The Alpha's Shatter Zone
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“I have to go, Lex. He’s my mate. Only I can save him.”

“Then I’m sending guards with you,” Lexi stated firmly. The Head Guard wrapped her arms around herself in the cool dawn air, feeling the cold from lack of a jacket. She’d come as soon as her Alpha had called. As soon as Chesca had fallen to her knees and released a blood chilling cry that had surely woken most of the pack.

“No!” Chesca snapped. “No one comes with me. I’m going alone. No one else is getting hurt because of me.” The feelings of guilt began sinking into Chesca’s veins as she thought over all the decisions she’d made in regards to Kaiden. He may have disrespected her, but admittedly she’d done the same to him. She hadn’t trusted him, hadn’t listened to him. And now he was paying the price, was all she could deduce from the most recent message they’d received.

“Alpha, at least think this through. You have no idea what’s out there beyond the border,” her Head guard tried to reason with her.

She could see what Lexi was saying, but the weight of the unknown was clouding her mind, squeezing her heart with its emptiness. “It doesn’t matter. I can handle it. It’s all my fault anyway,” Chesca had turned and was heading towards the trees when Lexi stopped her gently, wrapping a hand around her bicep.

“It’s not your fault, Chesca. We’re all in this together. We’ve faced this anonymous threat as a pack for the last few months, so we deal with it together. Just like we have everything else over the years. You don’t have to face this alone.” Her words were now spoken as a friend, not just a guard to her Alpha.

Chesca stared hard at Lexi for a few seconds, the veins throbbing in her neck as she restrained herself. Then she snapped, yanking her arm from Lexi and growling at the guard. “I’m going! And no one follows.” Her stubbornness and impulsive actions had gotten her into trouble many times in the past, but this time Chesca would use it to protect her pack. To replace and protect her mate.

“But Chesca—”

Ruining and leaping into the air, the Alpha of Steelheart shifted and ran into the forest, Lexi’s pleas falling on defiant ears. Only one thought caressed Chesca’s mind; only one face remained imprinted in her vision. His mischievous smile and sparkling brown eyes pushed her heart to go further, to keep beating. To beat for him.

Her mate had been hurt, possibly killed, and whoever did it was clearly sending her a message. They knew how much it would hurt Chesca. They knew how much the necklace meant to Kaiden, and how much it had come to mean to her.

The dark forest cast shadows on the Alpha wolf’s body as it ran along the path, ducking and weaving between the ferns and shrubs. Birds twittered in consternation as she panted and growled with deadly threats.

The rocks sat sharp and obstructing up the mountainous ridge, but Chesca bounded over them in huge leaps. This difficult terrain was no match for her strong wolf. The tall trees practically blocked out the early morning sun light that hadn’t yet crested the mountain, but her eyes were built for this, and she deftly weaved in and out between the thick trunks.

She didn’t know exactly where she was going or what she’d replace, but she kept going anyway. Following the scent of her mate that clung to the path, Chesca kept placing one foot in front of the other at a fast pace. She was pretty sure he wasn’t dead, or else her heart would have collapsed in on itself before exploding in searing pain. At least, that’s what she’d heard happens when one’s mate dies.

He couldn’t die, not yet anyway. They still had so much of life to live together, and so much to experience, so much to achieve. So much to love each other.

Lexi had shouted after her, begging through the link to think this through before running off with abandon. Nothing good would be achieved without a firm plan in place. But who cared about plans when Kaiden was out there, injured and maybe dying?

So what if it was a trap? So what if someone was prodding Chesca, luring her in to do something stupid that resulted in war? She’d solve those problems as they came. But right now, she had to replace her mate.

One step at a time, one heartbeat at a time. As long as Kaiden’s heart was still beating, she’d fight for him. He may have been a raving, arrogant, disrespectful pig, but he was still her mate. And she realised she cared for him much more than she ever admitted before. He was also sweet at times, kind, and seemed to genuinely care for her too. The way his warm brown eyes made her feel when they peered at her relentlessly, was something she could never walk away from. She would never walk away or push away her mate. Her soul mate.

His scent took her up to the north boundary lines, and she stopped to sniff the ground, replaceing a rock that was stained with his blood—the place the necklace had been left. Pawing the ground in agitation, her wolf turned in circles before replaceing more spots of blood, a little trail leading over the boundary line. For a few metres of no man’s land it continued, over the rocky mountain peak then down the other side.

Pausing at the summit, Chesca watched the rising sun for a moment, catching her breath and taking in her surroundings. She didn’t normally come this far from the pack castle, it being a few dozen miles from her castle and so close to the border that everyone knew to stay away from. The Razestone pack was not one to be trifled with, and Chesca didn’t like the view of the brown trees and desolate landscape that stretched out below her. Full of rocks and stubble, not many of the Razestone pack’s members lived in the wild, preferring the modern comforts of the city.

Stretching her gaze further to the horizon, Chesca could just make out the faint outlines of skyscrapers amidst the smoky haze and rosy glow of the sun. She hated pollution. She hated Razestone, but if that’s where Kaiden had been born and raised, if that’s where he had been dragged back to, bleeding and injured, then she would get over her personal preferences. As Alpha, she knew what she had to do, what every Alpha would do in her position. Especially for one’s mate.

Lifting her head to the bright violet sky, she let out a long howl that scattered a few birds from their nesting places. It encompassed the pain in her soul, the emptiness in her heart, and the quest to replace the cause of this grief. It wasn’t a numbing grief that made her freeze with indecision and confusion, but an empowering grief that spurred her to vengeful action. To seek justice. To replace her mate despite everything about him she hated, because there was much more she loved.

