Chapter 39: Chapter 39

ALPHA

“I swear I don’t know where the omega is. I’m loyal to you, Alpha Sloan.” Richie gasped in fear.

Alpha gazed at the trembling boy and arched an eyebrow before roaring in his face, “~Then why do I smell my female on you?!~”

Upon hearing this, both Tristan and Declan growled in anger. Alpha sensed that they had taken a fighting stance, ready to fight for their omega.

“I swear!” The boy begged. “I don’t know anything.”

“~I will ask one last time. Where is she?~” Alpha asked again, but his tone was deathly quiet this time.

The boy stopped struggling, and his whole demeanor changed. Despite being strangled, he smirked up at Alpha. “There’s no use. Her mangled body will most likely be returned to you soon enough.”

“Cocky little fucker!” Tristan growled, but he didn’t make a move to sidestep Alpha.

Alpha saw through his peripheral vision that Tristan was clenching his fists, trying to resist hitting the boy.

“~You’re going to learn that you chose the wrong side~,” Alpha whispered in his ear. He enjoyed seeing the smirk suddenly drop from the boy’s face as he dragged his struggling body out of the control booth.

“Kenny, hack his profile. There should be a trace left on his system,” Declan ordered before following them out.

Alpha wanted to teach this boy a lesson. So he made the last-minute decision to conduct the beatdown in the training gym. Those who were still in the house witnessed their alpha manhandling the boy.

Though they were all confused, no one voiced their concerns for the boy’s safety, especially with Declan and Tristan trailing behind them.

Alpha kicked open the double doors to the gym, reducing the wooden material to splinters. He kept dragging the boy until they got to the boxing ring.

For a brief moment, Alpha and Sloan’s memory of Myra sparring with Leanne and the pleasurable aftermath flashed across their mind. It made them both nostalgic and further fueled their anger.

He tossed Richie into the ring like a child discarding a rag doll. The boy’s body landed with a loud, sickening thud that knocked the wind out of him. Because of his heightened hearing, Alpha heard something snap.

As Richie coughed and groaned through his pain, Alpha grabbed the neckline of his T-shirt and ripped the fabric apart.

“I swear I don’t know anything.” The boy tried begging, forgetting that he’d already shown his hand in the whole affair.

Alpha jumped into the ring, landing heavily on his feet, seemingly shaking the room. He cracked his neck and slowly stalked toward the boy.

Richie tried crawling backward away from Alpha, but Alpha kicked him hard in the stomach, taking another breath from him.

Declan addressed the stunned audience growing inside the gym.

“For those of you gathered, Richie is a rogue spy. He’s been part of the murderous group who’ve been terrorizing the city for the past eight months.

“He also had a hand in the breach in security which resulted in the death of Toby and Adam, plus Elizabeth’s escape and the subsequent kidnapping of Omega Myra,” Declan explained.

His words got deeper and angrier as he listed Richie’s various crimes.

Disgusted growls, barks, and roars echoed through the gym, each member displaying their emotional distaste for the boy.

Richie whimpered through his pain and tried staggering to his feet. A silver dagger glinted in his hand, and he smirked at Sloan, smiling with a bloody mouth.

~Interesting that he chose now to reveal that he’s been armed all along~, Sloan thought, and Alpha grunted in agreement.

~“You’ve got one chance, and you better make it worth it, because once I get my hands around your twig of a neck, I won’t hesitate to snap it,”~ Alpha dared him, standing with his hands behind his back.

Richie tossed the blade from one hand to the other, possibly calculating his chances. Alpha could smell his fear and anxiety, and those moods only heightened his excitement for the hunt.

“A true alpha isn’t boastful,” Richie spat at Alpha, proving himself to be a real-life Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The boy was an emotional seesaw, not sure which way was up and which way was down.

~“And your ‘supposed’ alpha isn’t? He’s nothing but an egotistical murderer and a coward, hiding in the shadows while pathetic fools like you get your hands dirty.”~

Tristan heckled from the sidelines with the same amount of venom and hatred that Alpha felt for the boy.

“Your group preyed on innocent shifters and humans. Thirty-eight individuals lost their lives, some in the most heinous and brutal way imaginable. For what? A power grab within the city?”

Richie ignored Tristan’s comment and pointed the blade threateningly at Alpha. “And who gets to decide that he’s the alpha?” he growled. “Want to talk about egotistical? Take a fucking look in the motherfucking mirror.”

More growls and barks of anger responded to the boy’s disrespect of their alpha. If Richie thought he was going to gain support from the gathered group, he was sadly mistaken.

Alpha took another deep breath, searching for any other trace of Myra’s scent in the air. He wanted to make sure that all those gathered were still loyal to him and that no one was another rogue spy.

Her faint scent was still only on Richie, their Judas.

Richie took the opportunity while Alpha was sniffing the room to strike out at him. Alpha twisted out of the way, but the boy was cunning and switched the hand holding the dagger.

At the last second, Richie swung the blade across his face. Alpha felt the blade slicing through his skin, from above his right eye, across his nose, and down his left cheek.

The room got painfully quiet as they looked from the blood dripping down from the wound on their alpha’s face to the smirking boy.

“Slow, fat cunt!” Richie gloated, already celebrating his small victory of injuring the alpha. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet, producing an extra burst of adrenaline while feeling invincible.

~“That was your one and only shot.”~

Alpha’s body started to vibrate, and he started shifting before everyone’s eyes. However, even to the casual observer in the room, this shift was different.

Richie decided to take this as another opportunity to strike out at Alpha. But once he was within arm’s length, Alpha quickly disarmed the boy, knocking the dagger out of his hand, and it landed softly behind them.

Alpha’s fingers, growing longer than usual, curled around the boy’s neck. His claws dug into the skin of Richie’s neck, causing him to bleed. Alpha’s bones snapped and popped as he stretched in height.

At this point, shifters would usually hunch over, changing into their animal form, but not this time. Richie looked on in horror as Sloan’s face began to change into a mix of his human features and his wolf’s.

The eyes and bridge of his nose were the only human parts of his face. The end of his nose and mouth elongated into a wolf’s snout, with his upper and lower canines begging to rip out Richie’s throat.

His ears twitched at the slightest of sounds, and Alpha took immense pleasure in hearing the rapid beating of Richie’s thundering heartbeat.

As suddenly as the shift started, it finished. Sloan stood on his fur-covered hind legs. His jeans were ripped and shredded into pieces, allowing his tail to twitch excitedly behind him.

His torso, stomach, and upper arms still looked human, but more muscular and defined. His elbows, lower arms, and hands were covered in fur and looked like a hybrid of his human body and his wolf’s form.

Alpha stood about seven and a half feet tall, causing the boy’s legs to dangle frantically like a freshly caught fish.

Someone gasped, and Alpha turned midnight-black eyes at the gathering. Immediately, everyone dropped to their knees, baring their necks to him in submission.

Instead of basking in his powerful glory, he punched the boy in the stomach, breaking several ribs and puncturing vital organs.

“~Not only did you disrespect me as your one true alpha…~,” he said while tightening his grip around the boy’s neck.

The atmosphere in the gym turned even more frigid. Most shifters couldn’t speak verbally in their animal forms. It was shocking to hear the gravelly animal growls formulating perfect sentences.

“…~You made the grave mistake of stealing away your luna!~”

Richie’s eyes almost bulged out from both fear and the inability to breathe. He was indeed turning an interesting shade of blue. Alpha took pleasure in his discomfort.

“~Last chance. Where is she, and how many are involved?~”