I don't own these characters; Sunrise does.

7: Alpha

A tight frown hung on Natsuki's face as she approached a gated home. It took every ounce of self-control she had to not transform right there on the street, but her teeth were pointed and her eyes were close to feral. For some reason, the silver bullets inside of her burned, which only infuriated her further, making her want to tear those damned hunters apart. She panted as she approached, seriously considering going directly through the wall. Instead, she grabbed hold of the gate, the mental bending and twisting in her crushing grip like it was mere wire. She yanked the gate down, tossing it at the house where she could smell her mate. Growling, she charged the door, busting it down with one powerful kick.

"Shizuru?" Natsuki basically howled as she stepped into the house, her heart beating wildly in her chest.

There was no answer, but Natsuki could smell Shizuru all over the place. Taking in the scene did not instill her with confidence. The house was trashed, like a tornado had ripped through it and the smell of blood coated the place like a slaughterhouse. Her panting worsened and her heart felt like it would burst now. She needed her mate now or she felt like it would destroy her mind, body, and soul.

Natsuki was about to move on, but she heard a gun cock and moved out of the way just in time to avoid getting shot again. Snarling, she turned to see the redhead she fought earlier aiming at her again. Natsuki rushed the smaller female and tackled her before she could get another shot off.

"Where's Shizuru?" Natsuki demanded, shoving the girl up against the wall, causing the whole house to shake.

The girl grunted on impact and coughed out blood, which splattered into Natsuki's face. Natsuki did not care and just pressed into the redhead harder. Blood dripped from the redhead's nose.

"You'll never find her, beast," the damned hunter said, barely able to stand, but having enough nerve to smirk at Natsuki.

A low growl rumbled out of Natsuki's throat. "Who are you to judge me? You kidnapped a person right from her home!"

The girl spit in her face, blood and spit hitting Natsuki right in the eye. Natsuki barely realized she slapped the redhead to the ground. She did not care. Until she found Shizuru, no one was safe from her wrath. She might have broken the girl's face and she would do it to everyone in the house until she had Shizuru in her arms. When the girl did not get back up, Natsuki turned, trying to pick up Shizuru's scent again.

"Shizuru?" Natsuki called as loudly as she could, despite the fact that her chest hurt at the thought of something happening to her mate.

There was no answer. The signs of a struggle did not help as they were all over the house, not just in the front like it seemed. There was broken furniture around the place and the smell of blood wafted through the halls. There was something else underneath it, though. It was almost… familiar. Familial.

"Alyssa?" Natsuki wondered. Are they holding Alyssa, too? If they were, forget ass-kicking. She would tear them all to pieces. It was one thing to kidnap her mate, but a whole different matter to touch her little sister. Shizuru could take care of herself, after all. Alyssa was just a child.

Natsuki tried to pin down the scent to figure out if it was definitely Alyssa. She followed the smell, moving quietly through the torn up house. She came to a room and found a woman in a lab coat lying in a pool of blood. She cautiously approached, hearing shallow breaths. Carefully, she lifted the woman up.

"You okay?" Natsuki asked. While she was worried about Shizuru and getting her back, Natsuki was not a total monster. This woman needed help or she would die. Natsuki could not just leave someone to die, not like this.

The woman could only groan. Natsuki quickly inspected her and noticed slice marks along her abdomen. Wolves? Added to that, she still smelled Alyssa. Something was wrong here, but Natsuki did not have time to contemplate it. Instead, she found gauze and butterfly bandages in what appeared to be a medical room. She started cleaning and wrapping the woman's wounds, but did not get far before she had to duck another shot. Growling once more, Natsuki turned sharply to see who shot at her now. It was the older redhead who shot her before and fought with Shizuru back at the house.

"Get away from her," the redhead ordered, leveling a gun at Natsuki. She was in bad shape. Some injuries were probably from when she fought Shizuru, but Natsuki knew it was not all from Shizuru.

Natsuki smirked. "I was just bandaging her wounds, but I guess since she clearly means something to you I'll let her bleed out unless you tell me where Shizuru is."

