What Lurks Beneath

Chapter 4

*warning graphic violence* 

Brone POV 

    My paws hit the ground running, searching for her scent. Alastor is just as agitated but for different reasons. As an Alpha he feels wronged that his own pack member would leave, he feels betrayed. When we reach the part of the forest that is closest to the garden, we catch the faintest traces of her scent. Not surprising, it’s been over an hour, I'm just glad it's not gone completely cold. I look towards the sky. I’ve got some time before she shifts. Once she does, she will be incapacitated. That should give me enough time to catch up to her. With this small assurance I follow her scent, hot on her trail.  

    First shift is difficult. She could die before we get there.  

    This spurs me to run faster, I can’t let her have an easy death.  I need to see her suffer. Need to see the light as it drains from her eyes. Only then will I feel like I've done right by Jax. The memory of that night still haunts me. How can someone be so … cold.. So disturbed... so .. rogue. 

                                                                            FIVE YEARS AGO 

    Today has got to be one of the hottest days of the year, I'm just lying in the meadow listening the cicadas chirp. It’s oddly calming and soothing. It’s been a particularly tiring day. Father decided to start training me personally. I still have three years until I shift, but he insists on making sure I'm always ahead of everyone else. Like being Alpha just isn’t good enough. I really wish Kaida was here right now, she’s always been able to put me at ease. Just the smallest smile and every worry just seems to melt away. Jax is so blessed to have a wonderful sister like her.  

    Some days I find myself wishing I'd been born their sibling. We’d just be goofing off right now, maybe playing a game of chase. No pressure about being the next Alpha. Just me and my siblings enjoying our youth. Jax would be the next beta and I would just be Kaida’s over protective older brother. I’d scare away any of her future suitors, she would get mad and pull one of her infamous pranks on me as revenge. She’d find her mate... I wonder who her mate could be?  

    Whoever it is, he better be prepared, she’s a little spit fire.  

    Haha, yea.. Yeah she definitely is... he better treat her right 

    If he doesn’t, we’ll kill him 

    Agreed, we haven’t seen them all day... I could use one her heartwarming smiles right now 

    Let's go find them  

I didn’t need any further prompting, I took off running toward her house.  

Nothing could ever prepare me for what I would find. 

    As I neared her house things just seemed off. It was silent. Maybe they weren’t home. No, that can’t be. Kaida had just been complaining yesterday about how her father had made it very clear that she had to stay home today. Which is odd, but Beta Duncan probably had his reasons. I knock on the door but no one answers. I knock again. Still no answer. That's when it hits me. How am I just now noticing? The stench of blood was unmistakable.  

    My heart starts racing a thousand miles an hour, my brain conjuring every possible worst scenario. A rogue breeched our perimeter. There’s no other explanation. I mind link my father alerting him. He informs me he's rushing over with warriors. With that assurance I break open the door, praying to Selene that I'm not too late. I may not be able to shift yet but I can hold a rogue off long enough for reinforcement to get here. The scene before me stops me dead in my tracks. I fight to keep the contents in my stomach from coming out. Any hope of saving them dashed from my mind. The room is covered in blood. The beta and his son’s head have been torn from their bodies. The scattered remains of their limbs lay thrown about the room like some sick form of decoration. It didn’t look like any rogue attack I had ever heard of and I was desperately searching for evidence of its presence. My heart racing as I my eyes frantically scanned my surroundings, that’s when I noticed her. My angel, my Kaida. 

    She had been standing there the whole time but my brain simply hadn’t processed it. Too busy trying to absorb everything else. She was standing in the middle of the room covered in blood. Instantly I ran towards her and wrapped her in my arms. Thank the goddess she had survived. She didn’t hug me back but that’s ok, she’s probably in too much shock. I need to check her for wounds, there's far too much blood on her for it be just a minor injury. 

    “Step away from her Brone. NOW” 

It was father, and he sounded angry. Why. I don’t want to let go of her, I fought but he persisted. 

