The Alpha and The Red Wolf

The She-Wolf

Caleb

I stepped closer, unlocked the door to the cage and crouched down on one leg. The female had barely moved but given the way her body shook in fear, I knew she had registered my presence.

“You can turn around. I won’t hurt you,” I tried, sounding as less menacing as I could be.

But that didn’t work. She pressed herself closer to the steel bar, keening into the dark.

The space inside the cage was so constraining that I could barely fit my arms, but I had to try. But the moment I reached out for her shoulders to physically turn her towards me, she screamed like a banshee and started crying. Her words were garbled, and I can only make out the ‘please’ and ‘hurt’ and ‘pain’.

I ran a hand through my hair and punched the steel bars of the cage. “Dammit! I am trying to help you!”

Having never dealt with things ‘gently’, I had no idea what to do. I could not very well just dump her here in the middle of the Zephyrus forest and leave her alone. In all probability, the animals would tear her apart or she’d freeze to death.

And then there’s something about her that made it impossible for me to abandon her.

“Okay, okay!” I soothed.

She had finally stopped screaming but still refused to turn. I looked around the room and located the longest piece of fabric being the white curtains. I got up and snagged them down. I pushed it into the cage, covering her lower back, and finally got a positive reaction. Her head moved over her shoulders, trying to catch a glimpse of me.

“How about I step back, and you turn around for me?” I said, retracting my stance.

My words were finally getting through to her as she clutched the curtain around her body, hiding her nakedness and turned around. Her eyes scanned my profile but the way she gaped, I knew the blood-stained clothes I was wearing did not help.

“I don’t want to pull you out from there. I don’t think I can actually.” I took a few steps back, raising my hands in mock surrender. “Can you come out? You won’t be harmed, I promise you.”

Her mind warred as she scanned the room.

“Oslo’s gone,” I assured. “He can’t hurt you.”

She dipped her head, red hair framing her face and I barely caught a look. And to my utter relief, she finally started to crawl out of the cage. She remained kneeling on the floor with her head bowed as if she were a prisoner.

I wasted no time in closing the distance between us in three long strides. She instantly tried to push herself back into the cage but my reflexes were stronger. I grabbed her thin arms, stopping her before she began to shake violently.

“Yeah, I am not taking any chances now,” I said and scooped her up in my arms and started to walk out of the room.

It was for the first time that I caught a look at her face. Freckles marked her fair skin while the colour of her eyes shifted between light or hazel green underneath the artificial light. But the rest of her face was marked with bruises and a bleeding lip. And I was entirely certain that these were the least of her injuries.

As soon as I stepped out of the building, I found Hunter along with other soldiers. Dead bodies were strewn around the ground while the stench of blood settled thick into the air. The soldiers were preparing to burn the bodies before we left. Hunter saw me approaching and came closer. His eyes were mainly focused on the white bundle I was holding. And I knew he was about to say something when I glared at him.

He still smirked. “Okay. I am not asking anything.”

“Good. Have we secured the perimeter?” I asked.

He nodded. “It’s clear. Oslo’s chained and cuffed to the van along with other rogues, as many as we did not kill. The Gammas informed us that the trucks have been secured as well. We are good to go.”

“Perfect. Tell them to bring in the car. You are driving.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

The car arrived in a couple of minutes when Hunter opened the door to the back seat. As I deposited her, I instructed, “Stay here.” Closing the door, I turned to Hunter.

“How many rogues have we caught alive?” I asked, lighting up a smoke. It was a rough, f*****g night.

“Roughly, the number is around eight including Oslo,” he informed. Hunter paused for a moment, his gaze shifting between the car and then to me. “Is she human?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Rogues have a history of breeding human slaves and Oslo has been involved in the flesh market for a long time. The maximum of his revenue comes from there.”

I shook my head. “The injuries are deep, so far what I have seen. Humans cannot survive such pain for so long.”

The sound of a thud caught our attention as we collectively turned around.

“What the f**k!” Hunter swore.

The female had managed to unlock the door of the car and escaped towards the forest as the white fabric trailed behind her. But she was practically limping and within a few metres, her legs gave up and she fell on the ground.

Hunter and I towed behind and we did not even have to run. She was practically crawling to get away from us. Did she know how dark and dense the forest was? Chances were, she would be dead before the sunrise if she did not become the meal for a wild animal.

When we caught up to her, I pulled her up from the ground and shook her by the shoulders.

“No, no, no! Please, don’t take me!” She began to wail again, increasing my temper.

“For the love of the Goddess, stop fighting me!” I snapped.

