Apex Pack, that was the name of the pack Doureena led. The pack had first arrived in the Canas in the 1600s; they came from the north, the Scar countries such as Lyle, Feone, Abileen-the land of the warriors, one could say. They settled into a nice little area just on the Canas border next to the country of Nadia, border where the deer and the elk roamed free. There was a town nearby of humans that had been there around the same time as the wolf pack. It was a nice small town, really about the size of a small city and went by the name Red Wood Springs. Apex Pack was about as big as a town; the population was about ten thousand and they were affluent as a result of the deer and elk hunt they did each season. They were able to create and sustain partnerships with the humans both in the Canas and even from merchants over in Nadia. It was a perfect community but things began to change in the 1700s. Many Native Canas tribes found themselves moving further up north plus the aboriginal tribes of Nadia land who were being pushed downward then in the 1800s came the freed slaves and with all of these humans who began to settle in Red Wood Springs, came other species. Came the vampires, came the pixies, the fairies, even the elves.
Alpha Sieon Apex was the founder of Apex. There was never any intention to split the species up; Apex was meant to be a town for all but something took a turn when the vampires arrived. By that time, Sieon was no longer the Alpha but his great, great granddaughter, Toki Apex, was. She was more of a brute and had a strong disdain for the vampires and she despised the elves, claiming their alchemy was detrimental to the deer and the elk nearby since the elves used the antlers of both animals to create potions and elixirs. Toki had raged war against the elves, winning and banishing them to the outskirts. But by the time the pixies and fairies had come to Apex, the elves had mostly left for other provinces.
Within that time, there was a lot of intermixing and Toki disliked it. She had felt the intermixing was making the wolf pack weak, and was washing the wolves away. Toki had suggested and recommended the wolves stay to themselves and by the time her son, Conrad Apex, became Alpha, a civil war broke out between the wolves who wanted to remain pure and the wolves who were okay and open to other species within their realm. Conrad led the Pure battalion, winning, killing all the wolves who did not align with their values. Three more generations later and Doureena Apex was the Alpha and believed in the same values as her ancestors before her.
With her head held high, her chest out, she walked with a purpose to the county hall. There, she had organized a meeting for high elite Alphas to discuss the situation the Omegress brought forth. The Omegress would not be attending the meeting; the conversation Doureena had had with her wife made her believe her wife wouldn't agree to what she was going to suggest.
Before she opened the door to the conference room with the round table seated for ten, she brushed her dark orange hair from her eyes, the same eyes Kara had. She took a breath. Doureena loved her wife, conversations like these just never came up. It was always just them and the wolf pack. Monica had grown up in this same wolf pack; she wasn't an Apex of course, but she and everyone in this pack was of the Apex Pack. She never heard Monica complain about only wolves being together; it was always promoted in their schools and teachings that wolves needed to stick together. Still, Monica was always nice, caring, and willing to give her shirt off her back to someone in need. All of these qualities of Monica was why Doureena fell in love with her.
She walked into the empty conference room and took her seat at the front of the round table and she waited for the elite Alphas to come and soon they began to trickle in.
"Yo, yo, we here!"
Diamond was loud and obnoxious but he was a charismatic man with a full beard and a chipped fang. His was built like most of the Alphas and was strong, muscular but he was a bit more lean and taller than many.
Doureena got out of her seat and gave him a hug while the others began to come in and go to their seats. Diamond was her right hand Alpha, her second in command, her SIC.
A woman who had blonde hair tied in a long braid that went to her bottom, spoke first. She had a dented ear tip from an accident that took place when they had been young. "For you to call us here and without the Omegress, it must be serious." Brien said. She crossed her arms.
Doureena nodded her head. "There is no way to be not transparent. The Omegress informed me that there is a child living in the residence of the betrayer." There was silence. "Who were the two assassins that killed him?"
"Do you have his name?" Diamond asked. "With his name, I can know for sure."
"Shouldn't you already know?" Said a man with dark brown skin with wavy black hair. "Shouldn't you know? We kill a betrayer once a month. He would be the most recent one on the list."
"We killed two this month actually." Diamond exclaimed.
Simon, the dark brown skinned man, looked perplexed. His eyes went from Diamond to Doureena.
"I ordered it." There was silence once more and Doureena continued, "How did we miss that he had a child? How many of them had children?"
"The scouts never reported children." Brien said.
"That's because they have magic." A woman with one eye, the other gone and the lids sewn shut spoke up. Her hair was pure white and to her shoulders; she was one of the youngest Alphas to be an elite. Her kill record was immaculate from the deer, to the elk, to the betrayers. She was so good at what she did that Doureena was actually thinking of breaking tradition of having her be the next Alpha. She even secretly wished for Kara to be married to her. Kara was just ten though and Zhiliary was 17, who went from the position of a scout, to an assassin, to now an elite Alpha. "We need to remember that they're mutts. That they're mixed with who knows what. Vampire-known as some of the best portion makers in Canas. Elf-alchemy is their life even if their numbers are low in Red Woods, the Witch-able to use the four main elements to create spells of various capabilities, Warlocks with just as powerful sorcery. Pixies, fairies, I can go on and on, they can be mixed with whatever. We don't know their powers, their magic abilities. The ones we killed, we know they barely had any power, any magic abilities, they lacked education." She paused. "Unless…unless they were fucking with us. Purposely putting themselves in the line of fire and hiding their children with this spell, that cloak-who knows."
Silence.
"The worst thing we did was not keep tabs on them. We should have had them in a database, make easy, keep track of them, get rid of them properly. We should have never allowed the humans to accept them." Doureena said. She turned to Diamond. "Diamond, get that list of betrayers, we've been doing this for almost two years so that should be about 15 betrayers. Get their names, go to the Red Wood Springs hall and ask the council members for a list of children of these mutts. Some of their offspring may be registered with the humans and some, maybe not at all."
"Then what?" Diamond asked.
Silence.
"These children, they know what happened to their parents. Hell, they probably even seen it like that one mutt. What do you think happens when children grow up knowing who killed their parents?"
"They'll want revenge," Zhiliary said. They all turned to her, feeling the weight of her words.
"Exactly…," Doureena whispered. "We need to track them down and kill them."
Silence.
"You want us to kill children?" Brien inquired, appalled by the request.
Doureena remained calm; she simply turned to her comrade. "Are you 100% confident that these offspring will not grow up and seek revenge on this pack?"
"Is it really betrayal if they're just trying to survive?" An elite who was thin and petite, a woman, and not the most strongest of the Alphas but she was intelligent and apart of the intelligence unit of the pack.
"When you give our away our secrets for monetary gain, you are a betrayer." Doureena exclaimed.
"What choice do they have…they live across the tracks in poverty…?"
"Paya, you're a very smart Alpha…they can be with the humans."
"They'll only allowed with the humans if they not act on their magic-"
"Enough!"
Paya turned her head to bare her neck to show her submission to the Alpha. The conversation was done.