Page 89 of The Alpha and His Childhood Sweetheart

I cradled her in my arms. I linked, “Brutus, what the fuck?” Brutus was howling in my mind, but he wasn’t cut off anymore. Then, just as suddenly as it came, the pain was gone. I pulled Elise in closer to me.

Peter yelled, “What the shit?! The entire pack went down.” I linked Toby, “Did everyone there just go down? Where is Alexander?” Toby whimpered, “The whole pack went down like a rock. Your mom is freaking the fuck out. Alexander was the first to go down. He was perfectly fine one second hitting the heavy bag then he just howled in agony. It was horrifying.” Shit.

Alexander popped in and looked at me. He looked crazed. He yelled, “WHERE IS SHE?!” I raised an eyebrow. Drake asked, “Who?” Alexander yelled, “MELANIE!” My jaw dropped. He declared, “She’s hurt! Where is she?”

Drake demanded to know, “What the fuck are you talking about? She’s fine! I just talked to her.” Alexander frowned initiating, “No, it HAD to be her. A wolf contacted me begging for help. Oden thought it was a new wolf. Mel’s the only wolf around here that had a birthday today that was shifting. The wolfbegged for help and then the connection cut off before anything else could be said. I went down after that in pain, but I wasn't hurt. Where is she?!”

I told him, “Brother, everyone went down.” Alexander frowned, “What?” I nodded, “We all did here, and Toby said our pack did too.” I looked at Peter, “What could even do that?” Peter snorted, “Nothing. I have never heard of this.”

Dalton and Dakota ran inside, their eyes were wide with fright. Dane and Cooper were right behind him. Dane had MaryBeth in his arms. He yelled, “What the HELL just happened?” I didn’t actually have an answer. I knew from my connections my siblings were fine and wanted to be left alone. My mom was freaking the fuck out and I felt that was justified.

My phone vibrating gave me a task. Emmett was calling. I picked up on speakerphone, “Did this happen to you guys too?” Emmett growled, “What the fuck was that?!” I admitted, “I have no idea. Our pack and Red Run went down.”

Alexander yelled, “BLAH BLAH BLAH! WHERE IS SHE?! IT HAD to be Melanie!” Emmett asked, “Wait, what? Are we going to storm Red Run? Isn’t she there?” I answered, “No, she’s not.” He said, “So, New York? Uncle Heath probably has eyes there already I’ll call and…”

Drake’s phone rang. He interrupted Emmett saying, “It’s my daughter.” Emmet said, “So, we are back to having no clues. Goodie.” I snorted at him. Drake answered the phone, “Ladybug, are you ok? Yes, it happened here too, but you’re ok? We’re all fine, sweetie. No, you go shift and enjoy being in your wolf form. Call me tomorrow, ok? I love you, pup.” He hung up.

Alexander shut down, “She’s not here?” Jason snorted, “Planes suck ass, Alexander. I never knew planes were my mortal enemy, but they are.” Alexander’s jaw clenched. He asked, “But she told you she was fine?” Drake nodded, “She asked if we were ok. The pack in New York went down too.”

I questioned, “Why was Alexander the only one contacted?” Peter shrugged, “We don't know that he was the only one yet. Maybe he’s met someone we haven’t. He makes an impression as a protector.” That was true.

Alexander frowned, “I guess. It wasn’t a pack member and that’s ends the list of people who should be able to link me.” Yet no one picked up he thought it was Melanie when she shouldn’t be able to link him. I’m not sure what magic he thought that was.

Brutus linked, “The wolf contacted Oden. We can contact any wolf from any pack.” I reasoned, “Newly shifted wolves usually can’t unless they are nearby. Alexander would’ve heard someone in pain and popped there.” He replied, “Unless they are a very strong new wolf.” True.

Alexander pressed, “Melanie’s fine though?” Drake nodded, “I just talked to her. I appreciate your concern though Alexander.” He just nodded. Jason was looking at Alexander oddly. Was he FINALLY going to get a clue?

