The Intruder

The pack house was as cold as death when Luca returned. He listened to hear if his father was still up but safe for the occasional low calls of the pack house guards and the intermittent howling in the distance, all was quiet. 

Luca's footsteps thudded the ground in a perfect rhythm as he walked. A rhythm filled with sadness. With apprehension. With regret? 

He was supposed to feel better after letting his wolf loose, but the happenings of the night—his wolfless mate—kept tugging at his heart the way a crazed wolf would its own tail.

“My Lord,” the sentry greeted as he walked past them into the big house that was the pack house. Their heads bobbed down and up in unison like they had practiced it.

Their eyes glowed as Luca strode past them into the house. 

Alpha Ferguson, Luca's father, had painstakingly taken his time to select them from the most powerful and noblest of families, and their loyalty was to their Alpha.

The water from the shower gushed as Luca stood under it, his head bowed. It was necessary to clean up to erase every evidence of what had transpired tonight. 

His father's sharp nose could scent anything from miles away. It didn't help matters that his beta, Karl, had an even sharper nose. His was frighteningly sharp, and it's rumored that back in the day, he could sniff out even colors and magic.

Luca's frame shuddered as he breathed out heavily, his mind replaying the events of the night. 

The water streamed from the shower caressing his skin with its cool drippers. His heart thumped like a tomtom in a festival, hard and fast against his chest as his abandoned mate's face animated in his mind. The mate he had quietly disposed of. 

Those eyes… her hair… her scent… he couldn't get them off his head as they clouded every bit of his mind’s eye.

“You shouldn't feel bad about this,” Zak snorted as he dried himself with the white cotton towel that hung just beside the shower. “You did what you had to do. You thought of the future of the pack.”

“And at what cost?” Luca sighed his voice a low growl as he rubbed the towel vigorously against his head in a bid to dry out his hair. 

He stared into the mirror and instead of seeing himself, he saw her again—the bleeding leg… the red-stained jeans… the messy hair…

“Is there anything I could have done differently?” he sighed again, his eyes resting upon the gold chandelier that dangled overhead as he got into bed. 

“Yes actually,” Zak quipped sarcastically. “Give her a wolf.” 

“Why?” Luca muttered, passing a hand over his hair, ignoring his wolf's sarcastic remark. 

“Why? Just why? It doesn't make any sense at all. Why would the Alpha's friggin son be mated to a wolfless girl? Fucking Moon Goddess!” 

He pounded his fists into the bed. His claws ripped through the foam like pies as his wolf stirred.

The heavy breathing—Luca's inhale and exhale—filled the room as he withdrew his claws from the sheets, willing himself to calm down. This breathing exercise his mother, Cora had taught him to control his rage as a pup had come in handy one too many times.

“This is too much even for me,” he sighed, dropping back onto the bed. His eyes stared into the ceiling. He could still see her face. 

Her entire being seemed to hover around him pulsating like an energy field in his already tired mind. It didn't take too long before the stillness of the night enveloped him as he drifted away into sleep's welcoming embrace.

*******

Luca woke up with a start. The bang on the window was low enough to not cause a stir but loud enough to jolt him out of dreamland. He'd kept seeing the girl's tear-streamed face even as he slept.

He moved quickly to the side of the window, instinct guiding him. 

The bed sheets slipped to the floor in his hurry. 

His eyes glowed a bright gold in the semi-lit room as he waited like the predator he was, calmly and patiently, his claws out and his veins tingling.

The window creaked open slowly.

A booted leg came through it into the room. 

Another leg came through, then a body.

Luca's strong arms grabbed the intruder, slamming him against the wall with a force so strong the wall shook. He roared ferociously into the face of the visitor, fangs exposed and his hair standing on edge. 

The picture frame on the table close by—that had Cora's picture in it—fell down flat and the glass shattered into a million pieces on the floor.

