Cherries

******TRIGGER WARNING: Assault and Violence in this Chapter****

Amy Lynn/ Bane Bailey

I watched as a fellow Bane made their pledge to Alpha Flynn and Luna Lyla. The young girl was only 18 and I doubted she understood to weight of her words as she pledged her life to the Alpha. To do his commands, any command, or die. Even as I stood there, a few months past of my 18th birthday, I still could not fathom a moment where I would even consider pledging my life and full control of my decisions over to the hands of an Alpha as blood crazy as Flynn was.

Bane pledges were not normally watched, but Alpha had ordered me into the room before it had started. It felt awkward being in the room as I watched the Alpha accept her pledge, bind her, and mark her as his own Bane. The memory of my own pledge night flashed in front of my eyes, making them burn with tears. Luna Lyla stood over me, her grip on my wrists tight as she commanded me not to move. Alpha Flynn's Bane command not to make any noise over-seeded my own whimpers as he moved around my naked and kneeling body. I had pledged and was now waiting to receive the Alpha's Mark on me. Just has he had done to the other 3 before me, Alpha Flynn would mark me with a bite somewhere. But something felt different, wrong. Alpha Flynn moved around my kneeling frame as if I was prey and he was searching for the best place to pounce. Before I could think, his hands were on my side. His claws slid out and sliced into the soft flesh over my ribs before he raked around and down my back to my ass. I felt the sick feeling of my blood rolling down my skin where his claws had dug in. For a moment, I believed he would leave it there and bite me quickly.

To my dismay, I felt his pants fall and knew it wouldn't end soon. I held back a gulp and a cry when he thrust himself inside me, forcing his way in against my folds. His cock moved inside me, making me want to throw up before he started thrusting quickly in and back out. His claws gripped at the flesh on my hips, forcing himself harder and harder until I felt his fangs graze against my skin over my hip. He stopped for a mere moment before biting me and thrusting in one final time. I felt his mark sink in as he strayed himself across my back.

I blinked the memory away, not being able to look away from where the Alpha and the new Bane stood in the room. This felt wrong to watch. It felt like a betrayal of this new Bane's personal space as I learned exactly what she had put up and would lose should she ever refuse a command. I sighed as Alpha Flynn released her to start her vigil and then turned to me.

"Bane Bailey, I called you here because I have a mission for you." Alpha Flynn spoke sending a flurry of sparks through my soul as I became enjoyed with the thought of being some use. "Bane Bailey, by my command, you are here by Bane ordered to search and destroy the two pack members that have chosen to become rogues in No Mans Land."

His words hit me like a freight train as the power of the command hit my soul. He had used a Bane command, and if I were to refuse... I sighed before looking back at him. "I understand and accept." My voice was weaker than I had intended as Luna handed a file. I knew the file would contain the photos of the two rogues I was being sent for, as well as a photo of their wolf forms. No names. No questions. Just a photo and a kill order.

Luna Lyla reached for my shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry dear. Complete this mission and all trust will be restored. Regardless of how you fight or if you're the weakest."

"It's a couple of rogues." I replied, refusing to open the file until after I had left the room. Alpha's office felt more like a dungeon than it did an office. "Should be an easy task for even a normal Were."

"Very well then, be quick." Alpha Flynn replied, dismissing me quickly before going back to some papers on his desk.

I nodded and left, not wanting to be in the room any longer than I needed to. That office had creeped me out ever since I was awakened as a Bane. Nothing felt right in there, and my Pledge Day just made the room feel even more sickening.

Outside the office, I finally took a glance inside the file and couldn't help but let out a gasp. The two smiling faces were in a photo I had taken myself. They would trust me, and I assumed that was what Alpha and Luna were counting on. Trust. The biggest and easiest way for an ultimate betrayal. I closed the folder before going to my room to pack a bag. I would be calling the hardware store and hoping they had an opening still on my way. I couldn't bring myself to look at the file any longer and left tucked neatly inside my backpack as I jumped into the beat-up chevy the Alpha had provided.

