'Joel,' I called, 'they are after our females. You have to stop them.'
'Get back to the den, you are out matched. I know they are after females,' he sent back sounding irate.
To hell with him, I thought as I barreled into the slower wolf ahead of me. He dropped the female and tried to come around to face me. I tore out his throat before he could even start to change direction.
Something sharp and painful hit me from behind and I turned to see the five had caught up to us. The fastest one of them had sunk his teeth into my hind leg. The others surrounded me and prepared to attack.
Despite the pain I shifted back to the hybrid form and used my hands to disengage my opponent. Before I threw him off of me completely I shoved my sharp claws into his chest and tore at his heart.
I battled with the remaining four wolves and killed one more before reinforcements showed up. Joel barreled into the scene and executed two of the remaining wolves. He damaged the other one severely and threw the body to his Betas.
'Take that one to the holding cells in the den. I want him alive for questions,' he told the wolves behind him.
I was inching away from him to go follow the other wolf that had had a female.
'We were watching their get away vehicles. She is fine and he is dead. Explain to me what part of, go to the secure room, confused you,' he said loudly in my head stalking toward me.
My wolven half had had enough of defying him. I really didn't want him mad at me, so I dropped down and exposed my belly to him. He completely ignored the gesture and came up to look me in the eye.
'In light of the fact you don't listen to me, ever, your submission is not accepted. What part of my direction confused you?' he asked again.
'I'm not a child and I don't like to be told to go sit with the children,' I told him honestly. 'You expect me to continue to act like the weak human female you originally met. I want to be part of this, I am strong, and I want to help. I will not sit at the side lines while you take all the real assignments.'
The Betas he had brought were watching us skeptically. Joel still looked angry and he had never stopped growling at me. In addition, he had ignored my obvious submission, which was strange. They knew something was up.
He stalked away from me toward the nearly kidnapped Omega and I rolled to sit up. I rose stiffly, my back leg still ached from the bite. Joel sniffed at the girl and licked her across the face, probably trying to wake her. The pain in my leg was forgotten when he sat down groggily beside her.
I approached Joel and his eyes looked clouded. Pushing into his mind was like wading into mud and I was couldn't connect to him. He was so tired all I got when I moved into his mind was a blank space.
'Nate, the spell on the girls is still active. When they get that other girl to the den wash her off immediately. Nobody lick her, understood?' I ordered, seeking out Joel's second with my mind.
I heard as Nate alerted everyone in the pack about the spell. From the way he was talking it was several girls that were being returned, not just the one.
'Joel, stay awake,' I ordered wondering if he could hear me.
Joel just stared at me. He was ready to lay down and go to sleep was the feeling I got watching him.
I barked at him loudly to get his attention. He woke up a little and looked back at me as his eyes started to shut again.
'Get up,' I ordered nudging his backside with my nose. 'We are going back to the den. Get up or I will have them carry you like a baby. Do you want that?' I threatened.
The threat seemed effective and Joel rose to his feet unsteadily. We made our way slowly back to the den. I pushed, yipped, and nipped to keep him moving. Joel passed out once we made it into the front doors. He fell heavily down on the marble floor and went sound asleep.
A large silver wolf approached eyeing Joel. I recognized Nate and was glad to see him.
'Nate, we stay on alert until Alpha Latro wakes up. Do we have an accurate count from downstairs?'
'We got everyone back that was taken, Madam. The thieves we didn't kill have been placed into the holding cells. The kidnap victims were all knocked out by a spell. We sent all of them to the secure room with the healer,' he said watching Joel on the floor.
'Can we move him somewhere safer, that isn't the secure room?' I asked.
Joel's current position left him exposed, I wasn't sure the attack was over. I didn't want to put him in with the Omegas, women, and children. Seeing him knocked out like this may scare them.
'We still have an empty holding cell,' Nate said thoughtfully.
It took three hybrid warriors to lift Joel and move him downstairs. I had the healer come and check on him and she said he was fine.
"You are a doctor, Madam," she said to me. "You know he is just asleep. The potion just needs to wear off. These new spells are very powerful," she mused, "I will have to study them."
I had shifted to a human form so I could fit in the room while she examined Joel.
"Damn it," I cursed, "I didn't tell them to get a sample before they washed the girls off."
"They were brought to me for care and I took samples, Madam Alpha," the healer said bowing slightly.
