Chapter 6

The morning came too soon. I was far too comfortable, wrapped in the blankets. I listened to the sound of people rushing in and out of their rooms, getting ready for school, I guessed. I turned onto my back and lay there, staring at the ceiling, remembering the events of the day before. I was feeling more relaxed about where I was, but the wolf I saw from my window last night, the memory was playing on my mind.

Why were they watching me? How long had they been there?

There was a gentle knock on the door. It began to open and my mother poked her head in.

“Morning sleepyhead,” she chuckled.

I threw the covers over my head and groaned.

“Urgh… Morning, mom,” I grumbled back, making her laugh. I pulled the blankets back down and sat up, brushing through my hair with my fingers, smoothing it out.

She walked in, pushing the door shut with her hip, clutching two steaming mugs in her hands. She placed one on the bedside table and took a seat at the end of the bed, placing her drink on the desk next to her. She pushed herself back until she was leaning against the wall.

“How did you sleep?” she asked me, picking up her mug and wrapping her fingers around it.

“Surprisingly well. I think the storm last night helped. It cleared my mind…” I replied, trying to figure out if I should tell her about the strange wolf watching me.

“I'm glad, honey. You should get dressed soon, though. Matthias came to tell me that the Alpha will see us at 9 am, so you have an hour,” she revealed, taking a sip of her coffee, sighing contentedly. I nodded my acknowledgement.

I picked up my mug and smiled softly. The wonderful aroma of a cup of tea seeped into me. I took a sip and sighed. It was perfect.

“Thank you, mom. You always make the best tea,” I complimented, smiling at her.

She smiled back, and we sat in silence, slowly finishing our drinks and listening to the fading hustle and bustle outside.

When we were done, she picked up the mugs and left the room to take them back to wherever she got them from. I took this time to get dressed but remembered the disaster that is my jeans. Deciding to just wear my leggings instead, I rifled through my backpack and found a large clean black hoodie and shook it out. After spraying on my deodorant, I pulled the hoodie over my head and glanced at myself in the mirror above the dresser, my hazel green eyes staring back at me and my hair an absolute mess. Looking away, I picked up my hairbrush and brushed my hair, removing the knots. Chucking the hairbrush back into my bag, I began pulling my hair up and out of my face, twisting it into a messy bun atop my head. Tying it as tightly as I could bear, I glanced back at myself, feeling satisfied.

Before I left my room to go find my mother, I made the bed, closed the window and checked I hadn't left anything behind. Convinced I hadn't left anything, I grabbed my backpack, turned and left the room, closing the door behind me and headed to my mothers' room. Before I could knock, she opened the door and walked out carrying her bag.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Ready,” she replied. “Come on, we need to meet Matthias downstairs.”

I followed behind her, walking down the stairs back towards the door we came in through the night before.

Standing there by the large front doors, stood Matthias and two other men talking amongst themselves. The two other men weren’t quite as tall as Matthias but were just as bulky. Both had short hair, but where one was blonde, the other was a deep coppery brown. The one with the coppery hair looked towards us and nodded in our direction, letting Matthias know we were ready.

He nodded to both the men, excusing himself and strode over to us.

“Good Morning, Amelia,” he greeted, a smile on his face, crinkling slightly at his eyes

“Morning,” I responded, nervously.

“Right, follow me, the Alphas office is this way,” he gestured to a hallway to the right of the front doors.

He proceeded down the hallway, as we followed behind him. We strolled past open and closed doors, all of them seeming to be offices and storerooms. It was a decently long hallway that ended in a large set of closed doors, which had two large grey sofas laid out on either side of the doors.

Matthias walked straight up to the doors and motioned for us to take a seat. He knocked on the doors and a deep, assertive voice answered from within.

“Come in.” the deep voice rumbled.

Matthias opened the door partway and slipped inside, shutting it firmly behind him. I could hear them talking, but I wasn’t exactly listening.

I turned to my mother and noticed how calm she was. How was she not nervous? How is she this calm?

