It was a silent trip back down the mountain. Most of my silence was due to the pain I was in. Queen Lilith was at my side, helping me walk. Her silence was most likely due to shock.
Alpha Simon had told her to return to the pack with me and stay by my side. She had argued viciously, but he had stayed firm. He didn't even tell us why she had to come, just said that it was our Goddess' way. And then he placed Alpha Theodore as temporary gatekeeper until her return. She wasnt very happy about that either.
But she followed her orders anyway--I guess Alpha Simon was ths top Alpha here; I really needed to ask Blake about the Fathers' Eldest--and now here we were trekking down the mountainside.
"So, what happened in there?" Queen Lilith asked me when we were about halway down.
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
She gestured towards me. "I've never seen anyone come out weakened and in pain before. The blessing is just some formal bullshit; you kneel and they put their hands on your forehead and mumble some shit."
"Well, they did that..." After I almost died.
"Yeah, so what happened before or after that?"
I shook my head. "I don't really remember. It's like there's a gap in my memory. Alpha Simon put my hands in this gold stuff, and then I was waking up in a lot of pain."
Queen Lilith gave me a wide-eyed, incredulous look, her lips twitching as if she were trying to stop herself from smiling. "He really did?"
"Yeah, said something about it being the right thing."
"Robin, you have just been given an amazing gift." She gushed. "That was the Tears of the Goddess. It's been there since before Simon was born. And thats a looooooong time."
My eyes widened. "Wh-what does it do?"
She shrugged. "That depends on you. When I dipped my hands I didn't know until I changed into my wolf form. Let me tell you, there is nothing freakier than seeing your own teeth and nails coated in a silver."
"Wait--you did it too?"
"As did those idiots up there." She grinned and shook me a little. "You're one of us now, kid."
I couldn't breathe. It was like my throat constricted and my lungs stopped working. I couldn't get any air. Stopping, I put my hands on my chest as I tried to gasp for air. There was a loud ringing sound in my ears, muffling Queen Lilith's words. She was holding my shoulders and yelling something at me, but I couldn't hear her or let alone respond.
Then pain blossomed in my cheek as my head snapped to the side, and everything suddenly came rushing back in sharp clarity. I took a deep breath, and then another. Queen Lilith put her hand on my cheek, her cold fingers soothing my burning skin.
"Sorry." She did look apologetic. "I had to do something. You were having a panic attack."
"Thank you."
She smiled and grabbed my arm to wrap around her shoulder so we could continue. We were almost there. If I looked hard enough through the trees I could see a couple of houses in the near distance.
"I see why Simon wanted me to come with." She said after a moment. "You have a lot on your plate, and probably more coming soon if Simon put your hand in the Tears of the Goddess. I'm here to take a little off your shoulders."
I sighed. "There's a war brewing. Only issue is, I don't know who our enemies are and I don't know if we're the good guys. I was just forced into being the leader in all this."
"Weren't we all?" She smiled wistfully. "Before I became an Alpha, I was a happy little mundane with a mundane Mate and two beautiful little boys."
"What happened?"
Her expression darkened. "Times were not peaceful back then. We all fought to have more territory than the next pack. We didnt equally share the landed based on population. An enemy pack wanted our land. So they snuck in at night and slaughtered almost my entire pack. Me, my youngest son, and three Omegas were the only survivors."
My eyes burned with tears. "That must have been so hard for you."
"It was." She nodded. "I, a mere mundane, was suddenly the highest rank in what was left of our pack. It became my responsibility to take charge and rebuild. And I did it all practically by myself. I had three Omegas in mourning and a son. But by the time I retired, my pack was one of the biggest in the world."
"You're amazing."
She shrugged. "I had to do what I had to do."
"Do you think I can do it too?"
"Our situations are very similar, Robin. You were also a mundane forced into an Alpha's position. You started with a small pack that grew to be a very large pack. And you can do things no one else can do." She smiled reassuringly. "I think you can do it."
