Taken by the Alpha Spin-off: An Alpha's Thorne

Artemis Thorne

ONE YEAR LATER

For a while, I tossed and turned. Then, I awoke abruptly in the dark night to the sound of explosions.

My eyes shot open as I bolted upright. The ground and the walls shook around me. The distant glow of a large fire reflected on the window panes and mirrors of my bedroom, casting a flickering, fiery shadow everywhere.

Leaping from my bed, I threw my long hair up into a ponytail, tossing on my clothes and boots. I had hoped that maybe the kitchen staff had an experiment gone wrong, but my gut knew much better.

I was unfortunately far too familiar with the deep, instinctive feeling emerging from my core to reduce this to anything other than some horrifying unfolding of events. I opened my nightstand and took out my dagger, sliding it into my pant leg.

I could smell battle in the air. There was no time to dawdle.

I sprinted down the staircase and through the hall, hurling open the doors to my guards’ rooms as I passed them, but they were already outside. There was thankfully no sign of the castle walls themselves having been penetrated, and I rushed toward the outdoors.

I made it to the front of the palace as Trezor threw open the castle doors. I ran through them, turning toward her, taking in her urgent expression.

“What in the hell is going on?!” I yelled, my canines threatening to elongate. I needed to keep my wolf at bay, and tried to prepare myself for some kind of violence without shifting into it.

“Rogues!” Trezor yelled, immediately launching herself at a man hurtling toward me. Tearing at his throat and effortlessly flinging his body onto the ground, she sprinted to another distant rogue trying to make an escape further down the lawn.

Trezor was impossibly strong and quick; you wouldn’t know it at first by looking at her alone, as she was rather petite. When not in battle, she almost always had a quaint expression, and her voice was quite melodious when in neutral.

But she was stronger and fiercer than many of the men on the Royal Guard when she had to be. And that wasn’t the first time she’d narrowly saved my ass in battle.

Another rogue approached me, and I mercilessly slaughtered him on the lawn. Another jumped on my back, a dagger to my neck, and I flung him off. Darting over to him as he lay sprawled on the ground, I knelt down, and killed him with my silver dagger. I carefully examined his face to no avail before turning away.

What in the hell is this?

Where are these invaders coming from?

Charging toward another, I lifted him off of the ground and tore his throat out. I discarded his body to the side and watched him roll down the great lawn’s steep hill.

This was more than just an attack on the castle. This was an assassination attempt.

I spun around, seeing another figure in the dark, headed toward the side of the castle. I ran toward him, easily catching up to his speed, and ripped him from the ground.

“Who are you?!” I demanded. He said nothing.

“I said, who are you?!” I repeated, tightening my grip around his neck.

I was once again met with silence. It was evident he was not going to divulge any information. Whoever organized this wanted it to be an anonymous sabotage. We’ll see about that, I thought.

In a fury, I dug my emerging claws into his neck before hurling him at the stones of the castle wall. Hearing the bones in his body breaking, I watched his lifeless body roll down the hill.

Confusion blurred my mind as I turned, scanning the lawn, looking for more rogues. As my eyes surveyed the land, I noticed my guards were fleeing toward the dungeon. I had instructed them to always be sure to take a captive should we ever be under attack so that we could gather information. Hopefully, this is what they were doing. I wouldn’t be sparing any lives myself, as my wolf was lurking just beneath the surface. My mind raced with rage and I tried to take slow, deliberate breaths.

I heard distant shrieks and screams as this mysterious entity launched their attack. It was difficult to pinpoint their exact point of forced entry or what side of the territory they’d emerged from. I stalked around the grounds looking for some clue.

A small forest fire had erupted toward the Western treeline, and I watched as several of my men quickly relayed buckets of water to put it out. Chaos was breaking out around me, and I had no idea why.

I had my suspicions that a certain vengeful, traitorous Alpha could have something to do with it, but I didn’t have much time to keep speculating on who the exact perpetrator was. Another rogue hurled toward me, attempting to sneak attack, but I had heard him coming several seconds ago.

