[Lucca]
The second day, nothing happened and I was becoming paranoid by the minute. All of us were on edge; we barely slept and we hunted in our wolf forms to not risk blowing our cover. We were discreet about covering our tracks and scents, yet my instincts kept telling me we were not alone.
"Why don't we scale up the mountain top and hide there?" Jerome suggested.
"Wolves don't hide. We are predators that top the food chain." One of the elders exclaimed.
"Jerome, you need to keep your mouth closed, before I decide to leave you here on your own." I warned him.
"Are you threatening me, Alpha?" He took a step closer to me and we were almost a foot apart.
"What is wrong with you? Why are you acting this way?" Lionel quickly jumped between us thinking we were going to go at each other's necks. I grabbed his shoulder softly and pulled him aside.
"I've got it under control.”
Without further complaint, he leveled his head to the ground.
Jerome let out an arrogant smirk. "Seems like you two are buddy-buddy. Are you going to make him your new Beta next?"
Was he serious right now? No oneexpected this coming from him and almost all of us dropped our mouths in utter disbelief.
"This is not the right time and place for this conversation. We will talk when we get back." I told him narrowing my gaze to make sure he understood clearly.
"No, we will deal with this now!" My back was to him, so he took that opening to kick me behind the knee, causing my leg to gave way. I ungracefully landed on the dirt on my hands and knees.
"Jerome, what are you doing?" Echoes of protest came from the large group.
"Look at you...licking the floor." He circled me and kicked dirt on my face with the side of his foot. Growls emitted around us. "My uncle was right about you. You hide behind the pack like a scared little puppy."
Five of the elders stood together watching the episode unfold taking note of the situation. They weren't going to involve themselves in this mess, as I assume, but they were going to watch how I addressed the problem.
This feels like Alpha training with my father all over again. Dad used to watch me like a hawk during my alpha trraining and he would comment about every little thing I did wrong.
"Uncle?" Jerome's father was Devon, my dad's third in command after Richard Grant left. I don't remember anyone else in Jerome’s family residing in our pack besides his mother. Everyone usually treated one another like extended family.
"The annoyingly loud man earlier." He clarified.
"Marc is your uncle?" My voice sounded more surprised than I intended.
No wonder they both had loud mouths.
"Sad to say, but yes...that old fart is my dad's half-brother. And before you ask, he's his half brother because my dad's mother died and his father remarried another she-wolf that was widowed--it's complicated."
"Are we not friends?" I asked him, but the look on his face already told me his answer.
"What kind of friend makes a promise and breaks it? You said I could be your Beta, then your father passed away, you gave the position to Richard Grant! My father said he was a coward for running away! It was supposed to be me in his place. I was supposed to be your backbone, your right hand man, but instead you confined in him, that traitor, your plans!"
He sounds like a jealous little girl.
"Marc made it certain that I got the chance to act on revenge a bit." He said it as if it were a goof thing.
"You're a hunter!" Someone blurted the obvious.
"Isn't that--
Before Jerome got to finish his sentence, men piled on top of him flattening his sorry ass flat like a pancake.
He groaned, "Get off you me you idiots!"
"A smart person wouldn't have screamed the whole world he was plotting against them, idot." I rolled my eyes and palmed my face in frustration.
“Are you okay Alpha?” Lionel asked, offering me his hand.
This kid was someone I could trust.
“Thanks, I’m fine…just a bit tired from all this.”
I didn’t need to elaborate what this meant, but Lionel understood. “Don’t give up Alpha Lucca, I still believe in your leadership.” His words touched me in a way I’ve never felt before.
Gratitude…
I guess that’s what I felt. Did my dad feel this way when he was with his men? As a kid, I watched my father’s leadership, but I never considered the bond between him and his men. I’ve always thought of it as an Alpha among his people, who swore to protect his subjects at all costs. I've always thought being Alpha was an obligation.
I guess it was more than that, now that I think about it.
“What do we do with him Alpha?” Brian, the guy that usually served as my informer came up to me and pointed at Jerome man-piled on the ground.
“I want at least five men guarding him at all times.”
“Yes sir.”
“You have a way of picking your team.” An elder whispered from behind me.
“I assure you sir, he will be dealt with and this was a one time mistake. This pack takes choosing a Beta seriously. He was once entrusted to be my right-hand-man, but now I’ve realized friendship isn’t the right way to choose them.”
The elder nodded once. “The last one ran away and now this one betrays you. I knew this pack was a bad idea in the first place.” He grumbled under his breath.
“If you do not like it here, then why did you not just leave! Instead you stayed and became a part of this.”
He snorted. “Do you even know my name?”
It took me a second to recollect, but I knew. “Bruce Wallaby, you joined the pack five years after my father became the Alpha.”
“And do you know why I joined? I’m sure you would know because as the Alpha’s son it is required for you to know all our information.”
“You’re wife and mate, Dorothy Wallaby, she was part of our pack and she didn’t want to leave it.”
He nodded. “And because of her I stayed and when she died, I was left to raise our two daughters.”
His daughters were probably with the rest of the pack, which resided in the main house hours away from our training ground. I haven’t been in that place for months and I wished to take Selene there and introduce her to the rest of the pack as their Alpha female.
