Chapter 12: The Head In The Box

Ace “But alpha.” A mother said as she cradled her daughter. “How do we know that he won’t hurt us?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but others beat me to it.

“He’s a killer!”

“He’s a disgrace!”

“Think of the children!”

I growled as I watched my pack member’s kept shooting out their thoughts.

Normally I’m all for it, but I’m trying to explain myself in this pack meeting and they aren’t letting me talk.

“Enough!” I yelled as I slammed my hands down on the table.

Everyone shut up real quick and shrunk back in their seats as they looked at me.

“I understand your concerns, I really do. But I am the alpha, I will do the talking.” I growled as my members nodded. “I know that a lot of you are scared because of what Deacon did. I am too. But I’m not going to go against the Moon Goddess. At first I was a little skeptical, but I know it was really her.”

“We haven’t forgiven them completely.” Zylen said as she spoke up. “They all have a lot of catching up to do and we warned them that our pack was not going to welcome them with open arms.”

“I know that when we see them, you guys will be warry and watching them like a hawk. That is okay.” I said as I looked over everyone. “But when we do see them, do not be rude. They have a lot of making up to do and I don’t want anyone to treat them like shit. So if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes alpha.” Everyone said simultaneously.

“Good.” I said nodding to myself. “Now onto more important matters.”

“We got a little visitor yesterday when we visited Deacon.” Colby sighed.

"

visitor actually.” Zylen said as she put an emphasis on ‘the’.

“Do you mean?” Elder Letty asked.

I nodded at her shocked face. “Lawson has made an appearance.”

My wolf whimpered as we heard the gasps and felt the fear radiating off of everyone.

I held my hand up so they would quite down. “He didn’t have anyone with him when he showed up. Which makes me think he isn’t ready to attack or he wants us to think that. Either way, we can’t let out guard down. You all know how he is. Lawson is unpredictable and cunning. He is reckless, but he gets the job done. It amazes me how he makes it work though.”

“But why would he come alone?” A pack member asked. “That’s way too risky.”

Zylen nodded. “I know. It doesn’t add up but we can’t take the situation lightly.”

I was about to put in my opinion, but the doors to the hall burst open.

“Alpha!” A guard yelled as he ran in carrying a box.

“What’s wrong?” I asked on guard as my pack members looked scared.

“W-we have.” The guard stopped talking a took a deep breath. “We have a present.”

“A present?” I asked confused as I looked down at the box.

He nodded with a pained expression. “Lawson left it.”

I growled as I took the box and put it down on a table.

“I-it’s April.” He said with a shaky voice.

“No.” I whispered as I quickly opened the box.

I gasped and jumped back as I saw April’s head in the box.

Her face was pale and her eyes were closed.

But as I looked closer, I noticed discoloring around her mouth.

“We need to get this checked out.” I whispered to the guard.

I heard a gasp and I quickly looked over to April’s mom and her face fell.

“April!” Mrs. Willis yelled as she ran forward.

“I’m sorry.” I said as I caught her. “We don’t want you to see her like this.”

“But that’s my baby!” She cried.

“I know.” I sighed as I hugged her tightly. “Get that fucking box out of here.”

The guard grabbed the box and quickly ran out of the building.

Mr. Willis walked up and took his wife into his arms.

“We will make proper funeral arrangements for April.” I told them.

“Thank you alpha.” Mr. Willis sighed as he held onto his wife tighter as she continued to sob.

“Until then. I think you two need to spend some time together.”

Mr. Willis nodded. “Alpha?”

“Yes?” I asked as he gave me a serious look.

“Please find that bastard that did this to our daughter.” He growled lowly.

I nodded. “I promise.”

“Thank you.” Mrs. Willis whispered as they walked off.

“Everyone dismissed!” I called out. “Some things have happened that has impacted us all. I think we all need to have a break and will pick up later.”

Everyone nodded and quietly left the building.

I don’t think anyone wanted to talk after what just happened.

“I think it’s time we joined forces with Deacon and his gang.” Colby said as she looked between Zylen and I.

“I think she’s right.” Zylen said as she walked closer to us. “If what we think is true, Lawson is gonna have a lot of people behind him. And they are probably well trained. They got onto our land without making a sound.”

“You’re right.” I said as I turned to see Wes and Mike. “Wes. Mike.”

Their heads popped up and they jogged over to me.

“What’s up alpha?” They asked at the same time.

They always do that. Must be a twin thing.

“What happened?” I asked. “And don’t leave anything out. I want to know.”

Wes sighed. “We were doing patrol. Everything was normal until April smelt something.”

“What did she smell?” I asked.

“We don’t know. It didn’t smell like rogues. It was something else. It was like this rotting, stinky smell.”

“That’s what rogues smell like.” Zylen pointed out.

Mike shook his head. “It was a rogue smell I know that for sure. Rogues smell like rotten trash. This didn’t smell like that. It smelt like rotten eggs, it was really stinky, and it had a very potent smell to it.”

“Then what happened next?” I asked urging them on.

“April stopped walking and asked if we smelt that. When we said yes, we all decided to go in that direction to check it out.” Mike explained. “We couldn’t find anything so April thought it would be better if we split up.”

“We didn’t want to because we have never come across something like this before, but she insisted. She ran off up north before we could say anything else.” Wes sighed looking over at Mike. “After talking, Mike and I followed her. Something didn’t feel right.”

“That’s when we heard her scream.” Mike whispered as he closed his eyes.

I felt bad for Mike. April was a good friend of his and I knew that he liked her a lot. He always hoped that they were mates, but he was disappointed when they weren’t.

“We both shifted and ran as fast as we could. We couldn’t find her though.”

“What do you mean you couldn’t find her?” Zylen asked confused.

Wes shrugged. “We just couldn’t. That awful smell was blocking every scent. It’s like they just vanished.”

“After a couple minutes of searching, we finally found the area but it was too late.” Mike sighed as he looked at the ground. “That’s when we came across the box. The whole ground was covered in blood. April’s body was a couple feet away from the box.”

Colby gasped and shut her eyes tightly. “I can’t believe they would do this.”

“I knew they were rude, but I would have never guess that they would go this extreme.” Zylen said worried. “They are only going to get worse.”

“You’re right.” I said as I looked at everyone. “We are going to need some help.”

“What do you have in mind?” Wes asked.

“I think I’m going to make some calls to our allies.” I explained. “Alpha Louis owes me a favor.”

“What about Deacon?” Colby asked.

I nodded. “I think I’m going to call him too. We might need his help.”

Wes and Mike looked uneasy.

“How do you think that is going to go over? Almost the entire pack hates him.” Wes pointed out.

“Oh great. I forgot about that.” Zylen sighed. “I’m sure they will be okay with it. Maybe. Yeah probably not.”

I shrugged. “We will think of a solution when we get to that point.”

“Works for me.” Mike laughed.

This is not going to end well.