Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Somewhere on the outskirts of Imperial City, sitting at the edge of a cliff gazing absentmindedly into the abyss of scintillating lights is a man drinking his pain away and sorrows. Sighing shakily, he brought the bottle of bourbon to his lips and took down everything one go, now onto the next bottle. But no matter how much he would chug the alcohol, which is bad for his body, it wouldn't be enough to numb the rue he felt towards his past. Sure, it was too late to regret past decisions but damn, he can't help but feel heavily crestfallen.
The person raised their head to the sky, amidst the cloudless sea of blue-back and twinkly stars were the full moon. On this night, for some reason, unlike any other, he felt overwhelmingly depressed and...𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆.
In a wicked twist of fate, Alpha Nox lost his Luna and his son. One week apart.
And that...wasn't even the worst part of things.
Nox reached to his right, searching the ground for something, his hand colliding with pebbles as he did. His hand soon felt something soft and fluffy, his heart sank–a pit formed in his chest, and a cold shiver wracked the Alpha's body. Nox gripped the cloth and brought it to his face, when the object was a few inches away from his face he opened his eyes and squeezed it. The man released another shaky breath as he tightly held the colourful scarf.
“What's worse? Finding out your son died on the birthday you both share, or finding out the person supposed to be the other half of your soul was the murderer?” the cold wind carried his words away. “I don't wish to believe what I saw was true, but what else can I believe? How can...” he fought back burning tears, “how can the woman I'm supposed to mark and let carry my pups be the killer of my only child? What kind of sick game is this Goddess? Why...why would you do this?”
“Mate...”
The Alpha sniffed the cloth. Two different scents clogged his nostrils, albeit faint. One was that of his deceased heir to the Vermilion Marcoux Pack.
The other...
Of multiple scents combined to make an ambrosial combination, the most delectable was the baby powder. It reminded him of white roses, doves, milk and clouds etc.
Despite that the smell had his wolf purring with delight in the back of his mind. The man closed his eyes to savour the scent, so addicting and delicious, yet painful and heartbreaking. As a lone tear walked down his cheek he slumped forward, placing his elbows on his knees for support.
Maybe she didn't do it. After all, was she not a human? Could a human be capable of that? The answer is yes, he knows about the famous serial killers born and raised in the United States. But if she did, why? What was the reason? It doesn't make any sense to him as to why she would do that. He roamed the treacherous terrains in the mountains of Oklahoma and never came across her before.
He wants her to be innocent.
He's hoping she's innocent.
Nox prays his precious mate didn't do what she's being accused of.
But suddenly, popping up from nowhere was a thought that straightened his back and had him growling. It was Bloody. That bastard disrespected him and his pack but he did nothing, because...he didn't want to do anything.
𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍?
That's not even the reason why he was so bothered, it was the fact that he remembered feeling deep dread when he smelled baby powder on that fucker. But he wasn't wearing baby powder. Nox touched his chin with a stubble starting to grow surreptitiously, he raised the scarf to his nose and sniffed long and deeply.
Both scents were identical.
Angry at the betrayal Nox swung his strong legs around, stopped on the ground and pushed himself up. A powerful roar escaped his maw. A sound so loud and bloodcurdling that families in their homes blocks away trembled in sheer fear. The Alpha held the scarf tightly and jumped off the cliff with his hands above his head, while the man fell, his clothes tore and smooth skin melted as brown and black fur replaced it. His hand turned into fluffy paws that had claws sharper than any metal in existence, his eyes went from grey to heterochromatic amber and ice blue, and he grew in height and size too. The man's ears extended into perky ones made to hear the sounds of even ants moving across the ground.
Speaking of ground, by the time he landed the scarf was between his deadly jaws containing sparkly white teeth ready to break bones in one bite. He skimmed down the hill releasing howl after howl, calling his pack members and beta to join him on his journey. Wherever he was going.
Shortly they came by his side and together they ran across meadows and fields until finally, they were on the main road. They almost caused a crash but Nox was so furious he ignored the skating pickup truck and jumped seven feet off the asphalt across railings to end up in the woods again. But he knew exactly where he was going.
·····
“Alpha Nox, hmm, so you want my help in locating someone?” in a rather chockablock office, a barrel-bellied man sucked in smoke from the bottom of a cigarette making his cheeks sink in. He had a striped suit on and a white towel over his left shoulder. The man had his crossed legs kicked up on the table, he spun the office chair severally while lightly thrumming his fat fingers on the armrest. “Why this amuses me in more than one way I must admit.”
The standoffish Nox didn't say a word. Only leaning back on the chair shaking one of his legs, his jaws were clenched and heterochromic eyes dimmed under the flickering light. “Indeed.”
“Who exactly are you lookin’ for then?”
