The Code Of The Alpha

As it turns out, ‘the bug’ was the dune buggy in Luca’s garage. A golf cart on steroids, it had oversized tires, seatbelts, and the capabilities of going “wicked fast”, according to Bates.

“This is a terrible idea,” Blaine said for the hundredth time as Bates helped buckle me in.

“Don’t be a wiener,” Bates told him, getting into the driver’s seat.

Blaine sighed before getting into the backseat.

“I need a helmet,” he muttered.

“No, you’ll be fine,” Bates assured him.

“I’Il be gentle.”

With that, he started the engine and smashed the gas pedal giving me whiplash as I was yanked back into the seat. I praised God for the blessing that the seatbelt was for the next five minutes. Bates whipped in between trees and across fields like he was trying to kill us, giggling like a six-year-old boy the entire time.

Suddenly, he slammed on breaks in a spot in the middle of the forest that looked like nothing at all, sending dust flying around us.

I looked at Bates, my hair in my face and scowled.

“Where are we?”

He held a finger to his lips.

“We’re so dead,” Blaine whispered.

“Shut up,” Bates told him.

I finally saw what they were referring to when I looked up and saw Luca stalking towards us, mad as fire itself.

“Oh shit,” I mumbled.

“Bad idea, bad idea,” Bates laughed nervously.

“What in the hell…” Luca said, pronouncing each syllable clearly as he approached us.

I smiled awkwardly.

“It was her idea!” Both Bates and Blaine shouted at the same time.

I grimaced.

“I’ll deal with you later,” he said, throwing a finger at me before turning to the boys.

“Sounds promising,” I quipped, immediately regretting it.

You’ve been around Bates for way too long, I told myself. I knew this because Bates laughed at my joke.

“I told you not to leave the house,” Luca told Bates.

He turned to Blaine.

“I told you not to include her in this.”

“I’m right here,” I reminded him.

Neither Bates nor Blaine had the courage to say anything. Luca snapped and ordered both of them out of the dune buggy, each taking the order without defiance. As soon as they were standing, Luca got into the driver’s seat.

“You can walk,” he told them, starting the bug and driving off.

I sat silently as Luca drove skillfully through the rest of the forest, stopping at a small, dilapidated shack on the edge of a clearing.

“Is this the Cellar?” I asked him, unbuckling.

“This is where you tell me what the hell you’re trying to prove,” He said, getting out of the bug.

“Trying to prove?” I repeated incredulously.

“Asking my men to defy strict orders,” he clarified, walking around the front.

“It’s not like I could ask you,” I retorted.

“You’ve been gone for three days.”

“I’ve been busy dealing with this shit,” he argued, coming to stand beside where I sat in the passenger seat.

“Well, maybe I wanted to help.”

“I don’t need the help,” he said.

“So exactly what has Johnathan told you?”

When Luca didn’t answer, I shook my head.

“Take the help when you can get it. Don’t be so stubborn,” I said. moving to get out of the bug.

Luca came to stand in front of me, placing his hands on the rails on either side of my body, preventing me from moving further.

“This is serious,” he reminded me in a low voice.

“They’re not here to negotiate, amore, or I would have let you in on this sooner.”

My eyebrows knit together.

“Then why are they here? How are they here?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly.

“That’s why I’m not okay with this. You should really let me take you back home—”

“I missed you,” I said suddenly, surprising even myself.

Luca stopped, his eyebrows furrowing.

“You’re trying to distract me,” he said, apprehension lacing each word.

I found myself shaking my head, looking away.

“No.” I said genuinely.

“You’re not still mad at me?” He asked, pulling my gaze back to him.

“I thought you were mad at me, to be honest,” I admitted I could see the scab across his lower lip where I had bit him.

“I deserved that,” Luca said, noticing where my stare was directed. “I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

I shrugged.

“I don’t mind you kissing me,” I said honestly. “But not with blood all over your face.”

He grimaced.

“Sorry about that.”

I found myself reaching out to grab his shirt and slowly pull him closer to me.

“I might give you another chance if you ask nicely,” I whispered Luca leaned down, his hands now above my head on the railing.

“I don’t ask for anything nicely,” he admitted, his face a few inches from mine.

“Sincerely, then.”

His lips were so close, I could feel his nose brush against mine.

“Let me kiss you,” he whispered, before his lips landed on mine.

The kiss deepened quickly, as though we were making up for the lost time over the past three days.

I hadn’t realized just how much I’d missed him until then. My fingertips gingerly traced the outline of Luca’s jaw as his tongue passed between my lips.

