Chapter 6

 

“The male.”

Adelaide continued to move swiftly through the forest at a fast walk as her father strolled behind her. She let her eyes wander over various trees and plants as she looked for the signs that pointed them into the right direction. Her breathing deep as her mind thought internally to lock away the beast that had almost slipped.

“What about him?” She asked.

She picked some bark from a nearby tree, rubbing the coarse material between her fingers. She took a deep lungful of breath as she brought it to her nose, taking in the scent she was searching for.

“You spared him.”

Her father had stopped to lean against a tree as he regarded her, chewing on a stem of grass that rested between his lips. She stopped in her search, letting the bark drop to the forest floor with a soft crunch, before turning to her father with a sigh.

 

All would find it questionable that she had spared the young were. She was known for her ruthlessness. Feral wolves were overruled by instinct, they weren’t known for their control. But she was no feral wolf as all liked to believe.

She gave her father a knowing look before letting her body drop to the floor. Her arm resting on her raised knee as she lounged back against the vast trunk of a tree. Her father’s talks were never quick.

“I do not kill the innocent,” She told him hauntingly with a shrug of her shoulders.

To many innocent lives had already been lost in the past and now the time seemed to be passing again.

She looked away from his eyes and into the forest, letting its depth overtake her ever changing emotions, it brought a calm that not much else could. Her father’s emotions overwhelmed her senses as she breathed in. Anger and Sympathy, two emotions so difficult to experience at the same time. He had seen so much and still didn’t let his emotions overtake him.

“No, but you have never left a challenger alive,” His tone was curious as his eyes also wandered around the world that surrounded them.

“His coward of a father deserved my claws, not him,” She bit back, gums aching.

 

She didn’t like speaking of the male, his mind had unsettled her. She had felt the power he held locked up tight, Alpha Heir’s always held the power of their father’s. Some even sometimes held more. And she had felt far more than she had ever felt before, his dominance was enough to challenge her own. It was something she had never seen before and it was locked up tightly behind a wall. She didn’t understand how or why.

The moon had chosen well, indeed.

“You performed the Mente Compartida without permission. He could have lost his mind if you did not have such strong control,” He expressed with concern.

She huffed in annoyance at his words. Her mind had never been as controlled as she had led him to believe. Whenever the ritual was performed it chipped away at the wall between herself and her beast, it took sheer will power to keep the swirl of her mind at bay.

The dangers of the ritual had always been made clear to her but her claws ached just thinking about the male. It was as if the action wasn’t even her own, a feeling that she was all too familiar with. It was weak however, like a niggle in the back of her mind, a persuasive voice.

“It wasn’t me,” She told him, ashamed.

Adelaide had always prided herself on the guise of being the perfect warrior, controlled and bloodthirsty. But she wasn’t perfect, her father knew well of the struggles she had faced in the past. Her mind wasn’t her own.

Her eyes became downcast at her own words as they fell upon silent air. Her father had stood from where he leant against a tree and she felt the worry come off of him in waves. She didn’t like to worry him when he tried to live a peaceful life, she didn’t want him to believe he was losing her like he had already lost everyone else.

“The connection was weak, more like an instinct,” She reassured him as she stood from her lounging position.

“She has plans for him. His power,” She told him, facing him.

They held each other’s gaze as she tried to convey how she was feeling, she felt vulnerable. A weakness in their world in that moment. She only allowed her father to see her like it, it reminded him that she wasn’t as invincible as everyone believed.

“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

Her words were haunting, just like the thoughts in her mind. For as long as she could remember, her time in the pack wars, she had been the top predator. The most dominant and powerful, and now she was not. It made her uncomfortable, it made her beast roar in outrage.

“Then you know what we must do,” Her father spoke strongly.

It was silent as a few breaths passed between them. Birds chirped in the trees above them and a breeze swirled leaves around her ankles. She kept his gaze as she settled her mind, basking in her father’s strength. The light in her dark. A constant need to keep herself grounded to the world around her.

He turned away from her and sped off back the way they had come, to the Alpha’s they had left behind. She waited a few moments, settling the thudding of her heart, letting the blank expression settle back onto her face. There could be no weakness when it came to protect the pack and her father, weakness was death.

She followed after her father, the world blurring around her as she caught up to him with ease. The forest suddenly being replaced by the clearing of the stone circle. Her father moved to the stone circle with the few Alpha’s that remained while she walked to where her cloak rested on the ground and clasped it back over her shoulders.

