The Alpha's Dilemma

My eyes jolted awake and my body shuddered with great tremor as if a high voltage had coursed through me. My eyes refused to squint at the beautiful morning rays illuminating my king size room. My chest heaved up and down in a heavy manner. Something had left me. Something deep, a greater part of me. I could feel that void growing within me by the seconds, eating me inside out. 

“Aries…” I whispered, calling unto my wolf spirit but no answer came forth. “Aries!” I raised my voice affirmatively but it was still hopeless and then it dawned on me that the greatest horror of my life had birthed. 

I sat up on my bed staring at the bed sheets with a confused look, my lips twitched repeatedly and my breaths became heavier by the moment as the truth became more and more obvious. 

I had lost my wolf. Aries was gone, I didn’t know how but I could feel the void he once occupied. My body began trembling all over again, sweats began to crawl out of my skin even though the atmosphere was extremely chilled and my heart pounded like it was going to explode out of my rib cage. 

“Aries!” I yelled but only the wind answered me. “Aries!” I cried whilst battling with several thoughts. I jumped from my bed, dashing to the door as much as I could. I lacked the usual strength and speed I always had. My senses were operating on a much duller level. 

“Mom!” I yelled as I threaded restlessly across one of the magnificent hallways of The Silver Clawers Pack house. “Mom!” My voice arose on a much higher pitch as I barged into her room. There she was, trying out her new necklace, the one I had bought for her hundred and fifty two birthday. The beautiful glow her young face had vanished immediately her eyes met mine. 

“What’s wrong Aaron?” She asked almost immediately and I panted like an animal on heat. Her worries deepened, she left her mirror and sauntered towards me.

“Mom…” My voice escaped in a broken fashion while a tear trickled across my face. 

“Aaron, you’re beginning to scare me. what’s wrong?” 

“I can’t feel Aries, mom.” I stammered as another tear trickled across my cheek. My body wouldn’t stop trembling and my fears felt like they were breaking new heights. She held my left arm with her lips slightly parted. 

“What do you mean you can’t feel Aries?” 

“I don’t know! I can’t explain it. All I know is that I can't feel my wolf. I can’t feel Aries, Aries is gone mom. My wolf is gone.” 

“The moon goddess forbids it!” She declared. Her grip on me tightened in a gentle manner while her perfect honey irises gleamed with deep worry. She donned an awed look like she had just seen a ghost. Her lips twitched again and I could feel her hand that held me trembling. Knowing all these things alone, further dissuaded me. 

“This can’t happen to you. This can’t be happening to you!” She pitched but her voice lacked enough conviction itself. 

“I don’t know mom. I don’t know how to explain but I can feel it. I’m empty inside, my senses are dulled and I lack my usual power. It is like I’m basically a human, mom. I don’t know what is happening to me.” I cried further and she gasped.

“Aaron, calm down.” She held my cheek in a dear fashion. Fear was clearly written in her countenance but she still maintained her stance regardless. 

“Mom, what is happening to me?” I asked in an impatient manner even though I didn’t expect her to have an answer to my problem. 

She wriggled her head while her lips twitched, her nose flared for a split second before she finally admitted to the obvious words. 

“I don’t know Aaron.” She mumbled with a highly depressed tone. “I don’t know.” she asserted again but this time in a whisper. 

I heaved a deep sigh hoping my raging heart would calm but it did otherwise instead. 

“We need to see the Pack doctor.” She chirped and I nodded like a child. “And I want you to know that no matter what happens, you haven’t lost your wolf. Irene must have a logical explanation for this. She’s going to fix this I promise. So be calm okay?” she beckoned me gently and I nodded once again. She then pulled my trembling status out of her room. As we threaded briskly across the hallway, I noticed she was cautious. If only my senses weren’t dull, I could have tried to listen to her heartbeat which must probably be thumping like crazy. At the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder why this was happening to me. I couldn’t find any reasonable explanation for what happened. Last night, Aries and I still communicated about how excited we were about today’s events. But today, he was gone. Like he had vanished into thin air. 

