Behind The Alpha Series Book 6 Oliver
Chapter 18

(Chapter song ‘Dragula' by Rob Zombie, ‘What It’s Like' by Everlast)

OLIVER

I sit on the side of the bed beside Ezra as she slips into unconsciousness. I pull off my torn t-shirt and link for cleaners to clean up her destroyed room.

It was a fight, but necessary. Where I’m going, I can’t take her and I can’t leave her loose when I’m not here.

I rub her cheek with my thumb. “She’ll stay sedated until I get back?” I glance at the doctor who hooks up her IV.

“Yes. I’ll monitor her and keep her under. I must warn you. This can’t be a regular thing. Sedation can cause more damage to her.” He warns.

“I understand.”

I realize I can’t just keep knocking her out. That’s why I’m going to Phoenix. I need to know what’s really going on in there. Maybe then I can replace the thing I need to connect with her.

I lean down to her, hesitate then gently kiss her forehead. “I’ll be back.” I whisper in her ear.

I get up and walk to the door and stop. “Make her as comfortable as you can.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

I walk downstairs where my bags sit. I shouldn’t be gone for more than a day, but just in case, I had Ian set up a room for the doctor.

It’s not something I will ever be proud of. Who wants to sedate the woman you have feelings for? Yes, I have feelings for her. I might not show it, but I do. I wouldn’t be putting up with any of this if I didn’t.

Ezra deserves a better life. She deserves to live. She deserves a life that’s kind and not filled with death and destruction regardless of what she is.

But to tame the beast, I must understand the beast, that why the trip.

“You realize this is a mistake right?” Ian says as he stands beside my truck while I pack it.

I shut the trunk. “Ian, unless I exhaust every conceivable option, only then would I consider putting her down. And even then, it’s not likely.”

He follows me. “You like her, don’t you? Romantically.”

I pause. “I don’t know.” I open the door and get in. “All I know is my gut is saying save her so, that’s what I’m doing.” I shut the door.

“You can’t love a rogue, Oliver. Even if you do somehow replace a way to keep her human…eventually the sickness will eat her brain and kill her. She’s dying. There’s also the small problem with her being an enemy to the alliance.” He says through my open window as I stare straight ahead.

It's not like I haven’t thought that a thousand times.

“She’s not dead yet and the alliance can go fuck themselves.” I mumble, put the truck in drive and turn my way out of the pack house driveway.

On the highway to Falcon Ridge, Ezra plays on my mind. I have these feelings for a reason. I know I do. I’m don’t mince words or fake anything. I listen to my gut and tell the truth even if pisses you off or makes you cry. Ezra is in my life the way she is so I can do something about it. It’s up to me to replace the cure. No one else. I’ll replace it and my gut says she’ll be fine.

I’m lost in thought when I catch something in the woods.

I look closer and see wolves. Lots of them.

I furrow my brow as I watch them breach the trees and run to the blacktop.

The forest ends and it’s open field between Caledon and Falcon Ridge. My truck roars down the highway with rogues right up my ass behind it.

They bark and howl as they try and catch up.

“Awe…fuck no.” I growl.

I reach into a pocket behind the passenger seat and pull out a 9mm hand gun.

Hitting the gas, I check the clip. It’s full.

The dogs growl and try to hit the truck as it speeds up down the road.

I watch them get closer to the back end in my side mirrors.

Two jump, shift and land on the truck.

“NO, YOU DON’T, FUCKER.”

He crawls on the roof and I listen. I watch the road, raise my gun and fire into the metal. I hear a sick yelp and see him fall off and roll down the road in my rear view.

“BRING IT, ASSHOLES!” I yell.

One tries to smash the passenger side window, so I aim my gun and smash it for him. He takes the bullet to the heart and falls off.

I feel bodies slams into the truck and see them biting my tires in my mirrors.

“The fuck?” That’s fucking ballsy.

One grabs my tire and I hear it explode.

I swerve all over the road before I hit the edge and roll three times. I’m jolted around in my seat as my Hummer settles on its roof.

