Chapter 19

ALPHA RUNE

"Rune, there's so many things going on and I'd love to understand what's happening?" Carmen said when she came to see me a few days later.

"You finally decided to return after running off." I said with cold icy voice.

"I don't understand, what have I done?" She seemed confused.

"You asked to find out what's going on with me, only so you could go snitch to the others about it. Huh?"

"Don't even go there, you were really going to kill Silas and Kayvon because of some girl I've never heard of and you expect me to stand by and watch that happen?" She snarled at me. "If she has some form of voodoo over you, tell her that she's failed. I'm not going to...." I stood up and left while she was still speaking. 

I was patiently counting down to the seventh. It was not my intention to kill my best men, especially not Kayvon, after everything we've been through together. But I needed to get them to work, it's not possible that nobody saw anything. I was hopeful that they'd snap out of their coma before the seventh day, because only them could reveal the identity of the people they had fought with. 

When the seventh day finally arrived, it was a depressing, suffocating and cold day. I stood on the balcony of my private chambers, watching the sun begin its slow, agonizing descent toward the western peaks. Seven days of silence from my best men. Seven days of a hollow, aching void where Sara’s presence should have been. My skin felt too tight for my body, my wolf pacing so violently within me that my bones felt ready to snap.

There was no word from Mari, the healer which meant that there has been no change in their situation. I made a mental note to ride out to Mari's clinic early in the morning and by the moon, I was going to turn off their machine. I strongly believed that turning it off would rejig their brain and force it to wake up.

"I'm sorry for interrupting Alpha, but Elder Torin sent word." One of my domestic staff said.

I turned slowly to look at her. "And?" 

"The council is sitting, Ms. Mari, the healer has arrived. Elder Torin said something about today being the seventh day. I honestly don't know what that means." She looked like someone who had been sent to deliver a message she didn't understand, only the believe that what she's saying would somehow make sense to me.

I understood her confusion and smiled encouragingly at her. "You are not rambling in vain. Tell the elder that I said that it's about time." She nodded happily and left. 

The council chamber was already filled with the heavy scent of tension when I entered. Carmen, Elder Torin, Klaus, and Zita were huddled near the hearth, their voices a low drone that ceased the moment I stepped into the main area of the chamber. Healer Mari stood apart from them, her eyes red-rimmed from lack of sleep. She had arrived early from the clinic, likely hoping to beg for mercy one last time before the sun vanished.

"The deadline is here, Alpha," Torin began, his voice strained with age but steady with conviction. "The council has deliberated. We are unanimous. You cannot go through with this. To terminate the lives of Kayvon and Silas is to cut off your own limbs. It is an act of grief, not leadership."

"Do not lecture me on leadership," I growled, my voice a jagged edge that sliced through the room. I paced the length of the table, my shadow stretching long and monstrous against the wall. "Every second they linger in that coma is a second I am blind. If they cannot wake to tell me who took her, then their purpose has ended. My mercy has a shelf life, and it has expired."

"We are at war with an invisible enemy, Rune!" Zita countered, her hand slamming onto the table. "Killing our own will not reveal them. It only weakens us for the strike that is surely coming."

I stopped and leaned over the table, my jet-black eyes glowing an unnatural fire. "Then give me a lead. Give me a name. Give me a single direction to point my blade, and I will stay my hand. If any of you can tell me where she is, I will let them sleep for a hundred years. But if you have nothing... then I have no reason to wait."

My condition was simple. I had taken the past few days to study the science of it. Indeed, you could wake someone in coma but there are risks, which are what Mari has been trying to tell me ever since. But it was also possible that you could, by turning the machine off could force their body to wake up. 

The room fell into a suffocating silence. They looked at each other, everyone with their own thoughts, they knew I'd always do whatever I say I'll do. Carmen watched me with a gaze that was increasingly sharp, her brows concocted in a mixture of concern and a growing, bitter curiosity. Just as the silence became unbearable, Elder Torin cleared his throat.

"Ermm, there is something," he whispered. "Mari and I reviewed the site again. We focused on the scents that weren't there. Mari, tell them."

"How interesting." I was also relieved that there was a lead at least. 

Mari stepped forward, her hands twisting in her apron. "The ward didn't just smell of blood. It smelled of... nothing. A chemical void. Even Kayvon and Silas, who I believed should have powerful, distinct musks, were neutralized. It could only mean that their scent profiles were erased during the struggle."

At her explanation, everyone started looking at each other. "Smell maskers?" Zita muttered, her eyes widening. "Highly refined ones. Not the common herbs used by rogues."

