by J. L. Berry
As Drake entered Alpha Gray gestured to one of the seats in front of his desk, “Please, take a seat we have a lot to discuss.”
Drake’s anxiety grew as he sat in one of the leather chairs.
He knows!
Alpha Grey must have smelt his fear as he smiled warmly, “There’s nothing to worry about Drake I promise. How are you finding the advanced training so far?”
“I’m really enjoying it, it’s hard being one of the least experienced and training with wolves that have fought together for years but it won’t be long until Autumn and my other classmates join me so I think that will help.”
“I completely agree,” Alpha Grey nodded, “there are some teams which just naturally fight well together. I’ve heard from Mariah that you and Autumn are pretty well synchronised.”
Drake thought back to that day when everything had seemed so clear to him. Had it really only been a week ago? A wave of sadness came over him and he dropped his head, “She’s incredible. You will be very proud Alpha.”
Sensing the melancholy coming off Drake in waves Alpha Grey raised an eyebrow quizzically. Drake never spoke of Autumn with anything but love and adoration ever since they were pups.
“Drake did something happen? Did the two of you have a fight?”
“No, not at all.... things are actually better than ever.”
“Then why do you look like my daughter is dying?.... Goddess, she’s not dying is she?!”
Drake looked up his eyes wide in shock, “No Alpha, she’s fine I promise!”
“Then what on earth is going on?”
Drake frowned, he didn’t want to answer.
We need to tell him his wolf reasoned.
He gazed at the picture of Autumn with her mother on the desk, her smile still gave him butterflies. To think she would be giving those smiles to another wolf made his heart feel like it was shattering into pieces. Alpha Grey waited patiently for Drake to answer his question, but let his authority hang in the air to leave him in no doubt that he would answer. Drumming up every ounce of courage he could, Drake took a deep breath, “Autumn is not my fated mate, I don’t feel the call.”
Silence filled the room.
Neither man moved while the weight of Drake’s confession sank in. Alpha Grey’s eyes echoed the sadness present in Drake’s as he ran his hands over his face. Rising from his chair he walked over to the window and gazed out into the sunshine to collect his thoughts.
“I’m so sorry Drake, I know it’s what you both wanted. I can’t say I’m not disappointed, it would have been a good match.” After a few moments pause he added, “Have you felt the call to anyone else yet?”
“No.”
“Good,” Alpha Grey said quietly, “It will give you both some time to adjust. We can arrange for you to go visit other packs when you’re ready so you can find your mate.”
“No thank you.”
“What?”
“I appreciate the offer but I have no interest in finding another mate.”
“Drake you can’t be serious? Why would you not want a mate?” Alpha Grey turned to face him. Watching his expression it became clear exactly what Drake meant. “I know you love her, but you will love your fated mate as well, as will she.”
“With all due respect Alpha you have no idea how I feel right now,” Drake retaliated, all of his pent up anguish coming to a head. “I have been in love with her for years! She loves me too and yet because of some stupid twist of fate she’s going to be taken from me! I won’t be able to bear it if she mates with someone else in this pack... and what if she mates with someone from another pack? Are you ready to lose her too? And then what happens to our pack? With no Alpha descendants everything will fall apart.”
Drake’s thoughts tumbled from his mouth as he lay all of his concerns on the table. He couldn’t stop running his hands through his hair as he tried to contain his emotions in front of his Alpha. Alpha Grey digested these comments which in truth were not dissimilar to his own.
“Does she know?” was all he asked. Drake shook his head in response. “She turns eighteen in three days Drake, you need to tell her before then, before she realises herself.”
“What if I don’t?”
“Drake, she will know and then she’ll know you’ve been lying to her!”
“I don’t care what the Moon Goddess has decided, it wouldn’t be the first time she was wrong! I choose Autumn and I know she will choose me too.”
Alpha Grey had no idea what to say to him. In all his years he had never had this problem to deal with and neither had his own father before him.
“Do you agree that I love your daughter? That she loves me, and together we would be a perfect match?”
“Of course....”
“Then please Sir, help me make it a reality.”
“Drake it’s not that simple. She may want to choose her fated mate despite how much she loves you.”
“Do you really think that your daughter would choose her fated mate when it would put the stability of her whole pack in jeopardy as well as destroy your heritage?”
Alpha Grey knew Drake had a point although it seemed wrong to assume his daughter’s actions and admit it. Knowing his Alpha was starting to see things from his perspective Drake persisted, “If she mates with me she will never have to choose between love and loyalty, she can have both. If we bind immediately on her birthday then she will never have to know and we can save her that pain of having to choose.”
Alpha Grey was torn. After the loss of his son he protected his daughter fiercely from any form of pain and yet he didn’t see this coming. If he went along with Drake’s plan he had no doubt she would be happy for the rest of her life but he would have deceived her. If he allowed nature to take its course she would feel the pain of Drake’s deceit (despite his best intentions), the despair at letting her pack down as well as the chance to lose her completely to somewhere far away. His wolf snarled at the impossible dilemma.
