A Gold Alpha For A Silver Alpha
Chapter 17

Sometimes you have to be your own hero, even if it means leaving behind who you were before.... ~Rae Mackenzie

(...)

Rae POV

I hadn't cried in a long time, since I was a human to be more clear, tears stopped being a part of my life a long time ago, but right now I couldn't think of anything else but the drops of salty water running down my face. Why the f**k did it hurt so much?

I hadn't fallen in love with Jason that was for sure, but his soul had so easily mated with mine, like two old companions separated in their youth and replaceing each other again, it was chilling to see how easily I had grown accustomed to him, and after spending hours by his side I felt that no longer being with him was akin to feeling a deep emptiness next to me.

I felt incomplete.

I had never felt any special companionship, maybe only from Logan or Dannia, but only slightly.

I was several miles away from the house where I had taken Jason to explain everything, I ran like hell and I hadn't seen my surroundings, I wasn't lost because my sense of direction was incredible, but the feeling of being away from my pack made me feel uncomfortable, I couldn't be separated from them for a long time or a long distance, that was a secret that even Jason couldn't know.

If any of my wolves spent more than 24 hours away from the pack they would start to feel extreme pain all over their bodies, first like bumps, then like cuts, finally a pain so terrible that you couldn't explain it, you would end up fainting from the pain only to wake up and realise that you were no longer one of us, your blood red like any other creature, your eyes yellow like any other wolf.

A rouge.

A stranger.

A forgotten one.

Someone our people didn't give a damn about what happened, our strength lies in the pack, to bleed for another who would die for us, death being scarce among us, it was always a shame for our people, but there was no worse fate than being expelled, to be born and grow up feeling the strength around you and one day that support disappears, it's like being born again, but this time without parents, without friends, without family, without mates.

I had only been punished three times in my whole life, but they were more than enough to leave a deep wound in everyone, a wound that closed a long time ago but whose scar we would carry forever.

On our ring finger we wore a tattoo of the moon with three little dots, a reminder on our own skin that no one is immune to the corruption of darkness, the tattoo is received when you turn eight, big enough to remember the pain and feel the responsibility that comes with it.

I hadn't realised that my fingers were caressing the tattoo as the faces of the three long-forgotten wolves came back to my mind, as if it had been hours ago that I had seen them and not years.

I quickly realised what a trick my mind was playing on me.

I didn't want to be forgotten like those three souls, who just saying their name was a high level crime, but it wasn't just that.

I didn't want to be forgotten by Jason.

I wished that his hurt and wounded soul but full of light and fearful hope would always see me as what I once was and some nights still wish to be, a girl whose only desire was to love.

The thought first filled me with a heartbreaking melancholy, but it was quickly replaced by anger, anger that was unleashed tearing me apart from the inside, my body transformed from one second to the next into a large black wolf and crashed into a large tree with great force, causing the trunk to break and fall, one after another fell like pieces of a domino, animals whose only mistake was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time were torn apart by my fangs.

I was so consumed in letting out everything I felt that I almost overlooked the presence of a nauseating smell a few meters away from me, a smell of dead, of vampire, my body reacted before my mind and adopted a defensive posture to start snarling at the stranger.

The vampire, I had to admit, was quite handsome, deep black eyes with blond hair almost white, and a well worked body, he smiled showing his fangs.

-Wow, you're a long way from home little wolfie.

Little? Either that vampire had eyesight problems, or he was really stupid, as far as Rae knew, she was the largest wolf in the world, not even an Alpha of her descent possessed the size or strength she loved to boast.

A roar came from her throat as her first and only warning.

-I suppose the Sire won't mind if I eat a snack before battle.

Widening his grin was the only move he made before attacking.

A relatively slow attack for a bloodsucker, but the lack of speed was rewarded with incredible strength.

The vampire tried to strike at her paws, knock her out of the battle to drink her blood while she was still alive.

But Rae had lived many years, enough to learn to use her weaknesses to her advantage.

She let him believe that his attack had taken her down, so when he approached confidently her jaw snapped shut on his wrist and with a shake of her head, the bloodsucker's hand separated from her body.

The vampire's shriek brought her great satisfaction, even as he reacted and kicked her head back and slammed it into the tree behind her.

-You shouldn't have done that.

Now without her previous smile she attacked again.

But again, his mistake was that he had been too slow.

Rae was waiting for him, and now she was the one smiling.

(...)

He crossed the line of trees that started the forest towards the clearing where his pack was, still running in his wolf form, and with the bloodsucker's words in his ears.

She had torn his legs apart so that he could not run away, she had also torn off his other hand and kept him screaming, long and long before he confessed that the creature he called Sire was the one she knew as Maurice, that disgusting being who was in charge of her greatest misfortune, and who planned to attack at the next full moon, that was three days from now, when he had no more interest in the bloodsucker she had opened his jugular vein and left him to bleed to death.

Her warriors and Jason's warriors were shouting and cheering a fight that was taking place in the middle of the training ground, she spotted Jason's honey coloured wolf with gold eyes facing another one with snow white and ice blue eyes, Rae's hair stood on end, it was Logan's wolf.

They were fighting, like a pair of wild wolves, not a training fight, they knew what they were doing and all they were after was to do the most damage to each other, no rules, no control, that's how they were fighting and his second, his Beta, never, ever, lost control. Without thinking she roared, loud enough for all the birds around her to flee into the air in fear, the wolves fell silent and gave her direct access to the makeshift fighting arena where, despite having heard her, (by the Goddess, it was impossible that they hadn't), they were still fighting.

She didn't waste another second, her head slammed into the torso of her Beta throwing him away and she stepped in between the two of them. ENOUGH

The command was shouted from his mind with his active Alpha tone.

Both wolves ducked their heads, but with eyes still blinded by the red desire for blood.

TRANSFORM YOURSELVES, NOW

He shouted again, and suddenly he was in the middle of two men, both of incredible deadly beauty, destructive strength and iron will who looked at each other as if they were the worst enemies of all life. One glance into their eyes and she realised something that chilled her to the bone.

Even as she sensed their growing anger and disappointment towards each other, they shared a thought and feeling she had not expected to see. They had no regrets.

And she would probably have to choose if she didn't want the blood to run.

His Beta and best friend, or an Alpha with whom he shared a soul?

He needed them both by his side when the war broke out.

That was a fact he was so sure he never saw himself fighting any other way.

A future that now looked so blurry.

By the Goddess Selene...

What was he going to do?