Chapter Eleven

Alpha Zaden

“I don’t think the Crescent Pack will be too eager to make threats now.” Mira says, strolling into my hotel room.

“I gave him the last warning myself. The next time he gives information about us to the Bloodbound pack, I will summon him to duel.” I say, pulling my shirt over my shoulders.

Mira smiles. “I would bet on never. He thought he was going to die. I saw it in his eyes.” She says.

I say nothing to that.

Everyone knows that the animosity between my pack, the Eternal Moon pack and the Bloodbound pack goes back millennia. My issue with the alpha of the demented pack is more personal. I will not have my allies feeding information about me or my pack, no matter how innocuous to the cunning man.

Mira comes around to my front.

“Let me.” She says.

I drop my hands and let her button up my shirt.

My mind is already racing ahead.

“Do you feel it too?” I ask.

Her big blue eyes find mine.

“Feel what?” She asks and I frown.

“This feeling of urgency and... doom. It’s strange, I have never felt anything like it and yet it feels like a constant dark cloud hanging over my head.” I say.

Her brows furrow with a frown.

“I know what you are taking about.” She says. “We are urgently being drawn back home. And it does not feel like it is for a good reason.”

I nod. I trust that my gamma would know exactly what I am talking about. I am most connected to her of all wolves in the world after-all.

“We’ll head back now.” I say.

The initial plan was supposed to be later in the night but I hate the feeling that everything is not under my control. I need to go back and fix whatever has gone to shit at home.

She nods. “I agree.” She says. “Give me an hour and I can round up the little businesses we have here.”

I nod. “Fine. I must go visit an old friend before we leave.” I say.

“Uriel?” She asks and I nod.

“How is he coping? The last I heard, his powers were stolen by a demon from the underworld.” She says.

“It is more complicated than that.” I say.

Uriel got himself into a situation when a spell he casted ended up summoning a female from the underworld. The woman claimed him and he rejected her, so she took his powers and he is now going through hell to get it back, literally.

She nods.

“Tell Uriel I said hi.” She says.

“I will.” The buttons are done and I pick up a diamond cufflink, distracted with the situation back at home that I cannot make sense of.

“Zaden?” Mira says and I turn back to her.

She steps into my space and throws her arms around me. I stiffen but I don’t push her away.

She looks up at me solemnly.

“I care about you alot, you know that right?” She asks.

“Of course you do.” I say, wondering why she is getting so emotional telling me something that is as obvious as day.

“I have known you since we were little, Zaden, and I would have to be blind not to see how worried you are about not finding your Lina yet.” She says.

My brow furrows and my displeasure fills the room at her bringing that up. Everyone knows that it is a sore subject for me because even after centuries of searching, I have not yet found my mate and Luna. Most wolves find their mates within the first century of their life and yet after centuries of searching, I am still coming up empty. I am one of the few alphas of the major packs in Folkland that are yet to find their mate and I am weary of searching after so long.

“What about it?” I ask her, my voice coming out gruffer because of my displeasure.

Her hand rubs up and down my back, soothing my agitation.

“You know I have always been by your side and will continue to remain by your side until the end of days. I cannot bear to see you suffer so much so I gave it some thought and... I will happily accept you if you offer to make me your Luna.” She says.

I stare at her in shock.

“You would sacrifice your chance to find your mate to be my Luna?” I ask her, truly shocked.

Every wolf’s greatest dream is to find their mate. I have never seen anyone that would intentionally jeopardise their chances of finding their one soulmate.

She smiles.

“I have been searching as long as you, my alpha.” She says. “And I am becoming weary. I believe there is a reason the both of us are yet to find our mates. I would be honoured to take our bond to the next level, if you will let us.”

Her words make all of the sense in the world, and yet I find my soul recoiling from them. I thought I was weary of searching for my mate, and I am, but giving up on her completely by taking a Luna is... abhorrent at best. It goes against everything I believe in.

But Mira is offering, and she will be giving up her own mate too. She has truly been my side since the beginning of time and my pack loves her as much as they do me.

When I think about it, she has actually been filling in the space of the Luna for my pack the entire time. No one in the world understands me like she does. If I were ever to choose a Luna that is not my mate, she would be the only logical choice.

