Chosen Alpha

by Rae Hendricks

  Annalise and Diane took off after the wolves as they approached a trail of bloody leaves which led to someone who was struggling, crawling with dead weight through the brush. His long dark curls and signature black coat gave him away.

  “Roan!” she called in a stern voice, which stopped him on his useless trek to who knows where. If he kept dragging his injured self around, he was going to die. It didn't seem like a wound that could be easily healed.

  Roan rolled over onto his back with a grunt, panting as he stared up through the tops of the trees. He looked defeated, and Annalise doubted he would or could put up a fight at this point. The pack members surrounded him anyway as Diane pointed her finger at his throat. She was excellent with truth spells, and that was exactly what she was using.

  The wolves growled in a defensive stance as Annalise stood over his weakened, bloody body. She noted that his wounds were numerous, some of them bite marks from a werewolf most likely. It had to be Orson.

  “I don’t want to hear any pleas or excuses right now, Roan,” Annalise told him, making sure he understood his fate was in her hands. There were no instructions about his punishment or even if she was to bring him back alive. She could end him right there if necessary. Roan nodded with a painful grunt, sweat dripping down his face from the effort to stay alive. “I want to know what happened and where Orson is. I also want to know if anyone else is responsible. If you can tell me these things, I will spare you for the sake of pleading your case to Hyacinthe.”

  “Look at the way you hold yourself,” he choked out with a laugh. “Why are you still following Hyacinthe’s rules? I never thought you would be ready to take over, but it seems I was wrong. In the meantime, it should have been me. I could have taken this coven to new heights and taught you to be so strong and powerful. No one would ever question you,” Roan seethed, causing Diane to cut off his vocal cords for a moment. He wasn’t answering any of the questions he was asked. He was riding a fine line.

  “We are all slaves to rules and traditions, Roan, even me. Now, are you going to tell me what I need to know, or does your life end here?” Annalise asked, glaring down at him with disgust.

  “I am going to die anyway. My wounds aren’t so fixable. You will find there are many secrets in all of this, one of them being that more than just witches around here can figure out magic.” Annalise felt like he was rambling crazy things. Maybe his injuries were that bad. Annalise took a risk and smoothed her hand across the air hanging above his body, healing his wounds enough that he might be able to help.

  For some reason, he looked up at her in bewilderment, almost horror, as his wounds did begin to heal. He sighed with relief then, closing his eyes for a moment, before finally speaking on the subject at hand. “There is no one else involved,” he told them first, waiting to see what their reaction was to that. Annalise was only mildly surprised, but she could see that Tamara had wavered at the news. Orson had not been sucked into anything. It was looking like this was all on him. It would be hard news to pass on to Roman and Isaiah.

  “I never thought Hyacinthe deserved to be a leader in any capacity. I thought she would have the position forever since you were not accepting to your legacy. The arrangement between Orson and I was mutually beneficial, until it wasn’t. I went a little overboard, which, in his eyes, meant that the plan was ruined. We left to regroup, but he decided to punish me instead. He left me for dead and took off. I should have known better than to trust a werewolf. He was so convincing when he came to me with his plans.”

  Annalise put her hand up to stop his words. She didn't need to hear anymore. She had heard enough. “You’re going to help us find Orson,” Annalise told him matter-of-factly. He had no say in the matter. Diane forced him to stand. He was limping and in pain, but he was healed enough that he could walk. If he tried to run off, he wouldn’t make it very far.

  Roan led them in the direction he thought Orson might have gone, possibly to another pack south of Olympia. Hector and Lacy continued to sniff for any sign of Orson, while Tamara continued the journey on foot. It wasn't too long before she began causing a problem, something Annalise had been sure she would do at some point.

  “I know Orson is capable of some pretty deplorable things,” she began, trying to keep up with Annalise and hold her attention. “I even thought that he could have something to do with this, but are we sure he is the mastermind? I mean, this is a witch who was trying to take over your coven that we are trusting to tell us the truth,” Tamara argued at Annalise.

  Annalise suspected that if Diane hadn’t shut off his vocal chords again, Roan would have something to say about Tamara’s assessment of him. She was saying it loud enough for the whole world to hear. “Don’t you understand what Diane did to him?” Annalise explained in frustration. “She used a truth spell so that he had to tell us the truth.”

  “How can you be sure it worked? I mean, not every spell ever done has gone just perfect, right?” Tamara asked incessantly, making Annalise pause and approach her angrily. Annalise was not the kind to blow up with anger. As she got so close to Tamara that their noses could touch, she felt like she could easily scratch Tamara with her nails, or perhaps her claws. That would leave a mark and teach her not to question their magical ability.

  “Don’t you ever question the ability of our magic again,” she spat through gritted teeth. Hector cleared his throat. He had turned back to human in the altercation and was ready to pull the two apart. Yes, it seems Isaiah had sent him for protection totally different from Roan and Orson.

