Chapter Sixteen: The Alpha

I woke up to the smell I’ve started to understand is coming from this Alpha guy. Is it some sort of perfume? I open my eyes and look straight to the door where I last seen him, finding that the door is slightly open, and it’s bright in the corridor. It must be daytime and the light is filtering through the windows outside my hospital room.

I sit up slowly and notice in the back right corner of the room, he’s sitting there watching me. He notices I sit up and he gets up quickly, and walks towards me on the right side of the bed. I pull my legs up and hug them, not wanting him to touch me uninvited again. I notice within me that a small part of me wishes he touches me so I can feel him holding me.

He looks at me pull away and frowns slightly. He looks at the edge of the bed, as if he wanted to sit, but he seems to understand my hesitation. He goes back to the chair, and picks it up with ease and brings it to the side of the bed, places it down gently, then sits down.

He runs a hand through his hair, in a sort of frustrated way, as if he wants to try and explain something. He looks into my eyes curiously, trying to figure me out. I see him asking himself lots of questions, but before he starts, I want to know the answers to my own first.

“Who are you?” I half croak, my throat still sore, but not as bad as last night.

He’s taken a back slightly, I’m unsure why.

“I am Alpha Lukas.” He says without giving any more information.

I scrunch up my nose. Who has a name like Alpha? “So is Alpha your first name?” I ask after several seconds of silence. He seems to be holding back on me…why?

“No, Alpha is my title. My birth name is Lukas Moon.” He says smoothly, slightly hinting that this should perhaps mean something to me.

“Oh. I see. I’ve not heard of that before….where am I?” I say blindly, my voice is still hoarse. I’m slightly dazed, but I have a small feeling that it may be being caused by the handsome man sitting next to me, staring at me.

Alpha Lukas looks at me quizzically with a bigger frown on his face. “Do you not know where you are?” I just continue to look at him a bit stumped. “What’s the last thing you remember before yesterday?” he asks more softly, noticing that I’m unsure of myself.

“Um….” I start, unsure how to tell a story about fighting something I’ve never seen before, in the middle of unknown territory, then sort of seeing eyes that looked like his. I was also unsure why I would even give him this information, but for some reason Athena was all up for sharing with him. She….or well we felt safe in his presence.

I decide to just give up some bits and pieces. “I was fighting something I’d never seen before. I fell backwards into a river which was thrashing due to the ongoing storm, making it more dangerous. I remember getting to the other side, and then…nothing. I woke up here.”

He looked at me curiously, I think trying to figure out if I were lying or not. He suddenly shifted, taking a more relaxed position on the chair. “So, do you know where you are? Or who we are?” he asks, more casually.

I think for a few moments. I must be further inside the dark forest, or at least somewhere new. I don’t know how far the river carried me, but it must have been far as I’ve never seen these walls before, not even on a map.

I shrug my shoulders giving away my answer. “All I know is that I’ve not seen this place before. I went into the dark forest, and this is where I ended up.” I say honestly.

Alpha Lukas sits and reflects for a few moments, placing his hands on his chin. Before he asks another question though, I quickly sneak a quick one in.

“Are you human?” I ask, knowing that the answer is probably no. All the humans died a long time ago, and from the strength of that woman earlier, I suspect they’re something else…but what is the question.

Alpha Lukas tensed slightly, before looking directly into my eyes. “Not entirely. You could say I’ve got a human counterpart.”

The ball suddenly drops and my mouth drops with it. As soon as he said that, I remember the conversation I had with the Elders in Elijah’s cottage. This man was a werewolf, I know it. I assume everyone else here is too. It’s the only logical explanation. So many questions spilled into my thoughts but I wanted to understand who this guy was more and why did I feel drawn to him. I start with the basics.

“Alpha Lukas….what is an Alpha?”

He looks at me, slightly narrowing his eyes. I guess he doesn’t trust me, but answers my question anyway. “An Alpha is sort of the King of its pack.”

I stare at him, trying to process this guy in front of me. He’s basically a king to werewolves, and he’s sitting in front of me. Surely he has other things to attend to? Is there no one else here that can interrogate me, which I assume is what he’s doing just now, trying to get information from me.

I don’t fear him or feel scared at all. I wonder how many of them are here. Before I get a chance to ask him anything else, he puts his hand up and stops me before I even open my mouth.

“I know you’re about to ask me a bunch of questions, but I won’t answer them, at least not till I know more about you. You’re on my territory right now, and usually we kill on sight. You’re lucky that it was me that had found you. So, little one, what’s your name, where are you from?” He asks whilst swaying his hand in a circular motion.

