The Rise of the Alpha

11

As what he was telling me began to sink in, I realized how right he was. Holy s.hit..., I enunciated slowly to my whimpering wolf, who was pacing to and fro in my mind. He's right! I'M the reason for all of this!

It wasn't just you, Chloe replied with all the sadness in the world, halting her pacing to hang her head low. I ordered you to go after them.

Yeah … but I listened! I added, but as soon as the link manifested, I clarified that my words weren't meant as a verbal s.hot at her. Truthfully, I wasn't upset with anyone but my own self.

With a snap of my uncle's fingers, my focus on the situation at hand returned, dragging along with it a gargantuan, opened box full of raw, ugly, all-consuming guilt. "You're right," I admitted with a sigh, my bottom lip quivering and tears welling up. "It's literally all my fault! Why did I have to disobey them?! Why?! I should'a just stayed put! They might still be here if I'd have just done what they told me to do!" On that note, I threw my arms around him and sobbed into his shoulder, staining his shirt with copious tears.

"There, there," he tried to console me, pairing it with a few gentle pats to the back of my head. "Hush now, dear niece. "Everything will be okay."

Fueled by a range of emotions, I peeled myself away from him. "What? No, it won't be! How can you stand there and say that? And more importantly, w-what am I supposed to do now?!" I cried, my gaze averting and locking on the stillness of my lifeless parents as the latter part rolled out.

After giving it a few moment's thought, he answered with all the seriousness in the world, "Well, right now, you should probably just rest for a bit-"

"Um … rest?" I interrupted him, unsure if I'd heard him correctly. "As in here? And now? You've gotta be kidding me!" There was no way I would be resting any time soon, and besides that, it was still raining! "I … I should probably run, y'know? Start my life afresh. Make a new one for myself in a new place where no one knows either my name or my history!"

"Well, that much would be up to you, dear niece," he replied plainly, his features conveying sorrow and genuine pity. "Do think it over thoroughly, though. You don't want to make any rash decisions here."

I heard what he was saying, but in my mind, my choice had already been made. "But what if I do go back and spill the truth to them?" I asked. "They're likely to call me responsible for Mom and Dad and the others' deaths and cast me out of their midst, forever to be considered a rogue. I don't think they'll ever let me be their alpha now! I've ruined that!"

We shall NEVER be labeled a rogue! Chloe bit out through bared teeth, the very notion of being an outcast making her crazy.

In agreement with her, I inhaled the blood-stenched air deeply then r.eleased it in a lengthy sigh filled to the brim with despair.

"You're the only person who can make that decision for yourself, deary. I can't tell you what to do," he told me point blank, "but either way, I'll look out for you. I swore to your father and mother that I always would, no matter the circumstances."

His caring words touched me down to my soul, effectively jerking a few more tears from me. "I'd kinda have to go back there, though. To the storehouse, at the very least," I managed to choke out, wiping my cheeks. "I need to grab a few things if I'm gonna be splitting altogether."

"Then you'd better do so in a hurry, girl, because your party guests are waiting to hear some sort of explanation from you," he warned me gently in return.

"Oh, I won't be telling anyone anything," I vowed right back, "but more importantly, what will you be telling them? Will you tell 'em the rogues got me, too? What about that huge one who'd come at me?"

"Don't you worry about anything," he replied with reassurance, placing his hands upon my shoulders and giving them a gentle squeeze as he spoke. "Yes, I handled that mongrel, and I'll take care of everything around here, too. As long as you do what you feel is right for you and rebuild your young little life, that's all that matters to me."

I felt overwhelmed by the entire situation! There were many things that my panicked self was trying to grasp about everything, the man's seemingly-calm exterior being at the top of that list. I mean, it was his brother and sister-in-law and his men who were slaughtered, don'tcha know, so one would naturally think that he would be...oh, I don't know...a smidgen on the livid side! To be fair, though, everyone has their own ways of grieving, and not everybody cries crocodile tears right off the bat. For lots of people, their process doesn't begin until they're in the company of only themselves, and I understood as much.

