Written on November 15h 2020

C H A P T E R  9

Violently, and with brute force, Vidar throws the phone to the ground. A string of curse words leave his mouth and a vein in his neck seems about to burst. His once dark eyes change color to something that is rarely seen in this man.

Vidar stands up, pushing his office chair back with a bang. The desk, which already looked battered by the Alpha's many outbursts of anger, has to endure it for the umpteenth time. With his hand clenched into a fist, Vidar lunges at the desk. Instead of a painful hand, the man almost breaks his desk into multiple pieces.

'Curse the Goddess,' he mutters as he closes his eyes. He starts counting to ten in his head to calm himself down. It seems to work; his breathing becomes more regular and his own eye color starts to return.

'Sigrid!' Vidar shouts as he sinks onto the couch in his office. He exhales in annoyance and continues to walk with his jaw clenched, waiting for the maid to enter his room. The Alpha does not have to wait long for this; his Pack knows better than to keep their Alpha waiting.

The door of the room opens carefully. The woman appears in the doorway with her head hanging down. 'You called me?' Sigrid utters carefully, recognizing the tone in her Alpha's voice all too well. 'Get Tara,' is all the Alpha says, without even looking at the woman. Sigrid nods and turns to leave.

'Sigrid,' Vidar calls after her. The woman immediately stops moving and turns back to her Alpha. 'Yes, Alpha?' 'Have my Beta report in half an hour, I have important matters to discuss with him.' Once again, Sigrid nods obediently and leaves the room, carrying out her duties.

* * *

'There you are,' the Alpha speaks to the girl. Just like when Tara first met this man, she stood in front of him freshly washed. Her eyes are transfixed. She fiddles with the clothes she is wearing with her fingers.

'Look at me when I speak to you,' Vidar snaps. Without giving Tara the chance to look up herself, he grabs her chin and makes eye contact. A grin dances across his lips and the false twinkle that makes Tara shudder in horror reappears in his eyes. 'This is better.'

Vidar lets go of Tara and sits down on the couch. His legs spread and his arms stretched out over the backrest. Now that Tara is standing in front of him, he looks her up and down. He takes in every part of her. 'Spin around for me,' he says, gesturing a circle in the air with his finger.

Against her better judgment, Tara does as she is told. She slowly turns around until she is facing the Alpha's again. 'Not bad,' the man mutters and looks doubtfully at Tara's body. 'It could be worse,' he continues.

Vidar pushes himself off the couch and now walks around Tara. Every now and then he runs his fingers over the girl's skin or squeezes her gently. 'Tell me,' he begins, '-Tara.' The r in her name lets the Alpha roll off his tongue a little longer than necessary. Before Vidar makes it clear what exactly he wants to know, he stops moving around her.

'How is it possible,' he continues calmly and takes a seat on the couch, '-that you don't smell Human, but you don't smell like Wolf either?' He continues to look at her with high eyebrows, waiting for an answer. He got the answer he didn't expect: Tara just shrugs her shoulders and says nothing else.

'I asked you something,' he hisses. His eyes change color. 'I asked you something, and I want a decent answer.' Tara manages to stop herself from shrugging her shoulders again in time. 'I-I don't know exactly,' she says, stumbling over her own words. 'Don't be stupid, child,' says Vidar. 'You know exactly why, I can smell it.'

Tara looks away, embarrassed. Despite spending years at the Pugna Vincula and enduring hours of torture, this seems more painful than all those moments put together. 'Dead,' Tara says curtly, hoping Vidar gets the hint that she doesn't want to talk about this. But the Alpha wouldn't be the Alpha if he didn't care about this.

'Dead?' He raises one eyebrow a little higher than the other and continues to look questioningly at the girl in front of him. 'Explain that.' Tara shakes her head. 'There's not much to say about that.' Even though she tried to sound strong in her voice, she still stutters. Annoyed, Vidar rolls his eyes.

'Girl, I don't have time for this,' he sighs. Tara doesn't know what to do or respond to the angry Alpha in front of her. However, her stomach makes a growling sound, drawing attention to something other than the aimless conversation.

* * *

Tara is sitting at the table, poking at her food. Right across from her, on the other side of the table, sits Vidar. His plate is almost empty and he watches with amusement as the girl hardly manages to eat anything because of the years of malnutrition. The glass filled with water has also barely been touched.

'I'd better eat, because I have a meeting and no time for this.' Where Vidar used to be amused, this now starts to turn into irritation and impatience. He glances at his watch. 'You have five minutes to eat it.'

