Chapter 3

How was this life a mercy? When I was delivered to Alpha Skye's chambers in the afternoon, my wrists and ankles were weighed down with Solividian bracelets. I couldn't get up beyond a crawl.

I was inside a glass chamber exhibition in Alpha Skye's office, which is connected to his living quarters. I have a flat dog bed, a wall flowing with water constantly to lap from and a bowl of salt and crumbs.

Entertainment? No entertainment.

Just those forever-weights on my arms and legs, making it impossible to stand.

Well, I could stand for maybe twenty seconds but then I would have to drop back down.

Was I washed? Sure. I was hosed off, but if you count that as renewed hygiene, you're wrong. I was still sticky with sweat, and my body was still recovering from the shocks. I was weak and useless, still.

I couldn't grab a thing and bash it over the Alpha's head even if I tried, even if I was let out of this box.

It occurs to me I may never be let out.

I'm sure I was just an art piece to him by this point.

I was nothing. Nobody. Maybe a soon-to-be-extinct animal from another planet, that wasn't welcome here, that was safest behind a glass wall for his guests to poke fun at or comment while drinking Genesis spirits.

I can't even crawl at this stage. I'm just resting on the bed, a flat soft rectangle. I lie on my back, wrists out either side of me, toes against the wall, trying to get comfortable.

The office was a part of an open honey comb area, connected to every other amenity. Kitchen. Bathroom. Living. Dining. Entertaining. Everything. The honeycomb pattern in the walls provided a reflection that seemed to go on forever, never ending. I was pretty sure this was the top floor of the Solividian Wolf Dominion. The balcony outside looked to be the same place where Alpha Skye stood to foresee the natural sun blasted landscape.

I close my eyes and I listen as intently as I can to the conversation happening on the other end of the room.

Alpha Skye hadn't come to check on me just yet. He was conversing with another of his Kind. The man with greying hair was older and fierce, yet broken too. I couldn't pick up every bit, but I got the gist.

"The litter is alive or dead in your opinion?" Alpha Skye is beyond infuriated, but he shows more passion through quieter tones. The opposite of humans, who screamed with rage. Alpha Skye went quiet… and the words turned to that death tone, foredooming death. Everyone's answer to a problem on Genesis was death. Everyone.

"I have no idea if it was a rogue predator or a Feline Company, Alpha… if they are dead…"

"They'll send us the bodies and they'll get another war, sooner –"

"And if they are alive…" I can't hear the rest.

"I'll handle it," Alpha Skye lets the elder go and then he waits until he is left alone before he stands, heads off to the balcony and seemingly stares at the rising Genesis Moon. It took up 75% of the sky and lit the ground with neon blue light, which gave their white-blue teeth an even bluer tinge.

Some of the food I've eaten and some of the water I've had to drink… takes a slow ride through my cells, very slowly fuelling my body.

To a point now, that I crease my brows and rub my palms into my eyes. A moral dilemma courses through me next.

Human emotion for inhuman humanoid monsters.

I knew where the litter was.

The small Wolf Kind.

I was one to see the Feline Company steal them in their Feline jaws. I think they aimed to keep them alive but one was left abandoned, hiding behind a rock, it ran right up to me when the pack of lions were gone.

I kicked it.

I did.

I kicked a wolf pup.

It howled in pain and wobbled away, while I decided not to kill it… I knew where it went to wander. Dry Canyon. It went into a maze of rock and it came back to my hideout later in the night and growled at me from the shadows.

I threw it a piece of rat, the head – because even I wouldn't eat the head of an animal. It was disgusting and not very fun to pick apart.

The wolf ate and chewed the remains somewhere behind a rock, out of sight, then I never saw it again. That was the night my mother killed herself, a couple of days before that my father was torn to shreds by a Wolf Company.

Once I lost my mother, it was the same night I decided to get captured in order to kill the Alpha.

So, I knew two things.

The litter was –

I feel a dark shadow pass over my closed eye lids and I blink open my eyes to stare up at Alpha Skye, standing in front of my glass chamber. He watches me, totally unsure of his emotions. I can see, with one prod, I could turn on his rage. Or maybe amusement. Or maybe jealousy. Or maybe… something else in their range of emotion… I wasn't sure what that range was just yet.

At this stage I don't trust myself to say the right or wrong thing. But I wanted to suss out the situation before I acted or tried to follow through with the planned murder.

"What are you thinking?" Alpha Skye growls it lightly, neither angry nor interested.

