Rogue Eight

Search For The Beta

Chapter 9:  Search For The Beta

NICHOLAS

I walked to the edge of the clearing, fighting a raging battle of emotions.  As all the feelings rapidly flowed through my mind and body, my wolf whimpered in despair.  Anger—Anger at my Beta for disobeying my direct orders to stay put until my return, thereby putting himself in danger that now has him missing.  Urgency—Jace, my Delta, just confirmed that the large pool of blood on the ground was my Beta’s which meant he was more than likely gravely injured and in need of immediate medical attention.  Rage—the five other bodies scattered across the ground were Blood Horizons, which meant Roman had once again crossed over my boundaries undoubtedly to recruit the Rogue 8 and if I were to guess, started whatever battle took place when they refused.  Regret—As Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack, I shouldn’t have let the Rogue 8 have the freedom I had allowed them for so long.  I had offered for them to join our pack but had been met with silence.  Because they had helped so many of the smaller packs in my large region, I viewed them as an anonymous asset.  Fear—I had to face the fact that based on what I have seen, my Beta…my brother…Gavin, was more than likely beyond what could be done medically to save him, which meant he would die—or was already dead—because of that freedom. 

The flurry of activity happening around me stopped as the last emotion ate at my soul and my wolf, resulting in my fist hitting the tree beside me sending it hard to the ground.  All eyes were now on me and as Alpha, I had to put aside my inner-battle and lead my men in our search to find my brother, dead or alive.  I had two groups of six men checking different areas around the clearing, led by my best warriors, Carson and Beast.  Carson’s group was concentrating on the battleground while Beast’s group was searching the outlying areas for any sign of Gavin.  Jace was working by himself on Gavin’s battleground.

I turned back around, my face stern and focused as I bellowed out, “What have you found?”

“From what I can tell,” Carson immediately replied, “There were eleven wolves involved.  Surprisingly, it looks like there were two she-wolves among them based on the paw prints I found in the dirt.”

“The Rogue 8 must send mates to retrieve p*****t.  Maybe they linked for help, which would account for the other five wolves that were here.” I surmised, walking back towards Jace, who was still standing where Gavin once laid. 

“Pretty powerful gals,” Carson continued in awe, “We may have to consider they aren’t just messengers but actually members of the Rogue 8.  One of them sent that wolf over by Jace into the tree before ripping his throat out.  The other one seemed to do a dance with this guy before going for his jugular.  Neither of them lost any blood either.  Maybe a couple of the men found some strong she-wolf fighters as mates for their little rogue group.  Still can’t figure out why this guy shifted…probably a newbie, but you would think Alpha Roman would send more experience for this kind of fight, especially with the reputation of the Rogue 8.”

While Carson’s ideas about the she-wolves was intriguing and a possibility to consider, I stopped in my tracks at his last statement and turned to look at the human body on the ground.  I stared over every inch of his lifeless blood covered features to see if he looked familiar to me. 

Based on our clashing interactions over the years, I had spent countless hours analyzing Alpha Roman's pack and its members.  This man was not familiar to me.  Neither were the other two men dead from broken necks.  In fact, as I grazed my eyes over the rest of the dead Blood Horizons, there was only one that I recognized…Stefan, the warrior wolf against the tree with his throat laying on the ground beside him.  I knew enough of Stefan’s strength and abilities to agree with Carson…whoever the she-wolf was that killed him, she was powerful and obviously very intelligent and swift to take out Stefan, giving me even more reason to consider Carson’s theory.  But why would Roman send just Stefan and inexperienced warriors?  It didn’t make sense.  We were obviously missing something and I wasn’t going to leave this clearing until I found out what it was.

“Well, I’ll be damned!” Jace loudly exclaimed, my attention immediately drawn to him.  He was crouching at the ground, picking up dirt between his fingers and rubbing it close to his nose.  Jace was a keen tracker—an incredible asset to my pack.  He could sniff out anything—anyone for that matter—faster than anyone I had ever known.

“What is it?” I urgently called out, running towards his side.

Jace stood up, rubbing the top of his bald head with one hand while tossing the remaining dirt back down with his other, “Not what…who,” he slowly drawled out, his hand dropping to rub the bottom of his auburn goatee in deep concentration as I reached him before he confidently continued, “Kristoff was here.  I can’t believe I missed it!  Granted, with all of Gavin’s blood everywhere—”, he immediately stopped speaking, looking over at me sadly, “Sorry, Alpha.”

My voice was hoarse as I battled the rage inside me, overflowing at the mention of Kristoff’s name, “It’s okay, go on and if you don’t mind, no formalities.  I don’t care if the others hear you call me by name right now.” 

Jace nodded in understanding before bringing his hands out in front of him bouncing them up and down towards the ground setting the stage, “Okay, so as we discussed before, because blood spread across this wide area covering the markings on the ground, it was difficult to decipher the scents and prints of Gavin’s attacker but look at this.” I followed his lead as Jace bent down and pointed at the outline of four prints, “These are from our daring little she-wolf who I believe also took out Stefan.  Based on the placement and impression, it would appear to me that she was trying to—”

My interruption came in the form of a surprised whisper, “Protect Gavin.”

