Alpha

Running.

Why am I running?

'Because someone is chasing you,' a high-pitched, wicked voice that sets my hair on end calmly replies to me. The dream is murky, but the Voice is as clear as my own thoughts.

'Who?'

The Voice ignores the question as my paws pound across the forest floor, footsteps beating close behind. 'One of you will die at his hand,' the Voice hisses evilly.

'Who?' I demand, my mental voice growing increasingly frustrated.

The Voice begins to cackle in a shrill, blood-curdling, goosebump-inducing pitch that rings in my ears. I close my eyes and fall down, trying to rub my ears with my white paws, and I can hear blood rushing in my hypersensitive ears beyond the shriek-like laughter. Someone grabs me roughly as I am jolted awake by the gentle hands of Ryder, my best friend.

"What the—!" I shoot up and blink, trying to get my bearings.

"Wake up," Ryder murmurs in my ear, sitting down beside me and shifting my sticky hair away from my forehead. "Last night of the Full Moon, and I want to make the best of it." He grins mischievously down at me, and I return the sentiment with a forced smile of my own. Ryder is tall, about 6'3" with soft, brown hair that reaches his earlobes and a strong face with caring blue eyes. His skin is darkly tanned due to natural color and very much time spent out in the sun. His well-toned muscles make his shirt tight as they show themselves off. Ryder is 17, a few months older than me.

"Alright, I reply tightly. Let’s get going."

We emerge from the house that we share with the rest of our Pack in the middle of nowhere in backwoods Pennsylvania. The inside has a cabin-style appeal—wooden paneling on the walls of the open living room with dark, hard-wood flooring. The outside is composed of worn down but sturdy brick. The front door and window frames all have dark wood about the same color as the inside flooring. The others are standing around in the little clearing, chatting, excited anticipation on all faces except Lovett, Zeeva, and myself. Zeeva has always been the quiet and keep-to-yourself type, but Lovett is acting a bit out of character.

Zeeva speaks with a faint Romanian accent and has long, dirty-blond hair tied up in a messy ponytail high on her head. Her brown eyes look up at the setting sun from their place on her lightly tanned face. Her body is fit, but not excessively muscular as I've seen some werewolves get in the past. She's about 4 months older than Ryder.

Eyulf and Rudi, two other Pack members, stand together, excitedly whispering in a little romantic huddle, probably planning what they'll do later on. Eyulf, born and raised in Norway until he was 15, has brown hair with golden-rod highlights and milk chocolate brown eyes. Like Ryder and the other guys, countless hours of exercise have led to a fit body with prominent muscles. Rudi, on the other hand, has a faint German accent and dusty blond hair and clear, lake-like blue eyes. Rudi is about two weeks younger than Zeeva, and Eyulf is 18, almost 19.

The last couple of Pack members besides Lovett and myself are Susanne and Cannan. Susanne has golden blond locks of gorgeous, mid-back length hair. Her eyes are a hazel blend of green, grey, and brown, and she is probably more slim than the rest of us, having been transformed only about 6 months ago—she still hasn't quite adjusted to the fitness-pro lifestyle. Cannan speaks like the Englishman that he is and has a strange copper-brown-redhead blend of hair that he rocks. It's cut to come just shy of his hard brown eyes that always soften when he gazes at Susanne as he is right now, and it makes me wish I had a guy of my own, even a guy with his type of personality. Cannan can be an ass, but he really does love Susanne, who is about my age with Cannan about 3 years older.

The faint glow of twilight illuminates the top branches and leaves of the forestry as the sun sinks in the distance. The moon rises over the horizon and I feel my body begin shifting. I close my eyes as I did in the dream and fall to my knees, not from pain, but rather from bodily shock, a sensation born of the shift, something I experience each time I Transform. I hear Susanne let out a quiet gasp, the only sound that disturbs the young night.

And then I’m there, sitting on my hind legs as a wolf, surrounded by others that look like me in different color variations. Lovett and I share white snouts, paws, and tail tips, the only other color being a reddish brown that dominates the rest of our bodies, with him slightly larger. Ryder and Susanne, though unrelated, look very similar as well, with brown and dusty blond variations on their heads, backs, tails, and hind legs with white bellies, forelegs, and hind feet being the only variation. Zeeva has a black and gray blend with white-tipped ears. Rudi is purely white with a black underbelly. Cannan has a black back which melts into dark brown on his sides and charcoal gray on his snout, his legs, paws and tail with the same type of blend. Eyulf, the last member of our Pack, is similar to Rudi except negative to her colors—he’s completely black save for his white underbelly.

