Chapter 2 - Dawson
Two Weeks Earlier
“Is Alpha Elias gonna join us any time soon?” Brooks, a fellow alpha of the Snehvolk Pack, scoffs with mock derision, his voice tapering into a chuckle as he shakes his head.
His response comes in the form of the pack den’s door crashing in and the head alpha’s dramatic arrival.
Shaking my head, I turn back to the bar counter, lift my drink, and chuckle. “There he is,” I mutter as both Brooks and Thane begin chastising Alpha Elias’s rather late arrival.
“Sorry, boys,” Elias apologizes without an ounce of remorse evident on his face. As the main alpha of the Snehvolk Pack, he really doesn’t owe us an apology.
But considering that we’re his closest friends, it’s the least he can do. Ever since he became bound to his fated mate, Luna Aurora, he hasn’t been as accessible as he used to be.
I know it’s unreasonable for the rest of us to take it personally. After all, a male wolf’s entire life revolves around his mate when he finds her and becomes bound to her.
Or so I’ve heard.
It’s not like I’ve experienced that much. Perhaps a tiny glimpse into what it could have been, until it was rudely stripped from me before I could get a chance to explore it.
Shrugging off those thoughts because, truthfully, it doesn’t matter, I turn to Alpha Elias as he continues to address us so formally that I have reason to believe that he called us to the pack den to tell us something important, not just to share a drink between friends.
Still, he lifts his bourbon to his mouth and takes a huge slurp before continuing, “We’ve heard nothing about the demon dog.” Elias sets his empty glass down with a deliberate clink that echoes throughout the wooden-structured den.
The pause allows each of the four alphas of the pack to gather our thoughts and composure and realize that we aren’t truly in the clear yet.
The demon dog is a malevolent, demonic spirit that threatens our kind. Once thought to be appeased only when a pack made a willing sacrifice of one of their own to the demon, we soon realized how wrong we were when it attacked us with deliberate intent to harm the luna of the pack.
Aurora Sinclair is no ordinary omega she-wolf who was chosen as Alpha Elias’s mat—she’s part witch, a descendant of an ancient mystical tribe who possesses mystical powers that the demonic spirit has been after.
Two months ago, the demon dog attacked the pack when we tried luring it here with Aurora’s powers channeled into a device to distract it.
But the demon turned out to be much smarter than we thought for something that looks as horrendous and hideous as the shaggy black mutt-like creature, with its purple tongue and empty black eyes.
It’s not a creature of this Earth, but instead a spirit from a different dimension that only manifests in physical form like a washed-out dog. It doesn’t succumb to any ordinary attacks, and our wolf claws are no match for the creature, even though it’s after our kind.
It’s already killed four of our pack members, leaving their limbs torn and strewn across the fields as if it were sending a warning message.
We thought we would appease it by offering it a sacrifice, but it turned out that the sacrifice was not just a powerful witch, but the main alpha’s fated mate.
Since then, the demon has been attacking us to get to Aurora Sinclair, Elias’s mate. The last time it attacked two months ago, it almost killed all the alphas of the Snehvolk Pack. If it wasn’t for Luna Aurora’s magic, we would have died.
But the demon wasn’t killed that day. It fled then, and it’s been missing since.
“It’s time we actively hunted the demon down,” Elias continues as he refills his cup. Though he’s acting nonchalant and composed, I know that deep down, the main alpha of the pack is stressed out of his mind.
Not only is the powerful witch his fated mate, but she’s pregnant with their child—the child who was part of the prophecy that Aurora had, in which she foretold that the child born between them would be the key to defeating the demon for good.
That child only has a few weeks left until it’s born. It’s no wonder Elias wants to hunt down the demon before it attacks us again and threatens his child’s life.
I don’t blame him. He’s protecting what’s his—an innate trait of a male werewolf. As an Alpha, he’s also protecting his people.
That’s why, along with Thane, I agree to the hunt.
It takes Brooks some convincing to make him realize that hunting the demon dog will be beneficial to the entire pack.
Once we’re all on board, we each have a point of entry outside of Girdwood to keep an eye on.
Because I’m in charge of the working schedule of the pack members who travel to the small town of Hope to carry out jobs, I am tasked with the hunting rotations in that area.
***
Two weeks of hunting have proven fruitless, but that doesn’t mean we’ve given up hope, even if the town of Hope hasn’t brought us any leads.