“Please…no…no..” It seemed like these were the only two words she had learnt. ‘please’ and ‘no’. And I was tired of listening to it.

“I am not going to hurt you,” I had to repeat myself like a loop. “You are going to hurt yourself.”

“I need…I need it, please,” she mumbled, still crying.

“Need what?”

“Please…no…”

Not again!

“Fine.” I released her shoulders and instantly, her body gave up and she landed on the ground. “Stay here in the forest and die.”

I was about to walk away because I was tired. For once, I tried to be decent enough to extend kindness, as much as I was capable of, but it seemed like she was on a mission of self-pity and self-harm.

My Beta, on the other hand, stopped me. “I don’t think she is in her senses,” he considered. “Look at the way she is slurring.”

I did not want to look at her again because every time I f*****g did, it felt odd. I could not put a finger on the feeling, but those bruises and blood and those doe eyes made me feel…something. And I was starting to hate this feeling.

As an alpha, I was controlled and headstrong. No place of doubt or hesitation ever crossed my mind, and yet with this female, I was unable to think straight. It was like all the complicated feelings were at a crossroads.

Leaving her alone in the forest might be a bad idea.

“Can you get me a f*****g rope? I am tired of this nonsense,” I told Hunter.

“I don’t think it is a good idea.”

“Do you have a better one?” I challenged. “We are long away from home and I can’t keep running after this injured…bunny.”

Hunter glanced at her and smiled. “Right. I will see what I can find.”

“Go. I will bring her to the car.”

He trudged away while I squatted down and met her eyes. What I was about to do was a bad thing but I did not care. It was the only option I was left with.

“I am done playing nice, girl. I know I said I wouldn’t hurt you, but you need to know that I can hurt you just easily if you try and make things difficult for me. I am going to take you back to the car and get you the help you need. You can fight, you can run but I will still catch you. Do you really want to take your chances with me?”

For the longest second, she kept looking at me as if contemplating whether she escaped one monster to land up with another. A blanket of fear returned to her features and somehow it made her compliant. For the time being, it was all I needed.

The female blinked and then gave a small nod.

“Good.”

This time when I had picked her up, she didn’t struggle. Hunter managed to grab the rope as I tied her down, fastening her hands and legs to the point she would not be constrained against the binds. But the knots made sure that she could not escape either.

While in the act, her gaze met mine, pleading. Her lips quivered. And the sight made me pause, rethinking my decision but then I realised it was for the best.

“I am sorry,” I muttered. I did not know why I apologised but it had just slipped out of my lips like a reflex. As if hurting this…female was an abhorrent thought. It was so against my nature that I was starting to feel uncomfortable underneath my skin.

My wolf yearned to come out, to howl against the moon and to hunt.

Hunter climbed behind the wheels while I took the passenger’s seat. He raced us back to the pack house and strangely enough, the entire ride was silent. I had only titled my head to glance at the back seat once or twice. She was lying still, almost falling asleep at times until the car jerked over the rough terrain. By the time we pulled up home, it was almost sunrise.

We got out of the car and came back to the pack house as I deposited her in one of the guest bedrooms. As usual, she cocooned herself in one corner of the bed. I closed the door behind me and ordered the servant waiting at the door. “Get a server girl to fetch some clothes for her. And call the pack doctor.”

“Yes, alpha.” He bowed and scurried away.

Hunter joined me outside the room, along with two other soldiers of the pack.

“Where’s Oslo?’ I asked the soldier.

“Alpha, he’s been chained in the dungeon along with other rogues.”

“Separate him and put him a different cell. Get the instruments ready and I will be down in a minute.”

“I will, Alpha.” He, too, curtsied and left as I leaned against the nearest wall and sighed.

It was one of those longest hunt nights, except I was mentally exhausted. The adrenaline rush was slowly ebbing out of my body, making me slow down.

“Right now?” Hunter asked incredulously. “Can’t this wait until we have a good night’s sleep?”

I pointed outside. “It’s half an hour away from sunrise, idiot.”

He scowled. “That’s because you wanted to attack them at night.”

“I can handle him alone, Hunter. You can go and rest.”

“Tempting offer, brother. But I will pass.”

As my beta, he was like my shadow. We ruled together, fought together and stayed together. This was one of the reasons I had been able to build a pack so large, and so powerful that enemies thought twice about attacking us. Most of the packs were obliterated because they did not have a strong leader leading the pack.

“It won’t take long because I only need some information from him.”

“About the female?” Hunter guessed.

“Yes. She could be a rogue, too.”

My calculative brain did not stop thinking about the possibility that she could pose as a threat. Given the way she was offered by Oslo, I had to double-check.

“I will come with you.”