Page 26

A smile that I know would look bad to someone else spreads across my face as I crack my knuckles and walk over to the door where Ezra is leaning. “Show me the way.”
We both change into wolves as soon as we leave the pack house. Ezra is almost as tall as me when he’s a wolf. I’m still the biggest wolf in the eastern half of the United States, and I like that everyone knows it. Ezra’s wolf has light fur that shines like gold, while mine has dark fur. But he’s just as dangerous as I am, and people are still afraid of him.
As we run through the woods to the cells, we easily avoid logs and fallen tree branches. I have a dungeon, for lack of a better word, far away from the pack house and close to my territory lines. I built a secret room with cells where all of my prisoners stay. I don’t have a lot at once. Most supernatural beings know to stay away from my territory and that I’m not someone to mess with.
When I was eighteen and became Alpha, some members of a nearby coven tried to see if they could get away with using magic in front of people. I had to show them who was boss and make them stop all magic unless it was on their own land. How dumb are these witches and wizards? Their carelessness led to the Salem Witch Trials, which only killed people. That’s another reason I hate them. On the other hand, I don’t really like a lot of beings.
In the world of the supernatural, it’s against the law to show any humans the supernatural, unless they’re a werewolf’s mate or have the High Council’s permission. There are twelve members of the Council, one of each type of powerful supernatural creature. Pixies and nixies, who are smaller beings, don’t need a seat on the High Council because they are peaceful and don’t want to get involved in supernatural politics. There will always be a seat for them if they want one.
It takes us only five minutes of running nonstop to get to the cells. Once we get there, we quickly change back into our human forms and take the shorts that the guards there give us. I quickly nod my head in thanks and go inside to see the prisoner. I know right away where it is because it smells terrible, like a mix of moldy cheese and rotten meat.
The vampire looks sad because its skin is burned and peeling off in layers because of the third-degree burns it is getting from the UV lights. My eyes get darker with joy. As it sits still in the chair it’s tied to, it breathes in short, shallow puffs. He doesn’t get any space to move around because of what he did. Hurting the Luna is punishable by death, and I will kill it as soon as I get the information I need from it.
“How have you been enjoying your stay?” I ask, and the vampire gives me a deadly look. A guard lets me into the cell, and Ezra comes in with me.
“F**k you and your friend!” The vampire fights against the chains that hold it down, but because it doesn’t have any blood in its system and the UV rays are making it weaker, it has no strength and no chance of getting away. But it’s fun to see it fight.
The moment I hear the horrible creature call my beautiful Calla, I grab the vampire by the throat and choke it to death right away. My eyes darken as I let out a horrible snarl as it tries to breathe. “Don’t you dare talk about her like that. But since we’re on the subject of Calla, why don’t you tell me why you hit her?”
I let go of its throat only for it to let out a choked laugh as it recovers from the lack of oxygen.  He shows his fangs and runs his tongue over the sharp ends, probably imagining sinking into a hot body to drink its blood, which he hasn’t had in days. Gross.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” it said, but its voice sounded more like a croak. “Why would I tell you? You’re going to kill me anyway, so I’d rather keep my mouth shut and watch you suffer. Just like I watched that hot piece of a*s suffer. I mean, that shirt didn’t cover much of anything, and her screams as I threw her into the brick wall were-”
I can’t hear anything else. Red makes it hard for me to see, and then I feel my claws tear into the vampire’s chest. The UV rays make the injury hurt a lot more than it usually does, and its screams can be heard all over the cell block. Even though it’s the middle of the night, a vampire will always get what it wants, even if the sun isn’t out.
The shirt it was wearing before is now ripped up with five slash marks across its chest. I finish tearing it apart, looking for new pale skin to mark. “Who. Hired. You?” I say again, this time putting all of my Alpha power into the command. Even though the vampire isn’t in my pack, it can still hear the command in my voice and feel real fear. Which it does when it starts to shake.
The dumb thing is still quiet, staring daggers at me and probably coming up with fifty different ways to kill me. While it’s doing that, I can think of a thousand ways to kill it. I won.
“Fine. You leave me no choice,” I say in a voice that makes it sound like I’ve given up. But I’m not even close to doing that. “Now it’s your turn, Ezra.”
Ezra smiles a sadistic smile that makes me shiver. “You made me wait long enough.” Ezra is my Beta in part because he knows how to fight well. He loves to hurt his enemies and is very good at it. He likes to see life leave their bodies at his hands. While I sit back and watch the traitors and criminals scream in pain, he’s usually the one doing the questioning.
