Capture (Book 1 in the Wolfen Brethren Series)

Burnt Humanity

This has been edited but there may still be mistakes.

The wolves returned from their hunt nearly a week later, the ceremony had been postponed until they returned allowing more people to enter the compound. On their return they came with hundreds of humans, women, men and children all clustered together in the same courtyard that Neema had met her fate in. She refused to witness their unjust punishment though she knew they had suffered whether she was there or not.

There would be more navy clad human bodies wondering around the compound just as there would be more forced mating's and separations of marriages. Unofficial challenges had already begun and more than 30 humans had found themselves at the infirmary with severe wounds other than the lashes that had barley begun healing on their backs. Emmaline had been occupied for the past 3 moons healing and consoling the weak and broken hearted.

It was a harsh reality but there was nothing Neema could do. Even with her improved relationship with Khan he remained reluctant to change what they had always known to be right. She tried to remain out of the situation but it was hard to sit by and watch people being treated this way when a month ago she was that woman begging for help. Crying, pleading for anybody to help her. It was hard to remain silent when all she wanted to do was raise her fists at the injustice her people were subjected to but she had no place discussing such manners.

If she hadn't been told so, the navy blue of her jumpsuit would have told her. She wasn't one of them, she was not part of the pack and so her voice needed to be quelled.

Around her friends and Khan, she could voice these opinions but they were raised under the rules of the Brethren, they could see no injustice and so she said nothing. Wolf politics was a touchy subject and any mention of it to Khan was quickly swatted a way like an annoying fly. He did not want to break their truce with what was clearly opposing political views. Khan supported the cause, how could he not when the whipping post was how he found his mate.

Their political views remained separate but their lives did not, they were slowly moulding together. Lunches together, night caps together, time together. It brought them closer. A friendship was forming, one that was a little strange and perhaps unconventional but it worked for them. Khan got his intimacy and Neema got her peace.

The days drifted by in a cocoon of happiness and warmth. With the family spending time together and kindling their slowly forming bonds. Khan's Alpha ceremony was fast approaching, by the end of the week he would receive his title and then they would begin relocating. Time was of the essence. It was slipping through her fingers. She had a short number of days to locate her sister because once the move was made there would be no accessing these documents. She only had this one shot and the strain was beginning to affect her.

"I just don't get it! There's nothing here. Nothing" she screamed as her emotions got the best of her. Her face turning red with frustration as she threw the papers in her hand across the floor. The stack billowing around the room as the cool air from the open door caused a mess with the sheets.

The documents were not forthcoming, no matter how many files they flickered through they still could not find anything on Lara. There were files on deceased humans from the early 2000's but not one little sentence about her sister who was born this century. Her sister was not on any registry forms for newly mated members of packs. She wasn't on any databases for new mothers and she wasn't on any databases for recently deceased, which was a comfort to Neema's slowly fraying mind.

Carson had even hacked into the telecoms system on his coms-device to watch videos on who was entering and exiting borders. Their names popping up on the screen as their eyes were scanned by the bright blue light of the machines at the random check points scattered around the regions. But still her name remained unseen, it was as if her sister had just vanished into thin air, never turning up again.