Lycanthropy
Chapter Sixty

Lying awake, looking at her:

I’m furious, I’m confused, I’m in love…

She is my everything, yet I’m torn that I can’t have pups with my mate. I don’t blame her, she has explained to me that it happened within the first week that she has been sold to her master. She said that every girl who got bought by Milos was sterilised, but due to not being able to sterilize her, she assumed that was the reason that they had used wolfsbane or silver to not make her uterus heal properly. Making it that far damaged now, that it can’t carry a baby.

I know that I had avoided her for a few days, and I now hated myself for doing that. I have to realise that she is devastated as well, I can feel her emotions through our bond, and our wolves have been talking to each other too.

She is sleeping, finally, after squirming around on her side of the bed, for quite some time. She is the strongest person I know, and I know that she will get through this, together with me. But right now her mind is overflooding with feelings and confusion. There must be a way to relieve some stress for her.

So far, she isn’t truly part of my pack yet, as I haven’t arranged for a ceremony to join her in. But right now it is not possible either as she is still Alpha of her other six packs. I hope her sister can arrange to replace some new Alphas soon, so Emerson can focus on that for a while. Maybe it will drag her mind away from the knowledge of losing the ability to grant our life with pups.

Maybe I’ll take her for a tour to the black-sand-volcanoes, or the hot geysers and water pools. Yes, the hot water might be able to relax her for a while, and in the evening we can travel to the mountains and watch the coloured skies at night.

With the plan in mind, I was trying to get some sleep, as I wasn’t able to get into it either. I had felt a strange pain in the back of my mind, but couldn’t place where it came from or what it had meant.

“Alpha, sorry to disturb you, but we have a serious problem.” My Gamma with the night-shift said.

“What is it?”

“We’ve just found three of our patrolling wolves, right outside our eastern border. They have suffered attack and are barely alive.”

“I’m coming!” I yelled to him.

“Emerson, wake up love, I need you to help me.” I awoke her.

In the first place I thought about letting her sleep, as she might need it. But she is an Alpha and her strength and nose can help with this a lot. Besides, I doubt that she would have appreciated it, to let her stay here while I investigate this issue. She is at her full strength again, only distracted.

She had woken up and I explained to her what was going on. In the meantime where she got dressed, I had fixed us some quick coffee and upon driving towards my eastern border, we drank it, to at least stay awake a little while longer.

When close, we stepped out of the truck and walked the last bit towards our warriors.

The three attacked warriors, one female and two males, lied on stretchers, being treated with first aid by our pack doctor. They all looked awful, as their skin is drained from life, looking pale underneath the light of some cars. Their lips are dry and their eyes lay deep in their sockets, even their muscles look drained and their skin looks like a vacuum-sucked plastic bag.

But even as they looked like this, they had not any lacerations, or other wounds that could explain how most of their blood had left their bodies. Nor were they able to be spoken too, as their unconscious states prevented them from it.

“I have to take them to the hospital, and run all tests Alpha. There has to be a reason.” Kari the doctor had said, while supplying all three of them with IV’s and fresh blood.

“Thanks Kari, then we will search around here for clues.” I replied.

Kari smiled gently towards Emerson and me. She is the one that examined Emerson when her stomach ache began. She has the obligation to not tell anyone about Emerson’s situation, and only told the curious people that their Luna had only fainted, but that there was nothing serious.

We both nodded and I saw Emerson trying to keep her emotions at bay, before we began our search.

Checking the surroundings:

Aron had awoken me, which I was glad about, even though it is in the middle of the night. At least he isn't acting like I'm a fragile person, he wants me near because I'm strong and very capable of searching for clues with him.

Of course I'm still torn, and wanted to sleep my time away, but this attack is keeping my mind occupied as well. So, I'm embracing every distraction right now.

The three attacked warriors were taken away in the trucks of the doctor and some wolves, while Aron, me and some other warriors stayed here to replace out how this could have happened. And more importantly, who they came across with.

I got this eerie feeling that it wasn’t just anything that had happened, that this was something more than we could handle ourselves. But before my intuition has been confirmed, we have to search for clues first.

I walked with Aron, and we took a perimeter of at least a twenty mile radius, around where the three warriors were found. We started at the place where they assumedly had been fighting, and the grass with their footprints led us to the centre. Once there I could smell the stench of iron all around. Iron that normally resides within blood, was now defiling the fresh air around us. It was clear that our warriors had been ‘drained’ from their blood at this place, and I guess that they had been so, by surprise, as there were no marks on the grass or broken twigs or scratches from claws anywhere.

And if it were by surprise, all three wolves were together, so there must at least have been three attackers too. There was no possible way that all three of them could have been separately attacked, while the others didn’t know about it.

I strained my ears, to replace if the assailants were still close, and looked up the mountain. I had a gut feeling that they still were here, but I couldn’t detect anything.

“I can feel them being close.” I linked Aron.

“Yes, I got the same feeling, as if they are constantly behind us.” He replied.

He had the same feeling as I did, and he already deduced himself as well, that there should be more than one. I love that I don’t have to explain myself, and that he can follow my thoughts so easily.

Suddenly we both heard a howl, we shifted on the spot and ran as fast as we could towards the alarming sound.

We stumbled upon a naked warrior, who apparently just shifted back to human.

“Where is the rest of your scouting group?” Aron asked him, after shifting back.

“I, I,…. I, I,…” The warrior stuttered.

“Tell me!” Aron roared and shook his shoulders, to force him to come back to his senses.

“They were all taken, but it went so quickly I couldn’t see what happened! I really don’t know Alpha, please!” He begged, while dropping to the ground.

The warrior took his head in his hands and sobbed in disbelief. He was blaming himself for the loss of his packmates. And right now, he is begging the Goddess to take his life, instead of those four that had been taken just now.

All I can think about is that our search for the attackers, was just a distraction, to be able to get even more warriors, and take them to whatever place the monsters came from.