I shove the airbag out of the way with a groan. “Just fucking great.” I pull out a cigar and light it as the sight of paws show up in my peripheral vision. Now, I’m fucking pissed. I undo my seatbelt, reach behind my driver’s seat and pull out my second gun. My heads bleeding and my arms are cut up, but I couldn’t give a shit.

I spin, call my wolf and kick the door off.

They swarm the truck and posture as I slide out, stand and throw both guns out in front, arms outstretched.

“I will blow every one of you away without a second thought.” I grind at the twenty rogues surrounding me.

I’m fifteen minutes from Falcon and sent out a distress link. I’m sure I could win, but I have a helicopter to catch. I’ll hold them off and let Falcon deal with it.

I get confirmation they’re on their way and smirk.

“You boys best be running…now.” I growl.

One filthy wolf shifts and a guy steps forward. “Give her to us.”

“That’s a big hell no.” They’re after Ezra. They somehow found out I have her.

“She’s ours!” He yells.

I aim my gun and shoot him right between his eyes. I arch a brow as he drops to the dirt, puff my cigar and eye them all. “Anyone else not understand the word no?”

They all slobber and bark.

“Come on. Make a move.” I dare them as my aim switches between the wolves.

One barks a loud growl and five jump at me.

I fire on three and they fall as I leap over them and fire more bullets as I prepare to land. The ones standing, spin around and run after me as I call my wolf powers and take off through the open field.

I aim behind me and fire more bullets. If I can get to the trees, I’ll have more advantage.

I ran out of bullets just before hit the forest. Throwing my guns to the sides, I jump for the treeline, shift and hit the dirt.

My wolf went deep into the trunks. The eight wolves left alive chase me, they’re teeth right on my ass.

I get tackled by one and we roll. I slam his body against a trunk and pin him down. I rip his throat out and throw it at another running at me.

Pushing off the dead body, I lunge at a rogue and we collide. Our teeth gnash at each other and our chests growl in competing vibrations.

He bites at my face and my wolf head buts him.

I’m grabbed from behind and dragged to the ground. I shove that guy off and another lands on me. The forest dirt flies as I fight for the upper hand.

I get him pinned and crush his brain. Another tries for my scruff, but I grab his back and throw him to the ground, I grab his leg and rip it off.

‘Oliver. What’s your location?’

‘FOLLOW THE GODDAMN SCREAMS!’

I run around some trees and they try to coral me. I jump over one guy and he slams into the guy chasing me.

The forest is a blur as I try to outrun these bastards. The five that are left are fucking machines. This shouldn’t be this hard.

I jump, push off a rock and fly over them. I land on the path and run back the way I came. They growl loud. They must be pissed now.

I give it my all and get to the edge of the forest. I stop and shift.

I look over my shoulder into the shadows of the canopy as they stop and lower their heads. They stalk me, drooling and snapping. They’re eyes glow red.

I arch a brow and smirk. “I told you to run.”

Just I say that, 20 Falcon Ridge soldiers run around me and into the trees.

The rogues yelp and run as Falcon’s wolves fill the forest with angry, determine growls and hunt the fuckers down.

I look down, see my cigar and pick it up. I blow off the dirt, stick it in my mouth and walk up to Bastian and River.

“I need clothes and lift.” I cross my arms and eye them as they look at each other and look back at me.

****

“The rabies virus. Simplistic and deadly. A threat to normal, natural wolves, but not so much to us.”

I sit in the back of the lecture hall as Graham walks to a screen. It has a picture of a virus on it and he flips the screen.

He reflects on it before turning around. “Rogue Sickness.” He walks to the front of the stage. “The ticking time bomb of the shifter world.”

He adjusts his glasses. “Same structure, same ugly agenda. Destroy the mind. The difference between the rogue virus and mans rabies? You…me…and every shifter has this in us. Waiting for the perfect time to strike.”

He flips the screen. “This barrier.” He points to a thick membrane around the virus. “The Alpha barrier. Given to you by the blood of your loyal parents who got it from your Alpha. It’s his blood that contains the genetic material to create this barrier. Through your loyalty to your pack and him, this barrier will remain intact. Leave your pack and that changes.”