“Good goddess!” the intruder groaned, his voice laced with pain, taken entirely aback by the force with which he had been slammed against the wall.

“Elisha?” Luca peered into his face. He released his grip on him and stepped back.

“Geez,” Elisha coughed weakly, sliding down against the wall to the floor. “What was that force, Luca?” he sputtered, blood dripping out the corners of his mouth. “You nearly killed me.”

“I nearly killed a burglar,” Luca replied, a smirk plastered across his face. “That's what the news would say in the morning.”

“You… really… think I'd start with your… bedroom if I wanted to start off a career… in burglary?” Elisha stuttered painfully, struggling to speak in between quick short breaths. “You must think so little of me.” 

He wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand. He was lucky his wolf was strong and healed him fast.

“You could have just used the front door.”

Luca extended his right hand to him. 

“Must suck to be your wolf. I can't imagine the things you put him through.”

“He's strong,” Elisha slapped his hand away. He groaned as he shuffled to his feet using the nearby table as a brace. 

“Good as new,” he announced, spreading his arms out at his sides.

“You good?” 

“Yeah, I'm really grateful for that backbreaking experience,” Elisha grunted, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. “I really needed a massage.”

Luca picked up the sheets from the floor and tossed them onto the bed. 

“You really should learn how to use the front door, Elisha. They'd let you in. You know this already.”

“I'd… rather not,” Elisha grunted curtly, pulling his jacket in place. “What would happen to my stealth training?”

Elisha was Luca's childhood and trusted friend. He had always had his back and stood up for him against the bigger kids who had tried to bully him in school. 

Being the Alpha’s son certainly did nothing to save Luca then; instead, it seemed to increase in no little way the bullies’ wrath and loathing for him. 

He was a timid kid with anger issues. Ironic.

Elisha, however, was a crude little boy who did not hesitate to hurt those who touched the things he loved. Unfortunately for those bullies, he had grown to like Luca after he'd shared his lunch with him. 

Elisha was quite the fireball, always looking for new adventures. His newly found conquest now was the zeal to build his stealth, and what better way to do it than sneaking around the most skilled and well-trained wolves in Lupestone?

"Whatever," Luca grunted a reply. He proceeded to fill him in on his escapade for the night. He skipped the part where he had asked Noah to keep her safe. No one could know. No one.

"Did you at least get her name?"

"You're missing the fucking point!"

"What would you have me ask?" Elisha snapped back at him, raising his arms over his head and dropping them in exasperation. "You found your mate and because she had no wolf, you left her to die?!”

“I did it for the pack,” Luca shrugged, his hands folded across his chest.

“Listen, man,” Elisha's voice rose, “you need to start doing shit for yourself!” He poked a finger into Luca's chest. 

“I mean, I get the whole I-am-the-Alpha’s-son bullshit and all of that, but you can only give your best when you're happy yourself! You give up way too much of yourself. Your father's beta, Karl, would be more than happy to be Alpha if you didn't exist and trust me, he'd do a fucking great job!”

Elisha's words hung over the room like icy air in winter, its weight bearing down on Luca. 

His face creased in thought, his right hand caressing his sharp jawline.

“I doubt that.” 

He had seen Karl, on many occasions, go out of his way to protect his father, the Alpha. His loyalty to his Alpha was simply a strong one that couldn't be broken easily.

“I had no idea you were a deep thinker,” Luca prodded, intentionally going for Elisha's weak spot.

“I learnt a lot from my grandma,” Elisha snarled, the sarcasm heavy in his voice. 

His boots crushed the glasses from the picture frame as he walked over them making for the window.

“Use the fucking front door, Elisha!”

But he was gone. 

His frame whole and entire slinked through the window like a wraith landing on the other side with a faint thud. 

Even as he slithered into the dark, Luca's eyes followed him watching his every movement. 

The way he moved… like a phantom. It was like nothing he had seen before. Elisha was definitely something but he didn't know what yet.