THE BETA'S PAST

For a moment, Damon was silent. He remembered that the attack on their pack had not been fun, and he thought back to the events leading up to it. He could still clearly remember his initial reaction the first time he and the other werewolves who were hanging out with him at a late-night bonfire by the lakeside on a memorable night following their yearly pack gathering heard from a beta who suddenly burst into their midst to inform them that another pack was intruding on their territory and intended to destroy them.

Like the rest of his pack, including Lucas, he had greatly underestimated the threat these random nomadic werewolves posed to his pack, which he led to defend their territory, and had assumed it was just another rival territorial battle between them to drive their pack out of the Jacksonville region in order to establish a domain. Lucas had only informed the old man who had been their pack's alpha before Damon took over as leader, but he had no idea that the pack would suffer greatly as a result of his reckless actions. Lucas had left the group before the fight to go find Uncle Danny in order to increase their chances of defeating their opponents with brutal strength. He had not informed Damon of his departure, nor had he told any of the omega who might have disregarded his advice. He went to Uncle Danny's garage to see him as he usually did, taking care of his merchandise. Uncle Danny's son and a beta who had yet to become one of them were left behind when Lucas departed with him to join the battle.

Even though they were significantly outnumbered when Lucas and Uncle Danny arrived on the scene, Damon and the other werewolves in his pack were able to entice them to retreat into the woods and drive the trespassers away from the city. It was only after they engaged in fierce combat with the opposing Lycans that they realized the attack was a trick.

When Lucas and Old Man arrived at the scene of the fight, Damon and the other three werewolves who remained to fight off the attackers were still struggling to deal with the enemy's superior strength. Four werewolves from Damon's pack had been severely injured by the enemy's alpha and were lying down with fatal wounds on their wolf bodies. Lucas's ability to protect Damon from an enemy alpha's sneak assault from behind was just fortunate. The alpha was horrified when Lucas bit its furry neck, causing severe superficial wounds to its side. The alpha withdrew, suffering cuts and bruises on the left side of his hairy neck, and twice circled around to charge at Lucas. However, Morrison, a daring beta in Damon's pack, attacked him from behind, forcing Lucas to kill the besieged alpha. The two werewolves were able to subdue the alpha and end the threat posed by the fierce shapeshifting creatures, but they also suffered significant losses in the process. Morrison had fortunately been able to defeat his opponent, who was twice as strong as he was. Three of the eight werewolves who fought on Damon's side died from their wounds, including Adam, whose arm was severed during the fight but he survived in contrast to the other two betas who perished instantly from their throats being ripped apart by their opponent's razor-sharp fangs.

In addition to the casualties they suffered during the fight, another enemy slipped in and killed Uncle Danny's son. They were engaged at the same moment, and it wasn't until Damon and the others who survived the conflict saw bite marks on the victim's neck side that they learned the youngster had been killed by a vampire. Witnessing Uncle Danny's son's death and funeral, in which his corpse was burned to ash rather than receiving a dignified burial, was difficult for everyone. The only other werewolves who felt the overwhelming loss of the child were Uncle Danny, Damon, and Lucas. Uncle Danny wanted revenge on the attacker who killed his son in cold blood, so Lucas had been surreptitiously tracking the vampire for the old man ever since the tragedy. Less than two years had passed since the incident when Damon learned of Lucas's interactions with the elderly Lycan.

“I understand what you mean but the issue with Isabelle comes first.” Damon replied after a brief moment of ruminating about the past back to the present.

“And why is that?” Lucas asked curiously.

“I believe she has a lot of enemies and yet-” Damon answered but Lucas interrupted him before he could complete his statement.

“She doesn’t know about it, does she?” Lucas asked again and Damon nodded in affirmation.

“Yes, she’s clueless that she’s in danger.” Damon replied with a worried look on his face.

“I see.” Lucas said in deep thought.

“She has no idea what she had gotten herself into by appearing publicly on TV and It’s my fault she’s acting stubborn now that I have found where she has been living all these years.” Damon said in frustration and took a deep breath to clear the pain he was feeling inside him.

“Then it would be best if you sort things out with Isabelle yourself.”

“I know that and I will be the one paying a visit next time.” Damon said, and headed for the door.

“I’ll be off to see Danny.” Lucas said after sighing heavily.

“Relay my greetings to him and don’t forget to meet at the hideout tomorrow night.” Damon reminded

“I won’t forget where we’ll often meet.” Lucas replied, smiling brightly.

“Good to know. Tell Jack and the others to meet me at the shack by sundown.”

Damon instructed further.

“I will, man. Catch you later.” Lucas replied briefly and walked away, heading straight to the road to catch a taxi. As Lucas walked away, Damon thought about his beta friend, who he knew was still struggling to come to terms with the fact that he had contributed to Danny's son's tragic death. Danny seemed to be punishing him for this by having him track down a vampire, whose trail had almost entirely disappeared from the scene of the incident.