by Angela Foxxe
Alexa felt all of the blood drain from her face at once, and her eyes went wide. “How can you know for sure?” she asked.
“Because it’s not hard to identify the scent of an alpha sneaking out past their bed time,” he replied. “She had what we think are two other wolves with her, but we have yet to identify them.” He narrowed his eyes. “If you know anything, tell someone. They will not be let off so easily. She is an alpha and vital to the pack, that is the only reason she is still alive.”
Alexa couldn’t help but feel that the male was phrasing it just right to scare Alexa. It was as though he knew, but was waiting for her to fess up rather than for him to call her out on it.
“I’ll give you any information that I come across,” Alexa promised, although she wasn’t looking at the male. She was looking past him at Noemi, concerned only for her friend. “For now, can I see her?” she asked, daring to glance up at the man. “I’m her friend, and I want to speak to her.”
The alpha male huffed out a laugh and rolled his eyes at Alexa. It hadn’t been a definitive no, but she got his message plain and simple. No. Instead of pressing the issue, Alexa backed off, and lowered her head. She shot one more glance at her friend, who had gone back to slowly licking a wound on her front leg. Alexa frowned. She felt bad for Noemi. She had been hurt because of Alexa. It was her fault.
Alexa looked to the sky, and furrowed her eyebrows as she walked away from the alphas and their morning kill. Antony wanted to meet her again, but there was no way that Alexa could risk Noemi’s life. There was no way that she could risk her own life.
Resigned to her fate, Alexa shifted into her slender wolf form, and went to her usual hiding place tucked between the boulders and the bushes. No one would dare to bother her while she was there, no one ever went back there, aside from her. Not even her younger siblings could get through, the inch-long thorns a deterrent for many a wolf.
On her belly, Alexa crawled under the bushes and through the overgrown branches to the little clearing. She hardly fit into it anymore, having to keep her legs tucked under her body. She whined as she nuzzled at the things that had once belonged to her deceased siblings. She wanted nothing more than their advice right then. She needed to know how to move forward and how to make things right again.
As she thought about Antony, Alexa’s ears pressed flat against her head. She didn’t think there would ever be a way for her and Antony to make things right. She longed to see him, a yearning that was so strong it took over each and every one of her senses, but it wasn’t up to her.
It was up to her alphas. There was nothing that she could do or say against them, so she would just follow their rules.
Alexa stretched her forelegs out in front of her, and tucked her chin on top of them. Her tail swished in the dirt as she contemplated exactly what it was that she had to do. Truth be told, there wasn’t anything that she could do. Alexa whined, and nuzzled against her legs. She needed Noemi with her. Noemi would know exactly what to do, and exactly what to say that would make Alexa feel better in no time.
A little lupine smile crept up on her features. Noemi would be perfectly fine, she was certain of that. Such a strong wolf wouldn’t be taken down in a mere battle amongst other alphas. Alexa hadn’t truly looked them over, but she knew that Noemi had to have left a number of scars on her fellow alphas as well.
As if on cue—speak of the devil—huge paws began to pace back and forth in front of Alexa’s hideaway. Noemi’s bark came shortly thereafter, and a wet, black nose was dipped into the bushes. Noemi whined as a thorn poked her, and to spare the alpha any trouble, Alexa crawled out from under the bushes.
Noemi shifted back, and she looked even worse as a human. Her wounds had stopped bleeding, but there were many of them, and none of them looked well cared for or taken care of. Alexa frowned at the sight and she shifted as well, throwing her arms around Noemi.
Noemi winced, but covered it quickly with a sickly laugh. “Alexa, I’m in pain, and the last thing I need is you crushing me,” she warned, giving Alexa a quick pat on the back.
Alexa pulled away then, but kept a hand on Noemi’s uninjured shoulder. “Noemi, they could have killed you,” she whispered. “And it was all my fault. Every single moment of that battle could have been stopped if I had chosen the right thing to do and ignored Antony’s request.”
