A Rose Among Thorns- Book 2 in the Corvale Pack Series

Chapter 2

A Rose among Thorns

Chapter 2

“Welcome Alpha, to your new pack. I trust that you had a safe journey?” A man in his fifties asked, taking my jacket and hanging it in the cloakroom.

Did they all have something stuck up their ass forcing them to sound from the 18th century?” Uhh... yeah, I guess.”

“Your predecessor wishes to speak with you, If you’d follow me,” He gestured with his hand down a hallway to his right while two werewolves followed behind with my bags. It was eerily quiet here, no kids running around or moms trying to stop them. Nothing.

He opened one of the doors and held it open for me, before nodding towards the man sitting at the desk. Werewolves were supposed to live longer than humans, they aged one year for every two the humans do, so the current alpha was about seventy but looked only about thirty-five. Richard was one of dad’s friends who accepted the position of the new Beta when dad decided to stay in Italy with mum, this is the reason that I am now here. Apparently Drake cracked under pressure during an attack and passed the postition to him.

“Welcome to the Corvale pack, Darius.” He greeted, smiling at me.

Ugh, I hate my first name,” Don’t call me that, Joseph is fine.” I sat in front of his desk and looked out of the frost-covered window. No kids out there either.

“Your middle name?”

I nodded and gestured for him to continue.

“Alright, did your dad explain that you were to be alpha as soon as you arrived?” He leaned forwards on the desk so that he could see me better.

“Dunno, I wasn’t really listening. Look, do I really have to take the position? I’d rather be the next king than next alpha.” I moaned, scratching the back of my neck. King sounds a lot more important than just an alpha, I can see why dad is taking the position.

He surveyed me through his cheap-ass reading glasses,” Yes, your father wanted to keep it in the family. As tradition, the oldest son is chosen as alpha.”

“Doesn’t mean I want it.” I muttered.

“But you do know how to run the pack? The pack meetings, the groups hunts and such?”

“Yes.” I sighed, the alpha training school that dad sent me to for five years when I was twenty-seven finally made sense.

He rested back in his chair, it creaked slightly as he did,” Now, I suppose you’ve heard about our...problem?”

I shrugged. Again, I’m not really interested. I’ll just find a girl and when I have an heir, they can have it as next alpha, I don’t even care if it’s a girl, I'll just change the stupid tradition.

“A few months ago, three bodies were found drained of their blood in their beds. There was no sign of a struggle, no blood spilt on the sheets or anything to indicate that anything had happened until the bodies were found. Now we’re lucky if we don’t have an attack weekly.” He said, rubbing his face with his hands.

“Vampires?”

He nodded, ”That’s what it looks like, they’re bite marks either on the victim’s wrist, neck or the inside of the elbow. Whoever did this knows how to drain a human quickly.”

“You have no idea who it is? What have you done to try and stop the attacks?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me. Plus I think dad’s ‘leadership’ skills may be rubbing off on me.

“CCTV on every street, regular overnight patrols. Nothing. All we found was this,” He turned the monitor on his desk so that it faced me,” This was taken last Friday night on the outskirts of Corvale, the scene of the last killing.”

It had been snowing that day, as the thick blanket of snow almost reaches the bottom floor windows of the back roads of a row of houses. The time read 12:07 AM.

“Right here.” He pointed to the side of the house at the end of the street and the furthest from the camera. A black blur, too big to be a human, too small to be a wolf, climbed up the side and somehow managed to get the window open. He forwarded the tape, and the blur left the house ten minutes later.

“Could be a half-shifted wolf, they’re usually bigger than their human forms.” I suggested, vampires just weren’t that...big.

“It can’t be, no one here would do that to the pack. That’s another thing,” He slammed the remote of the monitor on his desk, ”It’s been attacking werewolves too.”

“Why? Drinking werewolf blood doesn’t satisfy vampires at all. It’s like drinking your own blood.” I said, none of this made any sense.

“I don’t know, but you’re alpha now, it’s your first assignment to find whatever is doing this and to stop them.” He said.

“I’m alpha now? Just like that?”

“Your wolf should’ve told you when I passed over the position, but your father told me that you’ve hadn’t heard him since that accident...”

“Okay, okay I get it! I don’t want anyone finding out about that okay?”

“As you wish, alpha,” He stood up, walked over to the study door, and opened it,” Bring her in.”

Her? Cool, a werewolf chick! I turned in my chair to see...two more werewolves bringing in a small kid that was tall enough to look about twelve. They wore a dark blue hoodie that hid most of their face, but I could see pale skin underneath.

“Alpha Joseph, this is Miss. Doomstalker,” He gestured to the girl.

Holy crap, where did they find a Doomstalker?! My mouth fell open in shock,” Something wrong, alpha?”

“Nah, just...cool name.” I stuttered. Richard frowned at me before continuing,

“Anyway, Miss. Doomstalker is the only other non-werewolf that is considered part of the pack. It would be a good idea if the two of you worked together on finding the vampire, and I suggest that you...feed from her.” He said, looking at the girl with loathing.

One of the drawers in the desk rattled and he growled before ripping it open and thrusting his hand inside. He then spun around and slammed his hand against the wall behind the desk and grabbed the dark shape there. His fingers wrapped around it, digging into the wall and the girl cried out in pain from across the room.

“She is also a little thief, it would do her good to work for you. She does nothing for us here.” He said, his eyes wide and unblinking as he somehow held the shadow against the wall.

Looking around the room, there was no one that could’ve cast it, none of the werewolves were that short and the girl was crouched on the ground in pain. It just didn’t make any sense.

He slowly released the shadow before walking over to me,” This is the source of her power. Without it, she is useless and weak. If she ever...misbehaves,” He glared at the girl again,” Take it from her.”

He dropped a silver necklace into my hand before leaving the room, and one of the two remaining wolves walked up to me. He looked around thirty five like the previous alpha did, and he had dark hair and blue eyes, and towered over my five-nine height easily.

“I am Drake, I was a good friend of your father’s, I’ll take you to the alpha house.” He said, before gesturing for me to follow him and the hooded girl out of the study, the other wolf glaring at her and she glaring at the necklace that swung on its chain in my clenched fist. The charm was made from a small ruby, with the chain forming a border around it. Nothing special compared the jewellery that my mother and my sisters wore, but probably worth a lot of money, maybe she stole it.

As I turned to look at the study a final time, I noticed the shadow had disappeared, and with it the marks that the alpha had left in the wall...

 What do you guys think? The more comments I get the faster I upload,

Blondie xxx