"Thank you." I whispered.
We reached the main house soon after that. It was the middle of the night so we had to creep inside, which was hard enough with my weakened body. I whispered directions to Queen Lilith to help her navigate her way upstairs to my room. Something felt off, but I wrote it off as my body being out of sorts.
Until we got to my room to find Blake pacing in front of my door.
His head turned and our eyes locked. I tensed at the glazed look in his gaze. He was definitely drunk. Drunk and angry.
"Blake?" I said cautiously, subtly nudging Queen Lilith behind me and standing up straighter. "Hey man, it's late. What are you still doing up?"
"I was waiting for you." He said in an eerily calm voice. "To ask you about your...trip."
"That's something we can talk about in the morning. For now, I'd like to go to sleep."
"So they blessed you, huh?" He stepped closer to me and I scrunched my nose at the stench of alcohol wafting off him. "Even though you don't have a drop of Alpha's blood in your body?"
I put my hands up. "You don't have to have Alpha's blood to become an Alpha, Blake, you know that."
"In this pack you do!" He hissed, coming even closer. "Do you know how embarrassing it is to have your position taken from you by some lowly mundane orphan who isn't worth shit?"
"Watch it, Blake." I growled, my hands balling into fists.
He was in my face now, looking down at me with a sneer. "Or. What."
I took a deep and shaky breath to calm down. Now that I was Alpha, I couldn't just go and beat the shit out of Blake. Especially considering he was drunk. Unless he threw the first punch, there was nothing I could do.
"Blake, despite how you feel, I'm Alpha now and you're behaving very disrespectfully." I growled.
"So?"
"Robin, if you won't punch him, I'll do it for you." Queen Lilith snarled, cracking her knuckles.
Blake lifted his chin with his own snarl. "Come at me, bitch."
Her expression darkened into a scary look. "That's it, you're dead."
I caught her around the waist as she charged past me, but she swung at Blake and managed to catch his cheek. Seeing him tense up, I quickly pushed Queen Lilith behind me and put my hands up just in time to block his punch. I held in a wince. He was more of an Alpha than I was in our human forms, so it wasnt easy to take a hit from him as it was with someone like Carter. I dropped my arms and glared at him.
"Enough of this."
He scoffed. "She came at me."
"After you called her a bitch." I snapped back. He only shrugged.
"I should've killed you when I had the chance." Queen Lilith hissed.
His expression twisted into something ugly. "I'm right fucking here! What are you gonna do?!!"
She crashed into my back as I stopped her from charging Blake again. "Im gonna fucking murder you!"
"Blake, how about you stop fucking antagonizing her?!" I snapped.
"I'll kick both your asses." He stepped into my space, lowering his face to mine. "So how about you stop being a coward?"
It was literally causing me physical pain to keep myself from beating his face in. "Stop it Blake."
"Or what?" He pushed me hard enough to make me stumble back into Queen Lilith, and I saw red.
I flew at him, punching him once in the face and again in the stomach before he grabbed me and threw me off him. Crashing into the wall, I was barely able to put up a guard in time to block him. The force of his pinch combined with the momentum from the throw caused the wall to dent and crack. I used my arms to push him away and kicked his side. He stumbled to the side and I used the chance to knee him in the face.
He roared in anger and next thing I knew he shifted, swiping me with his paw before I could react. I went crashing through the wall, landing hard on the ground. There were screams and I looked up to see Astoria and the twins in bed looking between us in terror--the amount of pink and stuffed animals told me we were in Astoria's room. I turned when I heard a crunch and looked just in time to see a silver wolf crash into Blake, sending them both tumbling down the hall. Taking a guess that it was Queen Lilith helping me fight Blake, I scrambled up and gathered the children.
"It's okay guys, everything is gonna be fine." I said calmly as I herded them through the hole.
Ryder looked up at me with wide eyes. "I sense so much anger."