Turning rapidly with my weight firmly planted, I grabbed him mid-air, and slammed him against the tree. His body flailed to the ground dead-weight.

Why was this happening?

I thought I might be dreaming for a moment.

Who would attempt~ this, after we had spent so much time, spilled so much blood, for the achievement of peace?~ There could only be one responsible.~

Before my mind could wander further, Trezor’s hand met my shoulder.

“My Queen, they’ve captured one of the lead rogues for interrogation. He’s in the dungeon now.”

I turned to look at her, but her face dropped. Her eyes scanned me top to bottom, a small trace of worry on her face.

“Are you okay? Your face has gone pale… you’re not looking so good,” her outright concern shook me back to the present, where I desperately wanted to interrogate the rogue my soldiers had captured. She didn’t often suggest things so pointedly when it came to myself.

“I’m fine. Let’s go to the dungeon,” I said, refocusing my attention to walking briskly toward the dungeon. I didn’t like showing weakness in front of my pack.

Lune, our Dungeon Guard, showed us the way through to our interrogation room. Lune was the daughter of a witch, and she possessed a certain amount of magical capabilities. We had her to thank for upholding the security of this dungeon, for which she regularly cast and reinforced magical protective barriers.

We hadn’t used the interrogation room in ages, yet that familiar thorn in my side gave a literal twinge.

We passed through into the dark, moist-smelling chamber. Drops of water echoed in the vast openness of its dimensions. Even the most ruthless of criminals would find this place creepy.

A man, nostrils flaring, sat at the iron table, his face partially lit by the large candle chandelier hanging above us. His ripped clothing and labored breathing indicated he had just shifted back from his wolf. His wrists were cuffed and chained to the table.

I scanned his face for some semblance of familiarity, but he was completely unknown to me, which deeply agitated me. His face was covered in scars and seemed to be in a permanent scowl.

I took a step forward as he shifted in his seat. His eyes darted around the room without ever making contact with mine. I didn’t bother to sit because I didn’t plan to be here long. I wasn’t about to bargain with a traitor. Leaning down closer to him, I put myself in his immediate line of sight.

“Who sent you?” I asked, cutting straight to the point. He only stared forward, eyes on me, but it was as if he was staring straight through me. Whoever he was, he had a personal disdain for me. This alone hinted at the answer.

My inner wolf felt like it was prepared to lunge at him, but I had to ignore the feeling.

“Who are you?” I asked as calmly as I could muster.

He only continued to glare back. I let the moment linger in a painful silence as my eyes bore into him. I could see behind his eyes that he was making a great deal of effort not to visibly squirm.

“You can tell me who you are, and why you’re here, or you can call one of these cells your new home until you’re ready to talk,” I continued.

The intruder slightly winced at this. Any wolfborn knew that the Royal Dungeon was the most impenetrable, impassable prison that existed for Wolfborn. If he were to be placed in here, there would be no chance of getting out. And it would not be a pleasant journey for him in the meantime.

I turned my back from him to let the notion sink in.

I suspect he’s probably getting funding from Alpha Slade, Trezor told me via mindlink, ~He’s probably testing us to gauge our defensive reaction. He wants to case our numbers.~

I nodded to her. Though this was my suspicion, too, getting a rogue to talk was always the most difficult—nearly impossible. Rogues-for-hire were, in my view, soulless creatures who valued life at nearly zero. Sometimes even their own.

Especially if they were really affiliated with Slade in some way.

The man’s lip curled and he let out a low growl. My blood heated and my muscles flexed. How dare he challenge me on my own territory? Though my inner wolf itched to end him then and there, I knew we would need to get information from him eventually… and that required that I keep him alive.

But he didn’t have to know that. I pulled out some of the stills my men had taken of Slade with a Capturgraph during the last battle we’d had with him. I slid one across the table.

“Is this who sent you?” I asked him.

He inspected the still without his hands, as they were chained to the table, and glared at me. Something in his eyes told me I was correct, but he wasn’t going to confirm it with words. I turned away from him.

