Alpha, I was yours before

Controlling the Forest Spirits

Loud thuds woke me up. I flipped my eyes open, and I could hear a dull ringing from somewhere in the east wing. Along with sounds of boots running, clangs of guns, doors thudding shut, men roaring commands from one end of the estate to the other. I sat up very quickly, a sour feeling settling in my belly. My thighs felt violated, like someone had wringed them to the point of absolute pain. But when I remembered the afternoon with the alpha, I understood the painful feeling. He had such a huge member, and here I was now feeling so sore. As I tried to get on my feet, I knew that I was in serious trouble. I leaned into the bed, trying to balance my weight between my two feet. I found a soothing point and proceeded to limp toward the door in order to find out the cause of the commotion. Before I could open the door, Aurelie banged it open.

Aurelie is easily one of the calmest people I know. If she is scared or angry, its very hard to know. She hides a lot in the depth of her silver eyes. But even I had to spring back from the urgency in her eyes and footsteps. I watch puzzled as she walked further into my room, holding a silver bowl.

“Ibuprofen,” she said when her gaze held my questioning eyes. “The Alpha said I should bring it to you.”

“What is going on?” I asked, feeling the castle shake underneath my wobbly feet.

“The alpha said that you should stay in your quarters until the storm is over. That is his instruction,” was her vague reply as she tried to walk past me. I held her back. “Tell me what is going on. I feel so restless. What storm?”

She huffed, picking my fingers from her sleeves where I held on tightly to her. “Rogue wolves. They are attacking the Ember east…”

“…the place with the least security control.” I whispered under my breath.

“…police are heavily involved and they are trying to use armed warfare to bring them down. But these rogues are from a species that have not been widely studied, and so it is hard to know their achilles heel. Long story short, they are winning and we are losing, and the alpha is bringing in the help of his special armed forces.”

She pushed me gently on the bed. “The wild look in your eyes, I know that feeling. You cannot get involved. The reason the rogues are here is to take you.”

I sat up quickly, ignoring the sharp pain in my upper thighs. I used my leg to block her from scurrying away. “The other wives, are they involved in this fight?”

“Yes, they are trained wolves.” Her index finger jabbed my chest. “And you are not, and therefore you will stay here.”

I watched helplessly as she flitted away from the room. My back hit the soft mattress with a sigh, and I studied the designs in the ceiling as my mind ran frantically to and fro. Then it hit me. My parents lived in the east of Ember city and they would be among the first line of people that the rogues would attack. I sat up again. Alarmed.

Gareth. I had promised to see him, and I didn’t. What if I didn’t get to see him again? What if my nonchalance cost me the life of my younger brother?

When I limped to the door, I discovered that the door was locked. I fumed. How dare she? How dare they?

I found a clothes pin and I picked the lock. Exquisite handle design, but mundane lock all the same.

The hallways were eerily quiet, like all sign of life was destroyed. My steps echoed. Where was everybody?

I heard some hushed whispers and I moved towards that direction. The throne room. The Alpha and the 24 elders were conversing. At their backs, were panels which the head of security was giving them feedback on what was happening out there. In between the whispers, I could hear things like “200 houses breached. Losses are abysmal. The wolves are growing stronger with each kill.”

Come home. A voice whispered within me.

From their worried tones, and the grave expressions on their faces, I knew that the defense team were waning in their attacks.

Then he looked up and our eyes locked. His frown dug deeper. “Aurelie, I would kill her.” I could hear the swear from over here.

I treaded further into the throne room and all the elders were looking at me with utmost disgust and disdain painted on their faces.

“I couldn’t…” I stuttered. “It’s not her fault. I needed to see you.”

“Now is not the time.” An elder cut in rashly. His face spun to the Alpha. “Tell her to leave now. We have matters more pressing.”

“I can help.” I took a step forward. My hands fumbled with the edge of my skirt. 25 angry eyes accessing me was not helping my frazzled nerves at all.

“No you can’t.” The aggressive elder stood up and I flinched.

“Sandston, easy.” The Alpha cautioned him. Then his eyes smiled at me. “I’m warmed by the fact that you want to help, but we have the most intricate intelligence of all North Europe at our service.”

“Another 20 more houses breached.” The head of security spoke through the screen panels. I could see the absolute terror in is eyes, and a trail of blood slowly dripping down his chin. “Alpha, what is the plan B?”

He faced me now, his expression solemn. “Go on, tell us.”

The elder spat in annoyance. “You’re really going to take advice from her?” his beady fingers pointed at me.

Seriously, what was wrong with this guy? What agenda did he have against me? At least, the other elders looked at me with mixed contempt, and curiosity.

I could see the fury in the Alpha eyes as he looked at him. “Are you now questioning my authority? Have I ever stopped you from uttering whatever you had to say?”

