Ashton walked steadily up the stone slab stairs. His fingers twitched in his jeans pockets as he got closer to the large cedar doors. His long jet-black hair was messily tied up in a bun.

He knocked on the door softly.

"Come in." A deep male voice called from the other side of the door.

Ashton slowly turned the doorknob and walked through the door into the large, dimly lit office.

Long navy currants hung from the ceiling covering the large glass windows. Small stands of sunlight peeked through the velvet curtains.

Ashton's gaze fell on the man who sat at a long stained wooden desk in the middle of the room. The man's eyes were fixated on three creased pieces of paper he held tightly in his thick, umber hands.

"Ashton." He acknowledged the young beta standing at the door, eyes never leaving the piece of paper in his hands. "Have a seat." He motioned to the empty chair across from him. His eyes skimmed through the letter as he flipped to the second page. 

"A letter from your father?" The beta questioned as he closed the door behind him.

The man nodded, slowly rubbing his temples.

"Is everything alright?" Ashton asked worriedly, swallowing a lump in his throat. Then, making his way toward the empty leather chair across from the man, he sat.

Ashton's leg bounced up and down as he anxiously waited for a response.

The man shook his head slowly, "It's nothing." He let out a large sigh setting the paper down on the desk. His right hand balled up into a tight fist. "I'll deal with it later." He finally looked across at Ashton. His face was flat and expressionless.

"Fill me in on the raid." He spoke sternly.

Ashton shifted his seat, sitting upright at the edge of the blue leather suede chair.

"Well." He began, his hands gripping his knees, "as you know, we finally tracked down the exact location of the rogue pack responsible for the attacks of packs and kidnapping of she-wolves in the last couple of years." Ashton began.

"The main wolf responsible had been working with two other rogue wolves and a small group of hunters to attack wolf packs all over the country and poach she-wolves. We have linked them to more than five attacks over the last ten years, sir." He began explaining.

"I..." he paused, "We," he corrected himself as his grip on his knees tightened. "Hit many dead ends with unhelpful leads, but last month when we caught one of the human hunters, we were able to get much information and finally track down the location of his main bunker." He continued. "The leader kept particular she-wolves for his..." The young beta paused, his stomach contorting in disgust. "For his sick collection. He'd beat, tortured, and raped them. We found records when we infiltrated the house of the bunker. We hope going over the footage now will help identify many of the missing she-wolves that were reported missing in the last year. We hope that we will now be able to give many packs some form of closure." The beta explained.

"Did you find anyone in the bunker?"

Ashton's thoughts flicked back to the young she-wolf they had rescued.

"Only one she-wolf made it out alive." The beta's head hung low in shame. "Had we arrived a day earlier, we would have been able to save another woman." He lamented, his voice shaky as he attempted to keep his composure.

"The young woman in the back of the trunk. We were able to get to her, thanks to Gavin. Thanks to him, we stopped the truck, rescued her, and captured the others involved."

"The man responsible," The man's voice was stern, his eyebrow raised, "you caught him."

It wasn't a question.

Ashton scratched the back of his neck nervously. "He attempted to elude capture and fled into the woods. But, I sent two of our trackers on his scent. We will have him by dusk."

The man stood up from the desk, his dark eyes wandering around the room as he lost himself in his thoughts.

"Have you gotten any information from the she-wolf?" The man inquired, focusing his attention back on Ashton.

Ashton shook his head. "They had to put her in an isolated room as the doctors monitor her." He began explaining. "She was in unstable condition when we got to her. She fell into a coma on our way back. We haven't gotten any information from her," He paused. Ashton's thoughts returned to the poor broken woman he had held just a couple of hours before. Her bruised and emaciated frame.

"What happened to her?" The man asked.

"I don't know much, but judging from the evidence collected, I suspect silver poisoning. We found dog collars in the dungeon and other chains all laced with silver. The doctors are running some tests to find any more injuries." Ashton sighed, "He's a sick son of a bitch."

The man nodded in agreement. "We will follow with the right proceedings once he is in custody." He stood up from his chair and walked towards Ashton.

Placing a firm hand on his shoulder, "I was right to put you in charge of this."

"Thank you." Ashton, at that moment, felt relief wash over him. For the first time in months, his shoulders relaxed. Ashton's eyes began to fill with tears; they dripped down the dark circles that framed his eyes, a testament to sleepless nights spent wrestling with his thoughts, leaving him mentally drained.  Fatigue etched lines upon his face, tracing the marks of countless sleepless nights and stress. The weight of his exhaustion hung upon his broad shoulders, visible in the slight slump of his posture. He wiped his tears quickly. 

The man looked down at his childhood friend, his eyes filled with pride. "You serve this pack well; you serve our people well."

Ashton looked back at the Alpha with a small smile and thankful eyes at his friend's words.

"Go rest. You look like shit." They both shared a chuckle.

The phone on top of the desk began vibrating against the hollow wood. The Alpha reached for the phone. Bringing the phone up to his ear, he asked, "Yes?"

There was a frantic voice on the other end of the line.

"I'll be right there." His voice was steady and composed. Then, as quickly as he picked up the phone, he set it down.

"I have to go down to the infirmary."

Bianca Marie North

age 20

Former pack allegiance: WestMoon pack

Current allegiance: ——None——

Status: Unconscious with minimum brain activity

Around me, everything was still moving forward as usual. I could hear the scattered sound of feet moving, the constant beeping of a heart monitor, and even the slow dripping of an IV.

