Chapter 5

I followed my petulant pup and the beta silently and sulking like a teenager.

I’m still not sure of what we’re doing now or what are we going to do next supposedly.

I just want to grab her and run the other way. My instinct kept screaming at my stupidity.

This won’t end well for any of us. We barely living, how can I be responsible for a pack and humans too?

I growled under my breath and the beta gave me a side glance and I narrowed my eyes at him.

All of this is his damn fault. He looked back ahead but I saw his smirk.

I growled again and tried to stop myself from breaking his neck. He will live.

Something like that won’t kill him, but I will enjoy doing it. It would be a good stress reliever.

He stopped where I was earlier spying on them and motioned us behind the big tree then spoke.

“This is enough safe distance. We can watch the camp from here and it will help to show you visually. You will understand me better.”

I nodded and Alice climbed first.

We watched the camp for a while and I started to count the shifters and the humans.

This morning, I didn’t have the chance to do that, but now I had to weigh my options. And what I saw was pushing me to reconsider again.

I was right when I said that we can’t handle this. There are more than a hundred persons. I looked at Benjamin and glared.

“This is good. We brought only half the pack with us.” He said cheerfully, ignorant to my brewing anger.

“Are you fucking kidding me? This is half your pack! I smelled wolves, Bears and I think there might be demons too.”

 I hissed, and Alice rolled her eyes dramatically.

‘Stop whining like a human. It isn’t a big deal.' She signed, and the beta nodded his head in a yes as if he had understood her.

“I’m not fucking whining. I’m stating the facts here. And from what I’m seeing right now, we don’t have a chance to do anything. They will eat us alive.”

She waved her hand, nonchalantly dismissing me, and signed.

 ‘Nah, it’s gonna be alright. Besides, you won’t fight the entire pack. You will just challenge the alpha.’

I gaped at her. The shock of her ridiculous analysis of the situation has tied my tongue. The stupid beta nodded again and I couldn’t take it anymore.

I slapped him upside his head and sighed with satisfaction when he winced silently and his eyes watered.

“What did I do to deserve that?” He asked with big puppy eyes and I sneered at him.

“You don’t need to do anything; your presence itself annoys me.” He whined like a little pup and gave me that sad dog eyes.

I looked at him, unimpressed, but Alice shushed us. There was some disturbance in the camp and I saw Johnson coming with a small woman while dragging her behind him.

“You promised me sapphire. If it didn’t work, this time I will cut off your tongue and sell your body to the vampires. They are always looking for fresh blood and I think yours, with this power coursing through it, would taste heavenly.”

The woman glared at him. Her eyes didn’t lower or turn away. She kept her head held high and gave him her own glare.

“You will never do that Alpha.” She said in a mocking tone.

“I’m too precious for you to do that to me. And you had forgotten that the vampire had lent me to you. As long as they have a use for you, I will stay. But when you turn useless to them, they will take me back.”

His ugly face contorted into a vicious growl, and he advanced on her.

“If I were you witch, I’d watch out my mouth. I can throw you away now to the stupid ones to eat you and tell your masters that you were killed on the way back.”

The witch tried to shake him off, but he dug his claws into her arms and I smelled her blood all the way to here.

No one in the camp stopped what they were doing and kept working. The only noise came from the wide circle of the stupid ones surrounding the area.

I turned my back on the face off and addressed Benjamin. “You didn’t tell me that the witch was here against her will.”

He didn’t meet my eyes when he answered me and his voice was barely a whisper.

“To be honest with you, there is a lot I’m hiding but in my defense, I knew if I told you anything else you wouldn’t come with me.”

“I won’t come with you either way, but now that I’m here and considering this insanity, tell me the entire truth.” I said, surrendering to my fate.

I’m here now, so it’s useless to torment him and it’s Alice who needs an ass whooping, not the beta.

Benjamin nodded and looked at his pack members with glazed eyes, deep in thought.

“We aren’t nomads. We have our own territory not far from here. Johnson works as a supplier to some vampires and shifters. That’s why we are always out here in the woods.”

I looked at him, confused. What would supernatural beings would want from that asshole? They can hunt their food. It isn’t like he can get them anything else.

He shook his head and pointed at the humans who were working in building the small camp and I looked back at him, still confused.

“He sells them, Alexandria. He sells them as blood banks, food, and sex slaves. They are the currency of this ugly world now. Our blood and flesh aren’t as tasty as theirs.”

Alice gasped, and I almost fell from the tree I was perched on. “Are you saying that your alpha is human trafficking?” He smiled sadly at me.

“Human trafficking, sex trafficking, or flesh trading. Does it really matter?” I shook my head and kept silent. He was right.

Alice signed to him and he just looked at me, puzzled.

“She is asking you, what does he get in return?” Benjamin looked at my pup for a long time, making me uncomfortable, then said.

“The vampires gave him Sapphire. Other shifters give him the wolves they find in their travels. Their gender doesn’t matter as long as they are young and strong. He has a use for each one.”

I looked back at the bustling camp and my heart lurched. I thought the humans were in a bad condition because they were always on the move, especially when humans were treated like the runt of the litter now.

But I guess I was wrong. Alice whined next to me and I stroked her back soothingly. The infuriating beta was right. They needed saving, but I wasn’t anyone’s hero.

My ears twitched then I heard faint clicking noises coming from our left and I held my breath.

And yes, as I expected, it was the same vampire from earlier. The one with the crawler’s entourage.