“Alright, well, it looks like our little trespasser doesn’t feel like talking yet,” I said. After a final glare at our mysterious intruder, I moved toward the door, signaling for Lune and Trezor to follow.

“I’ll be back for you,” I promised him before exiting the room. Lune locked the heavy door behind us with silver chains and several sturdy padlocks. She placed a spell over the door before we walked away.

“He’s got to be—” Trezor began to reiterate.

“—one of Slade’s. No doubt,” I replied.

***

The three of us met at the long meeting table in the conference room.

“We can’t prove anything yet, but we have ways of finding out,” I began, “And if all else fails, we’ll just interrogate Slade ourselves.”

“We’ve got to be careful, though, Slade knows what his rights as a Wolfborn are. We can’t yet go pulling anyone for an interrogation without a reasonable cause,” Trezor urged.

I took a sharp inhale and my blood began to boil.

“I think the reasonable cause would be his penchant for treason,” I groaned.

“It could be,” Trezor agreed.

“Slade will never be happy with peace, not as long as I sit on the Throne! He’s hungry for war,” I yelled, rising from my seat at the head of the table.

“He’s hungry for something,” Trezor added, her eyes trailing my every move.

“It’s unbelievable that he can’t go more than a single year without stirring up something. What is his damn problem?!” I asked rhetorically, becoming overwhelmed. “He’s got a damn death wish.”

Trezor rose from her seat to pull my own, suggesting I sit. I fanned her away; I had far too much energy to be seated. I could have fought another battle entirely, then and there.

“I think we should reorganize and double our guards on the border patrol. We’ll shift them with more frequency so that they can be as alert as possible. We don’t want this taking us off guard,” she suggested.

“Hopefully he’s not dumb enough to try this again,” I seethed.

“I think you’re right. We need constant eyes on our territory lines,” Lune agreed.

“Until then, maybe you should get some sleep, my Queen. We won’t do anybody any good if we’re not well rested ourselves,” Trezor mentioned, her eyebrow slightly raised.

“Don’t worry about me,” I replied, but I knew my voice felt distant.

Suddenly, my breath quickened and my head grew light. Every inch of my skin felt like it was vibrating, and my vision began to blur. Trezor’s head shot up, and she swiftly leapt from her chair and to my side again.

“My Queen, you should sit—” she began, but I was already on my way down.

“I’ll be fine—”

***

My vision went completely white, and after a few prolonged moments, my eyes fluttered wide open. I had no idea where I was or how I had gotten there, but I was surrounded by a white void— as if the battle or the meeting in the conference room had never existed at all, as if my corporeal form was only ever a dream.

I leaned up, taking in the vast emptiness around me that felt like infinity. I felt peaceful and calm; for once the centuries-long weight on my chest was no longer present. I let myself be present in the moment for a while before climbing to my feet.

I felt as if I was floating instead of walking.

I lifted my gaze to the space around me… flooded with bright white light, and shimmering with haze, I saw a beautiful woman standing in the distance. I felt so drawn to her, and without a second thought, set out toward her.

As I slowly approached her, I noticed she wore a deep purple and lavender organza gown. Embroidered into it were silver moons and stars which glimmered in the bright light surrounding us. Her opalescent hair cascaded over her shoulders and to her waist, where her long, graceful fingers rested clasped together. On her head was a small crown made of some type of beautiful stone and glass that I had never seen before.

As if following the logic of a dream, where you just sort of implicitly know things, I knew she was waiting for me. Her eyes met mine, and I knew I was correct. Then, I felt the urge to deeply bow to her. She kindly motioned for me to rise.

I floated toward her, seemingly unaffected by gravity, as her gentle hand ushered me forward. Her face was peaceful, and the closer I got, I realized her milky skin was slightly glowing, as if backlit by some iridescent light source.

“Who… are you, exactly, may I ask?” I asked neutrally, though I generally felt very safe and protected in this moment. I felt weightless and at ease.

“I am the Moon Goddess, my child,” she replied.