REGINA

15. Intruders

We sat down in my dad's office, Zack and Marce on the chairs and me on the couch with Andrea. The entire office was silent. Only the hushed voices of my dad were heard which I couldn't hear properly. There was thick tension in the air.
"Who might have been behind this attack?" I asked Andrea in hushed voice but she didn't say a word. Instead she shrugged her shoulders and looked straight towards her brothers who were in deep talk with my dad. I saw my dad's expression were stern and showed that he was extremely angry about this. Zack and Marce's face were not visible to me as they had their backs facing us.
"Alright! Let's get this done by midnight." My dad spoke a but louder after all those whispering talks.
"Yes Alpha!" Zack and Marce said in unison. Dad smiled at me and Andrea as we stood up to leave. We then walked out of the castle and went to check the injured ones in the hospital nearby. There were men and women alike but no one had pain or worry on their faces. They were calm and the nurses were putting on some medicines on their wounds. I saw young boys and girls as well who were getting their wounds treated.
"They'll heal in an hour." Marce said.
"Hour?"
"Remember, they are warewolves. Warewolves have excellent healing properties." Andrea added.
" Well we need to find out the person who allowed the rogues into the pack borders." Zacks said, placing his hands on his hips.
" I guess it's Zeiss." Marce said.
"I think he isn't the one. He was being a lot more careless nowadays but causing harm to the pack is not what he can do." Andrea said.
"How do you know?" Marce turned to Andrea who just sighed for a second.
"Well we found out that we were mates last summer so we already had that mind link. He often told me that he was making a lot of mistakes lately. I told him to be careful but letting rogues is not what he can do." Andrea said , folding her arms.
"Fine then. But still we need to keep him in the list." Zack said.
"Alpha, I think you should get some rest now. It was a long day for you." Zack said smiling at me and gestured for me to walk ahead.
"I'll walk her to her room." Marce said nodding at his brother and sister and we were off to my room.
" Why do rogues attack us?" I asked as we walked on the pavement. The sun had set already and it was dark around. Only the street lamps and the moonlight shone the way for us. Marce had removed his Suit jacket and rolled his sleeves. I admired his side profile as he looked straight in front of the pavement.
"They want a pack, every wolf wants something to rule. They are like goons who attack weak packs and get the area under them. We are not a weak pack but if they get a hold of our land then they'll become stronger and maybe they'll start attacking other packs as well." Marce said.
"Will they kill our people?"
"Yes. If the pack people do not agree with them, they'll get killed. That's how brutal they are."
" But why do they don't have a pack?"
"These wolves were thrown out of different packs because they did something that was against the order. There are crimes that can't be forgiven and hence either the wolf is killed or thrown out of the pack. Then they become rogues."
"That's scary." I said and wrapped my arms around myself. Marce glanced at me but kept on walking. He left after securing the doors and windows and left a tray of food on my table.
I quickly took a shower and ate my food before going to bed. I instantly fell asleep but a loud noise woke me up.
It was 2am and all I could hear was the chaos of men and women, it felt like something was going on. I quickly put on my shirt and opened the window to look outside.
"Holy shit!" I cursed loudly as I ran down the stairs into the open field.
There were wolves fighting, viscous wolves ripping each other's heads off, clawing one another with their sharp claws. I ran towards the women and children at the corner, in my shirt and shorts, barefoot. The feet hurt when it touched the gravel but I ran and faced them.
"Alpha!" An elderly woman exclaimed, almost crying. I gestured them to keep quite and assured that they'll be safe. I quickly told them to hold each other's hands and sneaked below the noses of those viscous fur animals. I was almost at the entrance of the pack house when a brown wolf came towards us in full speed, his tongue sticking out, saliva dripping on the ground. My eyes went wide and a voice behind my mind yelled at me, just like on the day I was kidnapped.
"Get me out. NOW!"
I nodded my head and lowered my body a bit with my arms spreading to protect the people behind me. The wolf slowed it's pace encircling us with his eyes fixed on me.
"You are going to die if you don't allow me out." The voice yelled again but I didn't know how to shift. It always happened without me knowing but I was sure that it only came out when I was hurt. I tried closing my eyes but I simply didn't know what to do.
I turned my head towards the child beside me who was clutching my hand for his dear life.
"How do you shift into your wolf?" I asked him in a hushed voice.
"I don't really know but I have seen my dad run and growl towards his enemy and then he shifts into his wolf." He said in a confused voice.
