Scent of A Rogue

Chapter 2 - Alpha Fever

24 hours before the Alpha Bite

Gideon

It was another meeting among the Alphas of Oak City. Ten years ago, I would have been excited. Thrilled. Proud. At that time, I was a new Alpha with a beautiful mate, Suzanne. My heart twisted as my thoughts lingered on my lost Luna.

I had been eighteen a decade ago, excited about the new leadership role. I was born into this. F*ck, it was a role that had been passed on for centuries. They probably had my name set in stone all those years ago, before I was born. Dad claimed that we could trace our lineage to the late Medieval ages. It was a time when shifters had started becoming accepted in society. Some remained true to the laws of the land. Some were more witch than wolf, and of course, there was our pack – the rebels. It was a nice way of calling what we really were – criminals.

Every time I met with the other Alphas, I felt like it was another role. It was all an act. Everyone in this room could not say what they really wanted to say. Most of them simply wanted to kill my father and subdue me.

You might be surprised that it was not the other way around. After all, wouldn't it be easier to kill me right then and there? I was six-foot-six of pure muscle, the tallest Alpha in a room where four wolf packs convened. On the other hand, though almost as tall, my father was already in his late fifties. He should not be a threat, right?

Wrong.

I led the Wolfless Pack. It was almost a jeer – a joke – for us even to have a name. My great-grandfather was the first to rebel against the gods and goddesses. He did not believe in deities. For him, the modern world could give so much more of what we wanted in Oak City.

The story had it that as soon as my great-grandfather rebelled, his pack had lost their wolves, the consciences that whispered in their ears. Our ears. They believed it to be freedom to be themselves. Ironically, our transformations into wolves were more fearsome. Our wolf forms were larger than that of the other packs. We used it to maim and kill. They feared us.

Our little meeting was a peace treaty. The other Alphas thought that they could still appeal to my sensibility or whatever it was that they saw in me. My childhood friend Alpha Stephan of the Oak City Lune Pack had been trying to meet my eyes for the past few minutes.

Don't fall in love with me yet, Stephan, I thought. He was how you would imagine a guardian angel, blonde and blue-eyed. Tall and muscular. All that he was missing was a flaming sword. St. Michael. We sat at opposite ends at the long table. We were opposites in more ways than one. I was Lucifer to him with my midnight hair and grey eyes.

However, I knew that it was no joke. Our Wolfless pack had been sinking into the mire for the past few years. Our wealth increased, and our ties with the underground had become more substantial. I was not going to pretend to be innocent, on the fringes of the goings-on in Oak City. I was right in the middle of it all.

"Good day, and welcome to the Wolfless Facility," I said in a clear monotone. I was not generally like this, but I had lost all enthusiasm for this farce. Even our pack house's name was a joke. The clinical name was meant to show just how my father cared about what the other packs thought – not at all.

The building could be found amid the Forbidden Forest. Sometimes, our clients would stay with us here as we provided them with the elixir treatments that would prolong their evil lives. We also provided them with weapons. The only thing we could not give them was a weapon that could hurt us, wolves.

Most people thought that the facility was owned by the mayor, who was merely our guest. He was our most frequent guest.

There were murmurs from the three other Alphas. The meeting was confidential. Our Betas and Thirds in Commands waited outside the metal doors. They could be called if needed, but they would not hear the conversation inside.

"So, what's the agenda for today?" I asked cooly. I was not too fond of the idea that they called for the meeting, and I had to play host.

"You know what it is that we want. You felt it, too," Stephan said. "A part of you started unraveling after Suzanne died."

"Don't you dare mention her name, Stephan!" I growled.

Then, I turned to the other two Alphas, Robert of the Oak City River Pack and Leon of the Forest Edge Pack. I could feel my canines pushing out, but I had to control my fury. For the past few months, I had started seeing the world their way but damned if I should admit it right now.

They were all in that war a year ago. It was the war that claimed the life of my mate, Suzanne. I could not remember a time she was never there. She was the daughter of my father's Beta, and we had been put together since we were young. Everyone expected our happy ever after. We had done everything to ensure that our bond was strong, but she was too fragile to conceive a child. During the war, she was too weak to fight. We found out that she died with our child in her womb.

"I'm sorry, Gideon. But I have been appealing to you to get away from your pack while it's still not too late."

"Not too late?" I scoffed.

The Wolfless Pack had not yet ambushed these other packs because we knew they could come together and destroy everything else that we had – reveal who we were to the mayor and the many criminals in the city.

My father wanted them dead. He did not know about this little meeting. I had arranged when he was in another city. He would be back in a few hours, and this little assembly should have already scattered about.

"We have some wolves in the police department, in the FBI, too. We can tell them how you have been primed to be Alpha since childhood. You were an only child with an overbearing father. They could forget about your criminal ties."

"I'm not a child, Stephan. I had been a part of all these since I was eighteen."

"So, I'm right. You are feeling it. After Suzanne died, your conscience has somehow reemerged. I heard that your pack has a way of desensitizing your wolves, taking away that part that whispers and guides you."

