Six months later
We had steadily rebuilt our pack, as strongly as we could. The attacks once more had shifted from our pack to neighbouring ones. The Night Shade Pack and it’s Alpha were becoming more irrational and brutal with their needless attacks. They had overturned smaller packs, slaughtering many or leaving them homeless and forcing them rogue in order to gain control of their land and pack. Where this Alpha had managed to build his forces from we were uncertain, this region had always been a peaceful one, until recent years. Until the Rhodes family came into power of the Night Shade Pack. And now we all suffered.
“Hey Jackson” Cayden, my pack Beta greeted me as he walked into the office. “We have arranged some interviews for the accountancy and business support role you were wanting.”
Cayden and I had struggled over the past six months with the losses of our mates, feeling as Alpha and Beta we should have been better prepared in protecting them, but sadly, we were not the only ones having lost mates and we were ones of many pack members grieving, so we felt we had to put on a brave face around pack to show our solitude, show our support. We were getting there slowly. We still felt pain, and greatly felt the loss.
Those girls were made for us. The moon goddess had chosen them especially for us. I had been with Ava for merely a year, and Cayden with Lily for a little over eighteen months. That was nothing. Nothing in comparison to the life you imagine you will have together when you meet your fated mate. The one that is made to be your other half. Your soul mate.
It still destroys me, the thought of growing old without her. Not having children. Not seeing her smiling, or laughing again. Not waking up beside her… My father keeps talking of a chosen mate, suggesting I consider this option to secure an heir for our pack, our family name, but I cannot even consider another mate. Not now. Ava was mine. I do not want that to change. The pain from her loss is still there and I know that Cayden feels the same about the loss of Lily because he is the only one I can truly talk to about how I feel.
“Earth to Jackson” Cayden disturbs my wandering mind.
“Hmm?” I realise I had let my mind run away with itself once again, it seems to be doing a lot of that of late. I need to focus. I quickly look to him, he has a smirk on his face.
“The accountancy and business support role you wanted someone for?” Cayden reminds me. “Well we arranged some interviews. My Mum is friends with the former Beta’s wife at River Ash Pack, she recommended their daughter, recently qualified, looking for work, currently helping out at their pack, but said she would be willing to help here too. Qualifications are good. All the others are not from packs if you catch my drift.”
I knew instantly what he meant. The role we wanted filling was not one many of the people in pack studied for. So we had been struggling to find someone to fill it, looking around for someone for quite sometime now. Knowing that bringing someone into pack would be awkward if they were not a werewolf, so it would mean hiring an office off pack in human territory to avoid an awkward questions. So, if this daughter of the former Beta had a decent reference then she could well be ideal.
I nod. “Thanks Cay.”
“Ariella was asking after you again” he smiles as he leaves the room, knowing he will irritate me by saying this.
I throw the nearest thing to to me at the closing door, it being a book, making a thud at the door as it hits with some force.
‘Aww, did I hit a nerve?’ Cayden mindlinks with a chuckle, clearly having heard me throw the book at the door as he left.
He knows how much Ariella freaks me out. She has been following me around since the day we lost Ava and Lily. Desperate to talk to me. To discuss her vision and the prophecy she had handed me. And the ever additional visions she says she has. I just think she is lonely and finds excuses to talk to people.
She has always been around in our pack, she had grown up here, I swear she had been here longer than the actual pack had, and likely would be here longer than the rest if us ever would be. There was something that creepy about her. We used to joke around about her when we were growing up that maybe she was a ghost?! The more I think of that now, I am beginning to question if that could be possible. She sure seems to just appear without you even noticing! And seems to know alot of the things going on around pack...
I don’t know, but she terrified me, always had since being a child. But my father would regularly meet with her, for these visions she apparently had. These foresights, images, hallucinations… yeah, maybe that was what they were. She took things that made her hallucinate? That made more sense to me than the things she came out with. Why else would she be able to see these things that she believed were going to happen?
But, for whatever the reason, my father believed the words she came out with, listened intently, used her words to guide him, help him keep our pack safe. Well, that had worked, I guess, to a point. Until the nutjobs that were the Rhodes family suddenly descended on our region. Brought hostitlity and conflict to our lands, an unease and foreboding restlessness we could not shake.
Hmm, whatever, it was, Ariella was intent on stalking me of late, adamant she had messages for me. Well, as far as I was concerned she could keep her messages, I had no clue who or where they were from, knowing her she was likely communicating with the devil, well he can keep his messages, thank you very much!
The scroll, or prophecy as she had since referred to it as, that she had given me on the day Ava had passed away had been read, so many times, confused me, so many times and still made no sense. It was written in riddles, or a spell, who knows? It was written much like Ariella spoke, never making much sense.
