Chapter 2
He was dead.
He was fucking dead, and there was nothing that could be done about it. The fifth in the last year, and the last of the Lycaon line that was in West Valley.
Carter slammed the door of his car closed and stared angrily through the windshield. What good was he anymore? Along with his brother, his job was to protect the ruling line and to make sure they could properly lead the pack to prosperity.
The Pack.
It didn't even have a proper name anymore. It had gone through a new one with each Alpha, and now lay nameless. Not that any of the names got to stick for long. They'd pass on the title of Alpha to the next in line, and then that one would vanish like the others had.
Carter almost began to hope that it was because of the Alphas being cowards. He imagined them running off to join or start another pack, somewhere safer for them, where they wouldn't have to fear being taken away. At least that would free him from the guilt of knowing he'd failed again.
He knew better.
When an Alpha is alive in an area, you know it.
Their smell is distinct, traced back thousands of years, to a table that had nothing but deceit on it. Any other shifter, as wolf-like and as true to their nature as they could be, was just a diluted substitute.
If you weren't from the Lycaon line you couldn't be an Alpha.
Not that many of the Alphas out there anymore deserved the title.
Carter's hands tightened their grip on his steering wheel out of guilt at the thought. It didn't matter who deserved to be an Alpha – nobody really did.
The bloodline declared the ruler, and had done so for too many generations to count.
There was no changing it.
He turned the key in the ignition, firing up his car and forcing him to go to work. He wasn't looking forward to today.
Every wolf in the pack took yesterday off to mourn.
A year before, hell even six months before, they had taken a week off when an Alpha died. Some would take an entire month off, the grief too striking.
Now it was commonplace.
The shifters couldn't afford to leave their job as often as the Alphas kept dying off…or rather, vanishing.
The forest pulled past him in a blur, and he wished he was still in it. He wished he didn't have to face the world like this, knowing his failure.
Carter had to work, had to have a job. It wasn't his fault he couldn't be at the Alpha's side every minute of every day. He needed to be able to eat, to survive, and he didn't want to have to rely on the pack for those.
When his brother was around, it was easier. They could split shifts, each taking watch while the other would work or sleep. They were like night and day and stayed in sync.
Since Richard vanished with the first Alpha, Carter had lost any semblance of balance in his life. Losing a twin was worse than any other feeling in the world. Worse than losing every limb or watching your own death in slow motion. It was like having more than half of your being cleaved away from you, like losing everything you recognize as yourself.
It didn't matter that no body was found or that there was no trace of what happened. He knew his brother was dead the moment it happened.
Carter lost all of the family he had outside of the pack and the pack's Alpha, all in just a couple minutes.
It wasn't even Richard's shift.
He was covering for Carter so that he could pick up an extra shift at the casino he had worked at. Even outside of the pack all they did was guard duties, keeping an eye on the whole town, business by business.
West Valley came into view ahead of him, and Carter slowed down, only just realizing he was going almost twenty miles over the speed limit. He gritted his teeth impatiently, frustrated with himself for getting lost in his thoughts again.
He failed again.
His pack would probably have him booted out of it, probably make him leave for letting another leader vanish. His friend, James, was the only reason he hadn't been kicked out yet. They'd been friends since childhood and always watched out for each other, but he wasn't sure James could watch out for him much longer.
Pulling up to the resort, Carter parked and took a deep breath. He could get through another shift like he always did. He could get through this one, and the next, and then another. He wasn't going to give up; Richard wouldn't ever forgive him if he did.
He'd keep going for his brother.
Carter got out and straightened out his uniform, wishing he could just be running around in his proper wolf form instead.
The resort was a recent and unwelcome development. Five years ago, when they heard ten older businesses had been bought out, everyone immediately started gossiping. Ideas swarmed of a government base. Some said it would be a strip mall. Others had the idea that maybe it was going to be demolished for a park.
Nope.
Just a huge, empty, ludicrous, building to pamper all of the tourists that never came.
West Valley was an empty town that cost too much to fly in or out of. Putting a destination resort in a town where no one would think to visit even before it was constructed was a horrible idea.
It opened up jobs, allowed the town to work, but was a giant eyesore.
Carter's phone vibrated, and he looked down at it expectantly.
"EMPLOYEE MEETING IN THIRTY MINUTES. BE THERE OR YOU'RE FIRED!"
It was a mass text sent out to all of the employees of The Grand West. Carter cringed and shoved his phone back in his pocket. He hoped nobody was mourning more than just the first day. Nobody could really afford to lose work anymore. Living was expensive enough as it was. Jobs were limited, and times were rough.
When his brother was killed, Carter missed two weeks of work at first, went back one day, and then couldn't go back for another month. He drank himself into a hole and lost his job at the casino. He was lucky the resort picked him up as quickly as it did. He wasn't even sure why they hired security guards.
Maybe to make their guests think the resort was better than it was.
Probably.
Carter slid his card and went in through the side door, not excited.
***
The meeting was hell.
Almost three-fourths of the staff were part of his pack. There were only eighty employees in the entire resort, so they'd apparently been hit hard.
Edwin, the owner, was a pimple.
He was a loud, angry little man that everyone hated. One of those short men who work extra, trying to make everyone think highly of them, even though nobody thinks less of them for their height. They thought less of him for how shitty he treated everyone.
"We have a reviewer here to do a write up on us, and I! NEED! YOU! TO! ACT! LIKE! YOU! KNOW! WHAT! YOU'RE! HERE! TO! DO!" he was shouting, punctuating those last words by slamming his open palms on the table in front of him. Carter felt a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. If this little, wrinkly toad even knew what kind of people he was yelling at, he'd probably shut up real quick.
As it was, they couldn't exactly chase him out of town.
They couldn't reveal themselves.
If people knew about shifters there would be mass panic. Of course, they would. Imagine knowing that the person sitting next to you spent their weekends roaming around as the thing you've been taught since childhood to fear most.
Imagine knowing the person next to you changes their form to fit their mood, turning into a big beast with gnashing teeth and sharp eyes.
Non-shifters would hunt them to extinction.
They tried before; they could try again.
"If we get a bad review from this week I'll be looking into pay cuts. You get paid for the job you do, so do it!" Edwin finished off. He'd been talking himself in circles for the last twenty minutes. The meeting ended, and everyone rose to leave.
"Hey," Carter said to Sam, a pack member, wanting to share in grief.
"Don't talk to me. Fuck you," Sam replied, staring him down before leaving to work.
Mm, so the pack was definitely mad at him.
He didn't blame them.
Breathing deep, cooling his temper, Carter went out to stand behind the monitors and stare at screens blankly until it was time to do a round. Same boring job.
At least the casino had an occasional brawl to break up. But the most exciting thing the rich people who spent their time there would do was have a heart attack.