Amnesia - The Matlock Pack: Book One

Monday 28 December

~*Takeshi’s POV*~

The sounds of growling made me stop.

I was in the middle of the field of the last Capture the Flag match before we made our final decisions on who would be in next year’s Warrior Training course. There were barely ten minutes left in the match and I was curious to see who was still playing and who wasn’t.

All the players should be in their human forms, so hearing a wolf’s growl was definitely something that needed to be investigated.

I was feeling immeasurably better than I had over the weekend. I wasn’t yet feeling at one hundred percent, but I was close. Although I was still carrying my cane, it was more of an accessory at this point. It looked like I was going to make the Tuesday deadline to get Bells back into the Warrior Training draft and start sorting out the mess that Spence had created.

A flash of movement caught my eye, some fur flying through the trees and shrubs. There was a thump, followed immediately by whimpering, then a thud as something heavy hit a tree. I frowned as I carefully made my way through the bush.

“You know you can’t keep this up, Nat. Sooner or later, you’re going to miss.”

I growled. Fucking Spence. I should have known. And Nat? Who was the wolf? I sneaked through the undergrowth to get closer. Spence sounded like he was to the left of where I was approaching. He wouldn’t see me as I came up behind him.

“Kairu, please request Kennedy to this location.”

“On it.”

“You’d be surprised at how long I can last, Spence.”

I smiled at her words. That’s my girl.

“I trained her. I know what she’s capable of. You’ll never stop her.”

I frowned. Nat was fighting Kadin’s Shae? I knew that there had been issues between Kadin and Nat, but I didn’t think it had escalated to this point. What on earth was going on?

Another snarl, another thump, and another whimper. “I can do this all day. Can she?” I could hear the bite in Nat’s words. She was flagging, but she wasn’t giving up.

I emerged from the vegetation to find a stand-off of sorts. As expected, Spence was standing to my left, Nat was opposite him to my right, and Shae was pacing back and forth between them, looking for a way through Nat’s defences. They had obviously been at this for a while, as both Nat’s knuckles and Shae’s snout were dripping with blood.

“Kairu, we might need Emery as well.”

All three turned their attention to me at the same time. Nat looked relieved, Shae looked guilty, and Spence looked annoyed.

“Takeshi, I’ve got this. No need for you to be involved here.” He waved me off, like I was unimportant.

As I felt the anger rise at his words and actions, I felt something else start flowing through my veins. The Alpha power started rushing through my system. I watched Spence carefully, knowing that what was filling me was draining out of him. It took him a moment to recognise that fact, but when it did, a look of concern fleeted across his face before he locked his emotions down.

“No. I think you’ve done enough, Spence.” I glared at him, waiting for the full power to be restored. Once it was, I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then projected the Alpha power around the three figures in front of me.

“Shae.” I focused in on her entirely. “SHIFT.”

A bright light filled the small clearing in the woods as I forced Shae to shift painfully back into Kadin. When Kadin reappeared, she instantly bowed her head in submission to me, blood dripping from her nose.

I heard Kennedy emerge from the greenery behind me. “Kennedy, would you be so kind as to escort Beta Spence back to the pack house?” I asked, without turning around. “I want him to remain in his office until I come for him but remove his internet access. Lock the doors to his courtyard and take his keys.”

Spence glared at me in anger, then at Kadin in disappointment, then at Nat in disgust.

“Yes, Alpha,” Kennedy moved forward, but Spence didn’t wait for him, instead turning on his heel and storming out of the small clearing we were in, with Kennedy following.

“You two.” I pointed at both Kadin and Nat, then over my shoulder. “Back to the pack house. Now.”

“Yes, Alpha.” Both girls spoke at the same time and started back.

I stood there for a moment, absorbing the Alpha projection back, and contemplating what I was going to need to do with Spence. He’d crossed a line, but as much as I’d like to instantly remove him from the Beta role, it wasn’t that easy. The council had elected him, and the council would fight me hard over his dismissal.

“You wanted to see me, Takeshi?”

I turned around to find Emery waiting for me. “Ah, yes. Nat and Kadin were involved in an altercation, and they’ve both been injured. Can you please render first aid to them? They’re on their way back to the pack house now.”

“Certainly.” Emery tipped his head and left.