Ryder stands up, barks, and whines before turning and padding into the forest, the rest of us shadowing him. As a Pack, we try to stick together at the beginning of these moonlight explorations. Although Ryder is acting Alpha tonight, he’s normally only second in command—Lovett is our ‘official’ Alpha male. He usually holds his position by way of pointing out the fact that Ryder is a werewolf through bite, not birth. Even though Ryder is about his strength level, this is one of the few things that werewolves mock; however, it's also an abnormality that our mother was a human, not a werewolf, therefore putting us close to him on the scale. Breeding with humans is highly frowned upon, and our father was mocked in most encounters with other wolves.

Something is on my brother’s mind, but I just can’t get a read on it. I can usually get a pretty decent read on Lovett’s feeling—as Pack mates, we can all sense how each other feel, but we don’t get a very accurate read on full-fledged thoughts unless someone is literally projecting their thoughts and ideas. But right now, I’m too frazzled from my dream to even try to pick up on how he feels. I've had two dreams like that before, and they’ve both come true.

Luckily, everyone in the Pack is too busy basking in the glory of the final night of the Cycle to pay too much attention to Lovett and me.

After a while of running aimlessly just to be free, Cannan and Susanne break off on one of their romantic interludes that they take each Full Moon. As long as they stay together—and they always do—none of us really care to ask what they do. Rudi and Eyulf also branch off to chase fireflies and hunt. He didn’t used to catch fireflies and she was never a big hunter until Eyulf asked her out. They turned into one of those couples that do everything together. It's an odd thing about werewolves—with actual wolves, only the Alpha can mate, but werewolves are more carefree. As long as the mate is accepted by the full Pack, you have our blessing.

Lovett continues sulking behind Zeeva, Ryder, and I as we roam the forest. Finally, Ryder becomes restless and falls back next to me, beginning to nudge me in the side with his nose. He whines playfully, and I grunt to try to translate for him to leave me alone. He refuses to let up, and I finally give up any hope of deterring him. I growl at him playfully. He gives me a wolf’s smile and turns away, running through the trees wildly. I leave Lovett and Zeeva behind and chase Ryder through the forest. I can’t see him, but I can smell him. I hear him pounding across the ground just ahead of me before pausing and lapping up water. I catch up to him drinking from a stream. Creeping up slowly behind him, I get as close as possible before lunging and shoving Ryder, furry brown snout-first into the stream.

He whines in surprise and falls into the clear, cold water. He looks up at me bitterly, crawls out, shakes the water from his fur, and retaliates. We brawl before I roll into the stream. He barks with pride and strolls in behind me. There we waste away the night, playing and resting in and around the stream until dawn strikes and we are forced to emerge from the water just before the sun rises to dress in our hidden supply of clothes, only to meet up again, soaking wet and grinning mischievously.

That's the good thing about Ryder—he always forces me to forget about my problems in one way or another.
* * * * *
Everyone except Lovett and Zeeva get back at the same time. They’ve already taken up two of the three showers, and Cannan and Susanne wander off to take the last one. The rest of us just chill around the living room. Rudi lays with her head in Eyulf’s lap lazily as we lounge about.

Hey, you okay? Ryder asks gently as we sit on the ground in a corner. There’s something...I don’t know, just something off about you tonight.

Yeah, bad dream. It’s all good. I muster up an unconvincing smile but I’m just so tired and scared. The details off the nightmare came flooding back in full force once we got inside and I was no longer distracted. I’m sorry for worrying you.

Don’t apologize for it, my little wolf. He wraps his arm around me. I always worry about you. He smiles, and I lean my head against his shoulder.

"You’re a jerk! This has nothing to do with you! Keep your big nose out of it!" Out of nowhere, Susanne storms into the room. Her clothes are wrinkled as if put on hastily, and Cannan is right on her heels, a towel wrapped around his waist. Ryder and I shoot up, and Rudi rolls off of the couch as Eyulf does the same.

"Come on, Susanne! You have to talk to me! We’ll figure this out!" Cannan grabs her wrist with one hand, keeping the other on his towel. He swings her around, and Eyulf and Ryder are there in a flash, each putting a warning hand on Cannan’s biceps. Rudi and I wrap our arms protectively around Susanne and lead her outside. Zeeva and Lovett join the group, now refreshed from showering, and Zeeva joins us girls while Lovett joins the guys in damage control and danger management with Cannan.

