1 - The attack

Nick

This is ridiculous…

We’ve been playing hide n’ seek with the rogues for hours. It all started as an everyday rogue alert, sent in by the regular border patrol, stating a suspected intrusion and potential attack. Yet, something seemed awfully off. Matt and his unit stayed back at the ‘castle’, as he likes to call it, making fun of me and my dislike towards traditional middle age terms still connected to our modern day pack life as werewolves. All the while, I took our selected fighters’ team and came to reinforce the patrols in their weird chase of an invisible enemy that may or may not be there after all.

In fact, I was reluctant to join the team as there are matters at hand that I usually dim more pressing, which without a doubt demand my personal attendance. Yet, something the patrol members stated caught my attention, and I simply had to come and investigate by myself.

Is it possible that these mutts have some connection to a witch or, even worse, could they have laid their hands on high-tech scent suppressants? These are the only plausible excuses how a trained patrol comprising some of the finest trackers and fighters of a powerful pack such as the Golden Moon, led by an experienced Alpha as myself, can’t seem to catch a bunch of rogues.

Could they be playing us on purpose? What if they’re deliberately disappearing from ahead of us and reappearing in a totally distinct location some time later? Rogues are supposed to be outcasts, thrown out of their own packs for serious offenses, only approaching each other for the sake of survival causes, not scientists and generals acting on an organized plan. Still, it remains a fact that we’re now even outside pack territory following them and still can’t seem to get any closer to them. I do have to contact Greg soon and cross check the thing with the suppressants with him. He’s the absolute expert in this field, after all.

My frustration only rises when Matt mind-links me that there are intruders in the pack house and we’re not even sure about their number or target. Yet another unlikely rogue behavior. Instead of raiding and stealing what they can near the borders and returning to their darkness in a hurry, they're shamelessly attacking in the middle of a pack territory.

Well, nowadays, they mostly stay in the human world and hardly ever approach pack territories at all. Humans are weaker in physical aspects. Practically any wolf could, with ease, get away with a petty theft towards a middle class human without even being spotted. Attempting the same against organized wolf communities holds a much more lethal risk for them.

However, lately their ‘visits’ are becoming way more frequent, which is annoying the living shit out of me as an Alpha. It’s easy to assume that they mistake my progressiveness for weakness. Somehow, my more flexible and forgiving way of ruling the pack leads them to the conclusion that the Golden Moon is losing its power and is now more vulnerable. But I’m no saint myself and everything has its limit and I’m afraid I’ve long surpassed mine.

No, it’s not likely to be a coincidence and they can’t possibly be acting on their own messed up rogue mentality. But who could have hired them and what is their end game? I know my father had a stronger connection to neighboring witch covens and even made several not so pleasant choices to keep them by our side that I didn’t, by any means, approve and let aside during my rule of the pack. This doesn’t seem like a witch intervention, though.

‘Milton is down. We’re bringing him to the pack clinic, but things don’t look good. Not sure he can make it’ Matt’s mind link brings me back to the frustrating current situation. And only moments later, he continues…

‘There’s three of them. We’ve caught the two, but one fled. What should I do with the captives?’

Matt is my Beta and best friend, equal to a brother to me. But he’s what you’d expect a typical werewolf Beta to be like, a traditional wolf stuck on all kinds of traditions of our kind. The good thing about him is that he knows that I’m very far from his own mentality and thoroughly respects it. Therefore, he never proceeds on risky matters without asking first, not only due to hierarchy reasons as my second but also as he usually can’t predict what my reactions or verdict could be.

Suddenly, I catch a smell that is, for some reason, infuriating me even further. As if the news about my mentor being gravely injured isn’t enough and before I can respond to Matt’s question, my wolf’s pent up frustration and anger, turns to wrath. He’s scratching his way out and demands control. Neal and I usually form an inseparable team and this is so not like him to act on impulse, but as a strong Alpha, he urges me to follow the scent and find the one it belongs to, or I’ll totally lose any shred of restraint left.

And that’s when I see him. The big, brown wolf in front of me seems strong and well trained. He’s not cowering or running away and appears to be ready for my attack, almost expecting that I’ll go after him. Everything in his body stance screams he hasn’t been accidentally cornered by a stronger wolf, so I can now be sure that there’s a solid strategy behind all this. This can’t be some random mutts brought together by the need for survival.

Could this be Greg’s little “group” that I forbid him to contact as a condition to spare his life some months ago and let him take off to the human world to assist me with research in the Northern University? Of course, he was honest all along… No wonder they wouldn’t leave one of their own behind. He kept calling them his family, because, well… they had to act like one. If this is truly them, then everything we are facing today makes more sense. Under any other circumstances, I would have been feeling happy with my decision regarding him and his fate. Yet, now I had to stop all this madness before someone gets unnecessarily hurt. Maybe, just maybe, I should shift as a means of good will and tell the man in front of me that Greg is fine, that I didn’t and don’t intend to harm him.

However, the brown wolf opposite me is looking straight into my eyes, as if challenging me for something, and my beast doesn’t appreciate this at all. We round each other cautiously in a primitive circular dance, with our gaze never leaving the opponent. There’s no room for reconciliation. This is a war twirl. I want to stop this. I hate redundant bloodshed. At the same time, my beast isn’t ready to step down on anyone’s challenge.

A crisp breeze of wind brings a fresh wave of his scent our way and that’s when we go berserk and all control over my wolf is lost. For some reason I still can’t fathom, this male’s attitude and smell bring the worst type of monster out of him. I’m brutally forced back like a spectator in our body and actions, as he lungs at his opponent, no… his enemy… The male in front of us is his enemy and despite being a potent fighter, the big, black Alpha has no intention of showing any mercy. He’s out for blood and not just any blood, this specific wolf’s blood.

The brown wolf dodges a couple of our attacks. He’s quick and agile and even delivers some minor blows on me, but eventually, there’s still a considerable difference in our strength. Soon we have him by his rear leg. He gets seriously injured, but doesn’t give up. He knows he can’t win, it’s obvious. Still, he doesn’t submit. This guy must have a clear death wish. He seems ready to take it to the end, and Neal looks just too happy to oblige. It’s hard to recognize him as a part of me when his fangs sink deep into this stranger’s neck and, without the slightest hesitation, they tear it open.

As his blood runs in waves and recognition hits him, he only has some very few moments of life left. His body transforms back into its human form. With his last breath, he lets out a very slight whisper I could easily have missed, had I not been paying close attention to the entire scene with shocked fascination about the savageness that Neal suddenly displays.

“Please tell her I’m sorry. I had to do it. I love her too much”

And with these words, he’s gone and I’m left behind, completely confused. What on earth just happened? What was all this about?