The Alphas' Human

Chapter Seven

Onyx
I was sitting down to eat when I saw everyone but Amoura exit the office with smiles plastered on their faces. Odd, the air seemed so tense just a moment ago. I waited to see if Syn was going to exit the office as I ate my food, but she didn't. I heard her and her dad having an intense conversation.
I didn't want to eavesdrop but I couldn't help it. My heart raced when I heard the name of the wolf she was supposed to marry, and that I had to meet him when she hadn't even told her pack about me. I wasn't a helpless human, but against a full grown alpha wolf I knew I didn't stand a chance if he was angry.
I wandered around the castle-like house trying to get familiar. Through a large door there were living quarters for the warriors who did not yet have families yet. They had another large training/weapons arena, larger than the main houses and without a vault. Each apartment-like dorm had names posted outside of who lived there. The hallways were vast and never ending so I appreciated the markers to keep track of where I was.
I made it to a large steel door which opened to many houses close by, at least 50 homes and many farms. I hadn't been to this part of the pack before, it was impressive. In the distance there was a school and a hospital, with people running around all over the place. There were large wolves on patrol watching everything going on.
The field to my left I watched as Clara was teaching the young teens how to use a bow. Some immediately took to it, but others still didn't understand how to hold it. I smiled remembering my first time practicing a bow. I was about 7 when my pa showed me how to hand carve it. It took weeks to finish without the proper tools. By the early fall it was complete, I practiced that whole winter on targets I put up myself. When summer rolled around I was able to hunt for myself and my pa. The wolves were definitely a big help before then.
"Hey casanova! Come down here, show me what you can do" Clara yelled at me, I was still standing in the doorway.
I came down the steps and walked towards them, the teens looking at me with huge eyes, some with fear, anger, or admiration maybe? I had never been around teenagers except for Ash when we were younger. They seemed highly volatile and unpredictable in all honesty.
"How can I be of service?" I smiled at her
"Atlas was needed, Amoura has an appointment with her doctor. She's a little uneasy right now with everything that happened" she whispered "Watch out, they're a bit upset about the curfew and feeling a bit rebellious"
"Curfew? Why?" I asked her
"Syn put it in place, it's to keep them safe" she eyed the group "but some don't want to listen. Next time you'll be dealing with alpha Syn, and we all know you don't want to test her patience"
"Who are you?" a kid about 14 asked, his voice trying to be threatening
"I'm Onyx, I'll be staying here for awhile" I responded, being polite
"Why?" another asked
"In due time you all will know, now get back to it, you know who's coming to watch. Do not disappoint her today" Clara threatened and they all went back to their bow practice. "They mean no harm, I think"
"I'd hope not, are they all wolves?" Some seemed a bit more animalistic than the others.
"Any above the age of thirteen are, that's the age most shift for the first time" her eyes didn't leave the group.
"What do you want me to help with?" I noticed another young girl struggling with hand placement on the weapon.
"Don't think I didn't notice, you don't hide that bow very well." she teased "Since Atlas is preoccupied, and you're here do you mind helping some of the students? There's a few that haven't done this before"
"Um, sure? I supposed that'll be okay. Will Syn be okay with this?" Pride surged through me, I found a way to help out here.
"She'll be fine, if not she can take it up with me and the fact her beta left me alone with 16 teenagers."
I laughed at her disgust and walked up to the young girl that had been struggling. I watched as her brow furrowed in frustration. The students next to her were already hitting the targets, almost dead center. She had missed every target since I got here and I felt her pain. When I first learned I couldn't hit a single target and began to hate my bow and my pa for forcing me into learning how to shoot when I could have just used a spear instead.
"Hey, can I show you how to hold it?" I accidentally startled her and she yelped "Oh shoot I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you"
"You're fine, she's just dramatic" said another girl as she tossed her hair over her shoulder and winked at me.
"I'm really not, how can you help me? You're a human." the girl snarled and took a few steps away from me.
"Hand me the bow, and those arrows" I waited for her to hand them over.
