Bound To The Supreme Alpha

3- Returning what is not mine

Anja

“Anja?” My little sister’s hushed, painful voice pulls me from thoughts of the past and my possible future.

I pull myself into a sitting position against the tree, dragging Dania with me and holding her close.

“I’m here, Dania.”

“I am so cold.” She’s crying again.

Ever since we left Nightshade, Dania has done nothing but cry and beg me to take her back to her father. She’s never had a mother, but Leopold never blamed Dania for Mother’s death. In fact, the King loved Dania so much more because she was the last link to his soulmate.

I know how hurt the King must be and how much it’s killing me that my sister begs the way she does, but I can’t take her back. If I take her back, I’ll be torn apart.

The Bears will rip me limb from limb because I mean nothing to any of them any longer. They don’t care that I’m out here fighting to survive like a wild beast. Dania will have just a few short years before getting the same treatment as I.

Honestly, I can’t help but think that Dania would be better off at home. She’s safe there, even if only for a few more years.

Until they realize Dania will never transform, but by then, I’d be able to take care of her. My life will be sorted. I’ll be able to care for Dania in the way she needs. I could go back for her. They may banish Dania, but I will find her.

I don’t know what to do for the best.

How could I have not known Dania wasn’t a shifter?

I have specific abilities that make me not like anyone else I know. I can sense a shifter and who they are, even when they’re masking it. I can heal anyone, no matter their injury or ailment. I can bend the elements to my will, though I was warned never to show this ability to anyone as a child.

Leopold believed unsavory people would come looking for me to use my power against me. There are other things that I can also do, but I’ve always kept them to myself.

With all the things I’m capable of, and to this day, I don’t know all I can do, I never sensed anything but the Bear within my sister.

Back home, Dania complained about being cold as much as everyone else. Not much at all. It’s only now that I think about it that I realize my aunt would rush my sister away when she said she was cold. The little things a human would do are now apparent because my sister would do them. That still doesn’t explain why I couldn’t sense it.

‘Why are you worrying about it, Anja? Nothing can change that now.’ Asha is correct, but it doesn’t stop me from wondering.

“When can I go home, Anja?” Dania asks me every day, and every day I tell her, Soon.

How much longer can I keep this up?

How much longer will she last in this cold?

It’s winter, and a tiny little girl shouldn’t be sleeping rough like this.

We have no home and no food. We’re living in the wild; any wild shifter could spot us, and I don’t know if I’d be able to fight them off.

I have to be able to protect my sister, but I can’t do that out here. She needs a warm bed, food, water, a bath, and all the comforts of home. I don’t know what to do.

“I want Daddy Bear.” Dania sobs.

I close my eyes and hold her tighter.

Dania has no idea how much it hurts to hear her asking for her father. Since the moment Dania could talk, she called him Daddy Bear. She also called Brody Brother Bear and me Sister Bear.

It made the King laugh, and he would hold Dania close to him with his eyes closed. All the while, I knew he was wishing Mother could have seen how her little girl was growing.

Dania was everything to the King, but he hasn’t a damn clue of the reality of it all, and it’s killing me inside.

“Please, Anja. Please let me go home to my Daddy Bear. I miss him, and I need his hugs and kisses. I love you, Anja, but please let me go home.” She sobs harder.

A tear falls from my eye as I kiss her head. I want to protect Dania from what’s undoubtedly coming her way, but I must put her first. She needs to be taken care of in a way I can’t right now. I have to take her home to her father.

I’ll watch her from afar and keep her safe the best way I know. We’ll be together again soon. I know we will.

Until that day. . .

“It’s okay, Dania; I’ll take you back to Daddy now.”

I only hope I’m making the right decision.

I lifted Dania into my arms and ran the fifty miles back to what used to be my home. I have a lot more strength than I used to have, so carrying my sister that far was easy. It also didn’t take me long to reach my old home because I’m much faster now.

I stood in the shadows, waiting to see if a Royal Family member would turn up, meaning the Prince or the King himself. I hoped it wouldn’t take long before someone came out of the castle-style mansion; only then would I let Dania go. I had to make sure she was safe before I left.

Dania woke up after we’d been waiting for a little over an hour. The King walked out of his front door the second she woke up. It was like she knew somehow that he was near.

I wondered momentarily how I’d gotten away with keeping Dania from him for as long as I had. Anyone else and the Clan would have found them in less than a day.

I don’t know who I am yet, but I know I have powers beyond that of a simple shifter, and they’re growing stronger by the day. I was able to block the King and his Clan from finding us, and I imagine he believes us to be dead.

King Leopold looked older, even though only a few weeks had passed. He looked stressed, grieving for Dania. Guilt gnawed at me for what I’d put him through.

