Step Too Far
Da, willingly giving up information? That didn't sound like him at all. Still, I wasn't one to turn down an opportunity to get in on da's scheme, and I also didn't fancy disobeying him right now. Not in the mood for a dominance scrap I couldn't win, and all. So I muttered an excuse to Nate and Gwenna and made a beeline for the HQ, though I made sure I was slow enough to be one of the last ones there. I wasn't a child anymore; I wouldn't go rushing to my da every time he called. When I arrived, the alpha pup was tied up in the corner of the room, gagged and bound, and the rest of the team leaders were already there. When he saw me, he began to thrash and growl, his wolf coming out. Huh, guess he recognised me from when I killed his da. I gave him a small smile and waggled my fingers at him, not fazed in the slightest.
So what if I had killed his da in front of him? His people had killed rogue pups in front of their own mothers, drowned babes and tortured our elderly and infirm whenever they found our camps. He may not have done it himself, but his da did. His da had killed my little sister when she just a few hours old. As I was stewing on it, I felt a small poke at the walls around my mind, the alpha pup trying to link with me. The second it happened, I felt several different people roughly shove the potential link away, defending me in an instant. The force of it was enough to knock the alpha pup out for a few moments, a trickle of blood coming from his nose. I could pick out a few potential suspects, my da and the leader of the sting team, Marissa, who both nodded at me, among them.
Still, it was strange. He was an alpha, and his bloodline should have made him strong enough in the mind to just batter down my paper thin walls and talk straight to me, but instead he had sought my permission to enter my mind. Then again, my bloodline should grant me the same ability, but I couldn't do anything beyond lowest level mind shields and linking. Maybe he was like me, even though he wasn't a twin or triplet and that was how da explained the power split between me and Nate.
"From now on, two strong linkers stay with the boy at all times. He can't be allowed to link any of his allies, or attack our more vulnerable members." Da glanced at me for a split second and I scowled at him, an expression so sour it could spoil milk, because I did not appreciate him calling me out like that in front of everyone.
"So what the hell was the point of this, anyway? To ransom him back? Cos there's easier ways to get money." I snapped at him, though I kept my eyes on the floor so I wouldn't piss off his wolf. I still got a warning growl, but it was more of a reminder not to push my luck just because I was his daughter, especially not around his raiding leaders.
"There are other ways to get money, but not the amount we can wring out of the alpha's for this one. Besides, getting a pretty penny is only a side effect of today's operation, not the main objective. As you all know, in the newest generation there are many prodigal linkers, with potential just waiting to be tapped. Most of them are with the rogues; the alphas are, as usual, bloody idiots-" He was cut off there as a ragged cheer of agreement rose up, enough to startle the alpha awake. And then he tried to reach out to me again, only to be promptly knocked out by my da with a punch to the temple. Looks like he really took the whole me killing his da thing badly. Who woulda thunk it.
"Yeah, they are bloody idiots, because they kill all the puppies with power in case they might hurt them, beat them, become the new alphas! But us rogues don't kill our pups just cos they're powerful-" Another huge cheer, because we prided ourselves on being better than the damned packlings, but my da wasn't deterred, ploughing on through our noise.
"So we're gonna show them the error of their ways! The best and brightest of our lot will break into the alpha's head and take him over, so we won't return the alpha, we'll return a perfect little rogue!" There wasn't much of a cheer then, because we were all in shock. I didn't even know that was bloody possible, and I knew that he meant for Nate to be the leader in this. It made me worried for him. He was a really good linker, I knew that, but if he was leading he would also be taking the brunt of any pushback the alpha could muster. He would be on the frontline, and I knew that he wouldn't refuse and that da wouldn't take no for an answer. After all, he wouldn't be able to convince all the other parents to put their pups on the line if he didn't show that he was willing to do the same, and it just wasn't in his nature to put others on the frontline if he wouldn't be there himself.
"Do you even know that's possible, Isaac?" Marissa asked, looking a little unsure of my da's plan, not that I could blame her. She was looking him in the eye as she spoke, which would have usually resulted in a dominance battle, but she and my da had been littermates, so their place in the hierarchy had long since been established and settled into.
