Higher Than The Alpha (#Wattys2014) »ᴄɵᴍᴘᴌᴇтᴇ«

FIVE

FIVE – Cat Vs. Dogs [Alexander]

"LEX!" her voice was only a whisper as sleep took over, making her body go limp.

Damn dogs! Looking at her small frame limp in the dogs arms made a growl of rage slip pass. How dare they! There was an unspoken rule among the weres. You didn't touch another's mate. It was simple. Yet, these dogs who held the rule closest than all the others were's, were holding Victoria, my mate. Unfortunately for them, they had a pissed off weretiger who hadn't marked his mate. Unfortunately for me, there were five of them.

Looking them over, I could have taken them. If they hadn't had Victoria in their arms. And looking at the way they were, they knew it. One was holding Victoria, the other was holding a knife at her throat, and to save himself, I knew that he would slit her throat. And then there was another coward behind the pair, while another two, who stank of fear were trying to circle behind me.

Pulling more of my human mind back to me – harder than I thought it would be because right now, I completely agreed with my tiger. Kill them. But they had Victoria, and therefore, I needed my head.

"What do you want?" I snarled.

"You to come with us," the one holding the knife said.

"Where?"

The one holding the knife gestured the wolf to my right. "Follow him. We'll follow you and we won't harm your female friend unless you go to attack us."

Clenching my jaw, I stood straighter, having gone into a crouch when I'd realised we were being attacked. I couldn't believe I'd missed them. They smelt like dog and forest. But having been focused on Victoria, fighting my cat, and trusting that none would attack in such a populated area, I hadn't noticed them.

Giving a sharp nod. I turned to follow the wolf, all the while trying to keep Victoria in my sight. The wolves seemed accommodating, because the wolf holding Victoria walked not quite next to me, but in my line of sight so that I could see she wasn't being harmed. Yet. Damn dogs!

Seeing we were heading for a van, I felt myself tense. Why would we need wheels, how far were we going?

The wolf told me to get in saying that the wolf with "your female friend" would get in after. And he did, after they'd pushed me into a cage and closed the cage door. The cage was large enough for a wolf, but not big enough for my cat. The wolf with Victoria held her as he sat in the space between the back of the van and the cage. I wanted to snarl at the wolf for holding her. But since I didn't have the upper hand, I clamped my mouth shut.

Another two wolves climbed into the back. The wolf with the knife and the one that had kept a look out got into the front if the sounds I could hear were any clue. Hearing the ignition ignite, I looked at Victoria and winced. How could I have brought her into this world?

I sat down as the van started to move. Watching Victoria "sleep". I refused to even think "in the wolfs arms" because my cat was unhappy enough with having metal separate us.

I wasn't sure how long the drive was. Where we were heading. All I knew was that I wanted my mate in my arms now! I knew, as the van pulled to a stop and the ignition was turned off, that I should have paid more attention to where we were heading, but my cat was having none of it. Even though, he too knew the logic in why we should have. But our mate was in a dogs arms. My cat snarled at the thought.

I hadn't heard the van doors opening, but suddenly the dog was standing and climbing out. A snarl ripped through the air. Silenced only by the knife that made another appearance by Victoria's throat. And this time, I knew that as soon as I could, I would rip the dogs throat out. Whatever the consequences there were be damned.

One of the wolves that had sat in the back, came to unlock the cage, but stopped as the wolf with the knife spoke.

"If you do anything, she'll die, and then it won't matter if we're dead or alive because she'll be dead."

Letting my tiger snarl at the wolf, my human side nodded.

Once the wolf by the cage unlocked the cage and opened the door, I had to lock myself into position to stop myself from running and grabbing Victoria out of the dogs arms. Because I knew that if I moved too fast, they'd take it as a sign of attack and kill her quicker than I could get to her. When I felt as though I could walk instead of run, I moved out of the van.

I forced myself and my cat to take a look around us. To our right was a clearly deserted building where the wolves were taking us. Other than that, there were trees and the dirt driveway we had come up.

Why were they out here? Wolves were, in general, very well off financially. So why were they out in the middle of nowhere with a ruin of a building as a Pack House? I tried to think which packs were local, as the sun was still in the same area as it had been when we'd been forced into the truck, so we weren't too far away from home. Only one pack came to mind, the Kayr Moon Pack, but I knew there Pack House, and this wasn't it. Rogues?

I felt a sliver of ice run down my spine. If they were rogues, then they had no true pack. No true loyalty. Laws didn't hold them.

I tugged my cat back to heel with the thoughts that this could also be a pack that wants new territory. For a moment, I was surprised that I hadn't heard any of the Kayr Moon wolves howling and barking about them.

As one of the wolves pushed me into walking, I snarled at him. Watching as he then flinched backwards. As I followed the wolf holding my mate, I realised that they were relying on the fact that I wouldn't attack them while they had Victoria. How long had they been planning this? What did they want out of it? I couldn't give them anything. I had nothing. It was my father that had the money. Once I'd turned sixteen, therefore legal, my father, as his father had to him, had kicked me out as he had done to each of my brothers as they'd turned sixteen, apart for Layke who'd been kicked out at fourteen. I knew it was a feline thing. The wolves and many other wereanimals allowed, and generally encouraged family living together for life. For us cats? We had to survive on our own.

Walking towards the building, I felt eyes look at me from inside the building. Smelt their fear. And at that moment I was grateful that two of my five brothers were considered psychopaths, making the wolves even wearier of me. They were feared among the were's. Lusan because he was colder than the coldest blizzard. And Layke because he'd laugh while he slit your throat.

And it probably didn't help the wolves knowing that my family line were of the largest cats. All were's animals were the same size as the average of their kind. But my family line wasn't. No, we were a hell of a lot bigger. But, after the next event that was about to happen, I decided that we may have been bigger in size, but we, or maybe it was just me, was a hell of a lot stupider for it.

As I followed the wolves into the building, the door was closed behind me. Locked. And it didn't click until we reached the door on the other side, that three of the wolves hadn't entered the room. My tiger yanked to the front of my mind and ran for the door in front. I'd kept a space between Victoria and myself so that they wouldn't hurt her. And now I was paying for it.

The door in front of me slammed shut and was locked just as I slammed into it with a snarl.

  

"Victoria!"

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