REGRET— the shadow wolves

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Brandon

The past few days had been hectic. We were all busy loading up our belongings from our home in the Grey pack into our trucks. It was a difficult task to keep everything organized with around 800 people belonging to our pack. I should have been their Alpha, but my wolf's issues prevented me from taking on the role. Lucy and Dante ruled beside each other, but here in the Grey pack, we had very little autonomy. I still can't believe that Dante managed to convince them to allow us back. He is clearly intelligent, but it also took skill to show them just how dire the situation had become. Prey had stopped coming to our borders, leaving us struggling to maintain our wolves' contentment without enough food. The reason for this, as Dante explained, was because our former borders in the Devon Pack had become overgrown or something. To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure what he meant by that.

Our journey would take almost a week, traveling in a caravan for safety and making frequent stops along the way. Just thinking about it made me sick. I wanted to leave immediately and chase my dreams of finding Mikayla and getting her back. Without her, I felt lost and had endured the situation for far too long. My sole purpose in life was now to find her.

Since the former Alpha and Luna stepped down, they kept to themselves. Nothing was the same as it was ten years ago when we had dreamed of a strong and powerful pack, ready to face any threat that came our way.

Everything was different after Mikayla left. She was the glue that held us all together, connecting each of us with invisible strings. But now we were finally going home. What would we find there?

As the days passed, I felt myself growing further and further away from Lucy. She didn't fight it; after ten years, she had given up. At first, she tried desperately to keep us together, perhaps to justify her own actions in betraying her sister. But little by little, she let go until now, she was consumed by hopelessness.

It was a tragic situation. We used to be inseparable: Dante, Lucy, Mikayla and I. But now, we were just fragments of what we once were. Our friendships had dissolved, our love for each other replaced with resentment. As we approached the border, my inner panic flared up again.

"Do you think she'll ever forgive us?" Lucy's voice was barely audible. The once strong alpha female was now a mess.

"I have to believe she will," I replied earnestly. "I can't imagine any other outcome."

"Me too. But I keep having these nightmares that she'll turn on us, making things even more difficult." Lucy's fears were valid, but my mind was consumed with thoughts of finding my lost love. I couldn't accept any other reality.

The transition was as clear as the roads we traveled on. In one moment, we were driving through the Grey pack's territory, and in the next, we found ourselves in our lost region. However, instead of being greeted by familiar sights and sounds of life, we were met with an unsettling sense of danger. It wasn't that the forest or its inhabitants were dangerous; it was the overwhelming aura that permeated the air. It felt like an invisible force claiming domination over this place. It was a strange feeling indeed.

“Can you sense it?” Lucy whispered, her voice barely audible. “The energy?”

I felt it pulsing through my entire being. As we entered our borders, the atmosphere seemed to shift; something was different but still familiar.

“Watch out!” A driver shouted through our mindlink. Suddenly, all one hundred caravans came to a screeching halt. Panic and confusion filled the telepathic connection.

“Wait,” Dante, our Alpha, demanded. “Just wait. Everyone stay in your cars. Do not step outside, no matter what.”

Dante stepped out of his vehicle and carefully made his way toward something on the road ahead of us. As I rolled down my window, I caught a whiff of it; the unmistakable scent of fresh death.

“What does this mean?” Lucy asked me, fear evident in her voice as she sat next to me in the car.

“I don’t know.” I replied honestly.

A sudden howl pierced through the night sky, sending shivers down my spine.

“Oh my god. What was that?” Lucy's frantic voice echoed in the car.

“I don't know.”

“Look!” Someone shouted through the mindlink. “Look!”

As I turned my gaze towards the source of the commotion, I saw a massive black wolf approaching our leader, seemingly unfazed by the number of wolves surrounding it.

Was it one of them, the shadow wolves? I wanted to say yes. As I scanned its size and movements, I could see its body tense up and its posture become rigid as it caught a whiff of something unpleasant. Its gaze quickly shifted towards the caravans, sniffing the air. Dante yelled for it to stop, but the immense wolf paid no attention. It sneered at his words about borders, packs, and avoiding conflict. Desperate to protect our pack, Dante pleaded with the wolf to spare us. How many lives would be lost if we couldn't stop it? The wolf strode forward faster and faster, heading straight for one of the cars. But just before reaching it, the wolf suddenly stopped in its tracks. Slowly, it turned its head from left to right before lying down on the ground. Confusion spread among our pack as we whispered to each other. What just happened? Did Dante somehow get through to the wolf?

At first, I didn't notice the other wolf lurking nearby. As the larger one laid down, a smaller one appeared from behind it. Its fur was jet black, blending into the darkness of the night. Its eyes were almost indistinguishable from its face, deep pools of blackness. It sniffed the air and scanned its surroundings, much like the previous wolf had done. But instead of settling down, it crouched and leaped towards Dante. A haunting howl pierced through the air, and more wolves joined in, all black and intimidatingly large. Among them stood the only one wolf that matched our size, facing off against Dante.