Chapter 29 - Alpha Black

Jamie

I couldn’t really concentrate on the work. Having confiscated that dam tablet he always lugs around, I’d sent Nathaniel off for the weekend with Alice, promising to complete all of the work he normally would. Yet I couldn’t help but feel anxious, they were like fire and ice, the smallest thing would push one of them over the edge and in this case, I worried about the rings that Nate had been carrying around with him.

He was bound to scare Alice off again, and that was the last thing I wanted, not just for my best friend, but because I had Grace to think of now. We had responsibilities and duties to uphold, Grace having picked up some of the duties Alice should be, we were both constantly busy and never had enough time with each other. We coped, but it wasn’t something either of us could do for a long time.

We needed Alice and Nate to work together, we needed our Alpha and Luna.

’Beta Jamie, you better come quick, Alpha Black has just arrived, we’ve sent for a doctor,’’ a guard’s voice said, echoing through my head.

I stood, knocking the chair over and ran out of the office, ’where?’ I said, every worst scenario running through my head. They weren’t meant to come back until tonight, maybe early Monday morning if things had gone well, but it was midday. Why was he hurt? Where was Alice?

’Northern Gate to the City, he’s very destressed and keeping mentioning the Luna, what should we do?’ the guard said, and I could feel the uncertainty in his voice.

’I’ll be there in a minute,’ I replied, and I leapt down the staircase, tossing my shirt off as I went. Nearly tripping over Gina as I flicked my shoes off in the front lobby before bursting out the front door and shifting.

My paws hit the ground and I began to run, run like the pack’s life depended on it. Something didn’t feel right, not the way my stomach twisted and dropped. Not the way I saw the ambulance driving along the road in the same direction as me, the way the sirens blared, and I saw a heavy scowl planted one of the doctor’s face as he ran through a red light.

Pushing myself harder, I sprinted through the trees, and over roads, skipping through backyards and over fences until I arrived at the back wall of the city, a small gate sat with a small tower, it was normally casually guarded but the way people crowded. Something must have been wrong.

He looked like shit.

I shifted and someone handed me a pair of pants which I quickly slipped into before racing to Nate’s side.

He was covered in sweat and dirt, his skin was deathly white, nearly grey and he looked like he had crawled here. His arms shook as he clutched a drink bottle someone had given him, his soulless black eyes snapping to me when I pushed my way into the circle around him.

“What’s wrong?” I said, crouching down beside him.

“They took her, they took my mate,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“Why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you shift? Who are they? Where is she?” I said, the questions falling out of my mouth before I should stop them.

“They injected me with silver, and I can’t hear my wolf, I can’t connect to you, I can’t connect to any of you,” he said, his voice hoarse and I could see the panic in his eyes. Silver was dangerous, and either our attackers knew what they were doing, or they didn’t realise the consequences of their actions.

Even the strongest of werewolves were brought down by silver bullets, yet to have it injected into your blood stream – it was an archaic and banned practice, because if you survived, a werewolf would rather be dead than without his wolf.

“You’ll be fine,” I hushed.

’Get the fucking crowd away, and get me Patricia,’ I hissed to the guard who had called me, sending him a sharp look before turning back to Nate.

“Who took her?”

“I don’t know, I couldn’t smell them. But they weren’t from here, the way the spoke, their accents were too thick, they looked North African, maybe South Asia, Islanders, Australian.”

“Did you get a good look? We’ll pull up every security footage team,” I said placing my hand firmly on his leg and looking at him firmly.

‘I want fourteen teams of wolves patrolling the area around Alpha Black’s Cabin in the mountain range. I need a team of people to go inspect the house, get me anything and everything they might have left, take photos of everything, dust door handles, I want to find them! And get me a team at every airport, check point and dock, no wolf gets on a plane, boat, or car over our border without being checked first. For fucks sake, find our Luna.’ I said, sending the word out to the entire pack.

One of the pack doctors put his hand on my shoulder, ‘What am I dealing with?’ he asked, his voice soft and calm.

‘Silver poisoning, I think,’ I said standing and giving the doctor a nod.

He clicked his finger to his apprentice and took my place couching in front of Nate, “Alpha Black, how are you feeling,” he said.

Nate dropped his gaze from me to the aged face of the doctor, “shit,” he said dryly.

The doctor smirked, “I see you still have your wit, so I will take that as a good sign. We’ll get you started on a IV and a couple other feeds while we take you to the hospital, where we’ll give you some fresh blood. How does that sound?”

“I want my mate,” he growled, and I turned around, beginning to saunter off towards the pack house, where I saw the first patrol of guards dashing off into the woods.

“When did you get the dose?”

“Some time this morning, or last night, I’m not sure,” he growled as the assistant connected his arm to the IV bag.