Alpha, I was yours before

CHAPTER 17

MICAH

A force that I couldn’t quite understand picked me up from the dusty floor and my legs began to move of their own accord. Slow, stumbling over my own feet, something between a child just trying to walk, and a zombie trying hard not to trip over. I gradually started losing feeling from my legs to my middle section, to my upper body. A scream tried to utter itself out of my lips, but it was caught short as the strange feeling washed over me. I stumbled across the forests, and everything I walked past shrinkled and withered, be it birds, trees, plants. They just turned dark, froze in half scream, and turned to dust.

In this state, I couldn’t even feel panic. It was just the long growl of hunger in my lower belly. The smell and taste of blood danced on my lips. I really wanted to eat something; meat, strange exotic meat, those rogue wolves.

As the hunger became stronger, my bones started to shift and c***k. Crispy was silent. The spirits had hushed her too. I was morphing into the largest wolf I have ever seen. Heck, Aurelie on seeing me, will be so proud.

The huge trees were getting in my way, so I knocked them down like they were toothpicks. I felt powerful. On top of the world. And not the unseen girl I have been since I was born.

I wanted more of this. I could get addicted to this. Nobody would look down on me like I was a nobody. But I shut the feeling out. That was their tactic, these spirits, so that they could infiltrate me. If I welcomed them, they would stay forever. It was basic occultic knowledge.

CASPIAN

I felt it before I heard it. Something big and monstrous was coming. Something so huge was falling gigantous trees like flies.

“I told you that this was not going to be for the best.” A panicked voice rang behind me, as the shudders from the forest grew more thunderous. Sandston. Somehow, just somehow, fear trickled into my spine. And not about the big beast, or whatever it was, that was yet to reveal itself but for Micah’s safety. Did I really love her by having her go in there and exposing her to danger? I remembered the last time that Seraphina tried to help me. I f*****g lost her, and look at me now, making that foolish mistake again.

A hand gently placed itself on my shoulders. I did not have to look back to know who it was. It was the reassuring figure of Lachlan. “Whatever happens, you know that it was for the best.” He squeezed my shoulder. He also knew that I didn’t like physical touch, but he must have noticed how tense I was.

Dear goddess, please do not let me loose her. Forgive me for this foolishness and I promise to keep her safe for the rest of my life.

“You know how pack politics can be.” Lachlan was still saying. “When a pack here’s that our defenses are weakening, they may join hands with the rogues to bring us down. And it would have caused a domino effect, attracting other rogue wolves, and even tame wolves to take us down.”

I was barely listening to what he was saying, my eyes trained to unnatural movements silhouetted by the dark tree trunks. Whatever the forest was hiding would soon emerge.

“As I speak even,” Lachlan continued. “Word reached to me that Moonhart city heard of our situation and are now gathering their allies to fester more attacks.”

The eerie humming from the trees grew louder, and Sandston’s terrified voice hollered. “Don’t you think we should run before the plague beyond these trees kill us all?”

He could barely finish his sentence when the forest exploded into chaos. Dark shapes burst from between the ancient pines; wolves with mated fur and foam flecking their muzzles, their eyes glowing with unnatural red light. They looked haunted. Possessed. Rabid.

I sprang back. I expected anything but this. I didn’t know what it could be. More rogue wolves?

But these didn’t seem to be ordinary rogues. The scent that rolled off them made my stomach turn: silver and death and something else. Something that smelled like death and dark magic.

The forest spirits had metamorphosed into wolves.

“Impossible,” Lachlan breathed, “rogue wolves don’t hunt in coordinated packs.”

Somewhere behind me, Sandston screamed. The largest rogue had lunged at him with inhuman speed, sending him flying into a nearby tree trunk. The sickening c***k of breaking ribs echoed through the clearing. The other elders shifted into wolves to attack, but we noticed that the hordes of wolves springing out of the dark forests were not even bothered about us. They were heading towards…the east side.

More rogues poured from the treeline, their movement unnaturally coordinated for spirits that would have being driven mad by isolation.

The largest rogue, the one I suspected to be Micah, pawed Sandston for the last time, and bounded towards me. It’s eyes locked onto me with predatory focus. Saliva dripped from it’s muzzle as it stalked forward. I lunged my teeth, baring it in full. It came up to me and nuzzled its fur against mine.

I felt a shiver in my spine. Our gazes met again, and something shifted deep in my soul. It was as if a missing piece of my soul had snapped into place. Heat flooded my veins as I tried to make sense of the strange feeling. The moon bond was the only explanation that could come to my mind. It was finalized just here and now.

One final rub from the wolf and it leapt away.

I howled an instruction across to all my elders that had shifted. We were following the spirit wolves to East Ember.

CASPIAN

When I saw the buildings that were reduced to rubble, my heart legit crashed. I felt weak. I let this happen to my people. All my years of building an oppressive and intimidating reputation reduced to debris. The news of this attack would travel far and wide, and there may even be more recurrent attacks. When this was all over, I’m definitely tightening the security around the east side. Make sure that I rebuild as soon as possible. There will be no laxes or weaknesses anymore.

