Alpha Ultima

Chapter 25

Sam's POV -

What in the ever loving fuck had happened tonight? This was the Silver-Thorne pack. We were the strongest pack in North America, possibly the world. We were lead under the strongest female wolf, the daughter of the Moon Goddess herself, who was mated to create the Alpha Ultima and where we were currently? Crumbling. Falling apart at the seams. Broken.

Alpha Xander was gone, he had been taken Goddess knows where and Alpha Quinn was currently dying. Fucking dying. And their beta's, Cole and Liam, were not far behind. Carter was still unconscious in my arms. I felt like I was going to be sick. This was a shock to the system and a slap in the face to all of the training that we had done over the past five years. When word got out to the werewolf community that a bunch of vamps had taken us down, where would their trust in us lie? In the fucking sewer, that's where.

I ran a hand through my messy blond locks, grasping tight at the roots in frustration. I needed to get a hold on this. With both Alpha's, the Luna, and two of the three Beta's out of commission, I needed to step up. Sheriff puffed his chest up in my mind and I shook my head at his antics. Not the time, stupid.

Being Carter's beta, I've always known that if something were to happen, it would be up to Cole, Liam and myself to step up to the plate and take control of what ever situation arises to make sure this pack is taken care of. Being a new supernatural, and a Lycan at that, Sheriff always felt like he needed to prove himself and in return, so did I. I wanted Carter to trust me, to believe in me, to know that I was more than just a poor soul who had been kidnapped and turned against his will, more than just a Lycan who was a prisoner to the moon.

It took time, but I felt like Sheriff and I had done a good job of proving ourselves. Carter was our lifeline to reality when the pull of the moon became too much. With each smile, soft look, and cherished moment, it had become impossible not to fall for her over the years. I watched from the sidelines as her Goddess given, moon-bound mates, loved her unconditionally.

It was hard, keeping myself locked away at all times. I was Carter's person, her confidant, her best friend. When times were tough and she needed me, I held her close. There were days she didn't get out of bed and would curl her little body tight against my own and I did everything in my power to remind myself that it meant nothing, that it was platonic.

I would never in a million years have acted upon my feelings. I knew they could never be reciprocated. She was not ours nor would she ever be. Sherriff and I knew that our mate was out there somewhere and for the love of the Goddess, I wished he had stayed wherever he had come from after we found him.

The pain of watching Carter be loved and cared for by my alpha's, was far less than the pain of Tyler rejecting us. I could deal with how hurtful it was loving Carter from a far one hundred and fifty two times over, rather than the sharp, searing pain of Tyler's words. It had gutted us so fully that we couldn't stick around to watch any further and as a result, my pack was attacked and I wasn't here to protect them.

I had failed as a Beta, I had failed my pack and I would spend the rest of my days making up for that. Rage bubbled tightly in my chest as I thought of Tyler. Gone was the lust for my mate to accept me, gone was the hope that someday we could be something more. All that was left was the raw, festering hate that because I wasn't strong enough to handle his words, my pack had suffered at the hands of his father.

I sat trembling with emotion in the corner of the doctors office, Carter curled up in a tight ball in my lap with my arms with my arms wrapped around her, as everyone rushed around trying to save the Alpha and the beta's. While my focus had been on Carter, I had been able to pick up on small conversations as everyone flit around the room.

What ever the black smoke was that surrounded the witches and Viktor when they took Xander, it had attacked Quinn, Cole and Liam's respiratory systems directly. Every breath they took, brought deadly barbs through their nose and throat. Each movement their lungs made, the barbs slashed and tore through the soft tissue of their lungs and throat. Blood began pooling too quickly for their wolves immune systems to heal. They were drowning on their own blood.

The three of them were in a medically induced coma for the foreseeable future. The beginning light of day began to streak through the buildings windows, glistening off of a crystal window decoration, alerting me to just how much time had passed. As much as I wanted to keep holding Carter in my arms, I knew I needed to get to work.

I quickly adjusted Carter's sleeping body in my arms and stood, walking towards the bed that her mate was in, I carefully placed her to lie next to him. Making sure not to catch any of the wires that were currently attached to him, I let her go and backed away.

I could feel Sherriff's annoyance at my attachment to her, but I couldn't just turn that off. While my Lycan and I were one, we still had different minds. Sheriff wanted our mate and yes, I had longed for so long to find that bond, the love I felt for Carter just snuck up on me. It made the wish to find my mate all that much stronger, until the moment we discovered it was Tyler and the pain that followed.

I would get over my infatuation with Carter. I knew that and I was okay with that. In fact, I was looking forward to it. It's not like I wanted to sit and pine after someone who would not... no, could not ever return my feelings. I wanted my own mate. My own somebody who I could call my person. I wanted a mate who wanted me in return. Now that I understood that Tyler would never want me back, maybe it was time to try and find a chosen mate instead of my predetermined one.

Good fucking Goddess, enough. I have more important shit to worry about than my love life right now. Without looking back at Carter, I stalked out of the hospital and back towards the pack house.

It was time to get shit in order and that wasn't going to happen with me pouting like a kicked puppy. Mentally shaking myself off, I walked up the steps and threw the doors to the house open and down the hall to the Alpha's office.

There were protocols in place in the circumstance that something like this had happened. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever think that every single one of our leadership system would have been taken out, yet here we are.

Walking around the large, dark wood desk, I took a seat and pressed my thumb on the hidden fingerprint scanner that was located under the first drawer. A moment later the scanner beeped and a hidden drawer opened with a sigh. I grabbed the emergency documents giving the instructions of how I was supposed to proceed and read them over before putting them securely back in place and closed it up again.

Quietly I left the office, closing the door behind me and walked right back out of the house. Standing on the porch I took a deep breath. Alright, Sam. We can do this. Pulling Sheriff's energy forward of my consciousness, I tipped my head back and howled to the sky, a signal to every Silver-Thorne pack member that it was time.