Roamers Alpha

Without warning, the Roamers’ alpha lunged at me. As I tried to stab him, he scooped me under my arms and hurled me across the room.

I crashed over a chair and hit a wall, rolling to the floor and huffing to catch my breath.

Laura stepped forward and sunk her blade into his stomach.

He backhanded her so hard that she lost her grip on her blade.

She flipped back onto her feet. Watching him from a crouch, her blue eyes flicked to me.

~Not yet.~ I gave her a hard look.

I slid my feet under me and rose.

“Oh, a tough one, are you?” He marched across the room. His dirty hands were reaching for me. “That’s okay. Breaking the proud ones is always the most gratifying.”

He was still aimed for me with dark intent.

“Now!” I shouted when he was almost to me. I tossed Laura my dagger and she jabbed it in his back, ducking as he threw an elbow her way.

I used my wolf strength to rip Laura’s dagger from his belly. Dodging from his reach, I slashed the inside of one thigh. I got a knee to my nose for the effort. But Laura had hopped on his back and was lifting her dagger to plunge it into his neck.

He managed to catch her by one arm, and throw her.

Then he punched me. I was knocked back so hard that I hit my head on the wall. I fell to my knees and fought to stay conscious.

~No.~

~Help me.~ I told my wolf.

She offered me her strength. She filled my legs with power and helped me back to my feet.

“You don’t know when to stay down, do you?”

I tipped my head back and gave a frenzied howl for help. Long and mournful.

He paused, his brows furrowing as he looked down. “Calling to your mates? What a waste.”

“We’ll see.”

There was a crash at the door and its barricade crumbled in.

My three mates rushed in, shifting as they stepped, so all three were wolves.

By now nightfall had cast a dark hue over everything. Which made my huge loping mates look far darker. The hints of silver in their fur made them look like they were frosted.

Their huge strides carried them so smoothly they nearly looked like they floated. One was at the forefront and the other slightly flanking him.

Their yellow eyes glittered maliciously, and they skid through the door. Nearly as wide as the frame itself.

They stood before me snarling.

The Roamers’ alpha laughed coldly. He shook his head and shifted, becoming a scraggly dark-gray beast that looked more like the moss in an abandoned forest. His bones snapped, and he was changing faster than I could blink.

His eyes yellowed as he lowered to the floor. His neck thickened until the ruffed fur splayed out as wide as his shoulder.

He was far larger than I expected. The biggest wolf I’d ever seen.

I took a hesitant step back. Helping Laura to her feet, I pushed her into a corner where I could shield her with my body.

The Roamers’ alpha was twice the age of my mates, which meant he was larger. The scar twining his face still marked him, even in wolf form.

~He looks diseased.~

Victor charged the Roamers’ Alpha. Huntley and Chase at his back.

All three of my mates were struggling to match the one Roamers who seemed unreasonably powerful. And vicious from endless battles.

Victor was tactical and did well circling to attack from opposing sides, but the Roamers’ alpha combated that by constantly rotating. It was hard for them to get ahold of him.

~They’re accustomed to attacking as a trio. ~

Which meant this was how they generally operated.

Three more Roamers had piled in behind my mates and now maneuvered to fight with their alpha. But Borders warriors were right behind them.

I looked up and met a pair of familiar dark eyes.

~The Borders alpha.~

Laura straightened behind me, relieved to see him.

Sabar was just behind him. The rest of the pack close behind.

“~This is what’s left of your Roamers!” Our alpha shouted to the scraggly brown one in the hut. Gesturing to the few wolves with him.

There was vast snarling and a blur of fur and paws.

Huntley was tossed aside, and I saw a horrible bite along the back of his shoulders.

~No.~ I thought. ~I’m not standing by and watching those I love be destroyed again.~

I glimpsed a jagged wound on the Roamers alpha too.

Victor was snarling through lips coated in thick red.

Our alpha shifted into a giant brown wolf and gave an attack howl. A long, low sound. My pack leapt into motion and everything became a blur of violence.