The three-hour ride felt like an eternity as the clouds moved passed my window. The hardware store was almost ecstatic that I would be returning the following day, having lost more than one worker to out of state colleges and moves. My mind wandered as I drove, mindlessly making my way through the traffic and trying not to think about what I was headed to go do. Would this be it? Would this be the command that I fully refused and recited the order to give up? I wasn't sure, but I knew one thing was certain. I wouldn't be able to return to the pack if I didn't succeed.

Pulling up to the house, I sighed softly. Their cars were in the drive. I could finish the mission right here and right now. But something lingered against me. The months of living together hit hard as I swallowed against the sadness starting to well up inside. I quickly grabbed my bag and headed for the door. The scent of cinders and chamomile rushed to me as Madison flung the door open.

"No, it's her. It's really her. Shirley, I told you so!" Madison yelled as she flung her arms around my shoulders. "Amy, I missed you so much!"

I laughed, I couldn't hold it anymore and just started laughing like a crazy person before Shirley was also pulling us into a hug. "Okay, Okay. I need to breathe!"

"Pfft." Madison replied as they both let go and ushered me inside. "you're a Bane. You don't need to breathe that badly."

I smiled at her before looking at Shirley. "I missed you guys too."

Madison quickly ushered me down the hall and into my old room. "We didn't change anything. When I got back, we figured it was just a matter of time before Alpha would send you as well. Best scout he ever had for this area."

A pang of hurt hit as I entered the room. She was right, they hadn't even dusted. "Thank you, guys. I've been driving for a bit; do you mind if I laid down?"

"Of course, we will get out of your hair." Shirley replied with a smile.

"Yeah, I have to get ready for work anyway." Madison practically bounced as she headed back out the door and down the hall.

2 days later.

"Back in No Man's Land, I see." I stood on my tiptoes trying to reach the price tag on the wretched peg when a voice startled me from behind. The tags in my hand fluttered to the floor as I almost fell into the shelf I was leaning against. Spinning around, I found myself looking into the human eyes of Luke.

"Yes, and again. Not a threat to you or your pack." I replied before leaning over to pick up the spilled tags and getting back to work. I still had half a page left to place before I could go to lunch, which I should have been at 30 minutes ago.

"I never claimed you were." Luke said as he followed me around the store, watching me change one tag on the peg for another as I went through the page. "Beta will just want to know you are around again. That is all. He may visit, or not."

"Well, he can do so when I am not here at work. Trying to act human works so much better when I don't have to answer to wolves." My voice was gruff and harsh as I spoke, leaving Luke at the door of the back room before rounding the corner and bolting for the time out clock. Coming back into town I had completely forgotten about Alpha Arden and his pack, much less about the Beta. Shaking my head, I felt a tug at the mind-link.

"Bane Bailey, what is taking so long?" Alpha Flynn's voice grinded against the inside of my mind.

"My apologies, Alpha." I gulped as I tried to find a white lie to give him. "Unseen circumstances have made completing the mission to be more of a cautionary and secretive one. Unless you wish for me to raise the suspicion of the packs surrounding us."

"No. Stay quiet and under the radar." Alpha growled, his voice so demanding I felt as if he was right next to my ear. "You have one week. If you do not complete this task in that time, I will consider you to have non-verbally refused. Do you understand?"

Shit. Could I get away with it in one week? I shook my head, it didn't matter, I had to figure out a way to. "I understand." I replied before looking back at my food on the break room table. One week. I had exactly one week or less to kill my two best friends without raising any alarms. A plan formed in my mind of attacking each one outside their work, making it look like a rogue attacked a rogue. But each time, I couldn't account for every way to get out clean. It had to be done at the house. Under the cover of night and the darkness surrounding the two-story home.

Clocking back in from lunch, I made my way slowly to the Service desk where I would spend the rest of my shift waiting to help someone. I had already spent the last few days using the hardware store as a supply closet, purchasing the items I would need to kill the girls quickly and quietly. But now I would need tarps and things to get rid of the bodies as well. With a sigh, I picked up a few extra supplies at the end of my shift, making the purchases look more like a home repair project than a death cover-up.

"I hope you are actually repairing your home." Luke called out as I put the box of plastic sheeting into my truck with the bag of random items. "Because if not, then I would have to tell Beta Drake to raise the surveillance on you."

