Skinned

Valerie

The vehicle quickly came to a halt as we finally arrived at the side of the lake, and a nostalgic smile crept its way onto my face as I regarded the scenery in front of me.

The lake was the very place where I sought cheap solace as a pup whenever I took the hit of my father’s wrath.

Pained and lost.

I could remember myself being at a young age floating above the rippling water, letting it aimlessly drift my body around as I took in the sight of the grey sky that hovered above me.

Beta Reed would be the one to frequently haul me back into the land whenever I drifted off too far into the lake, and he would never cease to call me a reckless female.

Although I never really saw him walking around the area, it seemed that he loved to hang out at the lake as well, but he abruptly stopped when he became a juvenile and became more preoccupied trying to build up his strength.

“Let’s go, Alpha Azeil’s waiting,” Beta Reed’s voice broke me away from my reverie as he shut off the engine. Shooting a glance on my way, he hopped off the truck with me.

I followed closely behind him as we began our short walk over to the group of werewolves a few meters ahead of us.

Looking down at my feet, I scowled.

As a pup I had always loved the saturated ground beneath my bare feet, but now being an adult and wearing a good pair of shoes, I had come to hate the sensation of my heels dipping into the wet soil.

“Alpha Azeil,” Beta Reed called out as we neared our approach.

Standing with power and authority, Alpha Azeil let his grey eyes cast upon my figure to point judgement against my skin, and he feasted his sight upon the werewolf that once had the power to rip him off of his title.

I shoved my hands down into the pockets of my coat as I took a few more steps to stand beside the Beta. Looking up, I let my eyes meet the Alpha of my pack, expecting only the look of displeasure to cross over his features upon my presence.

As if smelling the air that carried my scent, his lips quickly formed into a tight line and wore a look that showed nothing but pure distaste.

He could not sense the wolf lurking beneath my skin, and he felt livid for the crime that I had committed against the blessing of his Almighty Moon.

“Valerianne,” Alpha Azeil greeted, although taking the practice of respecting the females of his pack close to his heart, he made sure to use a tone that was dripping with malice meant only for me.

I locked my jaw tight against the mention of my real name-the name given by my father. He had always known how much the sound of my real name sparked a rage within me.

“Alpha Azeil,” I bit out, and the Alpha caught my rough tone easily and released a displeased growl.

“I see you’re still rejecting the Moon’s gift?”

Moon.

I resisted the urge to laugh at the Alpha’s deep rooted hypocrisy and curled my fingers deeper into my palm to gain more control over my bursting emotions.

All the werewolves around us had their ears perked up, eyes open and refusing to blink as they reveled in the sight of another show thrown freely by their power-hungry Alpha and their stubborn Doctor.

“I’ve done this for eleven years, and I’ve grown accustomed to it. I simply do this to prevent my own personal havoc,” I smiled calmly and looked up at the sky before returning my eyes to the alpha, “I’m sure the Moon can very easily understand that. Do you as well?”

Alpha Azeil took a step forward, eyes darkening as he looked down and let his own wolf greet me personally. His upper lip curled back to flash his teeth and released a growl that reached the spine of the werewolves surrounding us, forcing them to recoil in fear and submission to the teeth of their one, untrue Alpha.

Fingers clawing deeper into my palm, I eyed the Alpha with clenched teeth and a rigid stand. The need to submit was spreading like wildfire throughout my mind as the fear began to break down my resolve. I didn’t want to concede, but I knew I was fighting a war without a weapon.

I have no wolf, therefore I have no fight.

With a beaten pride, my eyes slowly fell from Alpha Azeil and turned my head to the side, shoulders hunched as I carried the agony of my weakness.

“Know your place, female,” Alpha Azeil snarled.

The sound of chains being dragged had my eyes going behind the raging Alpha in front of me, and my breath hitched at the sight of a large man laying flat on the dirty ground.

With the man’s taut figure bloodied, bruised, and weak, he was wrapped around in thick silver chains that bound him down into place.

And I realized that it was not the alpha that sent the intimidation to consume me, but it was the unconscious man behind him.

Despite his unconscious state, the threat of him was loud and purposive, with the strength of its influence frighteningly hard to ignore as it kept its pure promise of savagery.

As if a beast taking refuge within his body still remained awake and watching.

Stepping aside from Alpha Azeil, I approached the man and crouched down to closely observe the creature.

A frown settled itself upon my face as the foreign smell of him greeted my nose; he did not carry the essence of a wolf.

“He’s not one like us,” I confirmed monotonously and let my quivering fingers brush against his strong jaw before letting it slide down his neck to check for his pulse.

I noticed him shudder from my touch, making all the werewolves take a cautious step back and the alpha to take on a defensive stance.

He was bewitching.

His dark hair had been cut short into a buzz cut, and I didn’t miss the horrible stitches on the back of his head. His eyes were closed and his full lips were slightly parted as he took and released heavy, controlled breaths, and I could just smell a small trace of the metallic scent of blood carried by the air leaving his mouth.

From the discomfort given by the silver chains wrapped tightly around his built physique, he would writhe for a few moments before settling down completely, and it was almost hard not to notice the way his muscular back rippled from the basic form of movement as he searched for a position that did not bring him too much pain.

I pulled my hand away from his pulse and looked over at his bloodied hands tied tightly against his back before tracing a finger on his large open palm to bring the blood closer to my nose.

It was not his blood.

“His pulse overstepped a werewolf’s,” I informed the Alpha and the Beta standing on guard behind me, “and he bears the rotten blood of something I do not know yet.”

Silence. That was what I received in response to the information I had given the werewolves.

“I can’t figure out what he is,” I said truthfully and raised to my feet with a perplexed look etched on my face.

