The Myth of the Wolves

Chapter Seven: Alpha Damius

The fire had turned to coals by the time the storm subsided. Halo awoke with Damius’s cloak wrapped around her. Damius and Sess were just outside the cave, chatting awkwardly as they chomped on some dried jerkey. Ezra was not present.

Damius turned to see Halo staring at them. She looked like she just woke up with her cheeks flushed and tired eyes. Her dark hair was a mess on her head. He smiled at the sight of her. She looked extra beautiful in that state, and he hoped to see her like this every morning.

Damius bit down on his jerkey, fishing in his pack for some more, and then handed it to Halo. She smiled in thanks as she took the meat. She nibbled on it cautiously, unsure of its texture or taste.

Halo heard some footsteps approaching just before she heard Ezra’s voice accompanying them. “The damage doesn’t look too bad. Some trees had fallen overnight. We should make it back to camp before nightfall, assuming we don’t stop.”

She was relieved. She didn’t want to admit it, but she felt like this is where she belonged, with Damius. Together they could finally talk and create some sort of plan. They had a lot to talk about.

She felt Sess lightly grab her forearm. Taking her aside, he whispered quietly into her ear, “is this what you want to do?”

She nodded, feeling the heated look Damius was giving them. She whispered back, “this is where I need to be. I am safe now, so you can decide if you would like to join us or go back to your camp.”

Sess looked hurt, “of course I will follow you, but you cannot tell another soul about anything I have told you.”

Sess knew that Damius and Ezra could easily overhear him with their werewolf senses, but he had to be sure that Halo did not relay his identity to them, or at least what she knew about him.

“Of course,” she agreed. She was happy he decided to follow her. She let her excitement overwhelm her for a moment as she hugged him tightly. “I’m glad you’re staying,” she put his insecurity as ease. Their relationship was complicated, and they still had a lot of figuring out to do.

Damius pulled her away from Sess by her waist, no longer able to handle them touching.

He pulled her to his hard chest, resting his hands around her waist lightly. Even though she wanted more than that touch, she pulled away from him, still angry about the sins he had confessed to her before.

Damius clenched his fists at his side to stop himself from forcing her to be held by him. He wanted Sess to know she was his, but he knew that wasn’t the right reason to touch her. She deserved more respect than that.

“Let’s get going,” Damius commanded.

Halo went over to the fire, stomping on it to be sure it was out.

They traveled for most of the day in silence, Damius and Ezra on alert in case the rogues showed up. Sess and Halo had explained their encounter with the rogues earlier, informing them that the rogues were sent north, but they were still watchful.

“Once we arrive at camp, I will fill you in on the current situation,” Damius explained, not wanting to speak too loudly or in front of Sess.

“Okay,” Halo responded. She was slightly out of breath trying to keep up with three large men.

Every now and then she would trip over fallen branches. She stepped into a particularly thick branch, being unable to jump over it, and just as she was about to fall into a ditch that was hidden beneath it, Damius grabbed hold of her upper arm, pulling her away from it. He swore in annoyance, releasing her.

“I have no idea how you managed to outrun three rogues. Did you just happen to fall into the right ditch?”

Halo remembered falling into a mud puddle, but she laughed, despite herself. “Something like that.”

Damius remembered finding the mud and smirked himself. “Although your ankles seem to be doing a lot better. I imagine being exposed to the moon has helped to strengthen your wolf, healing you.” He was going to ask about the claw marks, but he decided that was a discussion best kept for later in private.

Halo had tried holding Sess’s hand the way back, but after several heated arguments about the topic with Damius, she had given in and allowed him to lead her in the dark. He explained that her night vision would likely improve the stronger her wolf got, but in the meantime, she would have to rely on them for certain things.

By the time they reached the camp, darkness had descended hours before. Ezra did not consider that Halo was significantly slower than the rest of them, having not trained and living in the mines her entire life. He was therefore off in his time estimate.

They barreled into the camp like a stampede of clumsy elephants due to Halo’s inexperience with the terrain. They had to admit that she was improving quickly though. Sess had been giving her pointers every now and then.

“Bryce!” Damius called out.

Bryce jumped to his feet from his position by the fire, hastily running over. “Yes, Alph-, I mean Damius.” He responded

Sess laughed out loud. “She knows you’re an alpha, dude.”

Damius was getting more and more annoyed with Sess. He turned to Halo, “I didn’t want to overwhelm you, and that was something I was going to talk to you about tonight.”

“I’m not even sure what an alpha is, so it doesn’t matter.” She responded. She didn’t care for titles.

Bryce’s mouth was open. Both by how Sess was speaking to his alpha and by Halo’s complete obliviousness to the power rolling off Damius. She seemed completely unaffected while everyone else around him felt extreme unease, but despite that, Sess was able to speak to him like a comrade.

