Third Person POV
Alpha Radar came back from his thoughts when he pulled the last book from the shelf with nothing to show for it. Anger bubbled up inside of him, turning his eyes black letting his wolf reach the surface. He grabbed the side of the bookshelf and pulled but the wood did not budge from the wall. It just slid to the side showing a small slit of a doorway. Radar’s eyes widened in shock as he pushed hard on the side of the bookshelf the rest of the way exposing a passageway leading down into the depths under the packhouse.
Radar and Leon took a moment to gather their thoughts, before Beta Leon spoke. “I will call some warriors to go down there, Alpha, just in case it’s a trap.”
“No… that won’t be necessary.” Said Alpha Radar, waving his Beta to follow him. “Let’s not involve anyone until we venture in ourselves.”
With a nod, Beta Leon followed Alpha Radar down the narrow passageway; their wolves close to the surface of their minds ready in case of an unexpected attack. Once at the bottom, they discovered a large metal door partly open; the smell of chemicals and blood lingered in the air.
Stepping through the metal door, they found themselves in a large room with a high-tech laboratory centered in the middle and individual workstations and microscopes lining the walls. The overhead light flickered in and out as they surveyed the scene. Several men and women in lab coats were laying on the white tile floor, their bodies in mangled positions in a pool of their own blood.
“How did this place get under the packhouse?” Beta Leon wheezed out.
“Your guess is as good as mine, but it looks like these people were recently killed. The blood has just started to become tacky to the touch.” Radar touched the corner of blood from the floor with his index finger and then wiped it on the dead man’s lab coat.
As the two men walked further into the room trying to take everything in, a small swirl of smoke was ribboning into the air from the far corner. A feeble fire was cooking on top of the large metal desk. Several large binders stacked on top of each other, making a poor attempt to light a fire.
“Looks like someone was in too much of a hurry and didn’t build the fire properly.” Beta Leon scoffed and snuffed out the flame with the palm of his hand. The single flame instantly dissipated. Picking up one of the binders, he flipped through the papers with a frown on his face. “What is all this?”
Alpha Radar leaned over to look. Rune symbols, scientific calculations, pictures of animal anatomy and human anatomy with notes littering the pages, as well as dark witchcraft spells and maps of pack locations. On and on, it went for each notebook that had similar content.
“Looks like some sort of experiment?” Radar spoke after flipping through one of the notebooks. “But several pages have been torn and missing. None of these pages make any sense. Where are the rest of the pages?” They glanced around but couldn’t find anything.
At the bottom of the stack was a black leather-bound book with the numbers 3-9-9 scratched into the front cover. It looked like a daily journal. Flipping it open, a gold cuff was tucked between the pages. Alpha Radar eyed it carefully. It reminded him of a woman’s bangle bracelet. There were tiny dark purple and black shards of stones embedded into the gold cuff forming intricate patterns. The rough stone etchings felt warm to the touch; magic pulsed through the cuff like a heartbeat. It called too Alpha Radar. He pocketed the gold cuff and journal for the time being and continued the search into the next room.
Beta Leon clutched the cold metal handle of the door in anticipation. From the current evidence, this place held nothing good. What horrors could be behind a door labeled “Pets.”? After preparing his demeanor, he turned the handle wide to reveal another room. Even with their wolf sensitive vision, they couldn’t see into the darkness of windowless room; the only light came from behind the silent pair of men.
Alpha Radar felt down the wall and found the shape of a light switch. With a quick flick, the room was bathed semi-light with one single hanging light. To the men’s horror, the room was filled with “cages?” he whispered.
Several rows of cages filled the musky-scented room. Some of the cages had dead, half-shifted bodies… lying motionless on the concrete floor. Wait… maybe they were beasts? No… maybe humans? He wasn’t sure. As his eyes moved from cage to cage, his heart sank even deeper. The cages were either empty with blood stains on the walls or were the final resting place of a dead shifter. Shifter wolves, bears, cats, foxes, and many more scattered throughout. All dead. “How did any of them get down here without anyone’s knowledge?” Alpha Radar spoke into the silence. “Wait… Could this be where the missing shifters were held?”
One cage caught the men’s undivided attention. It was the second-to-last cage from the back of the room. Several numbers were scratched out along the side of the cage: 6, 99, 145, on and on, but the final number was 399.
