Breaking The Alpha's Command

Day 13-3

The two stood in silence for a minute.

“Katrina said-“

“She lied Theo. She does that.”

Another minute of silence.

“I have a whole load of questions, but it’s best if we keep away from prying ears.” Bella gestured to Theo, who was busy staring at the guest houses looking for a curtain twitch or anything. She nudged him.

“Yes, you’re right Bella. After you Sera.” He pushed open the doors and Sera walked in to a spectral sight. The floors were a smooth off white ceramic, with a vein of grey marbled through it. Straight ahead a marble staircase, similar to the walls out front, topped with delicate blue carvings of nature: trees, flowers, even water was somehow carved. A grand gold table sat in the entrance with fresh bouquet of flowers, from the garden out front. Sera noticed they were the same flowers Lucy had been watering the day before. Off to the left was the kitchen, unmistakable for the aroma that wafted through the air. A slight vanilla hung around, with lemon and then there was roasted chicken and parsnips. It reminded Sera of a good old fashioned Christmas dinner. Sensing her hunger Theo walked forward.

“I’m having the chefs prepare a meal, a traditional roast. As you’re awake and about I thought it would be good for all the survivors to come together.”

“That’s a lovely idea Theo, but may be tense between Katrina and I.”

“We will hold you at either end of the house, don’t worry.” He said with a smile. Sera continued to look around, to the right were gigantic double sliding doors leading to the lounge room which held a pool table, about 5 sofas, a multitude of armchairs and a great big fat TV projector screen. Her eyes widened for the first time in many a year.

“I got sick of everyone complaining they couldn’t watch a sports game or experience a proper movie night. Got that fitted and the harmony in the pack has never been the same.” He crossed his arms and stood proud, a simple act that had a big impact. “Shall we?”

Bella had walked past the marble staircase case to an almost hidden corridor, which led off into different offices Sera presumed. Judging by the hand carved names on the doors this was where Bella, Peter and Theo worked. At the end of the corridor was the Board room, decorated similarly with midnight blue, azure and sky colours all epitomised in a moon painting on the centre of the table. Bella opened the Alphas door on the right and Sera followed her in, Theo’s office was just as big as the board room. It stretched the entire right side of the Manor House and had windows along its back right side, conveniently facing the guest rooms. The windows continued to the back, behind his desk, which overlook a hillside before a steep drop and then the deep, blue sea.

“Wow. Compensating much?” Bella choked back a laugh at Sera’s comment.

“This use to be the old board room, until the pack grew bigger and we extended out to accommodate more. My father turned it into his study.” On the remaining wall stood books. Hundreds of books that lined fro, one end to the other, from top to bottom. Not quite a wall of books as Bella pulled one out and a drinks cabinet appeared behind 3 rows. Handy little hiding space.

“What happened to your father?” Sera noticed him tense.

“He was killed, with my mother, defending a nearby pack from a rogue attack.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Theo took her as sincere, if anything Sera would know about loss. Bella had poured all 3 a drink and took a seat on the sofa, Sera accepted the drink happily at on the window benches admiring the never-ending horizon. Theo was trying to decide between formal office chair, or more relaxed tub chairs for the guests. He chose relaxed. After all this conversation was going to be anything but relaxing.

“Shall we get to it then?” Sera suggested as she sipped her drink, wincing slightly after realising Bella can be a bit of a heavy pourer.

“Why are you willing to talk? I mean now. Jokes aside George made that bet for the game, Theo agreed and he’s a man of his word.”

“Because there’s some things you need to know regardless, and with the Guild coming we all need to be prepared. But we play evenly, you ask a question and I ask a question. Sound fair?” Bella looked to Theo who nodded in agreement. “Good. Alphas first.”

Theo thought carefully, he had many questions in need of answers but how to set the tone.

“Start at the beginning is best, how did you get there?”

“Simple answer, I woke up there.” She looked over her shoulder to the guest houses. “I’ve only told this once, to Doc. The others known I was brought there but not what came before.” A slight pitter patter of rain twinkled off the windows. “It was raining that day. My husband was driving back from a weekend away... something big ran into the road. Like a bear, or thinking back with what I know now, could have been a Lycan wolf. We couldn’t avoid hitting it and I remember the sound the car made. The crash of metal. I could hear my bones break. I could taste my blood. I blacked out, and I have vague images of being dragged out the car and away from my husband. I awoke in the middle of a forest, no one was around and I saw a rundown shack. It looked more like a hunting cabin really, one that hadn’t been used in years.”