She listened in as her father spoke, her stomach dropping as he discussed the current situation with the war and the numbers that the community had. They’d need every fighting male and female that they could get to try and survive, they were on the verge of another extinction event.

“Send out your messengers, gather the packs. We meet at the Moon Valley in two days,” He finished.

The Alpha’s stood from their chairs, a sombre atmosphere in the air as she stood and listened with her hands behind her back. War was never meant for happiness. It only brought pain.

By her father summoning the entire community to the Gealach Gleann it showed the gravity of the threat they faced. Two master races, a race to see who would survive.

The Gealach Gleann was were the alter of the Moon rested, a direct link to the Goddess for the Old Religion. The Gleann was a vast valley, set south west of their pack lands. Forgotten by all but her pack but not visited since the end of the pack wars.

The ground of the valley was sacred and any werewolf who stepped onto its land was protected, no other could enter. It was the safe haven for the community in times of war. The perfect spot for a home base.

It was no surprise that her father had chosen it, to save as many numbers as possible. His conscience couldn’t take anymore loss of life.

“Norman, you’re with me.”

She broke from her thoughts at her father’s command and quickly came to his side as Norman made his way to them. Death clinging to his skin like an old friend.

The stone circle fell on his territory, he would be their host before they made the journey together to their new home until the war was over.

“I’m sorry about, Helen. I should have come sooner,” Her father expressed.

He placed a hand on Norman’s back as they began to walk, she trailed behind them. Listening while watching for threats. Always watching as the beast prowled.

Norman’s shoulders slumped in the presence of her father, like a weight had lifted from his shoulders as the other Alpha’s had departed. It was difficult for Alpha’s to break down in the presence of others, another reason why life-mates were so important to Alpha’s. They shared the strain.

His heart was breaking, as theirs once had.

They knew all too well his pain. If he would survive it, however, was his own choice. He needed the will to carry on surviving, otherwise his heir would be handed a title too early for his time.

 

She felt sympathy for him, Helen was a beautiful female with a beautiful heart. Pure in life and ruined in death, vampires were not kind to werewolves. Adelaide could only imagine the horrors the female had experienced before her death, one that her life-mate would have felt every bit of.

Grass slowly turned to concrete under their feet as civilisation soon surrounded them. Much to her dismay. Her eyes darted to the new surroundings; much had changed in their time away. She felt uncomfortable out of the forest, away from her natural habitat. She never understood how some wolves held onto the human way of living, they were made for the wild.

It wasn’t long before they came before Norman’s pack house, a large modern structure that she took no bother to imprint on her memory. A few of his pack mates were littered around the outside, going about various things.

All stopped in their presence. Norman squared his shoulders as his head brought itself back up, strong for the pack. But it wasn’t Norman their gazes lingered on.

It was the northern Alpha and his feral daughter.

“Annalise, will take you to find some clothes,” Norman told her as they walked through the entrance.

She stared at him for a few moments, her gaze drifting over the young female that had appeared at their arrival before turning her attention back to the grieving Alpha.

“What I’m wearing is fine.” She told him.

Norman made a move to speak before her father silenced him with his hand, his gaze falling onto her.

“We must fit in while we are in the presence of others, Adelaide. They do not understand our ways,” Her father reasoned.

She huffed in response but gave in, gesturing for the small female to lead her to her destination. She nodded to her father as she left, her cloak swishing behind her. She allowed her senses to relax to her new environment as she gained some bearing to her surroundings.

She told herself that she was safe in Norman’s territory despite the disgruntlement of her beast.

Adelaide studied the female that walked in front of her as they ascended a flight of stairs. She was small with long blonde hair that reached to the middle of her back. Her features were childlike, showing her to not be a fully matured Were, and her arms showed little muscle definition. She had undertaken no training.

“Do you train, little wolf?” She questioned.

Her words hung in the silence that had enveloped them. The young female shivered at her words as she sensed the predator, she had behind her. Adelaide watched as the hairs on her arms lifted, her wolf pushing to the surface as a layer of protection.

“No,” She told her in a small voice.

The young wolf stopped briefly after her words in front of a door and turned the knob, letting the door swing open wide into the room. She gestured for Adelaide to walk inside as she stayed rooted by the door.

Adelaide walked inside, sparing a glance at the clothing that rested on the bed and turned to face the female with a grim expression.

“I suggest that you do,” She spoke hauntingly before closing the door in her face.