Alpha's wolfless Luna

“Did you find her?” Damian, the Beta of the Nightfall Bloodhound pack, shouted at the warriors and trackers who were under his command, searching the surrounding area for the traces of the runaway human. His tone held no emotions, no hope or disappointment…he knew very well she wasn’t there anymore. She must have left not too long ago, as always. The closest warrior to Damian shook his head, confirming his assumption, while another individual slowly approached him from behind. “She left recently. I can still smell her scent.” Oleg, the best tracker in the pack, joined Damian, taking place right beside him as he continued scanning the area where she had probably lived for the past three weeks. He kept sniffing the air around them for any hidden signs to where her path might have led her this time. Six months. It had already been six months since she ran away from the pack. She had kept escaping them for over six months now and whenever they came to an area where she settled shortly to get some rest; they arrived a moment too late. For some unknown reason, she was always a step ahead of them. It was almost like she could smell them or see them before they could catch a whiff of her, which made absolutely no sense. This huge advantage she had over them gave Damian a great headache every single time they found the place where she hid, but seemingly narrowly escaped just before they arrived. Damian clicked his tongue, giving out the only reaction he ever displayed during the tracking for the past six months. He never complained, never shouted angrily or cursed her. He would just click his tongue to express the strong disappointment he felt inside along with the anger and frustration, but those emotions were never allowed to surface, either in his expression or his voice. His expression has remained unchanged since the day they left the pack and even a long time before, yet his mind continued asking the same questions over and over as he could not find the answers to them. She was just a wolf-less girl. A human…someone who shouldn’t have been allowed to live in the first place, but the pack kept those born without wolves as pack slaves. This girl seemed to be different though. She knew how to keep her distance from him, evading him constantly, a wolf who could easily track anything and anyone but her apparently. She had always managed to escape a moment before he arrived, but what was maybe even worse is that she was the only person belonging to the Nightfall Bloodhound pack as their property and managed to successfully escape from the pack. No one escaped their pack alive. No one! Never! Damian clicked his tongue one more time before he turned his attention to Oleg. “Any idea where she went?” He asked him. Damian trusted his own senses and abilities to track down a little girl without a wolf, but he couldn’t compete with Oleg’s sharp nose and his keen senses when it came to scents. This time, they found her hideout only thanks to Oleg, who sensed her vague scent on the nearby building as they were passing through the town and step by step, led them to this place. Damian had to admit she had become better at hiding her whereabouts, making it significantly more difficult to track her. “I am not sure. Let me search the area one more time. I might find some other leads further away from town. She must have left her scent somewhere as she was leaving the place.” Oleg said. His words would convince anyone but Damian. Damian knew him all too well not to understand the undertone of Oleg’s words. He had already become less confident about this mission as the time passed and the time between finding her new tracks prolonged. After searching this place, they should be returning to the pack and giving a report to the Alpha, letting him decide what to do next. Damian feared coming back with his hands empty and with no further explanation of how an ordinary human can avoid a group of wolves with their sharp senses. He didn’t understand how a human could keep evading the best hunters and trackers the Nightfall Bloodhound pack had. Damian knew about the anger and impatience his Alpha felt whenever they mentioned her name. Her name became a curse which everyone feared to say out loud, afraid it would trigger the Alpha’s wrath. Damian knew they must bring her back at any cost and make sure she is made an example by punishing her mercilessly for disobeying her Alpha, leaving the pack without permission and forgetting her place as a mere human living among the wolves; yet, they couldn’t catch her. “You have one day,” Damian answered him, before he turned around and left the old building with broken windows and no doors, a place she used as a hideout this time around. . The building was partly dilapidated by long abandonment. She must have chosen this place exactly for this reason as it offered a good strategic point. No one could approach this building without being seen, but she shouldn’t have been fast enough to avoid them the moment she saw them. She must have gotten away before they came to the town. He couldn’t stay there any longer. This place choked him. It made the vein on his forehead pulsate with the beats of his heart and from the deep anger which he harbored deep inside but would never let be seen. Seeing the place where she lived for the past weeks, hiding from him and once again escaping just before he arrived, got on his nerves. His stoic personality threatened to crumble from the mere existence of this human. He hated her with fervor. He hated everything she represented, yet he couldn’t help but admire her bravery and tactical knowledge in order to keep escaping trained werewolves. Damian returned to the hotel room they had booked the moment they arrived in this little town. With no delay, he marched across the room to the table in the middle, where another warrior prepared the map with the marks of every single place she had stayed and where they found her tracks. There seemed to be no logic in directions she was choosing over and over again. No direct connections between the places. She randomly crossed the city borders to the north, then south, then west, east, and back to the north. Even the size of towns were different. Once she stayed in a big city, which made it very difficult for Damian’s group due to the strong human smell overwhelming their senses everywhere. The next stop was a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, with nothing else but one little shop, living literally under the bridge. Those places had nothing in common. Nothing connected them. He looked for a hidden pattern. Something which would help him understand the