***Tamara***

Alpha Ryker backed orders to his warriors, giving very precise instructions to them.

He had divided them into groups to cover each part of the vast pack lands. They were to simply search, detect and fish out anything that was out of place along the borders.

'Bring the mut who dared to infiltrate my pack . ' He ordered in a serious directive tone.

'Alive. ' His grave clear voice was heard as his long tongue snaked on his bottom lip, licking the soft pink flesh in anticipation. No doubt in my mind that he would draw pleasure from imposing torture onto the culprit.

A chorus of 'yes Alpha' rang on the meadow followed by strident footsteps.

The question was...

Would they really find the supposed infiltrator, or was 'he' already gone?

A million thoughts jumbled in my mind as the frontal lobe of my brain tried evoking different scenarios, on how the bloodied paper could have gotten to the meadows.

What if the Alpha was overlooking something, anything?

My late mother told me that her guts were always premonitory and that so are mine. How I wish she was still kicking, she would have known what to do in this situation.

By now everyone had left except for me and the Alpha. The tall Alpha man stood in undoubtedly deep thoughts. His whole exterior, starting from the tense broad shoulders to his wide stance, screamed seriousness and some underlying stress.

He was a man after blood for anyone threatening his pack and he would remain so as long as he was the Alpha leader.

I softly called him. 'Alpha. '

'Not now Tamara. ' He grunted.

'Please Alpha this is important. ' I wondered why he was always such a grump. Or was it just to me in the pack? because as far as I knew, he was a good social leader to his people. But he became a different person when it came to his family, the pack.

The surrounding packs and even the stray werewolves however disagreed with him being a good Alpha. The stories and rumors about his mythical killing spree scared them to the core.

They portrayed him as the devil incarnate with a triad of dark traits. Some rumors had him been referred to as ferocious and sadistic. Others painted him as a narcissistic werewolf, one who used his power to do whatever he desired to other people.

How could she have known that the paper was there?

I suddenly jumped at the Alpha's voice in my head. The abrupt intrusion put my brain in pause, the organ struggling to make a connection to what was happening.

Did she plant it there?

This time I stepped back, my eyes wide with my right hand over my open mouth. I stood fazed momentarily, my body parts refusing to coordinate.

Why was I hearing his voice in my head? I wasn't a werewolf, hell I had no single explanation whatsoever.

No she couldn't have known that she'd run on the trails leading to the meadow.

'My child, as you grow older with each passing day, you will uncover more abilities that you'd never guess you possess. Don't fret Tamara, embrace them, make them a part of you because, this pack will need them. '

I remembered my mothers' words as the Alpha male thoughts continued infiltrating my mind. I had no control whatsoever on how to stop hearing them.

Casting my eyes in him quickly, I could tell he had no idea that I knew what he was thinking.

Maybe I should pressure her on telling me how she knew it would be there.

'Alpha Ryker. '

He turned to me in pure irritation. 'Can't you shut up for once Tamara? '

I didn't have any intention in listening anymore to his thoughts, so I decided to just engage him in a conversation.

'Alpha, you want the supposed culprit to be brought to you alive, right? ' I put quotation marks in the air as I uttered the word supposed.

'Why else did I sent my pack warriors to conduct a search? ' He visibly looked at me in utter anger.

'Alpha, with all due respect, the particular person you're searching for did nothing wrong. ' I voiced my thoughts.

'He threatened my pack Tamara, he fucking threatened my family? ' He snarled, his tone taking a very different turn and tempo.

'Alpha..'

'I swear if you start another sentence with 'Alpha'...' He swore, cutting me off .

'I'm sorry, but this person did nothing wrong except attempting to get into the pack grounds. ' I explained.

'No! ' He growled the word out of his throat.

'The fucker placed that piece of paper there as a warning. How can you even say that? ' He exasperatedly asked.

'And where is the threat there? the only words written were, I AM. Nothing else, or are you on the insinuation that the message is cryptic? '

'Listen here, witch.' He drawled the word witch, talking a step closer to my almost shaking small frame.

'I know a threat when I see one and I don't need a pathetic witch like you coaching me. ' His warning was candid as day and I took it pretty seriously.

He stiffened after the outburst, his gaze momentarily directed at one spot. Someone was mind linking him, and judging from the expression on his face, the info was far from being rosy.

'Alpha. ' Beta Jayson came into view, his head respectfully bowed before the Alpha.

'Jayson, I want to know why there is still no capture of anyone whatsoever. ' His voice was now cold, although he was offering a listening ear to his Beta.

'There wasn't a single thing out of place, everything was absolutely normal as it always is. There were no unusual scents and no sight of an outsider. We even went as far as to the neutral lands, trying to see whether we could pin point something out of the ordinary. Still we came across no one or anything eye catching. '

After the much needed explanation from the Beta, Alpha Ryker gave him a nod dismissed him and turned to leave. I had actually expected the man to lash at his beta but instead he calmly left, asking me to follow him.

We walked on the trails we had taken as we previously ran, this time taking somewhat longer to reach at the pack centre. The silence that rested between us was quite uncomfortable, such that it had me fiddling with my fingers.

Our footsteps echoed into the quiet surroundings crackling on the leaves that lay on the ground. I relied purely on my familiarity with the trail since I couldn't quite see well. It was at the end of the civil twilight, and some stars had already started becoming visible.

It was unusually quiet as we passed in between homes after coming out of the forest. People would still be outside running errands and some even going for runs and walks. Today seemed different though, I hadn't seen a single civilian except for the warriors and guards.

'Where is everyone? '

'In their homes. ' He simply answered.

'You ordered them to stay inside, didn't you? '

'No, I ordered them to retire to their homes till further notice. '

'What's the difference? ' I asked.

'If you don't see the difference then...' He trailed off.

Oh my goddess, must these nosy people peep through their windows?

His voice yet again sounded in my mind, making me jump in surprise. It was making me feel very uncomfortable.

'You are quite jumpy today. ' Alpha Ryker pointed out.

'I must admit Alpha, you are quite observant today. '

He walked beside me, both of his hands in his pockets. That particular appearance threatened to sway my thoughts really fast.

'Stop it Tamara, we are in the open. '

'What have I even done? '

'In my office. ' He stated with finality, stringing me along towards his office.

Once we got inside I immediately turned to him, avoiding eye contact as I did so.

'What was that about? '

He watched me for sometime, probably wondering what I was talking about.

'Out there, for a moment I could smell a whiff of your arousal. '

His voice became huskier his slow steps towards me increasing my heart beat. I had forgotten he had a strong sense of smell.

'I didn't want the people living in the nearby houses to smell it. ' He stated.

Why I'm I letting her arousal affect this much? Is it her plan to distract me from earlier? Now I really think she had something to do with that...

'I didn't put that bloodied piece of paper there. ' I finally decided to stop this madness of him accusing me in his thoughts.

'That blood was clearly fresh, how would I have placed it there while I was running with you and Theo? ' I continued.

'Wait. ' He put his hand on the air.

'Why are you explaining yourself out of the blues if you didn't put it there? Why are you justifying yourself Tamara? ' His calm demeanour was clearly breaking.

'Because you keep on thinking that maybe I'm the one who did it. '

'Ha ha, come on! ' He laughed in mockery.

'How would you even know what I'm thinking? '

'I can hear your thoughts loud and clear, Alpha. '