Alpha Tribrid Rising

Chapter Six~ Little To No Mistakes

~Chelsea’s POV~

The world was tilting, the edges of my vision fraying into the same piercing blue that had just consumed my soul. Every time I let Skye forward to stitch a lie into someone's mind, it felt like pulling a thread directly from my own brain. I slumped against the cold metal of my bed frame, my breath coming in shallow, jagged gasps that tasted like copper. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. The rhythmic, silver pulsing felt like a hammer inside my own skull, punishing me for the Taboo I'd just committed. I had hypnotized a high-ranking wolf a monster who thought I was nothing more than "property" and the sheer weight of his dark, oily scent still seemed to coat the air making me suffocate in pure disgust.

Alicia is here in an instant, after explaining what happened she pulls me into her and she feels like a furnace, her skin humming with that residual electric charge that always signaled Aries was close to the surface. “You did exactly what you had to do.”she hissed into my hair, her voice a cold grounding anchor against the storm in my head. I clung to her, feeling the frantic, uneven beat of my heart trying to match her steady powerful one. I felt small, fragile and a stark contrast to the girl who had just rewritten a guard's memory, but Alicia didn't look at me with pity. She looked at me with a new kind of resolve, her green eyes scanning for any sign that the Alpha's high-rank guard’s demeaning aura had truly broken me.

I put on the best face I could and held my head up high to show her I can be strong like she needs me to be if we are going to run away together. “I’m okay I swear. let’s head to the kitchen so we can hurry and get breakfast going we have about 30 minutes until everyone is awake.” She smiles at me then looks back at the loose floorboard .“He won’t remember the floorboard, but the fact that he was even here means we are running out of time.” Alicia then straightened herself up and spoke with so much confidence, “Matter fact, we are no longer waiting for tomorrow to leave, we finish our daily duties today. I’m going to stash the last of the food and the very moment the second moon hits its peak tonight, we are gone.”

The silence between us was thick and terrifying broken only by the distant, muffled sounds of the pack house waking up above us. So we rush to the kitchen and get started on the food we were forced to cook and serve. We had made a ton of Blueberry Hotcakes, Kielbasa and potato mix with onions,bell peppers and scrambled eggs as well. It was enough to feed a whole stadium it felt like and just as the silver behind my eyelids began to fade back to a dull ache, the sharp, rhythmic toll of the breakfast bell shattered the peace. It was the sound of the clock starting. We had until the second moon hit its peak tonight to be perfect, to be invisible, and to survive.

The breakfast bell didn't just signal a meal for me it was a death call for the girl I used to be. We entered the dining hall to start serving the monsters and the smell hit me not the food, but the "oily stench" of the guard who could end my whole world if my power didn’t hold. I scanned the long tables, my hazel eyes searching for the one face I never wanted to see again. There he was. The high-ranking lapdog I'd broken. He was sitting at the end of the table, his fork frozen halfway to his mouth. He looked hollowed out, his expression vacant as he stared at a spot on the wall. To a human, he looked tired but to a wolf, he looked "off."

My breath hitched in my throat as soon as I see the Alpha walk into the dining hall. I felt Alicia stiffen beside me, her green eyes narrowing as she tracked his movement. The Alpha's menacing aura was heavy in the room, a dark pressure that made my skin crawl. He said something to the dazed guard, his lip curling in that familiar way that makes my stomach turn. I squeezed my eyes shut for a split second, praying Skye's hypnosis would hold absolutely praying that the loose end I'd created wouldn't be the thing that tied the noose around our necks before the second moon. Luckily the Alpha didn’t pay the guard enough attention to wait for his response he just patted him on the shoulder and walked away back out of the dining hall. I could finally breathe again.

We continue serving the pack members but as we reach his table the air around it was just wrong. It felt like the static before a lightning strike. Alicia's grip on my arm tightened.a silent warning as we passed the guard I'd hypnotized. He wasn't vacant anymore, he was twitching. His fingers drummed a frantic beat on the dining table, and his scent had shifted from oily to something sour, like curdled milk. "He's fighting it," I breathed, the words barely a vibration against the roar of the dining hall. Skye's voice echoed in the back of my mind, a faint, silver chime warning me that the threads I'd woven were fraying.

Suddenly, a high-ranking female enforcer someone Alicia called The Tracker stopped right in front of us. She didn't look at our faces she just leaned in and sniffed the air near my neck. My heart stopped. I was still wearing the metallic tang of fear from the bedroom, and worse, the residual ozone of Skye's magic was likely clinging to me like a neon sign. "You smell... different this morning, Omega." she purred, her eyes flashing a predatory amber. "Sweaty. Like you've been running." Alicia stepped partially in front of me, her Long wavy hair acting like a curtain. She didn't bow her head. "She's coming down with a fever," Alicia said, her voice like grinding stone. "I've been up all night tending to her. Move, or you can explain to Alpha Ben why his breakfast is late because you wanted to play doctor." The tension was a physical weight.

