Chapter 8: Traitors
1236 Words
Uriel's POV
I groaned weakly as I slowly opened my eyes.
At first everything was hazy. Shapes, colors—they were all blurry. I shut my eyes trying to get back focus and immediately, my head felt like a flood that had broken through a dam.
“Ahhh!!!” I groaned, holding my head and shutting my eyes tightly as they all came rushing back at once.
Flashes of familiar faces. Voices I recognize—memories that belonged to me, and then—
The plane sabotage.
The fear that I wasn't going to survive.
The explosion.
And—
My eyes snapped open again.
Where the hell was I?
I sat up too fast, but that was a big mistake. My head spun and I fell back.
I took a second to pull myself together and I slowly stood up this time, throwing off the blanket. My body felt... strange. Strong, but different. Like I'd been taken apart and put back together. I rolled my shoulders, checking my body for physical injuries.
There was no pain. No injuries from the crash.
Someone had healed me.
I looked around the small, almost empty room.
Herbs hung from the ceiling. I squinted my nose as the smell of medicine filled the air.
Where's this place and how did I get here?
“Hello,” I called out for whosoever lived here, but all I got in return was a cold silence.
I scanned the room again, searching for any clues. There was a bag in the corner. A table with jars and bottles. Everything here was simple.
This wasn't a hospital or a pack house.
This looked like the home of someone in hiding.
I moved to the window and looked out. All I saw were mountains and dense forest.
My jaw tightened. How long have I been here?
I searched within me, trying to reach for Flame, my wolf.
Silence.
My heart slammed hard against my ribs. I reached again, deeper this time, searching for that familiar presence that had been with me since I was fifteen. My only companion since I lost my parents.
Still nothing.
Ice flooded my veins. No. No, this can't be happening.
Flame, where the hell are you?
I tried again, and again. And each time, I was met with the same hollow silence where my wolf should be.
He was gone.
My breathing ceased. I gripped the edge of the window, my knuckles white. An Alpha without his wolf was nothing. Powerless and vulnerable—a prey to enemies.
I swallowed hard trying to get myself together as I forced myself to breathe slowly. For now, I have to keep my wolf's disappearance a secret.
Right now, I have more pressing matters.
Someone tried to kill me. Which meant the Blue Moon tribe was compromised. Every second I stayed here, my pack was in danger.
I grabbed what looked like traveling clothes from a chair and changed quickly and headed for the door.
As soon as I got close to the door, I paused.
There was a part of me—buried deep—that felt like I was forgetting something. Like there was something important about this place. About being here.
My brow furrowed as I tried hard to remember, but nothing was coming to me.
I shook it off. I didn't have time for feelings I couldn't explain.
I walked to the door and paused again, my hand hovering on the frame. I should leave a message and thank whoever saved me.
I shook my head, dismissing the thought. I couldn't risk it. Couldn't risk anyone knowing I was alive yet. Not until I dealt with the traitors.
Without further hesitation, I stepped outside and immediately shifted my senses, reading the terrain. South. The Blue Moon territory was south.
I began my journey back home.
It took me two days to reach pack lands.
Two days and nights of moving through the forest, staying off roads, avoiding detection.
My body held up—whoever healed me did a thorough work. But the absence of Flame gnawed at me with every step.
This was the first time without him since he found me, and I couldn't help the sense of loneliness.
Whoever had tried to kill me, had done something to Flame. My hands tightened into fists as I let anger boil through my veins.
I won't let him off. I swore.
I approached my tribe's territory from the eastern border, using the old smuggler's paths that only the Alpha family knew about.
I didn't know how long I had been away, but I noticed the patrol patterns had changed.
I slipped past them easily and made my way to the underground network of tunnels beneath the pack house. My father had shown them to me, as if he knew he was going to die soon and was preparing me to take up duty. "Every Alpha needs a way in and out that no one else knows," he'd said.
The entrance was hidden behind a false rock formation. I moved it aside and descended into darkness, thankful for this secret knowledge.
The tunnels were dusty and unused. Good, that meant since my father, no one had used or discovered it.
I emerged in the hidden chamber behind my office. I could hear voices on the other side of the wall—muffled but clear enough. I leaned closer. I might not have my wolf, but my instinct was sharp.
"...still no sign of his body. The wreckage was extensive but—”
"It doesn't matter." A voice I know too well cuts him off. "Without a body, we proceed as planned. I'll inform the council that the search held no result and that he's dead.”
My breath ceased. No. It couldn't be.
Magnus?
My chief of warriors?
A traitor?
My chest tightens as the betrayal hits hard.
He was one of the respectable elders in my council. A slow bitter smile crept up my face. That explains why I lost control of my plane. He was the last person to check it out before I left.
But I never thought of him as a traitor. He had never given me a reason to question his loyalty.
Seems my council wasn't tightened as I thought.
Rage burned within me like wildfire. I wanted to burst through that wall and rip his throat out. But I held back. I needed to know everything. Every traitor. Every plan they had.
"What about the Black Moon Alpha?" another voice asked. "He's expecting results."
My jaw clenched. So it went higher than Magnus. He was working with Alpha Thorne of the Black Moon tribe—our enemy.
"Thorne will get what he wants," Magnus said. "The alliance papers are already drawn up. Once the new Alpha of his choice is reinstated, the Blue Moon tribe becomes an extension of Black Moon. Thorne gets access to our territory and resources. We get his protection and power, and other tribes will fear us.”
My hands clenched by my side and it took the grace of the moon goddess to stop me from storming there and snapping his head off.
I'd heard enough.
I stepped back into the tunnel and made my way to a different exit—one that led to Dante's house.
If anyone in this pack was still loyal, it had to be him.
- Writer
