Earth 2408: Prequel to The Alpha King Part IV

Joshua smelled them before he reached the end of his driveway. They'd been there…at his home. What the fuck? He was maybe twenty minutes late and they showed up at his home and no doubt, probably scared the piss out of Traven. His mate wasn't always the most calm of people in normal circumstances, having complete strangers show up in the middle of the night and ask for his lover, probably had all manner of things going through his mind. Especially with what was going on now. They'd been able to detect the frustration of Earth with her inhabitants. She'd grown bitter and resentful and they'd all known, they, meaning the leaders of Tumaro, the planet that Joshua and his family hailed from, that it wouldn't be too long before she was going to turn on the humans and begin killing them all off.It was one of the main reasons that Joshua had volunteered to journey down to Earth and try to learn all that he could before it became too late. He hadn't planned on finding his mate while he was out walking. He especially hadn't planned on finding his very human mate. He wouldn't trade any of what had happened over the last few years for anything in the world, however. Traven was his life and Joshua had vowed to do whatever it took to keep that man safe and sound, even if he'd had to stay on Earth as a human and only shift when it was absolutely necessary.He paused before he took another step. What was that smell? He sniffed the air and could tell that something was wrong. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up at full attention, his wolf began howling within him and his brain struggled to catch up with the two indicators that something was wrong with his mate.  Taking another step forward, he stepped up on the bottom step to the porch and growled.Blood. He smelled blood and it wasn't just any type of blood…it was his mate's blood.Joshua's top lip curled back and he felt his canines extend, his skin grew fur and his hands shifted to their paw counterparts, the claws extended. He leapt forward and landed on all fours, hearing the rip of the fabric from his shirt. Stopping at the door to their home, he sniffed the frame. Even this…something smelled off about this, and more than that…He inhaled deeply, his eyes closing as he struggled to focus past the anger and the blood pounding fear. His heart rammed against his rib cage, trying to break free, his stomach rolled within him and he could feel his eyes burning from unshed tears. Not tears of heartbreak or hurt, but from rage. White-hot, blinding rage. He knew then that he was about to go feral, become a blood-thirsty animal on a rampage for revenge, and in that moment, he didn't care. They had taken his mate and they would pay.Tossing back his head, he let out a loud roar of anger and extreme frustration, a sound that shook the atmosphere and caused it to tremble in fear, it was a sound that he knew they could hear and a sound that he knew they would understand.Family or not, they would pay for touching, taking and causing to bleed, what was his and they would pay dearly. He would see to that.Turning he allowed his shift to fully roll over his body and let his wolf to come out in full force. He could smell the scents of nature much more distinctly, the sounds of laughter coming from the homes of their neighbors that weren't watching the news. The sounds of tears, screams of shock and surprise coming from the homes of the neighbors who were watching the news. He would never understand humans. Most of them would rather escape into some drama on television, trying to figure out if Tina and Eric were ever going to get together, and forget that the real world even existed, while others would rather immerse themselves in the horrors of life and live their lives full of despair, horror and fear. Didn't they understand that there was a healthy medium?He pushed away thoughts of the silly humans around him and focused his energy on finding the only human he was concerned with saving. Putting his muzzle to the ground he picked up the scent of his mate, his father, his younger brother and his father's great grandson? What the hell was Agnistion doing here? His brother's grandson was barely past his twentieth summer. He'd only recently found his mate and he'd come to Earth with their father? With a low whine at the thought that he was going to have to kill his younger brother as well as his father, Joshua pressed forward and continued running, following the trail back the way that he only recently come. Turning the corner, ten miles away from his home with Traven, Joshua slowed down and lowered his body down to his belly.It wouldn't do him any good to rush right into the room, they were probably expecting that, he had to be smart about this. His mind made up, he shifted back to his human form, ignoring the chill that swept his limbs and his exposed genitals. He crept slowly towards the massive, sprawling lands that held the 3-story home that his family had been given for their stay on the planet. They had been extremely impressed with the respect they'd been shown by the American government when they'd first arrived…of course that was before the government told them that they were insane and should go away, that Earth was absolutely fine and nothing would go wrong. Joshua knew that they were probably kicking their own asses right now. As well as scrambling around and trying to figure out a way to deal with their current planetary disaster.Earth had gotten fed up with the wars, the murders, the intolerance, the hatred, the betrayals, the lies, the manipulations, the waste, the greed, the bigotry and the hypocrisy of her inhabitants and had finally decided to do something about it. She wasn't playing favorites either from what Joshua and his family had been able to discern. She was killing off young, old, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, indian, native American, latino, African, fat, thin, gay, straight, bisexual, man, woman, transgender. She was even killing off athiests, Buddhists, hindis, muslims, jews, catholics, Christians, wiccans…Joshua had noticed that the religious fanatics seemed to suffer the worst deaths, however, so maybe she was playing favorites just a little.No matter, though. As long as Earth was in a tizzy no one was safe. Joshua wasn't going to let Traven die because Earth was pissed off. He was going to save his mate from death by Earth. First he had to save him from his family. It was imperative that Joshua find him soon, because it was time for him to give Traven his nightly shot of Prinktakium juice.Stopping in his forward movement just outside of the perimeters of the house's outside lights, Joshua sighed. Traven would be beyond pissed off if he knew that Joshua had been slowly but surely dosing him with different juices and chemical serums to make sure that Traven's body would be able to survive in space and on Tumaro. There had never been a human on Tumaro and Joshua was aware that the atmosphere on his home planet was a whole lot cleaner, fresher than the atmosphere on Earth. Traven would suffocate from the fresh air, burn from the sun and his body would implode from the chemical differences in the air that surrounded Tumaro unless his body was adjusted properly.Joshua had taken it a step further. He didn't want Traven to just be able to survive on Tumaro, he wanted his mate to thrive on his home planet. So he'd consulted with friends of his and they'd helped him construct a number of serums and medications and vitamins that would make Traven younger, healthier and stronger, completely changing his genetic makeup. But Joshua had been told that he had to make sure that Traven took his prescribed doses at the same time every day and the exact amount that he was supposed to, otherwise they were uncertain of what would happen to his body. Joshua had exactly…he looked up to consult the placement of the moon, five minutes to get inside and get Traven before he'd have to rush them home and give Traven his shot of Prinktakium juice.Creepy softly but quickly around the building towards the back of the house, Joshua didn't smell the Zeta wolf shifter that followed behind him, his younger brother's mate, and so for that reason the attack completely took him unawares. As he fought for his life against the large massive man that had jumped him, his subconscious mind counted down the minutes and as he received one blow to the head too many, he knew that he would never be able to save his mate in time and that it was too late to save his mate.He could only hope that Traven wouldn't have too much of an adverse effect to not receiving his nightly shot.