The Shadow Alpha

Chapter 34: Ready?

Chapter 34: Ready?

Holly

I wake up feeling as if my muscles have been put through a toffee stretcher. I gently extend my arms above over my head, stretching, relishing in the pain and pleasure of the movement.

I look to the clock beside me on the night table and am surprised to see that it reads 3:14 in the morning. I must have really needed it to have slept this long.

Glancing over to the bed beside me, my heart drops when I see River is absent from his usual place.

I quickly swing my legs over the bed and begin getting dressed into the first decent clothes I can find. Clad in my denim jeans and one of River's sweaters, I exit the bedroom only to find a dim light coming from the kitchen. More than that, I can make out lowered voices.

"You really believe she's ready?" the first voice asks, and I recognize it as belonging to Clark, River's father.

River replies without hesitation. "She's as ready as she could ever be, for someone who is just getting thrown into this." I can detect the simmering bitterness behind his tone. What Kyra did truly is unforgivable, in his eyes. "She's trying, Dad. Trying harder than anyone to make sure Kyra doesn't come out of this victorious...Because if Kyra does somehow manage to—" he cuts himself off, and I can hear the sudden emotion in him.

Clark must sense this too because a moment of still and thoughtful silence passes between them. I wonder if Clark has seen his son like this before. Has River ever had enough reason to be this scared, as Alpha? Has River ever allowed anyone to see him this scared before, even his parents?

These questions run through my mind, one chasing after another, trying to understand the man my mate was before I knew him, as well as the man he is becoming, now that we are together. It's as if trying to fit puzzle pieces from two separate puzzles into a combined larger one—at times the pieces almost look the same, perhaps some of them even are, because River will always remain, in a sense, River.

But this kaleidoscope of him, all the facets, keep shifting and changing just enough to keep me wondering. How much of the River I see today, is the River that everyone else has known? And how much of him is the River I have helped uncover again, and bring back to the surface?

"You understand, River, that despite your tie to Holly, you still have an obligation and responsibility to the pack." Clark says this with unwavering seriousness. "We all want you to be with Holly in the way you were destined: as mates, as Alpha and Luna." I can feel him building up to it, the inevitable truth of our situation. "But if Kyra does walk out of this as victor, you must remain here. As Alpha."

"Dad, no, you know that I—" River begins to defend his decision, but Clark cuts him off with a hiss.

"No! You listen, River!" he says in a hushed but frustrated voice. "We have an enemy out there that is seeking to destroy our way of life. The way of life that has allowed us to expand and rule under a regime of peace and fairness for decades upon decades." Clark's voice levels out once more, his emotion reigned in. "We cannot afford to lose that. Our pack, their families and their children, cannot afford to lose that." He stresses.

I feel my stomach sink to the ground as Clark's words resonate.

He's right, and I know it, and so does River. We all know River must stay. If he doesn't, he leaves hundreds of people, likely more, to either run and try to create a life somewhere else (possibly with another pack, but likely not) or he leaves them to be killed when the Strikers inevitably close in. Either option is horrible, and both can be completely avoided if River elects to stay.