Perhaps his walls will crumble later and he'll have a full-on break down in private, suggested Chloe, and it made so much sense in the moment to my rampantly-running mind that I took off through the trees like a bat out of Hell, hearing my uncle holler for me to head for the border and beyond when I was finally ready to.

Through the darkness, I hastened to the storehouse which sat alone in the woods, and once there, I crept inside and shut the door behind me then dove straight into action, grabbing one of my old duffle bags and chunking various items of importance into it such as sensible clothing, boxes of matches, a roll of twine, and a few of the brand-new tarps we'd purchased a while back. Part of a werewolves' training – my wolf in particular, given I'm an alpha's daughter and all that jazz – includes survival training, so we normally kept that kind of gear handy.

Though drowning in grief, I moved about as quickly and stealthily as I could, and once I was all set, I switched off the light then c.racked open the door and slipped outside, remembering to pull the thing closed behind me. Ultra focused and praying there would be no hiccups along the way, I linked Uncle Amos but got no response, prompting me to just shrug it off and scuttle away.

Ignoring everything else and using the inky darkness as my cover, I looked to the starry sky and mumbled, "Goddess, be with me," then dropped my bag and shifted like lightning into Chloe. Next, I dipped down to secure the short straps of the bag between my teeth then took off through the forest at top speed, dodging this thing and that one and putting difficult distance between myself and River Falls.

*****

(Third Person POV)

From the shadows in the far distance, a figure kept its sight glued upon the gray and white wolf as it sped away from the storehouse and darted through the night. Run, little wolf, it growled in thought. It's gonna be a long, long night for you…

*****

With total urgency, Amos hightailed it toward the Reception Hall, conversing with his wolf, Cain, the entire way whilst also letting the pack know that he was heading back to them. Hell of a night around here, huh? he remarked as he sped toward the edge of the woods.

Indeed, the large, dark-chocolate wolf with ocean-blue eyes within him agreed. How should we break the news?

Bottom line, there's no easy way to, answered Amos, then he broke through the trees and bolted down the path toward the panic and chaos that was the Reception Hall. With a stony expression, he entered and was immediately plowed over by question after question being f.ired his way because, by this time, the guests from the neighboring packs had grown rather tired of staying put with no explanations as to what was occuring, and the members of River Falls were falling apart at the seams! They weren't exactly in the loop, either, and were desperate for information on what in the world was going on out in the forest!

Amos approached Gamma Rowan of Crescent Creek and placed a hand upon his shoulder then whispered something into his ear. The Gamma's gloomy features dropped even lower as he registered what was being said, then with a nod, he inhaled a huge breath through his nostrils and r.eleased it all the same.

On that note, Amos excused himself to the stage. Taking it, he cleared his throat in a dramatic fashion, effectively gaining the attention of everyone in the room. "Ladies and gents, may I have your attention, please?" he began, then with the pack's attention solely upon him, he proceeded. "You all know me, the beta of this wonderful pack, and I would like to thank you all for attending tonight's celebration. Due to unfortunate circumstances beyond our control, this party is over now … so, if you're not a member of River Falls, it's time for you to be leaving-"

"But, what about the rogues? How do we know they're gone?" a concerned man interjected.

"Yeah!" a few others chimed in unison. No one was budging a muscle, and rightfully so.

"Well, now, I can assure you that they're gone, stated Amos plainly. "You see, my men destroyed the ones near the border, and then-"

"What direction did they come from? Did you see?" shouted another worried guest, cutting short the beta's explanation.

"Not exactly, no," he began to answer. "There were incredibly more pressing issues at hand in those moments-"

"Are we safe?" inquired a different patron from near the back of the room, and all sorts of chatter arose thereafter with similar inquiries.

"I…," Amos began to answer, but he paused in favor of taking a few moments to inhale as deeply as he could manage to then exhale that breath in a slow, steady stream through his nostrils. "I'm sure we are for now since I didn't pick up a single scent of them the area of the fight," he uttered plainly. "All I can attest to is that patrolman Silas and I were ordered to stand guard at the border, and upon our return to the scene, I saw that my brother, my sister-in-law, and our patrol was d.ead, and Leila was nowhere to be found."