Fen’s POV
“The claiming is going to be so lit this year!” Lane shouts as we get ready to gather downstairs for the Master of Ceremonies.
“I think you’re a little biased at this point don’t you Lane?” I roll my eyes adjusting my sweats. I wasn’t planning on actually searching for my mate this season. I never was. I will search for her after I gain my rightful title.
“I dunno...maybe a little,” He smirks.
“So, did Alexia tell you where she will be?” I ask curious. Maybe this would give me a bit of an idea as to where Ari would go?
“Well...not exactly. She was really wishy-washy. At first she said she was going to hide in a tent waiting for me, but then the next day she said I would have to figure out which tent it was. That’s a huge area dude! I can’t go looking into every tent! That’s insane, not to mention super perv-y!”
“Well...good luck man! I’m sure you will find her. You are my best tracker and you should be being my beta!” I said,
Ari’s POV As the morning dawn approaches, I know our time is almost up and the claiming is officially over for the season, but that’s okay because...I found MY MATE! “Are you ready to make our way back?” Ares rolls on his side, swiping a loose strand of hair out of my face. My appearance is shot, my hair is a bird’s nest at this point. We mated countless times tonight in countless places around this waterfall, in the cave, in the water, by the trees...I don’t think there is a spot we missed in this alcove that feels like a private paradise to us. “Mmmm…” I moan as I stretch my sore body. I was a virgin when I walked into these woods for the claiming, but I was far from it as I emerged from the woods to share the happiness I was feeling with my father. I couldn’t wait to tell him. I thought about mind-linking him, but this was something he needed to see for himself in the flesh. This man was absolutely marvelous; a sculpture from the gods, and I have never met
Ares’s POV I look to Arianna and then back to my Beta, Alec. Arianna looks freaked out. Why the fuck did Alec have to call me Alpha? I don’t need his help impressing her! She let go of my hand and stepped away like that scared her. Why would being an alpha scare her? She was an alpha by birthright. I give him a pissed-off look and he immediately mind-links me, ’It’s your father!’ ’What about my father? My father can wait! Can’t you see I’m trying to make introductions with my mate!’ I glare at him as I speak with him through mink-link. I know Arianna can hear our conversation if I really want her to, but I also know how to block everyone out of my head. That might be the one useful thing my father actually did teach me. I coax Arianna inside, even though she won’t take my hand. We shut the door and come inside and everyone begins eyeing us, some jaws drop, some girls begin crying and running off, some men glare at me, clearly pissed
Ares’s POV “No..no no no no...that isn’t possible.” Harmon begins to panic. Alec and Alessandro just sit on the edge of my bed, their mouths gaping as they sit stunned and speechless. I don’t think Alec expected me to be so blunt with Harmon breaking the news that his only daughter was now mine. “What? I thought you would be thrilled? She said you have been freaked out about her not finding her mate for a long time. Well...Here I am! Just in time!” I state with concern and frustration. “You are an alpha! She cannot mate with an alpha or she loses the line of succession and Fenry takes over!” Harmon says in a panic. I stand up quickly, shocked as he explains the “fine print” of the agreement of the council. I didn’t realize they were so technical and detail oriented. “This will not do. I’m sorry son, but you cannot be my daughter’s mate. If you are her true mate, you will do her a favor by rejecting her so she can take a chosen mate before her
Ares’s POV “With as many trained pack warriors as you have and the size of your territory, combined with ours, no one would stand against us,” Ari states clearing up the issue. She wasn’t wrong. I was very proud to boast about the fact that I had the largest number of trained pack warriors in the Wolf Nation, only challenging Harmon’s pack alone. If we combined, we would be unstoppable. “Holy shit-balls, this conversation is getting pretty intense guys...sir...Alphas I mean…” Alessandro states breaking the tenseness of the room. “Wouldn’t that mean that the council would go to war over the technicalities in the agreement?” I bring up. Why couldn’t I just take the win? Why did I have to poke holes in every plan and theory…. just like my father? I now realize. Fuck! “It most certainly WILL.” Harmon chuckled. “So, we’re damned if we do,” I begin when Ari chimes in, “damned if we don’t.” “Precisely,” Harmon confirms. “You k
