Alpha

“Andre, do get me a chair, if you do not mind,” Damien requests. I only then realize that the giant is by his side.

The brute glances at us and gives me a look that I don’t know the meaning of. He looks sad, but I’m too confused to read into it much more than that. I can’t wrap my head around the culprit having been Rudi. I mean, it makes some sense—she was always rushing us to find this place. She was also the first to find out about two of the kidnappings, two occurrences in which she explained neither. But she looks so scared and doesn’t seem to understand how it could have been her.

But my Pack is so furious. Only Ryder, Eyulf and I stay back as everyone corners her. Nox and Nyx even join in as they swarm around the cowering wolf. She projects incoherent thoughts through her fear. 'It wasn’t me! I didn’t… It was her! It wasn’t me! It was her! Oh gosh—please! It was her! She’s the one who was working with him! Please!' There are some pauses between thoughts as she tries to send us messages but is too overwhelmed to do so.

And then I realize that Susanne broke away from the Pack. She sits next to Damien who now rests in a green suede chair the same color as his bed spread. Rudi wasn’t the rat, Susanne was. Damien pets her head calmly as she practically shines with pride next to him. Eyulf, Ryder and I stare at her in befuddlement.

“Please, my dear wolves, as amusing as it may prove to be, do not kill her here.” He now has all eyes as everyone tries to determine what exactly happened, confused now with Susanne by Damien’s side. “Allow me to rephrase that,” he says after a bit of considering. “If you must kill her, take it outside. Andre has just redone the carpet. I would hate it as much as I am sure you would if all if his hard work went to waste.”

I snarl nastily at him and his calm, evil voice and ways and expression. I hate him. I hate him so much for what he did to me. I hate him even more for what he’s done to my Pack.

“Ah, temper, my dear wolf,” he says with faux shock and hurt. “If you don’t back down, I will be forced to have Andre give you another of our little ‘reminders.’” I creep closer, the fur on my back standing up tall. I want to bite him for what he’s done to me. I want to see him suffer, to deal with this curse that I've endured for 16 years. He deserves to be turned into the thing that he has spent his whole life learning to hunt. Ryder, ignoring the pain in his shoulder, is right by my side. As is the rest of the Pack, everyone flanking my sides.

Everyone except Susanne.

And this is the point in time in which the Pack Bond between us breaks.
 
It’s a strange sensation. It isn’t the excruciating pain that I experienced when my father died, but it isn’t the warm glow like when I accepted Nox into my Pack. It’s like a gray cloud fills my thoughts as a wave of nausea overcomes me. I quickly recover, however, and return to my slow, threatening approach of the despicable pair. My Pack is by my back.

And now I see Damien’s two guns. Are you freaking kidding me?

'Nope!' the Voice whispers excitedly.

'Shut up and leave me alone. I don’t have time for you right now!'

'Don’t do anything stupid. He’s going to tell you what happened.' The Voice considers for a moment. 'Then you can kill him.'

Gritting my teeth, I stop. I tell the others to copy, and Nyx and Nox reciprocate all of us.

“Very good,” Damien whispers creepily and patronizingly. “Now, I want you to know exactly how I was able to get you—all of you.” Susanne stands up and goes to lie down on the bed. Everyone growls but does nothing, afraid of those two guns. Lovett edges closer to occupy my side that Ryder isn’t sitting by. “But before I tell you how I entered your unnatural lives, you may care to know why I was hunting you in the first place. It really is a simple answer, to tell you the honest truth. It is the rules.”

We all stare at him. Susanne seems to be asleep on the bed.

He sighs in exasperation. “Do you all know nothing of your past? You ignorant mutts seem to want us to kill you all off!" He ignores us as we all begin growling again, the fur on the backs of our necks prickling. "Back in the 1700s, in France, a man who was known as Mr. Marquette Dupont was innocently taking a stroll one night when he was assailed and murdered harshly by a Pack of mongrels. His death was brutal, and his family took it...not so well, to say the least." His face begins to glow with twisted zeal. "They swore that they would kill the wolves that did this. The men went out every night to hunt for the wolves, not realizing what it was. Then, after almost a month, they found them, wolves around the area where Marquette’s body was found, that is. It was already near sunrise, and the men grabbed the wolves, shooting them in the legs and shoulders with steel bullets to injure but not kill them. But one of them did die.” Damien’s voice is so quiet but intense, and he has obviously rehearsed and/or studied most of this.

“She died from only a shot to the leg. The men stopped their gunshots, befuddled. They did not understand. The wolf had not lost too much blood yet. And then the sun rose. The wolves became human, two men and one woman. They were in dire pain, and the men grabbed them and practically dragged them back to their home. They locked the wolf-people in spare bedrooms and locked the doors tightly, barely remembering to give them clothes to dress.