He sat back down behind his desk staring into the eyes of his Luna as she smiled at their daughter in the photograph placed there. Losing their son had crushed her. No parent should ever have to go through it. He was amazed their pack had survived the devastating losses let alone his marriage. Could he face his mate to tell her that she could lose her daughter to another pack too?
No, his wolf was defiant.
But what could he do to help Drake? He strummed his fingers on the desk deep in thought as he wracked his brains for a solution. Drake sat quietly albeit tense enough that his knuckles turned white from gripping the arms of the chair while he waited to hear his fate.
“Ok, I may have a way I can help.” Alpha Grey scanned the bookshelves behind his desk to find the book on magical biological warfare. Drake raised his eyebrows when he saw the book title.
“Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme?”
Alpha Grey chuckled, “Don’t worry it’s the concepts not the execution that I’m interested in. When Autumn turns eighteen she’s going to realise you’re not her fated mate. If there’s a way we can suppress that response and replace it with another then we might have a solution.”
He scanned the book searching for the information he needed, his mind whirring. Finally he closed the book with a sharp thwack, picked up the phone and dialled out. Drake watched on silently once more as the phone rang, desperately hoping for answers to the nightmare he found himself in.
“I need a favour,” Alpha Grey murmured down the phone, “and it’s a little unorthodox to say the least.” Drake couldn’t hear who was on the other end or what they were saying in response. “Yeah ok, I’ll be right over.” Hanging up the phone Alpha Grey rose and moved around the desk to stand by Drake.
“Well?”
He clapped him on the shoulder before plucking away some stray hairs stuck to his t-shirt. “Leave it with me Drake. I’ll see what I can do to help I promise.”
Chapter 9:
Elijah roamed across the country exploring rolling
hills, breathtaking mountains and fast flowing rivers. He came across a few areas of civilisation early on but lack of clothing meant he couldn’t shift into his human form and his wolf form was large enough to scare the inhabitants. A farmer tried to shoot him once, but thankfully his supernatural speed meant the bullet missed. Since then he avoided built up areas.
He came across several packs on his travels that he thought may help him but whenever he crossed into their territory he was chased out by a group of warriors before he had the chance to shift and talk. In the end it seemed easier to just keep roving the countryside as a nomad, hunting in his wolf form. Nearly two weeks had passed since his own pack had tried to kill him and he spent the majority of that time as a wolf. Wolves were not designed to be alone and the isolation was starting to make him depressed. The nights were the worst, when his mind taunted him with memories of a life he never knew existed.
“There there my sweet boy, Momma’s right here.”
“Stop that! He’s not going to settle if you keep picking him up.”
“I know, but I just can’t stop looking at him. He’s so perfect.”
Ever since he left his pack’s territory it’s like his whole body came to life. He had assumed he was born into the Raptor pack and that his mother had somehow passed away. No one could ever give him answers when he had asked and so he had stopped asking, accepting it as fact. As he got older and became aware of more and more pups joining the pack he became very suspicious and when he hit his rebellious teenager phase he soon discovered the prisoners.
They were kept in large metal storage containers around twenty minutes away from the main camp. The first thing that made Elijah aware of the location was the smell. It seemed the prisoners could be left for days at a time, forced to toilet in a shared bucket. In the summer months the heat on the metal containers made the stench of sweat and human waste unbearable. The containers had no windows, so when he unbolted the door Elijah had retched to the point of dry heaving. The wolves inside were a pitiful site, bound in silver cuffs, hands chained to feet so they couldn’t even stand fully upright. Starved to the point of emaciation, he could see the desperation in their eyes at the sight of an open door. The youngest was only four years old.
“Don’t hurt us.”
“Please! Help us!”
Closing that door back on those pups was the single most difficult thing he had ever had to do in his life. He promised he would be back but they didn’t know that at the time and the screams of desperation followed him as he made his way back to camp.
Elijah did return as often as he could and for years he brought them food and water. He told them a little about the camp and the pack. Some of the prisoners seemed to accept the situation and wanted to be free of their confines badly enough to consider joining. Others were defiant, adamant that they would never cave to their captors and swear allegiance. Those prisoners received the worst beatings; the spirit in their eyes nearly always disappeared eventually.
From time to time Elijah witnessed some of the prisoners becoming pack members, but whenever he went to talk to them they seemed to have no idea who he was or where they had come from. It didn’t make any sense; it was like there memory was wiped. What were they doing to them? Whenever he tried to talk to other members of the pack they just shut him down,
“Elijah, they rescued her, she was starving just look at her. It’s good she’s here.”
“Prisoners? Don’t be ridiculous, they’d say so wouldn’t they and why would they stay.”
On and on it went and no one believed him, he was labelled a conspiracy nut and then was avoided as much as possible. It was this fact that got him caught in the end. The only people he could talk to were the prisoners and the enforcers must have heard the whispers and watched him more closely. He dreaded to think what was happening to them now.
We cannot save everyone his wolf reasoned, but it didn’t stop him regretting not going back for them.
