"RUNT!" The words echoed around the room, faint and distant as if they came from miles away. I tried to open my eyes. The mat I lay on felt wet and sticky.
"RUNT!"
My body shook violently.
"RUNT!"
My hands scrambled on cold, sticky tile. I urged my feet to move, straining my legs until I was breathless and laced with a cold layer of sweat. No matter how hard I tried my body refused to move. Every inch of my body ached and burned. The pain grew with each tiny movement as if a thousand needles were driving deep into my limbs.
"RUNT! UP NOW!"
Alpha Patrick. His snarl sounded closer. His hot breath crept over my clammy cheeks. Still, my feet refused to budge. My palms gripped at the floor, my arms ached as I tried to pull myself from the mat. Eyelids closed tight I sighed, sinking back to the mat in exhaustion."You dare to challenge me again?!"
I wanted to shake my head. I tried with all my might but no matter my desperation I was too broken to move. My bones crunched with every move I tried and failed to make.
"Obey me or I will take it as a challenge to my leadership."
A challenge to the death. Sweet, sweet death, the death of pain, the death of misery, the death of me. I sank deeper into the mat and let sleep take me.
***
"What the fuck am I to do?" Alpha Patrick's desperate tones pulled from a restless slumber. I wriggled my toes. They refused to budge. "How the fuck was I supposed to know the Alpha Regal wanted her? The fuck does he want that for anyway?"
My chest tightened. Maddox. Maddox wants me.
"The runt is dead."
"Mmmph," it's not what I wanted to say but it was a start.
"Shit!" Alpha's Patrick's putrid breath assaulted my nostrils, I felt his cheek against my chest. "It's alive but scarcely," he said. "Take it into the woods, deep into the woods. I'll deal with the Alpha Regal."
His mouth moved to my ear, "Runt," he whispered. "The Alpha Regal heard of your challenge last night. I wanted to forgive you, give you one more chance but he forbade it. He wants to kill you himself. I'm going to give you a fighting chance. I'll tell him you escaped into the woods. If you know what's good for you you'll run until your feet bleed because he will hunt you and believe me he won't show you the mercy I did."
"Take her," he bellowed. I smelled the Gamma and Beta Males. My mat started moving. My skin clung to it as if it was dried into my back as if my skin had started to grow into it. As the cool air kissed my skin I realised I was still naked. Alpha Maddox, the most beautiful man I had ever seen, wanted me dead. I guessed if I had to die his hand was as good as any to die by.
Leaves crunched under the sodden mat. The scent of congealed blood filled the air overpowering the alluring aroma of the forest. I blocked it all out. The voices of the Gamma and Beta, the scent of my blood, the call of death lingering on the horizon, all blocked from my mind as I concentrated on relishing the sounds of my beloved woodland one last time.
Songbirds filled the air with joyous twitter. Leaves rustled as they tumbled to the ground on the sweet spring breeze punctuated by the soft patter of paws as tiny forest creatures scurried about their day. I savoured every sound as if it was my first time hearing it because it would be the last.
The sun gently warmed my tattered skin. A strange peace slowly washed over me. It was the end. The end of nothingness. The end of mundanity. It wouldn't be the peaceful end I hoped for. The Alpha Regal had a reputation for being brutal and bloody. His victims lingered on the edge of death while he relished in their suffering. But, it was an end nonetheless.
Trees slowly blocked the comforting glow of the sun. My wolf senses told me we were nearing the edge of our teritory close to the cliff I spent my most peaceful moments on. If anyone had asked me where I'd like to die that would be the place I chose.
"I'm going no further," the Beta said dropping the mat. My skull cracked on a large rock beneath the mat. A pitiful groan escaped my cracked lips. "If we leave her here, with any luck the rogue will get her and save all our skins."
"Fine," Gamma Graham conceded. "You go on ahead. I'll catch up."
“Why?"
"I'm gonna bury the sleeping mat and I don't know, dude, make it look like she actually ran away. If Alpha Maddox finds her like this we're all fucked."
"Whatever, man, the rogue will scent out an easy kill like her in seconds anyway."
His feet crunched away.
"Runt," Gamma Graham whispered. "Open your eyes."
My eyelids flickered.
The Gamma sighed. "Look," he said tersely, "I've left you a sack lunch, some water, bandages and medication. For everyone's sake, I suggest you run. Run far. Run fast. If Maddox finds you in this state you won't be the only one who suffers. All wolves will pay the price."
His heavy footsteps thudded away in the soft mud. Alone. Finally and forever alone. My body loosened. I let the sounds of the forest envelop me in peace.
But, what the Hell did Gamma Graham mean every wolf would suffer? Why would any wolf even care? Not one of them cared about me. It would surprise me if anyone but the Alpha's family noticed I'd gone.
Before I could ponder the riddle a strange scent crept towards me. Its owner had done his best to hide it under the scent of rotting bark and animal carcass but its stench was unmistakable.
Alpha male. The rouge Alpha.
I closed my eyes and awaited the sweet kiss of death.
.