Ari’s POV I laugh loudly, “My heat?” “Why is that an issue?” Ares asks my father. I can tell he isn’t as amused as I am but rather, excited. “Because my son...she is an Alpha QUEEN now. You are mated and your bodies will begin preparing to succeed me. With the mating, your bodies will continue to transform and the first thing that the Alpha Royals must do is secure an heir,” He smiles and laughs almost like ‘How did ya’ll not realize this already?’ “So, I’m going to stay in heat until my body knows I am pregnant?” Holy shit, I’m starting to freak out. “Precisely.” My father confirms before continuing, “Ares, you will know when she is ready when her scent becomes intoxicating to you and every other unmated wolf around you. In normal circumstances, you would only have to worry about your own pack, but being the Alpha Queen, EVERY unmated wolf from EVERY pack will begin to seek her out.” “Great...just fricken great…” I say. All I need is
Alec’s POV We just left the Alpha and are headed to go help move Arianna’s and his stuff to the room Alpha King Harmon is going to show us. It’s been one hell of a fuckin’ morning, that’s for DAMN sure! Not only did Ares find his mate...he’s gunna be the fuckin’ ALPHA KING! FUCK YEAH! I am so pumped about this, and I’d go to war for Ares. He’s my best friend, like a brother to me, so if the goddess has chosen them to be together, who am I to deny that? If he has to go to war to defend everyone - I will be right next to him the whole way. “It’s just down here…” King Harmon points as he keeps walking down a narrow stone-walled hallway that seems to never end. Geez… where is this room? HOW BIG IS THIS PLACE REALLY? I start to think about a lot of things that could potentially go wrong. “Alpha King Harmon, uhh...how big is this place...like ACTUALLY?” I ask him very point-blank. He smiles and says, “We actually aren’t sure anymore...see, it’s been
Ari’s POV After a long soothing nap in Ares’s arms, we woke up and decided to go outside and get some air. We walked through the gardens in silence for some time before I spoke up. “SO...how do you want to announce this? Tomorrow? What do you think the best plan would be? How many warriors do you have in your pack? How fast could they all get here if they had to?” I start randomly rambling word vomit. He can tell I’m nervous and starts laughing the more questions I ask, the more ridiculous in nature they become. “We can announce this whenever you are ready. If you want me to keep my distance for a while, I will, though I rather not. There is the issue of my father’s death to deal with, so I may be somewhat occupied with that partially while the celebrations go on.” He started to explain. Goddess, I felt so insensitive! Here I was already jumping to war and he hasn’t even processed his father’s death, let alone investigated it or even buried his father!
Ari’s POV “How so?” I was curious. “My father had this obsession that slowly over time drove him a little crazy. Then he started drinking to mask the crazed behaviors. He got aggressive instead and he eventually turned into a raging alcoholic and asshole.” Damn! Ares had a rough go of it with his dad, that is for sure! “I’m sorry to hear that. What did your mother say about his obsession?” I asked showing sympathy. “Nothing, she’s dead. She died during a rogue attack on our pack shortly after my father became Alpha. Our defenses weren’t what they are today and from that point forward, he just grew more and more obsessive with our pack being the strongest and largest to defend ourselves from attacks in the future. That’s how we got into the security industry. It’s a much larger operation now of course but we started out by providing private security for CEOs of corporations and the like in the human business sector.” I looked down again
Ari’s POV - After my first doctor’s appointment to check on the baby, I was so emotional. Ares was emotional too. We spent the evening alone together, bonding. We needed time to ourselves to feel close and decompress after everything that had happened recently. With this trip to Hawaii nipping at our heels, we felt it important to spend what precious time we had alone together as much as possible before the baby comes and more things get in the way. The next morning, Ani came bursting through our bedroom doors to wake us up. She was overly excited about this trip. We both may be about 2 months pregnant, but that wasn’t slowing her down from attempting to get to the beach and show off that gorgeous figure of hers. She ended up convincing Ares that Alexia needed to come with us to ‘heal’ herself from her rejection. He couldn’t say no when he knew everything Alexia had gone through. She had been moping around the pack house since she rejected Lane and knowing Fen was now dead helped
Ares’s POV The match was challenging, but not too difficult. After Councilmen Horis declared Ari and I the clear winners, the entire council as well as the other alpha’s bowed in submission and swore their fealty and loyalty to us both. It didn’t take long for the media to get word, and thus, the circus monkey’s are at it again, only they are starting to get worse. It was a relief finally ridding the world of that disgrace of an alpha. The fact that he openly admitted to murdering my father was icing on the cake - an added touch to the reasons for his death. His pack will end the horrid practice he was fully taking advantage of and I will send my father’s former beta to go and run the pack up there for the time being until we can find a better solution to managing our new pack territories. Ari has been scared to death of everything that has happened, and I don’t blame her, but I did reassure her multiple times that I would be fine and everything would be okay. I think she can fina
