The alpha I hated

Chapter 18:The Pack 2

ELIAS'S POV

"She's alive too."

Elder Sarah nodded. "The council has finished our discussion."

"And?"

"And we've decided that you were right," she said. "If what you told us is true, if these ancient vampires really are trying to use the hybrid's power to destroy both our worlds, then Noah is fighting to protect everyone."

I felt a wave of relief. "So you'll support him?"

"We'll support him," she said. "But Elias, there's something else."

"What?"

"We've been getting reports from our scouts in other territories," she said. "Reports of strange things happening all over the werewolf world."

"What kind of strange things?"

"Packs going missing," she said. "Entire territories going silent. And the few survivors who make it out are talking about creatures made of shadow and flame."

I felt my blood go cold. "Ancient vampires?"

"Maybe," Elder Sarah said. "Or maybe something worse."

"What could be worse than ancient vampires?"

Elder Sarah looked at me with eyes that were full of fear.

"The end of everything," she said.

Just then, one of the younger pack members came running up to us.

"Beta Elias!" he said, breathing hard. "Elder Sarah! You need to come quickly!"

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"There's something wrong with the sky," he said. "Look!"

I looked up, and what I saw made my heart stop.

The sky was changing. What had been normal blue was now streaked with red and black. And in the distance, toward the town where Noah and Daisy were, the sky was completely dark. Not night-dark.

"It's starting," Elder Sarah whispered. "Whatever they were trying to prevent, it's too late."

The red streaks in the sky were getting bigger, spreading like cracks in glass. And through those cracks, I could see something moving. Something huge and terrible that didn't belong in our world.

"Elder Sarah," I said, my voice shaking. "What do we do?"

She looked at me with the expression of someone who had lived through many terrible things, but had never seen anything like this.

"We pray," she said. "We pray that Noah and the hybrid can stop this before it spreads."

"And if they can't?"

Elder Sarah was quiet for a long moment, watching the sky continue to change.

"Then we fight," she said finally. "We fight until the very end."

As if responding to her words, a howl echoed across the pack territory. But it wasn't a werewolf howl. It was something else. Something ancient and hungry and completely evil.

And it was getting closer.

"Gather the pack," I said to the younger wolf. "Everyone. Right now."

"Where do you want them to gather?"

I looked at the changing sky, at the dark clouds moving toward us, at the red cracks that were letting things through from another world.

"The great hall," I said. "And tell them to bring weapons. Silver weapons."

The young wolf ran off to spread the word, and I turned back to Elder Sarah.

"Do you think Noah knows what's happening?" I asked.

"I think Noah is probably right in the middle of it," she said.

"Then we need to help him."

"No," Elder Sarah said firmly. "We need to protect the pack. That's our job now."

"But Noah..."

"Noah made his choice," she said. "He chose to fight this threat, knowing it might cost him everything. The least we can do is make sure his sacrifice protects the people he left behind."

Another howl echoed across the territory, closer this time. And this time, it was answered by more howls. Lots more.

"They're coming," Elder Sarah said.

"Who's coming?"

"Whatever's been hunting the other packs," she said. "And now they're coming for us."

I looked around at the pack grounds, at the place that had been my home since I was born. The place where I had learned to shift, where I had trained to be Beta, where I had grown up with Noah.

"Then we make our stand here," I said.

Elder Sarah smiled, it was a real smile.

"Good," she said. "That's exactly what an Alpha would say."

"I'm not the Alpha," I said.

"No," she agreed. "But Noah was right to trust you with the pack. You'll protect them, no matter what comes."

As pack members started gathering in response to my call, as the sky continued to darken with unnatural clouds, as those terrible howls got closer and closer, I made a promise to myself.

I would protect these people. I would keep them safe until Noah came back.

And if Noah didn't come back, if he died fighting to save the world, then I would make sure his sacrifice meant something.

Even if it killed me.

The first shadow creatures appeared at the edge of the forest just as the sun disappeared behind the unnatural clouds