The Code Of The Alpha

"Would you hush?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Well, stop thinking so loud."

I heard Mady huff from somewhere in the room behind me, but my eyes were glued in front of me.

With stiff and aching fingers, I lifted the small detailing brush from the palette and leaned forward, ignoring the pain in my lower back.

Holding my breath, I gently swept the brush along the canvas, letting the beige acrylic paint cover the markings of where I had outlined with a graphite pencil.

I let out a long, exasperated sigh of relief as I finished the last upward stroke of the brush. "Are you done? Can I see?"

I felt Mady's presence invade the space behind me as she leaned forward to get a better look at the canvas propped against the wall that I sat in front of.

"Carrie, that looks great."

"I hate painting hands," I admitted, feeling a sudden wave of exhaustion pass over me.

"No, it looks really good."

I glanced over the canvas that was partially painted and partially outlined with a graphite pencil. An old dusty picture was clipped up at the top of the canvas, serving as my guide to what the painting itself would look like when it was finished.

"I'm exhausted."

"I don't see why you felt the need to stay up all night doing this," Mady said.

"You could just paint little bits and pieces at the time and you would be able to finish it gradually instead of only working on it in bursts of sporadic energy.

"That's when I paint best," I argued, throwing my brush into the plastic cup filled with water.

I slowly began to get off the stool I had been sitting on for hours, wringing out my hands. Stretching my arms out behind me and in front of me, I felt my spine pop in several different places. Letting out a deep breath, I bent down to grab the back of my calves as I stretched out my back even more.

"Besides," I continued, "I have to have that done by their anniversary at the end of next month.

I stood up slowly to take one last look at the incomplete painting that would soon be a gift. It was a portrait of my parents as they walked down the aisle, the two of them newly married.

She was in her long, flowy wedding dress; her veil billowing behind her and a beaming, youthful smile on her face. He was in a simple black tux as he marched forward confidently, holding my mother's hand. A similar smile was plastered across his face.

I reached above me to turn off the light that hung over the canvas.

"What time is it?" I asked, rubbing my tired eyes.

Mady looked down at her watch.

"Almost three."

I groaned. "I'm going to bed," she said, yawning. I felt terribly guilty. Her and I were supposed to be finishing up the last season of the show we'd been binging for the past few weeks, but I'd gotten side-tracked with the painting.

"I'm sorry, Mady," I said earnestly.

" I didn't mean to get caught up."

"No worries. I was able to finish my reading for civil procedure so it's all good."

I grimaced at the thought of assigned reading.

Mady was in her first year of law school. She was studying to get her juris doctorate so she could become an attorney and one day, a judge like her dad.

I, on the other hand, was happy with my bachelor's degree in English. It allowed me to live as a professional starving artist, even though I technically never starved since I worked as a part-time librarian and a part-time art teacher at the elementary school.

"What time are we leaving tomorrow morning?" I asked her.

"I'm planning on being over there by ten."

I nodded as she turned to leave the room.

"See you in the morning," she said. "Night."

Once she had left and I heard the door to her bedroom open and close, I groaned and fell back onto my bed.

Ten in the morning was way too early given that it was nearly three and I was just then about to go to sleep.

To make matters worse, I hadn't packed yet either, meaning I would be waking up around nine so that we could still leave on time. I always ended up making us late wherever we went and I was determined that it wouldn't be the case tomorrow morning.

Mady and I were meeting our parents at her family's house to go with our dads to a conference. Her father was the Alpha of our pack in southern Oregon and

my father was his Beta. The two of them also happened to be leaders that represented Oregon on a committee of Werewolf affairs in the western United States.

Every so often, the two of them traveled to Las Vegas for meetings with other committee members.

Normally, these meetings were biannual but they happened as often as needed. With it only being May and they were traveling to their fourth meeting so far this year, I was under the impression that something was going on in the world of Werewolves and pack business that was not routine.

However, this meeting fell on a holiday weekend. Because Mady and I had made an executive decision that we needed a break from school and work, we decided to tag along with our fathers for a three-day vacation in Vegas.

