Ultima Trials

Camden’s POV Four Years Ago “Baby, just tell me what you’ve decided. He’s coming in just a few days. What’s with the secret?” I joked as I reached over to tickle my wife. Jerica laughed. I loved that laugh. It was one of the most beautiful sounds I had ever heard. Jeri rubbed her hands over her swollen belly. She was in her last week of pregnancy, she had gone a full week past her due date, but the doctor had said that there could be a two-week discrepancy with the conception date. Who really knew? Jeri and I had been together since we were fifteen years old. I knew I loved her from the moment I saw her, the first day she had moved into our pack when we were just barely teenagers . Her uncle was my father’s Beta and we had always been close with the ranking families and even a few surrounding packs. She fit in so perfectly, and when we found out we were mates on her eighteenth birthday, I was the happiest wolf alive. We mated and marked each other. It had been 3 years since that fateful day, and now she was pregnant with my son. It was our anniversary and I had taken her to her favorite vegetarian restaurant. It always baffled me that my wife, a werewolf, had a favorite vegetarian restaurant. I had done everything I could to make her happy, which wasn’t hard. She enjoyed the simple things in life. She didn’t enjoy shopping much, and her nights would be better spent at home than out in a club. She was an ‘introverted extrovert’, whatever the hell that meant. “Cam, if I’ve waited 5 months carrying your son, you can wait a few days to learn his name. Just know you’re going to love it.” She laughed again.            In two seconds, I took my eyes off the road, I saw the car coming straight at us. I braced my arm across her belly and prepared for the impact. The car pushed into front of mine and sent us spirling into a pole. The last sound I heard was my beautiful wife screaming and a growl. Present day            It had been 3 years since that fateful night. I woke up in a hospital 3 weeks later. My son was still in the nursery upstairs, and my wife had suffered more injuries than the doctors or her wolf could save her from. I never got to say goodbye. Not only had I lost my wife, I lost my pack that night as well. As it turned out, my car accident was less of an accident and more of a strategy to take out the ranked members of my pack.            I went home after being released from the hospital to find that not only had my wife and Luna been killed, but my Beta and his new mate, my gamma and his mate and children, even my parents had been killed as the pack would be defaulted back to them in case of my death. The new Alpha, Noah, was a rogue from some pack commanded by the Ultima Wolf. The rumors flew about his reasoning for being a rogue with ranked blood. It happened but rarely. The one that stood out to me was he was banished for killing someone in his family.            I tried to fight for my pack, my people, but Noah had taken my son on more than one occasion. Since my son was an Alpha, he didn’t submit to anyone except me, as I was his father. Noah was not excited about that at all. He ruled with an iron fist, submit, or die. One night when I was supposed to be cleaning the Alpha’s toilet, he had done absolutely everything to force me to submit.  Public humiliation, lashings, I had spent two days starved and chained to a pole in my wolf. Thankfully, he had allowed my godmother to watch my son. After scrubbing the toilet with a toothbrush, I went home and found my son curled in a ball. My godmother had always watched him when I was ‘working’, but tonight she was nowhere to be found. I picked up my son and placed him in the full-sized bed we shared, as I did every night, but he felt much warmer than normal. I knew I was unable to take him to get medical treatment at the pack hospital, only Noah’s ranked members were allowed at the pack hospital. I was also unable to leave pack territory. Noah was afraid I would call my family friends and usurp him. Just as I was checking my son’s temperature for the fifth time in the last hour, the door slammed open, my godmother, Gloria, was carrying two suitcases. She had a fearful look on her face as she threw clothes into the suitcases. She kept looking between the door and the small clock on the room wall. “Gloria, what is going on?” I asked her as she pulled out the wallet I knew she kept her spare money in. She had it my entire life, and it was overflowing with cash. “You and Maverick need to go tonight. He’s coming with warriors, Camden. He’s paranoid that you’re going to challenge him.” She handed me the wallet, “This is enough to get you settled in a new pack. Since you’re the rightful Alpha of the Silver Star pack, you’ll have to denounce your allegiance to the pack, and then give this letter to the Gamma of the Black Storm pack. His father owes me a favor.” She handed me a simple envelope and started pushing me out the door. She ran back inside to get Maverick. Just as she got him situated in the car, I saw two warriors followed by Noah and his Beta and Gamma. Gloria shoved me in the car and took off back towards the village. I wasn’t allowed to live in the village. Noah wanted me as isolated as possible. I found the keys already in the ignition and turned the engine over before pressing the gas as hard as I could. Thankfully, Gloria had gotten one of Noah’s faster SUV’s and I went from zero to sixty in three seconds. I wove through the village and heard the howls as I passed through the borders. My pack thought I was dead, and those that knew I was alive were commanded to never speak of me.  