His childhood memories were vague, but he recalled the feeling of being loved and the calming scent of chamomile. He wept for the family he never knew and wondered if they still thought of him. Maybe they had moved on and had more children, brothers and sisters who had no idea he was alive. Finding his family was a long shot, but what else did he have to do now?
One evening he approached the edge of a large forest.
We can rest here.
Elijah’s wolf slowly wound his way in to the outskirts of the trees searching for any signs of danger or packs. He’d learnt his lesson about making his presence known. A large forest like this would be perfect for others of his kind and so he needed to proceed with caution. That’s when he caught it, the faintest waft of spiced apple on the breeze. His wolf froze.
Mine!
Chapter 10:
Autumn woke to the sun streaming through her window as usual but now she had Drake wrapped around her. They had been sharing the same bed every night since he turned eighteen. As he slept she admired the way the sunlight hit his chiselled jaw and brought out the highlights in his tawny hair. A smile crept across his light pink lips, “You’re watching me sleep again.”
“Can you blame me?”
“Well no, I am devastatingly handsome,” Autumn rolled her eyes at him as he continued, “and don’t forget completely ripped.”
“And incredibly modest it seems,” she laughed.
“Oh I’m sorry do you need proof,” he promptly tugged his shirt over his head and manoeuvred himself so that he was straddling her. Autumn’s grey eyes dilated in lust as they roved over his tanned chest and arms. Unable to resist she ran her hands over his perfect six-pack causing him to growl in response. “One more day Autumn, one more and you will be mine in every way imaginable.”
“And until then...”
Drake leaned down over her, his lips hovering over hers. She closed her eyes and held her breath with anticipation as Drake whispered softly, “Delayed gratification.”
Drake was off the bed and out the door t-shirt in hand faster than a bolt of lightning. Autumn groaned in frustration thumping the mattress with her fists. She could hear Drake laughing as he opened the front door and headed out.
Autumn took a long cold shower in an attempt to dampen her wanton thoughts. Her wolf had been getting more highly strung every day in the run up to her birthday. Satisfied with the fact that it would be literally hours until she became an adult member of the pack and all the anticipation would be over, she dressed in denim shorts, a green tank and trainers before heading downstairs for breakfast.
“Morning sweetheart,” her mother greeted her with a joyful smile, “has Drake left already?”
“Yeah, early morning training or something I think.” She didn’t want to explain the real reason for his sudden departure.
“Well his loss, today we’re having blueberry pancakes!”
Autumn beamed at her mother and started salivating as a large plate of blueberry pancakes drizzled with syrup was placed in front of her.
“Awww thanks Mom, you’re spoiling me!”
“Well it’s not every day my beautiful daughter turns eighteen,” her father added entering the kitchen. He kissed his mate on the cheek before sitting beside his daughter.
“It’s not my birthday until tomorrow” Autumn reprimanded him.
“True, but we’re starting early so happy pre-birthday sweetheart.” He kissed the top of her head and pulled her into a side hug. Autumn caught an unusual look pass between her parents that she’d never seen before.
“What’s wrong?” she asked concerned.
“Nothing sweetheart honestly,” her mother cooed, “we’re just aware that a lot is going to change in the next few days. One day when you have your own pups you’ll understand.”
Alpha Grey reached in to his jacket pocket pulling out a large rectangular jewellery box and placing it on the table in front of her.
“Here, we got you a little something. And before you say it’s not your birthday yet, we know that
you’re going to want to spend a lot of time with Drake tomorrow. Which is why we want to celebrate with you today so please, humour us?”
Autumn blushed at her father’s comment but understood his reasoning. She knew her parents had mated shortly after her mother had turned eighteen. Autumn ran her fingers over the navy blue velvet case before opening it. Inside laid a stunning heart-shaped amber necklace on a thin chain with delicate filigree.
It’s stunning her wolf murmured.
Her father gently removed the necklace from its box, undid the clasp and placed it around her neck. Luna Grey’s green eyes shone with unshed tears, “I wish your brother was still around to see this.”
“Oh Mom,” Autumn rushed out of her chair to hold her mother.
“I’m sorry, ignore me I’m just being silly. I don’t know why today of all days...”
“Mom, it’s fine! It’s natural to feel like that, I only wish I’d had the chance to get to know him.”
“Come on now both of you, this is meant to be a celebration!” Alpha Grey distracted his family turning their thoughts back to happier things as they finished their family breakfast.
WHEN AUTUMN FINISHED her gym training for the day dusk was already descending. She headed back to the main camp with her fellow classmates but was stopped on the way by a messenger from her father, “Autumn, your father wishes to see you in his office straight away.”
That was unusual, especially as she would be seeing him at home in a couple of hours. Worried, she said goodbye to her classmates and hurried along the path to the main building. Her father’s office door was ajar when she arrived. Knocking, she pushed it open relieved to find her father sat behind his desk in a relaxed posture. He looked up, smiling at her, “Hi sweetheart, thanks for coming.”
“Of course, is everything ok?” Autumn stepped into the office moving to sit in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Suddenly she was plunged into darkness as hands covered her eyes. She inhaled a citrus scent and smiled.
