Page 333 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
“But you’re so much bigger than us…”
“Even older guys like me need help from time to time. And you two are closer to the ground. You’ll see monster tracks much easier than I can.”
Samuel looked at Trevor, and the excitement from earlier was in his friend’s eyes again.
“Okay, sure!” He bounced on the balls of his feet. “I wanna be a monster hunter. What about you, Sammy?”
“Um…yeah, me too.” Samuel didn’t sound as confident. My heart broke for the poor shy boy.
“Great.” Troy grinned. “Follow me.”
He took the boys deep into the forest, starting on the path that led to Wargs’ territory. About a mile into the walk, he veered off. The forest grew less and less familiar as they moved between the trees. They walked for at least two hours, and then the trees gave way to a large cliff. A cavern opened at the base of the tall formation. It reminded me of the cliff from my dream, but in the darkness, it was hard to tell if it was the same one.
Troy led them into the cavern, and they stuck close to him as they wound through a long tunnel. It was much darker in there without the moonlight, and Samuel hugged himself as he shivered in the damp cold. He peered around Trevor and saw firelight. His shoulders began to relax as they got closer to the fire…until he saw four other boys sitting at the fire with their backs to him.
“Hey,” Trevor said as he and Samuel walked toward the other boys. “What’s going on?”
What they saw stopped them both in their tracks. The boys weren’t simply sitting by the fire; they were tied tightly with rope, their mouths bound with duct tape.
Trevor screamed first, then Samuel. They shot back toward the tunnel, only for a hulking, dark figure to cut them off. This figure lifted them by the front of their jackets and tossed them back to where Troy now held a rope. They screamed and cried and struggled, but they were powerless against Troy’s strength. When Troy was finished, he dragged Samuel and Trevor to the fire next to the other boys.
Samuel was crying heavily now. Through his eyes, I saw symbols carved into the wall. I recognized some of them. I wanted to shut my eyes and look away but knew I shouldn’t. It was easier to control this vision than the one with my mom, but if I wasn’t careful, I would leave this vision behind.
The figure moved out of the shadows, but it didn’t help to identify his large form. He was dressed from head to toe in black, and his hood obscured his features when he avoided the firelight. But I knew who he was the minute he started speaking.
“I asked you to bring more pups,” Gregor growled to Troy. “You only managed two?”
Troy avoided looking directly at his father’s face as he answered. “It’s more difficult now that the pack’s wising up. I can’t exactly sneak into their homes and take them from their beds, can I?”
Gregor clicked his tongue and stared at Troy. Samuel trembled. Even he felt the weight of the alpha’s glare, though he couldn’t see his face.
Troy lowered his eyes to the ground and bowed his head. “I…I’m sorry for talking back. I’ll do better next time.”
“That’s exactly what I expect of you. If we want this to happen, you need to do better.”
Troy said nothing, just bowed his head lower. It was surreal to see him so demure. He and his father had shared a strong, if somewhat cold relationship in public, but that wasn’t the case in private. Troy had said as much when he’d held me captive in that cave, but seeing it was different than just hearing him talk about it.
What was equally alarming was how unreasonable Gregor was being. Troy was right; there was no way to increase the number of boys he could kidnap other than sneaking them from their homes. What did Gregor expect?
“Let’s begin.” He held out his hand toward his son. “Bring me the knife.”
Troy nodded and went to a duffle bag in the corner of the room. He pulled out a surprisingly plain-looking dagger and brought it back. Gregor took the blade and raised it, chanting in a language I didn’t understand. The cavern filled with static electricity, like a storm was about to touch down.
He flourished the blade as he slowly moved behind the boys, still chanting. They were all trembling; some had even wet themselves. If either Troy or Gregor noticed, they didn’t care, but the pungent stench heightened the horror of what was about to happen.
Gregor stood behind a boy whose red hair glowed orange in the firelight. After speaking a few more words, his hand lashed out, gripping the boy by his chin. He whimpered through the duct tape as Gregor lowered the blade to his throat. In one quick stroke, he dragged the blade across the boy’s throat, and blood spurted forward, sizzling as it hit the fire.
I would have gasped if I could. The boys started to scream in earnest. Trevor tried to squirm toward the exit, and Samuel started to do the same, but Troy gripped them by their hair and dragged them back toward the fire.
Gregor already had the next boy by the chin. The first had slumped backward, crying as he bled out on the ground. The symbols written on the walls began to glow pale yellow, and atthe same time, the flames began to die down. It was as if the symbols were consuming the light from the fire.
With another quick swipe, blood once again spurted into the fire. The light dimmed more, and the yellow of the symbols brightened to a sickly green. As Gregor reached the third boy, the first boy started to seize on the ground. Froth foamed at his lips, dripping onto the ground. The remaining boys stared, trembling as tufts of fur started to sprout across the first boy’s body. Clothes tore, and small paws slipped free of the rope.
Another wave of shock rocked through me, but I held on to the vision. That should have been impossible. These boys weren’t old enough to have their first shift. And after all that blood, he ought to have been dead. Instead, a small wolf stood near the fire. He shook out his fur, and in the light of the dim fire, I saw that his eyes had the crazed, empty look of a feral.
“Fuck,” Gregor said. “Why the hell does this keep happening?”
Troy shook his head. Neither he nor his father seemed particularly surprised by this turn of events. “Is it so bad? They’re stronger than they would’ve been otherwise. It’s not a complete loss?—”
