Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)
“We still are wolves at heart….” Selene continued. “We are here, trying to save our pack. These monsters are made from our brothers and sisters… but the one making them… that one is no wolf. Not anymore.”
A long silence passed between the three of them. Then, the Leshy stepped closer to Selene, looking at her with a coldness that worried her.
“Please,” Selene swallowed. “Give us a little time to take care of this. Don’t destroy our people. Let us hunt out the rot from our pack.”
The Leshy took a step back, tilting her head between Selene and Alexander.
“All right,” it said. “I won’t destroy the wolves, for now.”
Selene and Alexander each let out a sigh of relief.
“These ones,” it continued, looking down at the shadowy figures that shuffled between the buildings below. “They are like newborn pups, blind and deaf. Unable to raise even a hand in defense.”
The men and women moved in and out of the moonlight, staring forward or at the ground. Each at varying stages of infection. Some appeared to have only sprouted a few leaves, while others wore the bulging vines like the old man.
“Each holds the rot inside of them,” Leshy continued. “Festering and growing. Some will change into monsters like the one from before. It will leave and infect even more of you. Others will change into sad creatures that wander the forest, feeling the phantom call of home from the trees and the grass. It might be hours or even days, but all of them will leave my lands tainted and corrupted.”
Alexander looked at the shuffling bodies.
“How long did it take for the old man to change? When was he infected?” Alexander asked.
“He was one of the very first. He has been rotting for several days,” it replied. “The others were all infected in waves, some only this morning.
“We might be able to save some of them,” Alexander said. “There is a cure.”
“A cure?” Leshy asked, looking at Alexander. “Do you have it with you?”
“No,” Alexander replied. “But we can get it. Once we have finished our business here, we can go get it and bring it back.”
Leshy shook their head.
“No,” it replied. “I demand my peace, my quiet. You will remove the taint from these lands tonight!”
“We understand, but we can be quick,” Selene said.
The girl turned with a hiss at Selene.
“Loud child, loud crawling bug!” it shouted. “When the sun rises, they must be gone! Gone! Gone! Gone! If even one rotten wolf remains, I will make it quiet. I will silence the wolf forever!”
Selene drew back.
“You wanted to hunt,” it growled at her, the child’s face twisted in rage. “Hunt the rot from my home!”
With the final shout, the child was gone.
Alexander and Selene stared at each other in shock.
“Can it really do it?” Alexander whispered. “Can it really destroy all the wolves?”
Selene swallowed, feeling the answer from Lily deep within through an uneasy and sinking feeling. Selene nodded at Alexander.
Selene looked back out at the shuffling bodies. There were several hundred. The Moonguard pack, at last count, was made of at least five hundred wolves.
And it was impossible to know how many of the already transformed hybrids and fae creatures roamed through the forest.
She lifted her eyes to the sky. There were only a few hours left until the sun would rise.
Before then, she and Alexander would need to ensure that every infected wolf was put down. Or else an ancient being with immeasurable power would end all of the werewolves in the dawn’s morning light.
They stared out into the dark sea of shuffling shadows.
“Do we really need to kill them all?” Alexander asked quietly.
Selene swallowed.
‘Leshy meant what it said,’ Lily whispered. ‘Though some of these wolves are not far enough gone that they couldn’t be saved… if they are still here when the dawn breaks… Leshy has the power to destroy all of the wolves, good or bad.’
Selene sighed.
“Lily says… the Leshy will kill us all if we don’t.”
Alexander lowered his head, clenching his jaw.
He was a warrior, a leader… but now he was being asked to be an executioner.
“We don’t have a choice Alexander,” Selene whispered. “I don’t like it either, but we don’t have a choice.”
Alexander sighed and pulled her close, kissing the top of her head.
“I know, Selene.”
They stayed together for the first hour, fighting their every instinct to complete the task they were given. Then, when the sound of the hybrid rang out from the forest, Alexander was the one that chased after it.
Selene felt a deep and painful grip on her heart as she watched the wolves before her fall without so much as a hand brought up in defense.
***
Selene fell to her knees. The wolf before her let out a soft, wet gurgle as a red line of liquid appeared on his throat. He fell to his knees and then forward to the ground, the blood pooling beneath him.
She closed her eyes, huffing as she tried to catch her breath.
Alexander had already called her through their link. He had searched the forest. He found the hybrid they had seen transform and two others.
He had killed them all and found a small pack of the fae monsters. He was returning to the Moonguard settlement as soon as they were dispatched.
Through her closed lids, Selene saw the warm light. The sun was rising.
Selene opened her eyes, lifting them up toward the sky. The glow through trees looked like a fire burning the forest’s heart.
She sighed.
Had they gotten them all?
Was it worth it?
“You pity them,” a soft voice called from behind her.
Selene turned, and a small boy stood behind her. But his expression was the same quizzical look of the girl from the night before.
“Leshy…” Selene whispered. She lightly bowed her head.
“Why do you pity them?” it asked.
Selene looked around at the hundreds of bodies that lay around her. She took a deep breath.
“We could have helped them,” she sighed. “They weren’t monsters, not these ones. Some wouldn’t have turned if we got them the cure.”
The Leshy looked around at the bodies.
“Do you know them?” it asked without looking at her.
Selene shook her head.
“I never met anyone from Moonguard…. They were very isolated. They preferred to be left alone.”
“But you care about their lives?” Leshy asked, tilting its head as it looked at her.
“All life has value,” Selene replied. “I don’t feel good about what happened tonight, so please… tell me it was worth it… tell me… it was enough to convince you.”
The boy stepped forward and squatted before her, so their eyes met.
“I will not destroy the wolf,” it whispered.
Selene closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief.
She felt a deep emptiness in her stomach, a pit filled with anguish and regret. She knew they didn’t have a choice, but it didn’t wipe away all the guilt of having destroyed an entire pack in one night.
“Still, you mourn,” the Leshy said, observing Selene carefully. “I have promised the safety of your species, and yet still you shed tears.”
Selene sniffled and wiped the tears away. Then, she took a deep breath.
“I am thankful for your mercy, Leshy,” she said. “But that doesn’t bring back the innocent people I killed tonight, those who still had a chance to be cured.”
“You could not have cured them,” the Leshy stated.
Selene looked up, her brows furrowed in a questioning glance.
“Maybe not all of them,” she said. “But you said some of them weren’t even infected until yesterday. So they could have been saved by the cure.”
The boy looked away.
“These wolves, the rot inside of them began long ago,” it continued. “The infection only gave them a physical manifestation of the rot that already made a home in their hearts.”
“What do you mean by that?” Selene asked.
The boy turned back to Selene.
“Ask your fae, that Queen’s child, what she heard as you quelled their numbers.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?