He walks to the middle of the stage. “When you’re in your pack, you’re content. Balanced. Secure. When you separate from your Alpha, you won’t feel it at first. Might take months, maybe years, but it’s there. Flooding your system. Stress hormones. Fear. Abandonment…” He looks at the front row. “Loneliness.”

He leans on his desk. “As you realize your sad, lonely existence, hormones are released into your system. These hormones trigger the barrier to start decomposing. Once that barrier is down, the virus escapes and it has only one target.”

He pushes off the desk and taps his head with his pointer.

He holds his hands out. “You won’t even notice it. You think everything is normal until it’s not. The feeling of being lost changes to becoming lost. Sense of direction is gone so you wander around with no real destination. Hunger for food changes to hunger for blood. The need to talk is changed to the need to shred. The mind is filled with the virus as it plants interrupters in between brain cells. Cutting off neural pathways. No where specific. Just randomly…everywhere. You forget your name. You can’t speak clearly, if at all. Friends and family won’t recognize you. Your scent changes. Need for sleep is disrupted. Disease attacks you as you stop eating properly or bathing. Suicidal thoughts often plague the rogue. It’s why they attack pack borders. Death by Enforcer.”

Another girl raises her hand. “So it’s like a parasite with mind control.”

“A parasite is an animal. By definition, Rogue Sickness is still viral, but there’s no outcome for it except to kill the host. It doesn’t spread like a typical virus or use the host to travel new hosts. There’s no need. We all have it already. It truly is the first suicidal virus.” Graham teaches.

I watch the reactions of the young adults who listen. They look…scared.

He flips the screen to a dead rogue. “The battle we see outside is nothing compared to the battle inside. A shifter needs a leader. We crave it. Even when he or she is alone. While the virus floods the brain, the wolf decides he, or she, no longer wants to be second. Remember, we are in control most of the time because our wolves can be irrational and if they were left in control, feral behavior will take over and rogue sickness will plague us. A wolf already in this stage will challenge the mind of the human. Internally fight them until the human either commits suicide or shrink back, giving the wolf control which ends up killing them. Either way, they’re dead. This internal Alpha Challenge makes WW3 look like a family reunion, ladies and gentlemen. While you battle your wolf, you become more lost. Hungry and sleep deprived, you lash out. Noise hurts you. Light hurts you. People…hurt you and all you can do is try to kill the pain. The problem is, it doesn’t work. The physical pain of the virus manifests as emotional pain to the rogues outside world. It makes the rogue think the outside world is attacking it when really the attack is all in the mind.”

A girl puts up her hand. Graham nods to her.

“What about the human?” A few mumble in agreement.

“Good question.” He motions to her. “What about the poor bastard carrying this wolf. Well, we see it from a clinical standpoint as a shifter form of antisocial personality disorder. Incoherent speech patterns. The inability to socialize in a community. Uncontrollable emotional outbursts. Depression. Sexual addictions. Self destructive behavior. Drug and alcohol abuse. Violent behavior often resulting in the death of the wolf by violent means. While the human tries with all their might to hang onto what’s left, the virus convinces the human they’re under constant attack. Attack from their wolf and from hallucinations. I dare say, rogue sickness may contain some form of psychosis or schizophrenia by human standards. Either way, a wolf with man’s rabies is lucky. He dies within hours or days. A shifter…the longest recorded rogue lasted 5 years before he made a play on a pack house and the Alpha there ripped him apart. By then, you couldn’t talk to it. You couldn’t reason with it. You couldn’t tame it. The only thing that is planted in the brain is blood and you can’t take that away.”

A guy puts up his hand. “Can’t they just join a pack to stop it?”

Graham chuckles and runs his fingers through his shoulder length, curly blonde hair. The guy kind of has this Indiana Jones look mixed with nerdy professor. He’s built, but still looks kind of weak.

He motions his pointer out to the guy. “That’s like trying to squeeze a tiger into a cat carrier, they don’t like that too much.”

I put up my hand. “Is there a cure?”

