Chapter 3 – Decimation

LAMIA

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I growled at the now-shaking guard. “Why on earth would you lock a child up in a dungeon? What possible threat could she be?” I was fuming.

“I – I’m sorry Alpha, I – I…” The guard stuttered in fear.

“You are relieved from your duty, go report to your captain and tell him what you did. Maybe he can smack some sense into you.” I pointed to the stone stairs that lead up to the dungeon doors.

He scuttled out of there as quick as lightning. I shook my head, dumbfounded at the idiot.

Travis chuckled next to me, “A little harsh, don’t you think?” I scoffed.

“Harsh you say? What fucking idiot locks a child up?” I motioned to the tiny figure cowering in the corner of one of our cells. I pressed my thumb against the keypad and the cell door slid open.

“Please, please help me, help us, Alpha.” The little girl cried.

I moved slowly into the cell so as not to scare her any further and took a seat on the floor next to her. Travis stood by the door, he thought he would be interrogating a grown-ass person, not some frail little girl who was obviously distraught. I’m sure being thrown in a cell by my idiot guard only added to her distress.

“I’m really sorry they put you in here. I’m Lamia, the Alpha here; can you tell me your name sweetheart?” I asked her, keeping as much softness in my voice as possible.

“P… Petra” she sniffled, wiping her nose on her torn sleeve. My heart broke a little for her. I always had a soft spot for kids. No matter what race.

“Petra. What a beautiful name.” I cooed, trying to butter her up to trust me. “Can you tell me how you got here, Petra?”

She nodded her tiny head, full of brown locks, “I ran Alpha, momma told me to run and not stop. So I did, I ran,” she began to sob and curled her knees up to her chest and buried her head in them.

“Why did your momma tell you to run, Petra?” I pursed my lips when asking the question. I am not the most patient person, but I knew I had to coax the information from her.

“They came for us. Please help us, Alpha. Please help us! You will help us, right?” she begged.

“Who came for you, Petra? Where did you come from?” I shot a look at Travis who had his own scowl marring his face.

“I – I crossed the river; I ran through the night. I don’t who they are, but they were no good Alpha.” She sobbed. A low growl from Travis had her head shoot up and her wide brown eyes looked frightened.

“It’s okay Petra, he isn’t angry at you, just the people you were running from. I promise we will not hurt you.” I scooped her in my arms and placed her in my lap, cradling her like a baby as she wept into my chest.

Travis, I can’t get a scent off her, all I can smell is her fear, it’s overriding everything. I linked him not wanting to talk aloud in front of her.

Travis came into the cell and crouched in front of us. “Hey there, Petra, I’m Travis. Petra, what pack are you from? Do you have a pack?” He asked gently.

“The Green Glades sir, we are only a small clan.” She looked up at him with her big doe eyes.

Bear he said through the link.

Shit. Bears call their packs ‘clans’ or ‘tribes’. I shook my head at Travis, pressing my lips together tightly. He cocked his head and narrowed his light brown eyes at me.

No matter the race Lamia, you said it. We should at least check it out, for her sake he said through the mind link while his head dipped, gesturing to the tiny girl in my arms.

I sighed out loud but linked my reply. Fine I huffed in defeat. I stood with Petra still in my arms. “How old are you, little one?” I asked her.

“I’m ten,” she replied shyly.

“Wow! I thought you were like ten, your momma must be so proud of how big and strong you are. Petra, we are going to have Mrs. Brown look after you while we go check out your clan and see if everything is okay. Would that be alright if she took care of you?” I asked her.

“Is she nice?” I smiled brightly at her.

“Yes, Mrs. Brown is wonderful. She is a bear just like you and she makes the best honey oatmeal bars in the world!” I said with an excited tone.

“Okay then, if she is nice.”

I smiled at Travis, who was already linking Mrs. Brown and Hunji.

Fifteen minutes later, we were huddled in my office preparing to go out and cross the river to find Petra’s clan. We already had an inkling of where to start; we figured the best place would be the point where she crossed our border and then try to back-track her scent from there.

When we reached the banks of the river I frowned in confusion, swiveling my head around to look at Hunji and Travis. Both were looking as confused as me. “She seriously crossed this?” I said out loud, eyeing the deep and rapidly moving current.

