5 Puppies For The Alpha
Chapter 3

Days earlier

Sasha looked over her shoulder as she ran full speed down the hallway, wary of her pursuer. Her lungs tightened and burned for air, as brown hair fussed over her eyes.

He rounded the corner, dodging a table, when the scent of his enemy was behind him. His head was a whirlwind as he thought of a plan. He felt him so close, but where, it wasn’t at his back. He couldn’t allow himself to be grabbed, not now.

A taller figure crossed the path. Sasha stopped in his tracks and tensed his muscles. He had to get away, he had to…

-Sasha, you bastard, when I catch you, you’ll see what I’ll do to you,” Axel growled, full of fury. An angry smile came out of the mouth of his older brother who was still wearing the shirt stained by some viscous liquid resulting from some prank.

-That’s if you catch me,” the younger one proclaimed.

Axel frowned knowing that no matter how fast he ran he would never catch his brother, but admit it, never.

A guard standing in the way turned to one side, leaving the way clear for the two princes to resume their usual weekly chase. Anyone who saw the scene would laugh. For their age they were still puppies. Axel was 45 years old, while his brother Sasha was about 38, although he could pass for a fairly young teenager both for his looks and his height. And it was logical, wolves reached maturity around 50 years old and had their first heat at 100.

Sasha turned down several corridors without slowing down. He was a small wolf, but agile like few others, and although the older wolf was not far behind, he lacked the neurons necessary to surpass him.

Perhaps, they were an hour longer in the fun task, they did not know. They dropped their bodies exhausted and worn out from the intense physical exertion and with flat, hard bellies roaring for a good piece of food. They were sure they would be scolded by their father for the ruckus inside the main herd mansion, but they cared little or nothing. Their father didn’t pay enough attention to them to know they were alive, sometimes he didn’t even remember their names. And Laira and Fallen, his other two siblings, didn’t escape that pattern either.

Fallen was the second of the siblings after Matias on the list, the firstborn and the alpha’s favorite. He was the quietest of the five and was always looking out for Laira, his little sister and the love of them all. And although he looked nothing like his father, he maintained traits in common with his relatives, such as chocolate hair, and excluded were his two large violet eyes, when in the males of the paternal family they remained hazel. Even the alpha had been suspicious of where she came from but the scent gave away, no matter her physique.

All five had a distinctive odor, easily identified by anyone outside the family, who would know they were related by b***d. As well as who the progenitors were.

Now the question of the century and the taboo subject in the herd: Who was the mother? None of them knew and their father would cut out the tongue of anyone who dared to mention the question.

It was only known that Matthias was granted by the womb of the one who occupied the place of queen of the herd in spite of being a male and now rested in peace, but that story had been lost in time. Now there was nothing left of that strange wolf. As if he had never existed. There were rumors that he was alive because, one thing was true, all the brothers smelled the same. The alpha denied it again and again, claiming that they belonged to different mothers, and no one was able to reply.

.

Sasha got up from the floor, straightened her clothes and held out her hand to Axel.

-Let’s go back, it’s almost time for lunch and we have to change. Father won’t like our facades,” her words showed her strained relations with the head of the family.

-Not that he was so attentive to us,” said the older cub disdainfully.

-Axel,” he reprimanded him, with them the roles were reversed, “And you smell awful, and even more so now that you’re sweaty,” he continued, mortifying him.

-What, do you like it? Do you want a hug? -He opened his arms, but his brother ducked, avoiding him and moved away.

-No more games today, peace between brothers,” Sasha added.

-I don’t want to hear that from the person who ruined my favorite shirt,” Axel adored the puppy no matter how much he did things to him. They were always together in Fallen’s care. Now the second brother didn’t have much time to spend with them, he had to make holes in his surrogate mom and stay-at-home mom schedule to take care of them. They didn’t hold anything against him, it was thanks to him that they were kept in those cold walls.

They walked back when they heard, in the distance, their father’s thunderous shout and a loud bang on the table.

-He did what? -The fury tinged the question.

The brothers knelt in a secluded corner thinking it had been about them. At their distance they could hear everything, their well-developed hearing allowed them to, and with the smell Axel had it would be impossible for them to be detected. They slowed their breathing to hide their presence. If their father was going to scold or punish them it was better to know how it would be.

-I’m sorry alpha, but it seems you can’t keep him inside any longer,” a fearful and anguished voice apologized, “I don’t care about the method, I don’t care about the method.

-I don’t care about the method, he can’t lose him,” his overbearing father did not accept the situation that afflicted the other wolf.

-That could put his life in danger,” he did not continue, the words were interrupted by footsteps in the distance.

His father had risen from where he stood.

-I pay you well to keep him alive, giving me puppies to consume his b***d as adults. Give him medicine, operate on him, sew his legs back on, but the puppy cannot die,” he said brutally.

Sasha clung to her brother with a slight tremor. It couldn’t be. His ears were deceiving him. He knew his father was cruel, but this was beyond expectations, how could he possibly do such a thing to someone, even if he was an enemy.

-At least he could send him to a better place. The dungeons don’t have the conditions for his belly, and his situation doesn’t…” the idea was rudely interrupted.

-Shut up. Your job is to take care of him as a doctor, I decide where he has to be. And remember-her father’s voice lowered so low they had trouble hearing-No one can know that the former queen of this herd is alive. You got it,” a veiled threat ran along the walls of the room.

Axel looked at Sasha with the same terrified expression. This was getting out of control. He had mentioned the queen, the only wolf who had led the pack without having the alpha genes and also being a male. The husband of the current leader. If his words were true, everything they had been told was a vile lie.

They both nodded their heads, their minds were in sync. They had to replace out what was going on in that mansion.

They walked backwards cautiously without making noise, if their father found out they had that information he would surely kill them. They walked away, but before turning to go back to their rooms, a hand fell on Axel’s shoulder.

-What are you doing here?” a familiar voice asked suspiciously.