Hers (#1)

15| and so it begins

"Stamos."

Samantha was currently being tortured using an ancient method Lana's mother had taught her. Lana had ordered her arrest from the training ground in front of number of wolves. If she was less angry, the arrest would have been more discreet. Her ribcage was currently being suffocated by several wrappings of wooden bookcases. Every time she refused to confess, a jug of cold water was splashed on her and the string was pulled tighter. 5 more pulls and her entire middle section would be crushed.

"You work for Stamos."

Silence.

"How long?"

The ice water slowly dripped from her Beta's bruised mouth as she barked at the Warrior holding the rope to pull harder.

Samantha doubled over from the action, dark red blood escaping her throat and staining the tips of Lana's boots. "What's the use of knowing?" Samantha finally spoke. "It doesn't matter how long I've been working for him and you know that. You just can't handle hearing why." The Alpha's jaw clenched in barely contained rage and she opened her mouth only to close it again.

"I'm sick of this, Lana." She grows at the blatant disrespect of addressing her informally in front of a lower ranking wolf. "This constant hide and seek. Being lapdogs to a government. Selling out wolves you swore to protect in the guise of protecting them. You're a joke. Everything about the way we live is a joke. I wanted out. I wanted strength--I wanted to be able to roam free, as a wolf, as me. I wanted power. Why should I hide in the shadows because humans might see? Why should I hide my nature?"

Lana turns to face her. "So, you choose to betray me." Samantha scoffs. "Oh, don't try and play this game with me. I wasn't doing this for you or this godforsaken pack--I was doing it for me." She spat the word pack like it was the worst kind of evil.

"You had 10 of your own pack mates murdered! That was for you?!"

"Like I even knew who they were! They were all young teenage boys, sooner or later you would have sent them to training and had them face the Trail for extended stay. It's a cycle! When does it end? When do you put your foot down? When do you be the Alpha you say you are?!"

Lana remains silent, shocked. "Watari Stamos has shown me that your way isn't always the only right way. You have the power of 10 fighter wolves yet you cower at the sight of contracts and compromises. Every single government agent that has harassed you for "exposing wolves" you could have killed. Why didn't you?

"It's because you are weak. You are weak and you are lost and I will drag myself down to hell before you make me weak too." She stops and starts again.

"By betraying you, I've gained Watari's trust. He's given me a supply of Galdoni blood."

"No." Lana whispers, horrified. "No, you wouldn't. Are you insane?"

"Yes, I would. I'm a lot stronger now. Probably even stronger than you. Stamos runs the Kraken organization on fear and influence. Those transitioned Galdoni are like fucking hyenas. They follow the man holding the meat. And soon enough, I'll be carrying the damn slaughterhouse. Stamos controls the finances and the wolfsblood but he's so obsessed with finding you and making you the ultimate "winged wolf" or some bullshit that he's slipping. Once he catches, I'll be controlling the whole organization."

Lana grips her arms to stop from shaking. "Why? Why would you do this?"

"Things are changing, Lana. It's isn't the way you remember it. Society has evolved and so has the Trail. Humans don't wield pitchforks and you aren't an enslaved immigrant forced to work of the tracks anymore. He's got a whole band of these brainwashed kids from state homes and mental hospitals working on different chemicals. Chemicals that make wolves stronger, that make Galdoni stable. I mean that one day we could all take the Trail and become Galdoni without the bullshit side effects."