Captive Of The Alpha
Chapter 3

Days earlier

Noa looked over her shoulder as she ran, at full speed, down the hallway, wary of her pursuer. Her lungs were squeezing for air as her brown hair fussed over her eyes.

He rounded the corner dodging a table when the scent of his enemy was behind him. His head was a whirlwind as he thought of a plan. He felt him so close, but where, it wasn’t at his back. He couldn’t allow himself to be grabbed, not now.

A taller figure crossed the path. Noa stopped in his tracks and tensed his muscles. He had to get away, he had to…

-Noa, you bastard, when I catch you, you’ll see what I’ll do to you!

An annoyed laugh came out of the mouth of his older brother who was still wearing the shirt stained by some viscous liquid resulting from some prank.

-That’s if you catch me.

Alan frowned knowing that no matter how fast he ran he would never catch his brother, but admit it, that would never happen.

A guard standing in the way turned to one side leaving the way clear for the two princes who resumed their usual weekly chase. Anyone who saw the scene would laugh. For their age they were still puppies. Alan was 45 but looked barely 25 or 26 in human terms while his brother, 38, could pass for a teenager. And it was logical, wolves reached maturity around 50 years of age.

Noa turned down several corridors without slowing down. He was a small but agile wolf like few others, and although the older one was not far behind, he lacked the neurons necessary to surpass him.

They may have been like this for another hour, they didn’t know. They dropped their bodies exhausted and cramped from the intense physical exertion and with flat, hard bellies roaring for a good piece of food. They were sure they would be scolded by their father for the ruckus inside the main herd mansion, but they cared just the same. Their father didn’t pay enough attention to them to know they were alive, sometimes he didn’t even remember their names. And Catalina and Nicolas did not escape that pattern either.

Nicolás was the second brother, after Rodrigo, the alpha’s firstborn and favorite. He was the quietest of the five and was always taking care of Cat, his little sister and the love of them all, and although he looked nothing like his father, he kept traits in common with them like chocolate hair, and excluded were his two big violet eyes, when those of the males of the family were kept between hazel and green. Even the alpha had been suspicious of where she came from but the scent gave away, no matter her physique.

The five of them had a distinctive scent, which anyone outside the family would know they were related by b***d. As well as whose children they were on their mother’s and father’s side.

Now the question of the century and the taboo subject in the herd: Who was the mother? None of them knew and their father would cut out the tongue of anyone who dared to mention the subject.

It was only known that Rodrigo was granted by the womb of the late queen, but that story had degraded with time. Now nothing remained about the strange she-wolf. As if she had never existed. There were rumors that she was alive because all the siblings smelled the same.

But the alpha denied it again and again, claiming that they belonged to different mothers, and no one was able to answer him.

Noa got up from the floor, straightened her clothes and extended her hand to Alan.

-Let’s go back, it’s almost time for lunch and we have to change. Father won’t like the way we look.

-Not that he’s so attentive to us.

-Alan reprimanded him, with them the roles were reversed, and you smell awful, especially now that you’re sweaty.

-What? Do you like it? Do you want a hug?” he opened his arms, but his brother ducked, avoiding him and moved away.

-No more games for today, peace between brothers.

-I don’t want to hear that from the person who ruined my favorite shirt,” Alan adored the boy no matter how much he did things to him. They were always together in Nicholas’ care. Now the older wolf didn’t have much time to be with them, he had to make holes in his surrogate mom and housewife schedule to take care of them. They didn’t reproach him for anything, it was thanks to him that they were kept in those cold walls.

They walked back when they heard, in the distance, the high-pitched cry of their father and a loud bang on the table.

-What did he do what?

The brothers knelt in a secluded corner thinking it had been about them. At the distance they were they could hear everything by their well-developed hearing and with the smell Alan had it would be impossible for them to be detected. They slowed their breathing to hide their presence. If their father was going to scold or punish them it was better to know how it would be.

-I’m sorry alpha, but apparently you can’t keep him inside any longer.

Another person accompanied him. She sounded anxious and fearful.

-I don’t care about the method, you can’t lose him.

-That could put his life in danger.

They felt footsteps on the floor, their father had risen from where he was.

-I pay you very well to keep her alive and give me puppies to consume her b***d when they are adults. Give her medicine, operate on her, sew her legs back on, but the puppy can’t die.

Noa clung to her brother with a slight tremor. That could not be. His ears were deceiving him. He knew his father was cruel, but that was beyond expectations, how could he do something like that to someone, even if it was an enemy.

-At least he could send her to a better place. The dungeons are not the best for her belly and the conditions… -Shut up.

-Shut up. Your job is to take care of her as a doctor, I decide where she has to be. And remember- her father’s voice got so low they had trouble hearing- No one can know that the former queen of this pack is alive. You got it-

Alan looked at Noa with the same terrified expression. This was getting out of hand. He had mentioned the queen, the only wolf who had led the pack without alpha genes. The wife of the current leader. If his words were true, everything they had been told was a vile lie.

They both nodded their heads. They had to replace out what was going on in that mansion.

They walked backwards cautiously without making noise, if their father found out they had that information he would surely kill them. They walked away, but before they turned to go back to their rooms, a hand fell on Alan’s shoulder.

-What are you doing here?