Chapter 3: Lone Wolf

Chapter three: Lone Wolf

Elena

Flash back***

“Run, Elena, run!” I heard the sound of glass shattering in the distance and the shouts and screams of everyone outside, everything was in complete chaos. I stood at the back door of my childhood home, already in my wolf form. I tried to understand what was going on, one moment everything was peaceful and the next, war broke out.

At first, I thought I was dreaming or trapped in a horrible nightmare but when I saw the terrified look on my mother’s eyes, I knew this was real. My mother, the strong unyielding warrior she-wolf has never once showed her fear but at this moment, all I could see in her expression was terror. Our Pack was under attack and homes were catching fire. Torches were being thrown at my people as they tried to flee and find safety, the smoke from the flames filled my lungs and burnt my tissue from the inside. Who had started all of these and why?

“Run, Elena!” My mother screamed through a link message.

“I am not leaving you!” I lined her back. I was not going to leave her when our Pack was being attacked. She will die and I couldn’t bear to lose her.

“Elena, listen to me. Please run into the forest and run as fast as you can. Don’t stop moving and don’t look back. Do you understand me?” She linked me again.

“No, I can’t leave you, mother and what about my father, where is he?” I asked in the link message.

“I don’t know where your father is but I will find him and I promise that once we find him, we will be right behind you, okay? I just need you safe right now and the only way I can make sure of that is if you leave this place now.” She linked me.

I heard the collapse of a building not too far away from where I was and the screams of the people inside the building. The flames grew larger and the screams of my people grew louder.

“Search the back of the house!” A gruff voice ordered.

They were coming towards where I was and my heartbeats frantically in my chest as the terror set into my bones.

“Elena, Run! Please run while you still have time! We will come and find you! I love you like the moon loves the stars!” My mother ordered me through the link message.

Like the moon loves the stars, I echoed her words. It was a phrase we had been saying to one another since I was six years old. I felt the tears leaking through my eyes and wetting my fur. Something in her words made me feel like this was goodbye.

“Now, run and don’t look back.” She linked me again and her words echoed in my mind as I took off across the back yard. I did as I was told and pushed my legs as fast as they could carry me.

I ran straight for the tree line, hiding under the cover of the night sky and crossed into the woods. I got far away enough from my Pack that I couldn’t hear the screams but the smell of smoke and burning flame was still pungent in the air. I slowed my pace until I came to halt in the center of the forest. I had never gone beyond the forest line on my own before, this was unknown territory for me. I closed my eyes, doing my best to focus my senses and listened to my surroundings.

The forest came to life and I could hear the crickets, the bats flapping through the night. I listened for footsteps but I heard nothing and then I lifted my nose into the air, hoping to catch their special scents but I caught nothing.

“Mother? Father? Can you hear me?” I tried my link message, hoping and praying that my parents somehow managed to find their way out of the Pack.

I waited but got no responses. The link message only worked at a certain distance so I was most likely to be out of range. That was the reason I chose to believe because the alternative answer was something I didn’t want to face. I found a thick enough bush to hide. I decided to wait there for a few moments hoping that my parents would get close enough that they could send a link message to me. My mother promised me that she would come find me and she also promised that she would find my father and we all would be together again. She was coming and she had to come.

I waited and waited but I heard nothing. I knew what the reality of my situation was but I didn’t want to believe that this was my life now. I felt the sting hit my eyes and before I knew it, my vision blurred. I wanted to let out a cry and let all the pain out but I couldn’t because that would have attracted attention and that was the last thing I needed to be doing now.

“Run, Elena run and never look back.” My mother’s words echoed through my mind like a broken record and that was exactly what I did. From that day, I started running and I never stopped.

End of flashback***

“Are you alright?” Alpha Bernard’s voice brought me back out of my thoughts.

I took a few shaky breaths in and out, trying to center myself. I am alright, I wasn’t back in the Pack, I am here and it means I am safe for now. I hardly remember that night because I have trained myself to avoid thinking about what happened altogether. I did pretty well in that and I even stopped dreaming about those horrific images and sounds but once in a while, the memories would creep up like a spider at night. The memories were so vivid that it always made it feel like it happened just yesterday. It was one of those memories that would stay with me forever.

I shook my head as I realized that both Alpha Bernard and doctor Liam were staring at me. Alpha Bernard was waiting for the answer to his question and I was struggling to find the best reply to give him. Staring into his purple eyes, I was compelled to tell him the truth but it would be too dangerous. Regardless of the strange pull between us, I didn’t trust him at the moment. Alphas lived by one code only and was my life and my Pack, my Pack is my life. Their entire world revolves around their people and they are loyal to them. I don’t know if Alpha Bernard was a friend to Alpha Richard. He would be obligated by the law to hand me over to him and I couldn’t go back there.

“Your name?” He asked as he stared down at me. He was using his Alpha power and I could feel it weighing me and forcing me to comply.

“Yes……my…hmm….my name is…. Elena.” I stuttered. Doctor Liam was right about his intimidating side.

“Elena.” He tested my name on his lips.

I would have been lying if I said that I didn’t like the way my name sounded on his lips. His voice sent butterflies to my stomach and I saw the slight tilt of his lips until he changed his feature and returned back to his stoic expression.

“What Pack are you from?” He asked and I gulped.

I knew the answer to the question but I didn’t want to reply, not only because I didn’t want anyone to know the truth about me but also because that wasn’t my Pack anymore. I didn’t consider it my Pack any longer, although I may have been born into the Pack but that was the choice of fate not mine. It wasn’t my home anymore because it hasn’t been my home for the past ten years. I spent so many years running from those people and there was no way I am going to return back to them. I would rather swallow poison than go back to the Pack. I stared at my hand that was on my lap.

“Elena!” Alpha Bernard called and I flinched at his tone as I watched his features soften slightly and he sighed.

“Look, I want to help you but I can’t do that if you don’t help me. You can help me by telling me what exactly happened and you need to be honest with me, Elena. So I will ask you again, what is the name of your Pack?” He asked and I stared into his eyes.

My mother always told me that the lips may lie but the eyes never lie. I searched in his eyes for tricks, for deception that I am sure was hidden somewhere but I couldn’t find any. I wanted to tell him everything, I wanted to trust him and tell him my story so that I could stop running and finally find rest but all I knew for the last ten years was trust no one but my instincts and my wolf. I saw how people could flip a switch just like that and I couldn’t count on him not doing what others had done before. I didn’t want to lie to him either but I also wasn’t going to tell him the whole truth.

“My name is Elena and I don’t belong to any Pack. I am a lone wolf and I have lived in the forest for a long time.” I replied as I tried to keep my voice steady and heartbeat.

I had never practiced the act of lying before but hopefully, I did good enough just to convince him. He arched a brow at me.

“I don’t believe you.” He said.