way she contemplated her next steps, but no matter how long he stared at the map lying in front of him, he saw nothing. Her movements seemed to be simply too random. The only thing keeping Damian optimistic about catching her eventually was the lack of her knowledge about the outside world. She lived in the pack her entire life. She knew nothing about the human world. Literally, she knew nothing about the world behind the pack fences, since they forbade her to leave the borders of the pack. She had no place to go, and she knew no one. Damian found it a miracle for her to survive this long with him following closely behind her back, with no money in her hands and not enough time to search for a job or anything to feed herself. He didn’t know what she ate or how she survived alone for this long while being on the run, but he had to admit she had a sort of resilience in her. If she had been born with a wolf, she would have been a strong and valuable asset for the pack. If she had a wolf, with the abilities and skills she had, she could choose her own mate, but mostly she would be granted the chance to become Damian’s mate and assure strong pups for the pack. Damian let his heavy body sink into the sofa, briefly closing his eyes to relax his mind. As a Beta of the Nightfall Bloodhound pack, Damian had a close relationship with Alpha Dagon. He highly respected his Alpha, doubting no order he received, always obeying every single one with no further thought spared, but the longer this pursuit lasted, the more questions poured into Damian’s mind. She was just a slave. An ordinary human born to an unfaithful she-wolf, who paid her price for cheating on her mate and bringing shame to his name. “Cheating.” The word echoed in Damian’s thoughts. The pack has strict rules about no humans in the territory except those who were born there, with closed borders around the entire pack and the best security, yet her mother somehow cheated on her mate with a human, giving birth to a human child. Something always deemed to be impossible was presented as an explanation five years ago when a girl failed to shift, and as such was used as an excuse to execute her mother in order to preserve her father’s dignity. Everything about this girl whom Damian had pursued for the past six months seemed to be mysterious and nearly impossible. The information he had about her stopped making sense the more he kept thinking about her motives and her past. Leaving her and letting her die somewhere alone seemed to be an option as well. As a pack slave, she didn’t know about any pack secrets. She wasn’t a warrior to know the fighting techniques but for some reason, letting her go wasn’t an option for Alpha Dagon. His obsession grew to a new level. Damian couldn’t ask him about his obsession and the strong urge to get this girl back into the pack. The reason might have been the exemplary punishment, but there must have been more to that. If other humans back in the pack find out about her being able to escape, they might try to escape as well and, who knows, some low-ranking wolves might try to leave as well. This wasn’t an option for the pack and Damian was aware of the threat this could cause, but they could just as easily lie and announce her death. “Dami?” Oleg’s voice interrupted the flow of Damian’s thoughts, bringing him back to reality. “Damian.” He corrected him in a sharp tone. “I told you many times I hate that nickname.” He added in a calmer tone after taking a deep breath. His eyelids lifted locking his eyes with Oleg, who stood just a few steps away from him with his bright smile from ear to ear. “I know, I know.” He told him, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture as he ignored Damian’s silent threat coming from his words. The smile on Oleg’s lips didn’t disappear, neither change, catching Damian’s attention. Oleg was a very open person. He always wore his emotions displayed clearly on his face making himself easily read like an open book, but there were usually only two kinds of smiles he wore. Damian knew them both very well. The one caused by pure happiness. Oleg never had to worry about anything. He earned his place in the pack thanks to his extraordinary tracking skills, which were absolutely unique in the pack, so despite the lack of fighting skills and lower strength, he earned his place in the circle of Alpha’s trusted aides. That particular smile usually held no greater meaning. Damian learned to ignore it by then since Oleg had that smile plastered on his face nearly constantly. The other smile was different. A victorious smile which was slightly brighter and broader than his regular smile. That smile, which signaled some sort of achievement or a victory, had a much stronger meaning and it never appeared without a reason behind it. “You found something.” Damian instantly jumped off the sofa, crossing the short distance between him and Oleg and stopping only a step away, hope of finally getting closer to her growing rapidly inside his bothered mind. This was the first time they found traces of her escape routes right after they arrived at her last known retreat and she eluded them for a split hair. His facial expression didn’t change, although his blood boiled from the excitement which he contained behind his stony, emotionless expression. The nickname “Stone-face” wasn’t given to Damian behind his back for no reason. “About five miles north she scratched herself over some branch or something. The tracks end another few miles north, but I guess if we move right away, we might get close on her tail faster this time and I can possibly find some other tracks which would lead us to her.” Oleg reported what he found. Damian’s lips twitched as their corners tried their best to move on their own accord, almost forming a smile, but Damian’s self-control stopped them from moving any further, leaving his expression unchanged. Nevertheless, the excitement inside couldn’t be controlled as the level of dopamine in his bloodstream rose quickly. He linked up with the rest of the warriors, calling them back to the hotel so they could regroup and depart immediately. Damian didn’t wait for them, on the other hand. He began packing his belongings and getting ready to leave. Oleg had already known the routine well. Asking no further questions, he helped Damian pack, and got ready himself to follow the new lead he had found just a moment ago. Although Damian never replied with a smile, nor did he show any kind of emotions in his expression, Oleg knew this kind of news made him ecstatic and full of energy. From the first day they began tracking this girl, the routine has remained unchanged.