Alpha Rising: The Wolf Runs
Chapter 23

ALORE

My mother is going to be pissed, and at this point my heart hurts so much that I don’t even care. I knew about the mate bond, but I didn’t know how much it felt ingrained into the very being of who I am. I feel her and I feel Kale.

Ruse helped me pull on the tethers and tell them apart and I mainly tune into what she is feeling. It makes me feel better feeling her joy of being released and free. I also catch the feelings of frustration and anger more than anything else

She grows angrier the more she is out there. I wish I knew what she was going through and how I could help. When I tune into Kale I feel his anger and relief as well.

“If you keep tuning into their feelings it is going to overwhelm you.” Ruse says leaning against the other side of the cell. I see the sadness in his eyes and I know that he wishes that he could feel her like I can and I wish that he could too.

“How long do you think it will be before the witch figures out that she isn’t here anymore?” Juniper asks cutting in.

Sighing I look at him and push some of my hair back from my head. “She will know before morning.” A thought pops into my mind. “I think I have an idea to prevent her from knowing that she mated with me.”

“What are you thinking?” Ruse says.

“I am going to try to cover the mark and mask the power behind it. I won’t be able to hold it long but just long enough for her to leave.”

“You really think that you can?” Ruse looks at me questioningly.

“I don’t know but I am going to try. She will leave us alone longer if she doesn’t suspect anything else. She will think that Krisna somehow escaped by me.”

“You’re not going to tell her about your sister?” Juniper asks.

“No. Alana wanted her not to know and for good reason. I will take all the blame for this. I would never tell on my sister.” I truly meant this and when I make it out of here I will replace her and we will have a talk. I don’t know why she never trusted me enough to tell me that she had magic.

It could be because she felt that I would tell to take some of the burden off of me. I wouldn’t have but I also see how she could think that. I was always jealous of her and her time with father. How badly I wanted to go on the boat with him and fish and spend lazy days under the sun.

Mother always said I needed to grow up and that I was needed for much more than childish wishes, but it never stopped the need in me. Never stopped me wanting to experience the sunburn from falling asleep like my sister in the grass, or running around with the kids in the village.

As I got older I started to get better than mother with magic and even some spells I knew she didn’t know. I started to leave and not come back and eventually found the guards and started working out with them. Mother figured it was easier to let me have my time and then it would be easier to convince me to come back home.

I appeased her and eventually found a good balance. Father and I were pleasant to one another and he even worked out with me but deep down I felt like when I was born with magic, I was immediately my mothers child and Alana born without becoming my fathers and even though I loved my sister we experienced two very different childhoods.

Though seeing her today and seeing what she did, I think she was practicing on the side and getting help with her magic which means father knew this the whole time and kept it from both of us as well.

Shaking my head I look at the Gamma males. “Will my heart always feel like this?” I don’t know how to describe how much I feel right now. My whole being has never felt connected to anyone like this before. The feeling is incredible and when I try to connect with them, it feels like we are molding. Like we are one.

“What you’re feeling and experiencing is something that all shifters dream about. They dream of being connected to their one true mate. When we shift it is incredible, the mind meld of our wolves is even different from the feeling you feel, they are more primal and more to the point then we are.” Ruse explains with such a look of passion that it is not hard to see the want in his eyes.

A small laugh escapes Juniper and I look at him and so does Ruse. “What is so funny?” Ruse asks him.

“Just that you’re right, our wolves are much more to the point and blunt.”

Cutting in not understanding when I see the understanding on Ruse’s face. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Smiling Juniper looks at me. “When this is all over, Renwick and Thorin think that they will just be able to walk away but if they shift at all near her and their wolf is tired of not having her, they will mark her themselves, the wolves will make sure that we are all connected. It doesn’t mean that they still won’t walk away but it will be much harder for them.”

Well at least there is something amusing that is coming from this shit hole, and another lesson that I wasn’t aware of. I thought wolves were just the person in a shifter body, not that they had their own minds.

“Did you really not know about your sister?” Juniper asks.

“No, I didn’t but I don’t blame her one bit for not telling me. Sure I am hurt but she was thinking of her freedom.” I don’t really want to get into to much personal shit about my mother with them, my childhood sucked and I don’t care to explain.

I hear Ruse humph and I turn to look at him.“Thats something you will have to get over really quick.”

“What is?”

“Not wanting to share everything. When you are melded with everyone in Krisna mate circle you will be able to know what they are thinking and how they are feeling whether you want them too or not.”

“I don’t know if I like that.” I answer.

“Well eventually it becomes easier to not invade one another’s thoughts and feelings but really there should be nothing that you want to hide, we are a family and we will live like one eventually, after this is all over with.” Hopefully.

I don’t say that out loud. I know my mother is going to try to make her come back one way or another. “Can’t you just do the spell your sister did and get us out of here?” Juniper asks.

“I don’t know how she started it. I only assisted with my magic and repeated some words. I can try to.” I close my eyes but before I even begin the chant I hear the door and in walks my mother with pure rage plastered on her face.

