Chapter 4

“Alexandria. It is me, Benjamin.” I narrowed my eyes at him and growled.

“Sorry pal, but that name doesn’t ring any bells.” I debated cutting his throat and leaving or just run the fuck out of here.

I can’t waste more time. I already had decided to take my pup and search for another territory.

The male squirmed under me and tried to get away, but I didn’t let him. I was still conflicted and he might howl for his friends to come and help him.

“How do you know my name? How did you smell me?” I lowered my mouth to his ear and snarled as silently as possible.

He shivered, then swallowed audibly.

“I didn’t smell your scent I caught the scent of the moss phlox plant. I followed the scent of cannabis, Alpha Jordan used to tell us that it is the best solution to disguise our scent. And that was my clue about your identity, Alexandria. You are alpha Jordan’s daughter.”

I flinched away and stood looking at him with wide eyes. How come he knew my father?

We weren’t in any pack and lived alone among other humans. Ever since we were…….

I gasped and took a good look at him. “Benjamin?! Beta Wyde’s son?”

The male wolf smiled at me while rubbing his neck. The small cut that I had caused was already healing.

“Yes, it is me. What the odds to meet you here miles away from home.” I looked away when his eyes poured into mine.

Not an alpha act for sure, but now after knowing who he is I can’t face him again.

 It is like an old movie has begun to roll into my mind and I remembered everything that happened to my family and me.

“That place you are speaking of isn’t my home anymore. It hasn’t been for so many years now.” 

Benjamin looked at his leg, which was playing with dirt now, and frowned.

“Yeah, it has been eighteen years since the alpha left.” I growled furiously and advanced at him.

“Left?! We were kicked out like sick animals. Your new alpha gave us an ultimatum. He would challenge my father for the alpha position or he would let us go if my father did that willingly.”

I kept walking towards him and he walked backward, not taking his eyes off of me.

“For my mother and my safety, he decided to leave peacefully and no one, NO ONE, tried to interfere or say anything.” He finally hit a big tree and stopped.

I growled deeply in my throat and pushed my pheromones and my alpha aura at him, making him whimper pathetically.

“So don’t stand her in front of me and call that wretched place my home.”

My last word came out as a roar and I didn’t care that he practically folded on himself or that my voice ringed all over the place.

I always tried to stay calm for a reason. I might not be a full pledged she wolf, but in everything else, I had it worse. My emotions were amplified.

My strength was double the normal shifter. It was the goddess’ sick joke to make me a very strong alpha, who can’t shift into a wolf.

The wolf in front of me shivered and bared his neck in submission. I opened my mouth and almost closed my teeth around his fragile neck and break it, but I refrained at the last second and turned around to leave.

“They need you. You have no idea what it has been like. He………” I snarled and cut him off without turning around.

“I don’t give a fuck, Benjamin. I owe you nothing.” I started to walk again, and he followed me.

“Yes, you are right. You owe us nothing, but what about the elderly and kids? What about the people who don't know anything about your family and what happened to you? They don’t deserve to be treated like that?”

I turned and roared.

“We didn’t deserve what happened to us either, Beta. It wasn’t my fault that I’m a female alpha who doesn’t have a wolf. It wasn’t my fault that I’m a quarter shifter. It wasn’t my fucking fault to be abused and insulted for eight fucking years.”

I stood panting, eyes glowing neon green and body muscles taut. My claws were extended and my breathing was ragged.

My canine bit into my lips, and I breathed heavily. The beta, on his part, didn’t back down this time. He was shaking from anger same as me.

“This is such a pity talk. You are our alpha and none of this doesn’t matter now, Alexandria. You are just scared of Johnson. Scared that if you challenged him, he would win and humiliate you.”

I growled and was about to kill him when something moved from above us, and then the beta was on his stomach on the ground. 

A machete was digging into his throat.

I glared at Alice while gritting my teeth. I had ordered her to stay in the bunker and don’t go out from there whatever happened, but since when did she listen.

She didn’t speak; of course, she just glared at me through her ski mask. I knew what she would say anyway, so there was no need to ask.

“I told you my answer, beta. You should leave now. And if I were you, I wouldn’t say anything to your fake alpha about this brief encounter because he would kill you, nonetheless.”

