บททั้งหมดของ In Service of the Alpha: บทที่ 41 - บทที่ 50

Mara "I'll call Kelly," Johnathan says and leave the cleaning closet. "Don't leave before she's here." I’m a little hurt that Johnathan doesn’t want to come with me on a run, but I understand his reasoning. If I go into heat while we’re both in wolf form, it could end badly for me. No, I'm wrong. It will definitely end badly for me. In comparison to Aria, Dante is gigantic and if Johnathan loses control of his wolf, Dante will kill us for sure. Besides, I’ve seen what can happen when the heat haze takes a pair of wolves. It never seemed like a particularly pleasant experience for the she-wolf. I’m afraid that the scent of my heat will attract other males, though they will usually respect a mated wolf - especially the Alpha’s mate - but one can never be too careful. Especially in a place like this. Isolated and packed to the rafters with rogues. I don't want to wait for Kelly. I want to go out by myself. Johnathan promised I'd be safe here, and he also told me that I could come and

**TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER!!!! Child abuse and a short description of sexual assault. Proceed with caution. This chapter is kind of brutal.** Johnathan’s Story The boy, now the size of a fully grown man and twice as broad in the shoulders, leaned against the door and listened to his father fighting with Eli. “You have done nothing this year,” William screamed. “The humans raised the taxes again. "The council wants to incorporate our pack with Wild Winds because we haven’t paid them their dues. All you do is drink and fuck. You sell our wolves to the highest bidder and keep all the money to yourself. What kind of Alpha are you?” Today was Johnathan’s thirteenth birthday. In other wolf packs, that would be cause for celebration. He was officially a man and ready to start warrior training, but his family didn’t even notice. “Don’t yell at our son,” his mother said in a simpering little voice. “He's doing the best he can. You should know better than anyone that it’s impossib

Johnathan’s Story The boy, now a man, stood on the highest peak of the mountain - a mountain he used to love, a place that was his refuge in his darkest hours, and looked out at the ruin that used to be his home. Even from here, he could tell that the pack house was empty and crumbling. The town, once vibrant, now lay in ruins, the pretty little houses nothing more than shacks. But the place had not lost its magic. Johnathan still found it as beautiful and enchanting as the day he left. Still, the memories of the things that happened here haunted him, and if he had any say in the matter, he wouldn’t have come back here. He tried, over and over again, to ignore the gods’ commands, but he couldn’t do it anymore. After he stumbled upon a pack that was eradicated, the place burned to ashes, he knew that he had to come home. He sat next to the charred body of a pup and knew that he could no longer stand by and do nothing while the humans rampaged. *This place will become a refuge,*

MaraJohnathan switches off the torch and turns to me. He looks like an angel with the ethereal light shining behind him. “Before we do this, I need you to know a few things.”Oh now I need to know things. I feel as if I found out way too many things already tonight. My head is spinning with all the revelations people have crammed into my skull already.“Only certain… oh, well, I guess I we can call them people, can pass through to the other side.”“Okay,” I say uncertainly. “What happens to people who are not allowed to pass… or whatever?”“Bad things. Bad, bad, bad things. It all just really depends on how the Goddess feels that day. If she’s feeling generous, maybe you’ll only get an outbreak of really itchy boils.”“And if she’s in a bad mood?”“Eh well. People have caught on fire, had their skin flayed off, you know… proper smitings.”And he’s being proper flippant about it. What if the Goddess doesn’t want me to pass and she decides to flay me? Or give me a case of itchy boils?“

JohnathanThe moment we step inside the temple, the whole place lights up. Mara gasps loudly and does a complete three-sixty, looking at the cavernous entrance. “Wow,” she whispers.Her voice reverberates around the room, and disappears down one of the many dark corridors.There’s a blood-stained altar in the middle of the room, and currently it holds about a dozen scrolls, each of them several feet long, all of them filled with scribblings and drawings.Like me when I came here the first time, Mara is automatically drawn to the altar. She unrolls one of the scrolls, and with a small frown between her eyes looks at it. “Can you read it?” I ask.“No, but these drawings are a little… unsettling.”They are, and they look like cave paintings. They have no depth and the perception is all wrong. “It’s not as bad as you think,” I say. “It’s just the Lycans’ creation story.”“It looks like someone’s slaughtering this poor woman.”“I know. She’s just giving birth to the first Lycan though.” W