So why is my entire being rejecting that idea so vehemently? Why am I still clinging to the hope of finding a woman that I have searched centuries for to no avail?

She is still looking at me, waiting for an answer.

“I will think about it.” I say.

She smiles, hugging me again.

“That is all I ask.” She says.

I have the sinking feeling that there isn’t much to think about. I will always do what is best for my pack.

...

It is night already when we near The Eternal Moon pack territory. The closer to home we get, the more I feel the sinking feeling that there is something horribly wrong.

Mira and I exchange a glance and I step on the pedal and speed towards my pack territory. I don’t step off the gas until I am pulling up in front of my house

Gerald, my beta is already waiting for me along with Keenan, Lazarus, Milan, Saroya and Duncan, all members from my pack.

Mira and I exit the Bentley and I pick up on the state of the pack immediately. Worry, anxiety, urgency, sorrow.

Someone died.

I walk forward and stop in front of them and they all bow in respect.

“Welcome back home, Alpha.” Gerald says.

“What happened?” I ask, going straight to the point.

Gerald holds my eyes and I see the news in them even before he opens his mouth.

“Alpha Lor is dead.” He says.

They are still a shock. The words drop between us, flat and lifeless. Mira gasps and slaps a hand to her mouth.

I cock my head and study my beta because his words are not ones that make sense, not in the world we live.

Death is a rare phenomenon and it especially does not happen to the ultimate alpha.

I see the gravity in his eyes after his statement. He is not lying.

“Alpha Lor? Dead?” I say, the words alien.

I cannot grasp it, cannot figure it out nor can I bring myself to believe those words. If this is not an immaculate joke, then it must be a mistake. Not Alpha Lor, I met with him before Mira and I travelled.

Gerald’s head bows. Beside him, tears cascade down Milan’s face and Saroya throws a hand over her shoulder in comfort. The collective pain and mourning of my pack hits me like a brick. This news is fast becoming real, too real.

“I’m sorry, Alpha.” Gerald says, apologising for bearing the bad news. “The Alpha of the Olive pack went in to visit him and stabbed him when his back was turned.”

I hiss out a breath, the scene playing out in front of me.

Alpha Lor, the man that was once a father figure to me, killed in the most disrespectful and dishonourable manner.

My clothes rip, my bones break and fuse again. When I raise my face to the night sky, I howl my pain to the half moon.

Blood pumps in my veins and I shoot into the night, straight towards the refuge of the forest.

The night envelopes me and the forest welcomes me. I am trying to outrun the pain and yet it follows me close on my heels.

I raise my face to the sky and howl again. Far behind me, there is the answering howls of my pack as they turn and follow after me.

I am a blur as I zip through the woods, mourning my mentor to the night. It is impossible for either me or my wolf to grasp the concept of losing the man that I once thought was the most solid and most resilient of wolves. I run faster. I wish I could outrun the pain.

And then my wolf shakes his head as I catch a scent. I have smelled the scent before but it is stronger now, irresistible in its call to me. I stop and sniff at the air, scenting the sharp stench of distress. I couldn’t have ignored the call for the world. I veer off-course and dash towards the woman that calls to me.

A short while later, my wolf comes to a halt and I watch from the sidelines as the female swings a branch at the head of one wolf and then another. The wolves are relentless, attacking her again and again and even though she is putting up a hell of a fight, there are just too many of them. This is an execution.

One of them gets his teeth into her leg and she screams and bashes at the wolf. She is a wild thing, a storm, a thing of beauty as she unleashes upon her attackers. But it will not be enough.

She screams again, a blood-curling scream that curdles my blood. The branch drops from her fingers and she falls to the ground, her eyes unseeing.

The wolves dance around her, rejoicing at her weakness, recalculating. And then one of them lunges for her.

Without thought, I leap from behind the trees, clearing the impossible distance between us as I tackle the wolf to the ground. My mouth closes over his throat and I bite in until I hear bone shatter and the wolf stills.

With a snarl, I raise my head and walk over to the female’s supine body, feeling a fierce protectiveness run through my body that I cannot explain.

I pin the twenty or so wolves with a look.

They dared to touch her. They are all dead meat.