As I reached over to turn my lamp off, I noticed the dried acrylic paint that stained my hands. Exhausted, I resigned to the fact that I would just have to wash sheets in the morning. I didn't even have the energy to get under the comforter before I fell asleep.

It felt like only seconds had gone by before Mady was opening mt bedroom door, telling me to get up.

"It's almost nine forty-five," she said.

"We need to leave in fifteen minutes."

I sat up quickly, my hair falling in my face.

"Oh shit." I groaned, seeing the mid-morning rays of sun coming through the window. I threw my legs over the side of the bed and stood up. She disappeared down the hallway as I quickly made my way over to my closet and pulled my duffle bag from the top shelf in a drowsy daze.

I haphazardly pulled clothes from their hangers and shoved them into the bag before also taking a handful of underwear out of my drawer and stuffing those into the bag as well.

I barely had enough time to brush my hair, pull it back into a ponytail and change out of my pajamas before Mady was yelling that it was time to go.

"Just a second!" I yelled back, putting on my shoes.

I grabbed my phone from off the bed, sighing as I realized I had forgotten to charge it overnight. I threw it into my purse along with the charger, my sketchbook and a pencil bag.

Taking one last look around the room to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, it occurred to me that I hadn't washed sheets that morning like I'd planned.

I shrugged before turning to run down the hallway.

"Your shirt's on backwards," Mady told me as she watched me walk towards the front door.

I looked down to see that she was right and I pulled my arms back through the sleeves to turn it around.

"Did you pack a toothbrush?" she asked.

"Yes, mother."

"Toothpaste?"

I stopped short and Mady laughed as she followed me out of our shared townhouse.

"I packed some," she told me, locking the front door behind us.

I sighed, thankful that at least one of us had turned out to be a responsible adult.

It was a quick, five-minute drive from our townhouse to the neighborhood where our parents lived. Mady's mom and dad lived across the street from mine, as they had our whole lives.

I could still vividly remember being scolded by both mothers because I never looked both ways before crossing the street whenever I went over to play. I also remembered the times during high school that the two of us would meet under the cover of night to sneak off to our friends' houses.

The childhood memories made me smile as we pulled into her parents' driveway. Both of our dads were outside already, her father and mine loading their luggage into the back of my dad's truck.

"Well look who it is," her dad said, glancing down at his watch.

"We were about to leave you two."

"You wouldn't have left us, Mr. Reid," I said confidently as we got our own luggage from the back of my car.

"You threaten us with that every time but you never have."

He raised an eyebrow. "There's a first time for everything, Miss Blair."

I walked over to my dad and he took my duffle bag to pack it away.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

Mady and I nodded. We waved to our mothers, who were watching us from the kitchen window.

Mady's mother, Shannon, raised the window.

"Drive safe! Be sure to text us when you get there!" she yelled.

"And don't spend all your money in Vegas!" my mom added.

Giving them a thumbs up, Mady's dad and mine got into the truck. She and I followed suit, blowing kisses and waving to our respective mothers.

We hadn't gotten very far down the road before my father's phone went off

"Hello? Yes, this is Dr. David Blair."

I looked down at my watch before showing it to Mady.

"Only took two minutes for that thing to ring," I said to her.

"I'm betting his will go off in the next five minutes," she whispered, pointing to her own dad.

"I can hear you," he whispered loudly from the passenger seat.

The both of us laughed quietly, trying not to disturb my father, who was discussing a patient's prescription with a nurse. When my dad wasn't being a Beta for one of the largest packs in Oregon, he was a family medicine doctor in a clinic that he ran with my mother, who was also a doctor.

As their only child, I struggled with the fact that I knew they had planned on me going to medical school and taking over the clinic one day. But I could barely pass my college-level biology class, much less make it through medical school successfully.

My passions and talents didn't involve science or medicine, but that didn't stop me from wishing they did As predicted, Mr. Reid's phone rang not long after my dad had bended his own call.

The back and forth of phone tag between our fathers and their courthouses and clinics lasted the remainder of our day-long drive.

When we finally arrived in Vegas that night, we checked into our hotel and all went our separate ways.