“Is this what I just walked half a mile through the woods in designer sneakers for?!” Someone shouted, interrupting us.

As Luca pulled away, we both looked over to see Bates and Blaine emerging from the tree line.

“I would have started making out with you several years ago if I had known it solved problems this quickly,” Bates said to Luca, making his way over to us.

“And you would have lost your job several years ago,” Luca replied.

He dropped his hands from the handlebar above my head and held out an arm to help me out of the dune buggy. Blaine led the way as we walked over to the shack that didn’t look like it had been used in years.

We walked around the crumbling house to a cellar door that looked just as old. Blaine and Bates both pulled back the doors to reveal another set of newer-looking steel doors.

Luca pushed past them and laid his hand on the scanner that was embedded in the door. I heard a ‘click’ as the doors opened automatically.

Bates went down first, followed by Blaine. Luca pulled me in front of him and allowed me to go down next. He closed the doors above us before we ventured down the metal staircase into a hallway that was illuminated by luminescent lights that hung overhead.

It was probably close to quarter of a mile long, with metal doors along each wall every ten feet or so. There were a handful of men that sat on metal chairs in the middle of the hallway. I assumed they were there to guard whoever was inside each cell.

“How many people are held here?” I whispered to Bates, who walked in front of me.

He shook his head.

“Not many.”

Blaine stopped at one of the doors, where a guard sat directly outside.

“Who do you want to see?” He asked me.

It wasn’t a question I was prepared to answer. In fact, I hadn’t even thought I would get that far.

“The smaller wolf.” Luca answered for me.

Blaine walked down a few more doors and had the guard that was sitting outside open the door.

I gulped before following Bates inside.

As Bates moved out of the way, I saw a young male laying on his back on the metal cot that was attached to the wall.

I recognized him immediately.

His name was Waylon. He was in my graduating class from high school. Very quiet, but he made good grades and stayed out of trouble, as far as I knew. He was the last person I would have guessed would have been caught trespassing on someone else’s

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Waylon stared blankly at the ceiling, hands by his side where he was clothed from the waist down in a pair of black sweats. He refused to acknowledge us as we all walked in.

“You know him?” Blaine asked.

I nodded.

“Waylon, what are you doing here?” I asked him.

He ignored me and I sighed, walking closer.

My eyebrows furrowed as I noticed how thin his pale skin was. could see every blue vein running up and down his arms and chest. He had dark circles around his eyes that made his blue irises pop.

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

He didn’t turn to me and I noticed then how still he was. No rise and fall of the chest.

I gulped as I began to back up slowly.

“What’s wrong?” Bates asked.

“Is he dead?” I asked panicked, backing away until I ran into Luca’s chest. He steadied me with a hand on either side of my waist.

Bates held up his hands.

“Don’t look at me, I’m not touching him.”

Blaine stepped forward and placed two fingers to his neck.

“When was the last time you checked in?” Luca barked at the guard.

“Thirty minutes ago,” the guard answered immediately, coming to the door.

“We’re on an hour rotation.”

“He’s dead,” Blaine confirmed.

I couldn’t do anything but stare at Waylon’s body before Luca pulled me out of the room.

“How the fuck did that happen?” Blaine asked rhetorically.

We all stood there for a moment.

Luca was fuming.

“His eyes were blue,” I said finally.

Bates turned to me with a scowl.

“That’s all you can think about?” He asked.

I shook my head.

“No, I remember his eyes being green in high school.”

“That’s a weird thing to think about when someone dies,” Bates said.

I turned to Luca.

“Where’s Johnathan?”

He shook his head.

“You’re not seeing him.”

I looked down the hallway and began to walk over to where the next guard was sitting. Before I could reach out to open the door, Luca was standing

between me and the handle.

“No,” he reiterated.

“Yes.”

I reached around him and he blocked me again.

“Luca,” I warned.

“Move.”

We stared at each other for a few moments before he moved out of the way and put his hand on the door handle.

“You have two minutes,” he said sternly.

“If he moves, he dies. If he’s disrespectful, he dies. If he tries to negotiate, he dies. Clear?”

I nodded.

No pressure.

Luca typed in a six digit PIN on the handle and it opened with a ‘click’.

He looked at Bates and Blaine.

“Stand by the door.”

He opened the door slowly and I stepped around him to walk inside.

Luca hooked a finger around my belt loop and tugged me back to keep me from moving forward any further. Johnathan was sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring up at me with such interest that I immediately wanted to retreat back into the hallway.

