The Alpha's Eluded Luna

5 Devestation

“You’re dead.” Noah mind-links them both before lunging. Sydney screams and falls back, but Johnathan quickly shifts before my teeth connect with his snout. His dirty brown wolf kicks off my chest, breaking free for a moment before my canines snap back out and grab his neck. I see Sydney race out the door and can hear him panting as he races towards the stairs. I jerked Johnathan to the side and smashed his wolf's body into the corner of the ping-pong table. He lets out one last gargled whimper before I bite down with as much force as I can and snap his neck. 

Life instantly drains from him and I feel his teether in the pack bond fade. I drop his body, now in human form, on the ground before I turn to go race after Sydney. As I was about to leave the room, I heard a soft whimper and Dani stirred behind me. Noah looks back and Dani has a grimace on her face like she’s in pain. Noah takes a few steps forward and I notice she is starting to wake. 

I don’t want to leave her to wake up alone. “Shift back and I’ll mindlink mom and dad to get Sydney.” I told Noah.

“He needs to die!” Noah growls back, but he doesn’t make any move to go after him. His eyes are fixed on Dani as she starts to rock her head back and forth. He sniffs her face and we catch the faint scent of alcohol and the bitter scent of drugs on her breath. They must have somehow drugged her and brought her here. 

“Mindlink them now,” Noah growls and gives me back control.

I shifted back and quickly linked my dad and mom. “Guys, catch Sydney. He just ran out of the packhouse. f*****g catch him now!”

“Paul? Where are you?” My mom mind links back to me.

“Basement. Hurry! Mom he,” I felt my heart break before I could finish. “He hurt her. He f*****g hurt Dani. Mom, please.”

I know she can feel the anguish and desperation in me, because I feel it through the link from her as understanding of what must have happened settles through them.

“Running now. Where is Dani Lee now, son?” My dad answers while my mom anguishes at what happened to my mate.

“With me. Rec room. I have to get her to the hospital. They drugged her before. I can’t tell what with. And,” I cringe at the sight of bruises, teeth marks, scratches and blood covering her body. “She’s bad. Really bad. I have to get her to the hospital now.”

“I linked your sister and brother-in-law. They will be here any minute. I’m so sorry Paul. I’m so sorry,” I felt mom’s deep sadness and could feel tears burning behind my eyes. “I’m coming down now. Elizabeth will be there any moment and Marcus and your dad are closing the borders now. We will find him.”

My mom cuts the link and I focus back on Dani where she is still lying on the floor, whimpering in pain. I’m focusing on the claw marks I see raked up her hip and thigh, assessing the best way to carry her without hurting her when I hear her sweet voice.

“Why? Why would you,” she whispered in a hoarse voice. I looked at her face in confusion. The pain behind her eyes is more than just physical. I can see the fear and brokenness. Her eyes’ bloodshot whites and glassy sheen make her blue irises stand out like jewels. Broken, ruined jewels. 

Noah whimpers in the back of my mind before Dani’s eyes roll back and she passes out again.

“She thinks it was us.” Noah tells me as he starts howling in pain at the thought of our mate fearing us. The idea of her assuming we could do something so monstrous stabs into my heart like a blunt blade. 

“No,” my voice breaks and my tears finally spill over. I lean over her and bury my face against her neck on instinct as violent sobs wrack my body. “No, Dani, no. No, no, no.”

I feel a hand softly start stroking my back as my body shakes and shudders in grief. I could sense my mom kneeling beside us as she tried to offer what comfort she could.

“Oh Paul, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” My mom continues to rub my back while examining Dani as best she can around my body. I know I should move and let her help, but I can’t seem to find the strength to pull away from her. 

After several more deep breaths, my nose started to fill with not only her floral scent, but again with the scent of her blood and their body fluids. Anger started to build back in my chest. Sydney was still out there. He was still alive, but not for long.

I take one last deep breath of my mate’s scent before softly kissing her neck and pulling away. I get to my feet and feel Noah pushing under my skin for control. He would have it soon.

“Paul,” my sister reaches out to me, placing her hand on my shoulder.

“Get her to the hospital. Get her to her dad. I’m going to f*****g kill him.” I growled. I went up the stairs and out the door before they could respond. I feel my Uncle trying to connect our minds in the link but I block him out before he can order me to not kill his son. 

Sydney was going to die. I was going to cut each of his body parts off one at a time. I was going to castrate him, break every bone in his body, peel that ginger hair off his scalp and relish the sound of his fear and pain. He was going to feel pain so much greater than what they did to her. 