I smiled reassuringly. "Uncle Blake isn't very happy right now."
"Who is that fighting my daddy?" A very tense Astoria asked me.
"She's trying to stop your daddy from hurting others. He's a little grumpy right now."
Alex ran up just then, along with the rest of my pack. "Robin, what's going on?"
"Blake is throwing a temper tantrum." I said as I pushed the children towards him. "Get them downstairs to safety and protect them."
Reese stepped forward. "Alpha?"
"You guys go with Alex." I looked behind me to see Blake and Queen Lilith slowly making their way back to me. "I can handle Blake."
"Yes, Alpha." They all quickly started for the stairs.
I shifted and turned to face Blake, growling loudly. Immediately he turned to me with a snarl. Queen Lilith backed up, though she remained tense and ready to attack. She was snarling quietly, her eyes locked on Blake and her muzzle pulled back to reveal gleaming silver teeth. I suddenly remembered that she was the gatekeeper, and that she had that position for a very fucking good reason. If she wanted to, she could have killed Blake instantly. But this isnt her fight.
"Blake, Im going to give you one more chance." I stared him down. "Stop this nonsense."
His eyes locked with mine, clear as day. The anger had burned away his drunkness. He was doing this with a clear conscious effort.
"Give me back my positiom and I'll gladly stop."
"Blake, you know I can't do that." I gave him a frustrated look. "It's not what father wish--"
"He is not your father!" He roared, stalking towards me. "He is mine. It is not your position. IT'S MINE."
He leapt and crashed into me, sending us tumbling down the stairs, snarling and biting at one another the whole time. Crashing into a wall separated us after our fall, but only briefly as we immediately came back together. It was a fairly even fight. The toxins from my bite hardly slowed him down, but I was physically stronger and bigger than him as a wolf. It was clear he was unused to fighting without being unable to simply overpower his opponent. But he was still well trained, for much longer than I have been training, and that evened out the odds for him.
Every bite, every scratch, every puch was feeding my anger more and more, sending me into a blind rage. I was angry at Blake for starting this fight. For not being a better Alpha and putting me into this position. For not being a better person and treating both me and Alex with the kindness and respect we needed and deserved. But for however angry I was at him, I was twice as angry at myself. For never being strong enough to prevent these things from happening. If I hadn't latched on so desperately to Alex and Blake to be my friends, I wouldn't have been so lonely and maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't have put up with Alex's shit. Maybe I would've been able to Mate Blake. Maybe I could've helped shape Blake into a nicer person, and he would become a great Alpha. Maybe I would've been Luna. Maybe my precious babies would've been the product of Blake's and my Mateship and I could've given them everything I didn't have growing up.
But no. None of that happened. And it really fucking pissed me off that all Blake seemed to care about was his position as Alpha. He didnt care about who he hurt or the utter catastrophes he started in the process. I hated him. And I hated myself for still longing for him all the while.
"Alpha watch out!"
I snapped into focus, throwing myself back fast enough to avoid bumping into Alex, who was standing protectively in front of the kids huddled at the back sliding door. Blake wasn't as quick, however, and they all went through the glass. My heart stopped and my lungs constricted. I felt a painful pressure squeezing my body, almost as if my physical form was being pulled through to the Otherside, and time around me slowed until it seemed like everyone was swimming through jelly.
"RYDER! REBEL!" I screamed the moment I could breathe, running towards them.
It didn't even occur to me that I was still moving at normal speed while everything else was slowed down. I barely acknowledged the force pushing down on my head, or the slight blood trickling out of my nose. My entire focus was on my twins, my babies, and making sure they were safe. Fortunately they had their arms wrapped around one another--though I hated to see their faces screwed up in terror--which made it easy for me to jump up and tuck them into my body with my muzzle, wrapping a paw around them. Just in time too, because the pressure on my head finally lifted and time sped back up. A body--size told me it had to be Alex--pushed me forward and instead of landing on my feet, I skidded on my side a few feet.
