The Alpha Killer

Alpha Justin Heranus’s POV

Mount Shasta Pack Clinic, McCloud, CA

Six Years Ago

“Alpha, Luna, the Doctor will be with you shortly. Luna, please put the gown on and hop up on the exam table.” The nurse left, vitals and history complete. I helped Rhoda into the gown and up on the exam table. Then I held her hand as we waited for the obstetrician/gynecologist to see us. There were only a few dozen Medical Doctors trained in the human and werewolf world, and Doctor Tara Himen was the only one specializing in fertility.

“I don’t know if I can do this again,” Rhoda said as she looked down at her toned stomach. She was still as fit and beautiful as she had been when we mated almost sixty-five years ago. She was everything I could have hoped for in a mate; strong, compassionate and loved by the Pack, supportive and loving with me. All those decades had passed, and we’d never been able to have a child.

It had all started normally. We mated, it kicked off her first heat and we hoped we would be one of those lucky couples that were blessed on their first try. She was disappointed when it didn’t catch, but we knew we’d be able to try again in a year. The next year, nothing. After twenty years of disappointment, a year came where she didn’t come into heat, then the next year it was back.

The failure to get her heat became more common, until it stopped altogether. Her last naturally-occurring heat happened in 1992. She was only a hundred and ten years old, way too early for a healthy Alpha female to reach menopause. After ten years of nothing, we were referred to Dr. Himen.

We had returned every year since then. Blood tests, X-rays, dye tests, nothing showed anything abnormal that would explain the lack of her cycle. Whispers started to travel among the Pack females about whether their Luna had been cursed to be barren. She withdrew into herself, avoiding social events and avoiding her friends.

We were getting desperate by the turn of the century. An Alpha couple that had no heir after this long was looked upon as being weak or defective, and challenges to my authority became more common. I’d defended my title more times in the last twenty years of my rule than I had in the first fifty. No matter what I said, Rhoda took it as her personal failing to not give me a son.

She tried diets, vitamins, special herbal teas and potions brewed by local witches. She tried working out, not working out, sex all the time, no sex, anything she could think of. Finally, ten years ago, Dr. Himen started experimenting with use of human fertility drugs to try and initiate a heat cycle for her.

It took a few years to find a treatment schedule that worked, and in 2008 she had a heat. I took her to a remote cabin, and we screwed like newlyweds. She would sit with her legs in the air for a half hour after every time we made love, then we would do it again.

She didn’t get pregnant, but we had hope again.

The next year, the same thing happened. Then the next. Only once did she not get a cycle, but she never got pregnant from her cycles. The strain of it all was wearing her down, and was tearing us apart.

There was a knock, then Dr. Himen came in. She was a small werewolf female, only about five-two and was in her forties. She was very intelligent, and her Alpha had sponsored her college and medical school. She worked at a clinic in Shasta and held office hours at the Pack. “Alpha Justin, Luna Rhoda, how are you feeling today?”

“Disappointed,” she said. “The pregnancy test came out negative again.”

“It did,” she confirmed. “The blood test was negative. Are you feeling any lingering effects from the treatment?”

“I’ve been having pains in my ovaries, but they are getting better.”

She nodded. “That’s not uncommon, as you know. It’s a side effect of the stimulation the fertility drugs give you. Let’s check them out to be safe.” She wheeled over an ultrasound machine as Rhoda laid back on the table. A few minutes later she turned it off. “The treatments are taking a toll on your body, Luna.”

“I can handle the pain,” she said.

“I’m not questioning your motivation or your toughness, I’m telling you that your body is telling you to stop. I’m also telling you that the study is coming to an end.”

“What do you mean,” I said.

“You aren’t the only she-wolf in these trials. The results have not been what we hoped for. No mated female has had a successful pregnancy since we started a decade ago. Last week I presented my results to the Alpha Council and our Pack Doctor convention, and the decision was unanimous. We are discontinuing the trials.”

“THEY WERE MY ONLY HOPE,” Rhoda cried. I moved over to her, comforting her as she saw her chances dwindle to none.

“I’m sorry, Luna.” She didn’t say anything for a while as I calmed my mate down.

“Is there any other option,” I asked. “We are desperate, we have no heir and the Pack is becoming unstable.”

She sat back in her chair. “The trials were not a complete loss. We did have a few unmated females, younger ones, who were able to use the treatment to initiate a cycle leading to pregnancy.”

“A surrogate?”

