Wake-up Call

Chapter 8

Scarlett POV

“Alpha Scarlett!!!” The sound of one of my guards jolts me awake. “Alpha, patrols have picked up those unrecognizable scents again, this time along the southern border. There are two trackers heading out right now to follow the scent.” I look at the clock and see it’s 3:00 in the morning.

“How many different scents were picked up?” I ask, jumping out of bed and grabbing a pair of yoga pants.

“I don’t know, Alpha, but it was definitely more than one.” He says. I can hear the anxiety in his voice but that anxiety is sitting behind what else I hear in his voice – determination to fight for his pack.

“Thank you. Stay alert and stand your post.” I tell him as I throw on a tank top and over that, pull on a zip up hoodie sweatshirt. While we haven’t said anything to each other yet, I see Raul has woken up and obviously taking a cue from me is also throwing on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, grabbed from the dresser drawer where he keeps extra clothes.

“Cayden, Bree, Jacob, Dax!” I shout into the mind link, waking up my ranked members and including my youngest brother in the alert. “Patrols picked up the scents again, this time on the southern border. Two trackers are already on their way to follow the scents. We don’t know how many scents the patrols picked up, so Bree, send a couple of warriors after the trackers as back-up!”

“On it!” I hear her fire back in the mind link.

“Scarlett, should we awaken the entire pack?” Cayden asks.

I take a beat. We aren’t 100% certain what we’re dealing with so I don’t want to create panic…but we also don’t know how many of whatever it is that is being smelled, have been to our borders. Fuck it. Misery loves company.

“Yes. Pack-wide alert. Warriors and additional trackers be on alert and ready to go, if the alarm goes up. Bree, I know we already increased patrols, but do we have anyone else who wouldn’t mind some extra patrol hours and can get out there?” I ask as I begin running down the stairs to the main floor of the pack house. But this time, I’m not using the secret staircase that leads to my office. I’m using the main stairs so my pack can be assured that their Alpha will always be the first one to rush in to protect them.

“Yes, I can send a few more patrollers out until the shift change.” She replies, confidently.

“Emergency wake-up call! Repeat, emergency wake-up call! Warriors and trackers, be on alert and ready to move. Everyone else, stay in the packhouse or in your individual homes. Do not go out into the pack lands unless instructed to do so.” Cayden yells into the mind link, opening it up to the entire pack.

I close the mind link to the whole pack, leaving it open just for my Beta, Gamma, Delta and Lead Warrior. “Dax,” I say into the mind link, unable to believe the question I’m about to ask, “do we have any wooden stakes, garlic or holy water?” I’m now running out of the packhouse and heading to the southern border of my pack lands with Raul running right next to me. We haven’t had a chance to actually speak to each other since my guard woke me up, but I have no doubt he already knows what’s going on because he’s a smart guy and a good Alpha.

“Do those things actually work?!” He asks incredulously.

“I don’t fucking know, but it’s better than nothing!” I shout as I race to the southern border. “Cayden, you stay here and guard the pack house. Jacob, head to the houses and keep an eye on our families and retirees. Bree and Dax, you’re with me. Raul and I are headed to the southern border.”

“We’re right behind you, Scarlett!” I hear Bree at the same time that I hear “On my way!” from Jacob, and “you got it!” from Cayden.

“Cayden, call Alpha Connor and let him know what’s going on and to be on alert. Let him know that if need be, some of trackers and warriors may be crossing into pack lands and they’ll be coming in hot if they do, so there may not be time to send up a howl for permission.” Alpha Connor is the Alpha of the Midnight River Pack and our neighbor to the south. However, our packs don’t sit right up against each other as there is a “no man’s land”—land that isn’t owned by either pack—between the two that is several miles wide. I had already called him earlier when I got back to the pack house after meeting with my parents, so hopefully, he’s already had his own patrols on the lookout.

“On it.” Cayden replies and I know in my gut that he was already calling the number without my having to tell him. Again, always connected.

“Let me guess. Vampires?” Raul asks, waiting patiently until he could tell that I was done mind linking my ranked members, and easily keeping pace with me while we continue running to the southern border.

“I mean, I’m still hopeful that it could be something else, but…yeah, vampires.” I tell him just as I hear Tasha’s voice in my mind link.

“Alpha! We’re in the no man’s land between our pack and Midnight River. About a mile from Midnight River’s border. I suggest you come ASAP.” Tasha growl fiercely into the mind link.

“On my way.” I yell as shift into my wolf form without even bothering to take my clothes off, causing them to shred into pieces around me.

I hear what sounds like knuckles cracking as my claws extend and my hands go from being those of a fairly petite wolf to the paws of a large brown wolf. Even though I’m small in my human form, my wolf is also an Alpha, and as such, she’s quite large. It shocks most people when they see the size difference between my two forms. I feel the slight sting as my canine teeth extend from my gums into my mouth. And I feel enveloped in warmth as brown fur begins sprouting all over my body. Ruby’s fur is the color of a milk chocolate candy bar with a blonde, sun kissed hue, just like my hair. Her eyes, while green like mine are lighter, more the color of a peridot whereas in my human form, they are darker like emeralds. Ruby sends up a howl, alerting our patrols on the border and our wolves in no man’s land that we’re heading towards them.

Beside me and behind me, I can hear the sounds of wolves running at a gallop and I know that Raul, Bree and Dax have all shifted as well. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Bree and Raul switch places, so Bree is now beside me, with Dax on the other side and Raul is now behind me. Bree and Dax are flanking me, protecting their Alpha and Raul knew to make that swap with Bree without even being asked.

We all come to—what would be, if we were cars—a screeching halt, when we arrive at the spot where Tasha is standing with two of our pack’s warriors, Conan and Theo. Off in the distance, I can see Channing with two more warriors, Blake and Serafina. When we first arrive, all of us are in wolf form because we can communicate with each other in the mind link. That is, until I hear Phelan, Raul’s wolf chuff behind me and then nudge my side to remind me that since he’s not a member of the Crimson Snow Pack, he doesn’t have a mind link to us. I quickly shift into my human form and the others follow suit, none of us having time for modesty as we’re all nude.

“It happened again, Alpha.” Tasha begins, “We had the scent and then it just poof, disappears. This is where we lost it. Channing is down there checking to see if he can pick it up anywhere else.”

I lift my head and begin sniffing. “I smell candy. But, like sickeningly sweet candy. The kind that gives you a cavity just by looking at it.” I saw crinkling my nose. I have as much of a sweet tooth as anyone but what I’m smelling here is too much.

“Ugh.” Bree says, making a face like she’s seconding my take on it.

“Is this the same smell you picked up earlier?” Raul asks. He looks like he’s trying to breathe through his mouth and not his nose, leaving me to assume he finds the scent off-putting, too.

Tasha nods. “It’s not exactly the same, but it’s similar enough that whatever they’re from are definitely the same species if not the same…things.” She says “things” in a tone that projects both disgust and bewilderment.

“Alpha!” I hear Channing call as he approaches with Blake and Serafina. It takes just a moment before I realize he’s carrying a human over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.

“Who do you have there, Channing?” I ask, feeling my mouth go dry and the sensation of my stomach dropping, fearing the answer.

“I don’t know who he is,” Channing says as he gently places the human male on the ground. His skin is pale. So pale it’s like…it’s like he’s had his blood drained. He’s clearly dead. “but, I’m pretty sure I know what killed him.” Channing kneels beside the deceased and turns his head to one side, pointing to the man’s neck. I take a step closer even though I already know what I’m going to see.

Two puncture wounds on the man’s neck. As if left by fangs.

Chapter 9 coming soon.