  Annalise turned around, letting her long black hair slap against Tamara’s face. She didn't know what had gotten into her, but Tamara’s presence was just making her insane with rage at the slightest thing. She needed to let it go and focus for when they found Orson. She was sure there would be a fight.

  Soon, they were all distracted by the appearance of a smoky cloud billowing into the air. Someone had made a fire for themselves. It would make sense, considering that it was cold, even for a werewolf. “Is it him?” Annalise whispered, looking down at the two wolves. They whimpered in confirmation. Orson was only a few yards ahead. Annalise laid down a silence spell on the ground, so the crushing of the leaves would not give them away. Orson would not give up his freedom without an ugly fight, even with being outnumbered. His brazenness in masterminding the take down of an entire pack and coven let Annalise know that.

  Annalise took the head with Tamara, Diane and the three wolves flanking her. She was ready for whatever she would find as they approached the fire. Annalise froze as she came face to face with a wolf, a werewolf, her memory instantly flooding back to her all at once. The black wolf that had brutally attacked her, had stopped to stare right into her eyes. She knew now that it had been Orson the whole time. He was not just a bitter and misunderstood jerk. He was evil.

  Annalise and Diane acted quickly, knowing it was going to take a lot of power to get them out of there safely as the wolves closed in on Orson. Soon, they all found themselves in the coven’s territory, Orson pacing inside a cage and Roan bound by a magical force field of sorts. He wouldn’t be able to get out of there no matter how hard he tried.

  Annalise looked to her friend to see that she was exhausted from her use of magic. “Go home and rest,” she told her. “I have this.” Diane nodded and left, leaving Annalise to decide which one of the wolves should be the one to go back and get Isaiah. She couldn’t send Tamara because she was too emotional. “Hector, I need you to go let Isaiah and Roman know that we have their brother,” Annalise said calmly. She was feeling devastated for the two brothers and what they were about to face.

  Hector nodded and took off, running at top speed. Annalise was forced to turn her attention to the two criminals and Tamara who was shaking with nerves over everything that had been revealed so far. “Look, Tamara, you’ve got to get it together before Isaiah gets here. If this is how you feel, how do you think he's going to feel?” Annalise asked in a frantic whisper before being
greeted by Hyacinthe, coming out of the home Annalise had grown up in. It felt like a lifetime since she had been inside, when really, it had been barely over a month.

  Tamara looked over at Annalise wearily as Hyacinthe offered for them to sit in her garden and wait for the brothers to arrive. Annalise led her over to a bench and sat her down. “First thing’s first,” Hyacinthe said, almost a little too happily. “We need to sentence Roan and get that out of the way. I feel more complicated things are coming for this one.” Hyacinthe nodded in the direction of Orson. She did not look at or address him, though he growled at her in response.

  Hyacinthe looked Roan up and down as Tamara continued to shiver. “I suspect you were after leadership?” Hyacinthe asked Roan, raising her eyebrow at him as she lounged back in her wicker chair. She was so relaxed about it all. Then again, Annalise knew she had to have some hint about how it would all turn out. Her divination skills were legendary. Even Annalise herself, didn't have divination abilities as strong as Hyacinthe’s. She could read the future as well as intentions like a book sometimes.

  Roan nodded. “I was not the mastermind, though, and I helped them discover Orson,” Roan defended, looking down towards his feet. Nothing like being faced with your punishment to make a person suddenly humble.

  Hyacinthe nodded. “So be it. You will not be killed, but you get a century of confinement.” With barely a flick of her wrist, Roan disappeared from sight. It did not make Annalise flinch, since she knew what confinement meant. He would be behind a veil of sorts, in a dimensional prison where magic was all but unusable, and he would be chained and alone with the other prisoners for that century. Longer if the leader at the time his sentence was over did not see fit to release him. Tamara was looking pale.

  “I think this one needs some tea. She seems to be going into shock,” Hyacinthe commented, pointing towards Tamara. Now that Annalise thought about it, she did seem to be dangerously close to passing out. Annalise rushed inside to make a batch of herbal tea that might be able to soothe her. If Isaiah saw his mate like this while also staring at his brother in a cage, it could get ugly.

  Annalise couldn’t help but procrastinate a bit as she made the tea and poured it for Tamara, and even a little for herself. She was not looking forward to the big revelation that Orson was, in fact, the mastermind behind it all. She got the strong impression that she was going to be the strong one in all of this with the way Tamara was falling apart. There were many reasons that might take a toll on her. She would need all the time to gather all the strength she could manage.

  The sound of an ear-piercing howl rang through the forest, and she felt a crippling pain knowing that Roman and Isaiah had been told. They had been betrayed.

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