Chapter 3

Rogues knew better than to come anywhere near pack lands. ‘These rogues must either be very stupid or very desperate’, the Alpha thought to himself.

The moment the motion sensors registered movement on their lands, the Alpha had given the order for his response team to immediately redirect from their training session to assess the situation.

Approaching the pack lands boundary, the Alpha came to a stop on a hidden path in the forest when he smelled a scent that confused him. There was the smell of the two rogues towards the road and another walking along the boundary of their land. The scents were jumbled up with the smell of blood.

Linking with his warriors, he ordered them to find the rogues and eliminate them.

As they ran off, he lowered his nose to the ground trying to find that scent again. He followed the trail a little further when he caught the scent and immediately took off running after it.

The scent was familiar. It smelled like something from a dream. A memory he was now struggling to recall as he barreled through the forest at the scent that had now come to rest at a clearing.

“It’s silver”, he heard the voice of the person say.

Anger, confusion and a sense of betrayal washed over him. ‘Betrayal?’, he thought to himself. That was impossible because he didn’t even know who this person was. All he knew was that whoever they were, they were threatening him with a silver bullet and he did not take kindly to threats.

He came to a stop close to the woman who was running from the rogues and noticed the panic in her eyes. She didn’t know that the Alpha himself would come after her.

She stumbled backward slightly, trying to put as much weight as she could on her left leg. He then noticed that she was covered in injuries along her right side which made her right hand tremble slightly as she pointed the gun at him. He knew from the state she was in that she was in no shape to fight or to keep running.

He cocked his head to the right while studying the woman. Then he stepped to the left and slowly circled her as he shifted into his human form. He had thought that his human form would be less imposing but the terror never left her eyes. His fellow pack warriors had often told him that he was an imposing figure no matter if he was in his human or wolf form.

He stood at almost six foot five inches and had a build that was developed from years of training and fighting. He had black hair with an almost grey tint to it similar to his wolf’s fur and blue-grey eyes that seemed to pierce into the soul of whoever he looked at. He often tried to put on a smile when speaking with the children of the pack but some of them still seemed rather scared of him. That didn’t seem likely to help ease the tension then or even now, so he opted for the straightforward route.

Because it seemed that at this moment, he needed to talk down this woman who looked like she was about to pass out purely out of fright.

“You’re not going to shoot me”, he said as he stopped circling the woman.

“M-my silver bullet says otherwise”, she stammered out still bluffing.

He was impressed that she still stuck to her bit even when faced with the overbearing presence of an Alpha.

“You only have one bullet”, he said pointing at the revolver. “Maybe next time don’t use a revolver to bluff.”

She seemed to tense up at his words but kept her gun still pointed at him. She probably still hoped she was fooling him.

“Which means…” he continued, “If you shoot me and you miss, I kill you. Or, if you shoot me and hit me, my warriors would be on you in a matter of moments and then kill you.”

He tried his best to sound as non-threatening as possible, but he wasn’t sure if he succeeded.

“So why don’t we do this, you tell me why you’re here and no one gets hurt”, he said extending his hands and facing his palms towards the woman in a ‘your move’ gesture.

She stood there for a moment contemplating his words and he could see every one of those thoughts running through her mind written on her face. She obviously didn’t think she would live long enough to be having this conversation. She seemed to have a resigned look on her face as she took a deep breath and lowered her gun.

“I’m sorry for trespassing on your pack lands, Alpha”, she said with an apologetic look on her face. “I was just trying to get away from the rogues.”

He looked away from the woman as he linked with his warriors for a moment while he communicated with them.

“The rogues have been dealt with”, he said turning back to her.

She let out a loud and long sigh as she said, “Thank you.”

“Why were they after you?”, he asked, seeing the exhaustion on the face.

“I honestly don’t know….”, she groaned. “Rogues just seem to come after me.”

“That’s because you smell like a wolf”, he said flatly as if he was stating a common fact.

This made the woman freeze as she contemplated his words. The confusion on her face was evident that this was information she was unaware of.

“Did no one tell you?”, he asked.

“No… I was too busy trying not to get killed”, she replied.

“Hmm…” he pondered for a moment, wondering if it was safe to send her on her way since she seemed to attract chaos. “Where are you headed now? I might be able to point you in the right direction.”

He saw again how her face changed as she considered answering his question. He figured that she was probably worried that he would trick her or take advantage of her. A part of him wondered how she had been treated by other wolves for her to be so distrusting of them.

“I… I’m trying to find the Silver Lake pack”, she finally answered.

He was unable to hide his suspicion at her answer. He must have had one of those looks on his face that his warriors were always warning him about because she stumbled back a little. The look of terror returned to her face.

“Who are you trying to find in Silver Lake?” he growled at her.

“A… a man called Patrick Jones”, she stammered.

Hearing her say old Paddy Jones’ name made a thought pop into his head. A thought and hope he had made himself forget after two and a half decades of waiting and praying. A hope that only served to cause him heartache all through his childhood.

His eyes narrowed as he stepped closer to the woman, studying her face intently hoping for a hint of familiarity.

Then he saw it. Her eyes. He would never in his life forget those deep amber orbs that held so much warmth and happiness. Both of which were gone. All that remained now was fear and uncertainty.

“What is your name?”, he asked, allowing himself to hope once more.

“Amelia.”