Dried blood caked his neck, shoulder and chest. I could see the ribbons of flesh hanging off his shoulder where Luca had bitten him. The wound was still open, but didn’t appear to be actively bleeding.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him, my shaky voice revealing the sudden loss of confidence.

“I told you,” he said slowly and calmly.

“I’m here for you.”

“Well you can’t have me,” I told him, trying to sound firm.

“You need to leave!”

He looked around me at Luca before returning his attention to me.

“Doesn’t look like that’s an option for me.”

“Did my father send you?” I asked.

He tilted his head to the side.

“Why would you ask that?”

“Don’t gaslight me,” I threatened, feeling a surge of anger.

“You told me he told you that you could have me if you came.”

“He did,” Johnathan said.

“Why?”

“He wants his daughter back,” he told me.

“I should think that seems innocent enough.”

“Why didn’t he come for me himself?”

“Because he had someone who was willing to do it for him. My reward was worth the risk.”

My eyes narrowed.

“Listen, you creep. Tell me how he knew where to send you. How did you find me?”

Johnathan’s jaw clenched.

“Ask your friend,” he growled.

“She’s the one who gave your father the address.”

“She wouldn’t have given it to him,” I said.

“She had no reason to think I was in danger.”

“I didn’t say she gave it to him voluntarily,” Johnathan corrected me.

My eyebrows knit together in confusion.

“Coercion is an art your father has mastered,” Johnathan continued.

“Threatening someone’s life typically gets results.”

“He wouldn’t…”

My voice trailed off as I remembered the voicemails.

Would he? Johnathan shrugged, wincing as he felt the pain in his shoulder.

“You’ll be home soon enough,” he told me.

“Your questioning can’t prevent that.”

He looked over my shoulder at Luca.

“You’ll be out from under his murderous reign eventually.”

Luca stepped around me.

“Would you like to find out how murderous I can be?” He asked Johnathan.

I grabbed Luca’s t-shirt and pulled him backwards.

“Waylon’s dead,” I told Johnathan.

Johnathan stuck out his bottom lip in an exaggerated way.

“Oh no,” he said, his voice flat and free of emotion.

“Why did he come?” I asked.

“I’m assuming my father didn’t promise me to more than one man.”

“Waylon was here for my benefit,” Johnathan said, eyeing Luca, who was still standing next to me.

“He hasn’t helped you much,” I noticed.

Johnathan’s gaze returned to me. “You know so little.”

“Inform me,” I said.

“Why should I?”

“Because I’m the only person within five-hundred miles of this place that thinks you should be left alive,” I told him.

I saw a fire ignite behind Johnathan’s eyes.

“I can’t die,” he told me.

“I’m part of a much bigger organism that cannot be killed. Even if my body were to fade, I would be

feeding the next, just as Waylon as provided for me in my injury.”

I heard Bates groan.

“Can we please kill this guy so I can go to lunch?” He asked, breaking the tension that was left hanging in the air after Johnathan’s dramatic monologue.

I shook my head, my gaze still on Johnathan.

“I’m not leaving,” I told him.

“Get that through your thick skull. You’re going to die because you believe so desperately in a lost cause.”

“I can’t help but notice you’re not marked,” Johnathan said, catching me off guard.

“You don’t carry Luca’s scent… why is that? You’ve been here for over two weeks. You won’t let him

touch you?”

I looked at him incredulously.

“What does that have to do with—”

“Don’t lecture me about lost causes when your own relationship is one,” Johnathan said, interrupting me.

I didn’t even have time to respond before Luca ripped away from my grip and tackled Johnathan back against the ground. He began to pound into Johnathan’s face with his fist, landing blow after blow.

Blood was dripping off Luca’s knuckles when Blaine and Bates both pulled him off of Johnathan, who now lay motionless.

I couldn’t help but to stand there, stunned.

It wasn’t that Johnathan didn’t deserve it, but I hadn’t expected him to get under Luca’s skin so easily.

“Feel better?” Bates asked Luca sarcastically.

“I’d feel better if you’d tell me I killed him,” Luca said

breathlessly, watching Blaine lean down to check on Johnathan.

Bates pushed Luca and I out of the room, Blaine following.

“Keep an eye on him,” Blaine told the guard.

The guard nodded before closing the cell door.

“I think we should go find Lincoln, see if he has any updates.” Blaine suggested to Luca.

Luca nodded and turned to me, eyes wild.

“You need to call your friend.”