The Rogue Alpha’s Claim

And wait, they did.

The first thing they had done was round up the people that had remained. They had lost four women to the fight, and it took everything in Ariel not to puke as she saw their battered bodies.

They had wrapped them in Saran Wrap, and Ariel monitored them closely as they went out and conducted a proper burial for them.

They had buried them in the spacious garden in the back yard, and as they lowered them to the ground, Ariel couldn’t help the overflowing tears.

She had failed her pack and, most especially, Kane.

How was she going to face him when he came?

“Hmmm.” Ariel shivered as she felt a weight on her shoulders, and she turned her head to the side to see Liza squeezing her shoulders. Her eyes were still moist and reddened from all the crying.

“It will be fine.” Liza whispered to her, Luna, trying to give her comfort, but even she didn’t believe her words.

“Luna? Psst, Luna, you have to make a speech.” Someone tapped Ariel on her back, and her mouth opened in a silent ‘O’, and she took two steps forward.

“Uhmmm, honestly, I don’t know what to say. But I know you all fought bravely until the end, and it is a pity you had to go so soon. I assure you that your legacy will continue to live on, and we will never forget our sacrifice. May you all rest in peace.” The speech had been impromptu and as haphazard as it could get; her thoughts were too scattered right now to compose something better, and that should do.

Ariel took a step back and let them lower them into the freshly dug graves, flinching each time they threw a shovel full of sand into their graves.

But it was all over, and they all filed out of the garden quietly into the common room, or what the common room was.

Ariel’s eyes swept through the entire length of the room, and she released a ragged breath.

“What do we do now, Luna?”

“We clean up as best as we can, and we wait for the alpha’s return.” She surveyed the site again before she began to dish out instructions on how the cleanup was going to proceed. “Sofia, Emily, Harper, Grace, Penelope, Hazel, Amelia, Mia, and Olivia, you all will be in charge of packing the stones and any heavy lifting to make it easier for cleanup. Maddie will supervise you. And I will be in charge of the cleanup along with the rest of the girls. Any objections?”

Ariel turned her gaze to the women, making sure to look at them eyeball to eyeball, but none could hold her gaze, and she nodded her head. “Good, we start now, and we work, taking breaks every three hours.”

“Yes Luna.” They all chorused before heading to their various activities.

Ariel watched as Maddie took charge of the ladies that were under her, directing them on how to start the cleaning up, before she led her group to the storage room to get the material they were going to need for their cleaning.

They set to work, starting in the kitchen, which was the least affected. Kane had done enough good work on the building that most of it was still standing, even though it had taken multiple hits.

The clean-up was rather dull and sorrowful; no one made jokes or even tried to lighten the mood. They were all in their thoughts, and Ariel left them to it.

The three hours rolled by quite quickly, but none of them was willing to take a break. They had all decided to continue cleaning until they no longer had strength, and for once, Ariel didn’t complain.

His thoughts were on Kane, wondering how he was doing and if he was even alive. For the months that she had lived with them, she had believed they were untouchable, but she knew better now.

“I think we should take a break; it is already dusk, and we must be starving.” Ariel looked at the faces of her dejected pack mates, most of them looking like they had had their souls sucked out, and they all nodded mechanically like robots.

Dinner was nothing fancy, just instant noddles with rich, spicy broth that made her tear up, although she wasn’t sure the tears were only because of the spice.

They all huddled together in the training room, the next biggest room after the common room, and they laid their sleeping bags together, but none of them could fall asleep for fear that they could be attacked.

“I was thrown out of my pack when my mate died, and his parents linked his death to mine.” A voice rang out in the silence, and everyone turned to look at the owner. “No amount of pleading would make them believe I had no part in his death, and my parents were sucking up to his just because they were our alpha’s. I had no choice but to become a rogue, and that was when I met Kane.”

Ariel’s ears perked up at the mention of Kane, and she became still.

“Kane’s ways may not exactly be right, but I have seen him pull through even in difficult circumstances, and I decided I was going to follow him wherever. He may not always make the best decision, but he has a reason for it, and it will be revealed very soon.”

Ariel wasn’t sure if the woman had an aim for telling her story, but it felt like she was speaking to her. And for the briefest of moments, their eyes met, and something passed between them.

“I became a rogue because of my mate. Well, they raided my pack, and I had no choice but to follow them.” One by one, the women began to tell their stories in the candlelight; even Maddie had something to say until it got to Ariel’s turn.

“Luna, you have never mentioned how you got to know the alpha.”

“Honestly, I am not so sure, but Kane rescued me when I was younger. I guess he knew I was his mate, and he sent me out of the country to finish my schooling, and when I came back here, I became his mate.” Ariel explained, but she couldn’t shake off the eyes that had been watching her.

There was some intelligence behind those brown eyes that told her that they probably knew more than she did, and she knew she had to confront them.

“I am jealous. I have never been to Australia, not even out of the state.” A lady’s whine disrupted her thoughts, and Ariel gave the owner of the voice an ‘are you serious’ face, and she shrugged.

“Me too. I have never been out of the country.”

“Me too.”

“Don’t be so shocked, Luna. Werewolves are very territorial creatures, and they are quite attached to their place of birth or locality. There is rarely any need to travel out of the country, and many of us haven’t even seen a plane.”

“Ahh, I see.”

With nothing to talk about again, the ladies fell silent, and one after the other, they closed their eyes to sleep.

The next day was no better; they continued from where they had stopped, and this time they cleaned with renewed vigor.

The sooner they got rid of the blood stains on the floor, the sooner they could move past all that had happened.

The cleaning took about 3 days, and on the fourth day, the common room was looking somewhat habitable and spotless, except for the large gaping hole where the door used to be. Everything was the same.

Except the men weren’t back from their hunt.

According to the older members of the park, this was the longest they had gone, and with each day that Ariel sat watching the clock, the more she grew worried.

She had crept up at Maddie on one of those days where she had been sharpening her knife, but the latter didn’t even acknowledge her presence. It had been difficult to get close to her after the invasion, and she had reduced her talking to the bare minimum.

“Hey.” Ariel offered her a smile, but it dropped as she saw the look on Maddie’s face.

“If Toby doesn’t come back in the next two days, I am going to go out and look for him.” Maddie left no room for questions because she was already walking out, and Ariel could only stare at her retreating back, wondering if she could follow her.

The next day, Ariel sat on the stool in the kitchen, sipping her second cup of coffee while clutching her head in pain.

She needed caffeine in her system.

The nightmares have resumed in full force, and nothing she did was helpful; right now, it was only Kane that could help.

She placed her cup on the coaster and lowered her head to the counter, willing herself to go to sleep when she heard her name.

“Ariel?”