"Don't think I won't shoot you, beast," the redhead hissed.

"Oh, I know you will. After all, you've done it already. But, do you know how to stop the bleeding here?" Natsuki inquired, pointing to the worst of the woman's wounds. She had suffered enough wounds to know how to treat them. Plus, her mother was a doctor… well, a biochemist, but it was close enough. She knew what she was doing and she suspected the other woman not no clue.

The redhead hesitated, which was enough for Natsuki. She turned her attention back to the bloody woman quickly worked on the injured woman, who stared at her the whole time. She surprisingly did not look angry or afraid. Natsuki smiled at her.

"You're gonna be okay, okay?" Natsuki promised. The woman nodded and then lifted a weak, bloody hand. Natsuki followed it and saw medical tape, which was what she needed to get the bandages in place.

Nodding, Natsuki moved to get the tape and finish wrapping the woman up. The redhead did not move and did not lower her gun, but she did not say a word to stop Natsuki. Once the task was complete, emerald eyes turned back to the redhead.

"Now, where is Shizuru?" Natsuki demanded. She would threaten to tear the place apart, but it obviously someone had beat her to it. She wondered if Wolves from the Kuga pack had beaten her here. But, she could not see her pack doing this. They were not that violent. Well, most anyway.

"We don't have your bitch," the redhead replied with a cough. Natsuki snarled, but she did not get a chance to speak.

"Midori…" the injured woman breathed out.

"Yoko, don't talk. Save your strength," the redhead begged, taking a step closer. She probably wanted to comfort the wounded female.

Natsuki decided to slowly back up, seeing if the redhead – Midori – would take the hint. Midori immediately moved to Yoko's side. Natsuki did this more for Yoko. She really had zero interest in watching someone die and Yoko seemed nice, reasonable, and had not called her out of her name yet.

"You're going to be all right," Midori promised Yoko while carefully holding her.

"Yeah, she will, thanks to me. Now, where the fuck is my mate?" Natsuki demanded, a voice a dangerous growl now. Everything inside of her was on edge now and every hair on her body stood up, including most of the hair on her head.

"Took her…" Yoko managed to breathe out.

"Yoko," Midori hissed, shaking her head.

"Who took her?" Natsuki asked.

"Two… A Wolf…" Yoko took a deep breath and tried to focus. "And a girl."

Natsuki's brow furrowed. "A girl? What did she look like?" Do these people have both Shizuru and Alyssa? What the hell is going on?

"Stop pressing her!" Midori barked. "She needs to rest up."

Natsuki ignored her. "Please, what happened? What did she look like?"

Yoko shook her head weakly. "Blue hair. Cold eyes."

Natsuki shook her head. A Wolf and a girl with blue hair and cold eyes? No one came to mind. Could these possibly be other enemies of the hunters? Was it another pack? If so, why take Shizuru? She needed more information.

"How many other Wolves have you hunted?" Natsuki inquired. Maybe it was another pack that the hunters had pissed off. She could not figure out why the Wolf would leave so many people alive, though, if those hunters had possibly killed other Wolves. If this was about revenge, why tear the place up and leave the enemy alive so they would hunt another day?

"None of your business," Midori hissed.

Natsuki shook her head. It did not matter. She would just follow the scent to the next location. She would tear apart a hundred wolves and humans alike if it meant she could get her mate back unharmed.

"Only two before you," Yoko managed to reply.

Natsuki studied her. "I'm only the third Wolf you've hunted? And why the hell did you hunt me?"

"Because you're a beast who hurt people like all you blasted animals!" Midori hollered before coughing again. She hunched over, holding her ribs.

"I hurt people? Those people at the club you wanna defend were going to let Shizuru probably be sexually assaulted, but I should've let that happen, huh? Fuck you for judging me. I don't know what those other two Wolves did, but if they were like me, your whole group is full of jackasses," Natsuki hissed.

Yoko shook her head. "Hurt… people…"

"You said I hurt people, too," Natsuki pointed out.

