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“I am your Alpha,” I remind Scratch. “You will do as I say.”
I look at him, seeing an almost exact mirror image of myself.
Tall and well-built with defined muscles, Scratch has dark grey skin like mine, with a fine layer of fur a shade darker covering much of his body. His form is human, but exaggerated and detailed with features that make it patently clear that he is much more than simply human.
Strong, sharp claws make his feet and hands deadly weapons.
Fangs make his teeth perfect for dealing killing blows.
He has the face of a wolf, his bright blue eyes the only sign that there may be something less feral hiding beneath his monstrous surface.
My coloring is a little darker, and I’m not sure my eyes are as bright as his, but the main difference between us is the scar that runs across the front of my body, a permanent reminder of the day I was rejected.
It was caused by a silver-bladed weapon, and if it had cut any deeper, I would not be standing here now, full grown and ready to exact revenge on the people who tried to offer me up as sacrifice to the ‘monsters’ who lived in The Abyss long before I arrived.
Those so-called monsters were created by Nightshade.
They were moon-cursed shifters who turned feral and became tied to The Abyss as shadow creatures when they died of starvation in this barren nightmare of a place. Their memories slipped into me when I became a teenager and apparently old enough for them to feed from. My brothers saved me from that fate, but it was only the start of our time fighting off the life-energy draining spirits.
Those unfortunate souls lived and died in The Abyss while Nightshade’s pack prospered in their perfect little town.
I don’t know when Nightshade decided to start rejecting shifters born with a rare, mutated gene that combines their two forms into one unchanging whole, but I was the first to survive The Abyss.
The bones of those who came before us are scattered over the landscape.
While we’ve been here, fighting to survive in this barren reality, the Nightshade pack are carrying on their lives believing they are doing their part to keep the world safe from monsters their ancestors created. Terrible creatures who no longer even exist.
Only the Alpha knows the truth, and he does not share it with anyone.
His people will never know about it if someone does not open their eyes.
“I will do what you ask,” Scratch agrees, though he sounds irritated. “But if you don’t bring us back one of those shifters to play with, I’ll tell Fox and Snake that the barrier is gone. That way we can all go hunting together.”
He walks away, leaving me alone in front of the open portal.
It’s not an empty threat, this time.
I do not know that I will get back soon enough to stop Scratch from bringing our brothers into Nightshade. I’m more conflicted about that than I would like to be.
I don’t want to blame the pack for the Alpha’s actions.
But the truth is the people that Scratch talked about playing with are the same people who did nothing when we were exiled as defenceless children.
They knew what they were allowing to happen.
They didn’t expect us to survive.
They expected us to die.
Well, they should have made sure I was dead the day they left me in the woods as the sun was setting, blood spilling from the wound across my chest.
The Alpha will regret that oversight once I’m standing in front of him.
He’ll wish I’d never been born.
Chapter Ten
Scar
