hunting the desert sun. ******COMPLETED******

#2 Liam Knight

sweat was pouring down my body. my muscles were tightening across my body as the earth moved under my feet. the fine powdery dirt bellowed up with each step. I trained constantly. I started my day out with a run in my human form and then my wolf before I went to spar with the warriors of the desert sun pack. most of our training was done before the sun rose into the sky due to the intense heat of the desert. it was beautiful here in its own right. others may see a dusty landscape with blotches of cactus and rocks. lots of rocks. it was a simple landscape. there were no sprawling trees and running rivers here. yet none the less it was beautiful and breath taking none the less.

being the beta of the desert sun pack meant constant training. I had to keep up and be just as strong as the alpha if not stronger and being thirty two and unmated made me a target for power hungry wolves. it wasn't that I didn't want a mate because I did. I even went looking for her once traveling to different packs around the world and I never found her. it was becoming a desperate situation since as beta I was expected to produce the next beta and needed an heir for that. lately I had been entertaining the idea of choosing a mate instead of waiting for my fated mate. it was becoming abundantly clear it might be the next logical choice. having a chosen mate would mean the bond between us wouldn't be as strong but it would mean producing a child in the relationship thus ensuring my lineage lived on. Still I was hoping that I would find her before it was too late. I had no reason to keep up the hope after so long. There was no indication she was out there. My wolf and I just knew she was there somewhere and I needed to wait but time was running out. I had responsibilities to the pack. I could feel my muscles screaming under the strain as i ran pushing my body harder the deeper into thought I was. I closed my eyes for a moment to clear my thoughts. I needed to focus on my training. When I opened my eyes I suddenly stopped. I was at the edge of the Desert sun territory and something seemed off. I allowed my wolf to pull foward enough to use his senses and enhance. my hearing was alert. I couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary. The wind picked up and my wolf howled inside of me. there was a strange smell in the air. One I have only ever known in battle. The very distinct smell of death. There was no missing that smell. The putrid smell of rotting flesh. Only this was no battle field. This was definetly not animmal. I sniffed the air again. my eyebrow c****d as the realization swept over me. Human. The smell of death was definetly human.

I scanned the terrain until in the distance I saw it. There was a disturbance in the earth off in the horizon. It was still on our pack lands. Just barely. It looked like a huge disturbance in the ground. Out here the land tends to go undisturbed for years. I decided it owuld be best if I mindlinked the alpha just in case it was an ambush. the disturbance was in our north border that piggy backed the Diamond sand pack territory. I would need to proceed very cautiously so as not to start a war. Alpha Gray on the north border there is a mass disturbance in the ground. Smells like death.

could be animals. check it out

No it smells human and alpha

yes Liam?

It smells like more than one. I am headed to check it out but might need to have some back up.

warriors on the way. I am finishing up this meeting so not to cause alarm then headed there. preserve any evidence. Beta Liam keep this as quiet as possible.

Understood alpha. I knew we needed to keep this under wraps for now until we knew more. I proceeded to the disturbance to see what I could find. off to one side was tracks. Possibly a trucks tire marks. Looked to be a large truck. I took great care to not disturb the tracks. there was shoe prints that lead to the mound of dirt. I could smell the death coming from the mound. My eyes roamed the dirt mound. There in part of the mound of dirt was an arm that stuck out. It was small with dainty fingers. I assumed female. On the inner wrist was a mark I had never seen before. It was not from any pack I knew in the area. I wasn't even sure it was wolf. it had three stars above a crescent moon and a river beaneath it with a figure in the distance. I couldn't say what it meant. Alpha definetley human. I knew this was bad. Hurting humans could be considered an act of war and dealt with from hunters. I had never actually met a hunter but I knew they were blessed by the moon goddess to hunt our kind when they hurt the humans. Hurting the humans was forbidden. They were defenseless for the most part against shifters. It didn't take long before I heard the punding of paws on the dirt. five warriors came to a halting stop just short of where all the evidence was. " everyone stay back. we have to preserve the evidence." they didn't take a step foward. they stopped and waited for my instructions. they knew the situtation was bad. " Benson,"

he stepped towards me crossing his arms over his chest and bowing his head. It was a shifter sign of respect. "beta how may i assist you?" he was a towering man with rippling muscles. He could easily over pwoer three beasts in human form. His skin was tanned to a darker caramel and his hair was as black as coal. He looked intimidating but was the nicest guy anyone could ever meet. We grew up together and trained together. he had found his mate years ago. she was human and they had two kids together. it was rare to be mated to a human. even more rare was the pack accepting it. he embraced it though. he loved her and would have left for her. Being the gamma of the pack he had more pull than most warriors. Alpha Gray allowed it under one condition. She had to sign a contract swering to secrecacy about our kind. They were perfect for each other. They were like yin and yang and it worked perfectly.

"Gamma Benson i need you to head back and grab a camera. I dont even have my phone with me I was out running. We will need evidence bags as well. " I took in a deep breath and sighed knowing this just turned into a long day in the scorching sun. "tell Alpha Benson we may need to call in the hunters. i can smell there are more bodies than one.Also we may need shovels. "

"yes Beta." he ran off switching to his human form as he leapt into the air. Our pack trained at shifting so that it would take less time to shift. it gave us an advantage on most other wolves. The ability to shift quickly gave us time to attack in mere seconds with no delays. It didn't take long for his body to disappear into the horizon. i turned to the other warriors motioning to them to follow my lead.

"you guys spread out and tell me if you see anything out of the ordinary. do not touch anything and walk with complete care to preserve any potential evidence. this is going to be bad" the winds were picking up and whipping across the desert ground. i knew time was of the essenec since the wind can become strong and blow away any evidence we see. "does anyone have a phone? I'm not sure we will be able to wait for the camera." One of the warriors stepped fowards handing me his phone then stepped back. I made quick work of taking pictures of everything i saw. I knew we were losing eveidence fast as the winds started blowing harder.

"beta Liam! I something here. it looks like blood. it's old." I ran over to where the warrior was standing and looked down. there it was a deep brown stain that blended into the earth tones of redish browns. It was a few shades darker than the sand around it. It was a lot of blood and I was certain that whoever was the owner of this blood did not make it. Even a shifter wouldn't be able to heal from this. I could smell this blood was different than the other blood I was smelling. This blood wasn't human. It was wolf. I quickly started taking pictures and noticed a small trail of droplets leading to an outcropping of rocks before the path headed up towards the rocky hills. Following carefully taking pictures as I went I was lead up the hill and there under a pile of smaller rocks and dirt was more bodies. ONly these weren't human remains. These were shifters. I gasped as I saw it. cold eyes staring at me from under the pile of rocks. on the wrist of one body was the same tatoo that the humans bore. I had never seen anything like this before. someone or something was killing both shifters and humans and I wasn't sure why.