The door opened again and Matthias motioned for my mother to follow him in, and asked me to just wait. My mother glanced at me and smiled reassuringly before getting up and following him through the doors. I managed to catch a look at the room beyond before the door was shut. Its walls were covered with rows and rows of books and had large open windows.

The Alpha was questioning my mother, asking her why she ran away with me, what had happened that had escalated the situation and why she thought it was a good idea to come to him. She explained everything. The shunning from the other students. The constant punishments for nothing. She explained my father's mental and physical abuse towards me and his mental and emotional abuse towards her. She told him about the opportunity to run and how she took it.

The Alpha was silent, listening to everything she was saying. When she had finished, the Alpha asked her to step back out and asked to speak to me. My heart rate picked up at his request, thundering in my ears.

The door opened again and my mother walked out.

“It’s your turn now, love,” she informed me, “everything will be okay.”

I stood, hands shaking and slowly stepped through the doors.

I avoided looking at the Alpha straight away, instead, I glanced around the room, looking at the full bookshelves, the paperwork covering the desk, the light filtering in through the large open windows. The dust dancing in the streams of light. Finally, taking a deep breath, I turned my head and looked at the Alpha sitting in front of me, watching me with his dark brown eyes, curiosity flowing through them.

“Take a seat,” he said, his deep voice rumbling through me, setting my cheeks aflame.

I quickly took a seat across from him, nervously twisting and pulling at my fingers, waiting for the interrogation to begin.

“Nervous?” Matthias questioned, a smile in his voice.

I looked at him, then looked at the Alpha, cheeks burning.

“Don’t be cruel, Matthias,” the Alpha chuckled.

“Me?! Never!” he said in mock surprise.

I chuckled quietly, surprising myself and those around me with the sound.

“Your mother has explained everything to me, as I’m sure you heard, but I just need to ask; is there anything else, anything that she may have forgotten to mention?” he inquired, his voice gentle.

This isn’t the Alpha I’d heard so many awful things about, or is he hiding that side of himself?

Looking down at my hands I thought through everything my mother told him. There wasn’t anything that she had missed, nothing she knew about anyway. Lifting my head and looking at the Alpha, I responded.

“I’m sure she’s told you everything, everything she knows about that is,” I informed him, quietly, casting my eyes down in embarrassment and shame.

He raised his eyebrows questioningly, “What doesn’t she know about?” he asked, curiosity and anger lining his words.

“I-I…I don’t… can’t…” I took a deep breath trying to calm myself, heartbeat booming in my ears, “I... I can’t speak about it, it-it’s too difficult…I can’t, please…” I begged, trailing off.

“Okay, alright. I can see that it is something that has very clearly left its mark on you. I won’t ask you to explain it to me,” he reassured me, “take a deep breath.”

My hands shook violently, but my heart began to calm down. Taking deep breaths in, I pushed the memory out of my mind.

“I…I’m sorry,” I stammered.

“There is no need to apologise. I can see that you and your mother have been through a lot of shit,” he stated, watching me. Turning his head, he looked to his second in command, “Let Leigha back in.”

Matthias nodded and strolled to the door, opening it wide, gesturing for my mother to come in and take a seat next to me. She walked in, looking a little nervous now, and perched on the chair beside me, reaching for my hand and squeezing it.

“I have made a decision, based on what you have both revealed to me and what I can see with my own eyes.” His eyes were watching us, piercing us with his gaze. “I have decided that I will let you stay here, you will both become members of my pack and will forever be under my protection. I know there is a risk of war for taking you in, but this war will happen regardless of my decisions.”

My mother was shocked, stunned into silence. She obviously didn’t expect him to actually take us in.

“What will happen now is you will both be initiated into the pack, forsaking your last pack and pledging yourselves to me and mine. You will both need to drink a small amount of my blood, which will break any connection you have with The Black Lake Pack and forge your connection to The Oak Ridge Pack.” He explained everything as Matthias went to a cabinet on the far wall and retrieved two small glasses, bringing them to the desk and placing them in front of his Alpha. “I presume you both know the words of the oath?”