More a bored question.

I do not answer.

But I do stare up into his eyes.

When Skye stares back, I see a flicker of something… and I assume it to be pain...

Was it for the kidnapped litter?

He would kill me if I told him my knowledge, any later than now. Yet, I shouldn't hesitate with my brutality I had adopted. No kindness. No compassion.

I decide I'll say nothing, but Alpha Skye does not hang around to stare at a useless human.

He turns and walks off, deep in thought.

"I –" the moment I say one syllable, Alpha Skye spins back on his heel and his navy robe flitters out as his hand seems to jump from his belt, as if he almost expected me to attack… but how could I?

Or maybe it was a natural instinct –?

"Do not speak to me when I face away from you," Skye warns me, but he seems more lenient than punishing with his choice of words.

I see him shake his head in enraged disbelief as he starts to walk away again.

Two strides away, Skye freezes.

He considers everything.

I see the side of his face, the jaw moving, the ear twitching, the brow rising as he turns back to me, partly.

"Ryder," Skye calls me by my name, glancing over my naked body, "Sit. Up."

I do not move. But I do explain, "I cannot. I am too weak to move."

"A trivial excuse," Skye is impatient now, "…attempt to move… or you'll burn by the next sunblast," he warns of morning, when the sun rises and sends out pulses of hot solar blasts that burned through everything on the surface, but not Solividian or reinforced glass.

Still.

I do not sit up.

Instead, I speak, "…I know a few things about the litter…" as I say this, before I even finish uttering the word litter, Alpha Skye is already walking back to my cage, "I saw the abduction," I pause, from staring at my bent knees, I now stare up at the Alpha, "…one wolf pup escaped…"

His face contorts with fury.

"You lie like the rest of your kind… and so I think I'll eat you next meal when I Transcend in the hour… and we'll see how weak you are when you're running for your life," I can see Skye doesn't believe me and I realise my mistake.

No evidence. Only my word. And my word meant nothing to him.

Except if I could remember something specific.

Alpha Skye stands again, about to saunter off with a violent stride, like the continued discussion wouldn't even matter.

"The lost wolf pup I fed had blue paws, silver fur and a blue eye, a yellow eye and a blue circle marking on it's forehead, including clipped claws, a white tongue and a black tipped tail!" I yell it out but Alpha Skye keeps on walking.

The only indication I have that he's listened to my description is the inclination of his head.

Other than that, he does not wish to pause for me again.

Nor speak.

So, I guess my planned death still stands.

Being mauled like every other human before me. A Wolf Beast's dinner.

Alpha Skye leaves the room and I stare up at the ceiling.

I came to avenge my father. My mother. My species.

Instead, I failed at helping the enemy.

And now I was still going to die.

The Alpha's navy robe billows out as he exits his chamber.

I spend the next ten minutes thinking I'm going to die within the hour, or sooner.

But then the door is filled with his presence as if only a moment later.

And Alpha Skye walks back in with a wriggling pup in his hand, the scruff held tight.

"This one?" Alpha Skye drops the pup, which springs forward, eyes wide as it comes near me, it's tail wagging suspiciously and it's snout dropping. I hear a growl out of the familiar wolf's throat, before it gives me a warning bark and then a satisfied smile of all his miniature fangs.

It runs up to the glass and puts a paw on it. At that point it realises it can't get to me. It turns around and does a run up, sprinting at the glass, even the Alpha is frozen as the pup head butts my cage and – well, the glass shatters with the force of a small puppy.

Before I even know what's happening, the glass is sprayed out across my skin but so is the wolf pup, who is biting my hair and tugging at it, for me to stand.

I lie frozen as it rips out a chunk of my hair by accident and then it lays its nose against my forehead, inhaling sharply before barking once over my face.

I wince and then the Alpha is scooping up the pup and standing back with it, his eyes trained on me.

"Well isn't that funny… and cute, rather," Alpha Skye murmurs, refusing to show emotion beyond clearly irate blue eyes.

He turns with the whimpering pup, that eventually goes quiet with the Alpha's snarl of dominance.

The wolf pup glances back at me with a lolling tongue and it's brilliant smile.

The pup is removed.

I feel nothing. For any of it.

Other helpers soon arrive to come in and clean the glass and replace it with another door, but Alpha Skye does not return.

Not until later, and by then I am more than an interest to him.

Beyond a hapless pet, I am soon seen as the exception… which is far worse a thing, by the way.