Chapter 1
ALARIC
It's funny how one doesn't appreciate life when you've plenty of it. When it seems endless you take it for granted but when you know that your days are numbered that's when you cherish every moment, every breath, every sunrise and sunset even when you know that each passing day the end draws near.
You try to set everything right, every wrong. You try to be the best version of yourself and you will do anything to leave the ones you love with nothing but good memories but sometimes the wrongs you've done can't be made right.
I was sitting in my office when the door opened, in came Conan his hands hidden behind his back. One look at him had me dreading what he was about to say. What could really go wrong?
"The Western Province alpha and beta families have been assassinated," I stopped what I was doing. Dropped the pen I was holding on the desk and stared at Conan. If this was another one of his sick jokes it wasn't funny.
"Listen Conan—"
"I'm not lying, Alaric," he brought his right hand forward, placing a thick manilla envelope on the mahogany desk.
"It came this morning. I went through it. Whoever did it is on a mission and I can't figure out what." He said as I reached for the envelope. I opened it. Pictures of gruesome scenes greeted me, blood everywhere, heads severed off the spine. The Western Province Pack lying in pools of their own blood.
"What the hell?"
"Even the children, killed." I looked at the pictures again. In all my years I've never seen this happen in The Highlands. Whoever was doing this wasn't playing but why would they do it?
"They pissed off someone with a temper," Conan said sitting in the chair that faced me. Maybe he was right, an enemy would do this but the question remained the same, who? and what was the reason that they even killed children in cold blood?
"Does my father know about this?"
"He said not to be disturbed. My father will inform him once he's free."
"What did the pack members say?" I asked.
"The future beta, Cole, you remember him?" I nodded in agreement and he continued. "Cole delivered this but he was in a hurry to return to his pack. According to his words he's the last surviving member of his family."
"Go on," I prompted.
"He said that those killed had powerful positions in the pack or were unfortunate enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Cole only survived because he wasn't there."
"They must know how their defences were fooled."
"That's the problem, they don't know. No scent in the air, no footprints, they came unnoticed and left the same way."
"Witches?" I asked. That was the only explanation to this.
"Maybe, but witches wouldn't mangle people like that. Their ways of killing are always clean." He explained and I knew he was right. Witches killed but they were smart about it. I was a living testament to that. I lived with the curse inside of me. I could feel it moving and now that I thought about it, time was really running out.
I had like eight months to live? And I never told a soul about it. It was my problem. No need to worry my mother or anyone else about what happened on the night of my son's naming ceremony. If they ever found out it was when I knew nothing could save me.
Laika was the key but I wasn't going to force her to love me if that was even possible. Telling her was begging for her love. I did bad things to her and I wasn't going to force her to save me.
And speaking of witches I looked for Celeste. Searched for her for a whole year but she was gone. Never to be seen again, her house burnt to the ground.
"Are you okay?" That drove me out of my stupor, my eyes landed on Conan. He wasn't going to be the beta. If I died the next in line was my son and Conan's child was going to rule with him but they guy hadn't found his mate yet.
"Perfect," I lied. To be blunt I was so scared. I didn't know how my life was going to end, will it be painful or not? I guess I was going to find out in a few months.
"What if it's Phineas?"
"He's dead," I reminded him in case he had forgotten about it.
"We never found his body," he said. What? They never found his body? He was the one who told me everything was okay together with my father.
"You told me—"
"We lied. The room you described had not a body in sight, only blood."
"Then why?"
"Your father knew you would go and hunt him down if there was any evidence that suggested he was alive. He was afraid for you, he asked me to lie and never think about it," Conan said, his eyes avoiding mine.
"You're my beta, you and I work together!"
"He's my alpha what he says goes," he said. Phineas alive? So unlikely but not impossible.
"This isn't Phineas," I said, confident.
"Don't be so sure, he worked with witches and they are known to heal even the most fatal of wounds. It's been a year and months since he's strong enough now." Maybe Conan was right but I refused to believe his assumption. This was something big, there was no way Phineas would kill the Western Pack. What qualms did he have with them?
Conan left, leaving me in my office. I picked one picture, stared at it and I still couldn't fathom why some random person would do this. Something told me there was a bigger picture I was missing. But what could it be?
Phineas was dead and if he was alive he wouldn't go on killing the Western Province Pack. I was his enemy. The other packs didn't bother with rogues like I did. He said not to save Laika or he will come back for her. So if that was the case then why attack another pack. It hurts to think that I might be the cause of this. That all those people died because I foolishly made an enemy.
And if Phineas was doing this there was only one explanation. He was killing the alpha families to become the ultimate alpha and this was just the beginning.