Would the people still believe in me after this was all over? Would they still deem me worthy, after they had entrusted me with their lives and I failed them woefully?

I never failed, and I did now.

There were crying wails of ambulances as more and more bodies were picked and placed on stretchers.

My wives and all my trained wolves were lying on the dusty ground, helpless, as medical personnel attended to them. The inner city was in lockdown.

“Where are they?” I asked my Gamma wolves. More and more trained soldiers marched from the horizon from my Ember forests. I wanted them to stop.

“They have retreated for now. We have searched everywhere wondering where they could be hiding, but we have not seen them. Usually, when they emerge, they come out stronger and even with more bloodlust.”

I nodded gravely. I hated this. That the rogues have stayed here long enough for us to patternize their behavior.

“And why haven’t you taken them down yet? What are their freaking strengths?”

“I don’t know what spell they are under, but whenever we try to attack them, we end up attacking ourselves instead.”

This was why we needed a mage and a sage in this kingdom. A mage could fight dark forces, a sage would be the city’s healer. Right now, we had none of that. When this is over, I would find Lyla and make sure she would train Micah to the level of a standard mage. This would never repeat itself again. I will make sure of that.

A weak looking and limping Norin came up to me. “Alpha, who are they?”

He nudged towards the queer looking wolves.

“Forest spirits.” I whispered. They had spread out towards the all direction, trying to sniff out the wolves.

The urban development officers of Ember had planned the city, in an open way. There was technically no hiding place, and this was effective in curbing criminal activities.

If they were hiding, they had probably vanished in thin air.

Then I started hearing snarls, and howls from the other side of the rubble, and before my eyes these rogues began to materialize.

“I knew it,” Norin hissed in fear and pain. “I knew that they were not ordinary.”

They stretched their muscles and I stretched mine too, lunging on my front pair of feet, sprung for an attack. But before anybody could say pip, the spirit wolves descended on the burly wolves. It was a very fierce fight, paws clashing and teeth baring in the speed of milliseconds. I wanted to get in too. I wanted to fight, but anytime I got within the sphere, a sharp veil pushed me back. I couldn’t penetrate whatever invisible forcefield that it was.

Then suddenly everything within that sphere turned red. The howls started to sound uncanny, unearthly. I felt a cold wind seep into my spine. I’ve conquered lands, travelled wide, come across every breed of wolves, and never have heard anything sound so chilling.

After a few seconds of hearing the disturbing sound, I realized it for what it was. The rogue wolves were screaming, and the first wave of burning silver hit my nostrils. My throat started to tingle. I pushed my muzzle into the moist earth.

That was what made them scream. The smell of burning silver.

The silver wave was not destroying the wolves, instead it was revealing what lay beneath the dark magic they had wrapped around themselves as an armour: dust, bone and ashes.

The six rogues all disappeared in a vapour of black dust. And when the choking smoke cleared, Micah laid unconscious on the ground, blood trickling from her nose and mouth. Me, Lachlan and Norin shifted into our human forms and I ran over to her prostrate form.

I laid her head gently on my arms as I tried to check her breathing. Nothing.

Lachlan’s eyes, widened by fear, landed on me. “She’s dead,”

My blood pumped two times faster on hearing that, but I wouldn’t let my fear show. Even though, I couldn’t feel her pulse. Even though, she felt colder and heavier by the minute.

Norin and Lachlan retreated, letting me hold her tight to my chest. Suddenly it was Déjà vu, and she was a swaying Seraphina, with a dagger to her chest who I was begging to stay with me.

But this time, I refused to cry. The goddess was not cruel enough to bring her back to me and take her again within a short time.

When I looked up, a small crowd had gathered around me, their faces downcast, like they were at a funeral. “She saved us,” Norin croaked. Even Selena who I thought hated her, had her face down. My eyes were wet.

Then Aurelie stepped from the crowd. “May I have her?” she asked. I softly placed Micah’s pale body in her hands.

“She’s alive,” she confirmed, checking her pulse with professional efficiency. “But channeling that much power…it’s taken a tremendous toll. She needs rest, proper care, and time to adjust to what she has become.”

“What has she become?” I asked quietly.

“The forest spirits still inhabit her. They are locked within,” she whispered back, and I could see the dread flickering in her irises.

I gently swung Micah over my shoulder. “She’s alive,” I smiled to the crowd. They all made way as I walked over to the jeep, running standby for me. I carefully laid Micah inside, and I beckoned to Lachlan. He came closer. I nodded to the burnt rubble around us. “See to it that this be fixed, and security reinstated soonest. I want a report of it, first thing tomorrow morning.”

He nodded gravely and stepped back, shutting the door close for me.

OTHER POV:

The candles guttered as he pressed blood into the rune, watching the black flame coil higher.

“They think those wolves went rogue on their own,” he murmured, voice almost tender. “But chaos is mine to command. Ember city won’t see me coming.”

A whisper not human, slithered through the shadows.

Soon.

He smiled. “Soon.”