He stops, looks at me and smiles. He walks to my end of the hall. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he looks around the room then back to me. “Alpha Fredericks. I didn’t know you were in Phoenix.” The hall turns my way and whispers rise. Thanks to Andrew, our name is now infamous.

Graham raises his chin to me. “To answer your question, there’s only one cure for Rogue Sickness. Death.”

I lean my elbow on the arm of the chair and hold my head with two fingers to my temple. “I don’t believe that.”

He nods. “Well, Alpha. Whether you believe it or not, it doesn’t negate the fact that Rogue Sickness is the number one killer of shifters today. You can’t cure one, so don’t even try.”

The lecture when on and I’m left thinking this might be a waste of time. I need to poke at him a little more.

After he left for his office, I followed him.

I knock on his door.

He’s at his desk, searching through a pile of papers. He turns. “Oliver. How did you enjoy the lecture?” He asks then goes back to searching.

“It was informative.” I mumble as I walk in and see the chaos of this room. Books and papers are everywhere in piles. It crawls on my skin to see this in disarray.

He stops, turns around and leans on his desk. “How can I help you?” He fixes his hair and adjusts his glasses.

I slide my hands into my pockets and lift my chin. “I need to know if there is anyway to reverse rogue sickness.”

He leans forward slightly and smirks. “Reverse it? I told you. Death is the only option. The sooner, the better. The animal deserves that much.”

“The animal. There is a person in there.” I scowl.

“A dangerous person. Don’t be fooled. The human counterpart is just as sick as the wolf. As the illness grows, so does the humans need to kill. They want the torture to end just as much as we do.”

“What if they want to live?” I arch a brow and bite the inside of my lip.

He adjusts himself on his desk. “They all want to live, Oliver, but it’s our responsibility to recognize that there is not quality of life and we have to do the humane thing and end their lives.”

“No. That’s bullshit. There’s mind’s in there. Functional minds.” I argue.

“Look. I’m not suggestion we round them up, but when faced with one, it’s our duty to these people to end their suffering. When a rogue attacks you in any way, they’re begging for help. They’re begging for death. Shouldn’t we give them that respect?” He motions his hand out to me.

“Has anyone tried integrating them into the pack again?” I ask.

Graham nods. “Once. A research study was done by Damian Blake, Rivers dad…” He indicates and I nod.

“He hypothesized that if the rogue was exposed to enough Alpha blood and a familiar environment, they could be contained, taught and eventually…cured.” He informs.

“What happened?” I shift in my spot.

Graham pushes off his desk and takes a few steps to me. “The rogue attacked Damien’s wife while she was pregnant with River. Damian shot him in the brain. It failed.” He solemnly turned around and walked to his desk. He took off his glasses and dropped them on the papers on his desk.

“So the study was never repeated?” I scratch my hair and put my hand in my pocket.

Graham places his hands on his hips and looks around his office.

I cinch my brow and lean to him. “Graham.”

He turns around sharply and smiles. “Sorry, what?”

“The study…Was it ever repeated?” I ask again.

He gets a look of confusion on his face. “Study?”

“The rogue cure.” I give him a suspicious look.

He chuckles with a smirk. “Why would you want to cure a rogue? That’s a little insane.”

My senses trip and I get a strange feeling off him.

“What’s wrong…” I study him as he looks around the room more.

He looks at me and smiles. “Listen…I’d love to chit chat with you all day, Oliver, but…um…I got to go.” He walks by me to the door. I turn with him as he does.

He turns back. “It’s…really great seeing you, man…you look…nice. Really…nice.” He nods with a grin. “Good luck with that rogue thing.” He slaps my arm and wanders out into the hall.

He looks left and right then turns left.

Confusion fills me and I tilt my head to the side. “K…That’s weird.”

I shake my head and leave.

As I head to the helicopter pad, I think that maybe there was something Damian missed. Maybe the rogue he worked with was too far gone. Just because he failed, doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

I rub my neck as I think. Maybe the way to Ezra’s heart is her humanity. Now that I understand a bit more, I can tap into that. Draw it out.

To domesticate her, I have to show her how and care for her like a child almost. Reteach life and pack to her.

If I want Ezra to be mine, I need to show her exactly what that means.