The Tracker's lip curled, but she stepped aside, glaring at us with suspicion. We hadn't even reached the table yet, and the blood colored eyes of the pack were already starting to see through our armor. We didn't have until the moon hit its peak at this rate, the pack would sniff out our plan before the sun reached midday. So much for little to no mistakes…The Tracker was still lingering near the edge of the kitchen, her nostrils flaring as she watched the Omegas move. She was like a hawk waiting for a mouse to trip. I felt a cold sweat break out across my neck if she caught the scent of the "divine ozone" still radiating off me, we were dead.

Alicia nudged me toward the heavy industrial shelving where the pack's bulk supplies were kept. Her eyes were sharp, calculating the distance between the Tracker and the large glass jars of crushed silver-leaf and concentrated wolfsbane extract used for medicinal ointments. "On my signal," Alicia whispered, her voice barely a thread of sound. “When I drop the tray, you use whatever juice you and Skye got left to nudge the Trackers focus toward the floor. Just for a second. You think you can do it ?” She asked her eyes begging me. My heart hammered. I didn't know if I had enough electric charge left in me, but the thought of the Tracker exposing our plan gave me a sudden, desperate surge of strength. “I can do it let’s go.” I say as confident as possible.

Alicia tripped with the grace of a predator, sending a heavy metal tray of breakfast dishes clattering across the stone floor. The noise was deafening in the tense room. As the Tracker turned her head to snarl at the commotion I reached out with my mind, grabbing onto the silver pulsing behind my eyelids and shoving it toward her. Look down, I commanded silently. The floor is the only thing that matters. The Tracker's eyes glazed for a heartbeat-just long enough. In that window, Alicia "accidentally" slips on the spilled contents and collided with the shelf, sending a gallon-sized jar of pungent, concentrated peppermint and eucalyptus oil shattering right at the Tracker's feet.

The sharp, medicinal sting hit the air like a physical blow. The Tracker recoiled, her hands flying to her face as her hypersensitive nose was overwhelmed by the sudden chemical explosion. To the rest of the pack, it looked like a clumsy Omega mistake, but I saw the eyes of the guards narrowing. We had blinded their best hunter for the next few hours, but we had also put a target on our backs that was glowing brighter by the minute. Especially since Alpha Ben decides to show back up right at that very moment and I just knew our fates were sealed. Except Alpha Ben didn't even look at us as he delivered our sentence. "Since you are so fond of the floor, you will spend the night on your knees cleaning the Great Hall after the guests arrive. And you will serve the wine. If a single drop hits the rug, it will be your blood that replaces it." His voice booming throughout the dining hall. Making all the pack members bow in submission under his Alpha aura.

It was a blessing masked as a curse I had forgot all about the big event tonight. The Gala meant the guards would be clouded by expensive bourbon and the pack's predatory celebration. By the time the moon hit its peak, the monsters would be drunk and distracted. After we finished our daily chores and duties it seemed as though the night arrived in a blur. While the high-ranking wolves roared with laughter, and the single she-wolves danced across the ballroom floor. Alicia and I slipped out after serving the last of the wine and moved like shadows in through the pack house halls. Creating a distraction by using the pass key codes on multiple doors to throw off the trail of which direction we will take to escape once they realize we are gone.

We had our satchels stashed near the servant entrance, hidden behind a stack of firewood. Alicia's green eyes met mine letting me know that the second moon was Among us, it was time. We slipped out the back door, the freezing mountain air hitting my face like a slap. We reached the woodpile, my hands trembling as l grabbed the the satchels. But just as Alicia reached for the heavy ledger, a small, gasping sound came from the darkness behind the stone pillars. "Alicia? Chelsea?"

It was Sarah. The youngest Omega in the pack, her eyes wide and wet with terror. She was holding a tray of discarded glasses, her small frame shaking so hard they rattled like bone. Her gaze dropped to the bags, then to the dark forest line where the red-clay ravine waited.

"You're leaving," she whispered, the realization shattering her voice. "You're leaving me here with them." "Sarah, go back inside," Alicia hissed, her "butt-length jet black" hair whipping in the wind. "You didn't see anything. Go!" "They'II kill me when they find out you're gone!" Sarah sobbed, dropping the tray. The clatter of glass sounded like a gunshot in the quiet night. "Please. He... he came to my room last night. I can't stay." I looked at Alicia. We had three minutes before the patrol rotated. Taking a child was a death sentence she was slow, she was scared, and she didn't have a wolf like Aries to protect her. But as I looked at Sarah's bruised wrists, a new kind of resolve flared in my chest. "We can't leave her," I whispered, grabbing Sarah's cold hand.

