Chapter 14

ALPHA RUNE

"Have you gotten any word from Ms Mari?" Carmen asked when she came into my study, dressed in blue bum short, a cropped top and a knee high six inches leather boot. She was the most high ranking female in my council and I was fond of her. She was dependable and resilient and smart. I've often suspected that she might but be into me but I've been respectful towards her and have been plain about everything.

"No word. It's like she just woke up and disappeared into the night." I said with with in my heart. "It's like she never existed." Carmen was the first person to talk about it after the news broke.

The silence of the Crescent Moon fortress was a lie. To my advisors, the halls were quiet, but to me, the air was screaming. It had been days since Sara—my "Little Miss Blue Eyes"—had been ripped from the sanctuary I had promised her. Every hour that passed felt like a serrated blade drawing across my skin, a slow, agonizing flaying of my sanity.

I was consumed. Not just by the cold, tactical brilliance that had earned me the title of Conqueror, but by a primal, suffocating rage that I had never known. My wolf was no longer a partner; he was a caged beast, throwing himself against the bars of my ribcage, demanding blood, demanding the scent of pine and skin that belonged only to her. I had spent years watching her from the shadows, content to be her silent guardian. Now that I had finally held her, finally felt the spark of her life return, losing her was an insult I could not endure.

"We will find Rune, I had already sent out the messengers. Your influence stretched across the territories like a web, and I have been pulling every string until they snapped. I have demanded information from the neighboring packs with a threatening consequence: They should tell us who crossed their borders, or we will cross theirs with an army." Carmen revealed and for the first time since she came, I spared a moment to look at her.

"Thank you Carmen," I had been so blinded with rage that I've not acted on the plans I've hatched in my head. "Have you made any luck?" 

"No, but we'll keep shaking all the trees something drops. The Alpha of the Silver Ridge pack had stammered excuses; the Alpha of the Iron Paw had claimed ignorance. I didn't believe them. I believe someone saw something. Someone always sees something. Mari's clinic is surrounded by many packs, it's not possible that went missing just like that." Carmen was once a proving why she was an important figure in my pack.

"Find her," I hissed at the empty air of my study, my claws digging deep into the mahogany of my desk until the wood shrieked and splintered. "Find her, or I will burn every forest from here to the sea." I ordered and stood up.

"And where are you going?" She asked with concern in her voice but apologized when I scowled at her. "I'm sorry, but are rarely here, and you no longer move with your security detail. Your enemies could choose this particular time to attack you. Now that you are distracted." 

"I'd love to see them try." I snearled. "I'd love the to be unfortunate." I threatened. 

"At least, let me come with you, so I can watch your back while you are distracted with...." She trailed off. "...you know." She gave me a forced smile.

I understood her confusion, as with every other person of the Crescent Moon pack. For a very long time, I've lived a celibate life. The only thing that mattered to me was power and gaining more power. I had no use for a woman, some even began to wonder if I was into men. Then all of a sudden, I'm showing deep passion for a stranger and moving hysterically like a mad man. They don't understand why, they've never seen her, only Kayvon knows the truth. I guess the change was too much for them to deal with. 

"Fine, you can come with me. I'm going to Mari's clinic." I couldn't stay in the fortress. The walls felt like they were closing in. 

When we got to Mari’s clinic, the scent of antiseptic and stale blood still clinging to the floorboards of the ward.

Kayvon and Silas lay side by side on narrow clinic beds, their faces pale, their breathing shallow and mechanical. They were the only witnesses. They were the only ones who had seen the faces behind the masks, who had heard the voices in the dark. And yet, they lay there in a cursed silence, trapped in the depths of a coma that refused to break. 

Werewolves call it death sleep. We believe they are awake, their wolves bare awake but their bodies and their minds needs time to heal.

"Wake them up," I commanded, my voice echoing like a thunderclap in the small room.

Mari flinched, dropping a roll of bandages. She looked at me, her eyes wide with a mixture of pity and terror. "Alpha, I have told you... the trauma they sustained was immense. Whatever the attackers used were designed to shut down the nervous system. Their minds are trying to heal."

"They have had enough time to heal," I growled, stepping toward the bed where Kayvon lay. My oldest friend. My right hand. Right now, he looked like a broken doll. "I need names, Mari. I need a location. Every second they sleep, Sara is suffering. Wake them. Use the stimulants. Use the forbidden tonics. Use modern medicine, I believe there's an injection that could wake them up. Do something, anything. I don't care what it takes."