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose in annoyance. The next couple of hours were going to be long and painful.

~~~

“Right, you pair. In my office. Now.”

I had followed Kadin and Nat closely on their way back. Emery had stopped them briefly to administer first aid, resetting Kadin’s nose and dousing Nat’s knuckles in antiseptic iodine. He assured me they were fine, but they’d be feeling the effects for the rest of the day, at least.

I entered my office first and grabbed an oversized t-shirt for Kadin, throwing it at her to put on.

“Sit the hell down.”

Kadin put the shirt on and sat, looking rather embarrassed, but trying to put up a defiant front by crossing her arms in front of her. Nat looked bewildered, but sat in the chair next to Kadin. I lowered myself into my chair opposite them, leaned back, and stared at them both.

“Talk. What was the fight about?”

Silence.

“Who started it?” I narrowed my eyes at them both.

Silence, yet again.

I ground my teeth together. “Do I need to command one of you to talk? Because I will, if I must.”

Nat turned to look at Kadin. I watched their body language closely. I had encountered these types of spats before, but typically they were between two wolves or two humans. This was the first time in a terribly long time that a fight had been between a wolf and a human, and they had both walked away relatively unscathed. Usually, the human always came off second best.

What I normally saw was anger from both parties. But this time, Nat was looking at Kadin with what I would classify as pity. Kadin obviously felt Nat’s eyes on her, but shied away from the attention, scowling at the floor.

Interesting.

“Nat, can you wait in Auden’s office for me? I’d like to talk to Kadin alone.”

The colour drained from Kadin’s face as Nat nodded and left the room, shutting the door behind her.

We sat there in silence for several minutes. I watched several emotions pass over her features: guilt, shame, anger, disappointment. Whatever was going on with Kadin, it ran deep.

When I thought she’d had enough of the silent treatment, I began. “You broke the rules, Kadin.”

Guilt crossed her face, but she remained silent. She knew she had, and she knew she couldn’t deny it.

“Why did you shift?”

She hung her head more. Shame. Still no response.

“Were you coerced into it?”

Her jaw locked, and she looked up at me defiantly. Anger. But not with herself. How curious.

“Who?”

Her brow furrowed and a look of almost despair came over her. Disappointment.

“Spence?” He was her uncle, and he had been training her since she first shifted. If anyone, it would likely be him.

A tear rolled down her cheek. Sadness.

“I can help you. You just need to talk to me.”

Kadin opened her mouth to talk, paused to consider things, then closed it again. She shook her head in annoyance. Confusion.

I sighed. “Kadin, he’s not here. This is a safe space,” I said softly.

“You don’t know how much influence he has,” she whispered, her shoulders slumped in on herself. She was trying desperately to make herself appear smaller. More shame.

My jaw ticked. “I’m still Alpha. I can protect you.” The words were ground out as I was clenching my teeth so hard.

“No. You can’t.” She shook her head, angrily wiping an escaped tear from her cheek. “Are we done here?” She stared at me defiantly, daring me to argue with her.

I frowned. We weren’t done by a long shot, but I knew I wouldn’t get anything further from her. “You know the rules, Kadin. Attacking a fellow Matlock pack member in wolf form when they’re in human form is not tolerated. You’re on kitchen duty for the next seven days. I will let them know to expect you from four PM this afternoon.” I stood up and opened the door to my office. “Go and get changed. Don’t let me catch you fighting again. This is your one and only warning.”

Kadin stared at me and got up. “Yes, Alpha.” She reluctantly tilted her head in submission. I stood at my door with my arms crossed as I watched her storm out of my office, then down the hall. Her ongoing animosity towards Nat was completely out of character. Maybe she was being coerced into it? Would Spence really stoop so low as to use his niece in that way?

Oh, who was I kidding? Of course he would.

I huffed, then went looking for Nat in Auden’s office. Opening the door made Nat jump, but she said nothing while I settled into Auden’s office chair opposite her.

I leaned back, crossed my knees, then let my intertwined hands rest on my lap. “Talk to me, Nat.”

“What did Kadin tell you?”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “No. You tell me your side of things.”

She sighed, then lowered her eyes to the ground between us. “Kadin is mad at me because of my relationship with Bells.”

“Okay. And? Why did she shift?” I tried to piece together what I knew. I couldn’t figure out why Kadin would shift over something so trivial.

Nat rubbed her temples. “That’s the thing, Takeshi. I don’t know.” She leaned back on the sofa with her eyes closed, her brow furrowed, like she was trying desperately to figure out a puzzle.

I frowned. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