" Can you do that for me?"
"Me?"
"Yeah! Shift. I'll follow your lead."
"Well I am not that experienced. But I'll try for you Alpha." The boy barely ten stopped in front of me and took a deep breath. I followed his actions and then in a swift movement he ran towards the wolf and howled, shifting into a small dark blue wolf. The wolf too ran towards him but then something happened. My bones started cracking and I felt something happening to me. But the boy was already in danger. I ran towards the bigger wolf and tackled him with my shoulders. I fell down and so did he. I quickly covered up the small wolf with my hands who was trembling with fear. The brown wolf pounced on us but was tackled by someone else.
It was a black big wolf with this jaw wide open, growled at the brown wolf and stood there, covering us up.
The brown wolf howled as the black one bite into his shoulders and shook him like a feather. The black wolf was much bigger than the other one. With another snap, the brown wolf's head was ripped off. The boy below me had already shifted into his human form and I carried him inside the castle. My feet hurt as I ran on the rough road but somehow I was able to secure the people inside our castle.
"Stay here." I told them and was about to leave when the elderly woman held my hand firmly.
"Don't go. You can't shift and it s dangerous out there." She had terror in her eyes, begging me to not to go outside but I simply couldn't see my people dying.
"There are other people like you out there and they too need help. Trust me, I can do this." I gently patted her hand and left for the other people outside who were hiding behind broken walls and trees.
I saw such a group of people who were hiding behind a wall but a ferocious grey wolf was approaching them. The mother was standing firm on her legs with a stick in her hands and her kids clinging on her legs.
"JESUS NO!" I screamed as I saw the wolf getting near to her. I ran with full speed towards them and within a second I shifted into my magnificent wolf.
I tackled the other one with my body and bite hard on its neck. The blood ran into my mouth and I howled in pleasure. The other wolf fell on the ground lifeless and I turned to the woman and her children who were scared of me now. My wolf was a much larger with far longer claws and canines. Unlike other wolves, I could speak in my human voice and I took advantage of that.
"I'll get you to the castle." I said assuring them. They instantly recognised my voice and nodded at me. I took them to the castle but I saw the other ones getting scared of me. The woman who I rescued told them
"Don't worry. It's our future Alpha Fiona." She smiled at me which made my heart swell with happiness. I then went out the third time, but in my wolf form I was confident that I can save myself and also my people. I trotted my way out and killed the wolves that tried to attack me. After a few turns, almost all the people were safe and only the dead bodies of those rogues were seen.
I saw Star coming out of the smoke laden forest area where I had seen her earlier fighting with a grey wolf in her human form. With her eyebrows knitted, she carefully came near, ducking her body and her hand stretched out to touch my fur.
"It's me." I said without realising that she jumped at my voice.
"Yo-you can speak?" Her voice stammered.
"I guess so." I said again.
"That's unusual." She said, tracing her hands around my fur and rubbing my forehead. My wolf loved that feeling and it wagged it's large fluffy tail in approval.
"Did all the rogues die?" I asked.
"Yes but we kept the leader to interrogate him. Others are dead."
"Thank god." I heaved a sigh but I had a question in my mind,"why did you fight in your human form when others have already shifted?"
She sighed heavily, "Well, I don't shift unless it's needed. I am a different breed actually. You'll see that someday."
I nodded my head. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my chest. My wolf howled and there were tears in my eyes. The pain felt like it would rip my chest apart. After a few seconds of struggling, I saw the same black wolf who saved me the first time I was out, walk towards me in lazy steps. It's fur was black and shiny which made it look magnificent and royal. There was thick fur covering its body, its eyes shining red in the night sky. It growled lowly, lifting it's nose in the air to sniff. I saw Star retrieving back into the castle leaving just me and the black wolf alone. My wolf too lifted it's snout to sniff the air and as soon as the black wolf's woody, citrusy smell hit my nostrils, my eyes went wide. The pain in my chest was gone and there was a heart fluttering moment that had my legs quiver with joy. I fell down on the ground as my legs suddenly couldn't take my weight on themselves. The black wolf stopped in its tracks, a few metres away from me and stared straight at me blue eyes.
"Mate." My voice was a mere whisper and there were tears in my eyes. My heart fluttered and my head throbbed. The feelings were just not matching with how my body was reacting.
"Mate." The black wolf's mind got linked with mine and I could hear him saying those words even if his wolf couldn't speak.