I took them from her and a group of students watched as I analyzed the targets and hit every single one, dead center. Their jaws dropped and a few of them cheered at me showing off my skills.
"Does that answer your question?" I smirked at my little performance.
"How did you do that? My name is Jane" the girl immediately stopped being standoffish.
"Practice, lots of practice" I beamed, my pa would be proud to see me now. "Now let me help you. Your hands are in the wrong place entirely, you have no control holding it that way."
I spent time with a lot of the students, learning their names and ages. Jane turned out to be fourteen, newly shifted and considered a late bloomer. The blonde that called her dramatic was named Isa, they were in the same grade. I learned that they had class from 9am to 2pm and training here right after. The kids did their training in the morning, everyone started at age five.
"Ah there you are! I couldn't find you, I see Clara dragged you into training the teens?" Syn seemed amused. "Did she bribe you?"
All the students left bowed their heads to her and said hello, she bowed back at them looking extremely proud of them.
I shook my head and smiled at her, gosh she was beautiful. Her hair was thrown up in a loose ponytail, and she had light make up making her eyes pop more. She had a gray tank top and spandex shorts on, she was effortlessly perfect.
"No I did not! Your beta left me to my own devices, and he was wandering around bored" Clara defended herself crossing her arms and huffing at Syn who was more than amused at this.
"So I've been told. He said that he's taking the adults class this evening so you're free to do what you please" She smiled at her "Now you, what were you doing over here?"
"You were busy so I decided to explore a little, your warrior quarters are quite intricate. I enjoyed helping here though, it gave me something to do" they both seemed pleased with my answer.
"I apologize, my dad and I were working on some stuff. He may have let me be alpha but the man still can't just retire" she rolled her eyes "It's fairly common for past alphas to help out the new alpha, in my case since I'm a female alpha it can be a bit complicated. The males don't respect me as much as they should and they doubt my ability to lead my people."
I cocked my head, trying to figure out her explanation for her dad helping her. From what I had seen so far she was a good leader and she deserved respect from other alphas. Her pack seemed happy and had what they needed to thrive.
My pa used to tell me that women are what kept the world going, taught me to respect them and the fact other alphas didn't sent a surge of irritation up my spine. She did not deserve that disrespect and I wanted to defend her no matter what.
The students were waiting for Syn to watch them shoot their bows, some growing impatient with our conversation. Jane had told me they were going to go to some lake on the property for a "party", but she didn't want to go though. She soured when I asked her why, and I didn't like that.
"Alright here's how it'll go, I want to watch each of you shoot individually and wait for everyone else to be done. Then you will be released for the day, I expect you all to listen to my curfew. Be home by 9pm, and do not be outside alone." Syns voice had an edge to it.
"Now that's an alpha order if I ever did see one" Clara giggled
"What's that?" I asked her while we were sitting on the grass a few yards away from them all now.
"Essentially it's a command that their wolves can't disobey. She tries not to use it very often. Most of the time the wolves in the pack will listen to her, the teens here are a different story." she explained "They're full of hormones on top of rebellion and learning how to control their wolves. It can be a lot"
"Did you learn this all from your brother?" I asked her "or did you learn it from being here?"
"A bit of both, I love being able to help them with the transition. I saw how hard it was for him and I didn't want that for anyone else. They need patience and understanding, but if they keep pushing Syn it won't be pretty." Clara shook her head in disappointment.
"Makes sense, they were talking about a party tonight though" I fessed up
"Ah yeah, we know. They aren't that sneaky, Ezra and Ryder are going to sit and watch them, and ensure they don't fight the alpha command" she mused at the thought of her mate.
"That'll be fun to watch I'm sure" I rolled my eyes, I could not do that
Syn
Davina growled at the thought of her pack not listening to her, she forced out the alpha command. I choose to not abuse it, it leads to fear. My members do not need to fear me, they just need to respect me and my position. These teens are no exception, Davina knows this.