"So," I said, nudging Mady as we passed the casino entrance on our way to the elevators.

She shook her head.

"Absolutely not, I'm exhausted. We were up until three and I woke up early this morning.

"Oh. c'mon." I said.

"We haven't done anything exciting all day."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, hitting the elevator call button.

"I loved staring out the window at the miles of dirt and cacti for nine hours.''

"You're hilarious," I said, my unamused tone matching her sarcastic one.

We rode the elevator up to our room on the eighth floor.

'"Let's at least go and find something to eat for dinner" I argued stepping off the elevator.

"We haven't eaten anything since we pulled through the drive-thru for lunch."

"Carrie, you're a grown woman. If you're so hungry, go and find something to eat."

"By myself? While we're on vacation?" I scowled.

"That's not fun."

We found our room and Mady scanned the key card to open the door.

"I'm not in the mood for fun right now," she said, entering the room and sitting down on her bed.

I threw my duffle bag onto the bed.

"When are you ever in the mood for fun, Miss Party Pooper?"

She narrowed her eyes at me before drawing in a deep breath.

"Fine, I'll go and get something to eat with you but then we're coming back here so I can go to bed."

"Deal."

When we left the hotel, I could hardly tell that the sun had begun to set. All of the neon lights that flashed around us were as bright as daylight. After wandering around for a few minutes, we found a restaurant and went inside to eat.

As we were being led to our table, I was so focused on the lights and memorabilia plastered to the walls around us that I ran into someone that was trying to walk past me.

He grabbed my shoulders to keep me from falling into the people sitting around us.

"I'm so sorry," I said quickly, regaining my footing.

"Hey, not a problem." he assured me with a chill tone. He had brown eyes, a deep tan, and light brown hair that was peeking out from under a backwards-facing trucker's hat.

He flashed a disarming smile before letting go of me.

"Sorry," I found myself repeating.

"Don't worry about it. Have a good one," he said, walking around US.

I nodded and waved, somewhat enchanted by the friendly stranger.

I turned to Mady, who watched the spectacle with an amused look on her face.

"So embarrassing," I said, feeling my cheeks flush.

Mady just shrugged.

"He didn't seem to mind."

I shook my head as I followed her and the hostess to our table. We ordered our food, which came out quickly. This left us plenty of time to walk around and sightsee before it got too late.

Turns out all Mady needed was some food in her system and she was out of a bad mood and into a touristy one. We wandered around the city for quite a while before the both of us were ready to call it a night.

As we headed back to our hotel, we noticed the security detail that stood outside the building and in the lobby.

"Who do you think is here?" I asked her.

"Do you think it's a celebrity?"

'"I honestly don't care," she yawned, hitting the button to call for an elevator.

Deciding that Mady had already put up with enough of my curiosity for the night, I let it go and followed her into the elevator.

"Maybe we'll see whoever it is tomorrow," I said.

She just shrugged. While Mady was exhausted, I was nearly giddy at the thought of what the next two days would hold. It had been too long since I'd had a vacation.

After all, what happened in Vegas, stayed in Vegas.

Or so I thought.

I looked over at the alarm clock, noticing that it was around six in the morning, too early for vacation. I laid there for a while longer and begged my brain to turn off so I could go back to sleep but it never did.

Sighing in annoyance, I rolled out of the bed.

I showered before brushing my hair and my teeth, hoping all the while that Mady would wake up. When I exited the bathroom and saw that she was still sound asleep in her bed, I was slightly jealous that she had yet to be woken up by the sunlight that was peeking through the curtains.

I was in desperate need of caffeine and I decided that I couldn't wait on her to wake up. I grabbed my sketchbook and pencil bag and walked towards the door.

Quietly, I left our room and wandered into the elevator. Riding ball the way down to the lobby, I found the hotel's coffee shop and grabbed a seat.

I don't know how long I was there, but I drank almost two cups of tea and nearly finished a sketch of the Vegas skyline before I began to get jittery.

I walked around the hotel for a while and found myself wondering into the casino. The neon lights and greedy machines had yet to turn on for the day and the room was nearly empty except for a cleaning crew and a man who stood behind the bar cleaning drinking glasses.

