Chapter 1

To Hate the Sun

~Shiloh

To hate the sun was something I learned over time, but relief didn’t belong to solely to the night either. Night was a time to heal, to remember. I’d rather forget.

The boy next to me shifted on his cot. The first morning rays were spilling into the room. It bounced against the cuts on the werewolf’s back hadn’t healed properly. Looking away, I laid my head on my knees as I sat at the top of my bed. I rubbed my shoulder to work out the stiffness. My own punishment from the previous day. I glanced around at the scattered beds. Mine wasn’t the worst though.

A bell sounded. The room was quickly filled with movement as everyone began to rise. I didn’t move and watched them leave the room one by one. A familiar person stood at the end of my bed.

“Shiloh.”

I glanced up at him.

West sighed and sat down. “Did you sleep at all?”

“A bit,” I said softly with a shrug.

He reached over and ruffled my hair. “Come on.” Standing, he held out his hand.

Taking it, I let him help me up. I stayed close behind him as went to the bathrooms.

“How’s the arm?”

I rubbed my shoulder. “It healed.”

West stopped and turned to face me. Pulling back my hand, he grazed his fingers over the bruise. “I guess.” He glanced at my wrist as my identification band slipped down my arm. “You’ve been scratching at it again.”

I nodded. “It itches.” I wrapped my hand around the rash to hide it from view.

He put his arms around my shoulders, and we continued to the bathroom. “You’re going to make it worse. I’ll treat it again along with your shoulder tonight.”

“I don’t think you can do anything more,” I said softly.

“We’ll see.” He held open the door and ushered me into the community bathroom.

After stripping off our clothes and tossing them into the bin, we headed off to a corner. I turned the handle to the shower and flinched when the cold water poured over my head. West jumped as well when it hit him. I washed off quickly and turned it off. Even though I was shivering, I waited for West. Two large men were standing by the towels. An omega my size was just a plaything for wolves like them.

West finished. “God, we need to get here faster. Even the water back at Hidden Peak was warmer than this.”

I smiled, watching my packmate shake off. He was shivering worse than me.

Hugging my arms around me, I followed him across the room. West tossed me a towel and grabbed one for himself. We dried ourselves off before wrapping them around our waist. Going into the next room, we started the search for clothes that fit. I sighed as I dug through the bin of shirts. West quickly found something his size and put them on, before starting to help me look.

“This might do.” He held up the regular gray pants with the stretching waist band.

My head tilted to the size. “They’ll fall off.”

“Hmmm…” West stretched the band a couple times. “Yeah, someone tried squeezing into them and stretched them out.” He tossed them back in the pile. “Sub these days. They’re always thinking they're smaller than they actually are. Kind of like someone that I constantly hear whining about it.”

I sucked in my lips. He wasn’t happy unless he found some way to make me smile in the morning.

“Found some.” He tossed them at me.

Holding them against me, I nodded. I slipped them on as he dug around for a shirt.

“How about this one?”

I sighed and took it from him. “It’ll be fine.”

Pulling it on, I watch the end close to my knees. Not much I could do. It was better than some days.

We walked to the exit. In the cafeteria, we were fed the same mushing looking stuff and bread. West and I found an empty table and sat down. I stirred my food around my plate.

“Eat it,” said West with a mouth full of bread. “All of it.”

I did as I was told, but it didn’t changed the horrid metallic taste mixed with too much salt. The bread was good though. It wasn’t hard or dry like sometimes.

A man in a suit walked into the room with a clipboard. West watched him closely. The two dominants with him walked over to the table against the far wall. They grabbed a white haired boy and brought him over to the man. They checked his band before leading him out of the room.

West kept his eyes set on the door. It wasn’t uncommon for them to come back for another. After a few minutes, he relaxed.

“They saw them take another group, yesterday.”

West shook his head. “We’re fine, Shy.”

“They put them in the back of one of the trucks, West.” I glanced at the wall. “We’ve been here for awhile. One day our number is going to be on that’s man’s paper.”

“Shiloh,” he said sternly. “Enough.”

I sunk down in my seat.

“You and me, remember.” He gave me a smile. “We’ve stuck together this long. I’m not going to let them end it now.”

With a nod, I sighed. “‘kay.”

We finished our food, and took our trays back. Exiting the room, we walked down the hall toward the warehouse. West gave me a wave as he opened the door for the ground crew. I waved back and trudged on to the shipping department. I walked up to the man at the door and showed him my band. He scanned the chip embedded inside and motioned me to go on ahead.

I sat down with the other omega as we waited to be told our jobs for the day. Laying my head back against the wall, I closed my eyes. Maybe it won’t be so bad to have my number called. If West’s number was on the list too, then I’d be okay with it. Anything would be better than working my life away here.

***

~Ranger

I tapped my finger on the desk as I scanned the papers spread out in front of me. Some had pictures of werewolves. Other locations that I thought would take me to Shiloh and West. All dead ends. Even when we caught a member, they’d die before saying a word. The werewolf in charge had power. Far too much for one man.

“Ranger.”

I glanced up at my beta standing in the door. “What?” I muttered.

He walked over to the desk. “I’m going back to BloodHound.”

I nodded. “Call me when you get there and give me the report on how things are going.”

“Maybe you could come with me,” he said, keeping his eyes pointed at the floor.

“Why? Northern Ridge seems to be handle things there just fine.”

Gage took a deep breath. “Ranger as alpha of the pack-”

Clenching my jaw, I snapped the pencil in my hand. The sound silenced him. “Think, Gage. Think very carefully about every word you say from this point on.”

“Ranger,” he breathed, rubbing his face. “I’m sorry, but it’s been over three years. I know Shiloh and West met a lot to you, but they’re gone. Accept it. Midfield has even given up.”

“That’s because Midfield has plenty of problems themselves.” I picked up a folder of werewolf profiles that had been discovered as traitors.

“Everyone just wants you to come home and lead the pack. Darius even getting tired of this pointless searched. Hell, when everyone starts introducing you to potential mate it means it times to-”

“Finish that sentence and you’ll have to explain to Trevor why there’s a hole in his wall,” I stated firmly. I started to gather up the papers and put them back in their proper file.

Gage stepped to the side when I walked passed.

“Think of the pack, Ranger. They need an alpha.”

Gripping the handle, I stopped. “I am thinking of my pack.” I opened the door and glanced back at him. “I have far more loyalty to Hidden Peak than I ever will for Bloodhound. So if you want me to come back with you, then find them. Simple enough, right?”

“Ranger, we tried.”

“No, I’m trying. You’re bitching.” I slammed the door behind me walked down the hall.

My footsteps echoed down hard wood. Three years. Left everything, become no better than a domestic from the clothes to the shoes. All for a middle rank and an omega as people liked to remind me, but they were my middle rank and omega. I’d never shift again and live my life as a pathetic human, if it meant getting them back.

I walked to the garage and slipped into the driver’s seat of my car. Maybe one day they’d figure out, Bloodhound would always be second to Hidden Peak.