For a moment everything was still. I could hear commotion in the near distance, pack members attractes by all the noise. Ryder and Rebel were pressed tightly against me, small whimpers leaving them to be absorbed into my fur. Their fear quelled my anger and I returned to my human form, wrapping my arms around them.
"Shhh, I'm here." I cooed. "Mummy's here, my babies. I got you. You're safe."
"Robin?" I heard a croak and looked up to see Alex crawling towards me.
Blood was running down the side of his face from a large cut that sliced across his forehead and he was holding one arm close to his chest. I reached out towards him as he got closer, tears burning my eyes and panic bubbling in my chest.
"I can't look." My voice shook. "Are they okay? Please tell me they are."
"Okay." He said softly, scooting closer.
He carefully ran his hands down them, his nose skimming their skin. Scenting. Searching. I watched him desperately, watching his expressions and waiting for the slightest shift. And then it happened and my heart seized.
"What is it? What's wrong?" I blurted.
"It's okay, Robin." He said calmly, not moving from a spot over Rebel's ribs. "It's just a cut."
"A cut?!" I nearly screeched.
Alex carefully lifted her shirt to reveal her ribs. I nearly threw up at the sight of blood--her blood--coating her torso. He hovered over the wound, gently prodding it with his fingers.
"Deep enough to scar but its a clean cut. She'll heal with no problems. I don't smell any internal bleeding." He ran his fingers through her hair. "She's a tough one."
Suddenly Ryder rolled over and cuddled into Alex. His eyes widened and locked with mine in disbelief and wonder. I was the same. They were turning to him for comfort as well. Well, Ryder was. And he was a hard egg to crack. Rebel slowly followed, taking his hand as she curled into Alex's other side. I sat up, wincing as my body protested. No amount of adrenalin was gonna block the amount of damage I took today, especially in my already weakened state.
Knowing that the twins would be safe with Alex, I slowly rose and searched for Alex. He was still in his wolf form, staring down at Astoria as she cried hysterically, clinging on to him. She had a nick or two that made her bleed a little, nothing like Alex and Ryder, but she was probably terrified. Blake only nosed her hair, not even changing forms to console her. I returned to my wolf form and stalked over to him. He looked up at me, eyes still glittering with anger.
"You're banished." I snapped, making it so that all could hear me. "Before the sun rises I don't want you anywhere near this pack. Every thing you have done has been in self interest and has put this pack at risk. As Alpha, I cannot condone your behavior."
His eyes widened, revealing wild fury. "You're not serious, Robin?"
"Maybe being rogue all by yourself will teach you to appreciate those around you."
"You're gonna take the pack from me too?" He snarled.
I raised my chin. "There are several rogue packs out there. Learn to be a team player and maybe you can join one."
"You can't make me go." He growled defiantly.
"I have yet to use my powers on you, Blake." The air around me crackled and my fur ruffled as I summoned my powers. "And you don't want me to."
"What about my daughter? You want me to take her out there?"
"Astoria will become a ward of the Alpha, same as I did."
He snorted. "Look where that got you?"
"It got me to become Alpha of one of the largest packs in this area." I snarled. "The position you lost, in case you had forgotten. Now pack your shit and leave."
His eyes stayed locked with mine for a long moment. I could see the urge to defy me. But he couldn't. He had to leave. He knew it just as well as I did.
"Fine." He snapped. "You'll regret this, Robin."
"Only if you can become a man I'll regret banishing." I responded. "Take your time to say your goodbyes and pack your things, but by morning you better be gone."
"No problem."
~~
I felt all the love you guys sent me and I've finally been able to finish this chapter. It didnt take me as long as I thought, which is good for everyone lol It did take a couple rewrites, but I finally got it right
Enjoy, my lovelies, and as always vote and/or comment if you liked the chapter :3