Alpha Nicholas
Chapter 29 –

Alpha Nicholas 12 years old

"Come on, Nicky. It'll be fun!" My best friend Tony whines. We're sitting in the breakfast hall filling our stomachs before school. There's a school field trip today only he doesn't want to go, and neither do Ryan, Cole, or Adrian. We all attend high school in the local town which holds a mixture of students including humans, werewolves, and even some witches and while both the werewolves and witches are fully aware of each other's presence, the humans have no idea about any supernatural existence and that's just how we like it. There has to be an extreme reason for telling a human that you are supernatural or you can get in serious trouble.

"I don't see how going into another territory intentionally looking for a Rogue pack is fun. Have you forgotten how dangerous they can be?" I see the flicker of pain flash across Ryan's face and as much as I don't want to drag up his painful memories, I need to make Tony think about this. Ryan's dad was killed by Rogues while on border duty 2 years ago and I know it's left him brokenhearted. And while I understand Tony's reasons for wanting to go there, it's still a fucking crazy idea.

"Since when did you become so sensible?" Tony asks with a hint of amusement in his tone. I get why he asked I'm usually the first one to be up for doing anything but I recently started my Alpha training and already it's opening my eyes. Yes, I'm only 12 and I won't take over the Alpha position until I am at least 18 years old but between school, family, and some chill time there's not a lot of time left for training and with so much to learn our training starts early.

"Since Dada Alpha started training him to be a big and strong Alpha man," Cole says while flexing his muscles and wiggling his eyebrows. The whole table erupts into laughter myself included while I playfully punch him in the arm. "You're such an ass!" He shrugs while still having a huge smirk across his face. I have been best friends with these guys since we were all pups in nursery and one day they will all be my warriors.

"You wait smart ass. The day will come when I will make you regret those words!" Suddenly he stops smirking and gulps as he swallows back what would have been his next smart-ass comment and once again the whole table bursts into laughter. Even though I will be his Alpha, I will never treat them badly unless there is a need which would mean something bad has happened but... Well, he doesn't need to know that, and I'm going to enjoy teasing him about it for the next few years at least.

Tony lets out a sigh as he pushes away his half-eaten plate of food. "It's ok, I get it, I do. You need to be more careful than the rest of us. You're going to be Alpha one day and your pack needs you but me... my dad... we need answers. We need to know if the rumors are true. We need to know if she's still alive, and I'm willing to risk my life to replace out. As long as I get the information back to my dad then I don't care what happens to me but none of you should risk you selves for this and I was stupid to even ask you." Tony's mother disappeared 8 months ago and the rumour mill has been rife. While some believe that she is dead, there are also a lot of people who suspect there's more to it. The official story is that she was killed by Rogues while out on a run. It's assumed that she must have gone past the border but there's one rather big problem with that story and that's the fact that her body was never found.

From what I have learned about Rogues, they are nasty dirty creatures who like nothing more than to cause havoc and as much pain as possible, and more than anything they love to brag, so if they manage to kill a wolf from a pack they always, always make sure to dump the body by the border so that it can be found and the pack can know that Rogues managed to take one of their members so you see, that's why the story of her being killed by them doesn't sit right with a lot of people, myself, my dad, Tony, and his dad included. However, the other rumours that are floating about are almost insane and I'm not quite sure I believe those either, or better still I don't want to nor does most of the pack. The biggest rumour is that she left our pack and her mate and pup to go and live with a pack of Rogues which granted can happen, it's very rare but sometimes a wolf can feel like they don't fit in with a pack and can decide to go Rogue but if the rumours about the pack that it's said she has gone to are true then I'm not sure how Tony's dad will cope, Tony either for that matter.

The pack in question is rumoured to be a very ruthless, dangerous, and just plain sick pack. It's said that they kidnap wolves between the ages of 11-16 and she-wolves between the ages of 13-16 for breeding. Yep, according to a long-known rumour, they run a breeding mill to keep Rogue numbers up. I know it may sound confusing but the basics of it is that if they have any women who are ready for breeding they pull in males to produce them and the same goes for when they have men ready to have children they pull in she-wolves.

I know what you're thinking, why don't they just have pups with each other? Well, this particular group is all bloody family which is why they need help in keeping up their numbers. As for the fact that they only pull in teenagers well, that's just because they are plain sick and need putting down. Many packs around the world would happily put them down, ours included but after decades of searching they've never been found and it's frustrating because only last week another teenager went missing just 8 hours away from here and we suspect it was them but once again, they are nowhere to be found.

I've known Tony's mom, Lucy all my life and I just can't imagine her doing something like that but I could be wrong and I hate it because if we ever found out it was true it could cause a world of heartache. "I get why you need to do this, Tony, and I'm in," Ryan says and it shocks me. I thought he would be the last one to want to do this. "You don't have to, Ry. I understand, I promise." Ryan doesn't let Tony say anymore, one thing about Ryan is once he makes a decision he sticks to it, no matter what. "I'm in." Even if I think it's a bad idea I'm not going to let my best friends do this without me.

"Me too," Adrian grunts.

"And me," Cole says meaning all five of us will be getting off the school bus and heading in a different direction to our class.

"You know we're all in for a world of shit when our parents replace out, right?" Ryan says not looking sorry one bit, and as it turns out we all feel the same. If this is what Tony needs to do then we'll happily take the punishment for our actions. "What is it about this group of Rogues that has you interested?" It is something I've been thinking about since he mentioned it yesterday to us on our way home from school. "We've known of loads of packs to turn up locally and several hours away but you've never shown an interest in any before."

"Do you remember back when my mom first... went missing, how I told you that dad and I had reached out to some wolves that we knew from other packs and had given them her description so they could keep a look out for her?" I nod as I take a bite of my bacon. "Even after it was said that she was dead we asked them to still keep an eye out because we didn't have a body. Well, yesterday one of them called me during lunch at school. He told me that he has heard from several people of a woman matching her description with a group of Rogues that arrived in that area just a few weeks ago." Fuck!

"He offered to try and get a picture sent to me but..."

"But either way, you need to see for yourself?" I already know the answer but still, I ask.

"Yeah, I do. I'm not saying I just plan on storming into their camp. If I can just figure out if she's there or not then I will come back without doing anything and talk to my dad and the Alpha."

"Ok, well, then we better get to school, don't want to miss the bus."

We all get up and quickly head out. I've got a sinking feeling in my stomach, it's been there since we started talking about this during breakfast and it won't go away. On top of that, I'm struggling with the fact that Tony had this phone call yesterday and our field trip is just a 2-hour walk away from where his mother has supposedly been spotted. It seems too much of a coincidence to me and maybe it is my overactive Alpha mind running wild but it feels too good to be true and somehow I already know that things won't go as simple as Tony wants to believe.

The bus ride to some half-blown-up castle that we are supposed to to learn about was long. I usually replace the bus rides to field trips exciting but my mind is elsewhere. As soon as we get off the bus we immediately gravitate to the back of the line. There are two different classes here from our school and luckily for us, the younger class includes Cole's brother who we have already paid to cause a scene before we get to the castle so we can run. Jamie is known for being a terror and didn't even care about why we wanted to leave the group, he's always happy to cause mayhem, and being paid to do it is just an added bonus for him.

Shouting draws our attention to the front of the line where Jamie has dramatically fallen over and is screaming bloody murder, that boy deserves an Ascor award. Unfortunately, we don't have time to stay around and watch the scene unfold. We need to get our asses away from here and quickly. "Let's go," I whisper yell and we haul our asses towards the narrow lane that will lead us to where we want to go. Goddess, please look after us.