Page 5 of Heart Broken Mate

The throne room was quiet, and everyone waited for what I would do next. I could easily just let my claw dig into his neck, paralyzing or even killing him. But what would that achieve? I let him go instead, making a fool of him again. He just never seemed to give up.

I guessed that was the problem. He was supposed to be the strongest amongst them, excluding James, who was the Alpha, but he wasn’t. He used to be, but then James went into the streets a couple of years ago, found an urchin, liked her too much, and brought her into the Palace.

I remember the first time James made me fight the others. It was a massacre. None of them stood a chance with me. I was faster and stronger, and I had such swift reflexes that it seemed sometimes I was fluid. Here one moment and then gone. It was almost like magic.

But they all had hope in Viper. He was the local champion, and there was no way a street rat would knock him off his lofty position. I did, without even much of a fight, and that was when the beef started. Now, I just think it is stupid, but Viper won’t give it up.

The door to the throne room opened, and we all turned around to watch James walk up to the throne. He stopped before Viperand me and watched the two of us. He scoffed before walking to his throne.

James looked much older than the first time I saw him. He had such fire in his eyes and was very quick to smile. He used to hang around with us and watch us argue and fight. But I guess we all grew up. And he got busier. He had big bags under his eyes, which meant he wasn’t sleeping much.

“Have you two been at it again?” he asked.

“We were just messing around,” Viper said, and James shook his head. He couldn’t be bothered.

Everything about him screamed tired man. His voice which used to be so booming sounded very lax now. Something huge had changed about James. It had happened gradually, but I didn’t notice it until the effect was much more noticeable.

“I have an assignment for all of you.”

“Okay,” Viper said. “What are we going to do?”

“There’s a pack right outside, Brenx Avenue. They’ve been a disturbance.”

“Brenx?” I asked. “I’ve never heard of them before.”

There is a club on Brenx avenue that I visit sometimes, and I’ve made some friends there. It was relatively peaceful there, and I’d never heard the people complain before.

“Not to the people,” James said. “The people love them, but I don’t. I want them gone.”

“Oh,” I said. That was weird. The others shared a look too. Normally, we don’t go after packs at all. We just let them do their thing as long as they don’t cause trouble. In fact, there was a certain amount of trouble we let packs get away with. So long as they don’t kill and they don’t steal, packs can stay for as long as they want. After all, Nillport wouldn’t be a werewolf community without the wolves.”

“Okay, I can see you all have questions,” James said.

“No, we don’t,” Viper said. “We’ll do whatever you ask of us.”

“I have questions,” I said, not giving a damn about the stink eye Viper just threw my way. “Why are we attacking packs for doing nothing? Word would get around, and packs would stay away from us, then we lose numbers. When we lose numbers, we’re opening up ourselves for an attack. Opening up the throne for a challenge.”

“I know,” James said, but these are different situations. Besides, the wolfs aren’t particularly a pack. There are just a group of lone wolves that sub as hunters sometimes.”

“Lone wolves?” I said, now very interested in them. I had been somewhat a kind of a lone wolf myself for some of my life.

But the ones James was talking about were different, though. Lone wolves were called that because once they belonged to a pack, but due to different reasons, they lost their packs and couldn’t join another. Most of them usually lose their pack members due to death, or they get exiled for various crimes. It is hard to join a pack should any of those two happen, and most of them decide to be lone wolves.

The dynamic of belonging to a pack was complicated. There is an alpha in every pack. My pack has James as the Alpha, but James was also the leader of the whole Nillport community. An alpha has some level of control over its pack members. It isn’t absolute, but powerful alphas can call on some form of absoluteness of their power in dire situations. When that happens, the other members of the pack lose all forms of agency they have, and the only thing they do is what the alpha wants them to do. It is a strange concept that most people stay away from because it lays heavy responsibilities on the alpha. Beyond that, being alpha was mostly just ceremonial.

But it is important for a werewolf to belong to a pack. A pack makes you stronger. You share the strengths of your members and cover each other’s weaknesses. Alone or a lone wolf, you can easily be picked out.

“They are lone wolves and a pack?” Viper asked.

“Yes,” James said.

“How does that work?” I asked.

“When you see them, you ask. I want you to get them out of town. I have a business deal going down in a couple of days. The Tarloux family is coming to town, and I can’t have lone wolves around. They are unpredictable.”

I nodded, but now I understood why James wanted the lone wolves out of town. The Tarloux family, the most powerful werewolf family, hated them.

I don’t know much about the Tarloux family, but I know they are not to be trifled with, and this assignment James is sending them is important business.

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