“Well, we don’t know what it is, but we know it’s a threat to this pack,” Alpha Azeil stated, to which many of the werewolves were quick to agree with.

Anything that an Alpha says, always goes.

He approached the unconscious man and let his boot land harshly against the man’s head, planting his face deeper into the wet ground.

“And when there’s a threat to my pack,” Alpha Azeil paused and let his wild grey eyes meet mine for a brief moment before adding pressure against the head of the man, “I dispose of it.”

I was very familiar with the look burning wildly within his eyes. His own insecurities were completely fueled by his wolf’s greed, and he welcomed it completely.

Alpha Aziel knew that the man beneath his boot could take him down without any sign of labor and he was afraid of that hard truth.

And an Alpha deeply driven by hierarchy, will always do everything in his power to keep his authority.

“Stop,” I scowled at the Alpha. If I did not speak any further, I’m sure he would end the outsider without a thought. He was determined to end the threat, not for his own pack, but mainly for the reign he held dear to him.

He couldn’t see through the situation, blinded by his greed as his wolf bristled with hostility, and the emotion alone begged not to be crossed.

But I still did.

“If you will kill this man, then you shouldn’t... not yet at least.”

“What fucking point are you trying to make, Valerie?” Alpha Azeil questioned roughly, his wolf already at the brink of breaking past his skin, even the tone of his voice became deeper.

“I know he’s a threat, but we have to figure him out and observe the core of his power,” I said. “who knows how many there are like him, Alpha Azeil. There could be hundreds of these creatures, and we will not stand a chance against them when we do not have any form of idea about their weaknesses.”

“She’s right, Azeil,” Beta Reed looked over at the Alpha, his own eyes screaming at Azeil to keep away the wolf within him.

“This is an opportunity, Alpha Azeil, it’s better we take it before it’s too late,” I cautiously added.

Alpha Azeil looked like the idea crossed his mind just fine, and the rumbling coming deep from his chest began to lose its volume until it completely disappeared along with the darkness shielding his eyes.

“I just need to observe him,” I eyed the sleeping creature, “and I’ll take preventative measures just to keep him from possibly hurting other werewolves, you have my word.”

“I will not let any werewolf or pups to go anywhere near this thing,” Alpha Azeil snarled at the man beneath him, “when he stays under your supervision, he will stay heavily sedated and weak, because when I see him walking around my pack, I will make sure that all the werewolves will witness his heart being ripped out of his chest.”

“Throw it in the truck,” Alpha Azeil quickly ordered the werewolves, words dripping with contempt as he eyed what was laying before him.

Upon the Alpha’s firm orders, three werewolves were quick to heed his words, circling the unconscious man as they flipped him over to lay on his back before putting their hands underneath him, and all the air quickly left my lungs as I took in the disturbing sight of his entire physique bearing his ruination.

The body of him was a canvas painted with the bleeding image of violence.

I could almost taste the pain gradually eating the life out of him with dozens of bullet holes scattered all over his torso, and I was certain that the only thing keeping him breathing was the foreign beast taking refuge beneath his skin.

The three werewolves attempting to carry him to the back of the truck immediately broke into a sweat; the strength of three omegas combined failing to outweigh the man made up of two hundred pounds of muscle.

And that was a clear given proof that Alpha Azeil had deprived his werewolves of proper training.

Weak. Tactless. Inefficient.

The sight alone brought me a strong feeling of disgrace for the pack I was born in.

I wanted to say something, to tell them to go easy on the heavily injured outsider, but I couldn’t push my luck with the Alpha any longer; his consideration could only go so far.

Each attempt to lift the man up further opened up his unsealing wounds, and I could catch every pained hitch of his breath and grit of his teeth at the numerous amount of failed attempts.

It was unbearable for me to see the blood drawing out of his injuries, and from the number of them he deliberately carried, I knew that he was not going to last long unless he was taken under my immediate care.

It was at that moment that I felt an odd tightening within my chest, and I had to clench my hands into tight fists to keep myself from landing a hard punch each on the trio of mutts incessantly trying to lift him off the ground, paying no regard to the blood already staining their hands.

“Don’t, please.”

The sound was weak, light enough that it could be the wind. His voice so quiet and devoid of strength that my ears were lucky to have been perked up to be able to hear it.

“Stop, don’t touch him,” I snarled at the three men. “He’s in too much pain, the chains need to be removed.”

It was after my words that Alpha Azeil found his turn to release a low guttural sound that expressed his contempt for the simple idea. “That thing is not going anywhere unbound,” he spat, putting a great deal of emphasis on how he saw the man before him. “You forget that you’re taking an enemy into our pack, Doctor.”

“He’d already be dead before they even put him in the truck,” this time I couldn’t hold back the rise of my voice, I turned my head over to the three werewolves with their shoulders tensed and their spines rigid, and a scowl merely settled itself upon my face as I witnessed them turn tail in shame of their poorly limited strength.

Useless... beyond repair.

“Reed,” Alpha Azeil called out, and his Beta was quick to act by lending a helping hand for the carry.

The Alpha turned to me and abruptly took me off guard as his wolf surged close underneath his skin, his lips curling back to reveal the sharpness of his threat; the very teeth that held power over my throat of life.

The Alpha wants to make a point.

I let my eyes cast downward in forced submission, swallowing down the impending cry of fear from leaving my lips as my body instinctively curled within itself.

“That creature will spend no less than four hours within your care and he well be thrown into the cell where he truly belongs. You do your job as the doctor of this pack, and I do mine,” Alpha Azeil snarled. “Are we clear?”

I refused to look at the Alpha and focused on the lake instead, “Yes, Alpha Azeil, we’re clear.”