Chapter 11

Kate

            Training had become my main focus for the month after my two-week sabbatical from life.  I trained in the morning one on one with Reid, my Beta and John Langille, our head warrior, and head trainer.  Both of them ensuring I was in peak fighting condition.  I loved training with them – they never held back.  They weren’t afraid I would break and understood the only way I could protect myself was by fighting me with everything they had. 

            The balance in power and ability was tight.  Some fights I won, some I lost.  When I lost, we went over the same scenarios until I got them down and won.  Losing was not acceptable to me. I needed to be the strongest warrior so I could protect everyone within my pack.  I also had to know I could rely on my top people to have my back when needed.  Reid and John had my back and that was what was important to me.

            Some mornings Lily joined us.  Not a slouch herself she could fight – she was a Beta’s daughter after all.  She could protect herself but did not have the ambition I did to continue my training.  Lily trained daily with the rest of the pack – training led by Reid, John, and myself, unless something else had my attention.

            Today was one of those day’s where I had to join my father for a meeting.  Things were still tense between us but as always, I would not shirk my responsibilities because of the friction felt between us. 

We were meeting on a new alliance.  A new one but not a new one – one that had been left on the table shortly after the rejection.  That’s all I can refer to it as for the time being – the rejection impacted my life in a ridiculous manner.  Life before the rejection held a lot of promise and after the rejection resulted in barriers I had not expected to face. 

Kind of funny really; rejection itself should not the end of the world but to a werewolf and being rejected by a mate, the severity was that you never knew if the Moon Goddess would grant you the blessing of a second chance mate.  They were rare, and in some circumstances, such as the death of a mate, it would seem fair to issue a second chance.  Is a second chance warranted when the mate simply did not want to be burdened with a strong partner? 

And if you do not find that second chance mate – do you take the chance on a chosen mate? I knew of rare occasions where someone took a chosen mate and things worked out, but the passion was never the same intensity experienced by a bonded pair.

Regardless those were worries for another day.  I had not allowed myself to consider those scenarios for over a month.  My current goals were to keep my feelings buried and get through what was now four and a half months to assume my role as Alpha to the pack.

Coming to the conference room, I was surprised that the door was closed.  I had thought it was going to be my father and I discussing the alliance between ourselves, and hoped this was not going to be a situation where I would be joining people unexpectedly once again.

As I raised my hand to knock on the door it opened simultaneously with me wrapping my knuckles on the chest of a very good-looking man.  With dark and wavy shoulder length hair, muscles that bulged in his black t-shirt and jeans carrying a black leather jacket and motorcycle helmet.  Murmuring excuse me, I stepped back as the man moved forward looking back at my father, “I’ll look forward to hearing from you Alpha Jacobs.”.  With that he nodded to me with a slight smile and moved down the hallway towards the front doors. 

I turned to look at my father with a questioning look, to which he waved his hand and said the discussion was for another time.  Today we were looking at the alliance with the Red Moon Pack.  It had been put on the backburner after the rejection.  My father had not felt comfortable moving forward at the time.

As we sat down, I had already reviewed the documents that had been drafted by our lawyers.  I had a few questions as to what level of manpower commitment were we making during a crisis.  We could not leave ourselves shorthanded in the event it was seen as an opportunity to attack us while our warriors were engaged elsewhere.  Red Moon Pack was only a couple hours away and the alliance made sense. It would make us the largest pack with the largest number of allies.  Not kidding ourselves, it was an alliance that would help Red Moon Pack more than us.  But not one to take for granted.

As we debated the pros and cons, we finally concluded that the alliance should go through with some amendments to our agreement.  Jotting down the changes, I would prepare the email to our lawyer to make the adjustments before we would agree to moving forward.  Once he made the changes and the Red Moon Pack agreed to them, we would aim to do an official signing of the alliance in the not-too-distant future.

As we concluded my father tried to engage in conversation with me, asking me “How have you been Kate?”.  Thinking to myself how tired of that question I was, I told him, “I am fine.  Working hard at training, I’ve started my online business degree with a goal of completing within two years versus four years.”  My father nodded approvingly, “You are quite ambitious Kate – will you have time for studies and being Alpha?”. 

            Feeling a sense of uneasiness at the odd question, I turned to my father giving him my full attention, “There is nothing I cannot do when I set my mind to it, isn’t that what you have always said?  I am 18 years old, I am a pack doctor, a warrior, graduated high school at 15 and will be Alpha of this pack in four and a half months.  I am more than able to handle the various tasks at hand.”. 

            Sighing and recognizing the fierce commitment in my eyes to succeed my father simply nodded, smiled, and thanked me for working on the alliance documents with him. 

            I was still left a little unsettled and wondered once again who the man who visited earlier was and what business he had with my father.