Ch. 4

CHAPTER FOUR:

~ Drake:

I showed up to the pack entrance by Kyburz to find a small group of werewolves I was mostly unfamiliar with. Shifting behind a tree a few paces away, I quickly changed back into my shirt, jeans and boots. I walked out to see the Alpha of Silver Moon walking toward me, hand raised in greeting. He was dressed well, black slacks and a dark button down shirt.

“Beta Drake, great to see you. I see Alpha Rafael has sent his best representative to show us around?” Alpha Logan of Silver Moon was a friendly guy, and he shook my hand with vigor. 

Silver Moon had a great reputation and their Alpha was a huge reason. While they were a fairly small pack their warriors were fierce, and they often came to the aid of their neighbors in need. They never stood down from a fight with a purpose. I wondered again what they were after here. In other packs the Alpha would likely convey that to his Beta, but not mine. I was going to have to find out while pretending to already be in the loop. Fun. 

“Great to see you Alpha Logan,” I put my fist to my chest and made a small bow. A little old school, but also a sign of respect amongst wolves.

“No need for that Beta,” he waved me off. “Are we ready to start our tour? My kids are anxious to see the place. We don’t usually travel this far out.”

I nodded, “Yes Alpha. We can begin wherever you would prefer. Packhouse? Training fields? Medical ward? I’m thinking we can end with the recreation area, we just had our pool updated.”

“Let’s start with the training fields. Come meet my kids,” Alpha Logan said definitively with his natural authority.

We were joined by a young man who looked strikingly like his father, Liam. He was maybe 20 years old. And a young woman, Brenna, who looked like her father only in coloring, she must take after the Luna of Silver Moon. She looked young, definitely a teenager. The Alpha explained that his Luna couldn’t join, as she was taking care of her elderly aunt. Alpha Logan also mentioned that his youngest, John, had also stayed behind. I was also introduced to three pack warriors from Silver Lake. Young twins Jacob and Jeffery, top warriors, and the son of the Beta, Daniel. The Alpha’s daughter gave me a very strange look through most of the introductions, and her brother looked outright bored.

“Well, let’s get started!” Alpha Logan said, jazzed. “Lead the way Beta Drake!” He patted me on the back.

We walked for a few minutes before approaching a jeep left out in this area for these situations and I rifled through my pockets for the keys. 

“Is it usually this chilly this time of year here?” Brenna, the Alpha’s daughter asked me. 

“Hmm… You know, I don’t know. I don’t consider this very cold,” I responded.

She looked disappointed, then looked back at her father who was talking to one of his warriors.

“It’s just, we don’t get snow in the central valley, you know?” She added.

Wow, thank the goddess we were here to be part of this amazing conversation. Wolves decades from now will gather the pups to tell them tales of this moment, Dane quipped in my mind.

I snorted. 

Ah, shit. Brenna seemed to notice and turned pink in the face before rushing back towards her father.

You’re going to get me in more trouble with Alpha, I said to Drake. Although that was downright hilarious.

Dane chuckled.

I found my keys and everyone hopped in, with Brenna surprisingly in the front seat. I watched Liam out of the corner of my eye as we drove. He seemed very serious and reserved. I don’t know what kind of match he would make with my Alpha’s daughter, Kylie. The warriors jogged along right behind us.

“We’ll head up into the mountain for a bit on the way to the training grounds so you can see the best view of the packlands,” I announced to the car. 

Alpha Rafael asked me a few questions about our training - schedules, selections, and so forth. His son, Liam, seemed disappointed when I explained that we currently didn’t include female wolves in training beyond basic levels. Alpha Rafael was very old school that way. It took so much pushing from my mother to let him allow them to train at all. 

A ways up the mountain I pulled over and cut the ignition. We stepped out to the vista point and I took a few minutes to show them various things.

“Down that way is our recreation area, the indoor portion has a few basketball courts and weight lifting equipment, the pool is outdoor only and has a track around the outer rim that circles around that whole area there,” I explained. I then pointed out other buildings including the packhouse, the schools, the medical building, and other facilities.

“Does Black Mountain have any security posts? I didn’t see any on the way in,” the question coming from Liam.

“No we don’t. Our Alpha tore down the few we had some years ago. He prefers we rough it while out on patrol,” I shrugged as I answered. 

Liam seemed confused at this. Alpha Logan just shrugged.

