Rejected by the Alpha

Chapter 16 - A night of sorrow

The next few days passed in a bit of a blur. I spent my mornings with Sebastian as usual and then afterwards I would train with Beta Trey. Trey for his part was pleasant to train with. He was a bit of a gentle giant. He had an easy smile and laughed often. If he was a dog, he would be a golden retriever. It would be a mistake to think that made soft in a fight however. He was completely lethal, second only to Archer but I now suspect I had the benefit of distracting Archer while simultaneously having the handicap of being distracted myself. This made training with Trey more effective in continuing to hone my skills though I must admit that I had learned a few things when training with Archer. I found myself missing my mornings sparring with him.

Trey was a good trade though and I felt I was making a new friend. One day I decided I would risk asking him his opinion on the packs Alpha and his Luna.

Trey frowned as he swiped sweat from his brow with a towel. "Hm... I'll only answer when you land a hit," he replied and we sparred for a while until I landed a roundhouse kick to his chest.

He coughed a little. "Nice," he said, his voice still hoarse. Dusting himself off, he stood up straight and answered. "I respect the crap out of Archer," he told me. "He cares about every wolf in this pack but he... Keeps himself to himself a bit more than he should I'd say. Like I'm his Beta and I still don't feel I fully know the guy. With Natalia well... You know what she's like" he shrugged

"If the Alpha cares about his pack why does he let her waltze around doing what she wants?"

He raised his eyebrows as he bent to pick up a weighted ball, "Natalia usually plays nice in front of the Alpha," he told me, "which means he doesn't see quite how bad she is. It's you that's thrown her off," he finished and in one fluid move, he throw the weighted ball at me. To a human, this ball was the equivalent to the weight of a washing machine.

"Me?" I squeaked and was distracted enough that I almost missed catching the ball. Fortunately, if I had, there was enough space for it to land without damaging anything.

"Yes, you." Trey replied. "I only know some of the story but anyone with half a brain can tell you affect him, have power over him."

"If I had power over him, he wouldn't have assigned me to be Natalia's slave," I objected and to emphasise my anger at that situation, I threw the ball back at him with force.

He grunted as he jumped into the air and caught it. "You publicly disobeyed him. There had to be a consequence. The council of alphas would demand it and they'd want it to be more of a whipping variety."

"Bunch of sadists," I exclaimed. I had heard of the council of alphas but I didn't know a lot about it. There was a place where the alphas gathered to talk and to make plans, allegiances, boundaries, rules. I suppose there must be rules on punishments.

Trey shrugged, "Alphas want to be obeyed. If one alpha starts bending the rules what if the others are then expected to? There are some alphas that would rather challenge Archer for his pack saying he is too weak to run it than allow people to start believing Alphas can be challenged by lower ranked wolves." Trey paused for a moment and looked at me up and down." What ranking are you actually? You're really powerful and I can't place you."

I shrugged," My mother's pack couldn't place me either. They gave me the Gamma title but many of them would call me the Sigma wolf because of how long I'd been away from my original pack and because I mostly kept myself to myself."

" Hm perhaps it's because you and your wolf are not in the position that you should be yet. You're almost as strong as an Alpha"

I felt Moonlights hackles raise at the reminder of the position we should have held in the pack. I simply shrugged and returned to my training without further comment.

It was raining on the night I heard a blood curdling scream. It was an hour before curfew and I had been relaxing in my room. Moonlights ears pricked at the noise. There had already been something uneasy about the night. I had noticed a rush of guards outside of my window. I thought I'd smelled Archers scent with them. I had been trying so hard to mind my own business but the scream jolted me into action. When I stepped outside, despite the rain I could still smell the unmistakable metallic scent of blood.

I changed into moonlights form to allow me to track the scent better. I followed it into the night, weaving between the small houses until I found it.

The scene I stumbled upon was heartbreaking. A mother sobbed over her son who lay bleeding from his neck. It was an obvious wolf attack. He may have even been in his wolf form when he was hurt as his now pale naked form was drenched in the rain. His mother hugged him to her chest rocking him back and forth, humming a soft tune between her sobs. I could smell it. Death. He was gone.

Moonlight and I could hear our heart thudding in our ears as we watched. It was then that we were able to register the others standing around her. One of them was a guard and the other was General Edward. To his credit, Edward was polite on this occasion.

"You shouldn't be out here" he said, "You should be heading back for curfew"

"What happened?" I asked.