"Are you telling me you are hearing a voice right now, Stephan? Isn't that insane?"

I was aware that my face was scornful. Any other man or wolf would have loved to punch the look from my face. However, we were talking about St. Michael the Archangel here. It was funny that his wolf was actually called Mike. When we were teens, I used to give him hell for it.

"It's not insane, Gideon. Mike has been a most useful guide," he said calmly.

"I bet he is," I muttered.

"Come join one of the packs, Gideon," Robert advised. "It does not matter which one."

Robert was the smallest among the Oak City Alphas, but he was a strong fighter with broad shoulders like the rest of us. His martial arts prowess was both inherent and trained. Longish black hair framed a strong jaw. His almond-shaped eyes were always watchful.

"Where is the fun in that?"

"Oh, come now. You know all the fun had been gone after Luna Suzanne -," Stephan faltered and had the grace to bow his head.

I pondered the offer. It was a generous offer. After my mate died, something started tickling the inside of my brain. It was like a drug had stopped taking control of me. It was like a demon had been exorcised from deep within me, and I saw all the things that I did for the pack throughout the years and started questioning if being the big bad wolf was worth it.

But if I gave up the pack, where would I go? What could I do? My mind rebelled against joining forces with what I had always deemed to be meek and mild wolves. Stephan was a powerful wolf, and he had defended the city packs against invading ones through the years. For someone so young, he had accomplished so much with his St. Michael badge, whereas I was the one both wolf and man feared in the dark.

I did not kill indiscriminately. I only did so when I needed to, sometimes pitted against criminal types like the mayor's thugs or his enemies' goons. We were like his thugs, and it was starting to get old. I wanted people to know that the mayor owed us. We held his balls and not the other way around. Without our elixirs, pressed from our very blood and sweat by a rebel, traitorous witch, he would have been the little weakling he had always been.

What did we need of him now? We had been wealthy for as long as I could remember. Where was this greed coming from?

I exhaled audibly, my eyes scanning each of the three Alpha's faces. We were all about the same age. We grew up together. I knew that I would not be getting the same gentle treatment if this meeting were a state-wide affair. Someone would have already ordered to have me arrested. Someone would have already attempted to punch my face. Attempted. I would not have let him.

"I plan to leave, Stephan. I don't know how it will work out. I have not thought of how to leave and where to go."

"Our offer stands," Robert affirmed.

"Yes, but what does that mean? Are you willing to risk my father's anger? You know how he is."

There was a strange peace when I took over as Alpha. I had reduced the drugs, somehow. I focused on providing the mayor with his youth, protection, and milder sources of illegal income. Milder meant nightclubs, nepotism, big cuts from businesses, and little financial things. I thought I was doing everyone a favor. In a way, I was. Despite his corrupt nature, Mayor Hotchkiss became popular. People hailed him as the man who won the war on drugs. They did not know that it was my pack who did most of the cleanup. We drove out drug suppliers. We killed most of them.

It was why the Forbidden Forest had earned its notoriety. People feared the place because people had disappeared there. The Oak City citizens mourned the tourists who died there. They did not know that they were people involved in Hotchkiss's drug trade and prostitution operations.

"We need Hotchkiss," my father had said when he felt that my patience for the mayor was running thin. "He will provide us with legal protection."

"I disagree, dad. I am tired of being his dog. I'm not. You're not. I don't know why we are still in this position. I don't know what hold this mortal has on you."

“We will help you if need be, Gideon,” Stephan’s voice brought me back to the present. “What are your movements tomorrow?”

“The usual. Being a guard dog to that asshole, Hotchkiss.”

“Why haven’t you killed him, Gideon?” Leon asked. The broad and mahogany-skinned Alpha was usually quiet, but I could feel his growing frustration at my constant hesitation.

“Because there’s something about the connection between him and my father.”

“You can investigate them better when you are no longer here in this, um, facility,” Leon said, not hiding his resentment of the building that had witnessed many illegal transactions.

“I might have a plan, but I need someone – a victim.”

“A victim?’ Stephan’s interest was piqued.

“I need someone who will attack the facility tomorrow. I could pretend to attack this person or wolf, growl at the rest of the pack to leave as if to claim the victim.”

“Ah. Because you guys eat the flesh of your victims,” Robert said.

“It’s not the first time I’d been greedy. They will not suspect anything.”

“But you had stopped attacking people since Luna Suzanne died,” Stephan reminded me.

“True. But they will not complain if I seem to be going back into my old form.”

“Big bad wolf,” laughed Leon.

“I can send my sister,” Robert offered. “She knows martial arts and could defend herself.”

“How will I recognize her?”

“She’ll wear a ponytail, black pants, that kind of thing.”

“Then?”

“You can pretend to attack her. Then, you can leave her behind. She will find her way back easily.”

“Where do I go?”

“Go deeper into the forest. We will wait for you. From there, we will find a way to get you out of the city while we gauge your pack’s reaction.”

It sounded like a plan. One that could be successful. At that time, I did not know how wrong I was.