Rejecting the Alpha

Blood had been sprayed everywhere in that darkest hour before dawn.

The sound of throats being torn open echoed in my mind. The image of eyes that had once seen going dim flashed through my memory. The blood of the people who had once been my friends and pack mates coated the ground where they had so recently walked.

Any attempt at fighting had already died away. I ran forward through the darkness with everything in me, my paws nearly silent against the forest floor, fleeing my home as did any of the other survivors. Our single hope now lay only in escape.

But even that hope failed, when I heard the braying of wolves behind me. They howled as they surged on my position. I could smell blood and my own fear, and pain flooded me as I was crushed to the ground under the oppressive weight of a stinking wolf that outweighed me by two.

I waited for the searing blow that would sever my life from the world, but none came. Finally, my captor growled as he released me. I was prevented from running again by a circle of snarling fur and muscle. He shoved me forward, and I was forced to walk back toward the massacre that had once been my home.

I was pushed forward towards what had once been the meeting hall before there was no pack to meet. Through the shadows I could see it was surrounded by enemies both in wolf and in human form. From the corner of my eye I saw that other survivors were being herded in the same direction.

Once through the door, I joined a group of a couple dozen other survivors either in their wolf forms or as humans wrapped in blankets. They were either staring blankly with the same hollow expression I was certain was in my own pale green eyes, or crying softly. A few of the enemies, still reeking of the blood of people I had loved, stood guard inside as well. There was clearly no escape.

I slipped in close to my people, not seeing the familiar faces around me. I rested my muzzle on the lap of a friend of mine named Andrea, the beta's daughter. She had once been bubbly and vivacious, but now tears flowed silently down her cheeks as she caressed my fur with her hand absently, as if checking that I was real.

"Kylie?" I heard her voice faintly through the pack link. Every death had taken its toll on our connection, and I was certain that our alpha was already dead, but somehow it still clung on by a thread through those of us who were left.

"Andrea." I wanted to ask if she was okay, but I already knew that she was not. None of us were okay, none of us would ever be okay again, even if we few somehow survived this slaughter.

"My parents are dead," she told me with a tear running down her cheek. She looked so pale. Too pale, as if she were ready to join them.

"I don't know about mine," I told her, although I feared the worst. The last I had heard was my mother screaming in my head to run, and then nothing, terrible silence. I had felt the pain of losing my bonded pack mates so many times I could no longer distinguish between the pains. I didn't know their fate, although I did know I could no longer speak to my family in my mind whether because of distance and the dissolving pack bond, or because...

More survivors were shoved inside, until there were about fifty of us. I could only hope that some had escaped or were being held somewhere else, because otherwise only about a sixth of our people survived. I shivered as a large dark-haired male in his human form strode in, surrounded by more murdering soldiers. He radiated power. He was obviously the alpha of these murderers.

In spite of everything I could feel a winding sort of attraction upon seeing him, but the feeling was quickly followed by revulsion.

He looked around his huddled prisoners and his gaze met mine. I felt pulled into his navy eyes as if I were being compelled by a vampire. My stomach sunk.

No.

He began to walk towards me and my heart leapt into my throat.

No, please, no.

He stood before me and looked down at me. "You're mine," he said and the world fell away into blackness.