"And then, they came and beat the wolf-people, as they called them. As they beat them, the wolf-people were questioned: what they were, why the other one had died when shot, why they had killed Marquette. On and on it went until one of the men caved. He claimed to be a werewolf of one of the first families. He told them that the steel bullets burned her from the inside and killed her. That was his mate. He looked them in the face and told them that he had killed Marquette because Marquette had tried to kill them.

"One of the men got a steel gun and killed him. He let the two partners live, however; although, their living conditions were much less than suitable for any human being; I suppose mongrels such as yourselves would be accustomed to the conditions that they endured. The woman, more accurately, the girl broke out. They hadn’t killed her or her brother because they were still young—they refused to kill someone still in their teens. And thus began the tradition in my family to kill any adult of your family and imprison any child as a slave, a bit of mercy for undeserving, ungrateful cur. But once she broke out, she ran away to raise her two younger sisters left behind when their mother was killed. But the damage was done.

"And guess who those little siblings grew up to be?" He looks at us. "Who were the Greek wolves? No matter. One of the girls grew up to be your great great great great great grandmother and the other was likewise for my favorite little French mutt."

I growl at him, and then realize what he just said. Lovett and I exchange a look and glance at our newly discovered cousins. They do the same, and I feel my Bond with Nox strengthen. We all turn back to Damien.

"Now that you understand a bit about your family history, I am sure that you are all dying to find out how it was so easy for me to simply sneak in and take you. Another very simple answer: Susanne.

"You see, I met Susanne just a small while after you changed her. I recognized you, Lovett because you are the spitting image of that wolf that was killed in my ancestor’s custody. As a child, I not only learned about my ancestors, but also about yours, and there were paintings. Moving on, I saw you and recognized you immediately. I followed you back to the cabin where I heard a discussion between Susanne and you, Louve.” He stares at me, and I growl defensively. “She was upset that she wasn't quite catching on to what the 'life' meant, and it was frustrating her. You told her that she was still a young wolf, that normality would come to her. The conversation ended, and I had my way in. I met her the next time you and your Pack sent her into town to buy supplies with that other little blond one.

"I cornered her, not bothering with pretending that understanding of you wolves and your world was beyond my knowledge. I convinced her that you wolves were evil beings that would take over the world if not kept in check and informed her that if she had even an ounce of humanity left within her, she would join me and destroy the Pack. And she agreed that I was correct.

"And so we devised a plan that would allow me to take you all. I would take you all in the forest, and to ensure that none of you could alert others of my presence, I threatened slow and painful death for the caller and those who responded. As for my dearest werewolf, Miss Louve, and her dear, misguided puppet, Ryder, I made sure I had back-up as I knew you two would present the most danger—Susanne warned me about you two codependent mongrels. And as for my dear companion Susanne…well, we decided that she would stay here with me, and we would be together, keeping her in a cage during the full moon for her own protection. But then I met you, Miss Louve." His stare intensifies.
 
I'm confused. I look around to see if anyone else understands, but they're all equally puzzled.

"Allow me to explain," Damien says impatiently. "You see, that day in the forest, the nonsense you fed me about the Pack and your 'precious rules' sounded ridiculous, but then I thought about it for a moment. Susanne had already been accepted into your Pack when she and I began to conduct this plan—and for quite some time, I might add. Why would your rules not to matter to her? It then occurred to me that she may not be as 'caring' or 'loyal' to the Pack as you are, and it made me sick. However, I have gotten over that, and she and I can proceed as planned."
 
He looks at her, and she smiles at him. "Anything you would care to add, my dear?"

Susanne looks up from her nap, and she almost looks…smug, as if she’s proud of what she’s done to us. I guess she’s Projecting some message, but I don’t know what it is.

'Does anyone know what she’s saying?' I ask the Pack, not able to hear her. No one except Cannan is still Bonded to her, and he Projects her speech for the rest of us. She seems to be speaking solely to him, however.

'Seven months ago, when I was turned against my will, you and the Pack all looked down on me, acting as though I was the weakest link. It allowed me a bit of time to practice a few handy tricks. For instance, projecting to only one Pack member at a time. It’s something that you all have the capability of doing. I was just the only one who took the time to figure it out.

'And then one day, you decided it was safe. You said that we needed food, and Rudi and I went into town to get what we needed. It was there that I met Damien. Rudi was off in another section of the store, and I was by myself. Damien caught me and began speaking to me, telling me about how dangerous werewolves are, especially some of the members of my Pack. He told me that some of them, Lovett and Louve to be specific, were the most dangerous of any of the werewolves. He described his father’s noble and brave execution of their parents and how their father entrusted them with secrets of leading the wolves of the world on a revolution against humanity, knowing that his crimes would be his end eventually.'