I still smelled and felt the world around me. I smelled the scents of the werewolf doctors and nurses around me. I heard their chatter. I sensed the smell of the woods and fresh rain when someone opened the creaky window.

I could smell blood when the nurses cleaned my wounds and the medicine they injected into my body.

While everything kept going on around me, I couldn't. I couldn't move. I couldn't open my eyes, twitch my fingers, or curl my toes.

"This is her alpha; we asked you to come because this is nothing like we have ever seen." A gentle voice filled the room, followed by footsteps.

"When she first arrived, we found her healing was stalled. We also found trace amounts of silver in her bloodstream. At first, we were worried because we weren't sure how to get the silver out of her system, but then this happened." She stopped speaking, and I heard her footsteps getting closer to me.

"Her body heat rose, and at first, we were trying to cool her temperature down, but we believe her body heat meant metabolic healing had kicked in, and her body began pushing the silver out. So we took blood samples from when she first arrived and compared it to a recent sample we took an hour ago, and amazingly she has 30% less silver in her system." Her voice hitched with excitement. "I've never seen this happen to a regular wolf before."

"Alpha?" Her voice suddenly pitched. She seemed worried. I was so confused. I needed to know what was going on.

The heart monitor began beeping louder, which didn't help as it only snowballed my anxiety.

Was I disfigured? Could I not feel my toes or fingers because they were amputated?

"Why hasn't she woken up?" The man's voice, who I assumed was the Alpha, asked. His voice was laced with worry. It was so loud it echoed off the walls. "If she's healing, why is she still asleep?"

"Her body is using a lot of strength to clean her bloodstream, so her body went into a sort of hibernation." The nurse's words were shakey like she was afraid.

But I am awake

I am awake

Wake up

I began yelling at myself.

I was screaming at myself to get control of my body and move.

A prisoner inside my mind. I cried and cried but to no avail. It wasn't until I felt a warm touch of a large palm on my shoulder that sent a jolt flowed through my body and sent my heart racing.

Then the heart monitor went off again. This time was sending an alarm blared through the room.

"Alpha, we must get her heart rate down, or she could go into cardiac arrest." Another frantic voice flooded into the room.

"Alpha, you need to go. We need to keep her stable." The panicked womens voice cried. But the warm touch on my shoulder never left.

Then the touch was ripped away, "Forgive me, Alpha. We need to get this woman stable."

I cursed at myself.

'Just fucking move. Wake up!

I cried out inside my head.

"What's wrong with her?" The Alpha's voice asked again. It sent a ripple of heat onto my body. The heart monitor is still beeping erratically.

"Alpha, please, you need to leave. We'll take care of her." Another voice filled the room, followed by a wave of footsteps piling into the room.

I felt a pair of rubber-covered hands graze my arms. The voice came from directly on top of me. I could hear more people approaching me, and I felt hands reaching down to touch me.

I was panicking.

'Was I going to die?'

A familiar restless energy filled my body.

No, we are not dying.

April's weak voice filled my head.

I felt a jolt in my hands and finally began twitching my fingers.

Feeling like life was flooding my body, I took a big gasp of air. Oxygen filled my lungs, and I finally opened my eyes and took in everything around me. The nurses around me looked shocked.

Around my neck were thick bandages, and a white cast covered my wrist.

The commotion around me went dead silent. Just round eyes, staring at my every move.

I looked around the room, four nurses stood around me, and two more were peering into the room. The Alpha was nowhere in sight.

"Are you alright sweet pea?" One of the older nurses asked me.

I shook my head slowly in response. But unfortunately, my head was still heavy, and the bright light wasn't helping.

"Please, the light." I croaked out.

There was a burning pain in my throat as the words left my lips. Like my vocal cords had been charred to ash.

"Someone dim that light for me, please." The same nurse ordered.

I choked out a weak 'thank you' before falling back onto the hospital bed. I was so exhausted.

"We need to take your vitals." Explained the nurse.

I wanted to speak to her, and for whatever reason, I wanted to ask her where the Alpha had gone, but when I thought of saying a word, my lungs would begin to burn as though they were on fire.

Suddenly I began to feel something wet drip onto my unwrapped arm.

I opened my eyes to look down to find blood.

A dark fresh drop of blood.

Then there were three large drops of blood on my arm.

Then four, five, and suddenly I felt a stream of blood drip down my lips and neck.

I became nauseous, feeling the urge to throw up. Another nurse placed a soft cotton ball in my nose to help the blood, but it was drenched and leaking in no time. I sat up and began with that slight movement alone began throwing up. It was the same dark red blood.

It wouldn't stop. It spilled out from my mouth, and it covered me and everything around me. It burned my throat so much that I began clawing at the bandages wanting to rip them off and scratch at the charred skin underneath.

I wasn't able to breathe. There was no way of getting air in my lungs as the dark substance continued to come out.

"What's going on with her?" I heard his same worried rough voice ask from outside the door.

I began coughing and hacking, forcing every last drop. If I didn't stop soon, I would surely pass out.

A nurse ran into the room, bringing me a large bucket. However, blood was already all over the floor and on me. The nurses were frantically running around yelling for a doctor.

I coughed up the last bit of dark, now almost black blood. Tears streamed down my face as I began losing control of my body. I felt like I was getting heavier. One of the nurses held my hair back as I finished throwing up.

"We need to get her a blood transfusion, Now!"