We stayed for a few hours making sure everyone was ok. Alpha Raven and Alpha Theo called. Their packs had gone down. Alpha Ezra also called. Brutus snorted, “To cover his bases. He sounded excited.” He was right. Alpha Ezra was clearly a masochist who liked pain.

Dalton and Dakota hate Alpha Ezra and all dealings with him, but they honored the alliance made by their grandfather. When it came down to it, this seemed to be widespread. Werewolves all over the country went down.

My dad called and I could hear my mom fussing over him in the background. He told me, “It was all over the globe. Everyone with Werewolf blood went down. Even some who had no idea they have wolf blood. We’ve got some people at hospitals because several were taken to human hospitals for the pain.” That sounded like a massive headache.

No one had any idea what could’ve happened to make us all go down like that. The rumor was that our Moon Goddess was injured. Alexander and I snorted at that theory. She was a Goddess who was an immortal being. She couldn’t be killed. She shouldn’t even be able to be in that much pain to send it to us. Because any mother I knew would’ve kept that pain from their child. Selene wasn’t Alania.

Honestly, I believed everyone knew that, but the rumor hid the fear that someone figured out how to take us down. A new group of Hunter’s had emerged onto the scene. They were better at hiding and they were good.

For some odd reason they seemed to be working with the Ring. It was somehow as if the Ring convinced them they weren’t supernatural’s. I really didn’t know how it worked. I needed to figure it out though.

Two weeks after that strange event, we had another meeting with a different dealer for the drugs we were trying to stop. Uncle Bjourn was helping us with aliases for our people going to the meets. This time Nick Kyle was going with Cameron Daniels. There was a lot of backup with them waiting around the area. We waited for word.

Brutus said, “We agreed not to do it this way after last time. I don’t wait well.” No, we didn’t. I reasoned, “But we didn’t send one of our siblings this time.” He sighed, “Thank the Moon Goddess, or we wouldn’t be sitting here.” Also true.

The time for the meeting came and went. Emmett got more and more tense on the skype call with our allies. We were waiting for word from our guys, and then one of us was going to pop to them. We had a drop time set.

When that rolled around, I nodded to Alexander and Max. They popped to the group and popped back in less than a minute. Nick had been shot in the arm. Elise’s devastation and panic hit me like a lightning rod. Alexander quickly healed him.

Elise ran to her grandfather. He looked at his arm then at my brother. He said, “Damn kid, thanks. That hurt like a bitch. There’s more than one sniper in that group, EJ.” I asked, “What?” Cameron snorted, “This was a different sniper. Not as good as the original one. Same symbol, not as trigger happy as the more accurate original sniper.”

He rubbed his temples, “Can I just say? I want that one back. This one was helpful, but Nick got shot. I thought trigger happy sniper was a little intense. I have since changed my thoughts. That sniper is amazing and I’m putting it out into the universe that I want him or her back. I’ll have my Beta send Former Beta Dylan a memo. He has manifestation powers I want him to use for the trigger happy snipers return.”

I groaned, “Did anyone get eyes on the new sniper?” My dad chimed in, “Please don’t send that memo.” Several people snickered. Cameron sighed, “I already told my Beta to. He probably knows already. As for eyes on the sniper it took us awhile to find their hide.”

I asked, “Why?” He answered, “It wasn’t like the other ones. I don’t know where the normal sniper was, but this definitely wasn’t them. Non trigger finger aside, their hides are completely different. This person had been set up waiting and wanted us to know that. They knew we were in trouble but didn’t warn us.”

I nodded, “Which lends to your theory there’s more than one sniper.” Trigger happy sniper tried to warn people ahead of time with a first shot. He nodded, “Whoever this circle and line thing is it’s more than one person. Again, I want the A team back.”

Nick snorted, “Same. I don’t like getting shot by a sniper. I just think it’s the number one versus the number two we want back. We got the A team just not the top shooter. Or the angriest one. This shooter was deadly accurate but…” He trailed off.

---