I was impressed with her forethought and told her so. She seemed happy to be complimented.
"It is my honor to serve my pack to my highest ability," she said turning out of the room.
I would have been happy to sit and watch Joel, but Nate was standing expectantly at the door when the healer left. With Joel down for the count, I was quite suddenly in charge.
"What do we do, Madam?" he asked watching me.
I thought for a moment and wondered what my mate would do in this circumstance.
"The Warriors all need to be in the wolf or the hybrid form so we can communicate. Let's get to the security center and organize from there," I said throwing one last glance back at Joel.
Nate locked Joel in and we both shifted into our hybrid forms as we walked down the hall.
'What do you all usually do with creeps that break into the den,' I asked Nate.
'Torture them until they tell us what we want to know and then kill them,' he answered.
'Who usually does the questioning?' I asked.
'Alpha Latro, myself, and a wolf named Donavan are the best at getting information without killing them too quickly,' he told me.
We were up on the main level now and I looked outside to see the warriors dragging the remains of at least twenty dead wolves toward the circle. There was also the man I recognized from the Omega's bedroom.
'We will burn them, Madam,' Nate told me.
'What pack are they from?' I asked him.
'We don't know yet, but they are probably rogues trying to start their own pack. They were kidnapping wolves just old enough to breed. By the way, they aren't all wolves, the one that looks human is a witch. That's very odd, Madam. I've never seen a witch or a human involved in a raid.'
My feet took me outside for a closer look and Nate followed. I wondered what would prompt a witch to involve themselves in a raid on a were wolf compound. His skills had obviously been useful, but the risk was enormous. The wolves stopped dragging the dead and let me inspect.
I smelled the witch they were dragging. He smelled like sickness and death. The scent clung to his skin like it had been there a long time. I stood there trying to understand why he smelled so rank.
'Didn't you all just kill this man?' I sent the question out to the entire group.
Another voice requested entry into my head and I allowed it. I recognized Lucas's voice, as the large black wolf approached submissively from several feet away.
'I killed the witch, Madam. It was less than an hour ago that I tore out his throat. He was hurling spells at me. One of them injured my shoulder when I didn't move fast enough and some of it touched me.'
'Is that normal?' I asked curiously.
'No, Madam, I have been away for some time, but those spells are quite rare. The others warriors I have asked told me they had never seen anything like this before,' Lucas said and turned to show me a burned looking area on his shoulder. The fur was gone and the flesh was eaten away. I could just see muscle in the wound.
'The healer should see you Lucas,' I thought to him.
'I wish to serve you, Madam. I do not want to be locked up downstairs. My last century has been spent not serving my pack; I want to make up for it,' Lucas said hanging his head.
'If you start to feel sick you will go to her right away. That is an order, Lucas,' I said turning my attention back to the dead man.
I heard Lucas's happy response in my mind, but my attention was now on the corpse before me. He absolutely reeked. It was like he had rolled through a cemetery to get here. I'd never been so displeased to have a wolf's sense of smell.
His arm flopped out when I touched it with my nose and suddenly I understood. Track marks ran up and down his forearm. I nudged his mouth open and saw the yellowed remains of his teeth. He was probably a meth addict.
'Can witches get addicted to the same things humans do?' I asked Nate.
'Any of us could,' Nate told me, 'we all have part of us that is human. With us, I know that such a thing would be possible, but the quantities needed would be much larger. I imagine it would be the same for the witches. We could ask Anthony when he wakes up, he worked for the human DEA for a long time. He would know better than I would.'
'We need to know more about this man before you destroy his body,' I told Nate. 'I want to know why a drug addicted witch is mixed up with a group of rogues capturing breeding wolves,' I ordered.
This was odd, I could feel it. The wolves around me seemed uncomfortable also.
I stood thinking for a moment and had a horrible thought. 'Do the other packs know this happened, yet?' I asked Nate. 'This may be bigger than it seems.'
'Will,' Nate called turning to face the den, 'the Madam Alpha wishes the other packs to be alerted to the danger. You know them, it would be appropriate for you to make the calls. I will verify with the Madam Alpha this is what she wants.'
As Will came running out I realized I could hear everything going on in Nate's head. I was fairly certain that was rude.
'Nate, I apologize, I think I'm in your head-' I started to say and he barked a laugh.