"It's been 4 whole weeks and I haven't even heard of him." Layla said to her handmaid as she sat and stirred her tea.
She was wearing a white fur coat and looked like she was ready for a photo shoot. She should probably tell her people that she had brought him back to life somehow, but she didn't want the word getting out yet.
Avis was convinced that she was going to die, she would have aged by now. He was constantly trying to convince her to prepare for her death- and it was his job but it also left her unsettled.
There had been disappearances in the pack and surrounding lands, but still, she had not heard of any large scale slaughter like she thought an undead monster could cause. Perhaps she was wrong. Maybe Retsu was thinking clearly, but if so, he was her mate, so why hadn't he come home?
Mates feel a longing for each other. It had to be driving him crazy by now!
"Where could a creature that doesn't know how to control its appetite just disappear to?" She asked frustrated.
Her handmaid was the only person who knew about her undead creation. She didn't want to tell anyone else because she assumed it would be easy to find him and she wanted to prove she could do things herself. Also, if word got out that she was responsible for him, they would think she was dangerous for having the ability to bring a dead person back to life. And she didn't plan to ever do that again.
"We do have one lead." Her handmaid said as she pointed to the map that Layla was studying. "Here."
"Hmmm?" The Luna asked interested.
"This is the Richardson's farm and it has been completely vacated. No trace of the family nor their animals. Completely gone, just gone."
"They haven't just moved?"
"No." She asserted, "all of their belongings are still there. They just up and left."
"Hmmm. How long ago?"
"They kept to themselves, so we noticed this week, but it seems it has been a while. The food in their refrigerator was old. It's got to be at least a month."
Without a word the Queen shifted into a white wolf and leapt from the balcony to the ground below.
Heh. heh. heh. heh. her breath came out as puffs of air as she ran through the forest, breathing in to see if the scent of her mate was closeby. Then breathing out in frustration as there was still no trace of him.The Richardsons. They lived nearly 40 miles away from the castle, had he really gone that far the first night and not disturbed anyone else? Why? Did that mean that he could also smell the sheep that far away? And that he avoided killing people instead? Maybe he was in control of himself? Her thoughts ran through possibilities as she felt the crunch of leaves under her paws.
And then she slid to a halt at the gate of the vacant farm that stood before her and it was just as she had heard. Nothing. Not a single animal and no scent of one either. The residents who had owned this land for five generations were just gone.
And Retsu was long gone.
—————
"So you're really planning on coming with me? You're ok with helping me?" He asked her again, bewildered that she would want anything to do with him after what he had done. They had been walking through the mountains for nearly an hour when he had gotten hungry and she had ended up feeding him every hour since. He was hungry every time he looked at her, so he forced himself to look away, but after around an hour he couldn't take it anymore. He was about to ask for some meat when suddenly.
She stopped.
"Do you want a straight forward answer to your question? Or are you still thinking that you're going to eat me if I stay?" She asked.
He licked his lips. Hungry. She said eat me. His wolf said inside of his mind. It took all of his effort to regain his composure but now he had forgotten his question. After he didn't answer, she decided to answer him instead.
"Let's just say I'm going to be your beta." She said after a moment. "I think it's obvious that you're an alpha, but I'm really not sure what's wrong with you….why you're all….dead and stuff. And where you came from. Why you were in my family's pack."
"I'm not dead anymore….wait what's a beta? I already told everyone I didn't steal the power of the alpha or whatever that is." He defended himself.
She cocked an eyebrow at him. "So you were just born with power?" She asked sarcastically. "I just said you are an alpha, it seems you know more than you let on about how you became one."
He opened his fist and felt his palm warm up. A small flame began to dance on his fingertips. He was very good at controlling at least this aspect of himself. After ten years of being imprisoned, he had begun to feel like it was always with him, but no, he used to be a regular human in a normal life. Or at least his kind of normal.
She looked at his flame that he made in his palm and tried to hide the awe in her eyes.
"I ate a mushroom and suddenly I could make fire." He said honestly.
"They say the alpha is the only one who can make fire. The Luna makes ice." She responded.
"Yeah well I didn't steal it, maybe someone dropped it, but c'mon, why would a mushroom give someone superpowers?" He said, "that's absurd."
"Why would you eat a mushroom off the ground? Now that's absurd. Did you know a lot of them are poisonous?"
Her tone was condescending but he tried to ignore her as his mind was very focused on not eating her. His pupils dilated and he was suddenly very aware of her heartbeat. It was as if his heartbeat was beating in his ears, but he knew he didn't have one.
Badum. Badum. Badum. Badum. BADUM. He held his hands to his ears and stopped walking. His eyes had become a deep green and saliva was now dripping from his mouth.
The girl stopped walking and looked at him concerned. She was about to grab some meat but then an idea came to her mind. "Mark me." She said.
BADUM. BADUM. BADUM. BADUM.
He turned to her anxiously, the distraction had made him unable to hear her.
"What?"
"Make me your beta. Mark me as a member of your pack."
"I'm a little busy right now,- give me some meat and I'll do it!" His wolf interrupted him. "Meat! Meat! Meat! Meat!" He exclaimed aloud.
She rolled her eyes at his impatient wolf, "ok fine." She agreed.
She pulled the frozen ground beef out of thin air like she had done before and handed it to him. He swallowed it, plastic and all. Then he gagged on the plastic suddenly. She rolled her eyes and reached towards him to pull the bag out of his throat which was caught in his teeth and before either of them could prepare themself for what happened next, he had bit her arm clean off, swallowing it whole.
She screamed in shock, betrayal, and pain. And then her face filled with anger.
"How dare you!" She began but suddenly a mechanical beeping sound came from within her mind, as well as the mind of Retsu. badablip! The notification went off.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
The words appeared before their eyes in the middle of the air and then disappeared.
Then Retsu saw words begin to run across his field of vision one letter at a time like an old computer screen, a mechanical sound accompanying it as each letter appeared badipdip! "A person has joined your pack. please select the status of the new pack member!"
He looked at the girl in front of him, with her arm bleeding on the ground and realized that her arm had begun to grow back to her ultimate confusion. The speed at which she recovered was 100 times faster than that of a regular werewolf. The horror on her face somehow didn't phase him at all.
"Beta." He said out loud. A smile creeping over his lips. "I choose her to be my beta."