A/N: I couldn't attach both images of what I pictured for the cave and the stairs, so here is the cave itself and the stairs picture is posted in the previous installment!
-Undaunted
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Chapter 15: Unleashed
River
My head is spinning like a fucking merry-go-round.
This fucker, Alpha Xander, is here to find his mate? Someone in my pack is destined to be his mate?
I don't want it to be true, yet it answers nearly all the questions behind why he has done what he's done.
As the sun continues its steady descent, we come to find out from our captive that the attack in the Eastern Woods was a fluke. The group Xander sent out was there only to scout our boundaries, but the orange she-wolf I recall from the clearing—Lydia, one of his Betas— got too ambitious and called for them to ambush us, even though those weren't her orders.
The attack was meant to be a warning, in her mind, but instead it's given us inside knowledge: we know what and who we are going up against now: a pack that favors the most primal part of themselves, and who all but refuse to live in human form.
That's why they are so murderous and blood-hungry...The human parts of themselves are muted, shoved down and oppressed.
"We've got the information we wanted, River." My dad says to me as I see our captive getting sicker and sicker from the wolfsbane taking effect. We're huddled off to the side: my dad, me, Holly and Drake.
"So this psycho Xander has a fucking mate here?" Drake seethes. I knew he wouldn't be impressed at this news either. "Why can't we just hand her over then? No fighting even has to happen, they can just move along on their merry way."
"You heard what he said, didn't you?" Holly asks him, incredulous. "That's only part of why they are here. They also don't happen to agree with our way of living. They want to destroy packs that still allow their human sides to exist. They're not going to leave just because you decide to ship some poor unsuspecting woman off into the arms of a delusional Alpha on a power trip." She shakes her head as if truly stunned by Drake's lack of foresight.
"Well, it'll get him off our backs for now!" he retorts in a hushed voice. "I say we do it: make a deal. We give Xander the girl; he leaves us be."
"That wouldn't work." Holly shakes her head. "The minute he gets her he would just go ahead and attack us anyway—you heard him: they have the numbers to make it happen."
"But at least we would be giving him something to lose!" Drake insists.
"This pack is something to lose, you—" Holly starts her counter-argument, but I jump in before she can finish it.
"Enough!" I say, cutting them off, not able to handle their bickering right now.
They both have good points, but either way we play it, it ends with the Shadows facing a war.
One in which we are not properly manned or supplied for. We would have to send word that we need more help from our packs in the mid-west and eastern regions...That's all going to take time. Time we might not have.
"You're not going to win, you know." Our prisoner says before coughing weakly, and we all turn to face him. "Alpha Xander is one scary dude—he won't hesitate to sacrifice his own to get what he wants."
"And you're okay with that?" Holly bites back, her eyes flashing with anger. "Sacrificing yourself for his crusade?"
"Comes with the territory, sweetie." He shrugs. "Question is: are you willing to do the same for your side?"
YOU ARE READING
The Shadow Alpha
Weerwolf"River, I...I didn't realize..." I say, and before I can form the rest of my sentence, he strides towards me. I immediately step back and feel the rough bark of one of the nearby trees press into my back. One of his hands comes up to grip my jaw, hi...