The words barely seem to get through to Tara. She would love to eat the entire plate of warm pasta, but her body refuses. The smell of the pasta sauce turns her stomach and makes her feel nauseous.

'Vidar?' There's a knock on the dining room door. Without waiting for an answer, the door opens and a man appears. His blond hair is tied in a bun, which is nicely complemented by a beard growing around his face.

'Ah, Oskar,' Vidar says and stands up. He walks up to the man and shakes his hand. 'Go to my office, I have some business to discuss.' The Alpha's rather urgent order is followed by a short nod towards the door. The blond man, Oskar, takes the hint and leaves the room – but not without casting another curious glance at Tara.

'Just 2 more minutes,' Vidar breaks the silence between him and Tara. 'One and a half,' he continues. Meanwhile, he starts walking towards the girl. Tara puts another small bite of pasta on her fork and tries to put it in her mouth, something she will regret later that day.

'Ten, nine, eight, seven,' the Alpha counts down and takes Tara's plate from the table. Tara manages to put the bite in her mouth in time and give the fork back. Vidar takes this and then shouts Sigrid's name again. Within a few seconds the woman is in the room and takes the Alpha's belongings.

She too glances at Tara before walking out of the room, but rather a look filled with concern. However, she does nothing about this and goes to the kitchen to start washing the dishes, plus the associated cleaning.

'Follow Sigrid to the kitchen,' Vidar orders. 'She will explain to you what is expected of you and what your tasks are in the following hours.' Without waiting to see Tara's reaction, Vidar heads towards the door through which Oskar also went. Before he closes the door behind him, he looks at Tara again. 'Now!'

Startled, Tara stands up and rushes to the kitchen, towards Sigrid. Vidar focuses on his own agenda; discussing the quarrel, which threatens to lead to a war, of a Pack in adjacent territory.

Arriving at the office, the Alpha sees that his Beta has made himself comfortable: Oskar is stretched out on the couch, with his hands folded behind his head, making it easy for him to continue looking around. 'Vidar,' Oskar begins, but the Alpha cuts him off. 'It's none of your business, Beta,' he growls and motions for Oskar to get off his couch.

'We have serious things to discuss,' Vidar continues, taking a seat behind his desk. The look Oskar had a few seconds ago disappears like snow in the sun. He quickly gets off the couch and sits on a chair so he is sitting across from his Alpha.

'Tell me,' Oskar switches gears, but then asks a question. 'Shouldn't Viggo be there?' Upon hearing the name, Vidar's gaze sharpens. He shakes his head, '-no. One of the matters to be discussed concerns Ymir.' Oskar's mouth forms a simple "o" and he nods in understanding.

'That probably explains the missing piece?' Oskar gestures to the desktop at Vidar. The Alpha hums something unintelligible. 'Ozack has reached out to say that the situation is getting out of hand between them and the Pack of Rune.' Oskar nods, '-I thought I overheard something like that.'

Vidar continues with his explanation about the phone call he received a little earlier today. 'They want our help to take down the Pack.' Upon hearing these words, the Beta reacts calmly. 'That doesn't seem to be an issue to me, our Warriors are well trained. To be honest, I even think that some of them are happy that something is going to be done again.'

The Alpha agrees with its Beta. 'I also offered Ozack our help, in exchange for some favors of course; we can expand our country. Ozack has realized that without the help of this Pack he would lose everything, so he has agreed to merge. Under my leadership.'

Oskar looks up in surprise. 'That's good news, Alpha.' Vidar nods happily. 'Hence my plan to have you set up a new training schedule. Tomorrow afternoon I will drive there with Bjarne and Tarik to make an inventory of which members I want to add to our Pack. The others will be able to choose between Rogue or to or serve as living training material in the Warrior Trainings.'

Without responding, Oskar continues to listen attentively. 'While I'm there, I want you to oversee things here. In addition, the assignment was to make that schedule and look at building new cabins for possible members.' 'That will be no problem,' Oskar answers. 'But Vidar, isn't it strange if you don't take Viggo to something like that? This is going to raise questions.'

'Let me finish,' the Alpha interrupts his Beta. 'Ozack said that Ymir had been spotted in the Dark Forests, the area near the Broder Pack. Looks like he's heading home.' The Alpha sighs and runs his hand through his hair. 'I know Viggo's loyalties are still with Ymir, which is why I can't take him with me.'

Oskar nods doubtfully. 'Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.'