The Trials of The Alpha and His Mutt

Chapter Three: A Challenger Afoot

Miya's POV

The week passed uneventfully. Unfortunately, Harper, Rose, Jenny and even Joe seemed to cling to me. I was absorbed in their friend group, and I wasn't particularly upset about it by the end of the week. By Wednesday I had caved to Harper's request to show me the town. There wasn't much to see. A cafe, where I saw Grandma Aikina in the window, typing furiously. A theatre, a shopping center, grocery store, hardware store, etc, etc. Very basic small town.

“Now let me show you our favorite spot,” Harper said, gunning it on her old beat-up Jeep Wrangler. We began to ascend a narrow mountain road, and at the top, found a lake that cascaded down the mountainside. There were rocks for sitting and diving, and the water was so clear I could see fish swimming peacefully all the way at the bottom. “The girls and I come here all the time!” she said, dipping her feet in. “Riever too. Though he stopped coming after he became...”

Rose shot her a warning look, and I filled in the pieces. After he started coming into his own as alpha, she meant.

“...popular.” Harper sighed. “But it's nice. Swimming here in the summer is the best. And in the winter, it freezes over, and you can skate on it!”

“You shouldn't though,” Jenny added. “It's not very safe.”

I noticed Joe wasn't with us on this particular excursion, so I finally dared ask, “What's uh, what's up with Joe?”

“He doesn't talk,” Harper said, freely. “He used to when he was little, but something scared him out of his wits, and ever since, he hasn't said a word.”

“He's not dumb or anything, if that's what you're asking,” Rose said, a bit defensively. “And he's a real sweetheart. So don't think anything of it.”

“I wasn't thinking that,” I said, honestly, dipping my own feet in. “You can tell he's not dumb by the way he follows along and laughs. Or makes you laugh.”

Jenny slapped my back, a bit too hard. “Oh, you catch on quick! Joe's got a thing for Harper, we think.”

“Of course, we can't confirm it with him. He's shy, you know,” Rose said. “And I hate it when people tease him.

“Do people tease him often?” I asked.

“No,” Rose said. “Not anymore.”

“That's because Rose is a thug!” Harper laughed. “In elementary school, right after he stopped talking, Rose single-handedly fought everyone that dared make fun of him. After her reign of terror, no one dares even look at him wrong.”

“Are you related?” I asked.

Jenny barked out a laugh again. “This girl is sharp as a tack! I swear!”

“No,” Rose said, smiling softly as she snatched Jenny's phone, then pushed her into the lake. She tossed the phone in the car's seat. “My family died a long time ago in a forest fire. It was... nasty business. Joe's family took me in. We're the same age, so we take turn protecting each other.”

“You can't silence me with water,” Jenny said, her head bobbing back up. She took in a big mouthful and squirted it out at Rose like a watergun. “I'm going to sing at your wedding.”

“Oh, grow up!” Rose said, though she couldn't hide the blush on her face.

I looked up to the sky.

So, this is what it's like to hang out with a group of friends, huh? I closed my eyes, basking in the glow of the warm sun.

So, I missed it when everyone simultaneously tensed, and began getting out of the water.

“Um, hey, Miya, I just got a- uh- text from my mom. Can I drop you off at your driveway?” Harper asked.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” I said, standing and joining them all back in the car. The ride back was silent, and I wondered what had happened. It hit me when they dropped me off. They're all wolves. They have a mind-link. Something must be going on with the pack.

Riever's POV

“We might have a rogue situation on our hands,” I said, addressing my close group of personal friends. My father, the current alpha, would be addressing the warriors about actively searching out and chasing off the intruder. Our jobs would be to fortify and keep watch. “It could also be something worse. This morning on the nature preserve, one of the rangers found something... disturbing.” I put a picture up on the full screen. A deer, hollowed out and bled dry. “The park rangers don't think it looks like a bear, so they alerted us immediately. They think it’s one of our own.”

“How can we be so sure it's not vampire s**t?” Angelica said. “There's no blood around it- and we don't drink that stuff. I've been hearing stuff around school about vamps going 'vegan' and only drinking animal blood.”

“The guts are missing,” I said, pointing at the stomach.

Angelica shrugged. “Maybe that was the bear. This just doesn't seem like a rogue wolf, yanno? What kind of wolf... does that?”

“Someone highly disturbed, probably,” I said. “A rogue that doesn't have money for food, or maybe doesn't have a place to cook meals. Something desperate and cornered, if I had to guess.”

“Desperate and cornered makes for an easy hunt,” Aiden said. “We'll have it found by sundown.”

“That's what we're hoping,” I said, looking at the pictures. Dad was convinced it was a rogue, and I had no reason to doubt him. Whatever it was, something that hungry and dangerous could only be classified as a threat.

Miya's POV

I didn't want to go, but denying Harper was almost impossible. Rose kindly reminded me that I was up against a force of nature that morning via text. They were picking me up at the end of the drive at six o'clock sharp. We were going to go out to eat, then go to the party. Rose gave me a firm run down of her personal rules.

“If we ride together there, we ride back together. No overnights with boys. If you get drunk, that's fine, but I will peel you off your man-candy by the end of the night, and I don't care if you cry.”

I liked her personal rules.

Come noon Saturday, I decided the best way to set myself up for a good night, would be to get in a good hunt. We'd pulled down all the cameras in the nature reserve and I felt safer going out. So I threw my caution (and my clothes) to the wind and shifted, instantly springing into a full sprint. I don't know how far away I was when I heard the roar of a bear.

Crap, I thought, turning sharply to face it. It brought its paw down hard on my face, and I jumped back, crying out in pain. I lunged for it, and the sheer force knocked the bear down. I dug into it, teeth, and claws, drawing out its sweet ruby nectar, but the fight wasn't over yet. It pushed me off and tried to lumber off, but my stomach was rumbling. I ran around it's side and rammed it full force again, knocking it over and revealing it's fat and juicy belly. I ripped into it and started devouring it before it had stopped moving entirely. I drank it down and ripped the flesh from it's bones, savoring the tough, gamey meat.

I went home bloody and naked again and found mom had already picked up my clothes this time.

“Don't you have a party toni- my god, Miya, your face!” mom cried.

I touched it. It was still sensitive, but already closing over. “It'll be gone by six, mom, don't worry,” I said.

Her mouth hung open but she didn't say anything. When I stepped up the stairs, she asked, “What did it?”

I smiled at her, bloody from my hunt. “A black bear.”