Damon was an attentive parent, dedicating every moment possible to his kid. Occasionally, I would awaken to see Damon soothing our boy to sleep during the night.
“Return to slumber,” he would gesture. “I will attend to Archie.”
Although our modest family was not affluent and we struggled to make ends meet, our life was idyllic. Damon adored me, and I reciprocated his affection. We had a healthy dog and a home to call our own. We possessed everything… Until that terrible day when Blue Sky launched its attack.
Blue Sky and Stonecold were formerly allied, but their relationship deteriorated when Alpha John uncovered the treachery of Alpha Cyrus and Luna Bre. This event initiated a brutal and sanguinary conflict. Alpha John resolved to annihilate Blue Sky and executed Alpha Cyrus. Upon Cyrus’s younger brother, Noel, assuming leadership, Alpha John sought to convey a warning to the new Alpha by murdering both his eldest son, Duncan, and subsequently his wife, Olivia.
It was an inconceivable atrocity, yet Alpha Noel would subsequently perpetrate an even more egregious war crime than any pack could ever conduct.
Due to both Damon and I working full-time, I had to enrol Archie in the creche program. On an ordinary day, I handed off my drowsy puppy at the creche centre, never anticipating it would be the final time I would see him.
On that morning, four unmarked packages were delivered to the nursery, and around noon, a significant tremor reverberated through the area. I exited the library hastily to investigate the disturbance and, to my dismay, observed the collapsed nursery in the distance, the inferno emitting a foul odour of charred flesh.
All 26 pups and their accompanying instructors perished in the blast, leaving no survivors.
Subsequently, the conflict escalated, with Damon enlisting as a soldier in honour of our kid. I was unable to dissuade him, and I lost my husband in the war barely one month after the death of our puppy.
I was bereft of all emotions, my heart contracting to the size of a prawn. I could no longer experience joy or tranquilly, awakening nightly in a pool of sorrow and alone.
On the day Alpha John summoned me to his office, I was fully prepared to be exiled as a rogue. I yearned for it, as I perceived no reason in prolonging my existence without my son or my love.
“I suspect that Noel’s second son is still alive,” he communicated to me while I remained mute in his office. “Do you seek retribution for your son and companion?”
I sat there gazing at the question on the page, grasping the individual words yet finding it difficult to discern their meaning.
“We never located Noel’s clandestine heir, even amidst the assault on the King’s birthday,” Alpha John elucidated. “I surmise he has concealed the child within the pack house, which he has fortified to the extent that my men cannot infiltrate.”
“I do not comprehend,” I responded, my unsteady hands grappling to maintain the pen on the paper. “How could I possibly be of any assistance and exact retribution?”
The Alpha grinned malevolently at me, twisting a lock of my hair around his fingers.
“You are undeniably weak.” A wolf of your stature is essentially ineffectual to any pack,” he said, his malevolent grin unwavering. “And that is precisely why they will remain oblivious to your approach.”
I gazed at his acrimonious words before he resumed writing.
“I desire for you to assume the role of a rogue navigating the forests bordering their domain,” he elucidated. “Noel may either feel compassion for your lamentable condition and provide you refuge, so enabling you to locate the concealed heir and eliminate him…”
I perused the text, astounded by the notion of ending a child’s life.
“Alternatively,” the Alpha persisted. “He might eliminate you immediately, which I presume is a feasible alternative for you, given the circumstances,” he shrugged, his gaze assessing my deteriorating health.
My cheeks were sunken due to insufficient nourishment, and my formerly vibrant eyes appeared lifeless, accompanied by dark circles beneath them.
I gesture disapprovingly towards him. I experienced the loss of a kid. I could not inflict the same upon another individual, not even upon the one who wronged me.
The Alpha grinned again, undeterred by my disinterest in retribution.
“Melina, I am not providing you with a choice,” he smirked. “You are merely a burdensome dependent. I lack the capacity to accommodate an inconsequential creature like you during wartime. You will become a renegade, regardless of your acceptance of my offer,” he remarked nonchalantly. “However, should you accept my proposal, you will derive the additional satisfaction of having eliminated the individual who not only abducted your pup but also the sole man foolish enough to consider you as a mate.”
