There wasn't enough space for them all in the Alpha's office so they were currently using a dining room with all the pack members being instructed to stay away from the general area.

The Alpha sat at the head of the table with elders Henley and Oscar along with Clark sat to his left while elder Jackson, Sol and Artemis sat on the right-hand side, all eyes on the Alpha as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. No one blamed him.

"I have suspicions that all of the packs in America have been attacked by this group of humans."

"They've all called to confirm this?"

"No," Alpha Brandon shook his head. "There's still two packs that we've not been able to come into contact with, but some nearby packs have offered to investigate them. We should hear back from them soon."

Murmurs sounded from around the table, mostly from the elders.

The Alpha cleared his throat to gain their attention. "I had instructed my Beta to request your presence and of the humans you have captured," he explained, gesturing to Clark when his name popped up in the sentence. "As soon as I heard that Solomon had both humans and elders in his cabin during the middle of the night, I knew that this was bigger than a simple attack. The calls from the other packs started coming in shortly after."

Elder Jackson sighed dramatically. "We've got an explanation for this," he clasped his hands together, almost as if he was preparing to tell a long, riveting story to all his grandchildren. The white hair on his head did not help his case. "Alpha Brandon, if I may?" He asked, his voice full of respect for the elderly Alpha whom had the burden of leading his pack for longer than he should have. But alas, he had no successors nor heirs to pass it on to.

The Alpha nodded and sat back, hoping that the elder would have some answers for his many unanswered questions which swirled around his mind.

"As I'm sure you remember Alpha Brandon, about fifteen or sixteen years ago, there were a bunch of rogue attacks." The elder paused briefly as he watched the Alpha, hoping that he had sparked the remembrance of a memory.

The Alpha nodded. "Those were the ones where some pups were taken." He noted aloud. "They were pretty spaced out though, multiple weeks and in some cases, a few months between the attacks. They were ruled out to be random and spontaneous as there was no pattern able to be drawn from them."

The elder nodded and sighed. "Well, that was what we thought at the time."

The Alpha furrowed his eyebrows as he listened intently to what elder Jackson was saying, not wanting to miss a slither of information.

"This is Artemis," the elder pointed towards the she-wolf whom was sat next to Sol, the other Alpha male in the room. "We believe that she was one of the pups taken from the Valour pack all those years ago."

Artemis felt uncomfortable with all the pairs of eyes staring at her in the current moment, but she kept her eyes downcast towards the table.

"We're not too sure how she managed to escape but she has. She's been living with Solomon for the past couple of months."

"Yes, I know Artemis." The Alpha nodded, his eyes lingering on the she-wolf as he studied her. He had previously thought that she was an ordinary she-wolf that Solomon had been interested in making his mate, but he now looked at the woman in a whole different light. Good or bad, that was yet to be determined. "Please speak on, elder Jackson."

The elder nodded and did as he was instructed. "As I'm sure you know, she had no access to any memories and knew nothing about her past apart from when Solomon found her in the forest. As of recently, a training session has sparked some memories that seemed to have slowly retrieved them all."

"You remember?" The Alpha asked, surprised, his question directed towards Artemis.

She nodded. "I do," she replied quietly, wishing that she could deny the claim. At times, the truth hurt more than it should.

"Artemis," the elder turned to her. "If you feel up to it, perhaps you could briefly explain some of the things you remember." Elder Jackson offered a genuine smile despite the circumstances, leaving room for her to deny.

She returned his smile even though it felt heavy and burdensome, and nodded in agreement. Her throat suddenly felt dry. "I remember being locked in a cage. There were other werewolves like me and they were all locked in cages too, but most of us were kept separate. There were only a few other wolves in the same room as me. The only times that we were allowed out of the cages were when we were pitted against the other wolves in a fight."

"They used to call it training. If we refused to fight then we would be punished. Other than that, we were also allowed out for various blood tests but most of the time we spent locked away in cages."

The Alpha pondered over everything that he had heard on the past couple of minutes. Silence spread around the table as everyone attempted to digest the information.

It was clear that everyone had a lot of questions, but it didn't seem like now was an appropriate time to feed their curiosity. They had nearly three dozen humans locked away in the dungeons awaiting questioning.

"And you suspect that these are the same humans that took our pups from us?"

