Chapter 3

I stand stock still as the wolves circle us, the girl beside me giving them a half witted, anxious smile.

From the direction they’d all came, I see a figure walking. He was tall and broad, I hardly looked down for my eyes to meet his, my neck didn’t need to crane at all.

He stood with his legs slightly spread, level with his shoulders, and his hands clasped behind his back.

His eyes were a hard golden brown, glancing between the two of us.

“Harper,” he warns, eyeing the young girl closely.

“I’m sorry Beta Lucas,” she said, looking down and twiddling with her fingers.

“Ivan, see Ms. Lowen back to her house, please,” the Beta ordered, gesturing to a smaller, thinner male with eyes as sharp and quick as an arrow.

“Yes, Beta. Harper, come,” Ivan bows before gesturing to the young Harper and turning to leave.

She smiles apologetically at me as she follows after him.

Sighing, I pull my eyes from her, knowing that she was safe, before looking back to the broad, hard eyed Beta.

“And then there’s you. Scouts have found five bodies only a mile from here. You know anything about that?” he asks.

I remain silent, eyes on his.

I knew where I stood and I also knew that weakness had never been my middle name.

“Your scent isn’t there, then again, you’ve somehow learned to mask it. Her scent is there though,” he said, pointing in the direction of the young Harper.

Again, I say nothing.

“You understand that in not complying you’re admitting guilt,” he tried and failed.

That wasn’t how our systems worked. Regardless of my doing it, then had no technical proof. Of course if they did a swab and DNA match to the blood under my nails and the blood of the five, it’d match. I knew that, but I reiterate, it isn’t illegal to kill rogues.

I only look at him, raising a brown in question for which he scoffs a laugh.

“My Alpha will be dealing with you. Lucky lucky. It is judgement day.”

Two of his men file in behind me, following me closely while two others collapse in at my sides. We follow the Beta for a while until the trees begin to thin and the forest gives way to a long stretch of grassy lands surrounded by guards. Before me, lined up into three rows were approximately 200 wolves, from this pack, from others, and from none.

The Beta leads us to the end of the third row, placing me alongside an average sized wolf with a thin stature. A pair of paper thin glasses were perched on his nose and his scent was one of ink, old paper, and bergamot. The hair on his head was shaggy and dusty brown, most likely reaching his shoulders but was, for now, pulled into a loose bun at the middle of his head.

Sighing, I look away, peering over the heads of the other detained wolves for only a short moment before I decide to look straight ahead.

I’d be standing here for a while.

I could hear some talking, mostly from the Beta. He was talking to someone significantly smaller than himself and smaller than those before me.

I watched for only a short moment as he, and I’m assuming his Alpha, made there way down the rows.

A restlessness swelled inside of me the closer that they grew.

I couldn’t quite understand what from.

It was times like these when I wished that I could communicate with the more animalistic side of myself like other wolves could but my genetics chose otherwise.

My parents weren’t of the same pack. Because of this, I was a hybrid between the two. My father’s pack was one of resilience, power, strength, violence and aggression. His packs members weren’t born with a separation between the man and the wolf. The man was the wolf and the wolf the man. That’s why they were so savage and dangerous. They were untamed, aggressive, and quick tempered and that made them lethal. Like my father, I was born with no separation between myself and my wolf. We were one. At times, it was nice, no voice in my head, but in times like these, a second opinion might just have been handy.

Shaking my head, I return my attention to the present, noticing that Beta stood at the end of my line now, a shorter woman beside him with long dark brown hair, strands of golden browns and striking blacks fluttering through the thick flow of strands.

I couldn’t see much of her but from what I could see her skin was fair and porcelain. She had a strong nose but it was small and straight. Her eyebrows were well arched and dark and her lips were a rosy pink and very shapely, even from this angle. She was rather lean but I could see the strength in her legs and the tone of her arms.

I’d focused on analyzing her so much that I hadn’t noticed them approaching, sending prisoner by prisoner to their punishment one by one.

“Carey McCallie, correct?” the Alpha asks, her voice silky and sultry.

“Yes, Alpha,” the woman who responded was tall with the form of a warrior. Her hair was short and golden blonde and her eyes were a deep azure blue.

“Tell me. What was your crime?” the Alpha said despite the clipboard in her hand that detailed the crime.

“Training desertion from the 44th and Trackers, Alpha,” Carey said, eyes forward.

“That’s correct. And why?”

“My mate went into early labor, Alpha.”

Her response struck me. My eyebrows raised as I listened, watching the two women, the Alpha staring at Carey long and hard.

“How is Ardy?”

“She’s better now, Alpha. She and our pup, Dillon, were released this morning.”

“What great news. I’ll need a full report on my desk by tomorrow and a written apology sent to the Trackers by next Monday, am I understood?”

“Yes, Alpha. Of course,” Carey bows to the Alpha and Beta before she turns to the soldier attendant, nodding to him before he steps out of her way allowing her to leave quickly.

The Alpha moves on quickly, standing in front of the thin man beside me now.

I’d been holding my breath, not allowing my lungs to greet new air as I’d listened to her. I’d decided that my lungs could suffer a while longer.

“Mathew Grey, correct?” she asks.

“Yes, Alpha Axel,” he nods sharply, his voice something of a time I’d never seen. He spoke with such knowledge, such keen judgement, I’d wondered for a moment how he’d gotten here.

“And your crime. Do tell me what it was?”

He laughed softly for just a moment, attempting to steal his expression.

“I slept with the high councilman’s youngest daughter,” the young man allows his smile to slip in only slightly, eyes shining with mischief.

“Mhm. And you do know that your crime is punishable by exile. Correct?”

“Unfortunately, the law is the law.”

“It seems it’s your lucky day. Your profile reads twenty years of age, am I correct?”

“Yes, Alpha Axel,” he said.

“In account of cooperative behavior and general youthful naivety, I’m letting you off with a warning. The next time, a warning won’t be an option. I want the entire article on this very law written word for word followed by a detailed summary on my desk before you leave tomorrow. Understood?”

“Yes, Alpha Axel. It’d be my pleasure,” the young man smile to the Alpha before bending his middle in a bow, a soldier coming to his side there after to escort him to his bunk.

“And you. The one without a name,” she stood before me now and finally, my lungs opened for breath and the most pleasurable scent overwhelmed me: tea, mint, lemon, and sweet strawberries.