The Alpha Female

NINE: STITCHED

CHAPTER NINE: STITCHED

            Taima and the party stumbled into the den.  They were tired and their feet were heavy as they plodded on through the cool night air.  They had been out for over a day searching for the beta and had yet to inform the alpha of what had happened.  They had been hoping that they would find her if they looked hard enough, and that even though they returned home late everything would be okay because she would be there to get them out of it.  They thought wrong.

            The men shifted into their human forms in the main grounds, Taima didn’t.

            “You can tell him,” Ahote, one of the older members of the hunting party snapped.  “You lost his daughter and you can take the heat.” Taima felt a growl forming in his throat, but he quickly suppressed it, knowing fully well not to challenge a wolf larger and stronger than he was.       “Go on,” Ahote shooed.  Taima did as he was told, bounding off down to the alpha’s cabin.  He was going to be in so much trouble if she wasn’t there.  Not only would he be taking the heat for the party being late, but for the fact that they had returned without the beta.  That was two betas missing.

            Taima loped up to the front door of the cabin before shifting.  He grabbed a pair of pants out of a chest that rested by the door before knocking.

            Immediately, the door was ripped from his grasp.  Arden’s small frame filled the doorway.

            “Darach!” She called after giving the battered teen a once over.  Arden took a step back from the door, her hands clasped together and her eyes red, clearly she had been crying.  The alpha filled the space moments later, stepping outside and shutting the door behind him.  Hunting was pack business and he didn’t want his mate to worry about it.

            “Where have you been?” He snapped, the tone of his voice screaming dominance and causing Taima to falter.  His mouth fished open.

            “Two days ago I asked for a party to be sent out and return before the rain.  They were to head east and they went north, they were to be experienced hunters and you went with them.  Where is my daughter?”

            “The beta…she…” Taima trailed off, not meeting the alpha’s gaze.

            “She what Taima,” his voice was dangerously low as he towered over the boy. 

            Taima swallowed hard past the lump in his throat before looking up to meet the alpha’s eyes.

            “She’s gone.”

            The stitches had been absolutely dreadful and I no longer argued with the fact that I had been unconscious the first time I had received them.  I tried not to make a noise, to be strong and to be like the beta I was, the alpha I was to become, but I was weak.

            “Ow,” I snapped as he ran the thread through the skin on the back of my ankle.  He rolled his eyes and jabbed it right back in.  “Jeez,” I breathed and he let out a frustrated sigh.  Mason pulled this stitch out as well, pulling it tight and cinching the skin back together.  I wiggled in dis-ease and Mason slapped me on the leg, holding it firmly in place.

            “Hold still,” he chided, his voice low and irritated.  “The more you move around the longer this is going to take.” I glared at him, but I could tell that he was growing tired.  His eyes were drooping and he was blinking often, rubbing them over with the back of his hand.  The moon was probably only mid sky.  Humans were bad at staying awake.