“Stop it,” Noemi ordered, a snarl creeping into her voice. Alexa ducked her head. “I chose to help you because that was what I wanted to do,” Noemi said. “You didn’t force me, and I didn’t force you. We both chose this path, and it’s too late to turn back now.”
Alexa glanced up at Noemi, feeling a twinge of something beginning to grow deep in her chest. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“I’m going to help you see him again,” Noemi said. “And then we’re going to run away. The three of us.”
“What do you mean, run away?” Alexa asked, feeling like a parrot that could only mimic, rather than think of its own ideas.
“You, me, Antony. All of us. We’ll leave this place, and we’ll never look back.” If it weren’t for Noemi’s grim expression, Alexa might have thought that it was all some clever ruse or a plot to get Alexa to admit to something that would get her killed. “Don’t tell me that you’ve never thought about it even once,” Noemi muttered. “We’ve all thought about it. Even the alphas.”
“We’ll die if we do something like that,” Alexa whispered. “Is it really worth it?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Is it really worth your life to try and reunite me with the wolf that I love?”
Noemi smiled at Alexa, and she felt warmth spread throughout her entire body. “Don’t think that I’m doing this for you,” Noemi teased. “This is more for me than it will ever be for you. I’ve wanted to leave this place since I was a pup. I’ve always hated it here.” Noemi’s eyes went somewhere far away, her attention drawn towards the sky. “I want to start my own pack. With wolves who want to be there with me, not because they’re scared of me,” she said.
“That sounds nice,” Alexa replied. “Like a dream.”
“It doesn’t have to be a dream,” Noemi said. She put her hand over Alexa’s, smiling at her from ear to ear. She was fraternizing with someone who wasn’t an alpha, and it made her unable to stop smiling. Only a few days ago and she would have murdered Alexa for daring to think such treasonous thoughts, and there she was a few days later, planning to make them a reality.
“I promise that I won’t let anything bad happen to us,” Alexa said, although she had little to no authority over the situation.
Noemi laughed at that, and it was a relief to Alexa to see that she was still the same wolf as always. “I’ll be there right by your side,” she promised. “And Antony will be, too. And if he doesn’t want to go, then we can make it on our own.”
“You’re sure?” Alexa asked, looking up at Noemi with wide eyes.
“I’m sure,” Noemi said, smiling at Alexa. She reached up with her other hand, and pushed Alexa’s hair out of her face. “Get some rest. We have a long time before then, and once that day comes, we won’t be able to rest for a long time.” Noemi paused, and pulled her hand away from Alexa. “Are you ready for something like this?” she asked.
A feeling of doubt went through Alexa as she stared up at Noemi. She wasn’t certain if she was ready for something like this. Her entire body was screaming at her to say no, to reject Noemi. There was such a risk involved in doing something like this, and there was no way that they would ever be able to make it out alive.
Rather than letting her fear control her, Alexa tilted her chin up, trying to boast all of the confidence that Noemi always carried with her.
“I’ve never been more ready in my life,” she replied.
Her answer was good enough for Noemi, who continued to laugh.
*
In a flash that seemed impossible, five days came and went before Alexa could realize what was happening. She went about her daily life; she took ca
re of her siblings, made peace with her mother, and spent her evenings with Noemi. The two of them plotted when they could, but for the most time they simply spent their free time together, basking in the presence of each other. It was nice, and distracted Alexa from the night that was approaching her all too soon.
At night, she would retreat to her den, and spend what precious time she could with her siblings. They had no idea what was going on, and they would never expect to be abandoned by their older sister. It made Alexa’s stomach curl tightly upon itself with guilt and fear, but she knew that she had to leave them. One day maybe, she could come back for them.
The only wolf who seemed to truly know what was going on was Sabrina. She stayed silent, but she watched her daughter in such a way that let Alexa know that she was beginning to see the changes in her mannerisms. It wasn’t as though Alexa was truly trying to hide it. The only wolves that she had to keep it from were the alphas. Her mother would never turn her in, even for something as horrible as what she was planning.
