ALPHA

-ADIRA-

The drive back up to The Ash pack was excruciating. I nervously bit at my nails, which were already non existent, down to the bed. Rhys had insisted that we drive through the night with the least amount of breaks as possible. Sam, Erica, and Killian piled together with us.

Chase and the rest of the warriors alternated in who drove. I was thankful that they were willing to drive all this time. We were nearly halfway back to Oregon and I felt my anxiety rise with each second. I could see Killian offering me sympathetic looks. He understood how I was feeling. I knew Natalia meant so much to him already.

“You need to get some sleep, Ad.” Rhys urges quietly pulling my nails away from my mouth “I know you’re concerned but you haven’t gotten any rest since we’ve left.”

“I’m not getting any rest until I know everyone is safe.” I respond before digging my cell phone out from my jacket pocket.

There were still no missed calls from my sisters or Lucas. For the past several hours I had tried to get in contact with them but haven’t been so lucky.

Rhys sighed and nodded his head, grasping my hand in his own. The gesture helped my nerves slightly and I knew it was helping him too.

The comfort of my mate must have allowed me to doze off, next thing I knew I was being startled by the sudden voice of Selene in my head. We were finally close enough to the pack that I was able to come in contact with my gamma.

“Adira!”

Sitting upright in my seat I felt my anxiety skyrocket at the sound of my sister’s panicked voice. “Selene. Please tell me you’re alright.”

“Oh thank goddess. Luc and I have been trying to reach you for hours. Something’s wrong.” She says. I could hear the uncertainty and fear in the way she spoke.

“What is it?” I questioned. I felt Rhys take hold of my hand once more and I peered over to see him watching me intently. He knew I had managed to mindlink someone from the pack.

“Rogues.” She continues on “They’re just sitting along the northern border of the pack. None have attacked yet but I have our warriors ready. Natalia and Emilia are in the bunkers with the rest of the children and elders. Some of the Lycans have arrived. Did you know about this?”

“We found out yesterday-wait they’re just sitting there?” I questioned in confusion. Why are they not attacking? What were they waiting for?

“Yeah. It’s like they’re waiting for some-”

Suddenly the link cut off and I could no longer hear Selene. I felt a fear wash over me unlike anything before. Something was wrong.

“Rhys.” I say breathlessly “I think it’s begun.”

Rhys clenched his jaw and sat forward to speak with the warriors who halted the vehicle “Get out all of you.” He orders opening the door on his side.

“What are we doing?” I asked as he walked around the SUV.

“Chase says we’re ten minutes from the pack, it’ll be quicker to cut through the forest.” Rhys says “He and the warriors will meet us there.”

Nodding my head in understanding I began to shift and follow my mate’s lead as he took off into the thick forest. Killian, Erica, and Sam followed closely behind. Killian seemed the only one who could keep up with Rhys and I.

As we ran through the foliage and branches, the smell of smoke began to fill the air. “Rhys” I say into the mindlink.

His blue eyes met mine with the same worry swirling in them “I know, we’re almost there love.”

The sounds of growls and snarls echoed through the forest. The strong scent of smoke and blood grew stronger as we neared the western border. Finally breaking through the forest I halted my steps to see complete and utter chaos.

Rogues and Wolves attacking one another, several homes were on fire, and the occasional Lycan sped past us. My home was being destroyed in front of my very eyes.

“Lucas, where are you?” I ask urgently knowing we had to stop this.

“Ad! You made it. Selene and I are in the training fields. Seems like the battle is taking place here. Hurry, we need your help.” He says before cutting off our connection.

Without saying another word I took off towards the training fields dodging rogues and my pack alike. Rhys let out a snarl as he tore through rogues and he ran past.

It didn’t take long for us to find Selene and Lucas, they stood in the center of the field with River and Elias in their human form speaking with a man and woman.

“I will give you one last chance Victor. Leave this pack now.” River orders darkly staring at the calm and collected man.

So this was Victor. I could see the resemblance of Killian to his Uncle. The man stood shorter than most of the men that surrounded him with long black hair and deep brown eyes. His clothing was pristine and almost looked expensive. This monster was a rogue? He didn’t look like the usual rogue, in fact, I would have never suspected that he lived in isolation with nothing all these years.

The woman who stood next to him wore intricate jewelry and dressed in all black. Her dark hair made her violet eyes contrast with her pale skin and burgundy colored lips.

His eyes flashed to our small group as we approached the field. “Ah at last, you have finally arrived.” Victor grinned in excitement.

Rhys didn’t hesitate to shift into his human form taking his place next to River and Elias. Killian followed his lead shifting from his dark gray wolf to stare impassively at his estranged Uncle.

I took my place next to Rhys staying as my wolf just to be safe. My eyes narrowed at the violet eyed woman who eyed my mate’s naked form appreciatively. A possessive snarl escaped my mouth causing her to flinch back as I bared my teeth at her.

Victor let out a laugh and clapped his hands together “So this must be your little Alpha, Rhys.” He says, his gaze wandering my fur covered body “Such a pretty thing.”

“You have me here Victor. What do you want.” Rhys growled out bringing Victor’s steely gaze back to me.

“You know exactly what I want Alpha Carson. Your family destroyed everything my father worked for and now, I will get my revenge. But first, Killian.” He turned his attention to his nephew with a sense of pride “How you’ve grown my boy, the spitting image of your grandfather.”