“Let him go, Alice. We too should leave now.” She kept glaring at me and shook her head in a serious no.

I sighed, then closed my eyes. I counted from one to ten to relax my body and tried to get back to my Zen zone.

When I reopened my eyes again, I knew they went back to normal.

“Please alpha, just listen to me and then decide. If you said no, I will leave and forget all about what happened here.”

Alice gripped his hair tightly and turned his head from right to left a few times, then she let it drop to the ground and stood.

She sheathed her machete and folded her hands above her chest, and nodded at him.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, frustrated, and sighed.

“We don’t have time for this, Alice. We need to leave now.” She shook her head in a definite no and signed.

‘Let us listen to what he has to say, then we can leave. I had heard everything Ria. We have got nothing to lose.’

“We do Alice. We might get killed by some psychopath who uses the stupid ones as perimeter security or something." She frowned and looked at me quizzically but I didn’t elaborate.

Benjamin stood and looked at us. “I won’t tell you what happened to us after the alpha left. I will tell you about what has been happening for three years now.”

He cast his eyes down and thought for a while. 

“Ever since Johnson met that strange witch and he became more aggressive. We didn’t think of it at the time, but after the first sacrifice we started to question his sanity.”

Alice signed to me and I kept my mouth shut. She wanted me to ask him about what kind of sacrifice. But I acted like an ass and ignored her.

She huffed at me and growled; it was cute coming out of her throat.

She doesn’t have suitable vocal cords, so I took pity on her and asked. The beta looked at us, confused through it all.

“What kind of sacrifices are we talking about?” I asked impatiently, and he continued talking again.

“Sometimes they were human, others they were shifters. In the beginning, he would pick up some strays but now he chooses out of us.”

 I shrugged, not caring about what he was telling us. I was getting bored actually.

“Alpha, this time he had impregnated a sixteen years old kid and when she is due, he will kill her and the baby. The witch had promised him that this time it will work.”

This time I didn’t need Alice’s nagging to ask him. “What do you mean?”

He swallowed and looked at me with huge round eyes. “She was trying to make him an alpha.”

“What?! This is crazy. It is impossible to do that.” I shrieked like a banshee.

Is he crazy or something? You can’t turn a normal shifter into being an alpha. This power and position weren’t earned or passed from a person to another.

You need to be born as an alpha to get that power and act like one.

“I’m not sure anymore, Alexandria. Did you forget what the government had tried to do and achieve when they found out about us? Everyone knows about the super soldiers. Project alpha.”

I bit my lips in thought and started to pace. Yes, he has a point, but was that witch telling the truth or just playing the stupid male.

I stopped and opened my mouth to tell him that, but he beat me to it.

“She isn’t someone who pretends to have power or an imposter. I saw her do things Alexandria. And she is powerful. She might succeed this time. She has been trying for three years and I think this time she will finally do it. Please help me save our people.”

He pleaded and I turned away, giving him my back. I heard him say. “I’m sorry; I don’t understand what you are saying.”

Then I felt a hard poke from Alice to get my attention. “NO. We leave now. They are on their own, pup.”

She stood in front of me and signed angrily. ‘You would leave and let people get hurt. You can help them.’ I snarled at her.

“Why would I do that ha, tell me? They were the reason I had lost my parents. They turned their back on us.”

‘Those might not be the same people. You can’t punish them for something that happened eighteen years ago. Kids are dying Alexandria. You are their rightful Alpha, you must help them.’

She signed so fast that her hands were a blur. She pushed me twice, then continued signing.

‘They might be assholes Ria, but you are not.’ She finished with a deadpan.

“Look pup, as I said, they are not our problem. I have you to think about. You are my only pack, Alice, and I don’t care if all of them just vanished.” I said, fed up and irritated.

‘Ok, then I will do it by myself. I will help them.’ She signed and walked away, pulling Benjamin behind her.

I growled, annoyed. “You can’t and won’t do that Alice, I forbid it.” She stopped and glared at me.

‘It isn’t your decision to make, Alexandria. If I want to help them, I will. I’m not a bitch like you.'

I stood frozen in my place, watching her pull the beta roughly behind her and walk towards Johnson’s camp.

My heart gave a hard squeeze and I gasped. Am I really a bitch for putting her safety first or am I just scared like the beta had said?