“Yes!” Jace exclaimed, continuing his assessment, “While we have assumed that the Rogue 8 were the ones who possibly attacked him,” Jace moved down the trail of blood, pointing his finger towards a larger pool, “the fight that occurred in this area between Gavin and his opposing wolf ended with Kristoff shifting back to his human form here.”  Jace walked over to an edge of the blood, crouching down and pointing to a faint outline of a half paw and half footprint covered in red with the exception of the very end of a heel print in the dirt.   Picking up a few pieces of the dirt, Jace looked up at me as he crumbled them between his fingers sending another dusting towards the ground, “Kristoff was Gavin’s attacker!  I think Gavin was either trying to help the Rogue 8 or they were trying to help him!”

I stood stunned for a moment as Jace’s reenactment of Gavin’s battle sank in before replying, “But, why would Kristoff shift back instead of going after the she-wolf?”

“Bigger questions,” Jace’s expression turned serious, “Where did Kristoff go?  And why would he shift back only to have to shift into his wolf again to get there?  Most of all, where was his faithful sidekick—"

Carson’s voice broke in to urgently inform us, “Hey!  Looks like Caleb was here too!  So many prints over here, it took a few minutes to find them, but I’d recognize those big ugly paws anywhere!  Weird thing is, it looks like there are is a partial paw print then—”

“A footprint?” Jace knowingly finished Carson’s sentence with his question. 

Carson’s blue eyes narrowed in confusion as his brow creased, “Yeah, how did you know?”

Jace shot Carson a wicked smile, bringing his hands up in the air as he bragged, “It’s a gift!”

“Whatever,” Carson groaned, waving Jace off before turning back to work with his group, muttering out, "Showoff!"

“So, they both shifted,” I thought out loud, “and if Kristoff and Caleb were here, that makes seven Blood Horizons against Gavin and three from the Rogue 8.  It makes no sense.  They had them well outnumbered, even if many of them lacked in experience.”

“Exactly. They had the upper hand…so why?”  Jace contemplated for a moment, his hand on the top of his head, running his palm across the smooth surface before stopping at the base of his neck.  His entire body went rigid as his tone turned dark, “There have been rumors that Rogue 8 has the help of a witch.  It could very well be that she was called in to help.  Based on what I have seen here, I would assume it was in midst of the battle.  It’s certainly possible she was able to throw out some shields or other sorcery to give the Rogue 8 the upper hand and Kristoff and Caleb shifted in an attempt to save themselves by hiding, I suppose.”  Jace paused for a moment before sighing out in irritation, “A witch would also explain why I couldn’t catch Gavin’s scent outside of this area.”

“So, you think the witch transported them both to use her magic to try and save him?” I asked.  Despite my Delta’s exasperation, a small glimpse of hope filled my tone at the thought that my brother somehow could possibly still be alive.  A glimpse I prayed was true.

“Found a small set of human footprints leading towards you,” Carson called out, “A woman.  Might have been one of the she-wolves, but I don’t think so.  Doesn’t match up with the placement of their paw prints.”

“I do,” Jace grimly stated, crossing his arms in front of him as his dark brown eyes shaded with distaste.

“Hey, looks like I got a foot chase!  Human Caleb versus a male wolf and she-wolf!” Carson yelled, “Leads into the woods!”

“Shall we?” Jace asked, regaining his composure and motioning towards Carson’s group.  I nodded and we turned to hurriedly make our way into the forest not far from Carson who was leading the way with two of his men behind him.

The sun was starting to set, casting a shadow of darkness over the heavily treed area.  Just as Carson trekked into the forest, he found himself bouncing backward slightly as if he had hit a large solid wall.  We all looked up to find Beast, who at almost seven feet tall towered over us and his brawn body wide enough for Jace and Carson to stand in front of him and I would still see the sides of his frame. 

“Jeez, Beast!” Carson chastised, slightly irritated after he heard Jace snicker behind him, “We’ve talked about this!  Give a warning of your massive presence in the dark, will ya?  I really don’t want to have another incident like the one in kitchen when you and I decided to both get a midnight snack at the same time!”

Jace laughed out, “I believe that ended up with you having ice cream all over you, did it not?”

Carson turned to glare at Jace before bringing his attention back to Beast whose low deep voice simply responded, “Sorry.”  Beast then looked over at me to gruffly inform, “Found something.”

“What did you find, Beast?” I urged him.

“Footprints,” Beast motioned behind him towards the left side of the forest as his deep baritone voice answered me, “Over there.” He then turned to begin leading us to the spot.

“Man of few words, our Beast,” Jace laughingly stated as he walked past Carson.

“Yeah,” Carson sighed in frustration, following behind him, “If he ever puts together more than six words, I’ll do the dishes for a month!”

“I’ll hold you to that one, my friend,” Jace chuckled.

Beast led us to a large oak tree not too far from the clearing.  Immediately, Jace tilted his head up to sniff the air, “Kristoff and Caleb were here for sure.”

“There’s blood,” Carson stated, crouched down at the ground beside Jace, “Footprints and paw prints too.  Check out those claw marks on the base here!”

I heard Jace sniff again before he added, “Caleb’s blood and from the scent and looks of it, he climbed up in this tree.  But no scent past this spot.”

“I think I know why,” I stated as I spotted the burned bark and walked towards the base of the tree, “Look at this, Jace.”

I moved to the side as Jace made his way over and bent down at the base.  Running his fingers along the side of the burnt bark, he brought them back towards his nose, his earlier annoyed tone returning, “Definitely a little magic here.  Wagering a guess, this is how Kristoff and Caleb made their escape, which means we are dealing with more than one witch!”