The Roamers’ alpha lunged at the male near me, but the Borders’ alpha sunk his teeth into the scarred wolf’s leg and wrenched. A tendon snapped.

Our alpha yanked his back leg, crippling the scarred alpha in seconds.

The scarred wolf whimpered. A low cry before he slid over the floor, trying to get away. Turning with his ears pinned, he whimpered at the Borders’ alpha. There was fear in the Roamer’s eyes.

I was stunned. The Roamers’ alpha was bigger, more seasoned, and had more wolves at his disposal. But our smaller Borders’ alpha had just proven he was more vicious in less than a minute. Effectively ending a fight that had already gone on far too long.

My mates snarled as they cornered the scarred wolf in the back of the hut.

All other wolves began filing out.

I heard the snarls of my mates and knew they were tearing him apart. Exacting the vengeance I had yearned for.

My mates gradually shifted so they could assess all that had happened to me.

Victor caught me up in a tight hug.

Huntley was just behind me, holding me from behind.

Chase squeezed in against us.

~We’re one unit,~ I registered.

~We love together. We fight together.~ And in my mind, I promised myself I’d never leave them.

***

~Bone-deep relief.~

That was what I felt now. A feeling which had cleansed all that rage from my soul.

We went out to rejoin the other wolves.

The last of the Roamers were taken as prisoners, bound and escorted.

As we came out of the hut, covered in blood, Huntley looped an arm around my shoulders.

“I was so scared,” he whispered into my hair.

“I’m okay,” I promised him.

I looked up and saw only a sprinkling of wolves standing at the edges of camp. These weren’t warriors trained to take on the wolf villages. These frail men and women looked nearly starved and hadn’t budged to pick up armaments all the while we were fighting.

~They’re not Roamers.~

~They were just villagers before they’d been raided and taken over.~

They looked helpless and resigned.

I could imagine the things they were thinking. They’d barely survived the raid by the Roamers.

~Probably lost those they loved.~

They’d fought to live and now we were here.

I could now see what Victor had meant. ~We’re a dying breed. Precious few since the plagues.~

Though I was angry they didn’t fight, I knew they were no enemy.

But not fighting was something I couldn’t understand.

Even when I’d been a meek she-wolf, hiding under a giant cloak, I’d been fighting to understand who I was. And resisting the things I didn’t understand.

~Fighting my own wolf on occasions.~

I couldn’t even remember a time I wasn’t fighting. ~Not anymore.~

Our alpha strode out the center of the bloodstained camp.

“You allied yourself with the Roamers to live,” he said in a booming voice. “That makes you disloyal to your packs. But we’ll give you another chance. Now that you’ve borne witness to corruption of wolf laws~, ~we present you with the choice to fight us and die in the name of the Roamers. Or join us…”

There was a long silence.

They began dropping to their knees, lowering their heads in deference.

“We join.”

“I join.”

“We will.”

A peace settled over the wolves as introductions were made and belongings were gathered. Our alpha pulled Laura close to him and set to work organizing our expanded pack.

Everyone found places to sleep for the night.

We were guided to a run-down cottage at the edge of camp. Inside I curled up on the floor, exhausted.

Huntley went to the creek nearby and brought back rags of water which we used to cleanse our wounds.

They were appalled by the gouge of skin and muscle missing where my neck met my shoulder. But they went outside and gathered some herbs to cleanse it with and wrapped it with some cloth. Then we did the same for each of us, until everyone was tended.

We curled up on the floor together. Huddled as we always were.

I stared into the darkness, thinking. I felt a sense of completion and wholeness that I couldn’t remember ever feeling.

I knew there were still broken pieces in my world, but those I could live with.

There was still much of me that was lost somewhere in my own mind. But I felt that I had put together the important pieces.

~I know who I am now.~

We held each other, happy we were all alive and okay.

I still had them.

~My lovers.~

~My mates…~

End of Book