Inside the cage was coated in grime from the unsanitary conditions. The smell of human waste and mold left a putrid sting in the men’s noses. But what kept their gazes was what was tucked in the very corner of the cold bleak cage. It was a very small… child. The child couldn’t be more than seven or eight years old; curled up in a ball facing away from the men... unmoving. A dirty tattered blanket covered the small motionless body leaving only a tussle of dirty, matted hair and head sticking out from the sheet.
Radar’s heart shattered as Leon let out a muffled curse word and turned his back to wipe his eyes.
After a few moments of silence to mourn the loss of so many lives, Leon finally spoke up, “What should we do with all the dead bodies?”
Radar couldn’t answer at first, he couldn’t speak; his words were caught in his throat as a tear fell along his bearded cheek. He closed his eyes, listening to his wolf howl out in sorrow for the fellow shifters.
‘So many dead...’ Delta whined in Radar’s mind, ‘so many… even a child… dead…’
‘I know Delta, I know.’ Radar responded to his wolf. ‘We have avenged their deaths by killing the Dark Alpha. They won’t be forgotten… They are with their creators. The Dark Alpha is no more.’
“Leon, let’s get our warriors and available pack members to come and help clean and close this place off. We can burn the bodies...” He paused for a moment before continuing. “I think we should take some of the evidence of this place, but we can discuss that at a later time. Let’s get out of…” He trailed off when he caught movement from the corner of his eye. He turned wide eyed to see a pair of smokey gray eyes blinking up at him. His lungs stopped working as the little body came into view. One of them was still alive.
Ciara's POV 13 Years Later“Ciara!”The sound of my name crept up my spine like spider legs, jolting me awake from my midday slumber. Keeping my eyes closed, I pretended to be invisible as the sound of the leaves rustling in the summer June breeze continued to lull my mind into a calm stupor.“CIARA JOY!”If I can’t see her, then I don’t hear her. I thought to myself in a sing-song voice as I reclined cross-legged with my head resting back against the trunk of one of my favorite hiding spots in the woods. Nestled on the east edge of the border of our pack’s land is my favorite oak tree, with thick, wide branches stretching out in all directions high above the rest of the woods. My oak tree also has the most magnificent views of the mountains and surrounding woods which also border on two sides of the Crystal Lake waters.“Miss Ciara Joy Callaway, you better not be up some tree again, or so help me. Goddess. I will tell Alpha Radar and your father you are flapping about again!”Yep, th
Ciara's POV I decided to jog home to stretch out my stiff leg muscles from the morning training. I jog past several pack members and wave, but they don’t wave back. Being who I am, you would think people would know me. I am Beta Leon’s daughter... well... adopted daughter. I am on OK terms with most of the pack members, but most don’t pay much attention to me. However, I am lucky to be part of the warrior unit. Our unit is made up of mostly male werewolves and I am the only female in the top elite squad.My family house isn't too far from the main road that runs down to the center of our territory. We are about a twenty-minute drive from the Packhouse and hospital, which are in the center of the pack lands.I jog past several small businesses and the school which housed kindergarten through senior year. We are the first house on the corner of the pack’s residential area. Most of the pack prefer to have their own residences. Only the Alpha and his family lived in the Packhouse.As I w
Ciara's POV I opened the garage door to the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. “Goooood afternoon my big sexy daddy. Did you miss your baby girl?” I sing to my shiny dark blue custom-made Yamaha sports bike with all the latest accessories. I purr at it as I run my index finger down the center of the bike to the sleek black leather seat.‘CJ, there is something definitely wrong with you.’ my wolf, Ember, shakes her large furry reddish-brown head in disgust as she turns to lay down near the back of my mind. I laugh as I straddle onto my bike. I love it when Ember calls me by my nickname—CJ for Ciara Joy.I slid my full-face helmet over my head because safety first, then I put on my aviator sunglasses because awesomeness second. I popped the switch and let the engine roar to life between my thighs. The vibrations of the engine fill my entire body with joy. My thighs tighten around the leather seat bringing a giddy smile to my lips. I let out a soft moan, kick the kick-stand then hea
