Chapter Eleven

"So how many other werewolves are there?"

"I would say no more than twelve."

I look down at the ground. My thoughts are already drifting toward the pack of wolves I will be working with and whether my mate is even out there.

"All working together?"

"No three packs total."

"Well one pack only has two members, the other is an all-girl pack."

"And the last pack?"

"That's the pack we have to look out for, the Apha is the smartest one I've ever seen." 

"And that's a bad thing."

"It's a dangerous thing," Ivana pipes in. 

"For who?"I may have unintentionally sounded rude, but I didn't feel friendly towards them.

"For everyone, they're going to take over the forest."

I stood up from the log that we had all been sitting around. I have a sense that we are merely speculating about their motives.

"Then why are they eliminating the zombies?"

I have seen zombies a few times and they are savage. There's no way anyone could ever coexist with them, anybody with eyes can understand that.

"Because they're batshit crazy," Ivana laughs.

I hear my father's annoying laugh and I get really upset because it sounds like mine. But we're not anything like each other. 

"Son, I need you."

"When I was in and out of foster homes, where were you, Dad? Did you play a spy in this forest?"

He looks down at his feet. 

"So you're asking me to help you solve a problem. The very problem that caused me so many abandonment issues as a kid." 

He nods. "I completely understand your feelings."

"How?" I feel my face turning red.

"I was supposed to be an Alpha wolf, so I know all their intentions." 

"Then why weren't you?" 

I have a brother out there somewhere in the world. I never met him or don't know much about him. I believe my dad cheated and my mom and passed him the alpha gene. That sounds like an unnecessary burden to me anyway. Likewise, Alpha wolves may join a pack with an existing alpha, bypassing the shity requirement. This may be how my brother has become so undetected.

"How come you weren't alpha?"

"It's never supposed to happen but they stripped away my title and gave it to my little brother who was quicker than me and faster than me and apparently a better leader than me."

I nod. I can comprehend how that could be painful. 

"So this is about revenge?"

My dad smiles an evil smile. I don't see any kindness in his eyes or any good attention. 

"Maybe a little." He winks at me.

The next three months went by an agonizing torture. With my father at her side, Ivana's cruelty only intensified. In the last few months, I was falling more and more out of love with her and I know that I need to break away from them both.