“Not in the way humans look at it, no. We don’t have the facilities or access to do in-vitro fertilization. No, the successes we had involved females who wanted to remain unmated but were willing to be impregnanted by another male in order to provide him an heir. Two were sisters to the deceased female mate, while the other was an Omega who volunteered.”

“I see. The volunteer would have to take the same treatment to kick off a heat cycle without having a mate of her own?”

“Yes. If you think you can find a volunteer to provide you your heir, I can provide you with the injection schedule and the drugs you will need today. Your own Pack doctor will have to oversee the cycle, and I only have enough drugs left for you to try once.”

“I’ll take them,” I said.

“I’ll prepare what you need,” she said. “I’m really sorry I can’t do more for you,” she said as she left.

She handed us the supplies and the directions, then we left the clinic and returned to our car. Rhoda started crying as soon as the door closed and didn’t stop until we were on the Interstate. I felt horrible; my mate was hurting, and I could do nothing. I reached over and squeezed her hand. “We’ll figure something out,” I said.

She wiped her eyes. “It’s not that easy,” she said. “It’s not just that you need an heir, you need a STRONG heir who can defend his position. You’re not going to get that by mixing your bloodline with an Omega, especially one desperate enough to give her first born to the Alpha. He would be half hers, and where does that leave me? What if she wants to be his mother? I’ll never be able to show my face again in the Pack if it gets out that you went to another woman to get your heir.”

“I can find a way,” I said. “They will accept the baby as ours alone.”

“How will you convince the Pack it is mine when I don’t smell pregnant, I don’t look pregnant and I don’t give birth?”

All good questions. “I don’t know.” She banged her head back against the rest. “I’ll find a way. We will have a son, a strong son with Alpha bloodlines on both sides, a boy that is ours and ours alone. We will have that as long as you trust me and do what I say, no matter what.”

“You’ll fuck another woman, you’ll do that to me knowing what it will do to me.” She didn’t believe me.

“I will do what it takes to ensure our son is born and takes over for me as Alpha of our Pack,” I said. “I won’t enjoy it, but I will do it. You will take the pain and thank me for doing it.”

She looked out the window, not saying anything for almost ten minutes. “Do it,” she said. “Don’t tell me the details, I don’t want to see her or have her around, just bring me my son.”

Chairman Lewis Wolfe’s POV

Eagle County Regional Airport, CO

Present Day

The plane taxied to a stop, and a few minutes later we were out the door. Our driver was ready, and we were on the road in minutes. Four cars trailed behind us with the Council Enforcers, while Carlos’ two squad leaders joined us in the spacious Suburban. “Where are we at,” I asked.

“Warriors from the Grand Mesa and Colorado Springs packs are going to meet us near the freeway exit. The Grand Mesa warriors will work with First Squad to search the Pack offices at the Copper Mountain resort. Second squad will come in from the west, while I and the Colorado Springs warriors escort you to the Pack House,” Lead Enforcer Carlos said. “Once everyone is in place, we will sweep and arrest the leadership.”

“Rules of engagement,” Counsel Kendall asked.

“We are arresting, not invading,” I said. “Warn them we have a warrant and interference with Council business is a punishable offense. Deadly force is only authorized for protection of yourself or others. Minimize casualties, make sure you are wearing body armor.”

The directions were passed to all the men, and just off the freeway exit we started to link up. Six hours after we had landed in La Crosse and learned of the allegations, we were ready to go. I looked over at Carlos, he was dressed out in camo body armor and heavily armed. “Ready, sir,” he said.

“Go, and may Luna protect us all.” The four vehicles filled with Enforcers and Warriors led the way down the winding road towards the eastern edge of the Copper Mountain territory. Tensions rose as we approached, not knowing if we were detected or if they would resist.

“Through the gate, the gate was open and no guard was seen,” the lead vehicle said over the radio we were using to coordinate the different Packs and Council teams.

“Squad two, through the gate, no resistance,”

“Squad one, in the office complex.”

My vehicle stayed outside the gate for now, Carlos didn’t want to risk me until the Pack grounds had been secured. I listened in on the calls, and it was clear that the people we were looking for were not here. “At the Pack House,” my Lead Enforcer reported. “Senior official present is the Gamma. He has ordered the Pack to cooperate. Alpha, Beta and almost all warriors are gone, sir. The Alpha took them out more than four hours ago, and he hasn’t heard from them since.”

Shit.