It was like her statement brought awareness and knowledge to everyone. Smell maskers are not something new. Every wolf has a distinct smell, and it follows you everywhere you go. It's like your DNA, your fingerprints, it's not changeable. However, you can mask it, to hide your identity. 

"It’s a specific grade," Torin added. "A trademark of a very particular kind of alchemy."

"Round up every chemist, every modern apothecary, and every tracker who has ever handled refined maskers," I commanded, a flicker of hope—sharp and painful—igniting in my chest. "Adjourn. I want a report by dawn."

The council scattered, everyone rushing to carry out my order. It was the life of Kayvon and Silas on the line, but Carmen lingered. She watched me as I poured a glass of bourbon I knew I wouldn't drink. I couldn't eat; the very thought of food felt like swallowing stones while I knew Sara might be starving.

"Who is she, Rune?" Carmen asked, her voice tight with suppressed emotion. She had been my shadow for years, the woman who knew my every move, my every scar. Many even thought we were dating at some point. "I’ve known you since we were pups. I’ve seen you conquer territories without blinking. Now, a girl appears out of nowhere—probably a reject from a broken pack, or a girl you had a one night stand with—and you’re ready to dismantle your own council for her? Who is Sara to you?"

I didn't look at her. I couldn't explain the connection, the way the air only felt worth breathing when I knew she was safe. "She is the responsibility of this pack," I said coldly.

"Don't lie to me!" Carmen snapped, her face flushing with anger. "You’re ignoring your duties, you’re ignoring me, and you’re chasing a ghost. If she's your mate, say it. If she's a pawn, use her. But this... this obsession is making you weak, is making all of us weak."

I ignored her, staring into the amber liquid of my glass until she let out a heavy frustrated sigh and stormed out of the room. Her anger was a distant noise. All that mattered was the void where Sara should be.

The next morning, Klaus arrived with a look of grim triumph. He didn't wait for a formal greeting.

"It’s the Twilight Zone Pack," he stated, throwing a leather-bound ledger onto the table. "I’ve interviewed five independent alchemists. I went to Mari's clinic last night to get the exact smell. The specific blend of silver-root and charcoal used to mask the scent in that clinic is a trademark of their lead tracker, a man named Kaelen. It’s their signature. Nobody else uses that exact ratio. At least, that's what three of the five Alchemist I interviewed said."

My heart hammered against my ribs. Tristan. The coward had actually done it. He had crawled out of his hole to steal what I had claimed.

"Pack the vanguard," I ordered, my voice vibrating with a lethal clarity. "I want Tristan’s head on a spike by nightfall. We march on the Twilight Zone."

"Wait," Klaus interrupted. "Tristan isn't there. Our scouts report he has moved his entire primary army to the northern borderlands. He’s engaged in a bloody territorial dispute with the Moonshadow pack. He’s vulnerable, but he’s not at his home base."

"Even better," I growled, turning toward the door. "I’ll catch him in the field and tear his throat out in front of his men."

"No, Rune. Think," Carmen said, appearing in the doorway. Her anger had cooled into a sharp, tactical frost. "If the Alpha Conqueror marches openly against a pack that is already at war, the other packs will see it as an act of senseless tyranny. You’ll trigger another All-Pack War. We need to be sure Sara is actually at the Twilight Zone stronghold before we reveal our hand."

"And if she’s there suffering while I play politics?" I roared.

"You have waited this long already for 'this Sara', I'm sure you can afford to wait a little bit more." Carmen spoke with malice in her voice but you can't deny the fact that she was saying the truth.

"Send a shadow unit," Zita suggested, nodding in agreement with Carmen. "A small, elite group that cannot be traced back to the Crescent Moon. Send them to 'strengthen' the Moonshadow pack. If they can keep Tristan pinned down at the border, it gives us time to infiltrate the Twilight Zone fortress and find the girl. We need proof, Rune. If we find her there, then we have the moral right to annihilate them. Not before."

I looked at my council. They were right. It was the move of a Conqueror, not a madman. I had to be smart if I wanted her back alive.

"Fine," I conceded, my jaw tight. "Send the shadow unit. Bolster Moonshadow. Tell them to make Tristan’s life a living hell on that border. And Klaus? Prepare my personal infiltration team. We’re going to the Twilight Zone. I’m going to find my Little Miss Blue Eyes, and if I find a single bruise on her skin... I won't just kill Tristan. I’ll erase his entire bloodline from the history books."