The Beast (Alpha Trilogy #1)

Chapter 17

Beast

Few days later (2 days before full moon)

I wake up with a start in the middle of the night. I look at Puppy to see him still peacefully sleeping next to me. But I can't sleep, something is going on, I just don't know what. I can feel it in my gut and my instincts have never failed me before.

I lightly shake Puppy to wake him up. We need to check out what's going on.

He shoots up, almost hitting me with his head. He quickly inspects my body, his look questioning.

"Something's wrong." I tell him as I jump from the bed, hurriedly putting some clothes on.

He follows me as I go outside, tuning into my surroundings, trying to find out what's going on around me.

Puppy is right next to me, sniffing the air, and after few second more wolves emerge from the houses around the clearing, doing the same as him.

It's quiet.

Too quiet.

I tense as I analyze the area. What is it? Where?

Grey approaches me and Puppy, his gaze similar to Puppy's when I woke him up. They both look at me confused.

After a short while Puppy whines quietly and tries to nudge me back into the house, but I stay rooted in my place, my body coiled, ready for a fight.

With a bark, Puppy dismisses the other wolves, only Grey staying with us, as Puppy seems to get frustrated at my lack of response to his constant nudging.

"Stop it! Go back inside if you want!" I finally snap at him, barely registering the hurt that briefly crosses his look, as my mind is already in full battle mode.

Both Puppy and Grey sigh as they head back inside. I don't really care right now, too focused on finding out the source of the problem. If they can't see it or smell it, it's fine, but I know something is wrong and I will always choose to trust my own intuition rather than depend on someone else's judgment.

I slowly go in the direction from which I first came here, making sure not to make any sound as I look around me.

Why is it so quiet here? It's never this dead silent in the woods.

As I walk around, getting farther away from the clearing, I catch a movement in the distance. Had I blinked, I wouldn't notice it. It was that fast.

A wolf.

Just as I'm about to go after it, a huge body slams into me from my left, knocking the breath out of me, making it impossible for me to scream. I look up from my position on the ground, my eyes meeting a snarling wolf. He's dark, almost black, stinking of death. I know that smell all too well.

The wolf snarls into my face, trying to intimidate me. I school my expression into a cold mask, letting the inner Beast come out.

With quick moves, I break the joint in his front leg, making him yowl in pain and loosen his hold on me, then roll over and swiftly kick underneath his ribs, straight into the soft spot on his stomach with enough force to make him double over, then in a split second I reach to his tail and break it into pieces, watching him writhe in agony as I continue to break his spine piece by piece.

It doesn't kill him, but paralyzes him. Once he's completely immobilized, I crouch in front of him, and I notice him visibly flinching as he meets the Beast's eye. Only few have survived the Beast, but not long enough to tell the tale.

He continues whimpering, most likely in pain, but I pay no heed to it. All I need from him is information now.

"Are there others here?" I ask him quietly, but my voice still seems to boom through the dead silence around us. He tries to back away, but with his legs useless, all he does is squirm in front of me. I grab his muzzle in my hand, painfully squeezing it, as I ask him again. His nod is almost unnoticeable, but I see it perfectly.

I get up, looking down at the wolf beneath me.

"Suffer." I say as I leave in the direction I saw movement earlier, my steps steady and quiet.

I'm pretty far away from the clearing now, none of the wolves from there followed me here. Good. They don't need to get involved.

I'm surrounded by a bunch of wolves seconds after I stop to look around. They all stink of death. It's as if it's their distinctive smell.

I keep watching them, waiting for them to move, but they don't. They just continue staring at me, furiously growling in my direction. Then from behind one of them comes an even bigger wolf, his fur dark and ragged, with many scars littering his body. He smells even worse than the rest. He smells dead, as if his body is decaying. He charges at me, giving me almost no time to react with his speed.

I slide underneath him as he jumps to probably bite my head off. As he turns around, so do I, and I manage to hit him straight in the side of his snout with the heel of me foot, satisfying crunch of the broken bone sounding like music to my ears. The momentum of the hit makes his head snap to the side, which I use to punch him in the eye, and then with quick consecutive punches to his snout and eyes I somehow slow him down. He manages to block my last punch, and then drags his paw down my torso, leaving a deep bloody trail behind it. Just as his paw retreats, I catch it and lock it behind my back with my left arm and with one powerful move I break it by spinning around and wrenching it almost all the way over his flank.

We circle around each other, him limping with no use in his left front leg, and me with a huge gash almost all the way down my torso. When he attacks, I'm ready to kill him. I dodge sideways as he charges at me in the same manner as earlier, then jump on him and wrap my arms around his head with my legs going around his neck, so he can't bite me or throw me off, then putting my feet over his snout I ram my fingers into his eyes, blinding him instantly. Making use of his state I use my body weight to trip him onto his side, then with one forceful move I dig my hand into his chest cavity and rip his heart out of his body. Once removed, I pump my arm into the air, the blood still pumping from the heart splattering down on me. The wolves around me crouch down, baring their necks to me. I remember Grey doing the same, so I guess it's a sign of submission.

"Bow to your queen!" I boom, noticing all the wolves cringing away from me.