I am Alpha

Theris. A baby was crying. My ears were vibrating with the sound, almost as if the babe was right here, but it wasn't. It echoed everywhere, wrapping around my brain, snaking through my heart, and resonating in my soul. It was beautiful. It's was life. It was mine. But ... it can't be. I looked at my wife who looked back at me in confusion when the babies cries still echoed. I was already on my feet and moving. Eyes at the dinner table looked at me and voices questioned me, but it was as if that little babies cry was the only sound in the world. Mine. Mine. Mine. A child. A son! An heir. My heart beat with every exclamation only makinge run fast toward the sound. Quieter now as if the baby no longer cried but cooed, but still there, as if my child wanted to be found. As if calling out to me. I raced though the large stone doors, pulling the usually two-manned doors open at full speed, causing the two guards standing at either side have to flee to the side, lest be flattened at the crushing speed of them. I don't know if I have clothes on or not when I shift into my wolf within 10 sprints. I was on all fours now, black hair inching out of my skin and my head and jaw dislocate and grow into a muzzle. I can smell see the magic that lives on my lands in this form. And there's a magic trail leading me to my child. I see it. Smell it. Taste it in the air. It's leading me through the woods that surround my kingdom, furthest from my palace. I travel South Further and further into the densest parts of these woods. I'm slowed down slightly while having to barrel through fallen trees and entwined bushel. The trunks of the trees start getting larger. Older. Getting as wide as my wolf was long and wider still. I don't know how long I've been running but I know I have gone far. So far, the sound of the Pups coos and cries have been long gone. For minutes or hours, I did not know. Only following the child's Alpha aura, the aura only a First born of an Alpha can have. And it is powerful, had to be, for me to sense it from so far. I slowed my pace almost instantly as I realized my surroundings, instincts telling me to slow down. Now. This forest is cleaner, brighter now, despite the trees rising so high and thick you couldn't pick out a single star, and some trunks so large they were bigger than most houses in my kingdom, taking my wolf a full five strides to clear one particularly old one. I know this forest. The Elder tree forest. the lands of the Fae. I know my kind is not welcome here. So why is my pup here? The forest putting me on edge cleared my mind enough for thoughts to seep back in. The girl... the girl that I had in my bed that one night. The night I strayed from my mate in rage and grief. She was innocent. I took that from her. And left her coldly. All I felt was shame. For my Mate. For the girl. She gave herself willingly to me. And I threw her away. But she carried my child, something only a mate could do, or so it is known. But why was she here? She was human, but to be on these lands... On Fae lands, with a pup as a babe... I need to get to her. Get to my child. And get them both safe on my pack territory. Without caring for the consequences I began to run once more. I catch a whiff of my child's scent for the first time finally, and I run faster, as I feel a watchful presence loom over me. More likely multiple watchful presences. I don't sense any attack coming so I continue to run, gaining on a small cottage over run by brushes of flowers and weeds alike. Over grown ivy red with the crisp fall air covered everything but the door and a darkly hued, with a faint orange light shining through it. I slowed to a trot once more, stalking the cottage, seeing what I could sense that lurked both in the cottage and outside it. I can feel eyes, though I can't see anyone, smell or hear them either. That can only means they don't want to be found. As long as it stays that way, I don't care. I only want to take what's mine and be on my way. I sense no danger, imminently, anyway and shift back into my human form of 6 foot 7, puny in comparison of my wolf, that stands as tall as 14 feet on my hind legs. Puny is better for doors anyway. I didn't sense anything in the cottage except for that of my child's aura, strange but I ignore it. I walk to the cottage door, which is weather worn, and has only a handle for a door nob, I open it, having to pull it towards me, rather than in like most doors. I walk in and there is a metallic, almost sweet smell coming from the back room of the cottage... blood. I'm naked and barefoot making my way to the source of the smell, also to the source of my child's aura. I walk in on a sight that stops me cold. It is the