"Really hurt people," Yoko insisted.

Natsuki wanted to take Yoko's word for it since she seemed like the sensible one, but it was hard. Yoko obviously stood with her group when they went after Natsuki. Those two Wolves could have been completely innocent or they could have done something, but Natsuki did not care. The only thing that mattered was Shizuru and Shizuru was now out there with Wolves or something. She needed to get to the bottom of this now.

"I'll call for help for you guys," Natsuki said as she moved to leave.

"Turning your back on your enemy?" Midori said, breathing heavily now.

"If you want to shoot me in the back in front of Yoko, go right ahead," Natsuki dared her and then continued on walking. She paused again. "We're not that different. I wouldn't hurt someone who helped Shizuru, especially if Shizuru was right there watching."

"I'm nothing like some damned dog!" Midori hollered, but she never fired a shot.

-8-8-8-8-

Shizuru awoke to find herself in a new cage, much more sophisticated than the last. She was not handcuffed to anything, which was good for her shoulder and wrist. The cage was now more of a glass box than anything else. There was a bench in the corner, but nothing more. So, some new fresh Hell. Natsuki might never let me out of the house if this continues, and I might agree with her. To avoid that train of thought, she looked around to see where she was now.

She seemed to be in some kind of computer lab mixed with a science lab. Her cell was at the back of the room for some reason. It seemed like an odd choice, but then again, it was also odd that she was becoming an expert on being imprisoned. Glancing at one of the large monitors, she saw an image of Natsuki patching up the doctor who worked with the hunters. Narrowing her gaze, she looked at the other monitors and saw shots of where she had been in the house and what she suspected were other rooms in the place.

"They were watching the house," Shizuru muttered, shaking her head slightly. Who are these people and why were they watching the house? What do they care about the hunters?

"Not just watching the house," a blond man commented as he stepped over. "Watching everything." He smirked at her for some reason, looking smug in his suit.

"What are you doing? Why are you watching the house?" Shizuru demanded, glaring at him. She did not care if he had the coldest eyes she had ever seen. She had stared down more than her share of villainous bastards in the club alone. So, she watched him just like any predator would.

"Nothing you would understand," he basically spat at her.

"I assure you nothing about this says it's too sophisticated for me to grasp," Shizuru remarked.

Shizuru gave the room another once over and noticed Haruka and Yukino in a separate cage on the opposite wall. They were unconscious. She then glanced at the monitor again and thought about the werewolf that had taken her and Miyu. Well, this had something to do with werewolves.

"Are you planning to capture Natsuki?" Shizuru guessed. Now, was he using the hunters for that? Having them track Natsuki and then planning to storm the house when they had Natsuki? If so, why did they spring the trap so soon? And why did they take her and those two hunters, but no anyone else?

"Like I said, it's nothing you would understand," he replied and he waved her off.

"We both know that was what you were going to do? Why did you change your plan? Why did you take us? What do you hope to accomplish?" she inquired.

He ignored her and turned his attention to the monitor in time to see Natsuki walk out of the medical room. "Bring her in," he ordered someone.

Shizuru watched as Miyu entered with Alyssa. Shizuru gasped. Did these people kidnap Alyssa? Alyssa did not turn to her, did not blink. There was an off glaze in what she knew to be youthful, energetic eyes. The blond man looked at Miyu.

"Mister Smith," Miyu said.

He glanced down at Alyssa and then looked at Miyu again, as if Alyssa was not worth his time. Shizuru was not sure why. Was Alyssa unable to see or comprehend? How is it that I went from big trouble to bigger trouble? What the hell are these people doing with Natsuki's sister? Where the hell is Alyssa's mother?

"Tell her to bring me her sister. Pure were blood is sure to work better than a half-blood," Mister Smith ordered. Miyu nodded.

Shizuru could not believe what she was seeing. "Miyu, what are you doing? Take Alyssa and get out of here!"