“Prepare some food for us. Sess,” he gestured to Sess, “can bunk with you or Ezra. You guys figure it out.” He dismissed them and guided Halo to his tent in the middle of the camp.

Sess followed close behind Halo, unwilling to leave her alone with Damius.

“That was not an invitation to follow.” Damius lost his patience. He turned and sneered at Sess.

Sess just shrugged, not moving.

Damius used his alpha command. “Sess, go find Bryce and sort out your sleeping arrangements.”

Sess’s face looked worried, and he mouthed a silent “sorry” to Halo before leaving.

“I’m fine,” she said to his back. She turned to Damius, “I wish you would be nicer to him.”

“Don’t care,” he responded. Then he walked into his tent, completely ignoring her. She considered walking away right then, but she decided that they did need to talk.

She let herself into the tent, sitting down in the cot she had sat before.

“He’s not your mate,” he asserted. He sat down in the chair across from her, stretching out his legs. He folded his arms over his chest,

“How would you know that?” She asked.

“Because I am your mate, Halo,” he was annoyed. “Surely, you can feel it too?”

Halo leaned back onto the palms of her hands. “I only just learned what a mate was today.”

“Did he explain mates to you?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“Why would he explain something like that to you?” His patience was growing thin.

“He told me he thinks that I am his mate,” Halo explained honestly.

“And how did you respond?”

“Why does that matter? Why are you so angry?”

Damius stood up, closing the distance between them. His eyes were dark and dangerous. The pastels of his iris struggling to break through the forest greens. He leaned down, his hands on either side of her thighs, resting on the bed beside her. “Because I don’t share my things.”

Halo had had enough. She pushed up from her palms, closing the distance between them even more. His eyes looked dark, angry, but even more, there was something in them that she couldn’t read. “I’m not a thing, Damius.”

His eyes dropped down to her full lips, and then back up to her grey eyes. He could read the confusion in her eyes, and he had every intention of wiping away any confusion about his intentions with her.

Just when her eyes dropped to his mouth, they heard the flap of the tent open. She pushed him away quickly, her face flushed.

Damius growled in frustration as he turned to see Sess entering the tent, looking between them. “My sleeping arrangements are sorted.”

Halo couldn’t help but laugh. Her sweet chuckles filling the tent. Sess smiled at her, but Damius was beyond the ability to find anything humorous right now, especially since Sess had made those angelic noises come from her.

Damius sat down on the cot next to Halo, exasperated. He motioned for Sess to take the chair.

“There is something concerning that we should all be aware of,” Damius began. “There is at least one person in this camp who is feeding information to my father.”

Halo remembered he had previously told her that he was the next alpha of The Dark Moon Pack. “The current alpha is your father, I assume?” She asked.

“Yes,” he explained, “I’ve declared myself the alpha, but only in name for now. I intend to replace him by force.”

Sess’s eyes widened, “so you’re declaring war on your father?”

“Essentially, yes. I won’t be able to claim my title until I can plan the attack, which I can’t do until we remove the traitor from our camp.” Damius ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “I’ve been busy trying to retrieve Halo, but I did set up some traps. I should be able to catch him in a trap tomorrow night.

I wonder... I know for certain only you and Halo are not the traitor.” He looked at Sess expectantly, “would you come with me when I confront the traitor tomorrow? There might be more than one.”

Sess nodded seriously. “Of course. Anything to keep Halo safe.”

Damius clenched his jaw in annoyance, but at least he had someone with him in case things went complicated tomorrow.

“I want to go too,” Halo spoke up.

“No,” the men both responded in unison.

“I would feel better if I were with you two,” she explained.

“You’re not trained to handle anything if it all goes wrong,” Sess reasoned.

“You would just make us vulnerable if you were there.” Damius agreed.

“Is Ezra going with you? What about Bryce?” She asked.

Damius’s expression turned grim. “I couldn’t rule them out completely, so they are unaware of this trap.”

“Why would you have people in your camp that you don’t trust?” Sess asked.

“It’s not that they are untrustworthy. It’s that I have trust issues,” Damius explained. “Besides, I’m certain I know who it is. I just didn’t want to get cocky with my guess.”

“Oh?” Sess asked, eyebrow raising.

“An older man named Gregory. I always thought of him as an unrelated uncle, but I know his loyalty always lied with my father.”

“You don’t think he views you as his little nephew?” Halo asked.

“It’s not that. I know we are close, but,” he thought for a moment, “he’s the only one here who is on personal terms with my father.”

Sess nodded, accepting his reasoning. “In any case, I expect we will find out tomorrow,” Sess yawned out.

Just then they heard someone outside the tent, “Alpha.”

“Come in,” he ordered.

A short man entered the tent, carrying three hot bowls of stew. “You people out here love stew, huh?” Halo joked.

“What do you mean out here?” Sess asked, as the man left the tent, closing the flap securely behind him.

