Alpha Caius

Loraine: Jade-colored Glasses

[5 years ago…]

[two days before my world fell apart]

It’s in the middle of the night when I hear the suppressed voices coming from Dad’s office. The door is slightly open, so the voices are carried outside, and anyone who will pass by will be able to hear if they listen close enough.

“They are dangerous, Bernard. Why are you even trying to go against them? We are not a very big pack. No one will help.” My mom has never sounded so desperate. I stand frozen, hidden in the shadows as I eavesdrop. I did not mean to. I had only wanted to come and get some books from dad’s library.

“Why, Neena? Why must we remain quiet? He literally threatened me today. You know what he said?”

“I heard what he said, you told me that, but that doesn’t mean you calling a bloody war on them,” she hisses, interjecting dad.

“Trust me, darling. Trust me. Evan and I will protect our pack. Our warriors are stronger than theirs.”

“They also have witches, strong ones in their pack,” my mother argues.

“Don’t underestimate yourself,” my dad tries to sound playful, but I can detect the tense undertone.

Which pack are they talking about? Which pack offended them?

I usually don’t keep tabs on things like this. I will ask Evan, I guess. He knows. He will definitely spill the beans. I am about to tiptoe my way to my room when the door creaks open. The light from within the office spills out even more and mom steps out.

“What are you doing here?” she sounds harsher than she intends to but I don’t rebel.

“I came to take some books from—"

“No books. It’s a school night remember? Go to bed,” she says without leaving any room for argument.

“Yes, mom,” I mutter and scurry from there.

However, I don’t get a wink of sleep that night.

~~~~

“What is the problem with telling me?” I say, hating that the tone sounds so whiny. Evan continues training without speaking another word. He looks more intense, more determined if anything.

“Fine, I’ll go ask one of the—”

“Don’t even dare,” he suddenly says. His tone is so sombre and angry at the same time that it takes me by surprise.

He looks away, lets out a heavy sigh, and closes his eyes as if to compose himself before looking back at me. “Apart from dad, the main soldiers, me, and mom, no one has news about this. Dad doesn’t want to say anything because he doesn’t want to disturb the peace in the pack. Your birthday is in two days, focus on that, okay? Leave the rest to us.”

He gives a small smile as reassurance but all I can do is look at him skeptically. When I don’t budge, he growls in frustration.

“Be sensible sometimes, you are going to be 16, and meet your wolf so at least learn to understand the vibe,” he says, irritated. Then he resumes his training.

I leave from there, partly mad that I did not get the information I wanted and partly worried because Evan has never been this irritated and annoyed at me. Is the matter really that serious?

~~~~

I understand the seriousness of it the night before my birthday.

“Dad, you know we will lose against them. Why can’t we just let them take us under their wing? We will still be a pack, but if we don’t, they might just kill us all,” Evan says angrily. The voices are coming dad’s office again. This time, too, I wasn’t planning on eavesdropping. I just want to get some training done in the gym.

With all the underlying tension and then my birthday tomorrow, I feel like vibrating out of my skin. I stop dead in my tracks. There are still a few pack members downstairs. However, I hope none of them gets to hear this.

“Keep your voice down. I am still your alpha, don’t forget that. I know what I am doing. Why should we be under another pack who isn’t even as big as us,” dad argues.

“Why are you trying to give everyone false hope, dad? You saw the training session. They are stronger. They have strong alphas in their pack, there are witches. We cannot…” Evan trails off.

“Get out and don’t talk to me about this and do not speak to me in this way. Out,” dad rumbles. This time I quickly make my exit before getting caught once again.

My heart thunders in my chest. I manage to stumble into my room and close the door. This is mad serious. Taking over our pack? Who wants to do that?

I feel suffocated all of a sudden, the walls feel as if they are closing in on me.

“Calm down. Dad and Evan know what they are doing. Everything will be okay… calm down,” I begin to chant aloud until my breathing normalizes somewhat.

~~~~

[4 years ago…]

I hiss as I tend to the wound on my right leg. Those fuckers should know better than to attack a beta, filthy scum, and lowlife humans. Trying to force themselves on me? Had they been somewhere else, I would have ripped out their d***s. But I am satisfied with the way I left them, with broken bones and a concussion.

The room that I am renting shouldn’t be called one. There’s a dim bulb in the center of the room, hardly illuminating the space. There’s no bed, but a mattress. The room has no other furniture which isn’t the matter. My concern is the door which has one poor excuse of a latch. But as a wolf pretending as a human, I can’t ask for much especially since I have little to no money. The forest is dangerous so I had to take refuge among the humans, and now I work at a diner.

“Gotta move today, Kay. Can you do it?” I whisper in the semi-darkness. Kayla remains silent. My wolf is exhausted from running away and so am I, but after that night, I could not even return to the pack. I did not even get to say a proper goodbye to my parents.

Evan is still missing and I am branded as the rogue who betrayed their pack. I never knew my paternal uncle could be so cruel, dragging me away and interrogating me as if I was the culprit. Where were they when my dad was going through such a crisis?

“Today marks one year,” I say aloud, my voice choking as I stare into the darkest corner of the room. What happened to the land? Maybe the attackers took it. I hope not. I have never been able to even skirt around the borders of our pack, partly because I know I will be caught by my uncle from whose clutches I managed to escape, and partly because I won’t be able to resist but visit the packhouse or what remains of it.

“Let’s move. I can run. We can skirt the northern part and then go to another town,” Kayla replies, cutting through my reverie.

“Fine. Let’s go.”