She ordered.

“But-“The male started but was instantly cut off.

“If you expect me in our bed tonight, you will treat this little boy and then you will apologize to his father and then we are taking him home with us. I think we’ve all got a common enemy.” Mel raised her eyebrows.

The doctor sighed and nodded his head, “My apologies, I’m not privy to any male being in a room alone with my mate. Especially the unmated ones.” He moved slowly towards the bed, but Jersey was less than trusting.

A small growl escaped my chest, but Mav began to violently cough, and the growl turned into a whimper. I moved to allow the doctor to look at Mav. After a check, the doctor wanted to move him to the pack hospital. I was panicked that I didn’t hear the name of the pack until Mel came to sit me down and forced me to look at her.

“We’re going to Black Storm. I know it’s a bit of a drive, but the shortage has us driving around looking for ways to help.” She said, “We just updated the entire hospital, so we’ve got the best of the best. Whatever’s wrong with him, we will find out.”

I nodded. I was headed to Black Storm anyway. It took an hour, but we finally were loaded up into a different SUV that was equipped to handle Mav laying down and his multiple IV poles. They had sedated him to give him more rest to bring the fever down.

It was mostly silent, we all just listened to Mav’s heartbeat. I was too tired to ask questions, and after an hour I decided to lay my head next to Mav’s and went to sleep.

****

Mel was shaking me, the van had stopped, and the backdoors were open in front of a large four-story building. It had automatic doors that were being held open by two nurses that were dressed in dark blue scrubs. The doctor was updating the new nurses. I was walking as close to Mav as I could get before I heard someone calling my name.

“Camden Tarain. I believe you have something for me.” A man that I hadn’t seen since I was 16 years old. He had reddish brown hair, a thick beard lined his face that was bright orange, and deep blue eyes that went hard as he looked at me.

“Gamma Luke Borden.” I said, keeping the smile off my face. He was one of my trainers during Alpha training. One of his things was you never give your trust to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you’ve known them your entire life. Things can change on a dime and a longtime friend could turn into a lifelong enemy.

“Do you have it?” He asked again.

I pulled the letter from my back pocket and gave it to him. He looked over the letter, looking up at me every few seconds before a growl escaped his chest and he stalked off.

“Follow!” He screamed over his shoulder.

I looked over to where they had taken Mav into the hospital, back towards the former Gamma. Mel stood next to me and smiled, “Right now they’re doing a few more tests that you can’t be with him on. So go talk to the Alpha and I will have someone bring you back as soon as I can.”

“What’s the Alpha’s name? Wasn’t there twins?”

She smiled sadly, and just pushed me towards the packhouse. “Uncle Luke isn’t one to wait patiently. Keep the trail to the packhouse.”

I vaguely remembered where the packhouse was, but Mel was right. The packhouse was at the very end of the trail, it seemed like all the trails led straight to the pack house. Gamma Luke was waiting with his arms crossed, he had given the letter to a tall female that wore faded jeans and a black t-shirt with a deep v that showed the top of her breast. She didn’t bother to look up at me as I stood in front of her. She growled before turning into the packhouse with Gamma Luke following behind her.

We walked through the packhouse, the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day things reminded me of the days when my parents were still alive. Mom spent her mornings talking with the kitchen staff even after Jeri had been named Luna, then they would have breakfast together. Her lunches were spent with the warriors, giving tips for training and changes in meals. Jeri had just started building new apartments for the warriors when she first found out she was pregnant. Now the building sat empty because Noah had turned the highly trained warriors into nothing more than slaves. Most of the pack were slaves to him and his ranks.

It was a nice packhouse, the walls were painted a light grey that matched the whites and browns of the floors and ceilings. There was tile in the foyer, and a grand staircase that led to the upstairs. The female took me up the stairs to the second floor, and I remembered this floor had all the offices. The third floor was the Beta and Gamma floor, but they only stayed in the packhouse so long as they weren’t mated. The fourth floor was all for guests. When I was visiting, there were five very large rooms, but a lot of things had changed since I was a teenager. The top floor was the Alpha floor. Usually, it was a penthouse suite. I grew up in the packhouse, and my Beta and Gamma were raised in houses in the pack, but they spent most of the time in the packhouse.

Standing in front of the largest door on the floor, the female knocked before a soft voice ushered us in. There was a delicious scent that had my wolf jumping to his feet and pacing in circles. We stepped into the office and a beautiful woman was on her feet. Her dark brown eyes zeroed on me before the word that I hadn’t expected to hear again escaped both our mouths at the same time.

“Mate.”