"It's none of your concern," he replied.

I smelled him before I saw him. Archers wolf came into view.

"Whats happened?" I asked him.

"There's been a breach in the perimeter," he replied gruffly, "We responded quickly and chased them back but not.. Not quick enough. I've searched the area and we're secure for now but I don't want anyone outside. I'm going to go back to the pack house and try to figure out how the f**k this happened." His wolf walked up to the small boy, sniffed and gave a soft whine. "I'm sorry," he told the mother but she was beyond replying. Archer looked at General Edward. "The family should be brought back to the pack house too."

"I want to come as well," I said.

General Edward started to object but then Archer said "Fine". Despite appearing confused by Arthur's response, Edward accepted it without question and I began to see the loyalty Sebastian had spoken about.

Back at the pack house, I tried my hardest to not see a lot of what happened with the family. I knew there was another child and a father who came with the mother and that they were being given their own rooms so they could feel safe. I didn't want to think about their son but I was sure he was being handled respectfully and that was enough for me.

Edward and I filed into Archers office. Natalia also made an appearance, dressed in a flowy fluffy robe. The rest of us had all returned to our human forms and changed into basic comfortable clothes. Natalia glared at me when I entered. "Why is she allowed in this room?" she asked.

"Because I'm allowing it," Archer replied, "Lena may not have an official role but she's a powerful member of this pack and I'd like to utilise her strengths in this war. I can't do that if I shut her out. Besides, like the rest of us I doubt she'd be able to sleep peacefully anyway after seeing what she saw tonight."

Archer suddenly punched his fist against the wall. "That area should have had a patrol. What the f**k happened Edward?" he asked.

Edward stretched out a long piece of parchment that had various markings on it across the desk. "These are the orders our guards received," he said and Archer frowned as he looked over them.

"No, no!" he exclaimed, his eyes going wide. "That isn't what I put down." Archer went behind his desk and began rummaging through the bottom drawers. He pulled out a smaller sheet of paper and showed it to Edward, slamming his index finger down on the middle of it. "This is my copy. This is what I sent out. I would never have sent that."

"I believe it," Edward replied. "I think we have a rat."

"What do you mean?" Archer asked.

"I think someone replaced yours with this one. They wanted to create a weakness in our defences that would be utilised by the Rogues."

"So we were betrayed," Archer said and at this point Natalia turned to look at me again.

"well if there's a rat, isn't it curious that someone who has no proper right to be in this room is currently standing there hearing this conversation. Someone who has a reason to hate you, to hate me!" Natalia said pointedly.

Archer sighed, "Lena wouldn't hurt this pack"

"What makes you so sure?" Natalia replied.

"Lena would never see a pup harmed," Archer said and his voice was almost a murmur. He hung his head as he sat at the desk. "Natalia you're focusing on the wrong thing here. A pup in our pack has just died. One of the most vulnerable among us. I failed to keep him safe. I failed his family. I've failed this pack."

"No honey," Natalia cooed putting her arm over his hunched shoulders "You didn't ask for this. There's always casualties in war."

Archer snapped his head up at her suddenly angry again. "That boy was not a soldier, he's not a mere 'casualty'. I don't understand why you're not getting this." He shook his head and stood up. "You know what, everyone out. I need time alone with my thoughts," he said and he was almost shaking as he stood. Everyone filed out of the room and I too made a start towards the door but then I hesitated for a moment. "I will leave," I told Archer, "But before I do I just want to say... The only one responsible for that boys death is the person that hurt him and the person who swapped those plans. You're not responsible Archer. You did your best," I told him.

Archer stood staring at me silently for a moment and I was about to turn to leave again but then he just.... broke. His face crumbled and he dropped down on the chair. The anger drained out of him and all that was left was grief and guilt. In that moment, I no longer felt that I wanted to leave him the way he was right now. My instinct was to approach him and so I did, fully aware that he might ask me to leave again. When I was close enough, I reached out and held him. He accepted, wrapping his arms around me and resting his head against my stomach. I stroked the top of his head, running my fingers through his hair as he regained control of his breathing. Once he had, he looked up at me. "Thank you Lena," he said.

"Don't mention it," I said with a smirk. The same line he had said to me before. "About your rat problem though..."

"Yeah?" he asked looking up at me from his seat as I stood between his legs. His hair was a little ruffled from my fingers running through it. I pointed at the plans. "Who has access to these? Who would have the opportunity to swap them?"