Ciara's POV I push open the door and slip in to find the two most powerful men in our pack standing behind the large wooden oak desk - Beta Leon and Alpha Radar.Alpha Radar gestures for me to take a seat on the leather couch as he takes his seat at his desk while my father, Beta Leon, stands off to the side behind the Alpha’s desk. I scanned the room realizing there are more people in this meeting than I thought would be here. Besides Alpha Radar and Beta Leon, Alpha Radar’s son and future Alpha of the pack, James and Noah, who is my brother and future beta, are present for the meeting. Even the Head Warrior and my trainer, Maximo is leaning on the far wall waiting. All eyes staring at me! A towering group of 6’ foot tall werewolves and suddenly, I’m feeling like a cooked lamb chop on a dinner plate. Waiting to be devoured.“Ciara,” Alpha Radar’s eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. “I see you had time for a… snack?” He paused momentarily before looking down at my shirt.I follow his ga
Ciara's POV I look at them in shock. Then, my mouth moves before my brain can catch up to stop me. “Wait… Isn’t Alpha Mars… like ancient old?”Behind me, I can hear Noah and James burst out laughing. “No! Muttonhead, he just turned 28 last month.” Noah pokes me in the back of the head.“Well… The rumors make him sound like he’s been around the battlefield block a time or two. Plus, Hazel will just turn 18, so that’s a pretty significant age gap,” I say annoyed as I cross my arms in frustration at being called names. “And I’m not a muttonhead, you single-brain cell monkey.”I whisper the last part because I don’t want our father hearing me, but no luck. Our father growls at us to stop acting childish. ‘You are 25 and 20 and you are the representatives of our Beta family. Act your age!’ He minds-links us privately. My mind instantly went to act your age not your shoe size, but this time I was smart enough not to sing that out loud.“You know very well that werewolves treat age differen
Ciara's POV A few seconds tick by, and then it hits me like a tidal wave. “NO!” I yell standing to my feet; making a sweeping look around the room at all the men who are staring at my outburst. I move towards the Alpha’s desk. “You promised me!” I slam my palms down onto the wood surface as my body begins to shake. My dark gray smokey eyes begin to shift to black as Ember works her way to the surface. She is angry just as much as I am because she was hoping to find her mate. Alpha Radar slowly stands up from his chair and towers over me, matching my position with clenched fists on the desk. Using his alpha aura to keep me in his control, he forces me to look into his eyes as he speaks. His wolf, Delta, flashing in his eyes. “Ciara, you will have to understand; you can’t go to the festivities now. No one can know about you and your abilities. Very few know already, and we want to keep it that way. If the Royals find out that you were created by the Dark Alpha, they will think you are
Ciara's POV “Alpha if I may offer up a suggestion?” A smooth deep voice breaks the momentary silence from the corner of the room; we all turn to look at the sudden interruption. It was Maximo. I completely forgot he was here in the meeting. He’s usually quiet during meetings unless he has some valid point to make, and then everyone stops to listen.Maximo leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his broad chest in a nonchalant manner, acting as if this meeting was completely pointless. He has a bad-boy rockstar meets classic Cary Grant look about him. Devilishly handsome smile, dark hair and eyes, tall and built like a Greek god.Alpha Radar nods for him to continue.“Why not allow CJ to be at the important parts of all the events but in her owl form? She can sit in the banquet hall rafters or in the surrounding trees, view the events, but stay out of sight, even if it’s just for speeches and important moments. There will be enough warriors on patrol, and you decided to cut dow
Alpha Radar’s POVI watch as Ciara, Noah, James, and Maximo leave my office one by one after that horrible meeting we just had, leaving my Beta and me to sit in silence.“Well, that didn’t go so well, but I knew it wouldn’t.” I say as I rise from my chair, head over to the liquor cabinet, and pour myself and Leon each a glass of whiskey.“Did you have to use the cuff on her?” Beta Leon said, glaring at me in annoyance. “You said you would never use it to command her against her will.”I huff at Leon but what can I say? I knew if I didn’t use the cuff to control her rage then she probably would have snuck into the events, and I couldn’t have that.“I didn’t have much of a choice… Ciara is so head-strong when she wants to be.” I trail off.Beta Leon chuckles. “Don’t I know it! I raised that girl since we found her in the lab. She is the most absent-minded, stubborn, loving, and unique young lady I have ever had the privilege to know. When she gets an idea in her head, she doesn’t let it