girl. The one whose name I never bothered to know. The one whose eyes glittered with such mischief and sweetness, and lips so red they seemed kissed by roses. Those lips were the color of orchids now. Pale and purple and blue, in the most terrifying of shades. Her eyelids were fluttering weekly as she stared on not seeing. Her once beautifuldeep red locks were darker now, matted with sweat and tangles of leaves. Had she been alone this whole time? She wreaked of sweat and blood and s**t, and covered with a dirty sheet drenched in blood. The child is lying on her chest, tummy down, sleeping. I don't sense this child is sleeping restfully. I run up to her. "Hey. Hey, milady" I tap gently on her cheek, bring her face to mine. Her eyes focus slightly on me. At first she's confused and looks around aimlessly until her eyes find mine. A shock registers in my body. A pull like like ocean water sucks me in as I stare at glassy pale green eyes. Recognition registering somewhere in her mind, she blinks and lets out a rattle of a sigh. She gasps for air like a fish when she tries to speak. "Take her... Ke-..." she gasps and swallows and tries to finish. "Keep her safe. Promise me." she grabs my hand and glares into my eyes, hard and furiously. All the fog from her gaze gone in this moment. Her eye color a blaze of golden fire. Though they were green a blink ago. The stare alone was enough to shock me into promising, but... "who?" I asked. Confused as to who I would swear to protect. "Your daughter. Faire." I look down at the babe. Trying to process. daughter... not son? I couldn't not have a first born Daughter... That is simply... No. "Promise!" she screams at me. Her gaze burning into mine, her grip on my arm expressing a strength I wouldn't think she had left in her, yet again a human girl might possess. This beautiful girl. I don't want to lose this girl. I feel defeat. There is no help for us here. There is no hope to save this girl. My heart shouldn't be aching as badly as it is. But it was. It felt like a powerful kind of pain. One that had me wish I could claw my heart out to give to her, if I could. This girl can't be my mate. I smell her now. She is not human. She is Fae. She glamoured her scent and I somehow couldn't smell through it upon first meeting her. She deceived me and yet... I knew I would mourn her, deeply. "I promise" It comes out as a hoarse whisper. Her Icy hard grip on my forearm turned scorchingly hot as her eyes turned bright red as if an actual fire was lit in them. Though her grip seared my skin, I could not pull away. I couldn't even try. I sat there on my knees yelling in pain, but transfixed by her eyes. Fire. Real fire burned there. Roaring and real and bright. Then suddenly, as if the fire was doused with water, they turned onyx black, glittering embers still flickering in their depths. Then her bright green ones returned, looking back at me and suddenly... through me. Her body went limp at the same time, head rolling back at the pillow. Her eyes still open, but her chest no longer rose with heavy breaths. I look down at the arm she still held limply, freeing myself from it to notice dark tendrils, of dark ink. It looked like two vines, one with leaves and one with thorns, interlacing as they were wrapped around my forearm. They almost looked like a tattoo but some how.. alive. I look at the babe, and pick it up. Cradling it's head as I stood. A girl indeed... She cannot possibly be my heir. Alphas always have Alphas. Boys. And yet she has the Aura... Rage and confusion and sadness welled in my heart. I look down at the lifeless form of the girl I knew only once. I know my promise. I bend down to leave a gentle kiss on her sticky and cold forehead. I make sure she's covered completely with the sheet with one arm, as the other held the fitful child, who had commenced crying once more. I bounce the child here and there and shush her. She does calm to look at me. She's hungry, I can sense that. She looks at me as if she is trying to see me. inquisitive. I bundle her up and strap her inside a small basket I found in the cottage. I leave the house in my wolf form, the basket gently grasped in my large wolven mouth. I will protect this child but I cannot claim her, though it seems my wolf has already imprinted on her the moment she was born. To claim a daughter as Alpha.. it may make me look weak; my pack look vulnerable. And it would paint a giant target on the girl's head, making it more difficult to protect her, and keep the promise I had just made. I was able to leave the forest without any of those watchful eyes approaching. My head reeled on how I might explain my sudden disappearance and then my return with a newborn pup...