Yeah class act, our Alpha, Dane added in my head.

He wasn’t out of line. Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t need those kinds of things, but Alpha Rafael never let us have any comforts at all. The recreational stuff alone was a miracle. He was always a hard a**, but it only got worse after his Luna passed away. Kylie was all he had now, and he took it out on her personally that she wasn’t a male. She would never inherit the pack and needed to find her mate before our pack ever got any relief from this tyrant. If it wasn’t for every single pack member in Black Mountain, this place would have fallen apart years ago. Wolves volunteer their time to keep things up and do things like buy or hunt food for the pups and elderly. Our Alpha just makes comments about their weaknesses holding back the pack.

We spent about an hour and a half afterward visiting each location, and I answered their questions. After some time their Beta’s son, Daniel, loosened up a bit and started participating and asking questions. I noticed he seemed to switch on his sociability after getting ogled by some maids we ran into in the packhouse. They were all pretty easy to get along with. Brenna was silent the rest of the time and would only smile now and again. I still felt guilty about my snicker earlier. 

We’re going to have to apologize, I told Dane who groaned in irritation the moment I said it. You know we have to…

At the request of Alpha Rafael I parted with the visitors at the recreation building, leaving them in the care of our Gamma Alwin. We would see each other later at a formal dinner. I was ordered to catch up on some of the Alpha’s paperwork (which he never did himself). I spent my time going through our current finances, and trying to magically make things better after the Alpha’s reckless spending. 

Dinner went on pretty uneventfully. Alpha really took the fun out of the room, and everyone adjusted our tone from earlier to one of seriousness. Kylie joined the rest of us and she seemed to click well with Brenna which was nice to see. I saw Liam eyeing Kylie some of the time and it added evidence to my theory about a match. Likely, they wanted Liam to inherit here and his brother John would assume the Alpha role back home. 

While most wolves honored the mate bond, it wasn’t unheard of for Alphas to orchestrate matches like this, especially when a pack’s current Alpha didn’t have a son. Kylie had yet to meet her mate and was 24, which was pretty late in our world. I would know, being a year older than her. After dinner we separated again, and I was given orders to give a final check on some new improvements to the Alpha’s private cottage. Fantastic. He used this space to sleep with trashy she-wolves outside of Kylie’s range of hearing. I guess at least he was considerate when it came to his daughter. In this way anyway. 

I had a terrible night’s sleep. I tossed and turned the whole time. Something was really agitating Dane and he wouldn’t tell me what it was.

You’ll know soon enough, he snapped at me after some pestering. 

The next morning the Silver River pack left early, right after breakfast. Daniel and Liam had joined in on training before breakfast and I got to know them a little more. If Liam was being considered as a match for Kylie, she wasn’t getting a bad deal. We all would be better off than we currently were for sure. Gama Alwin had left to escort our visitors back to the border when the Alpha linked me.

Drake. Office, he ordered.

Yes Alpha, on my way, I linked back. Dane groaned.

Are you going to tell me what’s been bothering you now? I asked Dane, only for him to whine in return. This really couldn’t be good.

I knocked on Alpha Rafael’s door and he told me to come in. He didn’t seem to have anything to say at first and so I stood there as he looked through a file of documents. Likely something I would have to go through myself…

“Here,” Alpha Rafael held out the folder. “Read this and sign the bottom.”

I contorted my face in confusion but took the folder from him. I opened it to see a very long series of papers and started to skim through as he pushed a pen in my face. Then I saw it.

“Alpha. There’s got to be a mistake here,” I told him, taking the pen from his hands but dropping my arm down to my side.

“Sign,” he insisted. “I have other things to get to.”

Yeah, like screwing that she-wolf waiting outside the packhouse… Dane commented. I had no idea how he could sense that far but that was a question for another time.

“No,” I said simply.

Alpha Rfael jumped up out of his chair and came within an inch of my face as he screamed, “NO?! YOU DON’T TELL ME NO! YOU WILL DO THIS!” 

I barely remembered to bare my neck like I should as a Beta.

I looked up to his eyes to see him still seething. I wanted to let it rise and take over - my aura, my anger…

Hold back, Dane said. He had never once held me back. His words acted like a cold shower. 

“YOU WILL SIGN THIS AND YOU WILL MATE ALPHA LOGAN’S DAUGHTER!” he yelled, spittle flying in my face.