“Sera...” Bella began. Sera raised her hand gently.

“By the time I managed to crawl myself over the rain had stopped mercifully. I’d never really been injured or in an accident before, and I am certainly no doctor but something was broken. Arm, leg, who knows. I don’t know how long I was there for, there was a warmth against my face and I thought it was the Sun. When I opened my eyes there was a f**k off mountain sized beast thing in front of me. It wasn’t any bear I had ever seen, and wasn’t any Lycan wolf that Doc had heard of. Either way it turns out I’d interrupted his hibernation.” Sera chuckled and twiddled the glass in her hand awkwardly. “I tried to shuffle away but it dug it’s claw into my leg, there was a broken chair leg next to me so I whacked it.”

Theo laughed. “Sorry. You hit an angry creature with only a chair leg to protect you?”

“It worked. I must have caught a weak spot because it recoiled away and I took my chance. I gathered any strength I had and ran. This is where I realised that something in my leg was indeed broken. I wasn’t going to be quick enough and made peace with death strangely... There in the back end of nowhere, in the pouring rain, broken, bloodied, and alone. I was going to die.” The office was silent, you could only hear the rain now pounding against the windows. Theo wondered to himself where this storm came from as there was nothing in the weather reports. “The beast caught up with me, slashed at my back and sides. I remember feeling its claws pierce my skin and then... black. I always wondered what the afterlife would be like. I didn’t think it would be a maroon red room with a 4 poster bed but still.” A soft ripple of laughter made its way round the room. “I woke up in one of the guest rooms in the Red Sun Pack, a lovely Gamma politely explained who came in shortly after I woke. They said that the doctor on site did their best but I’d be left with lifelong scars of my rejection. I had no bloody clue what any of that meant. I was escorted down to the main entrance room and through a maze of hallways to an oak door with solid gold lettering that read:

Lord Kristopher Tyreen

17th Alpha – Red Sun Pack

I’ll never forget that moment. He was standing behind his desk, adorned in a stunning black suit with red lapels, perfectly matched with his tie and pocket square. He was the epitome of style, something out of a James Bond movie almost.” There was a longing I her voice that made Theo and Bella feel uneasy, shared by a look between the two. “He introduced himself, explained that his men found me in the woods and brought me there to be fixed up. They thought I was a rejected mate, and he kept going on and on about how this Goddess sometimes chooses wrong and we all deserve a second chance. I asked to go home to my husband, that’s when Tyreen realised I was human. Turns out his men found my husband, there was nothing they could do, I was a widow.” She hadn’t shed a single tear in all this telling, another fact that made Theo and Bella feel uneasy. But embarrassed for this woman lost her husband, and freedom, who were they to judge how she felt?

“And you stayed?” Bella broke the silence.

“Tyreen was charming, and I fell very quickly for him. The longer I stayed the more I found out about your world. The intense feelings I had for him, as well as how instantly they started, I realise to be the mate bond. It’s like a drug, the more you have of it the further you fall under its spell. I didn’t want to leave.”

“I know the feeling.” Bella grimaced. Sera felt hurt on Docs behalf, if he could see her his mate was hurt...

“I was in utopia, or so I thought. It didn’t take long for me to realise Tyreen was ruthless. I woke up to screaming, blood curdling, ear piercing screaming, coming from outside. I saw a woman being dragged, beaten by the Gammas, all standing around laughing and taking it in turns to hit her. I went running out, demanding them to stop. Ordering them to. And they laughed in my face. One went to hit me and something took over me, I slipped his punch grabbed the knife from his belt and sliced his throat open. And like that I had killed someone. They all went silent before shifting into their wolves and circling around me, taunting, lashing forward and catching me just enough to bleed but not enough to damage. A voice bellowed out for them to stop and they shifted back. I saw Tyreen and thought he would stop this.” Only know did her voice break. “He laughed. Said ‘we’ve got a fighter here boys, my Mate, standing up for the little guys. If you want to fight little one, then fight.’ He gave the command and they all came running at me. How I survived is by the miracle of the Goddess, and Doc. I woke up to his handsome face about 4 weeks after this attack, and so the cycle began.”