The True Alpha {2}

Chapter 6

Finley

"You're what?!" Kelly screamed.

"Shh! Not so loud!" I quickly hushed her. "It's too risky, if we're caught out here talking to you instead of patrolling the border we could be in serious trouble!"

"Fine. We won't be so loud, but you owe us an explanation." Holly demanded. "You went into enemy territory to spy and get information about when their next attack is, and instead you become their beta?!"

I quickly straightened up to face the accusation in her eyes. "I had no choice." I insisted.

Holly's eyes flashed and she visibly tensed. Instinctively I got into a defensive stance.

"You had no choice?!" Holly shrieked. "No choice but to betray not only my pack, but your clan mates!"

"How dare you!" I snarled, finally losing my temper. "Don't you ever dare accuse me of being a traitor!" I clenched my fists and moved from a defensive stance to an attack position. "How dare you even speak the thought that I would betray my clan!"

Holly visibly flinched from my anger but she wouldn't back down. That's just as well, because I won't either. I thought with stony resolve.

Even Kelly, River, Gwen, Sunny, and Daisy looked uncertain about my behavioral shift.

"You have befriended the very same rogues that attacked my pack, drove away me and my alpha! And you dare to come back here as their beta!" Holly flashed back.

"If I had not accepted to be beta to the rogues Alpha would have killed me! And then there would have been no hope for either of our clans!" I roared. "I accepted the role of beta in this pack to get better information so that I could help save all of the packs! And you dare to accuse me of being a traitor when I have done nothing but help you!"

This finally brought Holly's attention to what I was telling her.

"You mean, you became beta, to help us?" Holly stammered.

"Yes." I growled at her. "I would never do anything to hurt anyone on purpose."

Holly ran her hands through her hair roughly, her eyes losing their spark. She lowered her head to me in submission as she sank into a bow. "I am sorry." She mumbled.

"You can stand back up, there's no need for that." I told her. Holly stood up once more, though she still looked rather upset.

"Wait," Kelly said.

I turned to look at her again only to see confusion dancing in her eyes. "What is it?" I asked.

"Timothy told us that you were hurt really badly in this challenge..thing.... Have you recovered?" Kelly asked hesitantly. Holly's eyes were instantly back on me.

"A good question." Holly added. "And he also told us your opponent was dead."

I shuddered visibly. "That," I said in a quivering voice, "is not something I ever intended to happen."

"Well what did happen?" Holly pressed.

"Didn't you hear her?" River snapped. "She doesn't want to talk about it!"

"No, River, it's okay. I'm not proud of what I did, but I won't lie to my friends, I won't hide what happened from them." I said quietly. I turned and looked directly at Kelly and Holly. "Do you both already know about the challenge?"

"Yes." Kelly said quickly. "Timothy explained it to us. He said that the Alpha selects an opponent to face off against the new member to decide whether they join the pack. He also told us that if a fight lasts more than twenty minutes the Alpha declares it a fight to the death; and your fight lasted thirty before it was declared."

"Good, so you already know the basics." I nodded my head. "My opponent was named Boulder-"

"Boulder?" Holly interrupted laughing. "What kind of name is that?"

A simply glare from myself and the others from the rogue pack were enough to silence her.

"The kind of name given to one born in the rogue pack." Gwen said icily. "Or one chosen by a newcomer who simply wanted to fit it."

Holly ducked her head, embarrassed.

Gwen nodded to me. "Please continue, Finn."

I nodded to her. "Anyways, Boulder was about my age and about the same size as me. We each had about two weeks to prepare for the challenge where I was given a mentor to help me. River was my mentor."

Kelly and Holly spared a quick glance towards River before looking back to me.

"Anyways, we worked together to come up with ideas for fighting techniques that would work well against Boulder. We had been fighting for a while without causing serious harm to one another before Alpha finally called a time out. I didn't realize what was going on until the others explained it to me." I continued.

"It's important to realize that both Moony and Boulder were both too stubborn to give in under any circumstances but neither of them wanted to seriously harm the other." Sunny pointed out.

I nodded at her gratefully while Kelly and Holly were nodding their heads as if something had finally clicked into place.

"When Alpha resumed the fight Boulder and I had no choice but to fight all out. Any form of mercy is viewed as cowardice and we would have both been killed. Boulder lunged at me and I tried to dive under his stomach but he dropped on top of me before I could get out. I started to panic, I couldn't breathe...." I paused my words sticking in my throat. River's presence at my side comforted me and he put his hand on my arm to help support me. "I started to panic, and I started flailing my paws at whatever I could reach. I honestly don't remember what happened, all I know is that suddenly my claws caught on something then something wet splashed all over me and I passed out."

"After that Alpha allowed me to move Boulder off of Finn." River continued the story from there. "When I moved him we saw that there was a gash in his throat. Finn accidentally cut his throat in her panic to break free."

"The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the hospital..." I finally finished.

"That's.. wow...." Holly said, in shock or awe I couldn't tell.

"But before I woke up I had a dream. I saw Andrew." I looked at Kelly and saw the pure shock in her eyes. "I thought I was dead, but Andrew told me that I wasn't but that someone needed to speak with me. Then I saw Boulder..." I choked up a little again. "He told me he wasn't upset, that he was grateful that I had done it. He said I needed to save the packs, the clan... he knew who I was the whole time."