Alpha Ascension
And so it had always been. Death was the bringer of power. The key to rising to an alpha. It could be taken in death or inherited in it. But sometimes sheer will can overcome nature.
The year was 1986, the place Beacon Hills California, my name Logan Boro. The journey from Jamaica had been long but this place felt right. The town was appropriately named for sure. It had called to him like beacon. I knew I was not the only one though. I felt the others and knew they were very healthy, strong, very hale. While walking through town I noticed a help wanted sign in a bookstore. It seemed perfect. I had been a page master back home until the incident.
It was an older couple who owned the store. They were very welcoming, even giving me the loft to rent above the store. A week had gone by and i had not made myself known to the others. While a part of me wanted to meet them, connect with them, another part of me wanted some semblance of normalcy.
Mr and Mrs Denma, the couple I worked for, informed me that their daughter would be arriving from college one afternoon and asked if I could pick her up as they wanted to prepare a welcome back for her. I headed to the train station on the Harley Davidson I had purchased used just a few days before. Mr Denma had helped me fix it up and I customized it with a small Jamaican flag painted on the frame. A small reminder of home.
I was about half way to the train station when I sensed him. Someone like me. I parked my bike following the sense. It led me to an outside basketball court where he stood. He was tall and lean with a slight grin on his face. Though the grin was slight it screamed arrogance, and pride. Five guys surrounded him as he stood there holding a basketball to his side. I recall hearing one ask him "how does it feel to have a mother who is a literal bitch". That's when all hell broke loose. Like lightning he broke the nose of the one who made the comment by smashing the basketball into his face. The other four were quickly on him. Right cross from behind jab from the front, he grabbed and restrained both their wrist visibly causing them pain as he squeezed. The other two rushed him. He responded by kicking the first across the court into the fence, the other managed to strike him in the head.
I imagined he recover quickly. We always recover quickly. But he laid on the ground. That's when I noticed them. They were on the attackers hand, looked like brass knuckles but not made of metal. Before he could strike again I sprinted over there knocking him out with one swift strike. As the others began to recover and approach I bared my teeth growling one word "Go!"
They collected their friend and retreated, yelling that I'm a dead mutt. So much for normalcy. The other began to regain consciousness. He thanked me for the help. I asked what they used to wound him so badly. Mountain ash he told me. Carved into knuckles, feels like getting punched by a heavy weight champion twice. Apparently the guys who had been harassing him had recently joined a group in town that "keeps are kind in check". He asked where my pack was. I told him I did not know. I explained how I had been attacked in Jamaica by the what the locals had called "Devil Eyes". My father and brother had tracked Devil Eyes down to a small holistic medicine shop where my brother worked on the island. Devil Eyes had been my brothers boss. My father and brother killed him by burning his shop down while he hid in it. After a few days I began to notice changes. I rummaged through the burned derby finding evidence of what Devil Eyes really was, and what I was becoming. That same night I dreamed of this town Beacon Hills in the west of the USA. I packed up and never looked back.
He gave his sympathies for me. Asserting that we all weren't vicious, that we did not have to be. I explained to him it was alright and that I had learned many things in my journey to Beacon Hills, about packs and anchoring my emotions, and most interestingly alphas. He invited me to meet his family, his pack. Remembering I still had to make it to the train station I suggested another time. He thanked me again for the assistance and said if I ever needed anything thing to just seek his family out. I thanked him, noting I had not gotten his name. "Peter" he said, Logan I replied".
I was at least 10 minutes late picking up the Denma's daughter. I arrived at the train station realizing I had no idea what this girl looked like. "Logan?" a voice said. I turned to see the most beautiful girl I had ever laid eyes on. Long curly hair, olive skin and deep brown eyes. "Mel?" I asked the stranger. "Yes, your late" she said. I apologized asking how she knew who I was. She said at the risk of being offensive that their weren't many people that looked like me around town and her parents had mentioned to her over the phone that I was Jamaican. I had not noticed before but she was right, there were only a handful of blacks in town.
I assured he no offense was taken and led her to my bike. She seemed weary so I promised I'd take it slow.
She smiled at me held our her pinkie. I reciprocated the gesture locking my pinkie with hers.
We arrived at her the Denma's home to a huge welcome back party. I prepared to head home but Mel insisted I stay. I mostly stood in the corner sipping punch. I watched as Mel mingled with her guest. One in particular seemed quite fond of her. From the gossip I could pickup with my hearing his name was Michael, he was her ex. A soldier in fact. They had decided to break it off before he shipped out and she left for school.
I barely knew this girl yet seeing her with this guy was driving me crazy. My chest began to tighten. I glanced into the mirror above the mantel and saw my eyes flashing a bright grey. I had to get out there. I shoved through the crowd to the door. I heard Mel calling my name but I couldn't go back. My claws began to rip from my finger tips. I got on my bike and just began to ride. Everything was a blur of colors and my chest was getting tighter by the minute then blackness. I woke on a couch a woman in her mid to late 30's with a hot towel on my head. She asked if I was alright and I responded with an affirmative nod. "How is he Mom?". I leaned up to see Peter at the doorway. They explained they had heard my bike fall outside their house. Peter and his brother had dragged me in.
