51 Who we are

He's about to reach her when she talks "Stupid until the end, eh?" she mocks.

3 feet away, 2 feet away, 1 foot away.

Before he can even reach her, white and golden chains shot from the ground. Tightening around his body. Dragging him to the ground, he tries to fight them but every time he snaps a chain another one replaces it.

I can't stop looking at the bizarre display in front of me, the desperate struggle to run away from his destiny.

"NO!" he shouts and keeps struggling "NO!!, SAVE ME! PLEASE!" he pleads but Allie just stares at him, as if she's done with him, and just like that the earth swallows him whole.

The black dogs look at Allie, howl loudly and fade away as if they were never here.

Allie... what the hell did I get myself into? This is different from what I was expecting...I know she told me... she warned me but... this... this is...

No one speaks, we can't... what could we say? I know we were all thinking the same... that this girl is scary...

Allie runs towards the nearest tree and places her arms in the trunk "bleeeeeegh" she starts puking while small tears run down her face "bleeegh... uugh... bleeeegh" she keeps going while supporting her body.

She finishes and wipes her mouth. Then she turns at me with a smile, it's a sad lonely smile.

"You didn't keep your eyes close" she says calmly.

What? What is she talking about? She keeps smiling while the tears keep running down, her eyes incredibly sad "Are you afraid of me now?".

I open my eyes wide, and I feel the tears forming. What the hell was I thinking? Afraid? Of her? How could I? I run at her, hugging her tightly

"Never." I could never be afraid. I will never be afraid of her. No matter what I learn or what I see because I know. I know she's the kindest soul out there. How much pain must she be feeling right now? She told me how her abilities work.

She felt the pain and death of all those ghosts, she felt the pain of the rogue's death, she felt the pain of the injuries Wesley and Linda had. She knew she was going to be in horrible pain, and yet, despite all that, she still decided to help us.

I hug her tighter "I will never be afraid" I feel something wet in my belly and I get her away from me to check her up.

Her shirt has blood stains all over, her nose, ears, eyes, and mouth are bleeding. Cuts start to appear all over her body.

No, no! I don't want her in pain!

She smiles and then pushes me away "Don't get closer for a moment" she turns to the tree and hugs it. The tree she's hugging is huge, easily 150 feet, and it looks old. "...I'm sorry" she says with a kind voice. "I'm sorry... and thank you".

What is she doing?

The tree starts to wither, the leaves turning from a lively green to a weak looking brown, and the trunk starting to turn grey. The whole tree is breaking apart and turning into dust until it's gone, the only evidence that it once existed being the hole where its roots used to be.

I look at Allie, her injuries close, and the pale complexion she had disappeared leaving her with her normal color. She wipes the tears from her face and turns to us "Are you alright?" she asks, and I can't believe my ears.

'Are you alright'? 'Are you alright'!? she went through all that pain and instead of worrying about her condition she asks us if we're alright!?

"Yes, Allie, we're fucking alright! The question is: are you alright!?" I can't with this girl! Does she not care about herself at all!?

She tilts her head and I know she doesn't understand why I'm asking this.

"Why shouldn't I be?" she asks.

Uuuuugh!! How can this girl be so fucking dense!?

I hear Linda sigh and I see Wesley shake his head. "What a worrisome alpha we have" he says while looking at me.

-We'll have to work hard to keep her safe- he minds link me and I nod. Yes, we will work hard so that she doesn't have to do this again.

"..." Allie looks around us with a curious and confused gaze. She tilts her head and looks at me, waiting for an explanation, I smirk, and she sighs. "...I'm tired, let's go back" she says calmly.

We start walking but after a couple of steps I notice Allie's not walking behind us "You ok?" I'm getting worried now.

"I worked too hard already" she says tiredly and looks at me with a pout, a stoic expression with a pout it's a strangely adorable combination. She extends her hand towards me "Carry me".

I giggle. That's just so cute.