Because it’s a human town, the chances of finding the demon amongst the ordinary, everyday humans are slim. It isn't known to attack in crowded spaces, and it’s only killed lone werewolves who are caught traveling through the woods.
That doesn’t mean we’ll stop searching, hunting, until we find the evil creature; I’ve extended the hunt beyond Hope, taking my group of hunters into the woods to search for the demon.
Between Hope and a small village in the outlying areas is a valley that the Sixmile Creek runs through that is gloomy and suspicious enough to appear promising as the demon's hideout.
Perhaps I can find it out there, I think as I lift my head to the skies just as the sun begins to retreat for the evening. With most of the town of Hope preparing to round up and head home, my soldiers and I from Snehvolk will have to begin making our way home, too.
I turn and nod to signal to my beta, Tomas, who stands amongst the group of soldiers who share bread between themselves. He wipes at the crumbs gathered on the corners of his lips as soon as he sees my signal and comes jogging toward me at the edge of the market.
“Alpha Dawson,” Beta Tomas addresses me with distinct honor as he bows his head.
Under my guidance and leadership, the beta is most loyal to me out of all the alphas, even the main alpha of the pack.
But beyond that, he’s someone I consider a friend outside the circle of my close friendship with the other alphas, and I chuckle lightly as I pat him on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry, Tom. No one can hear you,” I snicker as I fold my arms over my chest and continue to stare out at the setting sun on the horizon.
“We’re here on official business, aren’t we?” he reminds me with a lighthearted chuckle.
“Of course we are,” I concede, nodding to the thicket of trees that make up the forest that separates Hope from the valley beyond it. “That’s why I called you over. I think we need to extend our search for the demon.”
“Sunrise?” Tomas quizzes, one brow-lifting question.
I nod in response. “Sunrise. We know that it’s home to another wolf pack—rogues who’ve gathered and formed their own community. The demon may not be anywhere near Hope ‘cause it’s full of humans…”
“But it might be lingering around Sunrise because of werewolves,” Tomas adds with a thoughtful nod. He glances over his shoulder and sighs. “We’ve been on the hunt for this thing for two weeks now. It would have shown itself if it wanted to.”
“It may not appear in these parts; that’s why we have to look where it’s most likely to hide, to attack, to feed. We have a look at Sunrise. If anything, the rogue pack will thank us if we find the demon dog hovering over their territory. We’d be doing them a favor by taking it out.”
Tomas agrees with a slow nod as his narrowed eyes point to the forest where, beyond the trees, is the valley between the State Park mountains that leads to the isolated village of Sunrise.
Known as the territory belonging to the Moonshine Pack, the Snehvolk Pack members steer clear of the area to keep the peace.
After all, rogue werewolves are unpredictable, and Snehvolk is far too strong to be outnumbered by a pack of rogues. We don’t need the unnecessary bloodshed and the added stress of war when we’re already at war with a malevolent being that haunts the werewolf packs in the vicinity.
“Gather our wolves and let them search through the valley,” I instruct Tomas, my voice firmer now that I’m giving orders to him as my beta. “Tell them to pair up. No one hunts the demon alone.”
Tomas takes my orders and heads back to the group, leaving me to tread toward the ingress of the woods as if ignoring my own warning.
We all know that the demon attacks lone wolves caught in the forest—we’ve seen it devastate our pack four times over the past couple of months.
But even though I know this, I find myself being drawn toward the gloomy forest, treading the snow-covered ground as my inner wolf stirs in the recesses of my being.
Goosebumps erupt across my arms as if I’m being alerted to a danger between the array of tall trees that reach for the clouds. Frowning as my hands curl into fists at my sides, I catch a whiff of a peculiar, unfathomably sweet scent in the air.
As I enter the forest, disappearing behind the first tree trunk, I’m surprised to discover that the scent grows stronger, more potently sweet and inviting with each step I take.
The demon dog doesn’t possess a scent that is as remarkable as what enters my airways now, unless it’s using its otherworldly powers to lure me in.
It wouldn’t be the first time that we’ve been fooled by the demonic spirit, but there’s something strangely enticing about the scent that muddles my mind and has me throwing caution to the wind.
I should be cautious—I know that much. But my senses are arrested by the scent, my feet moving of their own accord as I’m pulled into the woods by an invisible force that makes my heart pound in my chest.