I loved seeing Onyx work with Clara and the kids. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy training them. The one girl, Jane, seemed to take a liking to him and accepted his help with ease. It was just her and her brother now, and he was gone a lot being a highly ranked warrior at 25. He worked right under Ezra and he was a good stable wolf. Jane had improved immensely with my mates help and I was proud of her, her brother will be proud to hear about this.
I watched them each shoot their bows and released them for the day, they scrambled to leave excited for this party. The same party my 3rd and 4th in command were going to supervise. I couldn't wait to hear their whining about how the kids are and what happened, like they weren't teenagers before doing the same thing. Except for us four, our dads ripped our heads off and we spent months doing grunt work and extra training.
My father and I had spent a lot of time speaking with Bane, trying to see if there were any similarities between any kidnappings. We found that they happen at the same time, shift changes. When a pack is most vulnerable, I explained what we had started to do and he was going to speak to his beta about it. They have had three wolves taken so far, and they have 12 of ours.
I purposely tried to leave out the daylight demons, I didn't want to cause any alarm. He brought up the fact they had tagged 5 of his trees, reluctantly I brought up what happened here. He was shocked about how they got to Amoura, I knew she shouldn't have gone. In my defense she had not let us know she was pregnant.
He brought up the wedding being canceled, internally I groaned. I didn't want to reveal who Onyx was just yet. It was going to be awkward when he makes it here next week. Especially since Onyx was irritated with how I was engaged to him. We were pushing up the pact, in order to keep both of our people safe. Since we both were being obviously targeted.
Clara took Onyx for a longer tour of the grounds, while I shifted and went to check on patrols. Second shift was about to come on and I wanted to make sure it went smoothly. I ran into Ezra on my way there, his wolf was on high alert, and the scent smelled off.
"What's going on?" I linked him
"I don't know, it smells weird right? The wolf on patrol here sent me to come here." he linked back
I cocked my head and sniffed the air, Davina growled and startled the black wolf coming towards us. He looked almost as big as Davina did when we were younger, his red eyes stuck out to me. I had never seen another wolf with red eyes like mine, that glowed that intensely.
"Who is that?" I linked, a bit startled.
"I don't know, they smell odd though. Like a hospital maybe? I don't know if it is one that does not smell like ours." He shot back, going closer to the wolf.
He shifted back and commanded the wolf to shift, Davina came closer to him and snarled. They looked taken aback by our size, typical. Even though he might be my size once he was full grown, I scared him. They reluctantly shifted back and was a young boy, about fourteen, a child. How did he get here?
"Who are you? Why are you here? How did you get here?" Ezra growled, which made the boy flinch.
Davina sat down, and sniffed him, concluding that the odd smell was coming from him. The smell burned her nostrils, making her sneeze. She immediately felt his fear and anxiety, like a storm cloud surrounding him. We saw it like he was on a small ship, in the middle of the ocean during a hurricane. Ready to capsize at any moment with the rough waters.
"Stop growling, he's scared" I linked Ezra, he gave a curt nod and waited for the boy to respond.
"My name is Orsan, I think. Where am I?" the boy cowardly stepped back
"This is the River Lotus Pack, my name is Ezra. This is Davina, the alpha" Ezra's voice softened "Which pack are you from?"
"I don't remember, all I remember was this lady letting me out of the dark room and telling me to run" Orsan started crying and fell to the ground, his sadness radiating off of him.
I shifted back and stepped in front of Ezra, the closer I got the more wounds I could see. I looked for the daylight demon branding and couldn't see one, interesting.
"How old are you?" I asked him gently
"I'm fourteen, I think, maybe?" he stammered "I don't remember anything!"
"It's okay, you're safe now Orsan. Would you like to come with me? I can have my doctor check you over, get you cleaned up, and get you some food" I eyed his torso and could see every single rib on his frail form.
"I would like that very much. Can you help me remember?" He slowly stood up and we motioned for him to follow.
"We will try" Ezra pulled himself out of his shock "Would you like to shift back or get a ride back?"