We had come with a handful of warriors and two of them were skilled trackers. “Deak!” I called out, motioning to the large bear shifter to come over.

“Yes, Alpha.” The burly boy bowed when reaching me.

“Could a ten-year-old bear shifter cross these waters?” I pondered.

“We are natural swimmers, Alpha, even without shifting, it is part of us. So yes, it is possible, unlikely but not impossible,” he said.

“Hmm,” I rubbed my jaw at the thought of the brave little girl swimming across here. She didn’t look like she had the strength to lift her arms, never mind fight the current of this water. “Alright people, let’s cross over.” I encouraged them.

The men started stripping their clothes in order to shift as crossing in our were-forms would be easier. The river was wide, too wide to leap across even for me. I was wearing my metallic fabric pants and crop top, so I just shifted without having to remove clothes. The fabric snapped at the sides and rolled up as my body took on its wolf form. Goddess, I loved this outfit. I really had to ask Aunt Olivia where she had this made and get the person to commission uniforms for my warriors. It was so nice not having to worry about destroying clothes or finding them when I shifted back, I just had to fasten the sides back together. I was also grateful for the technology. Being the only female most of the time, I wasn’t naked when I shifted back in front of my men. We had fewer female warriors than I would like to admit at MacTire.

Crossing the river took longer than I had anticipated; the bear shifters we had with us swam across with no problems and helped the two werecats without direction. Werecats are great swimmers, but they hate water and have a slightly smaller frame than us wolves, especially compared with bears, and the rush of water lifted them easily. In truth, none of us expected the river to be so deep and fast. Despite my adversity with werebears, the bears in our packs were true team players and I was thankful for their skills. They were just as much pack members as anyone and I would treat them as such. I can’t say honestly that I would treat bear shifters outside our pack with the same approach though.

Once on the other side and shifted back into our skin forms, we were able to pick up Petra’s scent easily and followed it for a few hours across barren plains. A bear's sense of smell was a hundred times stronger than that of a wolf and they made for good trackers. Even the faintest of scents they could pick up. Today I was happy that I had a few bear shifters in our pack. It made picking up the little girl’s scent that much easier.

“Alpha!” Josiah, one of the bear shifters and trackers that were with our scouting party, called to me. “We are now officially in bear territory. I remember there was a small village not too far from here and, if I remember correctly, it was home to a clan of around 80 werebears ma’am. The scent seems to be leading in that direction.” He respectfully said.

I liked Josiah, he was young and eager to prove himself. When we took hold of MacTire, he was the first non-wolf to kneel before me and pledge himself. His mother was a werebear from a tribe of brown bears. She mated with a rogue, willingly or forcefully he didn’t know. His father had died and he was thrown into the rogue life. He had never known a pack life and didn’t know much about it. When his mother died, he had always been told that he would always be rogue scum and would never amount to anything. He hated Silas and his ruling and, even more so, hated Beta Oliver.

I shivered at the thought of those two monsters. It was easy to understand why his fighters, what was left of them, and other shifters bound to his ruling were so quick to bow down to me and join the MacTire pack. They had never been given an option before and the life they were living now was so much better. Under my ruling, everyone was treated as equals and given opportunities. There was no force, no fear tactics; they were given the choice of leaving to still be rogue or joining me and prospering. There were only a few who decided to leave and even fewer that we had executed for various crimes.

“Lead the way, Josiah.” I urged.

We crossed the wide-open land for another half an hour until we saw a small copse of trees. Josiah and the other bear shifter halted in their tracks.

“What is it?” Travis asked, wondering why they had suddenly stopped.

Josiah lifted his nose and sniffed the air, a pale look on his face. “I smell blood and lots of it.” He pointed to the gathered trees.

I stepped up, standing next to him, and lifted my nose, smelling. As an alpha and Dire Wolf, my senses were heightened beyond a normal werewolf’s. Was it as good as a bear's? I wasn’t sure. But I could smell the scent of the blood he was talking about, the breeze carrying the heavy stench our way. I nodded at Travis.

I can smell it too. Blood, and a lot of it I linked Hunji and Travis.

As we moved closer, we could see the small village peeking out from the other side of the trees and the offensive smell of rotting corpses.

I’m not sure I want to know what is beyond these trees Hunji said through the mind link.

