Page 21 of Alpha's Heir

The house felt like a tomb as I stormed back in, grabbing my knife, my jacket. I couldn’t shake the image of her, the stubborn set of her jaw as she'd marched into the unknown.

I paused at the door, taking a deep breath, trying to stamp down the terror that clawed at my throat. I'd find her. I had to.

I stepped out, closing the door behind me with a click that sounded like a finality I wasn't ready to face. Cora was out there, somewhere, and I was about to follow, right into the gaping maw of the unknown.

The forest loomed ahead, its depths hiding my Cora somewhere within its tangled heart. I shifted, the change ripping through me, a welcome pain that sharpened my senses. I dropped to all fours, my paws digging into the earth, nose flaring for any sign of her. But it was like chasing ghosts; Cora’s scent was stitched into the fabric of the woods from days spent patrolling, our shared tracks crisscrossing the underbrush in a maddening tapestry.

“Goddamn it,” I snarled, the sound guttural and wild. I circled, nostrils filled with the scent of pine and earth, the markers of our territory. I needed something, anything that was uniquely Cora, not just the memories of her presence. But without the damned text she’d taken, I was running blind, grasping at straws that slipped through my claws.

I stood at the edge, the woods whispering secrets I couldn’t decipher, heart pounding a rhythm of dread. She was out there, alone, potentially facing down the unknown horrors we’d been fighting off for weeks. The impulse to charge in was a fire in my blood, but without direction, I was as good as lost.

“Think, Weston, think,” I urged myself, shaking my fur in frustration. She’d have left some kind of sign, something I could follow. But as I strained my senses, searching for the whisper of her trail, the air behind me fractured with screams.

My head whipped around, ears perked to the chaos erupting from the compound. Screams meant trouble, but not just any trouble – the kind that ripples through a pack and leaves scars. My chest tightened, a vise of responsibility and fear.

Smoke. The acrid burn hit my nostrils, and I could almost taste the terror coating my tongue. Fire – the one thing that could ravage our home, our safety. My pack.

I was torn, split down the middle like a log under an axe. Cora, my heart, my mate, was somewhere in the forest that seemed to breathe with a dark life of its own. And my pack, my responsibility, the lives that depended on me, were under threat.

I stood, paralyzed for a heartbeat, the need to find Cora warring with the duty etched into my bones. The pack was family, but Cora... she was my soul. The decision clawed at me, demanding a sacrifice no matter the choice.

Another scream, edged with a note of desperation that set my fur on end, decided for me. Cora was strong, resourceful, and if I knew her at all, she wouldn’t want me to let our family burn for her sake. With one last anguished look at the inscrutable forest, I made my choice.

I turned back, racing towards the compound, my paws eating up the ground. The smoke grew thicker, curling into the sky like dark fingers reaching for salvation. My mind was a whirlwind – strategy, water sources, evacuation.

I had barely cleared the tree line when the scent of charred wood and fear hit me like a truck. It wasn’t just fire – it was war. Our homes, ablaze in a conflagration stoked by betrayal and fury. And in the heart of it all, clashing with the sharp ring of metal and the primal snarls of combat, was my pack. My family.

“Fuck!” The curse exploded from me, torn from the depths of a rage that was sudden and fierce. Before I could process it, my body reacted, the shift taking hold, bones and sinew twisting, contorting. When I rose again on four legs, the world was different. Sharper. My pack needed me.

The Unseen Pack had never been bold enough for a daylight raid, let alone torching our homes. But there they were, phantoms made flesh and blood and fury, locked in a deadly dance with my own.

I launched myself into the fray, my teeth finding the throat of an attacker. It was a tangle of limbs and snarls, each second an eternity of choices. I was a protector, a fighter, a leader. With every snap of my jaws, every positioning of my body, I was that and more.

I saw Haskins, young and fierce, cornered by two of the enemy. My growl rumbled through the air, a harbinger of the storm to come. I barrelled into one, sending him sprawling, and the other turned just in time to meet my fury head-on.

A yelp, a crunch, and it was over. Haskins nodded, his eyes wide with adrenaline, and we moved on together. We were a unit, each member an extension of the other, our bonds forged in the heart of conflict.

“Weston!” Jared’s voice cut through the noise, his human form dodging a swing as he called out to me. “The community center!”

I turned, every muscle in my body coiled and ready. The community center was where we kept the nursery during the day. My heart clenched at the thought, propelling me forward with new terror.

The scene was chaos – fire licked the walls, and our defenders were outnumbered. But they fought with a desperation that came from knowing what was at stake. Pups.

Without hesitation, I threw myself at the attackers. There was no room for strategy or planning now; it was raw and instinctual. We were not just fighting for territory, but for the future of our pack.

I could hear the sharp commands being shouted by Lyla, her voice a beacon of leadership amidst the pandemonium. I fought my way to her side, our coordination wordless but flawless. An enemy leapt at her from the side, but I was faster, intercepting the threat with a powerful lunge.

The battle raged on, a storm of teeth and claws and smoke. The Unseen Pack was relentless, but they didn’t know our land like we did. They didn’t know our hearts.

I was winded, the taste of blood – not all my own – heavy on my tongue. But I couldn’t stop; we couldn’t stop. Homes could be rebuilt, but lives…

As I stood there, amidst the snarls and the heat and the desperate shouts, I knew this was far from over. We were defending our home, but I was defending my very soul. And I would keep fighting until the last ember faded into the night.

My lungs burned as I shifted back, the smoky air and the screams of rage and fear still loud in my ears. "Get water to the east side!" I yelled to anyone who would listen, my voice hoarse from smoke inhalation and growls. The once orderly compound was a nightmare of scurrying figures and the acrid stench of destruction.

I staggered forward, grabbing a discarded shirt from the ground and shrugging it over my head. "Haskins, Jared, with me," I ordered, trying to clear my head enough to make strategic decisions. They nodded, faces smeared with soot and sweat.

"Let's move, let's move!" I barked out, herding the younger wolves to form bucket lines, tossing water wherever the flames danced too lively.

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