How could I have done that to him?

Because my aunt made me believe it would be the best thing for Dania. Plus, I was terrified of leaving her behind in case my aunt let anything slip about my sister.

However, seeing the state of my once father hurt my heart so badly. My sadness at being cast out meant nothing at that moment. It didn’t matter that his love for me had vanished; he still loved Dania, and she needed him badly.

With tears in my eyes, I hugged my sister tightly, kissed her head, and told her I loved her. I told her that if she ever needed me, all she had to do was call my name to the wind, and I’d hear her. Dania nodded that little brunette head of hers, not understanding any of what had been going on.

But how could she when she was a mere three years old?

I watched Dania walk beyond the trees toward the house where I once lived. She called out for her father, who turned around so fast his coat whipped around his legs. His face cracked into a huge smile, relief evident in his expression and how he yelled her name.

Dania ran to him; he grabbed her and held her tightly while calling for Brody and the rest of the Clan.

I didn’t hang around for them to find me and rip me apart. All I wanted was to make sure Dania got to her father safely. I knew if I stayed a second longer, the Clan, regardless of my abilities, might find me, and then there’d be no hope for me.

I allowed Asha to take over my body and run back towards the forest where I had been hiding. Back to my lonely existence with nothing on my mind other than no one wants me.

Asha reminded me that Orrin wants me; he’s our mate. I ignored her because it’s not something I want to think about now or ever!

I’ll be fine on my own; I’ll get by somehow. I could have gone to Tracey, my best friend, but I didn’t want to put my troubles on her. She’s human, and I’m not supposed to have anything to do with her, but I never listened. Tracey was special, and she meant the world to me.

I’ll catch up with her as soon as I’m sorted.

Eight days after sending Dania home, I’m hunting in the woods for food. I’m craving meat more than I ever have in my life — raw meat.

My sense of smell is suddenly so acute I can sniff something out a mile away. However, I don’t seem to be any good at catching my prey.

As a Bear, I ate a lot of fish; there are no fish in the forest, even though there is a vast lake. I would have thought it would be teaming with fish. But if it is, then I haven’t seen any.

‘Maybe you’re just no good at catching fish with your hands, Anja.’

‘I haven’t even tried, Asha!’

‘You’re hopeless,’ The bitc.h laughs in my head.

When you are raised in a world where everything is handed to you on a plate, never living in the wild, never having to hunt for food, one doesn’t learn the art of hunter and prey.

Leopold kept in good with some humans near Nightshade. Though no humans know what we are, and we lived away from them, Leopold believed it would be good to befriend some. He also allowed us into their towns and to act like them.

Leopold wasn’t worried about humans finding out about us. He said that no one would believe them if they did find out. But that didn’t mean we could risk exposing ourselves, though it would be good for us to know the ways of humans.

It’s funny how we weren’t always allowed around them, though. It seemed Leopold allowed it when he saw fit and no other time.

I’m starting to get a bit dizzy from lack of food, and the small den I built under a tree isn’t enough to keep me dry in the rain. So, I’m hungry and wet, not to mention miserable.

How did I end up becoming a savage?

If only my mother could see me now.

‘At least you’re not a rogue, Anja.’

‘Are you sure about that? We’re out in the wilderness all alone, Asha. I think that makes us rogue.’

Asha rolls her eyes but doesn’t respond.

Slowly, I creep towards the small Deer grazing under the oak tree. I don’t know why I have the urge to tear it to pieces and feast on its insides, but I do.

I tiptoe towards it, more agile than I have ever been. Which is crazy when I think about it, but then I’ve always been the one Leopold said could sneak into the King’s mansion, and no one would hear me. I guess now I know why.

I’m almost upon the small Dear; I can taste him already. My stomach rumbles with hunger. Three steps, and I’ll have him. Three... Two... One...

“Gotcha!”

I scream behind the hand of the man holding me from behind. The as.shole is holding me too tightly around the waist, and my legs dangle from the floor. He’s a tall bastar.d, I can tell, but that doesn’t mean anything to me. I scratch at his hand; I can’t breathe!

“Feisty little hellcat!” He laughs in my ear.

I fight against him, but in my weakened state, he’s too strong. His scent is revolting to me. He’s not a Bear; I know that much. There’s more than one of them; I can sense it.

I pull at his hand enough to bite down, causing him to scream out loud and let go of me.

He drops me to the ground, and I scramble to my feet. I run, but I don’t get far; something hits the back of my head. I hit the floor, and everything goes black. I’m not out cold, but I can’t focus my eyes on anything.

I’m floating through the air as though I were weightless. They’re talking amongst themselves, but I can’t determine what they’re saying.

What the hell is happening to me now?