We finally got to Helen’s house which was just a few meters away from our gigantic Pack house. The first thing that welcomed me was the scent of her garden surrounding her tiny home. 

My mother heaved a deep sigh as she knocked gently on her door. There was nothing but silence for a while and as she made the same move once again, the door suddenly creaked open. 

“Helene!” Ilene pitched in surprise, her eyes darted to me instantly and she frowned slightly. “Aaron.” She mumbled in a not so intrigued tone. 

“We need your help.” My mother toned worriedly. 

She glanced between us for a split moment before letting us in. As I sauntered into her small living room, it brought back a sense of nostalgia. We used to make love here on so many occasions that was until I had my mate at seventeen. Even though we were age mates, she still hadn’t found hers yet and sometimes I wondered if it ever affected her so deeply. But then again, we drifted apart after my mate appeared. I wriggled my head as I sat beside my mother on the couch, this wasn’t the time to be thinking about such things. 

“So how can I help?” She asked in her accustomed gentle tone. 

My mother and I glanced at each other before I took the lead. 

“I can’t feel Aries.” I said and she frowned immediately. 

“What?” She queried. 

“I can’t feel my wolf, Iene. I woke up this morning and I didn’t feel his presence within.” I stammered trying to hold back the tears that embattled my eyes.

She gasped. 

“Do you feel pain?” She sported a quizzical look. I wriggled my head. “Are your senses dull?” 

I gulped down my saliva before nodding. 

Her frown deepened. 

“How dull?” 

“I can’t see as far as I could, neither are they clear enough, my ears can’t pick the sound surrounding me very well and my sense of smell is basically next to nothing. I feel weak too, my speed and strength feels like they are no longer there too.” 

She stared at my mom for a while, I couldn’t quite deduce what their gazes meant but I knew it was definitely bad. 

“What is wrong with me?” I sported a quizzical look.

“Give me a minute.” Irene answered before threading into a room. And after a while, she finally stepped out with a small brown bowl, some herbs, a scalpel and some cotton wool. She sat beside me while she placed those objects on the table. 

“What do you think?” My mother asked her while she grabbed my left arm. 

“I don’t know yet, but I dearly hope it is not what we are all thinking.” She replied while she briskly took her scalpel and then she dug it into my arm, drawing a fine line. I grunted as blood seeped out into the bowl gently. We all watched in awe as the blood kept pouring out. It wasn’t due to the sight of blood but because the injury itself had yet to heal up. 

“That’s weird, by now the cut should have closed up.” Irene commented and my body shuddered from the new wave of fear that struck. She gently placed the wool on the cut, beckoning me to hold it in place. I watched as she mixed the herbs with my blood. She kept stirring gently and thoroughly and at the same time, her eyes were on the blood that gradually soaked the wool. With every second that passed, it felt like I was drowning in a darkened ocean of fear. 

And after several minutes, she dropped the bowl on the table with a deep sigh following suit. My blood was still thick red in the bowl but the look on her face wasn’t pleasing in the slightest. She stared at us.

“This has never happened for centuries.” She started. 

“What?” My mother and I asked at the same time.

Irene sighed. 

“Irene tell me what is wrong with me?” I asked but my voice lacked conviction. I knew better, that I wasn’t ready. Not in the slightest.

She held my arm tight yet in a gentle fashion. 

“Don’t give me that look…” I wriggled my head. “Please…” I whispered while my vision became hazy from the tears that encroached. 

“Your blood sample should have turned black by now from the herbs that I mixed with it. Your cut has barely healed up.” She paused. “I’m sorry Aaron, you’re no longer a werewolf.” 

I gasped, a tear trickled across my cheek and it felt like my heart had failed me. I, Aaron Harrington, the only child of one of the most powerful Alphas, Barron Harrington, had become nothing more than a waste. 

How could this happen to me?! On my twentieth birthday of all days, on the day I’m supposed to be crowned the new Alpha of Silver Clawers Pack. But that wasn’t what terrified me the most, it was my father. How was I going to explain to that monster that his son had lost the very essence of his being?!