Chapter 97: Chapter 97

“Alpha?” Charlotte feels like it is getting really hard to speak up.

She looks at Azraiel for a second and he has a worried expression on his face.

“How did you know she was your Alpha?” Azraiel asks the question for her.

“We sensed it as soon as she entered the woods. It just took us some time to find her since we were far from her.” Nicholas answers as if it is the most obvious answer.

“Sensed, how?” Charlotte asks, confused more than ever.

Instead of answering, Nicholas looks at Azraiel.

Charlotte turns to Azraiel for the answer. “Um- Werewolves are drawn to their leaders. Like the members of our pack can sense it when we are near because our aura is stronger and different than theirs.”

Charlotte nods. That explains how they found her, but not….

“Why did you drop me off near the Blue Orchid pack?” Charlotte asks the most obvious question.

“Our-our head told us to do so,” Nicholas answers looking at the guy on his left.

“Head?” Azraiel scoffs. “You just said that you recognize her as your Alpha.

“Um yeah,” Nicholas says shrugging his shoulder. “But we didn’t know her before that day. We had no idea about her existence. The guy who has been keeping us safe over the years is sort of our head and he asked us to drop her off near your borders. He said she’ll be safe with you.”

“And who is this head?” Theo jumps into the conversation.

Nicholas doesn’t speak for a while, taking a long look at Theo.

“We don’t know.” He finally answers.

“Wh-What do you mean you don’t know?” Theo stutters.

Nicholas sighs and rubs his palms over his face. “Look, it’s really complicated, okay? But-But we haven’t seen him. He just gives us instructions on phone.”

Azraiel looks at Nicholas like he has lost his mind. “You haven’t seen your Head, ever? And-and he gives you instructions on phone? A werewolf head gives the instructions on phone? That’s some story you’ve got here.”

Charlotte takes a deep breath and looks at the faces in front of her. These are strange faces but they don’t feel like strangers. She has the exact same feeling about them that she had about the people of the Blue Orchid pack.

“Okay…Stop.” Charlotte abruptly says.

“I-I want you to tell me everything that you know. Let me list the questions that I have in my mind. You can choose to answer in any sequence about whatever you know.” She says to Nicholas.

“What are you? Why are you living here? Why do you not have a smell? What’s the deal about your leader? And-and what is the next thing you are expecting me to do?” She blurts out the questions running in her mind.

“I-“ Nicholas looks at a loss of words for a moment.

“I think you should begin from the beginning.” The guy standing to Nicholas’ left says.

“I’m Jamie.” Charlotte nods at him and agrees with him.

“Okay.” Nicholas takes a deep breath.

“It all started around 23 years okay.” He looks at Azraiel and Theo. “Do you guys remember the fire at the King’s Castle?”

Azraiel and Theo give each other a look that Charlotte doesn’t understand and nod at Nicholas.

“Well, um- I was five years old at that time, so some of my memories of that day are a bit hazy, but I remember the majority. The-uh-the other guys in my pack are all younger than me and a few others. They were really young at that time and don’t remember much.” Charlotte feels like she is going to hear another account filled with pain.

“I don’t know what species we are since I hadn’t turned at that time, but I remember seeing elder wolves in my pack. We definitely lived here, in the woods but as you said, we don’t have any smell and are practically untraceable. So, we were safe, undetected and living a happy and content life. But it all changed when the fire at the King’s castle took place.”

Nicholas gulps and Charlotte can see on his face that it hurts to relive that day. “The next day of the fire, um- we came to know that a group of attackers was going after our Alpha at that time. You see, our Alpha didn’t live with us, um- I don’t know the exact reason but my mother used to say it was for our safety. When we came to know that the Alpha was in danger, men and women from our pack went to protect the Alpha. A few females stayed behind to look after the children. But, since we were less in numbers, except the children and those few females, everyone went to fight off the attackers.”

“We waited for days for our parents to come back. The females with us, they felt their mates die, they felt their pack mates die but there was nothing that could be done. It-It was difficult for them. In order to keep us safe from the attackers, they kept us moving. We never stayed at a place for more than two days. We wandered around the woods for a few months like that.” Nicholas clears his throat.

“The females, they tried their best. But with their mates dead and wolves weak, they couldn’t go on for much longer. After a few months, they withered, one by one. Within six months, the females were dead. It was just us, around fifty children looking after each other.”

“What happened to your Alpha?” Theo asks and Charlotte is grateful that he does.

“I think our Alpha died a few months after the fire. We don’t know for sure, but one of the women who was taking care of us said that she felt the Alpha die. I don’t know if it was the truth or she was delirious but I think she might have been right.”

“We took care of each other for around four years.” It was Jamie who was speaking now. We weren’t adults but we understood things now. One day we were traveling to find another place to live when something strange happened. We had made our camp at the farthest eastern corner of the woods. We slept there for the night but when we woke up the next day, we found a letter addressed to Nico here.”

“Yeah.” Nicholas nods. “It was delivered by a raven as far as I can guess. The letter said we should move from there to the southern border if we want to live. It also said that the letter was from a well-wisher who would continue to help us stay safe and alive.”

“We ignored it.” Jamie says. “We thought it was a trap to lure us into a pack territory. We- we were just a bunch of kids who had no idea about the pack territories or as a matter of fact, about anything.”

Jamie and Nicholas looked at each other briefly and Charlotte saw the pain pass through their eyes in that flick of a moment.

“We were attacked the very same day.” Charlotte frowned. God! So young and so much pain.

“We lost eleven of us that day and the rest of us barely managed to stay alive.” Nicholas continues. “After that, we continued receiving letters and after the attack, we started following the instructions in the letter. To be honest, those letters were the only thing that kept us alive.”

“We started calling the man giving the instructions, our head. He not only warned us about the dangers but also provided resources to stay alive. We’d get clothes, food, medicines, books randomly kept around us at night. We learned whatever we know from him. A few years back, he gave us cell phones. Since then, we have received instructions on text. He changes number every time he texts us.”

“We have asked about his identity so many times,” Jamie informs. “He says it’s for our own good that he keeps his identity a secret. For a while, we suspected that he was our Alpha. When we confronted him about this, he said that our Alpha was alive but not ready to lead our pack. I’m guessing he was talking about you.”

Charlotte gulps. Whoever this Head is, he knew about her existence and the fact that she is their Alpha, which means he definitely knows who her parents were.

“Why now?” Everyone looks at her as Charlotte asks the question.

“I’ve been in the Blue Orchid pack for over a month now. Why are you contacting me now when you could have done the same when you found me?”

“We are following the instructions and our instincts,” Nicholas says. “We were told that you are not ready to lead us and we saw that the day you got attacked. That day, you were nothing but a normal human. So, we did as the head said. We dropped you off near his borders. We didn’t know that he was your mate at that time.” He pauses. “A few days ago, we felt a sudden pull. It – it was weird. It was the same pull we felt towards you the day you were attacked, but more intense, way more intense.” He gulps.” We tried our best to control ourselves but it was like our wolves weren’t in our control. And then something really weird started to happen.”

Nicholas looked downright scared at that moment.

“What happened, Nicholas?” Azraiel pushes him to continue when he doesn’t say anything for a while.

Nicholas looks at Charlotte and says the words she never expected to hear “Our eyes started changing color.”