Just two more days left, i thought.
“ So why didn't you just leave after she died? I knew you didn't like this pack. You could have asked permission from me and another Alpha to move into a new pack. I would have granted it. This is a new world, a new generation. I would never steal from anyone's freedom."
"My wife's family was here, she grew up here and as much as I hated being reminded of her everyday by being in her pack, I couldn't leave my daughters. One of them is expecting her first pup soon and I'm expecting a call at any moment now, but I'm here. With you." He hissed between his teeth.
"Since everyone seems to be expressing their feelings, is there anyone else who would like to voice their opnions? Any takers? Come on, don't be shy! I promise I won't get mad and kick anyone out." I said with a hint of sarcasm.
Most of their faces were looking at the ground in silence.
I sighed. "Alright...I have a better idea. Be honest. Everyone who still wants me to be there Alpha line up behind me. The rest, line up behind Bruce here."
I was anxious of the outcome but, I just had to know if I still had a chance of keeping this pack under my command. The first person who moved was Lionel and he stood on my side. A couple people followed him and I had almost three-fourth of the group behind me, but then I saw two of my men move towards Bruce. Martin and Roberto were their names. Martin was a grandson of one of the elders in another group and Roberto was the cousin of another elder in my group.
"Sorry Alpha." I saw Martin mouth. I nodded back understanding his situation. Although we were a pack, the human part of us had a closer bond with our blood kin.
Three more people joined Bruce's side including the all the elders present.
I looked at both sides and noted that mine was bigger. Nodding my head I said, "I thank all who remain on my side. As for the handful of you who differ, I hope you can give me the time to change your minds. We can work something out."
"I'm still not leaving the pack" Bruce quickly added. "I just don't like that a cocky teenage boy such as yourself is running it."
Was I really that bad before? I was a bit of a handful. Okay...I was sort of self-centered. Mean...bosy...I was even mean to my own mother...
"Shit, I really was an ass wasn't I?" I looked over my shoulder and asked the guys who stood behind me.
"To be honest, you were." Brian said half-smiling.
I chuckled. Of course Brian would answer first; he was usually the first person I targeted my anger on, because he stood outside my office door.
This was embarassing. I bet my old man is laughing down on me from heaven. If he were alive, I swear he would have slapped me across the back of my head right now and said, "You moron."
"But we've been noticing you change lately." Lionel said.
"Yeah, you've been less of an ass!" One of the men yelled from the back.
some of the guys chuckled at that.
"Must be because of Selene." Another one muttered, but I didn't know who.
"He's become a doggie on a leash." Jerome yelled and got himself elbowed in the stomach. "If I could mess you up right now I would!" He threatened the guy that elbowed him.
I heard a bunch of leaves rustling violently, but it quickly went away when I turned my head to the direction it came from; where Martin and Roberto were. The two were no were near a bush or a tree. In fact, there was only a couple of redwood trees and a stream behind them but yards away. When they saw me staring at them, they looked at each other in confusion and then behind them.
"Did you here that?" I asked Bruce who also looked at the two.
"It must be the wind." He said.
"The wind doesn't move that abruptly. Everyone keep quiet for a second."
Everyone, even Jerome, stood like statues and didn't utter a peep. Next thing we knew a large black wolf appeared charging straight at us with a number of wolves following him.
"Alpha Soren." Bruce exclaimed.
The large wolf was Alpha Soren and he didn't look like he was stopping on his tracks. From our right, Richard Grant and his group gathered around us too.
"What is this?" I screamed.
This was not planned and I doubt from the angry scowl on Alpha Soren's face he was trying to pull a sneaky one on me. He looked pissed and it wasn't aimed at me. His wolf form started to morph back to his human. He didn't even bother with the clothes, but we were all guys here so it didn't really matter.
"We need to get back to the house." He yelled at everyone in the field.
"What's going on?" I asked alarmed. My first thought was Selene. She was in the house with my mother. Did something happen?
Grant in his human form stood next to us out of breath. "We saw them."
"Saw who, damn it! Tell me who you saw on my land! I demand you tell me what is going on!" I yelled.
Alpha Soren looked at me with his pupils dark black. "The human hunters...the group that dared to take my mate from me years ago are on your land!" He snarled.
Marc saw his nephew and snorted. "You useless shit."
"Right back at you uncle!" Jerome growled.
"SHUT UP THE LOT OF YOU!" Alpha Soren roared. "We need to head back to the house. They were heading there. I don't know how they found out we were here."
"We can take them. We out number them." Grant said hopeful.
"They have weapons and they have set traps around the area. I saw one. I thought it was made by one of own for this examination, but I smelt the wolfbane on the silver. These real human hunters are really determined to achieve their task this time."
"What do they want?" Grant asked.
"My mate, she is a white wolf." He cursed under his breath. "They're going to try and take her from me...again. They planned it perfectly. Attacking when my wife is at her weakest--with child. They must have found out I was not with her too."
"We won't let that happen." I assured him.
The hunters were heading to the house. They are going to go in there while my mate was there. I was getting upset by the second. I was going to rip their heads off before they even saw Selene. My wolf was boiling to protect our mate.