Chapter Five

Cline

I’m too late. The smell of death smacks me in my face and I can hardly breath. He wouldn’t. They wouldn’t. I say it over and over like a mantra in my head as I race towards my home, where my wife and two daughters wait for me. They are well protected. I have ten of my best and fiercest delta wolves as our personal guard. No Lycan can take down all of my staff, but more than one Lycan sways the odds dramatically in their favour. My strong wolf legs drive me forwards and I leap over the Northern perimeter wall of my garden. I land in a cold congealed puddle of blood. Stephan’s headless body lays ripped to pieces at my feet. His head is nowhere to be seen.

                I raise my snout into the air and the scent of Lycan scum is overpowering. ‘Anna, where are you?’ She hasn’t answered me though the mind link in over half an hour. The last words from her to enter my mind were her blood curdling screams and begs for help. My heart thumps furiously behind my huge, strong, wolf ribcage. I try and keep the panic that threatens to overwhelm my mind at bay long enough to formulate some kind of plan. I stay absolutely still and listen to the noises that float to my ears on the soft breeze. Nothing accept bugs move and make noise. My house is deadly silent. My walls crumble and blind panic takes control of every part of me.

                I run full speed towards my house while my mind screams out and my heart aches from the silence that echoes in my head. Please, I beg you Moon Goddess, I cannot bear the pain of losing them. I soundlessly plead with our Moon Mother for the safe discovery of my family. I have never pleaded with anyone. I am the Alpha and I answer to only the few that are held above me. The door of my house is nothing but a gaping hole and the window has been smashed outwards onto the stairs. Sharp shards of glass cut into the pads of my paws as I race on undeterred into my home. I stop cold on the blood smeared floor of the foyer. A soul broken howl leaves my throat and I scream silently in my mind. Anna’s headless body lays at the foot of the stairs. My wife has been murdered savagely in cold blood.

                I shift mid-air, going from wolf to man in the blink of an eye. I slip, blinded by tears, and stumble towards my headless love. My body aches from grief and I drop to my knees next to the Luna of the Crescent Moon Pack. Beta Silas erupts through the cavernous hole that was once a door. ‘Alpha, no! I’m so sorry.’ I cut him off. ‘Find my daughters, now!’ I scream voicelessly. He starts to shift as he walks towards me. His huge wolf body shrinks before my eyes. His bones snap and retreat back into his body along with his thick brown fur. He stands naked for a moment and a tear rolls down his cheek. With a quick bow of his head he leaps over me and the corpse in my arms.

                Time seems to stand still as I sit on the floor cradling the lifeless body of my mate. I have never cried before today and my eyes sting with every single one that is shed. Silas appears before me dressed in some loose grey pants and a red t-shirt. In his arms is a white and red sheet which he holds close to his chest. ‘Alpha, I don’t know how to say this.’ The fear in his voice brings me back to the present and my eyes clear from the fog of tears. I realise in horror that his t-shirt is in fact white. The red is from the blood that has soaked through the sheet and into his clothes.

                He does not speak again. He kneels before me at the feet of my wife. I shake my head in disbelief and horror as he places the body of my fifteen-year-old daughter in to my lap. Her tiny figure is limp and grows colder with each second that passes. My youngest daughter, Crystal, has been robbed of her life and my heart blackens further from the pure anger that runs into my veins. My grief starts to shift towards rage and I look up from the bodies of my perished loved ones. ‘Where is Selene?’ I demand. Silas shifts uncomfortably on his knees. ‘We can’t find her body Alpha.’

                I try and understand what he has just said to me. How can they not find her dead body? I cannot sense her anywhere in the house or grounds. The scent of her blood is strong all through the foyer and even more pronounced on the wind that blows in from the garden. You could hear a pin drop as deafening silence extends before us both. I glare at him across the mounds of bodies between us. I push my aura down onto him and his wolf. He winces in pain and I hear his wolf whimper. ‘I tracked her scent to the tree line Alpha, but then it’s like she just disappeared.’ His face is twisted in pain and his words come in short bursts as he struggles to breath under the pressure of my aura as I push down harder on him.

                ‘Then she may not be dead!’ I say aloud. It was more of a thought than a statement but it makes Silas jerk his head up to meet my eyes. ‘Alpha, there is lots of her blood, both in the house and across the garden. I don’t see how she could have survived such an attack when even Anna was unable to protect herself.’ I know what he says is true but I also know my daughter. ‘If you haven’t found her body then there is still a chance Silas. Call the rest of the delta’s and start a search for her. I don’t care how long it takes. No one rests until she is found. Dead or alive.’ He knows better than to argue or try and persuade me otherwise. ‘All of the delta’s?’ His shock apparent in the tone of his question. ‘Every. Single. One.’

                He leaves me alone with just my thoughts and the stiffening corpses of my family. The sound of my sisters voice breaks through the cloud of grief that has surrounded me. ‘Cline. Cline. We need to get you off the floor. The police will be here any minute. Hurry up for goodness sakes. The last thing we need is your picture splashed across the front of every bloody newspaper tomorrow.’ The shrillness of her voice makes me shudder. I look up and see her anxious face above me. She carefully picks Anna up out of my arms and Silas picks up Crystal. They lay them side by side on the floor. Their blood is now dry on the floor which has turned dark brown. Sapphire, or Saph as she is called by her nearest, turns to me with tears streaming down her face. ‘We will kill the cowards who have done this Cline. Even if it takes the rest of my life. I will see them dead at my feet.’ She puts a shirt around my shoulders and I mindlessly step in to the pair of trousers she holds out before me like a toddler.

                She takes me by the shoulder and pushes me up the stairs. Blood is spread throughout the upstairs of my home like a pot of red paint has exploded. A small red hand print has been swiped down the wall near Crystals bedroom. Her once white carpet is crimson from all her spilt blood. Crystal was a gentle soul who didn’t deserve to die in such a horrifically violent way. More tears threaten to burst from my eyes. When we reach my room Saph orders me to take my clothes off and she places them into a brown paper bag. She nods at me and I turn from her and go into the ensuite bathroom. I need to wash the dried blood from my body. It has made my skin tight and the smell of them covers me from head to toe. The bathroom is a huge white room with an enormous shower in one corner. I walk slowly across the cold, hard floor, my body is exhausted from the last few hours. Every step echoes around the cavernous room. I push a few buttons on the control pad and steamy hot water gushes instantly from the overhead outlet. I step into the steam of hot water and start to rub at my body and my tears mix unseen with the water that runs down my face.

                I watch as clumps of dried blood fall off of my legs and drop to the wet floor. The water turns from clear, to pink to red. So much blood that the water runs thick with the small amount that has stuck to me, and I feel like I will never rid my body of the heaviness that now burdens my entire being. I will hunt down and torture the Lycans who have done this. I will have to go and see my High Alpha Cronin to explain the whole situation. I know he will be angry and I will be punished for my actions. I acted without his consent, but I will not stand by while business’s are being ruined and my pack picked off one by one. My mind is focused on only one other thing. Where is my daughter? Where is Selene?