Miyu did not turn to her and Alyssa still did not blink. Miyu walked Alyssa out of the room. Shizuru shook her head, trying to find some way to escape. She needed to help Alyssa.

"Why do you have Natsuki's little sister? What do you plan on having her do to Natsuki?" Shizuru called.

The blond man grunted. "Do you really want to know?"

"Of course, I do. I asked. Now, tell me why the hell you have Natsuki's sister?" Shizuru demanded.

"Natsuki's 'sister' as you insist on calling her is our property. She was purchased long before she was born."

Shizuru's brow furrowed. "You purchased her before she was born?" Oh, this is some big conspiracy now? "Did you send her mother to seek out Kenji or did you buy her after her mother got pregnant?"

He rolled his eyes. "Miss Fujino, this is a complex and complicated organization and we would never leave anything like that to chance. The woman was paid and sent after the Wolf. His DNA has been immensely helpful in several of our projects."

"Your projects? Is that what Alyssa is to you, a project? Is that what Natsuki is? These are wonderful people. What do you think you're doing with Alyssa?" Shizuru glared at him harder than she was already doing. He did not waver.

He chuckled a bit, as if bored. "I only plan to have Project Artemis bring me your precious Natsuki, so stop squawking about it. You'll be with her soon enough."

"Project Artemis?" Shizuru echoed with a wrinkled brow. Oh, my. Have I fallen into some horrible television show? Surely this is not some mad scientist's lab. The thought alone made her want to groan. "You're using Natsuki's little sister as some science experiment and you want to do the same with her?"

Snorting, he rolled his eyes. "Nonsense. I'm going to use them both to better mankind. You'll thank me for it, just like your friend did." He then motioned to another monitor and Shizuru saw Tomoe, sitting in what appeared to be a normal room, eating a large meal.

"You turned her into a Wolf?" Shizuru demanded. It was the only way to explain why Tomoe would need so much food. She had seen Natsuki consume what could only amount to a feast on her own. It's like fresh Hell on top of fresh Hell here. What was she supposed to do with a Wolf-Tomoe sniffing after her?

"Such is the hope," he replied with a small, but bone-chilling smile. Shizuru knew his motive was not as altruistic as he would like her to believe then.

"Why her?" Shizuru wondered.

"Because she knows what Wolves are capable of."

"And me? Am I here as bait or shall you be experimenting on me as well since I know what wolves are capable of?" Shizuru felt like it might be both.

He snickered. "Bait? I don't need to lure your beast here. You'll be good insurance for her to remain calm, though. After, I did make some promises to your friend there. After those promises are fulfilled well… science does require experimentation." He glanced at Haruka and Yukino. It would seem they would share fates, then.

"You took them just to experiment on? Why not take the others as well? Just because they were hurt?" Shizuru inquired.

"The experiments require a lot physically. The others would not have survived and the hunters have outlived their usefulness."

"You've been using them?"

He laughed again. "They've been working for us, thinking they're hacking our organization's files. We had only allowed them access to see if they could track Wolves. They have not been as useful as we had hoped. Beyond your precious Natsuki, they had only managed to track the Wolves they wanted, not the ones we wanted."

"The ones you wanted?" What was the difference between Wolves? What made some more desirable than others?

"They hunted two psychopathic Wolves. We want healthy, intelligent, strong Wolves. Natsuki fits and her mother fits, too. Natsuki will come for you and eventually Natsuki's parents will come for her. Having her and Project Artemis will keep them in line."

Shizuru shook her head. It seemed like a lot of thought went into this, but how was all of this possible. "How did you do this? Who are you people?"

"Us? We're the Searrs Foundation. You don't need to worry about anything else. Feel privileged I answered any of your questions. Not that it matters."

Mister Smith walked off, going back to his nefarious deeds, Shizuru supposed. She wondered what she could do to escape this, but if she could not get out of the relatively low-tech hunters' home, then she doubted she would be able to escape from this place. Still, she needed to think. Maybe not about escape now, but escape when Natsuki showed up and let Natsuki know what was going on. If she could not get herself out of this mess, she did not want to slow Natsuki down when she came to the rescue.