He looked up and caught sight of me, immediately waving me off.

"We're closed!" he yelled.

I mumbled out an apology before turning to leave. I walked back to the elevators, deciding it was time to go back to the room.

Just as I hit the button to call for an elevator, I looked up to see Mady walking off one quickly, looking panicked.

She sighed when she saw me.

"What the hell's the matter with you?" she asked, her tone furious.

"You didn't let me know you were leaving or where you were going and you left your phone in the room. What if something had happened to you?"

I laughed as I looked at her wild expression.

"Good morning to you, too," I said.

"Remind me though, what was that you said last night about me being a grown woman?''

She rolled her eyes and turned to get back on the elevator. When we got back to the room, I waited for her to change and get ready before the two of us went back out to explore for the rest of the day.

"Dad said he wants us to meet them in the lobby around six after their meetings are over so we can all go to dinner together," Mady said, reading the text her father sent her.

I nodded. "Sounds good to me."

We left the hotel and walked out onto the sidewalk. The charm and appeal of flashing lights had long since escaped the city now that the sun was shining directly above us. However, the streets were just as crowded as they had been the night before.

Since we were only a few minutes away from the Strip, we decided to head that way and decide what to do when we got there.

"There's an aquarium in Mandalay Bay," I said as we walked up the sidewalk next to the resort.

"We could do that?"

"Sure," Mady agreed.

We walked inside and got lost in the maze of people for a few minutes. Once we had finally gathered our bearings, we found the aquarium and paid for our tickets.

Even though I was happy to be there, I couldn't help an unsettling feeling that I had as we walked under the tunnel of fish.

Mady didn't seem to notice, going on about the different species of rays and sharks that were swimming above us. I began to look through my purse, wondering if I had forgotten something.

"Are you okay?" She asked me, stopping in the middle of a sentence about bull sharks being able to survive in freshwater.

"I have a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach."

Her eyebrows furrowed as she pulled me out of the way of the tour group that was passing by.

"What do you mean? Do you feel sick?"

I shook my head. "Not exactly, more like I've forgotten something."

Mady thought hard for a moment before she spoke.

"I mean, you did forget your toothpaste at home." I shook my head again.

"Did you get your card back from the guy who we bought the tickets from?"

I nodded.

"Did you make sure that you didn't leave your phone in the hotel room?"

"Yes," I said, nodding.

"I've already thought of all of that." She hummed.

"Did you leave your keycard at the hotel?"

I couldn't remember.

"Maybe that's it," I said, sighing.

"It's not that big of a deal," Mady said.

"I brought mine so we aren't locked out.''

As we continued our stroll through the aquarium, I came to the conclusion that the feeling in my stomach wasn't there because I left my keycard in the hotel room. The feeling slowly came to hover over me like a rain cloud and I couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen.

We finished our tour of the aquarium and walked back out into the main lobby.

"Want to grab some lunch while we're here?" Mady asked.

"Maybe you're just hungry?"

I nodded, still trying to shake the unexplainable feeling.

"Oh look," Mady said, nodding over my shoulder. "We should walk through the casino."

I turned to see the casino's flashing lights that loomed over the entrance.

"Sure." I said, turning to walk in that direction.

As we walked in, I noticed the number of people walking in was far greater than the number of those who were leaving.

Once inside, the music and lights were enough to distract anyone from their problems. The sensory overload I experienced was almost enough to make

me forget about the weird feeling I had walking in.

Maybe that was the appeal.

As we walked around, I noticed all the girls in short, shimmery dresses and men in cheap, ill-fitting suits. Scattered around were also people who were clearly tourists with lanyards hanging around their necks and 'I heart Vegas' t-shirts.

Mady and I stopped at the end of a long row of slot machines that were dinging and flashing lights in their user's faces.

"Want to play?" Mady asked me.

I shook my head. "I don't have enough money to be feeding it so freely into those machines.

Mady laughed, nodding her head in agreement.

"Well," she said.

"We came, we saw and we conquered. Want to go get lunch?"

I nodded as I turned to follow her out.

