The Forbidden Alpha

Chapter 4:Itzal

Itzal had grown up on the streets of a small town in the interior of the sss. When he was still a child, he was known as Daniel, the boy who had no family. His mother was a shapeshifter who had lost herself to drugs shortly after being rejected by her own mate. Daniel’s father was an unknown man who had taken advantage of his mother’s weakness. His mother had died when he was seven years old, not that her presence in his life made any difference. It was his grandmother who raised him; she was the only example of love Daniel had ever known, she was everything he had, until she died. The coroner’s report listed his grandmother’s death as accidental, but Daniel knew that wasn’t true. His grandmother suffered from a very rare condition that affected shapeshifters, a heart disease similar to what humans called cardiomegaly. Since a shapeshifter’s heart is visibly different from a human heart, his grandmother could never seek help from human medicine, but she could have been helped by shapeshifter medicine. The problem was that the clans with their own hospitals that treated shapeshifters refused to care for his grandmother. Daniel remembered all the times he accompanied his grandmother to each of the traditional pack hospitals. His grandmother spent all her savings going from city to city, from pack to pack, but the leaders of the traditional packs just shook their heads and looked at her with disdain while claiming there were no vacancies or that they didn’t have enough equipment to care for her.

The truth was that Daniel’s grandmother didn’t have enough money, and money was the only thing that could move the “kindness” of the members of the traditional packs.

They refused to treat his grandmother. So, when she had a heart attack while cooking and ended up setting her own house on fire while she was still inside, it wasn’t an accident. It was a consequence of the negligence of the packs that could have helped her and didn’t. And Daniel never forgot that.

After his grandmother’s death, he felt completely lost. He was only ten years old at the time. He had no money, no family, and the house he lived in had burned down to nothing but ashes. Daniel went to live on the streets. He migrated from city to city occasionally because the officials of the traditional packs were always on alert to punish any lone wolf.

Daniel learned to eat what he found on the streets and to hide from the officials. He lived this way for several months until a shapeshifter found him and took him off the streets. His name was Marcus, and he had a mixed-race daughter named Mia. It was through Marcus that Daniel met the band of rebels. He never imagined that stray wolves like him could be part of something so big.

Marcus taught Daniel to read, hunt, and defend himself. Marcus was an honest alpha who believed that the rebel wolves could integrate with the traditional packs. He believed in peace. He was killed in an ambush by the Marlon clan officials. Daniel never understood why the traditional packs hated stray wolves so much, never understood why they acted as if they were criminals, as if they were trash that needed to be swept off the streets. But when Marcus was killed, Daniel realized he didn’t need to understand the traditional clans; he needed to end their tyranny before more innocent people were killed simply for being born in the wrong place.

After Marcus’s death, the rebel pack continued to grow. A new alpha took over, but it didn’t last long. And the cycle continued for another ten years. Until Daniel, who had watched everything from afar, reached the age to transform for the first time. He never really thought about becoming the pack’s alpha, but as soon as his wolf emerged, his dominance was felt by the pack members. The alpha at the time, feeling threatened, decided he should end Daniel once and for all. The two fought on the first night of his transformation. It was a bloody fight; Daniel was weak from the transition, yet he ended the fight with the former alpha’s head hanging from his hand. The entire pack bowed to him that night, and Daniel realized that leading them was part of his instincts, something that ran in his veins, just like his thirst for revenge against the Marlon clan ran in his blood. From that day on, he was known as Itzal, the feared wolf who decapitated the alpha while still going through the transition. And that was just the first of many feats that would be attributed to him and increase his reputation for bloodthirstiness. Itzal didn’t care about fame; all that mattered to him was his family, his pack, and his revenge.

Leading the rebel pack was not an easy task; it became even more difficult over the years as Itzal redoubled his efforts to protect the outcasts from the actions of the traditional clans. Over time, his rebellion against the clans became known, and new members began to join the pack. Now they were not just a band of outcasts; there were also criminals and fugitives from justice. Daniel did not accept any shapeshifter involved in barbaric crimes, but he welcomed all those who were hunted for trying to take justice into their own hands or for committing crimes while struggling to support themselves and their families. The rebel pack grew both in fame and number. And although he liked to see his band growing larger and more prosperous, Itzal admitted how difficult it was to manage everything. He not only dealt with the relentless persecution by the traditional clans but also had to manage scarce supplies and conflicts within the pack itself. Bringing together a band of rebellious wolves, outcasts, and those with dubious pasts was the perfect formula for creating an explosive pack. And that was why Itzal needed to be a feared leader who was not questioned. His word was law in the pack, but that also meant he had to dedicate himself to it fully. Spending too much time away from the pack’s territory was the same as leaving the wolves free to destroy the place.