Not really caring for a reply, but hearing a few from her pack behind her anyway, she lowered her nose back to the ground and followed the trail once more, disappearing into the dark and shadowy forest on the territory of Razestone.

After a good part of the day had passed, and the sun was beginning to sink in the western sky, a hazy orange glow overtook the atmosphere. Chesca came upon a clearing between the trees, Kaiden’s scent draped all around it. The dirt was scuffed and the leaves brushed in patterns that suggested a fight had taken place. Spots of blood stained the soil, and it wasn’t all Kaiden’s.

So he hadn’t gone down without a fight. Chesca felt a surge of pride for her strong Alpha mate. The feelings did little to catch her off guard.

Stalking to the centre of the clearing, her heart clenched at the sight of a broken arrow, each shaft soaked red. Chesca nudged them with her nose, images flashing across her mind’s eye of her mate with an arrow in his skin, perhaps snapping it and pulling it out before the poison on the tip could spread through his veins. But there was no one here now, just an empty clearing haunted with many possibilities of how they had hurt her Kaiden.

Her wolf whimpered as her heart twisted and squeezed with despair. Tears ran down her nose and slipped to the dirt below.

The bloody scent of her mate was so overpowering that Chesca didn’t smell the approaching wolves until it was too late.

“Don’t make a move, Sweetheart, or this arrow will be meant for you,” a scratchy voice growled at her.

Whipping around, Chesca came face to face with a few warriors, each armed with a deadly bow and arrow. The twisted snarls on their faces were definitely frightening, but she stiffened her spine and shifted to human form, growling softly.

“I come in peace,” she raised both hands, palms up to show they were empty. “I’m looking for your Alpha Kaiden.”

They snickered, and the leader stepped forward with a wicked grin. “Alpha Kaiden? Don’t you mean omega Kaiden? That kid is so wimpy, no way on earth he’d be alpha.”

“That kid is my mate. And as Alpha of Steelheart, I command you to give him to me.”

A small amount of surprise registered on their faces, but it was soon replaced with sneers.

“Your mate, huh? What would you want with a traitorous boy like him? Aren’t Alphas supposed to be paired and mated to someone strong and worthy?”

A wave of rage came bubbling out of her, and Chesca launched herself at the nearest warrior. The insults against her mate were heating the blood in her veins, making her move faster and stronger than ever. She wrapped her arms around his head and yanked him to the ground, snapping his neck in the process, but another man jumped on her back at the same instant. A sharp kick landed in her stomach, and she doubled over in pain but managed to roll away from the boot that aimed at her again. Lashing out with precision, she knocked an angry warrior off his feet and punched another in the face. The fight was almost too easy. But when a sharp sting lit up the nerves in her shoulder, she knew the lead warrior had been watching from the sidelines, biding his time. Cleverly taking aim while she was distracted with the men under his command, he’d taken her down.

Chesca sank to her knees but refused to yell in pain from the arrow that pierced the flesh under her collarbone. Gritting her teeth against pain had become as familiar to her as brushing her teeth before bed. “I don’t want a fight. Just release Kaiden and let us both go,” she panted heavily.

“No can do, darling. Our Alpha has given us strict orders to capture any wolf stepping foot on our land, and we been hunting out here just waiting for some prey. And you, my dear little rabbit, just satisfied our hunger,” the leader, who sported numerous scars on his ugly face and bald scalp, leaned down to whisper disgustingly in her ear. She took the opportunity to suddenly reach out and wrap an an arm around his neck. Using him as a shield against any arrows the others may shoot at her, she glared at the warriors. But with blood running from her wound and weakening her as the seconds passed, it didn’t take much for him to overpower her again, restraining her hands behind her back as he pushed her into the dirt.

“Don’t try that again, sweetheart, or my patience with you might run out,” he leered and twisted the arrow where it protruded from the back of her shoulder, making her clench her jaw and bite back a scream. “And you don’t want to know what happens when I lose my patience.”

“You sick psycho,” she spat on the ground, twisting her head up to maintain eye contact with the monster. How had Kaiden become such an enemy with his own pack, to be treated like this by his warriors? And now she was in their hands, at their ruthless mercy.

The man chuckled devilishly, causing her to shudder and feel physically sick. Then, with silver cuffs tied around her wrists behind her back, they dragged her deeper into the forest. A sense of helplessness mingled with anticipation as they took her in the direction she could only presume was the city. Perhaps towards Kaiden. But most assuredly, towards their Alpha.

A stinging slap sent her eyes flying open, and Chesca realised she must have passed out between the pain and blood loss. The blurry image before her came into focus, and she saw grey tiles stroked with black. Like dirty marble.

A few feet away, the red tassels of a floor rug sat perfectly straight. Beyond that, a coffee table was placed centrally to black lounge suites, and a large mahogany desk took up prime position under a set of magnificent stained glass windows. The rest of the decor in the room was dark and heavy set, a fire blazing in the hearth along the brick wall opposite her. She blinked at the brightness, and hung her head. Trying to clear it from a numbing buzz was hard. Had she been drugged with something? She tried standing, but ropes kept her ankles and wrists firmly tied. Sitting on her knees was not her idea of comfortable, and if she wanted to get out of here—

A pair of shiny black shoes suddenly appeared in her field of vision.

“Thank you for finally joining us, Alpha Chesca.”

Her eyes dragged up the legs attached to the shoes, and to the finely suited torso before stopping on the speaker’s face. An older man with dark brown hair, streaks of silver gracing his temples, and a neatly trimmed beard caressing his thin jaw. His formal attire was immaculate, and the way he bore himself gave her the distinct impression that he always dressed this way. It also told her who he was immediately.

“Elbert.”