As I did so, a loud crash echoed throughout the room followed by the sound of screaming.

Mady and I both turned around to see a crowd of people rushing towards us. Her and I both exchanged a look of surprise before we turned to make a dash for the exit.

As we got closer, I noticed the men who stood at the entrance, blocking anyone from coming in or going out.

"What the hell is going on?" I heard Mady mutter under her breath.

Repetitive sounds of crashing and mechanical failure began to echo around the room, although I couldn't determine which direction it was coming from. Over the sound of the machines whirring and people screaming, I noticed that the music, which had been playing when we walked in, had stopped.

People were now piling forward, trying their hardest to leave and escape.

"There has to be more than one way out," I said to Mady.

"Start looking for a fire escape."

Her and I pushed our way back through the crowd, our eyes straining to find a red-glowing exit sign along the walls around us.

As we passed those who were still running up to the entrance, I caught parts of their frenzied conversations:

"They're looking for someone..."

"I think it's the feds."

"Did you see that guy? He threw the roulette wheel into the blackjack table!"

Mady and I exchanged looks as we both heard what the last woman said. Had Bruce Banner lost his bets and turned into the Hulk?

Mady and I stood out from the crowds because of the direction that we were walking. If we were trying to be inconspicuous, we were failing miserably.

"Look!" she said, pointing to an exit near the back of the room.

"There's a door."

I nodded and began to follow her as she ran towards it.

"Wait, Mady!"

I grabbed her by the back of her shirt and yanked her backwards so that she was standing next to me, behind a slot machine.

At the moment we were hidden, a group of three men walked past.

"He said the scent was coming from here," one of them said.

"No one leaves until we find her."

I looked at Mady only to see she was already looking at me.

"He said 'scent'," she noted quietly. "They aren't feds."

I shook my head, still trying to make sense of it.

"He also said 'she'." I whispered.

"Who on earth could they be looking for?" I just shrugged, feeling uneasy about it all.

"Let's get out of here."

Mady nodded in agreement as we came out of our hiding place.

Ducking down so no one could see us, we quickly ran between slot machines and card tables, trying our hardest to make it to the exit door before someone saw us. Just as we were a few feet away, Mady's phone began to ring I felt my heart stop as I turned to see she was frantically searching for it in her purse.

"Shit, shit, shit," she muttered.

"Who keeps their ringer on?!" I asked incredulously.

I looked over her shoulder to see that a few heads had turned. We had been spotted.

"Forget about it," I said quickly.

I turned around and ran as hard as I could towards the exit door, a fire alarm blaring as I pushed it open.

Nearly blinded by the sunlight as I realized we were outside, it took me a few moments to figure out where I was going next.

Mady was close behind me as I took off running into the street. I could hear the men yelling behind us, telling us to stop.

"We need to lose them!" Mady yelled.

Well, duh, I thought.

"Find a pool or a fountain." I told her as we rounded a corner. I thought that maybe the water would help cover our scent for long enough to throw the men off our trail.

"We need to get to the front of the hotel." I said, remembering the fountain that I saw their earlier that morning.

Hoping the crowd of people was an adequate temporary cover for us, I began to start to run in the direction I thought would lead us to the front as Mady followed.

She had finally fished her phone out of her purse and she groaned.

"It was my dad," she said, holding the phone up to her ear to call him back.

"Seriously?" I asked.

"Now is not the time to return missed calls."

Once we were in front of the hotel. I turned to see that the men who were following us couldn't find where we had gone.

Likely, our scent had been slightly covered by the crowd of people around us. They were looking around quickly and I knew it wouldn't be long before they caught it again.

"Dad!" Mady yelled into the phone.

"We need you to come and get us."

Her breathing was short and panicked as she argued with him, telling him that she had no time to explain. She looked around as she tried to figure out where we were exactly.

"Mady! Over here."

I waved her over to the bushes, palm trees and other foliage that surrounded the large fountain. We ducked under the cover of the leaves, receiving weird looks from everyone around us. Thankfully, we seemed to be hidden from the sight of the men

who had been following us.

I tugged her along, pulling her over to the fountain.

