Drawn to the Sea

Chapter 15: Information Fronts

Douglass

I sat on the floor with my legs under me, resting my chin on my hand. "So, I'm going to get right to the point. How does your alpha play into his parents' deaths?"

Gilly sighed, glaring at him. "He organized it."

"How?" Nate's voice was thick.

"Your mother knew he was going to try and take power from her, but rather than fighting him, she chose to flee with your father and you. It was too short notice to get a boat, so they planned to ride to the airbase on the mountain to pay for a helicopter to the mainland."

"They never made it that far." I narrowed my eyes. "Why kill them if they were fleeing? He would've become alpha if they left."

"It isn't that simple. A pack is bound to its alpha. Where the alpha goes, they go. If they had fled, the pack would've followed them and Briggs wouldn't have become alpha."

"Why didn't any of the pack members report him to the police? Or at least stop him after the fact and raise me until I was able to be alpha?"

"Once an alpha is dead and the next in line take control, the pack must follow. It's in our DNA to follow the acting alpha, even if we don't want to."

I leaned forward. "He's making you and the rest of the pack follow him?"

She pursed her lips. "For many, many years, yes. Most of us have given up hope that a new alpha will free us."

Nate shook his head. "Fottuto bastardo."

Gilly nodded. She'd probably picked up some Italian over the years and understood what he said. "There's nothing we can do to resist him. He was born into the alpha family, so he has a hold over us. It's called the alpha voice, or alpha command. Only alphas have access to it."

"Okay, but then why didn't he kill me? Surely he knew I would become alpha when I was old enough."

"He tried to kill you. Left you for dead after he and a small group of his first followers killed your parents. But then that officer found you and got you to the hospital. It was their actions that jump-started the advanced healing you had." She shifted in the ropes. "He couldn't kill you after that because it would've been too suspicious."

"Then how has it taken me this long to find out I'm a werewolf? That I've been living with and around an entire pack my whole life?"

"He had some spell put on you. It blocks your wolf from fronting, which is why you can't shift. It dulls everything else that's connected to your being a werewolf."

"A spell like that is extremely hard to pull off. It requires a powerful witch, and many very rare, very hard to use and obtain ingredients. Where did he find a witch that could cast it?"

She pursed her lips. "I don't think it was a witch. He doesn't know this, but... I glimpsed the room where they performed the spell. He was standing over you, with another... something that looked almost like a man, but not at the same time. He didn't even use any ingredients, he just placed his hands on you and said words in a weird language. I ran off after that."

I bit my lip, thinking hard. "That... isn't possible. Nothing is that powerful, except..."

Nate looked at me expectantly when I trailed off. I shook my head, hoping he got the memo, and waited until later. He did, thankfully, and moved on. "Is that all you know about this?"

She nodded. "Yes. Even as his beta, he doesn't tell me much."

I sighed. "Well, at least we got the answers we were looking for."