THE KIDNAPPING

SHAWN "If you wanted to stay here, you could have just called and told me. I was waiting for you all night yesterday!" Amelia complains. "I'm seventeen, not five!" Jasper replies. "I had cooked you eggs for dinner yesterday." Jasper's aunt adds. "I don't like eggs mother, Valerie was the one who used to like them!" He says to her, trying as much as possible not to sound irritated. "What do you mean used to?" Amelia asks curiously, pretending not to know what her nephew means. I have had enough of this already! Every morning, it's the same thing. Ever since Valerie left this Pack, Amelia has gone crazy. I think she needs professional help. Initially, she used to blame Sheila for Valerie's disappearance but after she was sent away, it is Jasper's turn to suffer. He doesn't like going home for that reason since he can't bear all the yelling! So, instead of facing Amelia's wrath, he crashes at my house every night and then the next day, in the early hours of the morning, Amelia comes over to give him an earful! Groaning, I get up from my cosy bed and head downstairs to where they are, busy arguing. "We are searching for her mother." Jasper insists. "Then search harder and bring my baby home." She emphasises shamelessly. Baby? Yeah, right! When on earth did she ever becomes a good mother to Valerie? It's so wrong of Amelia to blame only Jasper and Sheila for Valerie's disappearance. It was everyone's faul because everyone in the Pack house would always provoke Valerie, something that made her to take that step to run away from the Pack! "Come home for breakfast, I don't want you out with your friends all day. I let it happen once and now my baby is not here with me!" Amelia says to Jasper as she hovers over him, while he sits on the couch with his face buried in his hands. I can't take it any longer, I've had enough of her nagging. "Enough!" I yell at Amelia, using my Alpha tone. "I want you out of my house, now." I command. "Yes Alpha," she says softly, her face down in submission, and she quickly leaves my house. "Thanks man," Jasper says while looking up at me. He sighs heavily. He has definitely had enough of his aunt's nagging as well! I nod and sit down on the couch right across him. "She keeps reminding me of Valerie's disappearance every day. It's not like I don't feel guilty enough as it is for how I was treating her before!" It had been a huge shock to the entire Pack that Valerie left. We had all thought rogues had taken her away at first, until we saw the note she had left. No harsh words, nothing, just a goodbye. We tried tracing her scent, but it was faint by the time we realised she had left. Therefore, we appointed a few detectives to try and find her. I suddenly remember about the detectives and I decide to ask Jasper about the progress of the search. "Any news from the detectives?" I ask Jasper while donning a serious face. "No, nothing. It's like the ground swallowed her whole or something," he answers in misery, pressing his fingers to his temple and sighing. "You know, the worst part of it all is that I know I'm one of the main reasons she left!" He laments. "Oh come on man, many people are to be blamed for her leaving, not just you." I say to him reassuringly. I hate it when he keeps on blaming himself for his kid sister's disappearance! "Yes, but Sheila and I were her own. She was our own little sister," he whispers in pain and then covers his eyes. "If only I had realized that a little earlier. She is only fifteen, not even a wolf yet, and she's out in this world filled with rogues all on her own. She can't even protect herself. You know she is like a child and in that case she will trust anybody, and won't even complain if she is hurt!" He lets out a small laugh and looks down at his feet in shame. "I used to take advantage of all those traits of hers, and now I'm worried about someone else using them for their own benefit." He complains, a lot of regrets lacing his voice. "She will be back soon," I say and give him a nod of reassurance. I don't know what else to say since he's whining like a girl. "I doubt it," he says and then laughs humorlessly. "After what she went through here, this will be the last place she would want to come back to. I just hope she shifts into her wolf soon." He observes while shaking his head. "She didn't shift on her fifteenth." I observe as well. "Yeah, I still don't get it." He concurs, suddenly appearing to be in deep thoughts. Neither do I. Valerie is such an unusual case. Wolves that have one human parent always shift on their thirteenth birthday, but this is– I don't have any idea how to describe it or what it is! "Anyway, I have to go man, orr else..." Jasper says while getting up and he lets out a loud sigh. "Amelia has to take some of the blame for this too," I tell him. Damn right, she had to! "You have to take some of the blame too," he says, looking at me with sad eyes and then leaves. I growl at him as he leaves. Bastard! How dare he? I know I didn't treat Valerie right, but I had my reasons. If she ever does return, I'll make sure to stay out of her way because of what I did, but I won't apologise to her, because I am the Alpha. I've had enough drama for one morning already, therefore I head to the gym to work out some of my tension. There is still time before school starts, and breakfast hasn't been cooked yet. The cook would take a while since he arrives after he's done at my dad's place, so I have plenty of time! My name is Shawn Franklin. I'm seventeen, almost eighteen and I'm already an Alpha. Unlike my father, I love being an Alpha. I enjoy the power that comes with it. It's amusing to see how fearful everyone is of you. My dad handed over the Alpha title to me during my sixteenth birthday, two years earlier than he should have. After my mother's death he went crazy, and lost interest in being an Alpha. He would lash out at anybody, anytime. Valerie took a lot from him because she was an easy target. After she left, he started snapping at little kids. I couldn't stay with that crazy old man anymore, so as soon as I became the Alpha, I built a house for myself that suited my purposes and then shifted to my house immediately. Dad had handed me the title on my sixteenth birthday, thinking that someone in the Pack will turn out to be my mate. However, none of the girls in the Pack turned out to be my mate, and I am glad for that. I know mates are everything, and all that crap said about them, so I will find mine when the time is right, but right now, I don't need one...not until I hit eighteen! I lower myself on the mat in the gym and I start doing pushups. However, somewhere around my a hundredth count I am disturbed by someone mind linking me. 'Alpha there are unfamiliar scents in our land, heading south', Carlton, my Top Warrior says through the Pack link. I immediately get off the floor and begin to stretch out the muscles in my arms. I hate rogues. They have attacked our Pack too many times, and they're the same wolves who killed my mother! 'Follow the scent, I'll join you soon,' I answer back to him through the Pack link as well. 'Hey, this scent is similar to the one we had come through a few days ago, except there is one unusual scent with it this time,' Jasper says through the link. Within minutes, I reach where the others have led me to through the Pack link. Carlton, Jasper and other Pack leaders and Warriors are in their wolf forms running beside the road, running after three black cars. I shift into my huge black wolf as well and I start running after one of the cars. When I reach the car, the man in the passenger seat looks at me and waves his hand in a goodbye gesture. I growl at him. Jasper quickly comes up beside me and Carlton runs to the other side of the car, the rest of the Pack Warriors and leaders chasing behind. 'Do you smell that?' Jasper asks me through the link. 'Smell what?' I snap at him, trying to stay focused on the chase. 'That sweet smell' he responds. 'Rogues don't smell sweet,' I snap back at him. The man in the passenger seat is smirking widely at me and his eyes are now deep black. The car begins to speed up. I really want this son of a bitch dead, so I run faster, trying to keep up with the car and I leave Jasper far behind since he has slowed down. 'They have a girl with them!' Carlton tells me through the link in worry. 'I think they are kidnapping her!' he adds. There is no sign of Jasper now. 'Where are you?' I ask him through the link, annoyed. 'I can't understand the smell,' he answers. What the hell is wrong with him? Ignoring him I look back at the cars. I can see ahead of me in the second car, where there is a young girl. She is asleep like she has been drugged and her hair has fallen to cover her face. I can see a piece of cloth stuffed in her mouth, and I conclude that it must have been laced with what they used to drug her. She's definitely being kidnapped!