-8-8-8-8-

Natsuki tried to track Shizuru's scent, as well as the strange aroma that hinted of Wolves and her sister. The latter threw her for quite the loop and it was hard to focus. She could not figure out what Alyssa might be doing with Wolves or why they might have her sister. Her pack knew about Alyssa and family members had no problems with spending time with her, but no one would dare take her to a slaughterhouse like the one Natsuki just left. After all, no one wanted to deal with her parents when they were on a tear involving offspring. If not her pack, then some other pack had Alyssa and that made even less sense than the Kuga pack having her.

Before she could come up with her own hypothesis, she was smashed by the answer. A small Wolf slammed into Natsuki's side, tackling her off the road and into some brush. Snarling, Natsuki shoved the little Wolf off of her and leaped to her feet. Focusing solely on her attacker, Natsuki could not believe her nose.

"Alyssa?" It smelled like her little sister, but something was off. Very off, beyond the fact that if this was Alyssa, then how the hell was she a Wolf?

The small Wolf growled and shot at her again. Natsuki moved out of the way with ease that time. Staring down the other were, Natsuki could see all too familiar blue eyes staring back at her. But, instead of the love and joy she was used to seeing, there was nothing. Someone had done something to her sister.

"How many people am I going to have to disfigure today for messing with my family?" Natsuki wondered.

She did not have time to contemplate it as Alyssa charged her again. She easily caught her younger sister by the wrists and forced her to the ground. Alyssa snapped at her.

"You can't beat me, Alyssa. I don't even know how the hell you transformed, but I'm a full Wolf!" Natsuki pointed out. Of course, as far as she knew, only a full Wolf should have been able to transform, so how was Alyssa a Wolf? She knew for a fact Alyssa's mother was a full-blooded human.

Alyssa only growled more and Natsuki forced her down, pushing her on her back. The struggling stopped as Natsuki continued to bear down on Alyssa. If Alyssa was truly a Wolf, she would understand her position without Natsuki needing to say anything.

"Yield!" Natsuki barked as her sister squirming.

Alyssa tried to bite her instead of accepting the fact that she was on her back and pinned. Natsuki always thought it was instinctive to submit, but apparently it was learned behavior. Natsuki figured she would just keep Alyssa on her back until she tired herself out. Pressing down, Natsuki kept her weight on Alyssa.

Alyssa tried to kick her, but Natsuki simply took it and pressed harder. The more her sister struggled, the more Natsuki pressed down, knowing eventually it would just drive Alyssa crazy. It was true considering after about a minute, Alyssa began whimpering like the defeated pup she was.

Natsuki had to release Alyssa to avoid Miyu getting the drop on her. Jumping back, Natsuki locked eyes with Miyu. She was not surprised to see Miyu since she was never far from Alyssa.

"Miyu, what the hell is going on here?" Natsuki demanded.

"Come with us quietly, Natsuki, and I won't have to hurt you," Miyu replied.

Natsuki scoffed. "Hurt me? I haven't met my match yet." Which said a lot considering who she hung out with.

Miyu's arm suddenly transformed into a sword and it explained a lot about Miyu for Natsuki. She had always accepted the fact that Miyu smelled oddly metallic as the blue-haired girl having a terrible accident when she was younger and having a lot of bone replacement surgery. Now, it would seem they were trapped in a sci-fi movie together.

"Hopefully, I'm more genre savvy than she is," Natsuki muttered. Of course, she had never seen a movie with werewolves versus robots, but with hope, luck and some intelligence trumped mechanics.

Miyu shot over to Natsuki, who barely dodged a swipe of the sword. Taking her own slash, Natsuki growled as Miyu backed away. Natsuki threw herself at Miyu, hoping she was faster than the other girl, but Miyu tried to bring her sword down on Natsuki. Natsuki caught her arm, but Miyu kicked her in the chest. Natsuki skidded across the dirt, managing to bring herself to a halt just in time to catch Alyssa coming at her.