She sighed. “Kadin was going on and on about how I didn’t deserve Bells, but I’ve heard all of that from her before.” She waved her hand in the air to dismiss the matter. “This time she said something about ‘giving me every reason to’ fight her, and how I was ‘the only one who could’.” She showed the quotation marks with her fingers, then opened her eyes to stare at me, her brow furrowed with concern. “She screamed at me when I wouldn’t fight her, and then she shifted. It was like she was frustrated and shifted because she had no other choice. Something isn’t right here, Takeshi.”

I let my thoughts wander. It was true. From what I had seen, Kadin and Nat were our two best fighters in the sparring contests we’d had during camp, but we had never pitted them against one another. Kadin had won almost all her sessions, as had Nat once she’d become accustomed to them. I had often wondered who would come out on top if they fought. From the little I had seen earlier, it appeared that Nat had the edge, even in an unfair fight. But why would Kadin shift? She knew what the rules were.

“When did Spence get there?”

She lifted her eyes to the ceiling as she thought. “I heard a rustle in the undergrowth behind me. It distracted me, and Kadin took the opportunity to take me out of the game. I assume that was Spence. But then she wouldn’t stop trying to hit me, and then she shifted. Spence watched it all.”

I raised an eyebrow. “He was there before she shifted?”

“Yeah.” Nat absently rubbed her knuckles where they were red and raw from her fight, her mind obviously still going through the fight.

Interesting. I rubbed my chin as I thought.

“When I asked if he could call Kadin off before she killed me, he said ‘that was the plan’.” She mimed quotation marks again to let me know what Spence had said.

I froze and stared at Nat. “He said he wanted you dead?” Dear Goddess…

“That was the implication.” She wiped her cheeks with her palms in annoyance before letting her hands drop to her lap with a sigh. “What’s going on, Takeshi? First Tatum, then Zelda, now Spence? Why is everyone so hell bent on destroying the people I care about? Am I causing this? Or has Matlock always been this mental?”

I chuckled. “We’ve had our ups and downs, but things have definitely been a little crazier than normal since you’ve been here.” I leaned forward and placed a hand on her knee. “But I can assure you that none of it’s got anything to do with you.”

Nat let out a short giggle that almost sounded like she didn’t believe me.

I sighed. Now for the unpleasantness. “You know I have to punish you, right?”

She became serious immediately, raising an eyebrow in question, but saying nothing.

“I didn’t see everything. Kadin won’t tell me squat, but you can bet your life that Spence will spin this back on you. It will be your word against his.”

Nat took a deep breath and reluctantly nodded. “So, you need to get ahead of it before it blows up.”

“I’m sorry, Nat.” I let my sadness shine through in the words.

“Don’t be. I understand the reasoning. How bad will it be? Are you kicking me out of Matlock?” The colour drained from her face.

I laughed. “Nothing that bad. I gave Kadin kitchen duty for a week for shifting to fight someone in their human form. You didn’t shift; therefore, you get a lesser punishment. I’ll let Kennedy know to expect your help with session clean-up for the rest of the camp. It’ll cut into your break times but shouldn’t impact you too much — it’s only for a couple more days.”

Nat let out a relieved breath. “Oh, thank God.”

I grinned at her. “Go. Find Bells and Cody.” I got up from Auden’s chair and opened the door for Nat. “See if your team won the match.”

“I hope so,” she said, smiling. I watched her walk down the corridor to find her teammates. It’ll be interesting to speak to Casey about how he thought the match went. He’d been champing at the bit to see how Nat’s team was going to play this last game.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as I shut Auden’s door. Now I needed to talk to Spence.

Great.

I headed to Spence’s office. Kennedy was leaning on the wall just outside the closed door.

“He was throwing things around in there for a while, but he seems to have stopped about five minutes ago.” He held out Spence’s keys to me.

“Thanks Kennedy.” I let him drop the keys into my waiting palm, then paused in front of the door to stare at the door handle. “Do you know who won the Capture the Flag?”

“Cody got through their defences and picked up the flag with five minutes left on the clock.” He sounded proud.

I grinned. “Good.”

Kennedy nodded. “Both teams played really well. They went all out. We have some tough calls to make tomorrow.”

“That’s a good place for us to be in.” I raised an eyebrow. “Will we need to increase the number of spots?”

He shrugged, then scratched his beard in thought. “Not sure yet. I’ll go over the figures tonight.”

“Thanks Kennedy.” I placed my hand on the doorknob but didn’t turn it when I remembered I needed to let him know about Nat. “Oh, Nat will be helping you with clean-up for every session from now until camp finishes. Let me know if you run into any hassles.”

Kennedy raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“Go, grab some lunch. I’ll find you once I’m done here. I’d like to double check some things with you in relation to some campers. Nothing serious.”

He tilted his head in acknowledgment before turning around and heading for the cafeteria.