Elder Oscar nodded. "And we believe that the attacks that took place today are directly connected."

"Is that why Artemis remained in wolf form the first few weeks after Sol had found her?" The Alpha asked, speaking to the elders almost as if she wasn't right there.

"We're thinking that she might have some drugs in her system that was keeping her in her wolf form."

Alpha Brandon nodded in understanding, the suggestion making sense.

In that moment, sat at the table with a couple of Alphas, a Beta and a handful of elders, Artemis felt small and forgotten as the men dispersed into a series of murmurs and mini conversations, all discussing her yet no one asking or speaking to her directly. She more than anyone knew how delicate the situation was, especially if those same humans were the ones that had been experimenting and training her for years.

She couldn't help but feel small.

She had no idea how she had managed to escape, but she was ever so thankful that Sol had found and rescued her when he did. If not, she was sure that she would have either been dead or back at the human experiment centre where she would have been better off as dead.

Artemis didn't want to go back.

Sol must have sensed her fear because he placed his hand on hers which had been resting on her thigh. She looked up at him, momentarily startled. He didn't smile and he didn't make promises that he couldn't guarantee. Instead, he sighed and nodded softly as she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes, still holding hands under the table. They didn't care if anyone was looking.

"I won't let anything happen to you," he whispered against her hair, that being a promise that he would ensure he kept, even if he died to keep it. "I won't let you go back there." It was almost as if he was able to read her mind.

Even though his words couldn't physically keep her safe, she felt all warm and tingly inside that he knew exactly what she had been panicking about.

"Thank you," she whispered back to him. Raising her head, she offered him a lopsided smile as she squeezed his hand in silent thanks.

Artemis could spend her whole life expressing to Sol how thankful she was for everything that he ever did for her and it still wouldn't be enough.

Sol merely grunted in reply.

-

There was a handful of werewolves standing in the dungeons with cells full of humans on either side of them. The warriors had forced them all to take off their radioactive suits and gas masks, dumping them in a pile on the floor.

They looked less creepy now, almost human. Which was ironic since they were supposed to be the humans.

Artemis tore her eyes away from Darius whom had his eyes glued to her as soon as she walked into the dungeons behind the elders, Sol and Clark following closely behind her, caught up in their own conversations.

They all stood in a circle with the exception of the pack guards whom stood by both the door and the cells in case any of the humans decided to get smart.

"We need to question these humans."

Murmurs of agreeance ran around the circle.

"It would probably be quicker if we all split up into pairs or something and question a small group at a time." Sol piped up, his eyes glaring at the human whom all stared at them as if they were the scum. Last he checked, the werewolves weren't the ones that had gone around ambushing the humans during the middle of the night. "Artemis and I will question the humans whom stumbled into our cabin." He smirked evilly, his eyes glinting with the promise of pain as they landed on Darius.

That human really wasn't a people's person.

The Alpha chuckled but clapped him on the back none the less.

The guards had gathered the three humans into one cell, making it easier for the two werewolves to question them.

"You're not going to get anything out of us," Darius glared at them as they made their way into the cells, closing the cell door behind them. "I don't know why you're wasting your time here." He rolled his eyes. "Stupid werewolves," he muttered under his breath, almost as if forgetting that he was in a dungeon full of werewolves.

Sol's eyes blared with anger and flashed a dangerous golden yellow as he marched over to the human, gripping him by the neck as he lifted him into the air. Darius struggled as the werewolf cut off his air supply, thrashing and throwing his arms about.

"The disrespect has to stop here!" Sol demanded, his Alpha power radiating off his body in waves as his anger continued to rose.

Artemis sighed and crossed her arms over her face, not sparing a glance towards the other humans whom were wrapped up in each other's arms as best as they could with how they were tied up. "Sol," Artemis sighed as she called out to him.

Darius nodded his head. Well, he attempted to nod his head.

Growling ferally, Sol dropped the human to the ground.

Artemis couldn't help but wince as Darius groaned in pain, rolling on the floor as he clutched at his neck, desperately trying to fill his lungs which as much air as possible. She felt bad for him, but promptly remembered all that she had gone through that night as well as the horrors of the past she had suddenly started remembering. If Darius and all these other humans were a part of the group that kidnapped werewolf pups and tortured them just as she suspected, then she felt no pity towards them which was a pretty conflicting situation.