Natsuki flung Alyssa away, wanting to do her best to not hurt her little sister, but also not get her head cut off by Miyu. With wide green eyes, Natsuki fell back just in time to avoid feeling more metal in her body than she needed, especially since she had already been shot. Miyu kept coming, waving her arm with masterful precision. Natsuki leaped back, needing space to start her own offensive, but Alyssa attacked her.

Natsuki roared as Alyssa shoved her claws into Natsuki's back and bit into her shoulder. "Okay, that's it!"

Grabbing her sister, Natsuki literally tore Alyssa from her and slammed her into ground as hard as she possibly could. Alyssa whimpered and Natsuki might have cared if Miyu was not in her face a moment later. Howling, veins popped out of Natsuki's arms as she shoved her claws through Miyu's arm. Ripping her claws back out, bits of metal flew from Miyu's limb.

"Miyu, what the hell is going on?" Natsuki demanded. She did not get an answer as Alyssa was up and put her claws into Natsuki's stomach. Pulling the talons out, Natsuki lost a good chunk of her abdomen. "Enough!"

Muscles bulging, Natsuki transformed fully and grabbed Alyssa by her hunches. She slammed Alyssa into Miyu as Miyu went to swing her busted blade. Alyssa gasped and whimpered as her blood splattered on the dirt.

"No!" Natsuki gasped.

Miyu's eyes went wide. Apparently she was not completely a robot as she gathered Alyssa in her arms. She ran off with Alyssa and Natsuki moved to follow. The biker stumbled a bit, finding her energy dwindling with each step. This would be a lot easier if I wasn't shot and cut to shit with this fucking silver driving me mad with itchy burning. Still, she pressed on, falling behind Miyu.

-8-8-8-8-

Shizuru watched the scientists work from her cage. She looked at the monitors as well, tracking Tomoe. The way the scientists smiled and watched, she had a feeling they succeeded at whatever they had done. Mister Smith all but confirmed this for her when he came over.

"You might be in luck in the sense that we might not need to completely dissect your Wolf friends. The serum that was built from the half-Wolf's blood seems to work well. She has proven to be a very successful experiment, between showing a half-blood can become a Wolf if you know what genes to turn on and the fact that she was the key that allowed us to create our own Wolves," the blond commented. He glanced at another monitor going. "Which might be good."

Shizuru frowned as she turned to see what he was looking at. Alyssa, in her Wolf form, was clearly being carried by someone. She was bloody and her eyes were closed. Oh, god. What happened to her?

"What did you do to her?" Shizuru demanded with a glare.

"I did nothing. Your precious Wolf was responsible for that," he replied and walked away. "Throw that away."

Shizuru wondered what he meant by that, but his people seemed to know, scrambling to follow that order. She turned her attention back to Alyssa, wondering how they were filming her in real time if she was on the street. She got the answer to one of those very quickly as the monitor went from showing Alyssa to showing men aiming guns. Shots were fired and the screen went black.

-8-8-8-8-

Natsuki was practically crawling to chase after her sister and Miyu when Miyu came back to her. She hoped to hell Miyu was not looking for another fight because she was not sure if she would be able to stand up let alone behind herself. Miyu stopped just in front of her and laid Alyssa down, bloody and moaning, on the ground.

"They shot at her when I requested help," Miyu said. Her voice actually shook, like she was confused or about to burst into tears.

Natsuki frowned. "Who shot at her?" Okay, people were going to have to die today. No one was just going to shoot her little sister!

"The Searrs Foundation."

Natsuki had no idea what that was about. "Why did you save her?" Miyu was obviously some kind of robot or cyborg or something. Why would she care about Alyssa?

Miyu looked down at the injured child. "I feel…" Glancing away, she seemed to collect her thoughts. "My job has always been to protect her…"

"So, you brought her to me?"

"You'll protect her."

That was the truth. "Yeah. I will." She would protect Alyssa and then she would get Shizuru back.

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Natsuki gets Alyssa some help and then goes right back to her mission.