His Wolf

fifty-six

Blood darkened the red paint of the door. It snaked down its face, creeping toward the ground, but the stone behind the paint never changed.

Lucy pressed her hand harder against the surface, smearing her blood against the door. We all waited. Waited for the entrance to reveal itself, for our wild hope to be rewarded.

Yet nothing happened.

"Why isn't it working?" I asked, eyes stuck on the painting, "Why is it not working!" I turned to Cota, who was wringing her hands and bitting her bottom lip.

"I-I don't know." She stuttered nervously, well aware of the eyes that have turned to her. The predatory gaze of a mother who longed for her child. The determined eyes of a king missing his princess and all the eyes of his subjects.

Not to mention the eyes of an alpha who smelled of desperation.

whose eyes flickered to his wolfs.

Agitation clashed with that desperation. I slammed my fist against the concrete. Lucy had stepped back, pressing a cloth to her cut hand, and was watching as her brother bashed his fist against that blasted door. Over and over.

I felt my knuckles shift. I felt them grind against each other, and my skin split. The bones cracked as they met the wall, and they splintered as blood splattered.

I heard my name being called, but it sounded so far away.

Pieces of the stone began falling away, stone that was tiedyed red and crimson. I felt my skin becoming tight, and my wolf pushed forward. He wanted to release his own rage.

I was about to let him go, let him tear his way through the concrete, when a force knocked me to the ground.

My vison came back, something I hadn't even realized I had lost control of. The feel of the cold dirt combated with the heat that raged in my bones.

My eyes focused on Ben, who was standing above me.

My wolf snalred.

I felt him lunged us forward, getting to his feet before knocking his beta to the ground.

Ben, to his credit, didn't take it personally and was quick to tilt his head to the side. Submitting to his alpha and confusing my wolf at such a quick fight.

I took the opportunity and pushed him back. Even as my eyes cleared, Ben kept his throat exposed.

I breathed heavily, fighting back the emotions before shoving myself back to my feet and offering a hand to my Beta. He clashed his hand in mine and stood.

"I'm sorry, Alpha, but -"

I waved him off, "No. Don't apologize, Ben, you were just doing your job. Not only as my beta but also as my friend."

I looked around the group. Tolvard looked as if he was ready to step in if Ben hadn't. His body tense, feet separated out and back slightly bent.

Amory hadn't moved. Her hand was still hanging at her sides, and her eyes looked the same as always. But they weren't. Those cold, cunning, wild, indifferent eyes held something else. For just a moment, they showed me something. but before I could figure it out, I felt a hand grab my own, flaring pain shooting through my bones. I looked up and saw Kara, her eyes glancing over at Lucy.

My little sister, who I thought would have cowered at the show of violence, was standing at the door, not paying me any mind.

She watched as my blood began to soak into red chiped paint.

"What -" There was a loud cracking sound, followed by another, and the door shifted, sinking into the ground.

I looked at the others, but they looked at me, just as confused.

My knuckles pulsed with pain with each inch that gave way to darkness.

Lucy backed away as I came forward. We stopped beside each other, and I looked down at her as she looked up at me.

"Austin..." Her voice shook. Her eyes darted between my own, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. "What the actual, hell?"

I had no idea.

I looked at her, our confused eyes met and I saw hurt in those grey eyes.

"Austin -"

"No, no, there has to be another reason. I'm Alpha, I have alpha blood. Maybe that was enough." There was no other option.

I looked behind me at the others. Tolvard stepped forward, followed by his wife and other lycans.

Kara was by Lucy's side as Ben squeezed his mates' shoulders from behind.

Cota shuffled on her feet. Unsure. Scared.

"You don't have to come," her eyes darted to me, "you've done enough, been through enough. You can stay here, or go back to the pack house."

She hesitated. Eyes shifting as just as much as her feet.

Amory gave Tolvards hand a squeeze, "Bring our pup home." She let go and walked back to Cota, who was wringing her hands.

The lycan queen took them in her own.

"I will stay with you."

The witch calmed slightly, "but your daughter -"

"Will be safely returned home by her father and mate." The confidence that her voice and words instilled in me straightened my spine with steel. I knew by looking at Tolvard that it had the same effect on him....plus some.

He walked to her and cuped her face, "When we return, I will expect a thank you." His grin was large and suggesting. His wife smacked his hands away with a small gleam in her eye.

"Then you better hurry."

He grinned and gave her a loving kiss before pulling away and rejoing me.

"I feel like I just watched something I shouldn't have." Ben muttered to me

I agreed.

The entrance of the door was dark, with no light to see what laid beyond, a cold draft gliding across my skin.

One of the lycans pulled out his phone, Turing on a flash light.

The others gave him a look.

"What? I'm not a cavman like the rest of you."

Lucy pulled out her phone, and I followed suit with Kara and Ben.

The combined light showed the vast expanse of the tunnel. Three wolfs wide, the celling high enough that the top of my head would clear it by a few inches. Ben, at six five, would have to stoop some.

The first step into the cave revealed the floor to be slick.

"Carefull, it's slick." The message was fed down the line.

I'm not sure how long we walked, how many turned made how many hills we went up and down. Our shadows danced in the light of our phones, causing me eye to swim and head to pound.

But eventually, we began to hear it.

The sound of cheers.

But it came from a dead in.

"Use your blood. Maybe it's another door." Ben suggested.

I took my bloody knucks and smeared it into the cold stone.

It groaned, and with every shift of the passage, my heart moved with it.

Alpha blood. Had to be.

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I'm alive! Suprise!

God Bless you 🙏