“You know,” she gestured around her, “people not in the caves.”

They all laughed.

Damius explained, “stew is something easy, quick, and it can be stretched to feed many people at a time. I will show you some real food soon.”

Halo yawned sleepily. The last few days were catching up to her.

Sess stood, “should I take you to your tent?”

Damius smirked. “No need,” he responded. “She’s already there.”

Sess looked astonished. “This is the alpha tent. Where will you sleep?”

Damius’s smirk got even brighter. “Oh, don’t worry about me, Sess.”

“I’m not leaving her here with you. Especially not overnight.”

“I’m afraid you have no choice, Sess.” The way Damius said his name was venomous.

Halo stood, glancing at the tent door. “I’m sure I can make my own decisions.”

Sess looked triumphant as he held out his hand for her, but Damius smacked his hand down.

“You can sleep here, Halo,” Damius reasoned, “I will sleep on the floor.”

She was about to argue, but Damius lifted his hand to silence her. “This is a camp filled with men. Most of which are unmated. I will not allow you to sleep away from me.”

Halo sat back down, exasperated. “Fine, but I’m tired now.”

Sess looked defeated. “I’ll be just a couple tents down if you need me. Yell and I will hear you.” He couldn’t explain why he felt so protective over her, but he knew Damius could just order him away, even for forever, if he pressed the issue too much.

Damius didn’t want to explain that he wouldn’t hear a thing from his tent, no matter how loud they were. He had had a witch cast a spell on the alpha and meeting tents to soundproof them, leaving space just outside the door so people could announce themselves. It was useful for tactical meetings and general privacy.

Sess left the tent, leaving Damius to close it properly behind him.

By the time Damius turned around, Halo was sleeping on his cot. She looked so peaceful and beautiful when asleep, the shadows from the candles making her lashes look extra dark under her eyes. He sighed, grabbing an extra pillow and blanket, making a bed on the floor beside her. He slept right up against the cot because even if she didn’t agree to sharing the cot with him, he never said how close he would be sleeping. Since the cot was raised only a few inches, they were basically sleeping next to each other.

He wrapped his arm around her and inhaled her sweet vanilla and lavender scent before drifting off into the best sleep he had ever had.

The Traitor.

Halo slept so well last night that she didn’t even complain about waking up in Damius’s arms. Although, she would have to yell at him about it later. They had issues that needed to be sorted out before she could even think about him as her mate. She wondered lightly if Sess was actually her mate because she did feel a pull to him.

Deciding on her plan of action, and after given privacy to wash up, she left the tent to find Sess. She didn’t have to look far as Sess was looking for her as well.

She smiled at him, “could you teach me how to defend myself?”

“I was just going to suggest some training today.” He looked relieved and excited to have her propose training with him.

Damius was too busy in meetings and scouting the area throughout the day to follow Halo around like the lost puppy he became around her. She did notice, however, that Bryce was keeping close eyes on them. Every now and then Ezra would check in on them also.

Most of their training was stamina building. She was in great shape from the mining she had done for half her life, but compared to the warriors, she had a long way to go.

Sess had taught her some basic defensive stances, but he also made her run around the camp basically the entire day. “Every day we will work mostly on your stamina, so get used to this,” he prepared her.

They finished up training by stretching. It was getting dark out, and Sess had to meet up with Damius for their meeting. She was told to stay in the alpha tent until they returned. She had an urge to go against anything Damius asked her to do, so she was still considering this while stretching.

Halo.

Halo snuggled into the cot. Damius had left her with several books to keep busy, and she couldn’t help but enjoy the quiet night. She fought against her nature to go looking for Damius, and she resigned herself to reading books on strategy and finance. Sadly, that was all they had for reading material, but she always loved to learn, wanting to not only expand her physical body but her mind.

It had been several hours already, and she was growing worried. Damius said they should only take an hour at most. Many possibilities ran through her mind, all of them awful. She set down her book and breathed in, “Okay, Halo, calm down. Sometimes things go longer than planned.”

Just then she heard a howl of pain in the distance. She stood, turning her ear in the direction of the howl. Surely that wasn’t Damius howling in pain, right? She paced several times before she heard another howl; this one sounded absolutely tragic. It was no longer her choice. She had to go find out.

Running out of the tent, she was immediately stopped by Ezra. “You need to stay here.” He commanded, letting authority flow from his command. She was unaffected.

“Did you hear those howls? What’s going on?”

“Everything is going according to plan. It just got delayed.” He comforted her, seeing concern swimming in her moon-grey eyes.

“How do you know that?” She argued.

His eyes glazed over for a second, and she wondered what was wrong with him. “Hello?” She asked, losing patience.

His eyes turned back to normal. “I just mind linked him. He is fine and told me to tell you to stay in the tent.”