Each night, Sabrina confronted Alexa with snapping teeth and curled lips, but Alexa ignored her every time. She didn’t have the room in her life for any more emotional baggage that her mother would try to saddle onto her. It wasn’t until the night before Alexa’s departure that Sabrina regained her composure and sat down in front of Alexa in their den.
The twins had long since fallen asleep, both tucked safely into Alexa’s lap. Their little bodies were too warm, especially in the dead of summer, but she wouldn’t dare move them. Not when Sabrina was looking at her so seriously.
“Alexa, I know what you’re thinking about doing,” Sabrina said. She wouldn’t take the long way around. It was better to get right to the point. “And I want you to stop.”
“You can’t make me,” Alexa replied, turning her nose up at her mother. “And there’s nothing that you can say that will convince me otherwise. Noemi is going to be there for me, and Antony will be, too. They’ll protect me, and nothing bad will happen to us.”
Sabrina was frowning. She was less than convinced of the things that Alexa was telling her. She had seen what happened to wolves who tried to escape from the packs. It didn’t matter which of the two packs they came from, it all ended in the same way. She had hoped that Alexa’s nightmare would deter her from it all, but it didn’t seem to be having that effect on her.
“Think of your brother and sister,” she pleaded. “Not because you’ll be leaving them behind, but because of how hurt they are going to be when they see you dragged back into the pack a bloody mess. They won’t understand. They won’t know that you’re dead. They don’t understand things like that, Alexa. Don’t force them into it when they’re still just pups.”
Alexa wouldn’t lie, her mother’s words tugged on her heartstrings more than she would ever admit. Absently, she ran her fingers down her younger sister’s side, and the pup shivered against the touch. Her little nose buried against Alexa’s stomach, and she easily fell back into a deep sleep.
“That won’t happen,” Alexa said. She was more certain of it than anything else in her life. “The three of us are going to get away, and you’ll never be able to stop us. No one will ever be able to stop us. Noemi and Antony are strong. I am strong. We can make it.”
“I know you think that,” Sabrina said, a little sigh creeping into her voice, “but it just isn’t true. No one has ever done this before.”
“Just because no one has ever done it before doesn’t mean that it’s impossible,” Alexa argued. Done with the discussion, she maneuvered the twins off of her lap and set them aside. She shifted into her sleek, mottled white wolf and curled her body around their smaller ones.
She didn’t fall asleep right away, but turning herself away from Sabrina was enough to get the message across to her mother. Sabrina stayed where she was for a long time before shifting and retreating to the far side of the den. She tucked herself up tightly, using her paws to cover her nose as she drifted into sleep.
Still wide awake, Alexa listened to the breathing of her siblings and of her mother. She listened to the alphas roaming around outside, and wondered if one of them was Noemi. She knew that she should have been sleeping, for she had a long day ahead of her, but her mind was racing with millions of thoughts.
Thoughts of Antony, thoughts of Noemi, thoughts of how they were going to escape together. There was no way that the three of them would be able to get away easily, and she wouldn’t let herself be tricked into that thought.
They had a long road ahead of them, and it was one that she wasn’t looking forward to in the slightest. Alexa finally managed to close her eyes, but even then, sleep was hard to be found. Her heart was racing, and every inch of her body wanted her to throw herself into the night and run to Antony while she still had the time.
***
Alexa had never experienced such pain in her life. She had been running for what felt like hours, but she hadn’t been able to find the meeting ground. Noemi was somewhere near her, but not within her line of sight. Alexa sought her out, but whenever she picked up Noemi’s trail, she followed it into nothingness. It served only to make her more lost than she had been just a few moments before. It made her head spin as she looked around, each tree looking exactly like the other.