We sit around Susanne outside on the porch steps as she examines her wrist. As werewolves, we’re already extremely strong, but Cannan and the guys seem to make it a point to become as excessively buff—his strong grip left red finger marks on her slim wrist, and she heals slightly slower than the rest of us due to having been Transformed so recently.

She shakes and rolls her hand, her face scrunching in pain. And she suddenly just shoots up. "I’m going for a walk," she whispers in an odd voice.

"But you’re not wearing any shoes," Rudi replies, her voice laced with obvious concern.

"Yeah, let’s just go inside, and we can talk," I add, wanting desperately suddenly to keep us all together. A seed of unease is planted in my stomach.

"Or at least let us come with you," Zeeva tries, her voice as worried as Rudi’s.

"No! You know what, I’m not weak, you guys." She steps away from us, an uncharacteristic look of pure annoyance painted across her normally serene face. "You guys all baby me. I know I’m not born like you are, but neither is Ryder and he’s alternate Alpha. Just stop trying to protect me. I can take care of myself." She turns and runs through the forest before we can object.

We exchange questioning looks. I’m so nervous—I feel, no, I know that something bad is going to happen to one of us, but I don’t know what or when. But the other girls just shrug and reenter the house, muttering about how she’ll come back when she’s ready. I bite my lip as my mind runs through a series of scenarios of bad things that could happen to sweet, innocent, gentle little Susanne.

Cannan is out of sight when we get back inside, and the other guys kind of just sit awkwardly around, not knowing what to do. They look up gratefully when we get in but their faces fall when they realize that Susanne is missing. I let Zeeva and Rudi explain what happened—I’m busy watching Lovett. He isn’t reacting at all. His heart-shaped face, so like mine, with his soft, red-brown hair surrounding it is still so distraught, and he doesn’t react at all like the others do when informed about Susanne.

Sinking into the couch, I look at the guys. "Anyone want to explain what that was about?" I ask, distractedly curious and waving lazily towards the hallway that Cannan must've disappeared through.

Ryder shakes his head helplessly. "He wouldn’t say. He just shrugged us off and stormed out."

Everyone talks for a while and disperses after that, off to shower or just chill out after the chaotic morning’s events. But I stay with Lovett, disturbed by his off-putting behavior.

I sit lightly next to him on the couch and touch his arm gently to capture his attention, scattered elsewhere in his mind. "Hey, what’s going on? You’ve been a bit off for the past couple of days. Is everything alright? I ask gently as he jolts back to the present."

He looks at me with tired, mournful, forest green eyes and I put two and two together before he can even say anything. Mid-summer. Grief. All of his mental distance.

The Voice speaks at the same time as Lovett. "It’s the anniversary of Mama and Father’s deaths," he whispers practically inaudibly.

The words are barely out before I’m up and out the door myself. I don’t even stop to think about until I almost run into a tree in the middle of the forest. I pause to gather my bearings. I feel disoriented and lost. My heart swells with pain as I think of the deaths that I've witnessed in my life, and I feel like throwing up.

I keep walking, not even knowing where I'm going. I enter foreign territory, parts of the forest that I can't remember ever exploring. All I can think is that maybe if I get farther away from Lovett, the sad feelings within me will disintegrate. But I just hurt and feel so empty inside. My parents died exactly 12 years ago, and I can't even go visit their graves like a normal person because I'm stuck across an ocean! I fall to my knees in front of a tree as sobs of grief rack my body. After the dream I had earlier, all I can think about is how much I'd love to have my mom to talk to right now.

And then, I smell something...familiar. I stand on shaky legs and sniff the air. I smell Susanne, but there’s something else mingled there. I follow the trail—it’s faint, but the mysterious familiarity makes it worth it. I’m led closer to the house, but not by much. However, the scent and Susanne’s aroma continue to mingle and merge. I’m curious and confused.

Where do I know that scent from?

'The dream.'

That odd voice. It’s right. I don’t know how, but I know it, no matter how crazy I may feel at the moment. But that’s not the only place I know that scent from. I don’t know where, but I know that I’ve smelled it before. It’s indescribable.

And it makes me sick.

Suddenly I’m running. I don’t know who it’s coming from, but whoever it is is dangerous and has Susanne. I won’t let him get her. My bare feet pound across the forest floor, crunching leaves as I race over them. The distance is closing—and then it isn’t.

Whatever I smelled just disappeared and was replaced by the odor of gasoline. My eyes widen as I realize what’s happened.

Susanne. Sweet, innocent, gentle little Susanne who got upset once when she stepped on an ant. Susanne has been kidnapped.