Book 2 of Mate of the Alpha.
My mate was one of the most powerful Alphas in the world, one of the three brothers. No one would have known that he had a mate, everyone thought that he and his brothers were mateless, until I came.
I was once a normal...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"You're so dumb! You could have gotten killed in there," Buttercup, also known as Butter yelled at me.
"I don't think I would have. Even if no one saw my distress call, I'd just stay stuck in the pit, kicking a harmless snake's ass all the time," I mumbled, even though the thought of staying there until I grow old terrified me. But Butter didn't need to know that.
"The HQ's Defencers added a Ghostly Spider in there. It could kill in just a bite, their poison is just-," she shivered. "I don't know how many they put but there's certainly a couple of those stuff in there."
"But I thought the HQ's Head didn't want any innocents to die, they didn't make everything deadly so that if someone accidentally comes this path by mistake they wouldn't get killed," I said, confused.
Butter's face darkened. "The HQ isn't the same anymore, Snow."
"It's Marshmallow now," I corrected. "But what do you mean?"
She shook her head, letting her dirty blonde hair fall out of place. "It's not the same anymore. And I mean not the same as in extreme changes."
My face fell.
The HQ's staff discussed some things about changes back when I was still a minor pup, but the HQ's head didn't allow them to make any extreme changes, so they only placed traps and such, but never things too deadly.
And when I mean too deadly, it didn't mean the silver bullets dipped in poison, ghosts, and stuff. I meant the type where you could get killed in just a snap of a finger. I was just exaggerating things from before.
The silver bullets won't make a deep wound, the poison it's dipped in was something to knock you out.
Snake pits? The snakes in it didn't really have sharp fangs, and their venom was to knock the victim out.
The ghosts were harmless as long as you are strong-willed.
But, of course, all of that could have possibly changed.
They could have replaced the snakes and changed the bullets. Butter did say they made extreme changes. And when they made extreme changes, they mean it.
I simply stared at Buttercup, and she immediately understood my question.
"She's dead, the previous HQ assistant became the head," she answered my unspoken question.
"Oh shoot," I mumbled. A new head meant new rules, and if the new head didn't allow the spirit animals who had been here before to visit the HQ whenever they want, then I'm basically not supposed to even be here.
"Did she change the rules? I mean, if I'm not allowed to be here then I'm dead," I said, slowly backing away from her.
"Don't worry I'm not a snitch. You're my best friend, and always will be. And yeah, your right, you're not supposed to be here... the HQ isn't really the best place for us anymore. It's toxic now."
"What else changed? And if I'm not allowed to be here, why did you bring me to your room? You'll get in trouble if they find out."
I need the ingredients, but I can't have my best friend get kicked out of the safest place possible for our kind. She just can't be kicked out, it's too dangerous in the outside world. I almost died multiple times, got captured once, and my fur got shredded by some hunter. Said something about it being a nice fur for a coat.
A sad look cross her face, but it was gone as quickly as it came. "Almost everything changed. Like I said, it's pretty toxic in here now."
I undid the lid of the cookie jar and took a bite.
"What happened?"
"Remember how before, innocents that had gotten knocked out by security are let free?"
I nodded.
"Well now, they make them slaves or prisoners. Poor things, they get tortured. Some hunters tried passing the security, thinking there was something precious beneath all of the traps, but they just end up in the cells, tortured, begging for death."
"But how did Ms. Dekorne die? She had pretty good health while I was here. She was well-protected and had strong immunity," I said, confused.
Buttercup lowered her voice to a whisper. "They say the new head killed her, but we aren't really sure yet. They say Ms. Fijal fed her the most poisonous of poisons. See, there were rebels in the staff. They plotted against Ms. Dekorne. They hated her good acts toward the innocent. They were tired of it. So at the right time and place, they teamed up with Ms. Fijal, who was also toxic at that point. They planned her death," she paused. "But that's just a theory."
"But everyone loved her. Who could have wanted to dethrone her to that witch?"
Her brows furrowed before she answered, "It might have just been a facade. But lets stop talking about her, what do you need from the HQ?"
"Oh yeah," I said, remembering what I had been here for in the first place.
"Does the stack room happen to have yeti's fur and a golden serpent's talon, by any chance?" I asked nervously. Nervous that I had put my friend in danger for nothing. Nervous that I had risen Sylvia's hopes up.
"I'm not sure. They don't allow us to go in the stack room unless we were making potions or healing ointments or stuff like that. Unlike before, we need permission now, and we need to tell them why we need it."
I groaned. "Great, how am I supposed to get it now?"
"I'll ask. If she says no, then we'll sneak in," Butter said when a grin.
Apparently, she loved doing mischievous things, while I don't.
All I wanted to do was reverse the mistake I had done in the past. So that's what I'm doing to do.