Lovett growls, angry that Susanne can sit there with that smug voice speaking such lies in our heads. I can tell that he’d like to rip her to bits right there. Seeming to realize that Cannan is reprojecting this to everyone, she begins to speak to all of us.

'I watched you all in the following weeks, seeing how unnatural you all are and watching Lovett and Louve especially closely. You two are always so power hungry, and Ryder inherited that trait, being your right-hand bitch, Louve. I realized that he was right. Everything that he told me. And so, I made plans to meet him the next time that I went out shopping. I went out with Cannan, and made an excuse to separate. Damien and I met up in a lonely aisle in a supermarket and began plotting what I was to do. He told me to simply get close to everyone. Make you all believe that I was truly on your side—that I left my old life and humanity behind me. I even took you, Cannan, under my thumb so that I could have some minion under my control. It made it especially easy to gain the rest of your trust.

'And then you all thought that I was so weak, so innocent, so sweet. I had you all in the palm of my hand, right where I wanted you, and then I disappeared. I acted like the pressure was just too much, keeping up this double life, the guilt of it all, and I "broke down." I knew I could rely on Cannan to try to save me. Damien and I planned it all out. I was to simply run away and find him. He'd then take me to the car, and we knew that someone else would go looking for me. That someone would run back to the house and alert the others. Then Cannan would go looking for me, and Lovett would go looking for his two missing Pack members, him being so high and mighty. And so the plan unraveled, and here we are now, you predictable mutts.'

She looks straight at me, the fur on her back beginning to prickle as she growls a little. Damien looks impatient, but Susanne ignores him for the time being. 'But you, Louve. I will admit: I've always been jealous of how pretty you are. How you're able to use your looks to get exactly what you always want without even realizing it, whether it's with your brother or Ryder...or Damien. That one rubbed me the wrong way. From the moment that he saw you and your good looks and your damn feisty nature, all he wanted to talk about was you. He wanted you to be his personal slave. Didn't you ever wonder why I was never actually scared while I was here or when he took me? The others were terrified, but I wasn't. I thought that that would be the warning sign to you idiots about what was going on. But no. And then, you were even more stupid to not even realize that the only emotion I felt was jealousy that another person would choose you over me. But that's all over now. I win.'

Looking very pleased with herself, wagging her tail, Susanne leaps down from the bed and walks over to Damien, rubbing her snout affectionately against his leg, victorious. We all just stare at them both as he pets her head, and she lies down by his feet. And then he does the most shocking thing possible.

Damien looks down at his partner in crime and shoots her. "She was a despicable, conniving little bitch, wasn't she?" he mutters, mostly to himself, as everyone in the room watches her blood spill from her head and onto his carpet, leaving a stain that will never go away on the floor that Andre apparently just redid. Only Cannan seems to feel the pain of her death—no one else acknowledges her anymore. He yelps in pain and falls to the floor in agony, but then he growls. But I pay no attention to him as I watch Lovett jump out of no where while Damien's attention is focused on the blood spilling from Susanne's head and blending with her light fur. My brother swats one gun out of our kidnapper's hand and bites down on the other one. Hard.

I hear the metal crush against his sharp teeth as he chews it. Defenseless, Damien backs away slowly. "Andre, your gun!" he commands the brute, but the bigger man does nothing, opting to walk to the other side of the room and shut the giant door. "Andre, what are you doing?” Damien demands, beginning to panic.

The brute still does nothing, but rather points to his mouth, shakes his head, and shrugs. Damien looks at him incredulously, but is quickly reminded that he's in a room full of starving and very pissed of wolves as Cannan presses forward, teeth bared and gnawing. We all sit back and watch as Cannan jumps onto Damien's chest, not yet impaling him far enough to kill him but enough to make him moan in pain. Having stood to shoot Susanne, Damien makes it easy for Cannan to push him and make him stumble backwards, trip on the chair, and fall, back first, onto the bed. Cannan then proceeds to begin making intricate designs with his claws along Damien's chest, nothing fatal, but deep enough to keep him down and moaning in pain. We all sit down and watch as he tortures the man who kidnapped us all and held us captive. The man who starved my friends and tortured and assaulted me. We watch as he drags Damien's death out as long as he can, continuing even after the man is dead if only to just make him suffer for every ounce of pain that Cannan feels himself, both physically and emotionously. I probably wouldn't have dragged it out like that or made Damien, or even his father, suffer as much as Cannan just did, and I was the one telling Ryder how much I wanted him to feel the pain of both his father's actions and his own. Nyx and Nox seem to realize that this is just something that Cannan has to do and respect it.

Finally, he collapses and howls sadly at his loss. 'Alright guys,' I say solemnly through the Bond. 'Let's go home.'