    “BRONE. I said NOW. Step back immediately” 

    My wolf growled in my head, desperate to hold on to our little angel, she had survived and we needed to protect her.  

    Must protect her. She is ours to keep safe. 

    He kept repeating that like a mantra in my head, but father was having none of it. He seemed to be getting more agitated by the second and I just couldn’t understand. 

    “Let the girl go” He used his Alpha tone and I couldn't fight back.  hurt and confusion filling my heart, why would father do this? 

    Reluctantly I stepped back and not a second later his warriors tackled her to the ground, I was ready to yell at my father in rage when I noticed it. Her warm face was cold, emotionless. Not scared, or panicked, just cold. Her beautiful green eyes that once always warmed my soul were red. I took a step back shocked and took a better look at her. Not a scratch on her. Realization hit me. There’s no stench of rogue in here. Father had noticed it immediately, but I couldn’t. I had let my emotions for her cloud my judgement. There was no rogue. She wasn’t covered in blood because she was harmed. She had done this. My angel... was a monster.  

                                                                                     PRESENT TIME 

    The memory still made me sick to my stomach. I would never forgive her. It fuels me to run faster, she cannot escape. The moon will be reaching it’s peak soon, and she won’t be able to keep running. Her scent has been getting harder to track, it appears to be running off in multiple directions and I growl in frustration. Every second I waste on a false trail is a second more she has to escape. I can’t be wasting time when she already has an hour on me. Despite my determination I still end up following a couple of false trails before being on track again. When I finally find her, she’s really going to get it. The moon is approaching its peak and I let out a small sigh. Soon she won’t be able to keep running, and that is a small comfort.  

    The trail is leading me toward one of our biggest Enemy pack’s borders and I start to feel uneasy. If she crossed the border than there will be nothing I can do. No matter how much I hate and despise her, I can’t risk a war. Not with them. Their Alpha is a cruel and cold a monster in his own right. I chuckle slightly. She would fit right in. Monsters. Though honestly from what I saw that night. Those eyes... she might give him a run for his title. No one has eyes like that. He may act a monster but she truly is a monster. There is something dark lurking in her. I felt it strongly that night. When I looked into those blood red eyes, I didn’t see a girl. I didn’t see a wolf. No. What I saw was a pure predator. She needed to be eliminated before she had a chance to fully come into herself, but the council didn’t agree. They all thought I was crazy, shaken from the gruesome sight, and just imagined what I saw. Father never said anything either nor his warriors which always confused me. I know they saw it too. 

    I was so distracted in my own thoughts I hadn’t even noticed that I'd stopped following the Slave’s trail and was instead chasing after something else. Alastor had taken over and he had caught the scent of something so unbelievably alluring. I tried to regain control, to force him back on our trail but he just grunted in frustration.  

    We lost it again, and this. This is more important. 

    What could be more important than finding that murderer? 

    Mate 

    I was too dumbstruck to continue arguing. No no no no. This cannot be happening. Not now. Not with the slave on the run. Not with Claudia. I can’t be finding my mate now. I tried to take back control but Alastor wouldn’t let me. His will was too strong. His desire for his mate stronger than mine to avoid her. The scent was growing stronger by the second, as was my apprehension. Part of me was hoping she was across the pack border and our hunt would have to stop there. We would need permission to cross before we could continue, which would grant me more time to get my dumb wolf under control. We were nearing the border, practically at it and I was beginning to think Selene was going to answer my silent prayers. 

    Foolish. Selene wants us to find mate. She does not want us with that nasty she wolf. 

    I was beginning to believe his words were baseless, when there she was, standing just before the border, about to cross it. We made eye contact. 

Mate mate mate  

    My wolf howled and started chasing after her and my heart sank. NO. This cannot be happening. Staring back at us were the eyes of our mate.  

The mate I never wanted. 

 Those blood red eyes boring into us just before she crossed over the border.