Noemi had gotten a bigger head start on her than the last time, and it left Alexa wandering and confused. Above her, the sky was a malicious and threatening purple. It made her stomach churn, and she could feel every bolt of energy that was traveling through the sky. The heavens were preparing themselves to rain down upon her, dumping buckets and buckets of cold rain until she was soaked through to the bone and unable to move an inch forward
Alexa barked for Noemi, but received no response. It was as though the other wolf was ignoring her, and specifically leaving her behind to be left to her own sense of direction. It was a sense that Alexa didn’t have, especially when she was so far from the pack grounds. There was nothing within sight for her to be able to use as a landmark. No rocks, no trees, no mountains in the distance. There was nothing besides trees upon trees upon trees.
She was certain that she had been traveling in circles for a lifetime when she finally burst out of the tree line and into a familiar clearing. The grass was bent under the harsh wind, and the lightning above her turned from gathering energy into strikes that touched the ground. A few struck around her, enough to charge her body and leave her fur standing on end in an uncomfortable way.
Across the clearing, two sets of golden eyes were staring at her. Even from the impossible distance she could see them boring into her body, and she let out a joyous bark. She had tried so hard to find them, and she had done it. She had done it without Noemi’s help. Maybe that had been Noemi’s plan all along.
Alexa trotted forward, her tongue lolling lazily out of her mouth as she approached the two wolves. She wasn’t sure why she was approaching them so easily. For all she knew, they were strangers. The only thing that drove her forward was the gut feeling that these wolves were Antony and Noemi.
No matter how fast she walked, eventually breaking into a sprint, it seemed as though the land grew in front of her. Some force was keeping her separated from the two of them, and when she howled out to them, her voice was swept away by the wind, taken to some other set of ears. She tried and tried to catch their attention, but the two of them were mercifully oblivious.
The first sign that something was wrong was the snapping at her heels. She could hear the teeth clicking, and feel exactly how close they were getting to closing around her leg and dragging her back towards the forest that she had tried so desperately to escape. Alexa’s feet kicked against the ground, springing up dirt as she tried to run farther and faster.
Antony and Noemi were waiting for her, standing across the field. She didn’t know when, but they had shifted into their magnificent human forms, and were looming above her like the towering oak trees in the forest. They had become giants of alphas, more so than they already were, and
it frightened her to stare up at their cold and unforgiving eyes.
Noemi’s mouth opened, and her voice boomed across the field.
“You never should have trusted me,” she sneered. She was speaking the way she used to, before she had become Alexa’s friend. “I don’t need a wolf like you in my life.” Her lip curled in a disgusting way, bearing her fangs that were dripping in blood. “You are weak. You are pathetic.”
“She’s right,” Antony scoffed.
Alexa’s brain set off an alarm, letting her know that this wasn’t truly Antony’s voice, but the alarm was quiet enough that it was drowned out by the giant Antony
“You are the weakest wolf I have ever met.” He laughed, and the sound deafened Alexa. “Why would I ever want to be with a wolf like you? I can have so much better.”
His arm snaked around Noemi’s waist, and he pulled the alpha against his body. Noemi fell against him, their bodies slotting together perfectly. Together, they would have been an unstoppable pair of alphas. Alexa could feel the truth of the statement boiling in her gut.
Behind her, the wolves that had been chasing her for so long continued to bite at her heels. One came close enough to her that she was certain that he pulled a few hairs from the back of her leg. She dared to glance over her shoulder, and felt her blood run icy cold throughout her entire body.
The wolves behind her were not truly separate wolves. They were one wolf, forming together with many heads, all with the intent of stopping Alexa in her tracks. Each of their eyes glowed a demonic red, a color that was normally only seen in the blood of prey. In that moment, the fear coursing through Alexa told her all that she needed to know.
She was their prey.
“Why are you saying things like that?” she called out to Antony and Noemi. “Why would you tell me lies like this?” she pleaded, feeling her heart break into a million pieces. Even her wolf could sense it. She knew that the two of them were doomed. The giant monster behind them would catch up and eat them alive.