"It makes sense that it does to me. After all, the strongest of linkers is capable of controlling someone for a few minutes on their own. If we use the strongest of our linkers, and they all work together, I believe they can break down the alpha's defences completely, and they will be able to control him. The alpha's personality will probably be removed in the process, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make." I wasn't buying this at all.
"Yeah, and if this doesn't work how you want? If it turns out that they can't control from a distance, and the alpha can just reverse it or something. And how is Nate gonna be able to control him twenty four seven? He needs to sleep and stuff, and he don't exactly have the longest attention span." I pointed out, a little put out that he was going to put Nate on the line over something that might not even be a thing.
"Which is why he won't be doing it alone, of course. Why I've been talking about pup linkers, plural. Geez, Nat, just listen, would you?" I had to fight with my wolf after he said that to me, her offended and bristling and just dying to scrap with da for talking to me to like that, but I just about managed to force her down again. I didn't want to get in a fight I wouldn't win right now. If she didn't cool of soon, I'd go and start a brawl with the other wolves my age, vent some steam, but for now I had to control myself. Loosing my wolf in front of all the other leaders would loose me all respect from them.
"I am listening, but all I'm hearing is a half baked plan that you've decided an alpha should be the guinea pig on! I mean, if we're going to try out something like this, shouldn't it be on someone with a weak wolf and weaker linking abilities? Not an alpha who could flatten our people!" I asked, frustrated and hating being treated like a child who didn't know what she was talking about. Luckily, some of the other leaders looked like they were agreeing with me, and I could feel frustration rolling down my link with da. Gwenna and Nate were also tugging at the link, trying to figure out what was going on. There was nothing I could do for Gwenna, but I lowered my walls enough for Nate to slip in and watch the meeting from my eyes. He could be subtle enough about it that no one would sense his presence, and we could feed back to Gwenna later.
"Nat's got a good point, Isaac." Malcolm, the leader of another raiding team, spoke up. I knew why, he had a daughter, a few years younger than us, and she was a damn strong linker too. Her and Nate had had a few friendly mind scraps in the past, and while he had always won, it had been down to experience, not innate skill. My da sighed.
"There's no great reward without a great risk-" He started, and I was angry.
"The risk is Nate's bloody life!" I yelled, my wolf ignoring the responding growl. He was my brother, and I couldn't, I wouldn't, loose him. Naomi's death, though I had been too young to even notice, had always left a hole in my life, a link that had never been used, a bond that had never been formed. A million possibilities and memories that could never be. But with my brother, it was all there, and I knew that loosing it would tear me apart. The same would happen if I ever lost Gwenna; she was as much a sister to me than Naomi ever could be, if not more so, because I had grown and laughed and cried and loved and lost with her.
"Do you really think I'd let him die?" He demanded, and something within me snapped.
"You let ma and Naomi die." I answered back, voice low and cold and dripping with icy fury. I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth, but I couldn't snatch them back as the temperature of the room seemed to plummet. In a moment, a dark look of anger twisted his face and he charged forward, grabbing me by the colour and roughly slamming me against the wall, so hard that the structure seemed to shake and my vision blurred. His grip at my throat was so tight I could barely breath as he snapped at the others.
"OUT!" He roared, his wolf backing up his words, and I felt even Nate slip back into his own head, disapproving of what I'd said, and I had to agree with him. It had been a low blow. Not that that stopped me from grasping da's wrists, trying to wrestle him off of me.
"How dare you?" He shouted, eyes dark with no trace of his wolf. Of course the beast wouldn't sign off on this; he was hurting his own pup. I pried a few of his fingers away from my windpipe to be able to breath easy, though he wasn't really trying to choke me. Just scare me, some, the way he had with all of us since we were little, the rogue way.
"You do not speak their names, not around me, and how dare you say that I let them die! You have no idea how hard I tried to save them- WILL YOU SHUT UP?" He roared the last part at the alpha pup, loosening his grip on me enough for me to breath properly again. As soon as he had grabbed me, the alpha had started thrashing and yelling, though it was muffled through the gag. It looked like he was trying to shift, which was stupid because we had trussed him up in a way that it was impossible. The distraction seemed to have quelled my da's rage a little, and a moment later he threw me away.
"Get out, Natalia." I was more than happy to comply, dashing out the door and leaving the alpha and my da alone.