"Rune, listen to me," Mari pleaded, stepping between me and the beds. She was a brave woman, but her voice was trembling. "To force a wolf out of a magically induced coma before the brain has re-stabilized is incredibly dangerous. You could cause permanent brain injury. They might never speak again. They might lose their memories—or their minds entirely. You would be waking husks, not men."

"Then they are husks already!" I roared, the force of my voice shaking the glass vials on the shelves. "What use are they to me like this? They were tasked with one thing—one single mission—to keep her alive. To keep her safe. They failed. In the eyes of the pack, in the eyes of the law, their lives are already forfeit for that failure."

"You don't mean that," she whispered, horrified. "They are your brothers."

"I have no brothers," I snapped, the rage blinding me to the history we shared. "I have a mate who is being tortured by ghosts, and I have two useless warriors who are sleeping while she screams. If their lives are the price for her location, I will pay it without a second thought."

"Alpha Rune!" I heard and turned to see the heavy doors of the clinic push open. Three members of my high council stepped inside, their faces grim and set in lines of deep concern. Elder Torin led them, his gray hair a stark contrast to the dark furs he wore. Carmen was with them. Now I understand why she wanted to come at all cost. 

"Carmen sent word of your... intentions," Torin said, his voice steady despite the lethal aura I was projecting. "She informed us that you intend to force the awakening of Kayvon and Silas against medical advice. She spoke of the implications—the high probability of permanent damage."

I glared at Carmen with mixed emotions. Maybe I was being irrational, but it also meant that she had told the members of high council the moment we left and they shadowed us. It was not possible to arrive at Mari's clinic this fast.

"The implications are that my mate is missing!" I snarled, pacing the small space like a trapped tiger. "The council has no say in this. This is a matter of the Alpha’s private interest."

"Mate?" Carmen exclaimed, she looked like she had been stabbed but I ignored her.

"It becomes a matter of the pack when the Alpha threatens to execute his most loyal commanders for the crime of being injured," Torin countered. He stepped closer, his eyes searching mine. "Rune, look at yourself. You are the Conqueror. You are the man who survived the Great War through patience and strategy. This... this is madness. If you destroy Kayvon and Silas, you destroy the pillars of your own strength."

"They are broken pillars!" I shouted. "If they cannot help me find Sara, they are nothing but dead weight!"

The room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence. I could see the judgment in their eyes, the fear that their leader had finally snapped. They didn't understand. None of them had felt the tether. None of them had seen the way Sara looked at the moon, as if she were waiting for a miracle. I was that miracle, and I had failed her. None of them had seen her transfer her wolf to me, even when she didn't know me.

I looked down at Kayvon’s still face. The rage was still there, burning like molten magma flowing through my veins, but gradually, reality began to settle in. I needed them. I needed their eyes, their memories. If I woke them and they were brain-damaged, I would truly have nothing.

I turned my gaze to Mari, my eyes cold and unforgiving.

"One week," I stated, the finality in my tone causing the council members to exchange uneasy glances. "I will give them seven days. Seven days for their bodies to mend, for their minds to return from whatever hell they are wandering in."

I walked to the door, pausing with my hand on the frame. I didn't look back.

"If the sun sets on the seventh day and they are still in that coma, Mari, you will step aside. I will turn off the life-support machines myself. If they cannot serve the pack by providing the truth, then they will serve the Moon Goddess in the afterlife. Their lives are tied to her discovery. Tell them that. Maybe their souls will hear it and find the strength to crawl back."

I walked out of the clinic and into the biting cold of the mountain air. I had given them a week, but I knew I wouldn't wait that long to keep searching. My resources were vast, and my patience was non-existent.

"Alpha." Carmen raced to join me. "Wait up." She pleaded just as I was about to enter my car. "I know you are disappointed that I told the council of your whereabouts. I'm only trying to help you."

"I see." I motioned for the driver to step out. He came out with a confused expression. He's been the one driving me all along. 

"And where are you going?" Carmen asked.

"I'm going for a ride, I need to clear my head." I zoomed off before she could protest.

"I’m coming for you, Little Miss Blue Eyes," I whispered to the wind. "And may the gods have mercy on whoever is holding you, because I certainly won't."