Maddox's POV My head sank into the pillow. A cinder block probably weighed less than my sleep-deprived brain. I reluctantly inched an eye open. A burnt orange glow seeped through the crisp white blinds. I bolted upright, my eyes darting around the room and my heart pounding hard. "We're at Cedar Wood," Shadow snapped. "And our mate is missing." I pressed my hand over my eyes blocking out the bright spring sunrise and yawned. Shadow kept me up most of the night, demanding something terrible had happened to his mate, pleading with me to find her. I relented at 3 am, delirious with exhaustion and scoured the packhouse. Her scent lingered in the kitchen and dining room and along an ominous narrow hallway but there wasn't a single trace of her in the sleeping quarters. "You don't find that strange." Shadow snapped in my sleep-addled head as I went over my foggy memories from
Kayla's POV I was gripped in a pair of massive arms. My heart pounded hard against my ribs. Trembles shook through my limbs. The harder I shook the tighter he gripped me. His racing heart echoed in my ears as he pulled me close to his expansive chest. The rogue was real. He tore through the forest taking me far from my pack. Far from everything I knew. Ever giant step he leaped sent waves of agony cascading through my broken body. It was all too much. The terror of what he would do to me, the pain, all of it. I passed out, falling into a nightmare filled sleep. The rogue was real and I was his prisoner. *** I sighed. A blissful warmth enveloped me. Small, soft hands stroked my tattered skin. My frail body rested on soft ground. A fire crackled beside. I struggled to
Alpha Maddox's POVLena stood guard outside the ramshackle packhouse, guarding the entry, preventing anyone but Blake from entering. I've interrogated enough suspects during my military career to know I wanted the Gamma and Beta males nowhere near the rest of the pack. Something about them didn't sit right with me. Shadow didn't trust them. They refused to meet my gaze. Their shoulders hunched when they spoke to me. Alpha Patrick's repulsive flamboyance was toned down tenfold. They knew something and the Hell was I going to let them coach the rest of the pack to fill me with the same lies they were telling me."Warrior Carl," Blake announced as he shoved a sweaty, underweight adult male into Patrick's office.&nb
Many lower-ranking packs think the buck stops with me. I am the ultimate power and if they challenge me it's only my pack they need to face. They're wrong. Just as humans have their governments we have the Elders, a group of well-loved, well respected retired Alphas. They've watched over us since the dawn of time, protected us, loved us and ensured we acted fairly to those who wrong us. Even the White Wolves could have been overruled by the Elders."Thank you," I sighed. A tiny slither of tension flowed from my body. I slipped my cell phone back into my pocket and massaged my temples."The Elders will be here within the hour," I told Blake and Lena, eager to pass off responsibility for this hot mess to someone older and wiser than myself.I blinked, a desperate effort to relieve the migraine threatening to send me crashing to my knees at any moment, and stepped back surveying the dismal scene behind me. Cedar Wood pack huddled on the dusty mess hall floor. Lucil
Kayla's POVSerena sobbed quietly in the corner of the cave. Her Grandfather paced the perimeter mumbling all the ways in which he would make Maddox Mason hurt before he slaughtered him and reclaimed dominion over our people.I sat in silence on the warm, thick sleeping mat, with a heavy wool blanket wrapped around my shoulders. Izzy offered the odd comforting word, promising me it would all work out. That we'd find a new mate, one worthy of us."Mate?" I asked her."That's the connection you felt with Maddox Mason. That's what woke me. But if he's everything Casper says he is, I reject him. I want more. We deserve more."I sighed, pulled the blanket over my head and sank back into the sleeping mat. My head throbbed and my heart ached. A million questions raced through my mind.Why would the Moon Goddess match me with a monster? What connection could a Princess, a powerful White Wolf, have with me?
Maddox's POV "Lock it down," I sighed into the phone. "Lock it all down. Spread the word to other packs. Until the rogue is caught and brought to justice no wolf leaves their pack alone." "Got it," Blake said. I sank to the bed. I'd remained at Cedar Wood, refusing to leave until my mate was found. In the weeks that passed, the rogue grew bolder, upped his killing and stealing. Two of my pack were missing, presumed dead. Some smaller packs were decimated. Slaughtered while they slept and still, we were no closer to finding him. Patrick admitted nothing about his mistreatment of my mate or his pack and even with him locked away they were still too afraid to speak. Graham's testimony helped but the most he could be charged with was assaulting my mate. The elders sentenced him to five years in the dungeons and stripped him of his title. I pinched the bridge of my nose. My mate was missing. My peop
Kayla's POVBarefoot, I wriggled my toes in the soft, warm sand and inhaled letting my gaze roam over the turquoise ocean. Casper was out hunting wild boar. Serena was sleeping and I'd finally heard the words I'd waited all my life for."I'm ready."Izzie, my wolf, was ready.The sun warmed my face. All my life I wanted those words, none more so than when I turned 18 and she still didn't appear. When I was a pup, held prisoner by Alpha Patrick, forced into slavery I used to dream about my wolf rescuing me. The evening of my eighteenth birthday she would come to me. I'd let her out and she'd be the fastest, strongest, most majestic she-wolf to ever roam our lands. My pack would bow down before me in awe and together we would overthrow Alpha Patrick, rescue the missing Princess and I would live in Castle Rock, the whole Kingdom indebted to me. But it never happened. Izzy never showed and I wasn't the strongest wolf ever to liv
Maddox's POVShadow paused, lifted his snout and inhaled a huge lungful of fresh forest air. His pulse quickened. He tore through the trees at breakneck speed, following a scent only he could decipher. Branches snapped under his heavy paws, thorns tore into his skin but he didn't slow, not for a second.He came to a screeching halt at the top of a hill, the last place our mate was seen alive. I followed Shadow's gaze and my heart stopped.Before us, perched on a rock on the top of the hill, naked as the day she was born, was the most beautiful woman I'd ever laid eyes on. Her chocolate coloured hair hung in glossy waves down her back. Her body was lithe, muscular with just a hint of womanly curves. Rays of sunlight glittered off the gold specks swirling in her molten honey gaze."Mate," Shadow said inching forwards slowly."Um, Shadow, that's not Mouse," I said.He sniffed the air. "Mate." He repeat