“Mother.” I say turning to her. She shouldn’t look this mad before she even knew her plan was failing. She pauses for a moment and her eyes immediately search out Krisna and not seeing her she moves to the second cell realizing Kale is not there either.

“What the f**k is happening?” She screams to no one in particular. “Where is she Alore.” She storms back to my cell and her hands slam against the glass. “Tell me what happened here.” The demanding tone in her voice is also masking another emotion and right now I have not a single clue as to what is happening.

She turns and starts to pace and I quickly chant the spell to mask the mark on my chest. I start to think about Alana’s words and how she put them, hoping that I will be able to repeat the spell once my mother leaves.

The spell is complicated and even saying it I know how wrong it can go. Where she learned it will be something I will ask her when I see her.

“Did your father come to see you?” My mother turns again and her eyes bore into mine making sure she doesn’t miss a single emotion in my face.

Surprise and confusion hits me first. I thought that she would be more furious about Krisna and Kale not being here, but she is fuming about father.

“No he didn’t.” I say honestly, and the moment her mouth opens I know the next question without even hearing it. I have a split second to prepare my face before she asks.

“What about Alana and Orell?”

“Neither of them.” To throw her off I ask her a question. “What has happened mother, maybe I can help.”

She ignores me and keeps pacing. The guards behind her while still as statues are fighting the disbelief and fear on their faces. I sneak a peek at both Juniper and Ruse, and the two of them seem to be completely enraptured with the way my mother seems to be falling apart.

Remembering what they said about mates, I pull on my mate bond and send a message to Krisna. Something has happened and my mother is unraveling. Don’t respond back to me. I don’t know if she is able to detect this since she is pretty powerful.

Shutting the link down again, which is something I didn’t know how to do to begin with, is not as hard as I thought. I stay silent for a moment and wonder, wait it out until my mother finally decides to spill what happened if she will actually tell me.

Stopping, she spins and faces me. “They are gone. All three of them are gone and not a single trace of where they went. Somehow, even my tracking spell is not working and you are the only one powerful enough to block me, but you can’t do that from here.”

Again, surprise hits me as she admits that I am strong like her in magic, which is something she barely acknowledges. “What do you mean, exactly?” I ask her. I knew about Alana obviously, but my father leaving as well, that doesn’t even sound right.

“Meaning Alore, they have all disappeared and so have the damn shifters, the two most important anyway.” She sneers at Juniper and Ruse. “Which means I think they took them. I am leaving here by nightfall tomorrow and won’t be back until they are found.”

My mother storms out, and I sit on the cot again and lean against the glass. “We need to get out of here. I don’t know what my mother’s plan is, but it won’t be good.”

“Well, do you think you can recreate your sister’s spell?” Juniper asks again, bringing my mind back to the fact that whatever we do we need to get out.

“I don’t know, and I can’t seem to reach Krisna.” I have been trying to relay messages to her, but it seems like I’m not doing it right. Being one of the most powerful warlocks doesn’t prepare you for meeting a shifter, and entering their world.

“She may have shut the link down.” Ruse says, running a hand through his matted, tangled hair. I lift my arm and smell myself and almost gag. I stink and I know if I do, they probably do too.

“I can try to work on it and see if I can manage to do it.” I need time and I don’t know how much time I will have. My mother is not waiting around, but the best time is when she leaves, and hopefully she leaves us here. “When she leaves, I will work on it.” I tell the two of them.

No one speaks, everyone is lost in thought and what is to come. I don’t know what is happening myself, but I know that if we don’t figure this out, we will not be getting out of here anytime soon. Everything seems to be changing quickly. Why would my father leave? Why would my sister leave when she was doing so well, hiding what she could do?

The moment my mother forced me in here is the moment both of our worlds changed. There is something that I am missing and with the feeling of more to come.

I start trying to visualize the spell like I used to do when I was training with my mother. I can’t lie and say that I didn’t learn a lot from her. One of the biggest lessons I learned was visualization of what I wanted to accomplish while learning the spell.

I start trying to picture reaching out and holding the guys hands and trying to transport us somewhere far, but the only thing I can think of is my father. I can’t be thinking about him right now but I just don’t understand why he would leave, what happened in the time that I have been here.

Focusing on Krisna and my need to get out of here, it still doesn’t feel like it would work. I need to clear my mind and focus on escaping and replaceing somewhere serene to disappear to. When nothing comes to me after a little, I start to get frustrated.

“Just clear your mind. I know it’s hard, but we are relying on you.” Juniper says in a soft tone. Listening to him, an idea pops into my head.

“You’re both Gamma males. Can you help me with clearing my mind?”

A look passes between them. “I don’t think so because we are not mated to Krisna, not full at least. I marked her but the connection to you may not be there.” Ruse says. “And you’re not a wolf. Gammas are there to help the Alpha’s and the others maintain a balance and be clear headed.”

“That is what I need.” Sighing, I look at both of them. “I’m going to start slowly and work on moving us into the same cell.” I figure if I start slow then I may get a better grasp on the spell.

“Make sure you take them as well.” Snapping my head towards the door I see guards moving in the room with needles and rope and a gag. This is not going to end very well.