Runt's Revenge

Pup in Distress

“What do you have for me?” Alpha Zayden looked at his Beta, Nathan, with hope shining in his startlingly blue eyes as he ran his fingers through his black hair in frustration.

Beta Nathan looked at the ground at his Alpha’s feet, “I don’t know what to say, Alpha. I haven’t been able to find a trace of her. There are no foreign scents on our pack lands or in the pack house. It has to be an inside job.”

They were meeting in the office at the River's Edge Pack house. It was on the second floor, with a huge wall of windows and a sliding door leading out to a balcony that looked over the training area. Usually, there would be a group of warriors leading training exercises with the younger members of the pack, but everyone that had a tail was out searching for clues on every square inch of the packland and beyond.

Alpha Zayden pounded his fist on his desk, denting the wood. Zayden was just shy of six feet tall, a little short for an Alpha, but what he lacked in height, he made up for in the width of his shoulders. He was exceptionally broad and strong, not many wolves would mess with him. The fact that someone would come onto his territory and steal his young daughter out from under his nose was practically unthinkable.

Lydia, the pack's Gamma, had walked up behind Zayden while the Beta was speaking. She began rubbing the Alpha's shoulders, being careful of her perfectly manicured fingernails. “Don’t worry, honey," she said close to his ear, "we’ll find her.”

Zayden shrugged Lydia’s hands off of his shoulders. “Gamma Lydia, you will address me as Alpha, as I have asked you before. If you can not remember that one thing, then perhaps we need to reassign you,” he growled.

“N-no, Alpha, of course. I will remember.” Lydia pursed her perfectly painted lips, visibly annoyed and flipping her bleached blond hair. “We just all love that little pup soooo much. I just can’t imagine life here without her.”

Nathan thought that she was trying to sound sweet, but it didn't ring true. He looked from his Alpha and then to the Gamma. There was a lot of tension in the room and Lydia wasn’t helping. There was no love lost between her and Cassie. That was no secret. “Lydia, why don’t you go talk to the playground supervisor again, in case we missed a detail.”

“I have talked to her three times alre…” she started.

“I wasn’t asking you.” Nathan snapped.

“Fine,” she threw back at him sharply, “just a perfect waste of my time and talents, but... fiiiine.”

Alpha Zayden began to growl, slowly looking up at her, “Are you disrespecting your Beta now, GAMMA Lydia?”

“No, Alpha,” her eyes quickly dropped to the floor once again in submission. “I was just leaving.”

“Good!” said both of the men as she made her exit. She flipped her long hair over her shoulder. Standing up to her full height, she was almost as tall as her Alpha. With her shoulders back and proud, she walked out of the office, swinging her dainty hips. She looked back at both men before making her dramatic exit. She didn’t look it, but she was a skilled warrior, tall, feminine, and deadly.

“THAT, Zayden, is one hell of a mess that you have made for us,” said Nathan, referring to the retreating Gamma as he dropped into a less formal mode now that she was gone.

“I know,” sighed Zayden. “When she beat Michael in the competition for Gamma, it seemed pretty straight forward that she had earned the spot on our team. But she has been overly… familiar and casual with me too many times. It is becoming uncomfortable. I don’t think she will our Gamma for much longer. I can’t stand it,” he grimaced.

I know of another position that she might apply for,” said Nathan helpfully.

“Really? Because if she was interested in something else, it might be better for all of us,” stated Zayden. “Who has an opening?”

“You do,” said Nathan, “for Luuuuuuna,” he drawled, laughing so hard that he gripped his stomach!

Zayden crumpled up the paper in front of him and threw it at his Beta’s head. If is had been anyone else, he would have thrown something more solid, like his fist.

“Shut your trap, Beta, and find my daughter!”

And just like that, his Beta became serious and Zayden was snapped back into the near-panicked, sad place that he had been in for the last 3 days. It made him feel queasy and he leaned forward on his desk willing the nausea away. His Beta left the room quietly to follow up with messages to their allies.

Cassie went missing from the school playground three days ago. The teacher had gotten a message from the front office saying that she had a well visit with the pack doctor and that a packhouse SUV had pulled up during recess to pick her up. The teacher had sent Cassie, dutifully, to the car with her Pink Princess backpack on her back. That was the last anyone had seen of her. There was a pack car that had been reported missing. It had been found then next day burnt to a crisp on bank of the river, along with any evidence or trackable scents. The was just one clue left behind, a computer generated note, devoid of any scents.

Zayden had sent out a call for help to all of the Alphas of the nearby packs. Everyone was keeping an eye out for his energetic, smart little girl. Pictures along with special instructions were sent out to the human allies of the River’s Edge Pack too, especially in the surrounding areas. But so far, they hadn’t heard anything except for that one cryptic note left at the site of the burned car, telling Alpha Zayden to liquidate one million dollars in assets and be prepared for an exchange at a moments notice. Needless to say, Zayden had already taken care of that, first thing. He didn’t care how much it cost. He wanted his daughter back safely at the first opportunity, no excuses from anyone.

Zayden looked out of the window and watched the sunset. Cassie hated the dark. Zayden's stomach clenched at the thought of her being out there somewhere alone, or even worse, with bad wolves, through yet another dark night. The one thing that he had promised his dear mate before she died, was that he would protect their daughter. What would she think of him now? He didn't notice the single tear as it made its way down his cheek.

___________________________________

Athena watched the two rogues approaching her. They were shaking their heads in shock.

They were talking over each other, yelling at me, “What the hell?!” “What did you just do?” “How the hell?!” Who are you?!” “is that another kid?" "I think she’s a runt?!”

Nea didn’t waste any time. She picked t-shirt guy and ran straight at him with a warrior’s yell. He laughed as he saw her running and got ready to swing at her. At the last moment, she slid, feet first, between his legs and clawed hard enough at his crotch to take away most of his manly bits and pieces as she went. He screamed, higher than the girl had, as he dropped to the ground bleeding profusely. He was out of the picture for a moment, so Nea targeted blondie. He grabbed at her and managed to get his fist wrapped around her shirt. Nea heard the little girl scream in fear for her, but she was already shifting, Angel dropping out of the shirt and kicking off her shorts. Using her claws, she scaled the blond rogue, straight up, like a cat climbing the curtains, digging claws in deeply, and went straight for the jugular as she had done with Warrior West early today. Only this time, she ripped his throat out in one bite. He fell to the ground and she rode him to the ground, jumping off as his body hit the ground, immediately going over to t-shirt guy to finish him off. He was bleeding out and weak, so it only took a quick twist of the head to break his neck and she dropped his body to the ground.

Nea shifted back. She was covered in blood and exhausted. The adrenaline was pumping through her body so hard that she was shaking all over. She stared at the rogues that she had just killed. Killed! Then, she heard the sobs of the young pup behind her and she turned carefully to assess her next step.