"I think I can run myself, how far is it?" Orson cocked his head and eyed me and Ezra closely. He was looking for any sudden movements.
"It's not too far, but our packlands are vast" Ezra stated smugly, proud that he was one of the wolves protecting our pack.
"Okay I can do it, I will definitely need that food after this though" He smiled shyly.
We all shifted back and I alerted my council and Dr. Harrison. Ryder, Val, Alice, and my father were on their way to the hospital. We were going to meet in a clinic office while the boy was checked over. I had a hunch he was from either the daylight demons or the vampires were back to tormenting our children to see if they lose their wolves.
It was a problem when I first became alpha, many wolves would stumble here after being tortured so much they either lost their wolves, or they disappeared for awhile. They would never remember anything, sometimes their name or age but never where they were from or intimate details. Many vampire clans were caught doing these "experiments", Otr and his tribe was one of the main reasons we found out.
They had been flying over what's considered no mans' land and saw multiple camps, with wolves being tortured and instantly alerted many of the alphas' left. This time around with wolves going missing we ruled out them doing so again, the way our wolves were going missing was a bit too strategic. Before the vampires were sloppy, we knew it had been them.
By the time we made it to the hospital Davina started whining, missing Onyx and wanting to see him again. I promised her she could go and say hi once we were done here and that he was just a friend. She huffed at the word friend, annoyed with the petty human things.
"Hello again Dr, I have someone I want you to meet" I smiled at her and she peered behind me, eyeing Orson.
"Who might you be, child?" her presence welcoming him.
"My names' Orson" He started hiding further behind me, I could still sense his anxiety.
Feeling others emotion was something I had grown used to doing, it tended to be sporadic. It started happening when I first shifted, but only with strong emotions. I couldn't exactly control it yet, and it surprised me that I never really felt Onyx's.
"Why don't you come with me dear? I just want to check you over" She extended her hand out to him and he looked terrified.
"Can she um come with me? She makes me feel safer" His voice broke, showing his fear.
"Yes she can, if you want her to. I'm not going to hurt you" Dr. Harrison led us to an exam room, while the others waited in the office.
After her initial exam, proving dehydration, blood loss, malnourishment, and severe abuse she started to ask him questions. He was shy about some questions, he didn't remember where he was or how he got here other than he ran. A lady with short red hair and gray eyes let him out. He didn't know what she was though, I racked my brain trying to think of who it could be. Did I know her? She grabbed a blood sample kit and he instantly grabbed my hand and shook.
"What's wrong pup?" I asked him, squeezing his hand back trying to keep him grounded.
"They took blood from me. It was the only time I could eat, if we didn't have food or water the veins weren't good" He squeezed my hand "I could never forget that part"
I nodded at him, trying to remain calm for his sake. Rage boiled in my body for what they, whoever they are, are doing to my species. Whoever it is will pay for this, blood for blood. If it was the vampires again I will happily let Davina rip them all to shreds.
Once they were finished one of the nurse aids offered to help him get clean and change into different clothes. They grabbed him some sweatpants and a white shirt to let the wounds breathe. Once I knew he was okay with the young girl I left to find the others.
"How was it? Any markings?" Ryder abruptly asked
"No markings, I don't understand. If it was them we would know this time!" I shouted in frustration.
"You think that, what if they have gotten better at hiding? Or do they have others working with them?" Val spoke with urgency
"How would any of them get past your security then? Or Alice's security? Alice, does he have an aura?" I looked at her and waited for her response, he didn't smell like it.
To wolves magic smells sweet, sickly sweet. When we went to see Onyx for the first time it was all Atlas could complain about. Especially when I came back from the first time seeing Onyx. He threw up for an hour after it, sensitive wolf. Orson did not smell that way to any of us. Alice could know who's magic had been used on him, if any.
"No, he does not, red eyes. Meaning if they are working together like Val suggested they aren't using them on the subjects." She rocked nervously, back and forth, back and forth.
