Chapter 8: Welcome to Equinox pack

Currents waved crisscross patterns on the surface of a stream with little salmons floating aimless in a the body of clear water. The smell of rotten Apples from the fenced Orchard, coupled with the scents of multiple flowers from the garden next to it cuddled Ten in serenity as she sat by the side of the stream.

This was Her mother's favourite place in whole Equinox pack. She remembered when they would come visiting, how happy and peaceful she would look, her blue eyes just staring out into the small body of water all by herself.

Now Ten knew why, this practice helped her pace her thoughts. The one thing she really needed at this time. It's been a week since she took Grey to the pack healers, he has been unconscious ever since and she wandered if he will wake. For the first time the healers met a poison non of them knew a cure to. The only option was to bleed him out. She went to him everyday since, everyday but today. Today she came out to honour herself and her mother's memory.

Two years had passed since she was last here, glad to escaped her monster of a mate to their her original pack even though it was for only a little while. Her mother brought the baby to see family, how overjoyed they were to see the little rascal.

Ten could never understand why her mother didn't just leave. Even with the bond there was still free will. She never got an explanation as she carried the pain that eventually killed her in silence.

A brown furred wolf landed in front of her, panting from a high leap over the fence of the Orchard. It was a young wolf with a lean body frame. Within the fur bones snapped into place moving around till the wolf changed form to a naked teenager.

The wolves of the Equinox pack were granted the rare ability to shift between forms without the influence of the full moon. They were blessed with balance among other things..

"Hey Ten, what you doing here all alone!?" Her brother spoke, a blue eyed boy with black hair. The little rascal though 15 was now taller than Ten who was nearing her thirties, a bragging badge he loved displaying.

His lean muscles hung off his bones as puberty was starting to set in.

"Sitting and there is nothing wrong with that!" She defended herself. Among both packs she had always felt different, on Equinox she was the girl from ShadowLake and on ShadowLake the daughter of Equinox. So she learnt ways, barricading her emotions into a small circle. Entrusting only a few whom she was sure she could trust and would never reject her.

"Actually there is, choosing to sit here and talk to fish cannot beat playing Terminator's Duel with me and cousin Theo can it!?" He took a seat next to her massaging his thumb sore from rotating the joystick on a gaming pad.

"Actually it can! And besides I'll smoke the both of you anyways!" She spread the words out a little too thick knowing he'd take bait and challenge her.

"No way! I won the last four games against Theo and I am getting better at it. Especially at RaceLords. Am probably even better than you!"

"Is that a challenge!?" A dark eyebrow went up in question. knowing it very well was. He was a great gamer but she always found a way to win the game.

"Well now it is! Just have to be later I am running late for training!" He said referring to the battle training young wolves at the pack got. The pack warriors teach useful skills and control.

"Jack, if you are running late, why are you still here!?" She asked. The pack warriors she knew weren't very friendly, they definitely would not like anyone coming late.

"Oh I forget! Grandma sent me, she said I should tell you that the wolf you brought to the infirmary is awake! Rain check on that challenge!" He shouted as he jogging away in the other direction after dropping the bombshell in her arms.

Her mind was conflicted with mixed feeling on going to see him as she stood. It raced at a thousand thought per hour with only one baseline. 'What if he doesn't want to be here, he did make it clear when I was leaving that he did not want to come along. I shouldn't have brought him here but there was no other place she knew with healers...' All those thoughts raced on over one which acted as asphalt for the thought race.

The question of what their connection actually was. She could tell it wasn't mate bond from stories she'd heard and it seemed like something stronger. She reminisced the warmth she felt when their skin touched and his powerful scent choking her with pleasure. The very thought ignited the feeling as a phantom sensation.

Standing a far distance away she spotted Grey standing outside the medical infirmary. He had a lost look on his face not knowing if to go left or right. Soon he caught Ten's figure, her Yellow dress stood out from the crowd.

He waved to her and she waved back ...

"You look nice for an almost dead guy!" She Said approaching with a friendly smile.

"I feel nice for an almost dead guy!" He caught her unaware in tight a bear hug sending tingles down her spine. His broad shoulders around her as their hearts came close beating together in rhythm. 'There it is.. the warmth driving me to madness!' she thought as he let go.

