BETA LANCASTER

PART 2 - THE ALPHA OF THE LOTUS MOON PACK

TAYLOR

9 Months after the first shift

(Taylor - age 12 / Kit - age 16/ Jenson - age 8)

"Taylor, Taylor can you hear me? What the fuck have they done to you." Kit growls as my body is pulled from the cold water and I feel something warm being throw around my shoulders.

My wrists are sore and bleeding from where I've been handcuffed to the tin bath to keep me submerged under the iced water. Shaking uncontrollably, I can see that my skin is blue from being so cold for so long, the only warmth now comes from my big brother who's cradling me to his chest as I hear his chest rumbling from his wolf's anger.

"Tay, I'm sorry. I didn't know they were doing this. I swear. I'm so sorry." Kits voice breaks. "They told me you'd be sent away to a medical institution."

The large steel doors to the basement of our pack house suddenly swings open and I feel myself shrinking back into my brothers' arms.

"Kit, why are you out of bed? Step away from him. He's dangerous." Scolds my mother as I hold onto Kit tightly desperate for him not to leave me here in the medical unit my parents had built under our home especially for me.

It's been so long since I've seen my brother, I was scared I'd never see him again.

"How could you do this to him, he's your son!" Roars Kit.

"It's because he is our son, he is receiving the very best treatment for his... condition." Snaps my father back, his voice thick with disgust.

"Is this a joke! What you are doing to him is torture. You can't cure a category three wolf. He needs time and understanding, not this. Not fucking this!" Yells Kit as I finally manage to look up at him and see his eyes flaming gold whilst he looks around my room in horror.

The first month after I shifted my parents locked me in my bedroom and I barely saw anyone but the warrior guard who'd deliver my food. Even my brothers were kept away from me. I was segregated. Alone. Leaving me to keep replaying that night again and again in my head, driving myself to the verge of madness and despair. At night, my dreams were always of Ella, her chestnut ringlet hair and light amber eyes... the look on her face of total and all-consuming fear when my wolf torn into her delicate skin and shook her around like a rag doll... of what I did to her...

My uncle was the only person from my family allowed to visit on my father's orders. It's only then did I fully understand what was happening to me and what I was.

That I'm a three.

A category three wolf is the most dangerous and volatile type of wolf there is. Feared and often pushed out of pack, a category three often becomes a lone wolf. Shunned and hated. Uncontrollable and wild. The future for a three is bleak, after all who would ever take such a wolf as a mate, let alone find an alpha who'd house such a beast on their lands.

Most pack wolves are category two, strong but obedient to their Alpha. Whereas Omega's are category one, their wolf deemed too weak to be given a role or rank in a pack that's higher than that of servitude. I've always hated the wolf category system, flawed, and outdated. To be defined in such a way, it's so black and white, no room for compromise. That's your ticket for life.

After a month passed, heelers started to come to my bedroom looking me over like I was a disease, a poison that they were hired by my parents to stamp out. At first their medical tests and treatments were painless, but it didn't take long before the Alpha and the Luna of the Lotus Moon pack to get frustrated and demand for results.

The first time they used electroshock therapy on me, I bit almost all the way through the rubber mouth guard with my wolf fangs from the pain. As time went on, my wolf tried to fight back. But regardless of what the healers were putting me through, my body was quickly developing muscles and growing in both height, weight and power at an accelerated rate.

Sometimes I'd attack them, but whenever I did, my treatments would just get more intense and painful until finally the healers discovered that if they plunged me into ice baths after frying my brain it would stop my wolf from recovering so quickly. I've no idea how long they've been doing this to me. Days have blurred, months have blurred. It's hard to even remember my life before my first shift. All I know is that I lost everything good in my life that night.

"We don't expect you to understand but this is necessary for the sake of the pack. We are stamping out his violent outburst before they begin. Re-training his mind and body. No one can know of this... the shame he has brought to our family." My mother's cold voice sends a shiver down my spine.

"Your monsters." Kit whispers but I can feel his body trembling with anger.

"The only monster in this family is the one in your arms. If he can't change, he'll be exiled to live the life of a rogue. A filthy stain on our family's history." My father spits.

"That's not going to happen." Kit whispers before he holds my close for a moment before lying me back on the cold floor before getting up slowly as I try and reach out for him blindly not wanting him to leave me.

"Kit." I splutter out in panic.

"Look away Taylor." Kit says back to me gently as I frown not understanding him.

I suddenly jolt with fear when I hear my brothers wolf snarling and roaring so loud, I swear it could shake the very foundations of the pack house. I shrink back against the wall as I try and focus on the room around me, but everything blurred without my glasses.

"Christian. Calm down and shift back. Christian!" Yells my father but I can hear the fear in his tone. 

My father might be the Alpha, but Kit has always been advanced and strong for his age and right now he can't be calmed and for the first time in months a small smile twitches on my lips.

With my cheek pressed against the cold stone floor, I scrunch up my eyes and watch as best I can as Kit attacks our parents bringing down the pack leaders. At the age of sixteen, he reigns down all his fury on them and I can do nothing but watch on as the room fills with screams.

------------------------

"Nobody can know of this." My uncle Merrick says as he paces up and down my father's office.

Myself, Kit and Jenson are all sat together on my father's long leather sofa as we watch the Gamma of the pack run a hand over his face. The huge grandfather clock at the far end of the office chimes three o'clock in the morning as I side glance my brothers. Both of them are dressed in bed clothes, the only difference is that Jenson has tears running down his face after he was pulled from his bed and told our parents are dead whereas Kit sits covered in their blood splatters looking sternly at my uncle with his arms crossed over.

"We'll blame their deaths on rogues, a home invasion. What happened tonight stays with the four of us. Do-you-understand." Barks my uncle as I see him rub his hand over is neck just as my brother Kit stands up slowly and levels him a stare.

"Agreed." Kit says firmly before he walks around my father desk and sits down in the large chair as his golden eyes flash.

With my parents blood still stained on his skin, there's no two ways about it, my brother looks terrifying.

He looks like an alpha.

Jenson and I exchange glances before we look back to Kit as does my uncle that's frowning at Christian.

"But let me make myself clear." Kit says quietly but full of authority to my uncle. "I am in charge now. You will take orders from me and not the other way around."

My uncle's wolf eyes glow, he looks as if he's about to say something but is cut off by Kit. "What's more, my brothers will continue with their training. Jenson will be my Gamma and Taylor will be my second, the Beta to this pack.

"Kit, you can't..."

"Alpha Christian." My brother corrects our uncle who looks ready to burst with anger.

"Alpha Christian, with all due respect... Taylor cannot be your Beta... A category three wolf has never taken a rank."

Kit gets to his feet, his eyes blazing gold as he looks down his nose at my uncle. "Taylor will be my second. I will have none other than my brothers at my side. Make it happen."