I hadn't seen Luke when I had walked into the parking lot, it was like he had come out of nowhere and yet, here he was. "Go ahead and raise the surveillance, its not like you can do anything anyway. I'm not on your territory and you can't touch me."

My words seemed to have shocked him, but he laughed and walked over to me. "Very well then. Oh, and Alpha Arden wanted me to let you know. If you cross the border, even by accident, you will be killed on the spot."

That was the normal responsive threat that I had grown accustomed to receiving from these Southern packs. "You have nothing to worry about from me. I promise you that."

"Then, why have you returned." Luke pushed, his gaze seeping into me.

"I have orders. I am merely following them." I told him before getting in and slamming the door shut. I drove off, not letting Luke ask anything else and hoping that would be the end of it. Damned Beta Drake, always sending his men to watch me. As if my mission wasn't going to kill what kindness I had left in me anyway.

I spent the next day with the girls. I didn't have work and so we all lounged around watching movies on Shirley's laptop and eating popcorn. I could feel the eyes of a wolf watching as I drove to work the next day. They had indeed upped the surveillance of me, and I wasn't so sure I could go through with the order as the days progressed.

I had a plan. I had waited until my next day off from the store and woke up a bit earlier than normal. I watched Shirley get into her car and leave for her shift at the local library as I grabbed myself a cup of coffee from the pot. She had eyed me suspiciously as she left, realizing I was awake earlier than normal. But I brushed it off and told her I just didn't sleep well that night. It hadn't been a total lie, I had tossed and turned until the alarm went off above my head. Not even a single wink of a sleep had graced me, but this wasn't the first time I had spent 24 hours awake and wouldn't be the last.

I gathered my supplies from the storage shed out back as quietly as I could, hoping not to wake Madison until she was supposed to get ready for work. I had about 4 hours of prep time to make sure everything was right before she came down the hallway. Seeing my light on, Maddie knocked before entering in an almost robotic way as she normally would turn my light off for me when I wasn't home.

This time however, she didn't make it far into the room before I yanked her the rest of the way in. With my door open, you could see straight in from the one living room window in the home, and I couldn't risk the wolves outside reporting what they saw. As the door slide shut, I felt Madison try to squirm and say something under my grasp. The command kicked in, and I let myself give in to the power pull as I twisted her head one way and her shoulders the other. The audible click of her brain stem was loud as the beats of her heart slowly began to fade. I carefully laid her down on the plastic, facing up like she was in a casket. It was a quick and nearly painless death for her, but I struggled to look at her unmoving face as she starred into the ceiling. Moving a hand over her face, I gently closed her eyes before rolling her in the plastic twice and setting her on top of my bed.

The wait for Shirley to return home was almost crushing me as I sat in my desk chair. I had already called the hardware store to put in my two weeks' notice of quitting. I wasn't planning on staying after I finished the command. The sound of her keys entering the lock pulled me out of a mindless trance. Night had started to set in, the sunset spreading its last reddish-purple strands across the dusk sky. My room was almost pitch black without the lights on.

"Amy, I'm home, what do you want to do for dinner?" Shirley called down the hall as she closed the door behind her. I heard her keys hit the side table and her shrugging off her jacket. Her footsteps came down the hall, soft and quiet.

"I'm not feeling good." I called out, knowing the motherly side of Shirley would force her to come check on me. I hated using my knowledge against them, what I had learned of their quirks and abilities over the time we had spent together ached at me.

She opened my door and stepped in, reaching to turn on the light. "Please don't, I have a headache." I said, sitting on my bed in front of Madison. Shirley nodded and closed the door, her back turned towards me.

I didn't let myself second guess what I was doing or guilt trip me into considering rejecting the command. I just jumped up and grabbed Shirley as quickly as I could. Moving faster than I thought possible of a Bane before her body too slumped against mine, her heart thumping as it tried to keep her alive, only to fail in the same way Madison's did.

I felt the surge of pride come as the Bane command was completed and howled out of grief. I knew Alpha could feel it too and he would know soon enough that the command was finished. I took a few moments to gather myself as I began to wrap Shirley up. Darkness of night would be my cover as I moved through the house, closing the curtains at the windows and erasing all chances of Alpha Arden's pack seeing what I had to do next.