I think for a few minutes. They kill on sight? Maybe that’s why no one outside the dark forest had heard back from the werewolf kingdom for a long time. Why do they kill on sight? How come I was not killed on sight? What does he mean, I’m lucky? I internally scoff. I stop myself, knowing I’ll never get these questions answered without giving him what he wants first.

“I’m Aliana. I’m human, or at least I think I am, and I come from the central human district.” I say bleakly, not really wanting to delve into my past.

“Well, nice to meet you Aliana.” He says smiling, then stops, thinking about what he should say to me next after what I’ve just told him. He opens and closes his mouth a few times, and I cock my head to the left trying to figure out what he’s trying to say.

He seems to break away from whatever it was and now is my time to cut in. “So, Alpha Lukas, how many other werewolves are here?” I ask, knocking him off guard as I don’t think he thought I caught on.

“You are a smart one, good.” I raise my eyebrow at that, but he continues “Yes, all here are werewolves, we’ve got a couple of thousand but I won’t give exact figures until I can trust you. We’re the last pack of werewolves in existence...at least from what I know of.” He seems slightly sad at that, but he brushes it off.

He stands, and comes and sits next to me on the bed, getting fairly close, without prior warning. Athena swoons in my head and I’m starting to feel more drawn to this man as well, who is starting to get irresistibly hot. I decide to ignore the feelings I had earlier about him not being close to me, and it slightly relaxes me. “So, here’s my big question, where have you been since before you were fighting whatever it was, and why did you head into the dark forest in the first place?”

Now he was gazing at me intently and expecting me to share my full story. I wasn’t going to part with all of it as it was too painful, so I shortened it down as much as possible.

“I think I’m the last human. If you’ve been too secluded here and didn’t know, all humans died just over five years ago...all bar me anyway. Since then, I’ve been wandering around, trying not to settle anywhere for too long. I was rejected from most places at the start of my travels, and those that had let me in, never allowed me to stay long. As time has gone on, I found a place not too long ago where I was welcome to stay as long as I wanted. However, since the start of my journey, I’ve felt that I have a purpose and I didn’t die with my family because I had to find it. I’ve searched high and low, and now I am here.”

I look down after telling my short story, a bit ashamed that I, out of everyone, had survived. He surprises me by placing his hand under my chin and lifting it up. I gasp at the touch between us, feeling a spark where he’s touching me. Athena starts going wild in my head….what is going on with her. I shake my head and then think back to last night if he did the same but I was wearing the same hospital gown, which covers most of my body.

The spark is weird and sets off a fire within me. I look at Alpha Lukas and can see his golden orbs staring into my soul. He gives me a sad smile, before pulling away, whilst Athena…and I are yearning for his touch.

“I believe you. It’s very hard for any lies to get past me, Aliana.” He says without hesitation. “I have a lot to tell you, but I think the main thing here is to keep an open mind. I doubt you’ve actually encountered a werewolf from what you’ve said so far, but it seems someone has maybe told you about us, and I want to be sure you don’t get any wrong impressions.”

I nod my head, but don’t say anything. He’s right, I don’t actually know much about werewolves. Most of the information I was given was about rogues after the Elders warned me. So, naturally, instead of keeping my mouth shut, I blurt a question out without thinking about it.

“So are you rogues?” I ask stupidly.

The Alpha looked at me with a frown. Well, there’s an answer, but I still want to open the conversation.

“Who’s told you about the rogues?” he asks, but immediately shakes his head whilst raising his eyebrows. “I suspect one of the elven races has, seeing as how they all have their communities on the other side of the dark forest.”

He signs deeply. “Rogues have lost or have somehow removed their human counterpart. This means they are all beast in their wolf form, and in turn have no compassion, no empathy. They’ve lost it all. They will kill on sight without thinking about it. We, who live here, are different. We are still half human and have thoughts and feelings, much like you do. All of our senses are heightened tenfold, as well as being able to heal considerably faster also. And, well…we can shift to and from our wolf counterpart.”

My eyes widened at this. They can shift into a wolf? “How does that work?” I think out loud, wondering how this man could possibly change into a wolf.

He laughs at me and the sound he makes is like music to my ears. I look at him and he takes a more serious position on the chair “Wait…you’re not joking….well little one, one day, I will show you, but today is not that day. We have a lot to go over, and I would like to show you the pack. Would you like to walk with me?” he asks invitingly.

I look at him, wondering what that quick change of mood was, but brush it off. The only way I’m going to find anything out is by going with him. So I nod my head quickly with a shy smile on my face.