"Hm. Odd, why wouldn't they?" Ryder asked, curiously
"They must have known there was going to be a breach maybe? Or for their own security. If they have witches they know the way it is, I will be able to tell who's coven the magic is from. Each has its own signature like I've said." Alice seemed disappointed that she couldn't help. "Onyx mentioned that witch, Ash, having the symbol branding. I'm going to talk to him."
"It's alright Alice, don't be hard on yourself. The boy might not know much about her and her family. She may not even know, they try to keep the youth out of their affairs." my dad kissed her temple and looked at me "Why does he like you so much?"
"Someone's best friend" I glared at Ryder "scared the poor thing into crying causing him to fall to the ground shaking. I could feel his fear"
"Hey! It's not my fault Ezra's a hard ass!" Ryder defended himself "Ezra can be quite terrifying even for a warrior. Where did he even go? Leaving me to be reprimanded for his actions as always."
Ryder rolled his eyes and threw his hands up "I will be getting him back for this one. I didn't even scare the poor kid and here you are getting onto me"
"And that's why he's my delta and not you. He went back to patrolling, trying to see if there's others." I rolled my eyes at his antics "Like dad said Alice, it's alright. It just makes me wonder why they'd be using them then if they are"
"That's what we need to find out, I'll need to borrow Amoura though" she groaned thinking about dealing with Atlas being overprotective of his mate.
"He's busy tonight, he left Clara and my mate to deal with the teens earlier. Just make sure she doesn't overdo it please. Let him know you'll be with her, it'll chill him out" I gave her a hopeful look.
"Oh goody, the beta left the male luna with my mate. The humans are bonding!" Ryder joked as Dr. Harrison knocked on the door and came in.
"Anything off?" my dad asked her
"Just the typical when wolves come out of these things, malnutrition, dehydration, blood loss. However there was no daylight demons branding, and there was wolfsbane in his system. Enough to make a typical wolf lose their wolf gene." she looked at me "Syn he's related to you, from this test he might be your cousin."
"My what? Dad! You're an only child!" I yelled at him, furious
"Oh Syn, my love. They aren't a match, I had the lab test against everyone's samples we had here, including your mothers." she came closer to me and grabbed my hands "he has hers and your blood in his veins"
"How is this possible?" My voice was too shaky for my liking "Dad?" I pushed.
"I need to do some more testing, to make sure it's one hundred percent true. As of now there's a high possibility he's related to you" Her features immediately hardened, looking between my dad and me.
"It's not something we need to discuss right now. Later Syn" His tone was threatening.
"What do you mean not now? You didn't think I needed to know this?" I yelled at him. "I think now is a damn good time to talk about it! I have family other than YOU? You lied to me god dammit!"
"God dammit Syn, leave it alone!" He grabbed Alice's hand and stormed out of the office.
Dr. Harrison stood there stunned and shook her head, like she knew something I for one didn't. Everyone else seemed more on edge the longer we sat there.
She was the first person I told about my "gift" as she called it. There was nothing wrong with me. My wolf was just more intune with the world around me, sensitive to more than just heightened smell and hearing. Davina was destined for more than just being an alpha, Alice had always said that.
"If I find out any one of you knows what he's talking about, you're leaving the pack. I do not need those I cannot trust in MY council." I growled at them and left to clear my head.
Davina took over and we decided we weren't going home tonight. Time to go visit my best friend. Shutting off the link I headed that way, I needed to clear my head. Leaving Onyx physically hurt as I snuck through my own patrol, it was harder than it used to be. Davina, despite our size, knew exactly how to throw off newer guards and sneak right through them. As I went further the ache set in, my wolf missed her mate. Typical wolf, we're free right now.

*AN* I apologize for a cliffhanger, as a reader I hate them too! It's worth it though, at least to me.

I want to thank everyone for reading thus far! I am working on an update schedule, as you may have seen I do work in healthcare so my job can be demanding! Depending on how much I write tonight expect an update this weekend!
What do we think Davina is? Is Orson truly her cousin?
With love, Nicc