The Alpha Shifter

Chapter 4 - Leo

"Are you well enough to lead us back to the bodies of our fallen family?"

I questioned Grant as he lay in the hospital cot, appearing to be fine, but wishing to stay because of the special treatment he has been receiving because of his "great and heroic battle of the shifters" as the pack has now been calling it.

"Yes Alpha." Grant nodded smugly.

"Don't act so high and mighty now pup, you went against my orders and that will not be taken lightly." I reply back with great force.

How he thought it was okay to hunt down a young child with the means to kill it was beyond me. How could one think like that? With a shake of my head I walked out of the room, knowing that if I looked at his egoistic face for a second longer I would have shredded it with my own claws. I had to be careful when dealing with him. He seems to have formed a little posse of followers who thought highly of him and his actions.

Tess, can you round up 5 wolves to join in the retrieval of the dead pack members?

While mind linking Tess, I ran up the wooden stairs into my room gathering another pair of clothing to stash into the woods for when I shifted back, and Just as fast ran back down.

Sure think chicken wing.

I let out a slight chuckle at Tess' choice of words, and went into the backyard to await the pack members who would be joining me. After a few seconds of waiting I had 5 other pack members, as well as Grant waiting to hear my orders.

"Listen, and listen well. This is a simple retrieval of the dead. No messing around. You must be respectful. We will be passing into unknown shifter territory so I want everyones eyes sharp. I do not want anymore mishaps. You follow my orders and only my orders. Understand?"

After gaining no response I growled deep in my throat, eyes hardening.

"I said, do you understand?!" With a sharp pointed look in Grants direction, he and the others finally submitted and muttered a "yes Alpha".

I really hated abusing my Alpha power like that, I wanted people to follow what I said because they thought it was the right thing to do, not because I emitted fear into them, forcing them to submit to my orders. My concern only grew more when I realised the other members awaited for Grant to submit first, before they themselves did. Almost like they were following his orders rather then my own. I'll need to keep a close eye on Grant, before something goes too far, and someone gets hurt.

"I want two ahead, and I want two behind, Grant, you'll be leading us there. So you'll be at the front with me. The rest of you fall back and survey the area, if anything alarming pops up notify me straight away. Lets go."

With that being said we all broke off into a slight jog until we reached the tree line, and in perfect sync we all broke out into our strong wolf forms. I grew anxious as I noticed that Grant and myself seemed to be of an equal size in wolf form. Typically the Alpha of the pack was bigger, being able to have more power to protect the entire pack. It was strange to see how he had grown to almost match my size. Unless of course he had dormant Alpha blood that has now been awakened due to his mini power surge and followers he has somehow obtained.

Shaking the thoughts off, I focused on the task ahead. I sped up, stretching my long legs, preparing to leap over a fallen tree and sticking the landing with ease. One of my favourite things to do was to race through the forest to see how fast I could go, always trying to challenge myself and get better.

Before I knew it Grant was slowing down, signalling we had arrived. Anxiety started to build inside me. It only took us ten minutes to reach the shifter territory. How were they this close to the pack house, and stayed under cover and unseen for this long? How was I, the Alpha meant to keep my pack safe, when the enemy was so close? A million and one thoughts started racing through my head, while my chest tightened and I found it hard to breath. I needed to focus, I couldn't have an anxiety attack now. I cannot show weakness.

Pausing just before the clearing where I could see the dead bodies of the pack members, I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on my breathing. Trying to calm it down, before it got too erratic and my chest started tightening like it usually does.

After a few long seconds I was able to gain control over my body once again, and walked towards the first body. My heart tightened when I saw it was indeed one of Peggy's boys. With a sharp intake of breath, I looked at the body next to his, to see it was his twin brother. Both of Peggy's sons had been killed due to Grants actions. Casting a harsh glare in his direction I was startled by a high pitched shriek. Looking up alarmed I spotted what looked like a hawk circling the small clearing we were in. Did shifters come in bird form?

Knowing we were being watched I quickly shifted back to human form and called over the other wolves. Carefully I lifted up my dead pack members and secured them on the back of the other wolves. Once all three bodies were loaded on the back of another wolf, I signalled for them to set off towards the pack house. I however, did not set off after them, I needed to scope the area and find out how I had failed to notice the shifters living so close to us.

A sound to my left made me realise that Grant had stayed back too. "This is your doing." I growled harshly. He looked like he was about to say something, but I cut him off before he could. "Leave now, before I snap your neck. I can't even look at you." While saying that, I stalked towards him, my hands itchy to grab ahold of him and strangle him. He had lead three of my family members to die. This was all his fault. My eyes starting to blur, and all I could see was him. He failed to move, and just smirked at me, as if baiting me. Wanting me to attack him. My claws started to elongate and my teeth sharpened, readying to attack him. With a low grunt I leapt at him, just has he shifted and ran off, back towards the pack house.

Once he was out of sight I slumped to the ground, breathing heavily, eyes still blurred. I hated not having control over myself, I needed to learn to control my temper and stop getting anxious over every little thing. I was a strong and powerful Alpha, I could not show weakness.

After sitting in the damp grass for a while I regained control. Cracking my neck I stood up, back muscles tightening and looked around the area.

It was a small clearing, nothing to signal it was close to a shifters hide out. Trying to gain a sense of direction, I walked slowly away from pack territory and towards the more dense woodland. Hoping to find where the shifters lived. As I was about to step out of the clearing I heard a loud flapping of wings come racing towards me. Startled I jumped back and sharply turned around, just in time to see that the hawk from earlier was flying straight for me. Frozen in shock I couldn't move.

In a matter of seconds the hawk had come and gone. Leaving my face throbbing where its talons had scraped my skin. Blood was running down my face, into my mouth and eyes. Without waiting for a second attack I shifted and raced towards the pack house at a much faster rate that I thought possible.

Alexander, Tess. Meet me in my room as soon as possible. Something's wrong.