My mother nodded, but I looked at her, a look of confusion on my face. Looking back to the Alpha I confessed that I did not actually know the oath.

“That is alright. Your mother can go first.” he offered. “A small warning for you, Amelia. When you drink this and cite the oath, there will be a sharp pain, like a migraine, this is the connection being severed and reconnected to me,” he explained. I nodded my understanding, knowing it couldn’t all go painlessly.

Lifting his hands, he pulled the glasses towards him and picked up a small, delicate knife from a beautiful little ornate box. With the knife in hand, he made a small cut on the inside of his wrist, letting the dark crimson liquid drip into the glasses. Once he was done, he picked up a small cloth and wiped his already healed wrist and then cleaned the knife, placing it back into the little ornate box. Looking up expectantly, he glanced at me, then turned to my mother.

My mother stood, took a step forward and picked up the small glass, holding it lightly between her fingers. She looked at me with a small reassuring smile, then turned and looked directly at the Alpha, taking a deep breath.

“I, Leigha Baker, renounce my alliance to The Black Lake Pack and hereby pledge myself to The Oak Ridge Pack and their Alpha, James Lansfield,” she declared, clearly. She lifted the glass to her lips and tipped the liquid into her mouth. Placing the empty glass on the desk, she froze and cried out in pain, clutching her head.

I jumped up to help her, but she brushed me off, standing up straight, the pain still evident in her eyes. Matthias walked up to her, taking her gently by the arm, leading her out the doors, to the sofas outside and closed the doors behind them.

Watching the doors, I hadn’t noticed that the Alpha had gotten up and had walked around the desk to stand next to me.

“She will be okay, I promise,” he assured me, making me jump at the proximity of his voice. “Do you remember the words?”

“I-... Yes, I remember them,” I answered, looking for the little glass. He lifted it up, holding it out to me. I took it gently, the tips of my fingers brushing against his, sending little currents of electricity through my hand. It’s just static, I told myself.

Holding the glass in my hand, I took a deep breath and looked up into the eyes of the Alpha and began to recite the oath.

“I, Amelia Baker, renounce my alliance to The Black Lake Pack,” I declared, voice shaking, “and hereby pledge myself to The Oak Ridge Pack and their Alpha, James Lansfield,” I finished. I lifted the glass to my lips, the metallic scent of blood tickling my nose. I put it to my lips, tipping it back, blood coating the inside of my mouth and swallowed it quickly.

I didn’t feel anything at first, but the pain exploded through my head, like the screams of a hundred people happened all at once, echoing throughout my head. As quickly as the pain came, it disappeared, leaving an awful headache in its wake.

I hadn't noticed but the Alpha had hold of me as if I had been about to collapse. His arms held me firmly, but somehow gently at the same time.

“Are you alright?” he asked cautiously.

“Umm... I think so. My heads killing me,” I answered softly.

“The headache should dissipate in a couple of hours,” he explained, gently letting me go and stepping back. His eyes glazed over for a moment, then Matthias and my mother came walking in.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” my mother asked lovingly, her hand rubbing my back.

“I’m okay, mom,” I assured her.

“You should both rest for a day or two,” he instructed, “We will have a flat organised for you both. Leigha, I will let the doctor know that I have found him the Nurse he has been requesting.” My mother smiled at that, “and Amelia, you will be enrolled at the school, you should be able to start on Thursday.”

“Thank you, Alpha,” my mother praised, bowing her head with respect for her new Alpha.

“Yes, thank you, Alpha,” I expressed, bowing my head.

“There is no need to thank me,” he stated, “any decent Alpha would and should do the same. Now go rest, and do take this time to have a look around the town, maybe set up a bank account while you’re there. But until you are earning your own money, anything you need will be charged to my account. Just don’t go crazy,” he chuckled. My mother and I both laughed along with him.

We were excused, so we both went back to our rooms to rest.

We are safe here. At least for now.