Walking up behind him, Artemis reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You can't kill them." She sighed. "Well, not yet anyway."

He spared a glance over her shoulder. "He just really gets under my skin."

She nodded her head in understanding. "We need to get some information out of them first."

"Yeah," he sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, attempting to keep them busy as they itched to wrap around the human's throat again.

"But I do know someone else you can strangle," she whispered to him, her eyes trained on him now that he had turned around to face her. Darius groaned in pain on the floor behind him, but neither of the werewolves in the cell spared him a glance.

Sol's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he stared down at Artemis. "Who?"

An evil glint glistened in her eyes as her lips upturned into a small, playful smirk. He watched her closely as her eyes drifted away from him and towards the two humans on the floor.

"Poppy?" He whispered to her, his eyes still trained on her, not wanting the humans to realise that they were planning yet.

She nodded. "If I scare Poppy, get her crying again I think Harry will tell us everything."

He hummed his consensus before turning towards the other two humans. They were so busy, wrapped up in their own thoughts as they whispered sweet nothings to each other, or more like Harry attempting to comfort his significant other as she cried softly into his chest, that they didn't even notice Artemis making her way over to them, her arms crossed over her chest as she grinned at them.

Artemis crouched down on the ground, her jeans getting dirty from the dust in the dungeons as she attempted to peel Harry away from the female human. Irritation sparked inside her as the human male struggled against her, not wanting to let Poppy go.

Grunting in annoyance, she managed to pull Poppy away from Harry's embrace without even using her werewolf powers.

"Please, let me go." Tears streamed down the human's face as Artemis wrapped her arms around her, dragging her to the other side of the cell, dumping her in the corner. Artemis was sure that she was putting up the act, trying to gain sympathy from the werewolves but she didn't care.

It was starting to get very frustrating and she was reaching the end of her tether. Poppy's crocodile tears were just making everything worse.

Sparing a brief glance over her shoulder, she noted that Darius was just lying still on the ground, his eyes open as he stared at the wall in front of him while Sol tied Harry's legs together, not wanting him to disrupt them as they feigned the torturing of the human female.

Turning back to face the screeching banshee, she smiled, her lips quirking up in a sinister manner. "Since you don't feel like talking," she smirked, paused as Poppy sniffed, her eyes brimming with tears all over again. "We might as well just kill you."

"What?" The human's eyes widened in size as she believed what the werewolf female was telling her.

"You can't kill her!" Harry shrieked from behind her, not that she cared.

"We're definitely not letting you go back to the humans you came from and you're not speaking, so the only option left for us to do is to kill you."

The human began hiccupping in fear. Artemis merely rolled her eyes as her scowl deepened. "You could just keep me in the dungeon." She suggested, her voice weak wavering as she spoke.

"Waste of resources," she flipped her hair nonchalantly before standing up, pulling Poppy up from the ground, her grip tight around her arm. Artemis was sure that she would leave bruises but she couldn't bring herself to care. "Do you want me to do it here or in another cell?"

Poppy shrieked as she attempted to get away from her assailant, but there was no luck.

"You can't hurt her!" Harry called out again from behind them. He struggled to get up from the ground and to his female, but Sol just pushed him down to the ground.

"I say we do it here! In front of her boyfriend." Sol smirked evilly, leaning against the wall casually as if they weren't discussing killing people.

Artemis wrapped her hands around the human's neck. A lot of strangling had been taking place that night, but there was no time to dwell on the thought.

She didn't even get the chance to apply some light pressure before her boyfriend starting shrieking, struggling to break off his rope ties to save her. As if he would be able to save her.

Poppy fell limp against her, resulting in Artemis having to catch her. The human cried in her arms, repeating 'please don't kill me' several times.

"Stop! Please!" Harry called out again but they all just ignored him. "I'll talk!" He shrieked, silence finally filling the dungeon at his proclamation. Darius was sitting up now with his eyes wide and words of protest on the tip of his tongue while Poppy resorted to sobbing silently, Artemis now having pushed her down to the ground. "I'll answer whatever questions you have. Just don't hurt her."

He'd gotten their attention now.

-

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Layla Knight  

22.09.18