Just as I sped up, the two wolves on patrol jumped out of the way. “I, Camden Bailey Tarain, rightful Alpha of the Silver Star pack, renounce my title and any and all bonds to the Silver Star pack.” I expected something to feel different. For the past three years, I have been alone in my own mind. Of course, my wolf was always there, but I had grown so used to having a feeling of being able to mind link with the others in my pack. I didn’t have time to wallow in the fact that the only home I had ever known was now nothing but a memory. I had to protect my son. We kept driving until I was on the human highway. There was no way Noah would be able to track me this way. I slowed down to a reasonable speed and flowed through traffic as if I didn’t have a care in the world. It was a far from the truth as I could get. Through the entire ordeal, Maverick hadn’t made a sound. Usually, he was full of life, as all three-year-olds are. My eyes continually trailed to the rearview mirror to ensure I wasn’t being followed, but also to keep my eyes on Mav. I didn’t want to take him to a human hospital. I had read about the ridiculous prices, and though I had cash, I wasn’t sure how much it was. His color was fading, and with my night vision I could see the thin layer of sweat forming on his forehead. I knew I had to do something. Even with his Alpha genes, he didn’t have a wolf yet, so his body wouldn’t heal as quickly. The hospital put us on an hour’s detour, which put Black Storm almost three hours away. He's not going to make it two more hours. My wolf, Jersey, said in my head. I had learned to follow my wolf. He didn’t speak to me often, but when he did, it was vital information. He was still reeling from the loss of his mate. It didn’t matter that we could have a second chance mate out there. They were becoming more and more rare, especially with the normalizing of chosen mates and rejections. I found it insane that people were picking their mates based on rank rather than what the Goddess herself has blessed us with. My parents were fated mates and growing up I had always wanted to find the person that was made for me, and when I found her I was the happiest wolf ever, and when I lost her I wanted to die too, but Maverick needed me. I lived for him; everything was for him.            I looked around for the nearest hospital sign and followed until I was in the parking lot. Taking Mav out of the carseat, he was so much hotter now than he was when we left, and it had only been an hour. As I opened the door, a nurse was leaving, Mav’s arm brushed against hers and a small gasp left her lips. “Do you need help, sir?” She looked down at Mav, who’s normally perfectly tanned skin was looking more and more ashen. The sweat beaded and plastered his straight black hair to his forehead. “My son, he’s got a fever. I don’t… I don’t know what to do.” She told me to follow her and led me into the waiting room. She spoke to a few of the nurses who all looked around her to see Mav in my arms, not moving and his breathing shallow. My wolf whimpered as we looked at our pup. They asked me a few questions, and I answered as best as I could without giving too much away. I could smell a wolf on one of the nurses, but the others were humans. The closest pack to this hospital was the Grand Lake pack, and they were still an hour away. After filling out a few papers as best as I could, I was taken back to a room. I thanked the first nurse, leaving me alone with the she-wolf nurse. “My name’s Mel, Melody.” She said, wandering around the room, getting tubes and things for Mav. “Cam. Camden Tarain.” I spoke. My eyes never left her movements. I trusted no one, I trusted even less my son. I was now a rogue, and rogues were mostly killed on sight. I might have gotten away free because of Mav, but usually rogues only got kids by kidnapping them. At that moment, I cursed the fact that Mav looked nothing like me. He was almost a carbon copy of his mother with her black hair and deep brown eyes, his tan skin came from his mother. “Alpha Camden Tarain?” She asked, shocked. I knew that everyone knew what had happened. With my being in a coma for so long, my pack went to the challenger. I couldn’t accept it. It was an automatic forfeit. Though from the rumors of pack members, there was no official challenge, he just came in and killed my parents and ranked members. “I’m not going to kill you if that’s what you’re wondering. Trust me. I know very well who Alpha Noah Shultz is.” Nurse Mel spoke softly. I nodded. “He’s going to be fine. As far as we can tell, it’s just a fever. He doesn’t have his wolf yet, so he’s still prone to human illnesses such a colds and the flu. Either way, with his Alpha genes, I doubt it lasts more than a few more hours.” She was doing her best to console my wolf, but neither me nor him were fond of hospitals.  Waking up in a hospital with our mate dead and a newborn son with no name was a lot for us. I couldn’t shift for weeks, even though I was too exhausted to actually try. I spent hours just watching Mav when I wasn’t being forced to be Noah’s slave, there was no sleeping. I only called Gloria when I passed out and I woke up to Mav screaming his head off in the middle of the night because I hadn’t gotten his bottle fast enough. It was a few more moments of her trying to console my wolf before a man standing at 6 feet, he was a maybe an inch or so shorter than me, his white coat said the doctor, but his face screamed predator. He was a wolf, but not just any wolf, he was an old pack member of Silver Star.