Hayden’s POV

I was less than excited to learn that someone was on my territory, especially without the proper warnings, but I trusted Mel with my life. In fact, I owe her my life.

When we turned sixteen, me and my twin brother shifted. The problem was that twins are supposed to shift together, but I was at school, and he was at Alpha training. I was lucky enough to survive the shift. My brother, on the other hand… Well, he had been in a coma since that night. His body healed within days, but his mind was a different story. Not that I could tell anyone. Sometimes I could mind link with his wolf, Mace, but I hadn’t spoken to my brother in nine years.

In normal situations, twins shift together, be it identical twins or fraternal, like Hunter and me. Our wolves were twins as well, so they needed to be together during that first shift. During our shift, our wolves would imprint on each other, and our bond would be unbreakable. No matter how far apart we were, we would always be able to feel each other. I think that’s the only reason Hunter was still alive. His body couldn’t die because his wolf was still bound to his sister. When I began my shift, Mel noticed what was going on, and since she had already shifted, she shifted with me and stood as my stand in. My wolf, Mira, kind of imprinted on her, but could still feel her brother, so we’ve never really felt connected to anyone but Mel and her Jaz.

After our eighteenth birthday and Hunter still hadn’t woken up, Dad had to renounce his title; Mom was still grieving the loss of her pup, so I was named. Then I went through very rough and quick training. A few weeks after I was titled, Noah came to my pack and asked my father to take me as a chosen mate. Since I was of legal age, I very respectfully declined after I kicked his ass. He left angry and a few weeks later the elder council got involved. Thankfully, since I am my father’s child, the title to Alpha was rightfully mine. Noah had been pestering me since. He went to talk to Mel, even kidnapped her, though he went through rogues to do it. Since there was no real proof, he got off scott-free.

Now this man stood in front of me. My wolf, Mira, was screaming at me and his scent made me want to run into his arms and never let him go. He stood somewhere close to 7 foot tall, his shoulders broad, but he didn’t have the muscle most warriors do. His wolf was strong even though I could barely sense his aura. His blue eyes were sunken, and blood shot. His body looked worn.

“Alpha, this is former Alpha Camden Tarain.” The female that led me up to the office spoke.

I had only met Camden once during high school, when he visited during his Alpha training. He was only 16, and I was busy with my own training. This didn’t look like the Alpha I met that one time. He had a smile back then and only spoke about how excited he was to get back to his girlfriend. I remember being jealous that he had a girlfriend. I wasn’t into dating, but I thought he was so hot. Now this man looked more like the shell of the man he was back then.

“Do you have the letter, Emma? Sit.” I motioned for everyone to grab a chair just as Emma handed me the letter from Gloria.

She was the second hand to Luna Isabelle of the Silver Star pack, and my mother trusted those two more than my own grandparents. My mother and Isabelle were best friends growing up. When Gloria gave my parents a spell to wake up Hunter, that only solidified that friendship. Sadly, it didn’t work, but it did wake his wolf up. It was better than nothing.

I sat and read the letter. Mira growled out as I read.

Lukas,

I’m writing because it’s been much too long of the reign of terror of Noah Shultz. I know what he has asked of your Alpha and many of the other things he’s done that you’ve not been able to keep up with.

The worst he’s ever done was not just to my godson, but my best friend, my home and pack. One night while our Luna, Jeri, was pregnant with the future Alpha, Noah arranged for rogues to attack. Luckily, Camden survived, but that same night, we lost our Luna, and almost lost her son. Our Beta and his mate were killed. The Gamma was tortured by watching his family die and then hung himself. The former Alpha and Luna were poisoned with wolfsbane and died together. Camden spent weeks in a coma, waking up to his family gone and a newborn son. Since that night, Noah has used Camden as a personal slave, making his life more miserable than it had been. Camden has no idea what really happened that night, but I’m willing to share.

Once Luna had died, the power shifted back to Luna Isabelle and Noah poisoned Alpha Masen and forced a ranked member to marry Isabelle and him so he would be the rightful Alpha. He even made mention of a challenge, but as Cam was in a coma… Sadly, I have done my best to protect my Alpha. This is not something he knows, but I have been slipping both him and Maverick doses of wolfsbane and silver nitrate. I know it is dangerous, but the plans that Noah had for my boys were much worse. Now that Maverick is sick, it was the perfect opportunity to get my boys out of the hell we now live in.

I don’t know if I will make it past this night as there is a spy in the pack and they found my stash. Noah thinks I’m planning a coup, but I’m not. All I want is for Camden and Maverick to be safe. Tell my boys that I love them and everything that I’ve done was for them.

Please keep them safe.

Gloria.