Avoiding Alpha

Chapter Twenty One

“Alpha.” There stood on a rock, clothed in very little was Ashton, holding onto a cane to help him stay upright.

“Your man here was attacked by the pack whose scent you follow.” The leader’s voice had soothed out, calmed and was now soft, understanding and he looked at Ray’s eyes as a friend delivering bad news, no longer as an enemy or even a leader. It was that friendship that puzzled Tendra. “Welcome to the Sanguis pack Alpha, we are not barbarians, we are hunting the barbarians. We saved your friend here, we couldn’t send him back because his injuries are severe, he is standing now, he won’t be for much longer, he wanted to greet you as you came. And here we have Tendra. Welcome, it’s been a long time, we’ve kept you alive for years, I hope you’re making the most of the life we are trying to give you.”

                She shook her head she could smell them. They were the same men who came into her house, who did deals with her father, whom she ran from! She didn’t understand.

“We wear their clothes, or clothes from the scene of their terrible crimes, in order to appear as one of them. Since we track them so often we need to smell like them, or they will think that they have followers. We hide our scent from them and the world and that gives us the reputation.”

                The leader started to walk and like zombies Ray, Tendra and the warriors followed wanting explanations.

“We have tried for near on a decade now to bring down that pack, but we can’t, it was us instead that ended up with the name of Sanguis, it was us that tried to rid the world of such monsters as them, but yet we have no allies and are called instead the monsters. Still we try.”

“So why have we followed you and not them?”

“They are the shadows, they are the ones you do not see. We are good, better than most packs, we can hide and follow unseen, we can save a man and be so close to the crime as to be blamed for it. But we can not compare to them.”

“And what do you call them? Who is our enemy?” Ray couldn’t get it into his head. There was a complete hundred and eighty degree change in his entire thinking. Years this pack had gained notoriety, and for years he had avoided the wrong people. Now he found them, damn he nearly attacked innocent people. Ashton was stood there, looking incredibly pale albeit, and swaying, but he was stood there and nodding along to the leaders words, not opposing them once. If Ray trusted anyone it was Ashton and Ashton was looking as calm as the sea in summer.

“We call them the Letale Pack.”

                The leader joined his pack and they huddled around him, though the ones in trees merely jumped from branch to branch and other closed in around Ray’s warriors. They looked very threatening, their crouched and wiry bodies making him think of animals about to pounce and devour prey in a split second. He was reminded of weasels or something along those lines.

“Oh and Alpha, stop looking at my men, they’re damn good, better than you, we all have techniques, some you can’t even imagine.”

                One guy who was particular thin and literal on his haunches crawling along with his head cocked to one side and his squinty eyes following Ray’s movement, winked at Ray as their leader reprimanded him. He scowled back at the young man but that only enticed him to grin like a Cheshire cat. Tendra almost burst laughing but held it in. She gained herself a very sneaky twitch of the eyebrows by said man when Ray finally turned around. She liked that man, he looked like fun.