Chapter 1

——————-

Alpha Nick sat in his office room staring at the blank wall in front of him, he has been like this for the past two hours not moving a muscle. Anyone who saw him would have mistaken him for one of those wax statues from Madam Tussauds.

Thirteen more dead. Thirteen more dead. Thirteen more dead. 

That is what kept repeating in the Alphas mind. In fact coming to think about it, thirteen dead was just a light day. He has lost many in a day...a lot more. 

But where did it stop? How long could he have a pack at this rate?

 He had lost some of his best men in the last few months. More than men they were friends, family...his to protect and he had failed.

The feeling of failure was the worst an Alpha could ever get, this feeling was worst then death, but alpha Nick was not a vain man. He knew he had failed and he knew he had to protect the rest who were alive before it was too late.

How had this come to be? 

His pack had been one of the strongest packs of Colorado, well respected, feared and prosperous. His pack was his pride and his neighbors envy, he had everything going great and then....

...the rogues happened

It started as a small nuisance, they had killed a couple of rogues encroaching their territory but they didn't realize that it was just the beginning, the rogues they killed were basically scouts. What followed was much worst, attacks on packs started all across Colorado. The weaker packs fell first, they were slaughtered and the few alive were forced to submit to the rouges to join their numbers.

They had realized it too late, the rogues were not some mindless drones attacking them but were very planned had a strong leadership...a rogue alpha. It was a scary thought but nothing else explained the superbly organized attacks

A unified attack of surviving Colorado packs was launched and had been a disaster, the rogues changed bases randomly. The unified attack walked in to an well laid out ambush...none returned.

Now each pack was on their own and one after the other they were being eliminated... 

Nick had begged and pleaded with the seven. The seven most powerful families of the United States werewolf packs, they had formed a council to keep all the packs in US in check and were the executioners of Lycan law in USA and they represented USA in the world council of wolf's commonly referred to as the high council or the world council.

The seven, settled inter pack disputes in USA and helped packs in need. Nick thought they would come to their aid, but they did not. Nick had begged, pleaded and threatened the council for help that never came. They had politely asked the Colorado packs to deal with it, they believed it was a local issue and they did not see it a serious threat to them. Nick begged to differ, he knew this problem was more serious then they thought and he knew that once finished the rogues would expand to other states. This view was not subscribed by the seven.

Finally his eyes moved to the table in front of him. The visiting card lay on the table where he left it two hours ago. He had no other choice to make the call. He had threatened the council he would make the call, they were not concerned.

"Be my guest" the council member told him "don't come back to us running" he had warned.

So, for Nick this was the last straw, the survival of the pack was more important than anything else and he would be dammed if he did not try every last thing available to him. If this meant alienating the council and being an outcast so be it. 

 He took a deep breath, picked up the card, he recalled what the person who had given the card a year ago had said "Alpha Nick, call me for any help you need. Especially when you feel there is no one else to help you, before you ever feel the need to give up, we will not let you down"

Something at that time prevented him from throwing the card away, he had it in his desk all this time, forgotten all about it and now when all hope was lost he had found it...may be it was meant to be? Fate perhaps?

He picked up the phone and started dialing...he waited to be connected...

The phone rang on the other end and it was picked up after a couple of rings, before he could get a word out the person on the other end spoke.

"Alpha Nick, I am glad you called, we have been concerned with what is happening is Colorado, what can we do for you?"

Nick took a deep breath, and uttered the two words he never uttered in his life together "help me."

***

There was a knock on the door and it opened, only one dared to disturb him in his sanctuary. Especially at a time like this.

"Did you do it?" She asked, stepping in to the room.

Nick looked at her, his Luna, her beauty amazed him even today, after all these years he spent with her, she could still mesmerize him. However she had aged in the last three months, they all had. The lines of worry on her face had become permanent.

"Well?" she intruded in to his thoughts, still waiting for his answer.

"It's done"

"And?"

"They agreed"

"Thank the gods" She whispered with relief.

"And I agreed to their conditions" Nick added.

She nodded in understanding, they had discussed this and agreed to this earlier, nothing in the world was free.

"They will be here in two days" Nick added "Assemble everyone, I will inform them."

She nodded, turned to leave and paused "Nick" She said facing him "You did the right thing."

He looked at her for a moment responded nodding "I know."

She gave a small smile and closed the door behind her.

Did he? He wondered.