Chapter 6: The Vengeful Wolf

Alpha Gunner

The fresh blood of my kills covering my fur is now rancid, forcing me to shift into my human form. It's been ages since I've shifted that I now feel like a stranger in my furless body.

I wash the blood from my skin, eager to reverse into my wolf form.

I stopped changing into my human form, for it too died when I lost both the love of my life and my only child.

I want it to remain the same: never changing back into it ever again.

Stepping out of the shower, I grab a towel.

After drying my face, I hesitated to see an unfamiliar face staring back at me in the mirror. A face I haven't seen in quite a while, aged over the past nine years. I was in my early twenties when I decided never to turn into my human form; now I'm 32.

My hair, once lowly cut, now reached my neck, and my previously clean-shaven face was no longer free from facial hair. It felt like I was gazing at someone else, far more mature, but the scar on my left eye, a reminder of the pain inflicted by my toxic father, proves that I wasn't, and it was me.

"It's a pity that with a desirable body like yours, you're cursed to be forever alone and never to feel a she-wolf touch," Strega, the red-headed witch, appeared out of thin air behind me, running a hand across my chest.

Disgusted by her touch, my claw emerged, and I swiftly spun around to grab her by the neck.

My hand effortlessly passed through her, as if she were a mere shadow.

She was using another trick.

She laughed.

"Why so eager to kill? Has being alone for so long forced you to become so cold?" She mocked me, encircling me as if she hadn't been the one to do so.

Taken over by rage, I growled loudly, and she vanished.

I shifted into my wolf, immediately fleeing from the bathroom.

"The witch was in my house," I yelled at Sadie as I approached her.

Sadie is my witch, whom I hired to assist me in locating Strega, the witch who cursed me to lose all my mates.

Fear consumed her. She knew she had made a mistake in allowing the witch to enter my house.

"I sensed her dark magic: astral projection, and I immediately set a force around the house so she can never appear again," Sadie responded.

The idea that she'd recently considered doing so infuriated me. I leaped on her, sending her falling onto the floor onto her back.

She quivered as I pressed my two front paws into her chest, preventing her from moving.

"You could have made her hurt my sister," I growl, sinking my claw into her.

She groaned in pain.

"Please forgive me, Alpha," she begged, her breath ragged.

"I promise to never fail you again."

"You already did." Before she could make a sound, I drew my mouth to her neck and tore it off.

Her apprentice shook terrifyingly in the corner.

"You're in charge now; fail me and you'll face the same end as her."

She nodded vigorously and ran to the altar, flipping through the spellbook.

"Get rid of a body in the witch chambers," I ordered one of my men as I headed to my office.

"Yes sir," he hastily ran.

The scent of sandalwood fused with tea trees made it known that Astral Galbraith was inside waiting for me. He is the third person I trust in the pack, and he's also the Beta.

I went in to see him standing at the window looking out; he turned around when he sensed I was there.

As always, I've picked up anger and disappointment from him.

"What now are you here to lament about?" I asked as if I didn't know.

"You didn't have to slaughter those rogues," he protested as he came close.

"Why shouldn't I? I did give them a choice to live, and they chose death in refusing to be a part of my pack."

"Forcing them to be a part of your pack isn't a choice," he argued.

"Unlike them, you're free to leave my pack alive. I'm not forcing you to stay here." I walked over to the window.

From there, I can see both my fighter base and the enslaved rogues. My attention paused at the rogues' area. The area was filled with old, dilapidated wooden shed houses.

It serves as the ideal home for a group of robbers and lowlifes.

"Why feel pity for those rogues? Remember, one of them raped and murdered your mate," I reminded him as I turned around.

Astral clenched both of his hands into a tight fist, filled with rage, reminded of that painful memory.

"I won't hate all rogues because of one who took the love of my life from me, and I know Dove wouldn't want me to do that as well," pain laced his voice.

"Some rogues are good, and they escape from their old pack because of their wicked alpha," he mentioned.

I faced the window, knowing he was referring to me.

"You're a fool for thinking such a way," I disagreed.

"If I have to toss my anger at everyone to get my revenge on that one person for taking everything from me, I'll do so," I said through gritted teeth.

Astral walked angrily through the door, slamming it.

My sensitive ears flicked at the ear-piercing sound.

"I will not cease to get my revenge," I said out loud.

I spot my commander grabbing his mate by the waist, forcing me to remember the passionate moments I had with my mates—now only sad memories—knowing I'll never get to experience them again. Before their lips could touch, I angrily left the window.