Argent POV

My father is making me tag along again today. The duties of an Alpha in training thus far have been nothing but mundane; a boring waste of my time. Where is the excitement? The danger? Where is the decision making and planning? He never seems to want to hear my opinion or ideas. All I get is the boring task of trailing along after my father like an obedient little pup.

It isn't like he's going to step down any time soon, but I guess now that I'm 18 and the search for my mate has begun, he thinks it's time for me to take my future role more seriously.

Which completely sucks for me. I don't feel like visiting the looney bin that our pack helps to fund as a cover to hide our lab today. We've been working behind the scenes with human and wolf specialists to try to fix the shit the vampires have been pulling. It's honestly the last place I feel like going.

Knowing Amalie is there and that we can't see her is going to kill me. Being that close to my twin and being denied access to her is going to fucking rip my heart out. When I get my hand on the pricks who did this to her, they'll wish they never tried to fuck with us. My anger begins to simmer, and I force myself to calm down. Being emotional about this doesn't help anyone.

I feel the niggling in my head as I open up to the pack link:

Well that pretty much sums up how my day is going to go. Dad is on a rampage today, and it's only 8 a.m. I know he has a lot on his mind. The pack duties and everyday coordination of such a large group of wolves takes its toll. Not to mention the palpable worry that we all feel for Amalie's safety.

And I want to save my sister.

As I make my way downstairs and out to the waiting car in the driveway, I think about better times with my sister. We've always been inseparable. She's always been the feisty twin. The wisecracking, sweet-talking smart ass. Two minutes older and an entire foot shorter, she's my best friend.

As we are driven over to Beta Stone, I use the silence in the car to internally remind myself that even if he doesn't show it, my father cares more than any of us about what happens to Amalie. He just hates outwardly showing emotion. And I also have to force myself to remember that although Amalie is there, we can't see her today.

The doctor treating her said she's in no shape to have any visitors yet. She woke up from her weeklong coma a few days ago, and I was already running out the door when Dad stopped me and explained that we couldn't see her for at least a week.

They had to make sure she wasn't a risk to us or herself.

Fuck.

This is why our pack had agreed to fund the experimental treatment at Beta Stone. Dr Jasper was a member of our pack, the father of our current Beta, and very experienced in vampire-induced illnesses. Even though we were yet to hear his detailed explanation for the treatment and how it works, he's a part of the pack. He's trusted.

The maddening illness that affects us if we're bitten by a vampire is the only known affliction that could kill a werewolf in human or wolf form. Usually, we can overcome any human illness that may come our way; what takes a human a week to heal from takes us mere hours.

But this bite, the bite from a vampire, induces madness. And we don't heal. Instead, we go more and more mad. It causes delusions and paranoia, and we become a danger to ourselves and others.

Dr Jasper said that the worst and most dangerous reaction is the link that forms between us and the vampire that bit us. They can use it to control our thoughts and track us. They can essentially use our own minds as a weapon against our own pack.

The last person to be affected in our pack with this particular affliction was Dr Jasper's father. The rumour is that in the end, he was so sick, he was trapped in the twisted workings of his own mind. He was beyond any help available.

The link with the offending vampire grew stronger than he could ignore, and without any of the pack knowing, he led the vampires to the pack house, and they killed a great many of our members, including Dr Jasper's wife and child. As fate would have it, it was predominantly women and children who were home when they attacked the house. The doctor has spent the years since working on a cure.

And this is exactly the reason Dad is heading there today. We need to cure Amalie.