That’s why Itzal needed all his self-control that morning when he received a phone call informing him that his sister was hospitalized. Mia had been in an accident, and it was obvious he would make sure she was okay, even if it meant risking returning to find the pack plunged into chaos.

The hospital where she had been taken was in the suburbs of a nearby city. Despite being a human hospital, the staff acted as if they felt the danger emanating from Itzal as he passed through the double doors, but it was impossible for humans to truly sense what he was. Despite having intuition, humans couldn’t feel the threat of his wolf. Perhaps their reaction was due to Itzal’s appearance, maybe it was because of his height, his muscles, the tattoos covering his body, and the cold look he didn’t bother to hide. Mia used to say he scared people on purpose, but the truth was he just didn’t care about them enough to make an effort to disguise his posture or his gaze.

He found Mia in one of the infirmary rooms after a brief conversation with the hospital receptionist, who seemed to want to call the police and hide from him. Mia was sitting on the bed near the window, swinging her legs in the air while staring at the bed next to her, where another girl was sleeping.

“Dan, you came,” Mia got off the bed with a grimace of pain and hugged him. She was one of the few people who still called him by his childhood nickname. Itzal hugged her, feeling a sudden relief to see she was okay.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” he asked as soon as she pulled away. Mia averted her gaze and returned to the bed.

“Amelia needed help,” Mia looked at the bed next to her. Itzal glanced at the other girl. He had heard a lot about Amelia, even though he had never seen her. Mia used to talk about the friendship she had made in college. There was only one thing that didn’t fit between the girl Mia talked about at home and the girl lying in the hospital bed.

“You said she was human,” Itzal observed, looking at the girl more closely.

“She is human.”

“No, she’s not,” he looked back at his sister, who was frowning. “I can feel the wolf inside her,” he frowned himself. “But it’s strange, it’s like she’s far away, hidden…” he trailed off. He only realized he was approaching the girl when Mia grabbed his arm.

“What are you doing?” his sister asked. Itzal wanted to know too.

“There’s something wrong with her,” he freed himself from Mia’s hands and stopped beside the other bed, really looking at Amelia for the first time. She was pale, had scratches on her face, and a deep cut on one of her arms, but still… she looked like an angel sleeping in that bed…

Itzal blinked. What kind of thought was that? He set aside his observations about Amelia’s appearance and focused on finding signs of something wrong. Something about her bothered him.

“Daniel, stop it. I would know if she wasn’t human,” Mia positioned herself beside him. “I’m a hybrid, but I can still sense other wolves.”

“Unless they haven’t gone through the transformation yet.” He avoided talking to Mia about her limitations, knowing she resented being a hybrid. Mia was born from the union of Marcus and a human named Dalila. It was Dalila who took Itzal in as a son when Marcus brought him to the pack. Itzal loved her as if she were his mother, just as he loved Mia as if she were his sister. He didn’t care if they were human or hybrid. But he knew Mia cared. She didn’t admit it, but deep down, she always felt for not inheriting Marcus’s shapeshifter side. Despite still having a sharper sense of smell and vision than humans and being able to sense other wolves, Mia couldn’t transform into a wolf.

“Do you really think she’s a shapeshifter?” Mia asked, uncertain. “But she never said anything.”

“Why would she?” his gaze was still on Amelia. “She probably thinks you’re human.”

Mia didn’t respond, and Itzal forgot about the conversation as he picked up Amelia’s medical chart. The records indicated minor injuries, a cut on her left arm, and a carved mark on her right chest. He put down the chart and approached the bed again. With a care that was not typical of him, he brushed Amelia’s hair aside and moved the hospital gown away from her right shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Mia protested behind him. Itzal paid no attention to the protest. He kept his eyes fixed on Amelia’s exposed skin as he moved the bandage below her shoulder. The mark was carved into her skin, a mix of tattoo and cuts. Itzal covered the wound again and stepped back.

“Your friend is a shapeshifter,” he informed, looking at Mia carefully. “And she has a rejection mark on her chest. I don’t know what she did, but whoever marked her was angry. They rubbed salt into the wound; they wanted to make sure everyone knew what she did.”

For some reason, this bothered him. He knew very well what the rejection mark meant. Amelia had dishonored her mate in an unforgivable way, but Itzal found that custom of marking females so cruel deplorable. In an inexplicable way, it seemed even more revolting to see it on Amelia’s skin.

He set the thought aside and focused on his sister.

“Pack your things, we’re going home.”

“I’m not leaving Amelia here,” Mia protested, crossing her arms. Itzal knew her well enough to know she would persist until she convinced him to take Amelia with them.

“I figured you’d say that” he went to the door. “I’ll find a way to convince the doctors to discharge her.”

“Will you?” Mia seemed surprised at how easily she convinced him. Itzal didn’t respond; he was surprised too.