Halo realized this man was either losing his mind or lying to her. “Oh-kay,” she replied.

Another painful howl sounded in the distance, and that was all it took for her to take off in its direction. She could no longer stop her feet from moving.

Ezra had grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back. “I am under alpha command to make sure you stay here.”

“I don’t give a damn.” She was starting to shake with worry. She could hear more howling and yelping. She had to get to Damius fast. She yelled, “let me go! You do not command me.” Ezra released her instantly, to her surprise. A confused look crossed his face, and his eyes glazed over again. Halo took that opportunity to run toward the howling.

Ezra followed close behind her, not stopping her.

Damius.

“Dammit, Halo is on her way here.” Damius swore.

Him and Sess had been torturing Damius’s Gamma, Bryce, who had turned out to be the traitor, much to their surprise. They had intercepted a message intended for the traitor and had replaced it with a place and time for a meeting.

He didn’t think he could t*****e Bryce in front of Halo, so he wrapped it up as quickly as he could.

“You have one last chance to tell me anything useful, Bryce,” he warned coldly. His forest green eyes were piercing and filled with hatred.

Sess understood what was at stake. He understood that Bryce had been feeding his father not only information about himself, but he had been feeding him information about Halo. They both desperately forced whatever they could out of him, but he was hard to break. His alpha command did not work because his father had alpha commanded Bryce to not speak about this subject.

“I…” Bryce was terrified, but it seemed like he did not have any useful information that he could squeeze out of him.

“Well, it looks like your usefulness to me has expired, Bryce.” His cold voice echoed around them as he shifted his hand into a claw and slit Bryce’s throat, unceremoniously tossing his limp body aside.

Halo.

“Well, it looks like your usefulness to me has expired, Bryce.” Halo could hear Damius’s cold voice as she stumbled into their meeting spot.

Damius turned his hand into a claw, and he slit Bryce’s throat, tossing him aside like he was nothing.

Halo gasped, holding her hands to her mouth.

Sess ran to her while Damius wiped blood off his hands, onto his pants. “Take care of this, Ezra.” He ordered casually, walking past Halo and back toward the camp.

“You okay?” Sess asked softly, trying to meet her eyes.

She nodded her head, unable to speak. She had just witnessed a gruesome murder. “Why would he kill him?” She asked, her voice cracking. She had liked Bryce. He was pleasant and his smile always made her smile.

Sess looked grim. “He was the one feeding information to Alpha Dome about you.”

“Alpha Dome?” Halo was numb.

“Damius’s father,” he explained.

“He just… killed him?”

“Let’s head back, and we can talk about this at the camp,” Sess suggested while Ezra picked up Bryce’s body and headed in the opposite direction.

She followed Sess back to camp, settling next to the fire. Everyone else had already turned in, and Damius was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s Damius?” Halo asked.

“Probably helping Ezra or cleaning up.”

“I don’t understand why he killed him.”

Sess held her hand. “If he simply just let him go it would send a bad message to the rest of the camp. Not only that, but Alpha Dome would have a powerful ally with all sorts of information that he was not yet able to send him.”

“So, you agree with his actions?” Halo looked accusatorily at Sess.

“Yes,” he replied. “If it means you are kept safe.”

“My life is worth more than Bryce’s? Why should he die to protect me?”

Damius’s voice boomed behind her. “You forget that he was an aggressor. He put himself in such a position where you were in danger,” he paused, “and yes, you are more important than Bryce.” Damius sat next to her.

“Wasn’t he your beta?” Halo asked.

“My father had appointed him long ago. We grew up together, so I trusted him and loved him as a brother.” Damius looked into Halo’s eyes as he said this. She could see the hurt.

Images of Bryce’s throat being slit played over and over in her mind. She would have nightmares for a long time.

“I didn’t mean for you to see that, Halo,” Damius apologized. “Why wouldn’t you listen to Ezra?”

She explained, “I kept hearing yelping and howling, and I thought you were hurt.” Her voice was so quiet it was almost inaudible, but Damius had heard it clearly.

He moved closer to her, his hands reaching for her. Sess had let go of her, kissing her forehead tenderly before leaving them alone.

“What I did tonight was to protect you,” he explained. He lifted her chin, making her grey eyes meet his. He could see the depths of her greys. He could see the sadness and the hope swimming in her orbs.

“I’m not sure I can forgive you for everything.” She confessed.

“We will take it slowly, Halo. I will be as patient as you need so long as you don’t lose hope in me, and even then, I will still probably beg for your forgiveness for eternity.”

She smiled then, imagining him chasing after her like a little werepuppy. “There are things I need to ask you, but I don’t think I can bear the answers just yet,” she said.

“I will be here waiting when you are,” he reassured her, wondering how his past had hurt her and hating himself for it.

She stood up, making her way to their tent for the night. She looked over her shoulder at him, “well are you coming?”