No Longer Hidden {A Royal Wolves Story #3}

No Longer Hidden- Prologue

Prologue

I was tired as hell, but I wasn't stopping. Not yet. She needed me and I wasn't about to let her down. Not with our father dead by those bastards and me freshly made as Alpha. No... I just won't let that happen.

There were whimpers from behind me, but I just growled snapping my head behind me at those with me. I saw several shrink away but keep their pace. They all knew that I never mean to snap at them because they knew how worried I was for my sister. The last family I have in all the world.

Max came up beside me and jerked his head to the side. He was the best damn tracker on the western coast and in my pack. If anyone could find those bastards that took my sister, he could. It didn't help that he and my sister had a thing for each other. Too bad they weren't mates. That would have just made it that more perfect.

The thicket of trees suddenly thinned revealing a one room cottage. The windows were all black, but the scent of others were thick around it. Six wolves and one terrified female, my sister. They had brought her here. Whether they were still here with her or just left, I didn't know.

A few steps from the door, I shifted and the others fell into step behind me ready to charge. Max, who was staying wolf, was next to me ready to pounce on anyone who was on the other side near my sister. He was tense and ready to rip men apart no matter if they had touched her or not.

I flexed my shoulders before I opened the door. Like my boys, I was ready for anything that would be coming at us the instant we are inside. One last nod to them, I flew opened the door and charged in there head long with Max and the guys shortly behind me.

What greeted us was not what we had expected. The fight was ripped right out of me as I fell to my knees. My hands planted flat on the wooden floor as I stared directly into the eyes of my sister. Bile welled up in my gut looking into those sweet innocent honey eyes that had a few specks of hunter green flecks. Her hair wild as it fell toward the floor over the side of the bed.

Max was the only one who walked over to her just before he shifted kneeling next to her. Tears fell from his eyes as he picked her up gently and cradled her to his chest. Sobs tearing out of his chest as the agony took over. I was just froze where I was watching.

Soon his agony turned to rage as he looked her over. "They RAPED her!!!!" He roared as he ripped the bedding away from her in disgust. "They will pay for this!"

Several ran out and I could hear them in human form puking their guts out. I would too seeing my beloved sister here...dead. I was just too frozen to do anything.

My family... I had no one else. They were all gone. I had just mourned the death of my father and now...now my sister was gone. My little sister who had yet to shift. Had yet to make that change so she could have had a fighting chance. Gawd, she was just thirteen. Gone...she was gone now.

I was snapped out of it when I was pulled out of my stupor. Max's eyes blazed with rage that was on the edge of rogue. He was so close. "We're going after them. They need to pay for this."

My shoulders squared and resolve filtered into my being. Yes! They will pay. They had to pay for this. No one touches my pack like this and gets away with it.

In the old days, I had every right to march up to the King of us all and ask for the head of the wolf that did this. He'd ask who and would send out the royal guard to take the offender int o custody. If, when the King as in all his authority, the wolf confesses to the deed, then the King would allow me to take the wolf's head. It was my right as Alpha.

But we didn't have that. All royals were gone, though I still look for them. We needed balance. We needed someone above all to quell the lust for power. Now we had to seek vengeance on our own. Things were not so simple. The offender could get away, but we'll try to slay him.

I placed my hand on Max's shoulder. "We will do this together Brother but please do this my way. As Alpha, I ask you this."

His nostrils flared before he steeled himself and nodded. "You ARE my Alpha and I'd always follow your lead."

I looked out the window of the forest the we passed by as I recall the events that followed that night. Nothing went how it was supposed to. My sister's killer still lives. Max thankfully didn't turn rogue, though he had been on the edge. No, the only reason he hadn't was because he didn't want to dishonor my sister's memory.

My plan had been to seek vengeance through the Council of Nine. Good load that did. They had declared that my enemy had not done it because he was dying from a fatal wound he received during his failed take over of my pack. The same battle that I lost my father in.

Max had been positive that the disgraced Alpha had done it. Smelt that old wolf's scent all over my sister. But the Council had ignored his testimony. They said he was too close to my sister and could manipulate the evidence to his own thoughts. In the end, the Council of Nine had failed me. Failed us.

My sister was burned and Max told me he'd follow me forever so he would never be alone and rogue. He said that would disgrace my sister. Long ago my sister had told him that if he could follow anyone to the end of time, it would be me. My sister had faith in me and that's what keep Max by my side. Her endless faith in me. I made him my second.

"Alpha Roughe, we've arrive."

I nodded my head to my driver and looked to Max. "Let's see if Alpha Wilde was right about Nina Lunnen and her brother."

Max's face had the same empty expression it had at my sister's funeral pyre. "Let's."