I walk towards her, and she hops on my back. Piggyback ride to the packhouse it is then. While we walk towards Blue Lake's territory Linda explains to us what happened.

"Paul, the alpha of the Red River, wanted to check the outskirts of Nick's territory, we had to provide information to Wes and the location Paul wanted to investigate was close to our meeting spot, so I volunteered to do the recognition" Linda starts talking.

Allie nods "That was a good decision, that way you would've shown that man that you meant it when you said you were going to be an ally and follow orders".

Really? Goddess, I feel so dumb hearing them.

"Why?" I ask. I feel ashamed of asking but if I want to help Allie I need to learn, and to learn I need to ask.

"Linda is the rogue queen, what best way to show the rogue king's pack is willing to follow the Red River's alpha than having their queen do a reconnaissance mission? That way she would have the perfect excuse to meet Wesley and at the same time earn the trust of Paul" Allie explains calmly and then leans her head on my shoulder.

That's so clever! I'll need to start watching more detective movies from now on, but wait, then how did they meet that bastard?

"The plan was to do the task alone but that stupid rogue, Peter, said he couldn't leave the Queen go alone... I knew he was lying, he's been on our hit list for years, but the official packs don't know we hunt guys like him, so I couldn't make a scene. I had to let him move with me, I expected him to stay calm but... well... after we walked further away, far enough from the Red River's camp he started to attack me, fortunately, Wesley was nearby, and we tried to fight him but..." Linda keeps telling the story.

"...The bastard was stronger than us" Wesley interrupts her, he looks ashamed and is avoiding eye contact with Allie. "We couldn't defeat him" he tightens his fists and turns his head away from us. "We're weak" he adds the last phrase and I flinch because he's right...

yeah... we are weak, we can't even protect our alpha or avoid putting her in circumstances where she has to push herself.

"Why are you saying something so obvious?" Allie asks calmly, she's frowning and looking at him as if he just said something useless "You were weaker than him, you're weaker than Nick, weaker than Joseph, weaker than almost every single one of our enemies. In a fight you are practically useless".

Allie, are you trying to make us feel better or put us down? Dang girl, you suck at inspirational speeches.

She pauses and takes a deep breath; she then looks at Wesley with a sharp gaze "Run away. If you find an enemy stronger than you, I want you to run away. You can only run for your life because you are alive. Once you die it's over" she says sternly, and I flinch again, I feel my blood boiling in shame.

"What? Run away? Where's the pride in that? Where's the honor in that!? We're warriors! Proud warriors that protect our pack!" I know I shouldn't shout at her but... seriously!? Does she think that lowly of us?

"I don't need stupid people that throw their lives away for something as useless as honor or pride" she says calmly again. "We don't need any of that, we don't need to be the most powerful, we don't need to fight them head-on, we don't need the praising of anyone, we don't need them to fear us or know about us, because, in the end, we will be victorious. In the end, we will be the ones alive".

My heart starts beating loudly, faster. A sense of pride is igniting in my heart. Yes, she's right, I'm not stronger than Wesley or Lucas or the ghosts following Allie but I'm their Beta, I'm their superior not because I'm the strongest but because there are things only I can do.

"We don't need to be afraid of running away, because we can always return stronger, we can always make them pay double" Wesley snickers, I turn to look at him, I know he feels it too, we finally found the way our pack deals with things.

We're not a fire igniting violently, we're not a bright sun shining down on everyone, we're not a brave knight swinging a great sword to the battlefield or a bloodthirsty force recking everything apart. We deal with things quietly, slowly, like a predator creeping in the shadows. I can't help but remember Allie's words from early. The ones she told Lucas.

'No one ever sees death getting closer until it's too late'

Her voice echoes in my head. Flashy? Elegant? HA! Who the fuck needs those things? We will be their despair, a dark shadow in the corner of their eyes because that's who we are.

She was marked as our alpha, we were marked as her pack, we're the Black Death Pack.