There is already a table in the corner of the room with all of Ezra’s t*****e tools ready to go. Someone is excited.
The vampire’s face is priceless; it looks like pure terror. I scream as I leave the cell. “You’re going to tell me everything you know when I come back in an hour. Only then will I let you out of your misery and kill you. Have fun you two.”
The first cries for mercy start as the cell doors slam shut behind me. I can tell right away that this vampire is weak. I’ll know exactly who told it to hurt my dear friend in an hour.
Next, I’ll go after them.
*************
After an hour of pacing outside the dungeon doors, I decide that the vampire is ready to be questioned. Knowing that Ezra is giving the creature what it needs, I feel good knowing that it will be gone from this world very soon and will never hurt, look at, or touch Calla again.
The screams get louder and louder as I get closer to the vampire’s cell door, and then they stop all of a sudden. Did Ezra kill it? He better not have done it, or I’ll cut his throat for not doing what I said. He wouldn’t die, but it would hurt a lot.
I walk quickly the rest of the way to the cell to see the vampire, who has more blood than skin showing. There are too many cuts and bruises to count, and third-degree burns are already starting to form on top of the wounds. It appears to be dead.
“I TOLD YOU NOT TO KILL IT,” I yell as I storm into the cell.
Ezra says in a calm voice, “Relax.” “The vampire just passed out. Again. The fucker is so weak. It has passed out three times, pissed itself twice, and asked me to kill it six times already.”
The vampire made a sad sound, which meant he had already woken up from the last round of t*****e.
“Hey? What was that?” Ezra says with a smirk.
“Kill… Me…” The vampire was begging for mercy? When Calla was begging for mercy, where was it?
“Do you want me to kill you?” Ezra asks. He lets out a dark laugh. “I’m sorry, Alpha. It has now told me to kill it seven times.”
“Very good,” I say. Ezra can’t call me by my first name in front of guards or other prisoners. Everyone has to call me by my title, except for Calla, as a sign of respect and to make me seem more untouchable. Goddess, I miss her…
“Are you ready to tell me what you know?” The creature nods its head hard, even though it hurts its body to do so. You’re not so sure of yourself now, are you?
“I—” The vampire starts to talk, but it starts to cough right away. Its lungs are probably as dry as sandpaper. The vampire has to cough and groan in pain for a full minute before it can talk. “I-I don’t know much, I swear! All I was told w-was to hurt the human g-girl!”
“Why?” I say in a calm voice, even though I’m not calm at all. I thought this dumb vampire wasn’t working alone. I don’t know who planned the attack or why.
“The person who hired me wanted to know if she was really your friend. You come to her rescue and proved it.” The vampire is now a stuttering mess who isn’t giving me any new information, which makes me clench my jaw.
“Who did you work for?”
“I-I don’t know, I swear!” Then it begs for a mercy killing. I want this pest dead, so I grab its neck and dig my claws deep into its already bloody skin to make it happen faster. Right now, all its screams do is annoy me.
“I won’t ask again. Who. Hired. You?” My eyes are now like black holes as I let my wolf side out.
“I… D-don’t… Know…” I let go of its neck and pulled my claws back. I look down at my hand and see that blood has gotten stuck under my nails. I hate it when that happens.
“It was an anonymous letter sent to my clan. My leader picked me out of everyone else. That’s all I know. P-please just k-kill me!”
I look at Ezra and connect my mind to his. Do you believe what he says?
Ezra answers right away, for sure. I made sure of it.
I reach into the vampire’s chest and pull out its still heart with a quick swipe of my hand. Because it is a vampire, its heart is black. I cringe and throw it across the room so that it makes a horrible noise when it hits the far wall and falls to the floor like a piece of meat.
“It’s useless. It didn’t give me any new information,” I growl, ready to go out and look for new leads. No one is closer to catching Calla than they were before. The vampire is just a worker. Even though it makes me feel better to know it’s dead, the mastermind is still out there. I only have a stupid letter to go by, which I don’t have. Back to where we started.
I walk out of the cells and quickly change into a wolf. I run through the woods with a lot of different feelings in my head. I can’t even do my one job as Calla’s mate, which is to love and protect her with all my heart. I don’t know what kind of threat is hanging over her because of me. Because of me, she’s a target. If the Moon Goddess hadn’t made us soulmates, other supernatural beings wouldn’t even look at her. It’s well known that to weaken me and my pack, someone has to hurt Calla instead of her mate, who is one of the most powerful Alpha werewolves. She’s my weak point.