Alicia cursed under her breath, her silver-lined eyes flashing with a mix of fury and pity. "If you make a sound, Sarah even a breath I will leave you for the hounds. Do you understand?" Sarah nodded frantically. We didn't have a head start anymore. We had a burden. Turning our backs on the only home we'd ever known, we plunged into the black shadows of the trees, heading toward the mountain that bleeds.

The Scent Border loomed ahead a line of ancient, moss-covered stone pillars that marked the edge of the Alpha's law. My lungs burned, and Sarah was practically dead weight between us, her small sobs muffled by Alicia's hand. We were so close. But as we stepped into the small clearing before the first pillar, the shadows shifted. The Tracker stepped out from behind a towering hemlock. She looked ghoulish her eyes were bloodshot and watering from the peppermint oil, and a silk scarf was tied tightly around her nose and mouth to block out the lingering sting.

She couldn't smell us, but she didn't need to. She had tracked the gaps in the armor Alicia always talked about. She held a silver-tipped spear, her gaze landing on the our satchels tied around our waists and then on Sarah. "The Alpha knew you were a flight risk, Alicia," she hissed, her voice muffled but dripping with venom. "But stealing not one but two omegas? That's a death sentence. Drop the bags and get on your knees, and maybe I won't kill the little brats where they stand.” Alicia stepped forward, and the air around her began to vibrate. It wasn't just the "electric charge" anymore it was a physical pressure that made the trees groan.

"You will not touch them.” Alicia said, her voice dropping an octave, sounding less like a girl and more like a landslide. "Move, or I will end you." The tracker laughed, a jagged sound. "You haven't even shifted yet, little girl. You're a weak-" The word died in her throat. The transition wasn't the slow, painful bone-breaking of a normal werewolf. It was an explosion of white-hot light and "silver pulsing" energy. In a heartbeat, Alicia was gone. Standing in her place was Aries. She was massive easily twice the size of a standard Beta wolf with auburn colored fur and eyes the color of blood with silver lining around her pupils, she was absolutely stunning.

The shock on The Trackers face would have been satisfying if the danger wasn't so high. Even Sarah stopped crying, staring up at the beautiful sleeping monster that had finally awakened. Aries didn't howl she let out a low, bass-heavy growl that shook the very earth beneath our feet. The Trackers dangerous aura vanished, replaced by pure, instinctual terror. She dropped into a defensive crouch, her own amber eyes flickering as she tried to comprehend what Alicia actually was.

The Tracker lunged first, her spear whistling through the air, but Aries was a blur of residual electric speed. She caught the wooden shaft in her jaws, snapping it like a dry twig, before slamming her massive shoulder into her chest. The physical fight was brutal and fast. The tracker shifted mid-air, a lean brown wolf clashing against the titan that was Aries. Snarls and the sound of tearing fur echoed through the woods, a battle for freedom right on the edge of the forbidden lands.

The fight is a whirlwind of silver and shadow. The Tracker a veteran, but she has never faced a tribrid in full bloom. Aries was a force of nature. Every time the tracker tried to lunge for our throats, Aries intercepted her with a speed that felt magically enhanced. The sound of the struggle, the wet thud of bodies hitting the red earth and the bone-chilling snarls

seemed to echo back toward the pack house. I knew the Gala wouldn't stay ignorant for long the guards would be turning toward the woods any second. With a final, earth-shaking roar, Aries pinned the tracker against one of the mossy stone pillars. She didn't kill her, Alicia's mercy was still there, buried deep in the wolf's silver-lined eyes but she bashes her head against the stone just hard enough to send the tracker into unconsciousness.

"Now!" I screamed, grabbing Sarah's hand so hard my knuckles turned white. Aries huffed, a plume of silver mist escaping her snout, and nudged us toward the boundary. As we crossed the Scent Border, a strange sensation washed over me like a heavy, invisible chain had finally snapped. We weren't just

property anymore we were outcasts.

Behind us, a chorus of howls erupted from the pack house. The Alpha had discovered us missing. "Run," Alicia's voice echoed in my mind, a telepathic command from the wolf pacing beside us. We plunged deeper into the wilderness, moving away from the guards and toward the jagged vision the Moon Goddess had shown The ground began to change, the dark forest soil giving way to the slippery, red-clay ravine that Selene had promised would lead us to the lone wolf. We had reached the point where the mountain bleeds and there was no turning back.