Chapter 5

ALPHA XAVIER

"Do you think she'll be found?" Marita, my head girl, asked when we returned back to my pack territory. It had taken a few days to get here after the mating ceremony.

"They better find her, not that it matters since Dario was in a precarious situation, however, I suspect that he'll want her back sooner or later." I dismounted from my horse and headed inside, not slowly down as I spoke.

"What if the Zuzkies decide to attack you?"

I abruptly stopped and turned to Marita, "You let me worry about the Zuzkies, get words to everyone, Isabel needs to be found. They must not return without her, I don't really care how they do it." 

I strode off, I could see the fear and uneasiness within everyone. Nobody really understands why Isabel was important. She had been able to stir something in me, something I never knew was there, something I'd never acknowledge but be that as it may, all that changed when I found out she was Dario's daughter.

"Where are you headed?" Marita called after me.

"I'm going to see Sue." I strode off again, I was a bit rattled and didn't know why I was. I also knew I was not being fair to Marita, she has stood by me through thick and thin. She was one person I knew would never betray me.

I got to Sue's grave and sat there, deeply disturbed. Sue had been my first mate, she was a bundle of joy, my worst distraction, my muse, my best friend, my downfall and my strength. She was everything to me until she was kidnapped.

She had gone to the woods to bathe in the stream in the cool of the day and never came back home, we searched and moved everything to find her but couldn't find her, it was like she just disappeared, like she never existed. 

"I see you are back here again," A beautiful lady came out from the cemetery grounds carrying a bouquet of flowers. 

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" I kept looking at her ageless face, she was beautiful beyond description.

"I am Eira, my mother is the keeper here. I am only here to help tend to those who have no one to tend to them. We've noticed you come here a lot." She came and sat beside me, "And usually, you do something strange or remarkable after each of your visits."

I smiled, having not really given it a  thought, "So you've been stalking me?"

"Stalking?" She turned to look at me softly, her eyes had a calming effect on me. "That's rather a harsh way to put it. You are our Alpha, you are everybody's business and everyone is in your business." 

I suddenly had the feeling like I could trust. "It was a wicked way to kill anyone, let alone a woman." She spoke as if she could sense my emotions.

"Yeah," I nodded my head gently. They had tortured her to death and sent me a letter and different paintings of her while she was being tortured. When I inspected her body, I found deep cuts and burns that were like what was on the painting. She had different parts of her body miamed and mutilated.

The silence between us stretched for a while, "Are you sure it's Alpha Dario that's responsible?" 

I turned and raised an eyebrow, "how?" I managed to get out.

"Don't look so surprised, you are pretty much a celebrity around here, so everyone knows more about you than you've ever known. It's an open secret that you've married Alpha Dario's daughter, but I hope you do realize that she's innocent and there's every possibility that Alpha Dario may not be responsible for Sue's death."

This topic has been one I've dreaded and everyone in my pack has also avoided, yet this beautiful girl who calls herself Eira seems not to care. "All the evidence points to the fact that someone from Dario's pack had done it." I decided to engage here, it somehow suddenly felt right to talk to her. "The circumstances around the time of her murder and the subsequent events that played out would suggest that even if they are not responsible, they profited from her death!!!" 

I didn't know I had been yelling and crying until she laid her soft hands on mine. "I understand, but even if you are right and they are, should Alpha Dario's daughter pay for the sins of her father?"

"Yes!!!"

She didn't give any indication that she had heard me, she kept looking at the grave. "Yet, you have doubts." She said softly and her lips curled into a smile. "And I think I know why, you love this new wife of yours, yet you deny it and would rather prefer revenge." She got up and laid her flowers at Sue's grave. "You know they say revenge hurts you as much as it hurts the other person."

I kept looking at her as she walked off, she had opened a subject I didn't want to ever revisit but then almost immediately, the images of Sue flashed before my eyes and the feelings I felt when her corpse first arrived came afresh. 

"I couldn't help but overhear what that friend of yours had to say." I heard Marita's voice behind me after what seemed like forever. 

"And?" I asked through clenched teeth.

She slowly came and sat down beside me and we both stared at Sue's grave. "And I think she's right, you've known me since I was a girl and you know I'd ride to battle if you give me the word, so believe me when I tell you that revenge will not help you."

"Is that what you think?" I snarled,

But she was unfazed by it, "Isabel is stupidly in love with you and she only ran after I told her that you meant to exact your revenge for Sue's death. She's innocent and loves you."

I turned swiftly to her, "yet you say you would never betray me, did you never paused to consider that she could be in on this with her father? I'm disappointed in you, leave me." 

I was really disappointed, how could she share my plans with Isabel, if Isabel knows, then it was safe to assume that Alpha Dario does too. "Leave me!!!" I yelled.

She got up and left me, "She's returned. Alaric and Renata found her. She went east, the others have returned too." She called out and was gone. It was even more suspicious now that she's here, it means Dario now has a mole in my pack.

"Revenge hurts you as much as it hurts the other person. What a stupid statement." I got up with a new purpose, Dario will regret coming after me, I knew that much but I was suddenly unsure how to go about it. 

I've always believed that it's only weak men that hurt females, do I want to be like Dario? I loved Isabel before I ever found out she was Dario's daughter, why should that feeling change now that I know she's Dario's daughter? I had so many questions but no answers.