Taming the Alpha

Step Seventeen

"We'll have to leave in the morning." Brute told me. I nodded, knowing perfectly well we couldn't stay there. Brute was known as a monster to every wolf out there and when word got around he didn't have the rogues to back him up, no doubt almost every wolf would be after him. He took so many lives and destroyed so many families, he probably deserved being hunted after all. I couldn't allow that, though, since he was my mate and I knew how much he was changing. So we'd have to leave since the house was so close to my old pack and wasn't very hard to find. We were risking it waiting till the morning, but it was the middle of the night and we were both in need of sleep. Not only that, but I knew my dad was giving us a head start. No matter how much he hated Brute, I was still his daughter so he was at least doing that for me.

"Where are we going to go?" I asked. We couldn't stay anywhere around other packs, so we'd have to stay either in human territory or in an isolated area. I didn't want to live out in the middle of nowhere like complete rogues, so my hope was for the human territory. A good amount of wolves fit in with humans, even most of the Red Fire's pack was in human territory, but there were a lot of spots that wolves didn't occupy. Most of those areas were lacking trees and woods, which was how the werewolf population thrived. I didn't know how Brute and I would survive without woods nearby. We had to let our wolves out every once and awhile, and I had a feeling Brute needed to let his out more than usual.

"We'll figure that out in the morning." Brute replied. He grabbed my hand and led me over to the bed. He got in first and I crawled in after, letting him pull me close to him. I think we were out as soon as our heads hit the pillow.

"When the hell did wolves start using sniper rifles?" Brute growled, looking over his shoulder to look behind the tree. We had woken up a little too late the next morning and by the time we started moving, word had already gotten out about the Alpha of Rogues trying to flee. We hadn't passed into another pack's territory before we were already being attacked. Except these wolves knew they couldn't defeat Brute in combat so they turned towards using human weapons. Sure Brute did that before, but these were sniper rifles. At that point we were still clueless as to where exactly it was coming from, we just knew it was coming from the other side of the tree we were standing behind.

"When they realized you're too strong for them." I grunted back, flinching when a bullet whizzed past my head, hitting the tree in front of me. Brute let out another growl, realizing how close I was to being shot. He tossed me his backpack before stripping and shifting into his wolf. I swear to the wolf spirits he blended in with the shadows of the trees, making it easy for him to move along even though it was the middle of the day. It was so easy for him to move along, apparently, because a minute later I heard a scream followed by the crunching of bones. I covered my ears, trying to drown out the sound, but it was already stuck in my head. I shivered as it echoed through my head, but it went away the second Brute was by my side again. He shifted and pulled his clothes back on, taking his backpack from me. He slipped his hand in mine and we started walking as if nothing had happened. I turned my head the other direction as we passed by what was left of the sniper. Brute kept walking on, though, acting like everything was okay. I couldn't act like that, knowing he had just taken a life. Too many lives had been lost and I was responsible for a few of them. Taking the life of a pack member was the worst thing I could have ever done. I recognized him, I knew he had a family that was waiting for him to come home. I killed a father, son, and husband. There was no doubt that my pack completely hated me right now and I couldn't blame them. I was a killer on the run with my killer mate.

"You're thinking too much." Brute muttered, pulling me out of my thoughts. He came to a stop and faced me, resting his hands on either side of my cheeks. Only then did I realize I had started to cry because Brute was wiping the tears away. All thoughts of him being a monster vanished from my mind from him comforting me. He really was changing, regardless of how many wolves he would kill in the future. I knew he'd continue to kill as long as people were after us.

"There's so much to think about." I said, my voice cracking. Brute's lips lifted to give me a sad smile, something I had never seen before on him. He leaned in close, pressing his lips against mine. Relief and calmness washed over me and I felt myself stop crying. He pulled away from me and we continued walking in silence, his hand wrapped around mine. We were still unsure exactly where we were going. I knew we were heading towards human territory, but which territory was the question. We had to get out of Washington, that was clear. I thought we might go to California since it was so close and there were no packs in the big cities. The only problem was getting the money, but that would be a problem anywhere. It was just a bigger struggle in California since it was so expensive, especially in the big cities.

"There's more wolves up ahead." Brute whispered in my ear. I nodded as he masked his scent and power, trying to go undetected. He pulled me close to him, knowing that I was still vulnerable since I didn't have the same powers as him. The smell of wolves increased and I then realized we had just passed over a border and into a pack's territory. Fear coursed through my blood, knowing we'd be completely outnumbered. If they didn't have wolfsbane or weapons we would be fine because of how powerful Brute was, but we'd be at a disadvantage if they did have those items. Either way, someone will get hurt and it would not end well.

"Maybe we should go around." I suggested, but Brute shook his head.

"This is the last territory before we hit Oregon." He told me. I was hesitant, but I still followed him since we needed to get out of Washington. Once we were out, I was hoping we'd take a bus or something to California because I did not want to walk the entire way there.

The sound of a twig snapping pulled me out of my thoughts and Brute and I stopped, listening to our surroundings. I didn't detect anything at first, but by the way Brute glared at the bush in front of us told me there was a wolf there. Knowing that he was caught, the wolf jumped out and charged us. Brute pushed me behind him and lunged for the wolf, still in his human form. His arm swung out and his fist pounded into the wolf's muzzle, causing the wolf to fly into the nearest tree. Another twig snapped from behind me and I spun around, but completely paused when I saw Chloe and Tobin standing before me. My eyes widened and I had no clue what to do. Flashbacks of the night Tobin tried to kill me flashed through my mind and my heartbeat quickened. Tobin did not look happy while Chloe looked like her regular scared self.

"I knew you would be on the run sooner than later." Tobin said, his tone causing a shiver go down my spine.

"It looks like I'm not the only one." I retorted, crossing my arms over my chest. I made sure my face stayed neutral, not letting fear shine through.

"No thanks to you." He growled out, but quickly shut his mouth before saying anything else. Brute was by my side in a second, his eyes shining red as he glared at Tobin.

"FYI, don't try to kill the most powerful wolf's mate." I smirked and Brute lunged. Brute shift into his wolf mid jump, knocking Tobin completely to the ground. Chloe let out a scream, but she didn't even try to protect her mate. I almost snorted at her cowardliness, she was too scared to even help her mate. She would rather her mate die than to get herself wounded.

The sound of paws hitting the ground cause me to turn my head from the fight. I didn't see them yet, but I knew the pack's fighters were coming and fast.

"Brute, we need to leave!" I called, turning my eyes back on the fighting wolves. At the sound of my voice, Brute pulled away from Tobin and walked over towards me. Tobin laid on the ground, blood pouring out of a neck wound. My heart soured at my ex best friend bleeding out, but I couldn't help him. Brute and I needed to leave and Tobin had it coming for him. He tried to kill me, I would never be able to forgive him for that. Chloe was no better than him, but at least I knew she would take care of him. Maybe he would change and see the wrong of his ways, maybe I'd change and see the wrong of my ways. The future was unclear at that point, we just needed to get the hell out of Washington. 

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