Ari's POV“Baby there’s no rush, we have all the time in the world,” Ares moans as I continue to rock myself up and down on his thick and engorged glorious member inside me.“I don’t care! I need you and I need this NOW!” I moan out as I slam myself down on him harder and harder, feeling myself growing closer and closer. As I get closer to my peak, I feel my emotions are quickly getting away from me and for some reason, as I reach that magical peaking moment, I burst into tears as I cum all over his throbbing shaft inside of me.“OH ARES!!” I cry out, “I can’t lose you! I can’t!”He lifts me up and flips us so he's on top of me now. I feel his nee
We left the diner to go back to the council headquarters where our room for the night is waiting for us. I’m exhausted all the time now, and I can’t wait to put my face into a pillow. We said goodnight to my dad and settled in our room for the rest of the night. As I laid my head on a pillow on the bed, my phone went off. Someone text me, so I rolled over and grabbed my phone from the bedside table. Alexia: I’m going to reject Lane. Me: Really? Are you 100% sure about this? You know I will support you either way. Alexia: I’m sure. I can’t even think about that place. I just can’t. Me
Ari’s POV In the council chambers, I see my dad currently in the middle of some big speech to all the alphas and elders. Ares and I stood quietly in a corner until he found his seat at the panel. He led me to his seat, and sat me in his lap, placing a gentle kiss on my temple before smiling and nuzzling his nose into my neck and inhaling my scent. He apparently needed a moment to calm down and relax because as he was inhaling my scent, I felt his whole body instantly relax. That made me feel good - knowing that I had the ability to calm my mate just by him inhaling my scent. As my dad finished his big long speech that I had paid no attention to, I hear the voice of the prick I loath more than anyone else in this world, “Ahh…so glad you could join us Alpha Ares, LUNA Ari! We thought you were too busy playing house to grace u
After a while, the witches settled down a bit and actually welcomed us in. We sat down in their main greeting room and one of the mistresses brought tea for everyone. “It’s not much Alpha, but we do pride our coven in our generosity towards those in your territory and pack. We are loyalists after all.” One mistress stated while sipping her tea. Something was bothering me and I knew what it was but I didn’t want to raise any alarms with Ari so I tried to be cautious in how I approached the subject. “What’s wrong?” Ari whispers to me from behind me. “Nothing. I was summoned to the council. I told Trace I couldn’t go right now, obviously.” I whisper back to her as she nods and relaxes back into her seat.
Ares’s POV “To what do we owe this pleasure, Alpha?” the coven mother asked in a very husky and labored voice. “We come seeking your wisdom and talents,” I state in a flattering manner in an attempt to make nice with the witches. We may be still in our own pack territory, but we were definitely out of our depth in the middle of a coven of witches, even if they were white witches and friendly with our kind. “What is it that you seek?” “We are in search of answers to help one of our own.” I responded just as vaguely as she was with me. “We are here trying to find answers for a half-breed madam,” Ari interjected. I glared at her
Ares’s POV After a few more hours of driving into the mountains we finally arrived at the location I knew to be the Sisters of the Moon’s coven headquarters. We had to dip down a side street in the small mountainside town due to the paparazzi that seemed to be accumulating in every area we went. “What are we going to do? They are swarming around that place!” Illyana says in a very concerned voice. “Relax! Throw these on.” I toss back trench coats, sun glasses, and hats to everyone to put on. Sometimes covering up as much of your identity as possible is the only defense. As we hop out of the SUV and begin walking towards the crowd and coven entrance, a photographer notices us. I immediate
As I hop out of my Range Rover, I see that a council elder is standing at the door waiting to greet me. It’s not a very far drive from Slick Paw to the council headquarters. Even though they have a chamber in Black Claw’s palace, their central offices are located about 2 hours away from our pack. It’s located on the edge of 4 pack territories and looks more like a four-story office building than anything else. From the outside and those not a part of the supernatural world, you would never know this is the seat of Wolf Nation, outside of our capital in Black Claw. “Alpha Fen, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Elder Peter smiles, holding his arms out in a greeting. “I’ve come to speak to the council. It won’t take long.” I declare. “They are in session. I will let