Me neither. I replied, drawing one of my swords as we closed in on the area.

As we reached the edge of the tree line, I signaled for two of the warriors to circle the copse. It wasn’t big and sending them around instead of through the trees to get to the village would only take them around twenty minutes of extra time.

The rest of us began walking into the sparse woods. With the idea that there might still be hostiles lurking about, the trees might give us a little coverage. The trees seemed to groan, and leaves rustled in the slight whisper of the breeze.

‘What’s wrong, Inanna?’ I questioned my wolf because she was pacing in my head, her displacement causing her worry which was causing me to be more on edge.

‘I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling. The smell of death is strong and permeating. Can you feel it? This place is cursed.’ She was cautiously whining and warning me. Her hackles up.

I let the warriors and Travis get ahead of me by a few yards as I took in our surroundings and let my eyes scan for possible threats. My wolf was right; there was something eerie and wrong with this place. Even the ground between the trees had a low crawling fog. Which, in itself, was out of place for such a bright day and with it being in the afternoon, the sun was up high. There was a light hum resonating in the air, bouncing off the trees and a cold vibe surrounded us all. The deeper we went towards the village on the other side, the more the air filled with the vile smell of death, a smell I was all too familiar with.

“Holy fucking gods, I think I’m going to be sick!” I heard one of my warriors cry out with anguish in his voice, followed by several low growls.

I sped up my steps to catch up with them and when I reached them, my heart just about stopped. The warrior who had cried out, one of my wolfs, had one hand braced against a tree, the other clutching his stomach as he bent over in such a way that I thought he was actually going to be sick.

“Dear gods,” and “Fuck,” came from Hunji and Travis.

Tears brimmed in my eyes at the sight and Inanna gave a sorrowful howl in my head. Despite the threat of tears, I was enraged at the sight before me. No, enraged was not a strong enough word. Neither was my disgust. I curled one fist tighter around my sword.

This was just pure evil, a disgrace to any race. I felt bile rise up from my stomach at the sight of the small corpses that hung in the trees by their feet. Their stomachs were slashed open, and their insides spilled out. Their little necks were slashed and their faces unrecognizable from the now dried and crusted blood that covered their heads.

Thirteen I counted. Thirteen small bodies were brutally mutilated and strung up. I couldn’t look at them any longer. My heart ached for those poor children. Who could do such a thing to innocent children, to the Moon Goddess’ children? A vile and vicious malevolent person, that’s who.

I didn’t have time to seethe over the monstrosity in front of me when I heard one of the warriors I had sent around the outside in my mind.

Alpha, you need to see this was all he said, but I had already detected the sadness and quiver in his voice.

“Cut them down!” I barked the order at two wolves and motioned for the rest to follow me as I made my way through to the village.

The sight we were met with was not much better than what we had found in the trees. Bodies were strewn in the center of the town. Men’s intestines were ripped out and some beheaded. Women of all ages from old to as young as sixteen, maybe younger, were bare of clothes and their bodies had been mutilated, claw marks were clear across their backs and legs. You could see the drag marks streaked with blood on the muddy paths leading from various buildings. Like they had been dragged from their homes, killed, and disregarded in the center of their clan's home.

I scrubbed a hand over my face and cast my gaze from my men to our surroundings. This was sick. I doubt there was anyone left, but I gave the order to check the houses and buildings anyway. Just in case, in hope. As of right now, it was looking like Petra was the only survivor.

The whole village had been decimated. Whoever, whatever, did this left no one alive, either that or the only survivors were snatched. The perpetrators were long gone by now.

“Lamia, I got something” Hunji yelled. He was crouched down over the body of a large, older male. “Look here,” he pointed to the man’s chest where an arrow was protruding.

“Look familiar?” he asked with perplexity.

I pulled the arrow from the dead man's body, yanking it hard. I gasped, my head snapping at Hunji, then back to the arrow. I put my hand up to my neck and pulled out the necklace with the bear claw Mike had given to me and fingered the silver arrowhead that sat next to the claw. The arrow that had killed Zane. They were the same.

“Oliver” was the only word Travis had to say as he came up beside us. I choked at the sound of his name, and I knew if I looked into Travis’ eyes, I would see the same horrifying pain and anger in his brown orbs that I was feeling at that very moment.