"So, The Equinox pack. It sounds filled, maybe by the hundreds?" He turned the conversation not ready to deal with it right and the other nagging feeling in his gut, he focused on the sounds instead. He heard a pack busy like never before. The voices of muffled words reached his ears as did a reoccurring vibration, like the buzz of a bee.

"Yes but this is just the south town. The central imperial Town comes close to a thousand!" She said with a luster of pride in her eyes.

"The pack has Two towns!?" He asked absorbing the first knowledge he would learn about the pack as they made their way towards a white S.U.V first in line of several parked cars.

"We have four pack cities, South, North, East and Central Imperial Town. Everything to the west belongs to Lycaon Order!" A man alighted from the drivers seat of the car as they got there.

"Jeremy! I could have taken him myself!" Ten said once Grey was in the back seat of the car.

"Sorry Ten, you know the rules. Visitors aren't allowed in central town without a guide!" He had a serious tone and a beta scent. The chains on the pocket of his jean, man bun and heavy timberland boots all gave an opposite personality contradicting his age. He was forty five but looked half that.

He made it clear with a scowl that he didn't want Grey on his territory, another Alpha creates imbalance.

"You can be such a buzz kill sometimes, you know that right!?" He rolled his eyes closing the door behind her. He went around to the driver seat.

"Where are we going?" Grey asked. Rolling down the window, the air in the car seemed restrictive. He felt that nagging feeling again this time the air helped push it down.

"We are going to see the Alpha!" She said not entirely pleased. She knew Alpha Barry probably more than anyone else, any chance he had to gain leverage against anyone else was a turn he grabbed without looking. Though she knew, his heart was in the right place.

The sun threw rays casting shadows of different shapes in the car from the trees sandwiching the open road in front of them. Awkward silence took the vacant seat becoming the third passenger.

The beta (Jeremy) stole glances through the mirror once in a while. He wanted to know more about the mysterious Alpha Grey. Word had spread like wildfire about a wolf with the ability to create fire from nothing but his breath.

Grey's sights were out the window with green and yellow leaved trees telling a story of Summer's fleeting presence. His eyes caught an electronic signboard that Read 'welcome to The Central Imperial Town'. Electricity? The reason why packs were Isolated from the general population was not only to keep the existence of the supernatural from human but also to blend into nature. Technology just defeats the purpose..

"So what are my site seeing options!?" Grey asking shoving the silence into a lead sealed jar.

"For one, Central Town gate, up ahead!" She tipped her head in the direction of high rising metal gates. The car slowed to a stop meters from the gate.

Jeremy's hand went for the window button drawing its tainted glasses down. A loud buzz erupted and then a mechanical whirl as the gates slid out of the way.

Grey had no idea what to expect but he certainly didn't expect the urban city spanned out in front of him. Numerous tarred streets connecting houses, businesses, clubs and a crescent shaped glass sculpture that sat within a roundabout glistening as they drove around.

"That is our tribute to the moon goddess and for your other options there is the Alpha Manor, the gardens, the training centre, the gaming arcade.." She mentioned numerous other places but Grey wasn't listening, his mind occupied by thoughts he was trying to force underwater.

"We are finally here!" She said in glee. The car packed in front of a building made of plastered concrete walls.

"Welcome to the Alpha Manor" The beta said as per tradition inviting Grey in. The interior was nothing like the outskirts, the first entrance made of polished mahogany surfaces and crimson tiles opened into a cozy living space, clean to every inch of it's soft carpet covered surface leading to the elevator.

"This is where I leave you, Jeremy will show you the rest of the way and I'll be here when you get back!" He nodded in reply as the elevator doors close.

It went three floors, reaching the first before it opened with a ding to a corridor aligned with dark oak doors on both sides.

"The conference room is the third room to your right!" The elevator door closed leaving Grey to the quiz of mystery doors.

The entire floor was empty except for one room, the room with the powerful authority. The third room on his right. His fingers trembled on the door knob, a resounding order to submit ran in his head. Normally the order radiated off him but this time he felt different. Now that he thought of it he had felt different ever since he woke up.. he couldn't feel the pulsating anger at the core.

"Ah Alpha Grey, please do come in we have a lot to discuss!" Alpha Monroe said at the head of a twenty-four seater rectangular conference table...