The Protector of Wolves

Chapter 6: Alpha Travis

Lacy’s POV

“Actually, it’s Alpha Travis now.” He grins. “And I’m in need of my Luna.”

“You rejected your mate, remember?” I say to him, my voice laced with disgust.

“I chose you, remember?” He mocks me. “And I finally have you.” His lips curl up into a smirk and he takes a slow step towards me. Standing my ground, I glare into his eyes. They have the same possessive look he gave me when he left my father’s office months ago.

“You don’t have me,” I scoff at him. My mind races in a thousand directions trying to figure out what connection Travis has with the hunters.

“Alessia, I don’t like the sound of this.” My wolf cautions me. “Stop talking to him. We need to get away, now.”

I glance at the dagger, still close by and within my reach. My stomach turns at the thought of using wolfsbane against Travis – against a fellow wolf. But if it really was the Moon Goddess telling me to pick it up, as Cecelia claims, maybe Travis is a bigger danger to me than I realize.

“Don’t I? It seems you fell into my trap fairly easily.” Travis shoots me a smug smile as I give him a confused look. If there is one thing that I cannot stand, it’s arrogance. And Alpha Travis is full of it.

“I just knew you would find your way out through the tunnel,” he explains. “The hunters weren’t aware of the secret exit though. They really thought they would smoke you out of the house.” He cackles. “Fools.”

I feel a slight breeze brush through my hair toward Travis. He sniffs the air and then c***s his head slightly to the side, narrowing his eyes at me. “I will admit, I am impressed that you managed to hide your scent...” he utters. “I almost missed catching you leaving the tunnel.”

My mind is still stuck on his words about the hunters and it is taking me a moment to fully process it.

“You...you’re helping the hunters?” I manage to say. I feel as if my mind is going a mile a minute. Hunters and werewolves are enemies. In fact, hunters love killing Alphas, so why would Travis allow them to be so close to him? And if these are dark hunters as I highly suspect, what the hell would Travis be doing with them?

Hah!” Travis laughs. “You could say it’s a mutual agreement.”

“Alessia...” my wolf whines. I slowly take a step back towards the dagger.

“But hey, enough with the questions. It’s time to go,” he says darkly.

Travis quickly reaches out to grab me just as I lunge for the dagger on the ground. As soon as his eyes land on the dagger, I see a hint of fear dance across his face. He quickly steps back before regaining his composure.

“Oh, my dear, sweet, Alessia...” Travis says, his voice as sickeningly sweet as possible. “You wouldn’t use that against me, now would you?” His lower lip flips out into a pout. I can’t decide what I hate more: his smug face or this. Either way, not a good look.

“You’re using hunters against me, so what’s the difference?” I reply, expressionless. “Try to grab me again and see what happens.” I threaten.

He looks at me, his eyes piercing into mine, his composed look now replaced with anger.

“Such an insubordinate Luna. We will have to fix that.” he snarls at me as he shifts and once again lunges towards me. Holding true to my threat, I s***h the dagger at him just as I roll away out of his grasp. Immediately he shifts back into his human form, and I can see that the dagger just barely sliced through the skin on his cheek.

“You sure are resourceful, aren’t you?” He pants at me as he falls to his hands and knees. Lucky for him the cut is superficial. I can tell the wolfsbane has weekend him, but I have no plans to stick around and find out for how long.

As soon as I turn away and run to find my brother, I hear Travis mocking me again, his voice growing fainter the farther I run.

“You can run now, but I will never stop trying to get you until I have you, Alessia. You will be mine.” He growls. “That is a promise.”

“f**k off, Travis!” I shout back at him. To my surprise he starts laughing.

“Don’t forget who brought you here today, protector.” He spits. “You’re not the only resourceful one. I know where you live and I can easily get to you again.”

A chill creeps down my spine.

Travis is a lot of things.

Spoiled.

Arrogant.

Entitled.

Dangerous (or “resourceful” as he claims).

But I never would have thought that power meant so much to him that he would team up with the very people who threaten our species' existence. The dark hunters were there for me today. They attacked my pack and countless members got hurt or lost their lives because of me. Because Travis and the hunters want me. They all know where to find me. My pack will always be a target as long as I am there.

I stop dead in my tracks. My vision starts to go blurry as I feel the tears stinging my eyes.

“We can’t go back home, can we...” My wolf realizes.

“No,” I confirm.

Travis’ POV

Alessia’s little wolfsbane stunt yesterday was clever. Who knew the protector would actually use wolfsbane against another wolf? So much for “protecting” me – she almost killed me!

I open the drawer of my desk and pick up the small vial of lavender-colored liquid, rolling it between my fingers. She will be a lot harder to capture than I thought she would be, as I was rudely made aware of yesterday. The witch gave me this potion to help. I just need Alessia to drink this, and I will have her in the palm of my hands.

As I think of Alessia, my mind goes back to her family. So soon after the “accident,” they have made the announcement of her death this morning. In this announcement, it was revealed to all that she was the protector and was killed by hunters.

I smile to myself as I realize how perfectly my plan is going.

The packs of North America have never had a High Alpha before, but there has been increased interest of late to choose one of the Alphas to inherit this position. When I finally mark her and present her as my mate, I get to tell the whole world that I saved her. Not only will I be mated to the protector, but I will also be her savior. There is no way they wouldn’t make me High Alpha after that.

But, for my plan to work, her family can’t suspect a thing. I dial the number to the Solar Eclipse Pack’s Alpha office, and Elijah quickly picks up.

“My father and I would like to offer our condolences to your family,” I tell him. “I never would have thought any of this could have happened to Alessia.”

Of course, I’m the one who planned all of it, but I’m glad to confirm that Alessia did not go back to her pack. It would be a lot harder to get to her, and the more werewolves that get killed, the less I will have control over when I eventually become High Alpha. And bonus, having her pack think she died also makes it easier for me. No one will be looking for her – except for me. I smile as I lift my whiskey glass up to my lips and sip, the cool alcohol burning my throat.

“Thank you, Travis,” is all he says.

“And if you need any assistance, any extra warriors, please do not hesitate to ask,” I say. Now that I think about it, it would be perfect to have some eyes on Elijah’s pack in case Alessia does decide to go back. “They are ready to leave at a moment’s notice. How many would you like? 10? 20?” I ask, trying to pressure him to accept.

“Eh...” Elijah sighs, hesitating before he continues. “Actually, I hate to burden you, but we did lose a few of our warriors to the hunters and the remaining are injured or exhausted. Just until we get through the next few days? I want to make sure we are prepared in case the hunters come back.”

“Of course,” I smirk.