"We're at the fountain in front of Mandalay Bay," she said.

"Pick us up here." I pointed to the fountain as a confused look crossed her face.

"Wait, what happened?" she asked, putting her finger to her other ear so she could hear her father better.

I frantically pointed to the fountain as she tried to figure out exactly what she was hearing.

"Your scent," I told her. "They're going to find us."

She swatted my hand away as I tried to pull her forward. I looked behind us to see that our pursuers were standing right in front of us, the only thing separating us was the bushes.

Turning around, I gave Mady a quick shove and watched as she toppled over into the fountain.

I quickly followed, making sure to completely submerse myself under the water.

Thankfully, Mady was smart enough not to scream at me as she resurfaced. She only glared and began to shake the water from her phone. I motioned for her to get down as I watched the shadows that still lingered in front of the plants that acted as our cover.

Several agonizing moments went by as we waited for the men to leave. When they finally did, I let out a long sigh of relief.

"What did he say?" I asked.

"He wasn't done talking before you decided to send me swimming," she said.

"But something happened in their meeting this morning."

"You didn't hear what it was?"

She shook her head. "I'm hoping that he heard where I told him we were," she said.

"I have a feeling that we should be more scared of hotel security than we should those men who were following us." I nodded, realizing that the two of us were going to jail if we were caught in the fountain.

We climbed out and cautiously made our way out of the bushes, the both of us soaking wet with our clothes clinging to us.

I tried to ignore the judgmental gazes that we received as I looked around for my father's truck.

A few minutes went by before the truck rolled around the corner, pulling into the fire lane. My father had barely put the car into park before Mady and I were climbing into the back seat.

"Are you okay?" both fathers asked simultaneously.

Mady and I nodded.

As we began to drive away, I looked for the right words to say. My nerves were shot.

"We got chased out of the casino," Mady said, still breathing heavy. "I think I need an inhaler.

"Who were you chased by?" her father asked with a serious expression.

She just shook her head. "I don't know who they were. I thought they were security guards at first.

My eyebrows furrowed as I heard her say the words 'security guards'."

"Wait, I recognized one of them." I said.

"He was standing outside our hotel last night when we got back from dinner. I thought he was part of a security detail."

"He likely was," Mr. Reid said.

"He was probably with another Alpha that we were supposed to be meeting with."

"Who is it?" Mady asked.

My father sighed. "Luca Ronan."

I felt my eyebrows furrow. "Who is that? I've never heard of him."

"He's an Alpha of a few packs up north in Montana."

"A few packs? He has more than one?" Mady asked.

"Well, technically just one now" her dad replied. "He has continually garnered more territory the longer he's been Alpha.

"More territory?" I asked.

"I thought there were guidelines that the Alphas followed that only allowed a certain population of each pack."

"That's what our meetings have been about this year," my dad replied.

"He's not very cooperative and doesn't seem to understand that he's in violation of so many codes by continually taking over more and more territory."

"And that's not to mention the number of Alphas, Betas and their families he's killed to get to where he is today," Mady's dad added.

"Killed?" Mady asked, eyebrows raised.

"Slaughtered," my father replied.

"In their own homes."

"He hasn't shown up to the last few meetings," Mady's dad said.

"We finally convinced him to attend this one. We didn't realize he was even here until this morning.''

"I don't understand," Mady said. "Who was he looking for? Why would his security guards be chasing us?"

"I don't know, but I don't like it," my dad said. "We're leaving and going home. I'm not staying here any longer.''

"Well we have to go back to the hotel, right?" I asked nervously.

"All of our things are there."

My dad shook his head. "No, we're leaving everything. The less he has to track the two of you, the better."

"But, Dad, my sketchbook..."

"Is just a hundred pages of bound paper," he said.

"I'll buy you another one if that's what it takes."

I looked at Mady who frowned. She was the only one who understood what that sketchbook meant to me. I'd had it since high school. I didn't say anything else as I leaned my wet head against the window and watched as the city whirled past us.

Although I was happy to be safe, I couldn't shake the feeling that I had left something far more valuable than luggage in Las Vegas.