I let Noah take control as he follows the coward’s scent. We trace it along the trail leading to the pack’s elder village located closest to the mountain pass. I caught the scent of another joining Sydney’s before it disappeared in the parking lot at the neighborhood park. 

He must have gotten in a car before driving off. 

My dad’s wolf came out from around the bend of the mountain pass and I let his link connect to mine.

“Did you find him?” Noah’s gravely voice calls through the link.

“No, Elder Welsh’s house is empty. All the cars are gone.” My dad responds. “Your uncle is trying to reach you. You need to let him in.”

“Not until Sydney is dead. I’ll deal with the consequences after,” I quickly closed the link as I passed my father and started following the pass up the mountain and out of the valley. 

I can feel him following, but don’t let him open back up the mind link. If I was a weaker wolf, I wouldn't be able to resist his or my uncle’s connection, but I’m stronger than any Beta, and would be an even match for even the strongest alphas. They could both still command me at the moment, but only if I let them. If I didn’t let them speak, their auras alone couldn’t get me to submit. I had no plans on submitting at the moment. Whatever happens after, I will accept, but I wasn’t going to stop until Sydney was dead. I owed that to Dani.

I followed the mountain pass for hours, and it was morning before I finally stopped running. I hadn’t picked up any scents since a few miles from the start of the pass and had been hoping if I could run fast enough I would catch up to any vehicle they might have left in. I lost my father hours ago and was starting to wonder if I missed something. I removed the block on my link and instantly felt the pull of my uncle trying to get in. 

“Maybe they found him,” Noah says to me.

I allow our minds to connect and instantly flinch at my uncle's furry. “You little piece of s**t. Don’t you ever block me out. Ever! You got that?!” 

“Yes Alpha.” I grit out mechanically, allowing the command to take hold of my will. 

“s**t, Paul. Where are you?” Uncle Lewis’s anger towards me was evident in his tone, but I could also sense his fear. Fear of me having killed his son? No, his anger would be different if it was that. This fear was for me. Plus, he would have felt it if I killed Sydney.

“Do you have him?” I asked, not answering his question. I honestly didn’t know where I was at that point. I just knew I was several hours in on the mountain pass. I looked up and squinted at the bright sun almost directly overhead. OK, maybe more than a few hours. It had to be almost noon and I left at close to 3 in the morning.

“Get back home, now Paul. We will discuss what to do with Sydney when you get back.” 

They had to have him. I must have missed something and they caught him inside the pack. Marcus had locked down the borders and there should have been no way for them to escape. I even had to evade our patrols before I growled the command “back down” through the link and they left me alone.

I started to internally kick myself for closing the link out of fear of my alpha and beta’s commands. I was so blinded by my furry I hadn’t even noticed how far I had gone. 

It took me nearly 6 hours running at full speed, taking shortcuts through the forest to get back home. The sun was setting over the face of the mountains on the valley’s edge, the sky quickly changing from pink, to a deep purple as night started to claim the winter sky. 

I had been running for 14 straight hours with no sleep, my body running on pure adrenaline and anger. Noah’s paws were worn from the hours of mindless sprinting on the hard pavement. He didn’t let that slow him down though, wanting to get back to deal with Sydney and then to go find Dani and sort the vile misunderstanding out.

I reached the forest behind the pack house before I finally slowed. Someone had set out a pair of sweats and a jacket on the forest edge. Shifting back, I quickly threw on the pants and was hooking the zipper when I felt the tether of two pack members snap softly from the pack link. 

That’s odd. He wouldn’t kill his own son. Uncle could have banished Sydney, but who would the other member be? His grandfather would be my first guess. The man had clearly helped him as he tried to escape. But to banish an established elder, you need all the other elders in the pack to be present and agree. Elder Welsh had friends on the elder board with him and wouldn’t likely have been banished in such a short amount of time. 

Elise would be my next guess, but she was still Luna. Her bond to the pack breaking would have hurt. No matter how strongly everyone disliked her, it would have caused physical pain for several seconds for the pack members with wolves to have her banished. 

I raced through the doors and stormed into my uncle’s office on the first floor. Going in, I saw my uncle seated at his desk while rubbing his temples, elbows resting on the arms of his chair. My mom looks up at me, relief evident on her face as she looks me up and down. She came around from where she was standing next to her brother and wrapped her arms around my torso.

“I was so worried,” she rests her head on my chest and I feel moisture start running down my exposed skin. I lay a hand between her shoulder blades but continued to stare at my uncle.

“Where is he?” I asked. My uncle drops his hands and gives a broken look before shaking his head.