Chapter Eleven

Matty sighed,

‘From what Kaiden told me, she had been kept as a house slave by the Alpha and Luna. He does not know the full story, but they starved her and she had never shifted until last night when the Alpha tried to use his Alpha powers to force her.’

All four of them were horrified by what Alpha Reynolds had done. They all knew that forcing any young Werewolf to shift was a cruel, obnoxious thing to do and only to be used in extreme circumstances. Then to use it on a half-starved, weak female who was being kept as a slave was also unjust and forbidden by the Were Council.

‘No wonder the poor little thing ran away.’

Liam huffed in empathy.

‘So Beta, how the hell are we going to find her?’

I woke up cold and stiff, wincing as I  stretched out my sore muscles before standing and using the just about usable bathroom. Splashing cold water on my face, I cupped my hands and drank some of the icy cold water to revive myself. My stomach rumbled loudly as I walked back into the main room and folded the blanket back up, replacing it under the sofa cover. Checking around the little cabin, I  made sure nothing was amiss before heading out the door and walking back up to the road.

‘I could hunt for some food for us.’

Solar spoke in my mind, but the thought of killing a small animal and eating it made me feel nauseous,

‘Human, you will have to get used to it eventually, and as I’m an apex predator, hunting and killing are in my DNA.’

Solar chuckled, and I  wrinkled my nose,

‘Can I please just get used to being a wolf first?’

Making my wolf chuckle again,

‘I guess we both need a little time to adjust.’

She told her human, and then she curled up with a huff and a grumbling stomach, leaving the stubborn creature alone to walk toward the human city they had spotted the night before.

The city was further away than I had thought, but then I was a terrible judge of distances, and to the dismay of my poor, exhausted human body, it took me more than two hours before I reached its outskirts. It would have been so much quicker to have travelled in my wolf form, but Solar was correct; I had a stubborn streak a mile wide. My stomach rumbled loudly again. I was starving, exhausted and out of ideas, so it was lucky for me that I had a wolf to help me out. Solar was patient enough to explain my new wolf powers to me, showing me how easy it was going to be to manipulate the human beings to do my bidding.

‘I thought it was only Vampyres who could control humans.’

I said, and Solar shook her head,

‘Humans are simple creatures, very easy to control when you know a few tricks.’

I yawned widely. I was so exhausted that Solar directed me to a small side street hotel and used my new powers to get us a room and food to replenish our energy levels.

Kaiden had no idea what his four Betas were planning. He had been plagued by migraines and insomnia since losing his little mate, lashing out at people when normally he had the patience of a saint. They were watching him breaking into pieces because he knew his mate was out there somewhere and not by his side as she should have been.

‘We have to find her.’

Matty said and ordered their security team to pull up as much of the CCTV from that night as they could find. The Team managed to track her to the little, derelict cabin she had slept in. Without telling Kaiden what they were doing, they headed out together and now stood in the place she had slept, scenting the area, trying to understand where she had gone.

‘She’s heading for the human city.’

Carter said as they stood in the shelter of the trees looking toward the human metropolis they all hated, it was full of bad scents, humans were such dirty creatures.

‘Come on, let’s get this over with.’

Matty shifted and trotted back into the trees, heading at a run toward the city with the other three quickly shifting into their wolves and fanning out behind him. They found her easily. Solar was so new to being a wolf that she had not known how to mask her scent to prevent them from being found; it was something the young wolves were taught by their parents or siblings. Dakota had not had anybody to teach her even the basics, after all, her so-called ‘Pack’ had not even believed she had a wolf because she had not shifted when she reached puberty. Solar huffed in her sleep, remembering all the injustices her defenceless young human had faced alone because she had been too weak to protect her. The trouble was that if she was being totally honest with herself, she really wanted to be with Kaiden. All her wolf instincts told her that they were mates and therefore her place was with him, but I was in her way. I was not about to give up my hard-fought freedom quite so easily as she would have done, but to her credit, she did scent the four males the instant they arrived at the hotel.

‘Dakota.’

The wolf hissed, groaning when I struggled to wake up from my exhausted sleep.

‘Dakota, wake up.’

She growled at me and then took the initiative, shifting quickly and then with a start she lifted her golden head, scenting the air.

‘What the fuck?’

I groaned, but then I caught the scent that Solar had already noted,

‘What is that?’

I asked her and was shocked when she began to tremble.

‘Wolves, males. Four of them.’

We tried to run, not waiting for them to come up to the room to find us looking this way and that to find our escape route.