I sighed as I squared my shoulders to prepare for the onslaught I knew was waiting for me when I opened the door. I had to admit, I was somewhat curious about how Spence was going to spin this.

Turning the handle, I opened the door slowly, half expecting something to be thrown at the door. Instead, there was a stony silence. Spence sat behind his desk, flicking through the pages of a book. I looked around the room to take in the mess.

Everything that had been on his desk had been thrown against one of the three solid walls, and he had tossed all the books that had been on the bookshelves to the floor. The two visitor chairs were now lying on their side in one corner of the office. Thankfully, he’d left the glass sliding doors to his private courtyard untouched, although it probably would have taken something much heavier than anything in the room to break through them, and he wouldn’t have wanted to risk hurting himself to try smashing through them himself.

I stood in the middle of the room with my arms crossed in front of me. “Are you done throwing your tantrum?”

He snarled at me and continued thumbing through the book methodically.

I narrowed my eyes. “Explain yourself, Spence.”

He sighed in annoyance and looked up at me from his book, but said nothing, preferring to frown at me like a petulant child.

“For fuck’s sake, Spence.” I cleared a small space in the middle of the room with my feet, grabbed one of the overturned visitor chairs, righted it in the clearing and sat down. I crossed my legs and leaned back, watching him to see what he would do next. “Let’s start with today, shall we? What were you doing with Kadin and Nat?” I placed my clasped hands in my lap and twiddled my thumbs while I waited for his explanation.

“That was none of your concern.”

I tilted my head to the side. “I disagree. A camper that happened to be your niece had shifted into her wolf form and was physically assaulting another camper in their human form. Which, as you know, is a serious pack offence.” I picked at some lint on my knee. “And you did nothing other than stand back, watch, and from what I heard while I was there, actively encourage.”

Spence glared at me. “Everything was under control and being handled,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Was it?” I asked blankly. “Was it really?”

“There was a disagreement between two campers. I allowed one of them to shift in order to defend herself against the aggressor.”

“So, you allege Nat started the incident,” I said, letting the doubt I felt about his statement drip from my words.

“From my recollection, Nat was the instigator and Kadin was doing nothing more than defending herself.” He dared me to dispute him, knowing full well that I hadn’t been there to see how it had all begun. “Nat should be removed from both the camp and Matlock in punishment to ensure that it doesn’t occur again.”

I blinked slowly as I took in his words. “And I assume your wish is that Kadin receives no punishment at all.”

“Kadin was defending herself,” he repeated. “There is no need for punishment when a pack member defends themselves from a rogue wolf.”

I raised a hand to rub my forehead and breathed out slowly, trying to contain my rage. “Nat is not a rogue wolf, Spence.”

“She’s not pack, Takeshi. We do not know which pack she came from or belongs to.” He held up the book he had been flicking through. It was a copy of the council by-laws of the Matlock pack. “By very definition, that makes her a rogue wolf.”

“I granted her asylum under extenuating circumstances,” I said slowly. “She has broken no pack rules whilst she has been here in Matlock–”

“Until now,” Spence cut me off with an evil grin. “She attacked a pack member. If she is not punished, I will be advocating for her removal from Matlock grounds at the next council meeting.”

“She has been punished.” I narrowed my eyes. “As has your niece. They have both been given community service for this morning’s incident.”

Spence’s face started turning an odd shade of purple. “Kadin did nothing wrong.”

“So you say,” I said coolly. “Forgive me for not trusting your word when it comes to your own niece.”

“I’m the Beta of this pack, Takeshi–”

“And I’m the Alpha, as it appears you have forgotten.” I cut him off this time. “Don’t test me, Spence. You will not like where it leads.” I stood up, essentially putting a stop to the conversation. I’d had quite enough of his crap for the day. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to sort out the fuck-ton of shit you left me with after being acting-Alpha for four miserable days.”

I walked over to the door and opened it. “To begin, Bells will be reinstated to the Warrior Training candidates’ list immediately. He is one of the best candidates we’ve had in years, and I will not allow you to remove him from the list of applicants for spurious reasons.” I glared at him, daring him to argue with me.

The fury in his face was clear, but he remained quiet.

I exited his office and shut the door behind me, feeling it shudder as he threw the by-laws book at it.

I took a deep breath to calm my anger, then went looking for Kennedy. Spence was getting out of control. It was time for me to start the ball rolling on getting him removed from the Beta role.

And it was time for Nat to become a pack member.