Chapter 2

Maddox. “You’re right, Alpha, there’s a human on the pack lands,” Willis said as he entered my office, closing the door behind him. I didn’t hear him knock or come in because I was so engrossed in the stack of reports across my desk. The majority of the reports were all the same—pack members were falling sick at an increased daily rate. And just at the start of the week, we’d had four deaths. It was not noticeable at first since Woodland Pride was the biggest pack in the whole of Wyoming mountains, with over two thousand healthy wolves. But after a few weeks, more sickness was recorded and soon the pack hospital wasn’t enough to contain all the sick wolves. Both mothers, fathers and children alike were partakers of the sickness. As the Alpha, the urge was there to protect my pack and my territory. My people were suffering and my first plan was to find the source of the sickness and death. The initial suspicion was the water; that was the easiest way to spread any diseases. We had hired experts to examine the nearby rivers, reservoirs and water tanks. Even the pipes were checked for any leakage. But there was no contamination in it. We thought it was the food. We imported foods a lot from human communities so samples of it were sent to both humans and elves expertise but it was the same. Nothing was wrong with it. There was no indication that hygiene was the problem even after the entire pack was fumigated, the sickness continued and more deaths were recorded. Then the fear came in next, the pack began to mumble amongst each other, the sickness sprung up frustration from the families and it was getting harder to keep everyone in line. My shoulder felt heavy, there was so much weight on it and I could feel the anxiety of everyone weighing me down. However, one afternoon, I sensed something. At first I thought it might have been the air, but it was a strange presence. Something was nagging inside of me and each day that passed it only felt stronger. “The Chief Elder was right too, I had spoken to him last night about it. I felt something. Like a strange presence in the land and he told me to search the area,” I said, dropping my pen to the desk as I thought hard. “But I didn’t expect it to be a human. It’s been so long since a human stepped foot into our territory.” I heard Willis sigh and I looked up to meet the hazel eyes of my Beta. Willis was much older than I was. He was in his thirties but he possessed the strength of a young boy and the mind of an old man. Tall and dark-skinned, he stood an inch shorter than me. “Are you sure it was a human?” I asked again, unable to believe that a human was in the pack as I looked out of the window for a second to gather my thoughts. “Yes, Alpha. We saw her.” At that, I snapped my head back to Willis so hard that I almost had whiplash. “Her?” My heart quickened at the news and my Beta nodded. “Yes, sir. I took two of our best scouts like you ordered. And just to the North of the woods below the mountains, we found a small cabin. At first, we didn’t know it was occupied but then a human stepped out. It was a young woman who looked to be in her twenties,” he finished. I rose to my feet the thought of a human in the pack only worsened the burden on my shoulders. It wasn't that the humans were dangerous but they had a knack of exploiting new discoveries. We had managed to blend in with them for several decades, coexisting with them to avoid detection of our supernatural nature. But the humans were generally curious beings and if they found out about our species we would be captured and studied like animals with no emotions. There was an old wolf story of how some of us had been captured and locked in laboratories and cages while being experimented on very harshly. The humans were cruel and we had been forced to live in the mountains far away from them where we were safe. But now, they have managed to infiltrate our lands. “How many humans?” I asked, making a calculation in my head of how many fighting wolves we had. “It’s just her, Alpha. We didn’t hear any other voices, it sense any other humans around. It appears she’s alone. We observed her from a distance and she saw us but we didn’t approach her.” “How could you give yourself away?” I asked angrily. “If a human discovers our people we are in danger. Do you understand the seriousness of the situation?” I asked as Willis bowed his head at that. “I’m sorry, Alpha, she didn’t look like trouble. I’ll even say she didn’t look like she wanted to cause any problems and I was sure she didn’t know we were wolves either.” I scoffed. “I’ll be damned the day humans write on their foreheads if they are trouble or not. I don’t care what you saw. Gather twenty scouts we run to the mountains at nightfall and we capture her and bring her here. I would get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.” I ordered as Willis looked around fearfully for a second before speaking. “Forgive me, Alpha, I observed her from a distance, and I watched her demeanor closely. Despite the unusual circumstances, there was something about her that didn't indicate hostility or aggression. She appeared to be alone and genuinely startled by our presence." “One woman is still a threat to the whole pack. What happens when she announces to the others what she saw? What happens when the police or animal control come searching out woods and mountains? Where do we hide then? We have many sick people and we can’t afford to move them if all of the humans assemble against us. She is a threat to us.” I told Willis but he still didn’t look convinced as he nodded in understanding but his eyes argued wildly with me. “Forgive me once more, Alpha. It’s like you’ve always said to value discretion over diplomacy. The woman might have entered the pack unintentionally and her behavior gave no indication of aggression. In fact, she appeared to have been crying. I believe we shouldn’t escalate the situation and leave her be.” I turned sharply at Willis as he took a fearful step back when he met my eyes. “The pack is suffering, we cannot afford to prolong this situation any further. Every moment we spend on this human takes away the opportunity to find the solution to the pack's sickness. We can’t make assumptions. The possibilities are too high and the only way to draw a conclusion is to capture her and bring her here. “If she holds any information that could help the pack we will uncover it. If she’s a spy for the humans we will find out. But I would not sit down and let a human roam free in my pack, my territory and amongst my people,” I said in my Alpha’s tone as Willis nodded in agreement. “We will move tomorrow once the moon reaches the sky. The night would be our cover and we would bring her here.” “Yes, Alpha. I’ll prepare the men to meet at the clearing at sunset,” he said before he bowed and left the room. I was alone in my thoughts, pacing across the room as I made up all the worst-case scenarios in my head and the possible solutions. There was too much at stake, too many sick wolves and now a human in our lands. I sank to my chair, the burden weighing on me like a dark weight as I rubbed my eyes tiredly. I was going to call the elders tonight, they had to know what we had found. But for a second, I let my mind wonder what the human girl looked like. Willis had said she was in her twenties. I made up an image of a beautiful woman in my head with tear-stained cheeks and soft kind eyes. But as soon as the thought came, I snapped out of it. There was no way this woman didn’t have any agenda in the pack, they were dangerous. The humans were not open to welcoming a supernatural being and there was no way in hell she wouldn't be captured and brought here to atone for trespassing. Woman or not, beautiful or not, I was the Alpha and my words were absolute. Humans were dangerous and not to be trusted.