“Fuck off Victor.” Killian growled out “You’re no family to me. You've lost that privilege when you betrayed our pack.”

Victor hummed sadly and shook his head “What a pity. How glorious it would be for the Chans to have control once again as one family. I can give you the world, nephew.”

“I want nothing from you.” Killian spits out angrily.

The man sighed and waved a hand at the woman who stood by his side “Very well then. Alice, get me the female Alpha.”

Rhys stood protectively in front of me “Like hell you will Victor. It’s me you want, remember?”

Victor let out a laugh, throwing his head back as he began to remove his clothing “Oh Rhys, killing you would be too simple. No, I want to take away everything from you. Removing your memories, thanks for Alice here, appeared to fail but it brought us right to your biggest weakness. A family.”

He stood shirtless in front of us already looking victorious. What a smug bastard. Alice smirked my way and I can see she was ready for me to die.

“The last of the Carson’s will watch as I kill every last person he cares for.” His brown eyes flickered towards me maliciously “Starting with her!”

With a snap of his fingers, another wave of rogues ran from the forest right towards us. Rhys and Killian shifted again, taking off towards Victor with River, Elias and his men running for the attackers.

Selene barked out orders leading the warriors, Sam and Erica behind the Lycans. Trailing behind the rogues were a dozen women with balls of fire in their hands, loud chants filled the air amongst the howls and snarls. Witches.

It appeared that Killian and Rhys were right about Victor working with the witches just like his father.

Lucas stayed behind guarding me from Alice who began to stride towards me without so much being touched by a single wolf. Chase appeared out of nowhere to stand with Lucas.

I felt a sudden surge of pride run through me, these wolves were ready to lay their lives down for me. I couldn’t fail them now.

“Come on out from hiding little Alpha, you don’t want these men to die for you, do you?” She taunts as a purple flame appears in her hand “Don’t you want to know who I am?”

I growled and pushed past Lucas and Chase to give this bitch exactly what she wanted. If she wanted me, here I was.

“There she is.” The black hair woman says with a smirk “Your mate was so easy to fool. One hallucination potion and a memory loss spell was all it took to almost bring him down. Too bad his wolf brought him to you. I was planning on keeping that fine specimen of a man to myself.”

She bit her lip at the thought of having my husband “Don’t worry your pretty little head Alpha, once I remove his memories again, I’ll show him what it truly feels like to have a real woman in his bed.”

Seeing red at her words I was unable to keep myself from charging towards her. My wolf wanted her blood and damn it would she get her craving. Alice shot fireballs that exploded on the ground only for me to dodge her attacks easily. Lucas and Chase had gotten pulled into their own battles with rogues and witches that had neared us.

Just as I was about to reach for her neck Alice blew a dark powder towards my eyes making me yelp in pain as my vision disappeared. Losing my footing I tumbled to the ground with Alice’s laughter seemingly to circle around me.

“Not so tough now without your sight are you, Alpha.” She taunts with a swift kick to my side. I growled and snapped towards her attack. Her laughter echoed once again “How pathetic. You know Alpha, the moment I saw Rhys I just knew he’d be mine and once Victor takes you, we can finally be happy.”

Breathe Adira. You have other strong senses, use them.

I could hear Alice’s rushing steps and snapped my jaw taking her ankle into my mouth and biting down. Her pain filled scream rang through the air. I bit harder feeling the blood enter my mouth.

“You fucking bitch!” She swung a fire fist towards my snout earning a yelp as a searing pain covered my face.

Reluctantly I let go and felt my body collide with the dirt covered ground once again. Opening my eyes I could see the blurry bodies around us. Seems like Alice hit me hard enough to dismantle her own spell.

Alice reached down and grabbed a fist full of my fur causing me to whine from the fierce grip she had on me “Victor wanted you alive Adira but you’ve managed to piss me off. Are you ready to die?” She released her grip and began chanting a spell once again

I felt myself unable to move as she used a spell to hold me in place before reaching into her midnight colored dress to reveal a curved blade. Everything in me tried to kick my hind legs at the witch but her spell held tight.

As my eyes began to adjust once again, I caught sight of two familiar figures in the distance running in our direction. Knowing I needed to keep Alice’s attention on me I stopped my fighting earning a smile from the woman towering above me.

“I see you’ve come to accept your fate. Worry not little wolf, I’ll take care of your mate and be everything you couldn’t. He may see me as a stranger for now, but with you out of the way-”

Alice was unable to finish her monologue as two black wolves attacked her from behind and tore at her body allowing her spell to ware off my body. Her screams of pain filled my ears but I stood stoically as Enzo and Gio took a step back from the now bloody witch on the brink of death. They were letting me have the kill.

My wolf snarled and bared her teeth toward the whimpering woman. My large wolf now towered over her small frail bloody body. Her fearful violet eyes met my own and I knew she could see exactly what I was thinking. The message was loud and clear ‘Rhys was mine.’

With one final plea for mercy from Alice I quickly tore at her throat ending her life. Her copper smelling blood filled my senses satisfying my wolf. I took several steps back and thanked my cousins who were joined by Lucas and Chase.

’Enzo, Gio, Chase go fine Selene, she may need your help.' I ordered 'Lucas come with me. Rhys and Killian went after Victor.'

I needed to find my mate before he got himself killed.

We are nearly done with ALPHA! Only three chapters left!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will do my best to update again soon!

Thanks again for all the love for this story!

Until next time readers!