Placing each body into the sterile cold tub, I began to slowly use my claws to rip away the limbs and heads of my friends. Each piece was then carefully placed back inside a section of plastic before going into a black garden trash bag. I had plans to take it to the incinerator at work the next day.

Beta Drake

"Beta." Luke's voice distracted me from the maps I had been hard focused on for the last hour.

"Yes, Luke?" I asked, squeezing my eyes shut as I pinched the bridge of my nose at the headache that was trying to get passed Alpha Flynn's guards to get to his library.

"I have a bad feeling about that rogue house." Luke said, his eerie feeling seeping through like a ghost. "One of the girls should have left for work already, but she hasn't been seen. Matthew checked at the club; she was supposed to be there 4 hours ago."

"Is that all?" my irritation sounded in my voice as I wondered why Luke thought a missing rogue was a problem.

"The she-wolf for the library, Shirley. She arrived back home, went into Amy's room and now Amy is closing all the blinds. We can't see anything or hear anything anymore." Luke replied, this time his voice was a bit more rushed.

"You think this Amy may have killed them?" I questioned with a laugh. "It's a rogue house, on No Man's Land. If this new wolf killed them, we can't do anything about it."

"Yes, Beta." Luke sounded mildly disappointed but obeyed.

"A third she-wolf?" Sam asked me as he began to chew further on the information. "What if... What if the slender one is back?"

"You're merely being hopeful." I told him as I looked back down at the map.

Alpha Flynn's pack was spread out wide across his territory. According to Nicolas, the packhouse was in the center with a house just to the west for the Beta and the Alpha and Luna's home just to the north of the packhouse.

*BUZZ* *BUZZ*

I glanced down at my cellphone, cursing at the thing being the only way to communicate with the Vampires in our pack.

"15 plus pack members of varying size quartered in the packhouse." Nicolas had been sending quick informational texts as he verified the information. I wouldn't question the man's motives or methods but was definitely thankful I wasn't on the receiving side of them.

Great. So, 15 pack members, probably warriors lived in the center of the pack. The library we needed to get into was farther north of the Alpha's home, close to the northern border. I would be simple to make our way through the northern border and into the library if the border wasn't so heavily guarded by patrollers and a few random bigger wolves. Each patrol moved from base station to base station in almost a calculated and clock-like order. East would start, headed north along the boundary's boarder line at the first crack of dawn. North, once seeing the East patrol headed their way, would rotate to the West, and so forth until dusk. At dusk, a new set of patrollers were placed, and they moved in the opposite direction of the dawn patrollers.

Nicolas had timed the Eastern boundary to take approximately 45 minutes for the patrols to run, however they ran it in sequences. Every wolf of the patrol was separately timed apart from the rest while maintaining eyesight with the wolf ahead of them. Some were 5 minutes apart, some were 15. Making any plan of crossing un-noticed nearly impossible. Unless it happened right at or right after dusk or dawn.

"Received." I replied, putting the phone down and looking again at the map.

"You need to get out of here. You reek." Luna Alice called with a laugh as she made her way into the room and stood at the table next to me. "Drake, you have been at this for three days now. Take a break."

Her words were calming as she placed a hand on my shoulder. "Maybe I should go for a run." I replied before grabbing a jacket and heading out the door.

"Yes. A run. Exactly what we needed." Sam chipped in, pushing forward against my control.

"Wait. We need to..." I tried to stop him, but his eagerness forced the shift and exploded him forward. I cursed as I saw what remained of my jeans. Dammit Sam, that was a good pair!

"Whoops." Sam laughed before racing through the forest. We ran the edge of Embry's boarder, nodding to the patrollers we passed as we headed north. I watched through Sam's eyes as something began to pull us up into No Mans Land. Right up to the house Luke was watching.

"No one has come in or left." Luke mind-linked me as we stood staring at the structure. He was right, there was a deep un-nerving feeling that came from that house. Something wasn't right.

And then it hit me. The smell of ash wood and cherries, intoxicating me once again and I knew. This she-wolf Luke had been following, Amy. She was the slender rogue, and she was back.

"MATE!" Sam practically yelled in my mind as her scent hit us.

She said she had an order. That as soon as she was done, she would be leaving.Luke's account of the other night came flooding back.