“They call him Bloody.”
The men coughed and faced other directions.
“You want to find Bloody? That cheap lying, no-good sucker?” the man blinked away his disbelief. “Interesting, what, did he kill your son too?”
Nox growled. “Can you find him or not? I don't have time for this.”
“Look Alpha,” he sniffed and rubbed his nose, putting his feet up again. “I can't help ya if you're not willing to tell me what I need to kn–”
“He has a woman with him that I want. That psychopath promised to find her for me, but when he did he didn't tell me and now he has her in his clutches. I just need you to find him, my pack and I will take care of the rest.”
“If I may ask, who is the girl?”
“Avalyn. Her name is Avalyn Monroe.”
The man stopped rocking the chair. His mood changed when he heard that name. “Avalyn? Ya lookin’ for Avalyn? Funny enough, her stepfather owes me millions of dollars.”
“Is that so?” Nox blinked in boredom.
“Yes. Why do you want her? Heh, what a coincidence, I've been looking for that entitled, savage little brat for years now. Earlier I mentioned that her stepfather, Ricardo, owes me plenty of money. Because he couldn't pay, he gave her to me as payment. Given the fact that you know Ava, we both can agree on how sexy she is,” he stuck his tongue out and wriggled it from side to side. “Broad curves, stiff breasts, perky nipples, big ass, gorgeous. Of course, I agreed, but then she disappeared leaving behind a letter of disrespect.”
‘𝑰𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑬𝒍𝒆𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒕-𝑯𝒚𝒆𝒏𝒂 𝒉𝒚𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒅 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒖𝒕 𝒖𝒑 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝑰 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝑮𝒐𝒅–,’ a voice in the form of his subconsciousness scolded before Nox stopped it.
‘𝑵𝒂𝒕𝒆. 𝑷𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔. 𝑩𝒆𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆.’
‘𝑶𝒉, 𝒔𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒍𝒍 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒕𝒚-𝒅𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒕𝒚-𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒍-𝒐𝒇𝒇-𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏? 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒅𝒂𝒎𝒏 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅, 𝑾𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒚?’
‘𝑸𝒖𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒕, 𝑵𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏! 𝑰 𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅.’ And then Nox blocked him out of his mind, but for what really? Nathan will return the moment he lets his guard down.
“Are you even listening?” the man in the other part of the room said.
“No.”
“...” awkward silence passed, “Well, ahem, I said I will help you find Avalyn. However, what are your intentions?”
𝑻𝒐 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌 𝒉𝒆𝒓.
“To kill her,” Nox ignored the wolf spirit he shares a body with. “She killed my son and must pay with her life.”
“Straightforward. I like that about you, Alpha. You know I like you Alpha, a man like you is what I need in my organization. Aside from being a politician, I'm guessing you're aware that I'm a part of the Underground Society. But that's not the point,” he began to demonstrate with his hands, “think of it, you hate Bloody as much as I do because he ripped you off. He killed my son and robbed me of nine hundred million dollars, Alpha Nox. And you also want Avalyn dead, me too, sure I'd like to see her fiery lips wrapped around my penis but she has to die. We...would make beautiful partners.”
Nox raised a brow.
“Confused? Ha, Nox, I'm asking you to join me. Join my mafia and be my underboss, together this City and multiple others would be OURS!” he banged the table. “We would make billions! With your fierceness and my intelligence people would tremble at our feet. Imagine, seven percent of profits go to me while the rest goes to you. It's a win-win situation here–I'm telling you Nox, join me. Join the Feral Felons gang.”
The man blinked once, twice, and had his answer.
“No.”
“Nox listen–”
“The answer is no. I have no desire to join your gang nor do I want to stay in this City. I just want to get Ava and get out. I'm certain she's somewhere with Bloody, will you find his location or not?”
“Yes yes of course! But Nox–”
“Good. We'll be in touch,” Nox stood and began walking out.
“Alpha...” Archibald's low voice made him pause, “You're making a very big mistake here. But I get it, I just dropped the bombshell on you. I'll give you a few days to make up your mind,” he pushed a white card he got from his jacket to the front of the desk and smiled at Nox. “Call me when you decide.
He walked to the table and swiped the rectangular thing off it. Nox gave it one pointed look before walking out and off the man's estate.
Outside him and his men in their biker clothes trudged down a hill and outside of the place, hopped on their bikes and rode off into the dark.
Nox was stressed as he gripped his handles. He's not the only one who wants Ava. Bloody wants her, Arch does and he does. But at this time she's in the possession of Bloody–he just hopes he hasn't harmed her.
Kill her? No. He wants 𝒉𝒆𝒓...to be 𝒉𝒊𝒔.
His Mate. His Luna.
And Nox won't stop until he has her.