The elder flicked stoned glares from the Alpha to me and back.

“Bring a solution in, and I would really listen to you.” The Alpha finished, then nodded at me to continue.

I breathed in deeply.

Two nights ago, when I was reading Seraphina’s diary, something came out to me. I was going to pitch that hidden idea of hers, here and now.

“The forest spirit. We can wield it to become our friend, and not our enemy. Since it’s a spirit of bloodshed, we can employ its dark forces to take down the rogues.”

The entire hall was silent. Some looked at me like I was completely stupid, why some seemed stunned.

The Alpha exhaled, apparently disappointed. He flicked through the screen in front of him, bored. “It is not advisable to incur the help of dark forces, and bend them to our will.”

“Mindless beasts, that is what they are.” I pressed. “What they recognize is the smell of blood and fear. They can be trained to be our killing machines, controlled to a desired outcome.”

“Fair point,” an elder chipped in. “but still not feasible because we do not know of any dark sage, or where to get one at short notice.”

I shrugged, trying to look as nonchalant as I can. “You are staring at one right in front of you.”

Then the table of 25 broke into an uproar.

I heard laughter. “She really thinks that we are going to entrust something as big as that into her hands.”

More laughter. “She must really think we are stupid, look at her, telling us that she can control a horde of malevolent spirits.”

Only the Alpha looked serious. “If it goes wrong, we are all dead.”

“I know.” I gulped inwardly, but made sure that it didn’t show. “I know what I am doing.”

He stood up. “Have the jeep ready for me,” he motioned to his Beta. “We are going to Ember forest.” All the elders sprang up at once.

“Pure foolishness,” Sandston snapped.

“That I know. But my people are dying, and this is the only option I have for now.”

He held onto Caspian, a pleading tone in his voice. I was shocked that he could be so humble. “With the forest spirits, the stakes are even higher.”

Then Caspian did something I never expected. He smiled at me, put his arms around me to shield me from their sea of arguments. “But I trust her, and that is all that matters.”

My heart melted. The look in his eyes, the warmth in his voice.

We were at his jeep when I told him. “Alpha, I do not need your help. I do not need you to follow me.”

He looked at me, flabbergasted. “Do you know how dangerous it is for you to be in their alone?” He looked at the veil between Ember and the forest. “I am your protection. It would be a wound to my conscience if you were to be harmed.”

“I didn’t ask for you protection. I only asked for your permission.” We locked gazes. He genuinely looked concerned. I was touched. “I have looked face to face with those spirits and they did not harm me. They only chased me…”

To be possessed by me. My mind flickered to Seraphina’s thought she had penned down in her diary.

I saw the fear that flickered in the sea of his blue eyes. “Be safe. Come back to me. Those spirits are murderous.”

Once I stepped past the first tall tree, I started running. I didn’t know where the next step would lead me, but I ran by intuition. I know that I had a bit of Seraphina in me, and she knew the path to that mystery cabin like the back of her hand. And soon enough, I was there.

The silence. The reverence. The eerie chill. The forest was quiet in this area. Deadly quiet. It was uncanny. And in the midst of the stillness stood the dark, crumbling cabin. The structure that Seraphina had bound the Forest spirits into.

I walked up to the cabin. Silent as possible. Normally my presence would summon them. But to have full control, where they would do my bidding; I would have to do a ritual.

I was inside. They saw me and stirred. I locked my fear down deep into my gut. If they sensed it, they would attack. They feed on fear.

They swirled around me. Snapped. Lunged back. They tried to choke me, fill my heart with all of the things I feared so that they would find a weak spot and attack. I didn’t let them.

I drew the pentagram on the floor with an ancient chalk I found in her diary. In pentagon tip, I placed a mystical stone. The first was the stone of embers, the second was the abyssal stone, the third was the void stone, the fourth was the grave stone and the fifth was the whispering stone.

I dug out a scraped piece of paper that I had torn from a page of her diary. It was where she wrote down the spells for control, one that she had made herself after frequent interactions with the Forest spirits and studying their behavior.

I started chanting with the ember stone, asking it to consume me as an offering to communicate with the dead, since they were dead spirits. Once a fire had surrounded me for protection, they started to become restless.

Then I moved on to the abyssal stone. It was to create a spell of forgetfulness, to make them forget who they are, and that they were evil. So that they would become easily compliant and docile.

The void stone allowed them to take a more present form, in the physical realm so that they could be more unhinged and volatile.

Then finally the whispering stone. I didn’t know how to use it, and I stumbled over the spell.

Next thing I knew, I heard a loud chittering sound. A strong wind from nowhere pushed me down flat on the floor. I started convulsing and black ink spread over my irises.

Terror flooded my body as I finally understood what was happening.

I came here to wield them to my will.

I left as their vessel.