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? It just can't be true, and yet it answers nearly all the questions behind why he has done what he's done.
We come to find out from our captive that the attack in the Eastern Woods was a fluke. That the group Xander sent out was there only to scout our boundaries, and the orange she-wolf I remember—Lydia, one of his Beta's— 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.
"His fucking mate is 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 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 raging lunatic." 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 him 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 enough members 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 here for. We would have to send word that we need more help from our packs in the mid-west and east...That's all going to take time. Time we might not have.
"You're not going to win, you know." Our prisoner says suddenly, 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
Werewolf"River, I...I didn't realize..." I say, and then he strides towards me. I immediately step back and feel the rough bark of a tree press into my back. One of his hands holds my jaw in place, another is planted firmly on my waist. His dark eyes sta...
