The Alpha’s Dynasty

Zane’s POV

Another body. For the past week, I had been getting reports of bodies of members of my pack. I had no choice but to leave the company, return to Misenium and take charge of my duties as an alpha. I had been there for two days and hadn’t yet figured out the perpetrator but I knew it wouldn’t take long before I found out and made them pay for the terrible things they’d done.

This one was of a young woman. She lay on the grass, her hair matted on the dry blood covering the grass. Her head seemed to have been hit by a blunt object as the back of it was a mess. It was a pitiful sight, seeing a young soul gone, leaving behind all the dreams and possibilities they had.

“I don’t get it,” I said. “I don’t smell vampire around any of the crime scenes. Whoever is killing this people is a wolf.”

At first, I had thought it was Aaron, the vampire trying to get revenge on me for locking him up but the second body I had seen made it clear that it was a wolf. The scent seemed masked by vampire blood which had confused us at first. Now, the person had stopped putting vampire blood near the bodies. Apparently, they didn’t care if they got discovered anymore, or they wanted to be.

I walked around the scene, which was close to the pack boundary.This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

“Joe, please come here.” I said to my second in command, a beta wolf called Joe Hadden. “Do you feel it?”

He shook his head. Usually, we could feel the magical boundary Lainey had placed at that side of the territory. However this time, there was nothing.

“This doesn’t look good,” Joe said. “I think something happened to Lainey.”

I nodded. “That’s for sure. We should go and check on her.”

A few minutes later, we arrived at the small cottage that belonged to Lainey, I stood at the door with Joe and Mark. I could feel that something was wrong. There was a strong sense of dark magic in the air and Lainey’s pure signature scent could barely be felt.

“I think she’s dead,” Mark said. He had gone straight to the window and looked in.

The revelation was not shocking, considering everything we had noticed so far. Despite that, it still hit me.

“We have to be very careful,” Joe said. “Lainey had a lot of power, and whoever killed her is most likely more powerful. They might still be around.”

I nodded. “Mark, you’ll stay outside while we go inside and check this out. Joe, come with me.”

Joe and I entered the cottage cautiously. Inside the living room, we found Lainey’s body lying on the floor. It was surrounded by overturned furniture and shreds of glass that had once constituted her centre table. Lainey’s eyes were wide open in shock and there was a dark mark on her chest.

“What the hell happened here?” Joe asked, his voice barely a whisper.

I sniffed the air. “I can smell traces of dark magic, and something else that I can’t put my finger on. It’s a bit familiar, though.”

“Okay,” Joe said. “We need to find out who did this and stop them before it gets any worse. Now that Lainey is dead, our defences are compromised and it’ll be easier for whoever is killing wolves to do it. Lainey was a great person and witch. Justice needs to be serve.”

He was very right. Now more than ever, I needed to snuff out this person and stop them. “Call, the police and have them take the body away. They’ll probably not find anything we can’t find but the body needs to be with them so they can inform her family. We are going to hunt down whoever is responsible for this.”

After looking around for a while, I decided to go. We were almost at the door when Joe exclaimed.

“What?” I glanced at him, annoyance etched on my face.

“Look up.”

I turned back and stared at the ceiling. There were five roses wrapped around the light bulb. It was vaguely familiar but I couldn’t remember anything about five roses.

“Five roses. What could they mean?” I asked Joe.

“I don’t know. Do you think we should go with them?”

I nodded. Joe found a chair and stood on it. He reached up and untied the roses from the insulated wire connected to the bulb holder. He placed the roses in his backpack and we left the house. Outside, we called the police and informed them about everything. We went to the pack house. I went to my unit while Joe and Mark joined the apprehensive group at the yard.

I went and sat in my office, pulling out a file and placing it on the table in front of me. I went through the images of the four people who had been murdered before Lainey. Was that why there were five roses? Because five people had been killed? The events were starting to make me feel overwhelmed. I had always taken pride in being able to keep my entire pack safe but I was now failing.

I leaned back in my chair, rubbing my temple, trying to think of who could be behind the murders. I knew it was not vampires, but werewolves. Was it Lightwood pack? I had never got along with their alpha, but our issues had quietened down lately. I was finding it hard to pin it on them since they could have killed more if they wanted. This seemed to be the work of one person, who was getting bolder as time went on.

Standing up, I walked to the window and looked out at the yard where more people had assembled. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I could sense the anxiety and fear within the pack. That was a sign that I needed to act fast.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and Joe walked in. “Alpha, I’ve brought the roses. Jolene says you should touch them. There might be a connection to whoever killed Lainey.”

Joe set his backpack on the table and removed the roses. They were still a bit fresh. He placed the roses on the table. I went and placed my hand on top of them.

Immediately, I saw a face in my mind, a very familiar face. I withdrew my hand immediately, as if I had just touched fire.

“What’s it, alpha?” Joe asked.

“He’s back.” I said. “I can’t believe this! How dare he return to this pack?”