I told them what had happened at the party. Peter told me his mother would get similar attacks after his father was killed. She was even in a self induced coma for a while. During that time Peter's brother had ascended to alpha in his father's death. They explained that it is not just the physical that is amped up for our kind. We feel harder than humans. Love and pain hits us 10 times harder.
It must, I had known Mel for roughly 5 hours and she was having this sort of effect on me. It was disconcerting but out of my hands. I thanked Peter and his family for help and headed back to my loft. Mel was there, waiting at the stores entrance.
"Why'd you leave like that" she asked. I told her I had just needed some air. "Michael and I are just friends you know" not sure why she told me that "Ok"not sure why I responded". She asked if she could come up, there's nothing I wanted more in that moment so I obliged. We talked for hours. She told me of her dreams to heal the world. She also told me of why her and Michael broke up. He had enlisted without telling her, saying he had a calling he had to answer. I admitted to her I could sympathize with him. Though it hurt him to hurt her I believe he felt his first duty was to protect her, and the army was how he saw doing just that. "Sometimes you just have to answer the calling, follow the path it tells you".
She kissed me. It was sudden, and deep. I reciprocated. She laid back on my bed telling me she did not want me to get the wrong idea. "I know I just met you but it feels right, it's so strange it's almost like..." "Instinct" I finished. She smiled nodding yes. I moved over her body and for a long moment her and I were one.
We laud there staring at the moon from my sky light. "You were my first you know" she said. "You and Michael never?" "No, I suppose we would have eventually if we had stayed, it wouldn't have been right though. We both had a calling." "You were my first too". She turned and stared at me stunned. "Are most woman blind and deaf on the island you come from?" "Hahaha, no I have been through some changes though. The type of changes that are not received well where I am from". "Whoever you were, I am glad to know who you are".
She leaned in to kiss me when they broke through the door. I jumped up only to be shot with three arrows, falling back down. I turned to see one of them knock Mel out with a hard punch to the face. I began to shift, roaring at the top of my lungs. Another arrow pierced my throat. I fell back.
"How the hell does a dog like that get a hot piece of ass like this" I heard one of them say as I faded in and out of consciousness. "Not sure but waste not want not" another said as he zipped down his pants and approached Mel. That's when it happened. Everything slowed down. I recalled Peter's story of his father's death and his brother's rise to alpha, and hearing a story of a beta who who killed his pack leader to rise to alpha. Death, it's always death for power. I wanted to live though, not for me for her, this girl I barely knew but somehow meant so much. I wanted power so that she could live.
Then it happened. Everything went read. I saw the arrows force out of my body and my fingers elongate. My skin turning a dark onyx shade. One of the men looked at me and in his eyes I saw my own eyes. Not the glowing grey I has become so used to but a bright ardent RED. And there it was, the Omega had risen to Alpha
I rushed the one with his pants down first ripping his throat with my claws. Three of the others shot arrow at me. I caught the first 2 in my hand and the third in my teeth snapping it with my jaws. I broke all their necks in rapid succession with massive strikes. Four down one to go. He coward in the corner with something in his hand. I got closer and noticed it was a grenade with an oddly blue hue coming from the shell. I could imagine what was in it.
His last words "more will come mutt" before he pulled the pin. I moved as quickly as I could grabbing Mel and jumping out of my window landing in the alley in the back. Some shrapnel had pierced my chest though. As I lay their dying I looked at her face. Even if I wasn't around I would want her to be protected. I inserted a claw into the nape of her neck. Death is not the only way to rise, an alpha can ascend from life. I wanted to make sure Mel...Melissa, knew how to live .
Those were the last thoughts I gathered from him. When I found him he was on his last breath I moved as quickly as I could. When the police got there they summed it up to a hate crime. Some radical racist catching a black guy with one of them. They actually weren't that far off. I found something else while in your brother's head. His real name was Scott Deaton.
Deaton: Yeah, I called him Scotty the not so hotty. Stupid big brother teasing ya know.
Yeah you should hear what I call Peter.
Deaton: How is the girl?
I imagine traumatized to say the least. A Michael Mccall came to get her from the scene.
Deaton: The soldier. She's in good hands.
Yeah I imagine. So when so you plan to leave.
Deaton: Actually thought I'd stick around. My brother thought we would reject him for what he became. To honor him I'll dedicate my life to learning about and protecting those like him. Like you.
I can respect and appreciate that Deaton. I'll see you around.
Deaton: One more thing, what you did, take knowledge from my brother. You mentioned him imparting knowledge on Melissa Denma. Has she showed any signs of that knowledge?
No, but that's the thing about knowledge it can manifest in various ways. And we pass it on to the next generations. Even if only subconsciously. Take care doc.