Written on what looked like old parchment, making me question if she was in fact a witch or some weird shit like that. That would not surprise me with her, she certainly had an aura about her that put me on edge. After about a week of keeping it on my office desk, looking at it frequently, reading it, and reading again, asking Cayden for his opinion, which resulted in him asking if I was joining Hogwarts, I gave up. Deciding I was gaining nothing from the thing, if anything it was slowly sending me insane, and considering the situation I was already in having lost my mate, I felt I was already close to that point as it already was, I needed no further help in tipping me over the edge…
So the scroll was rolled back up, tied up, and thrown in the bottom drawer of my desk with no intention of looking at it again, with no better understanding of what it meant, or what Ariella was babbling on about when she mentioned this better future. Though did she even know what she meant? Did she even knew what she meant half the time? Was that why she spoke in riddles, so she confused people because she didn’t really know what she was talking of? Maybe this better future was one with her gone? That would sure ease my mind! Her just leaving me alone would ease my mind.
Though our pack, our region could most certainly do with a better future. This perpetual, seemingly never-ending, battle raging against The Night Shade Pack was becoming tiresome, not just to our pack but to all those in the surrounding areas. We needed a break, we needed something to stop them, but there seemed no way, he was simply too strong, too powerful even if we worked all together…
I was allowed onto Mystic Shadow Pack despite the heightened security, though this was understandable considering the recent and ongoing situation within our region. Our packs were allies, and my mother was friends with the mother of the current Beta here from what I understood. Though if you listen to my mother it sounded like she was friends with the whole world and their mother! Though, on this occasion, I was not going to complain at her over-friendliness, because it had resulted in a job interview for me that potentially meant a break from our pack. Admittedly, it would not lead to an escape to the ongoing conflict, because it was another war effected pack, but it was still somewhere new, some new people who may not be full of sympathy over the fact my father had died in the fighting. That had been one of the hardest things to accept. Losing my father to this futile and needless battle, that seemed to be going nowhere. My father, our pack’s former Beta, recently retired
I had sat at my desk, a mug of strong coffee by my side, working to go through the papers that I had allowed to build up over the last few days. Always a big mistake allowing it to build up. Paperwork was not my strongest skill. One of the roles I hated so much as an Alpha, and definitely one of the things I generally delegated when I could. But, today was the day I had promised to work through some of the paperwork I could not delegate. Which meant I would also be working through many mugs of strong coffee to allow me to still be fully functional by the end of the day, or I would likely end up in a heap asleep at my desk after the first few pieces of paperwork. When suddenly the door to my office opened and Cayden strolled in, like he didn't have a care in the world. Never thinking to knock this guy. Thinking he owns the place, I swear! I am about to make a sarcastic comment as I so often do, when I realise he is not alone… Cayden stands alongside a petite, beautiful
I arrived onto Mystic Shadow Pack a couple of days later to begin the induction for my job. I can’t say I know how I feel about this new start for me if I am entirely honest. It was something I wanted, I knew that. But, right now, terrified was definitely one word that could be used to describe the feelings simmering through my body at present as I pulled into the pack. The guard at the gate was a little more friendly this morning, perhaps aware of who I was now, well he better get used to me now I would be working here! I saw Beta Cayden sitting on the steps of the packhouse, leaning back on his arms, seemingly enjoying the morning sunshine, his head tilted into the rays of the light from the sun, lighting up his handsome features on his face. I assume he was waiting for me to arrive. Wonderful, it looked like I would be spending time with the crazy one again then. Though, as Beta it was likely I would have to spend at least some time with him because of the job I had bee
‘What the hell are you doing Cay?’ Jackson’s voice booms through the pack link. ‘That has to be the second time you have been flirting with her at least! She is here to work, not to please you.’ Wow. He looks furious. Absolutely raging. Like something went up his ass and bit him. Jeez. I did not need his attitude right now. I don’t even know what is going on with me, if he is hoping for an explanation he will be struggling to get one. I have no clue what has happened to me if I am honest. This girl is new to the pack. She is beautiful, there is no denying that. But seeing her anxious the other day made me want to hug her, comfort her. It set something inside of me on edge. I didn’t like seeing her like that. There was no logic behind it. And then when Jackson said she had been given the job, I found myself, again, with no real explanation, or logic behind it, looking forward to seeing her again today. Sad. Crazy. Pathetic. Whatever you want to consider it. Y
I have no clue what has come over Cayden. He can usually take my temper quite easily. Though today I think I perhaps was a little harsher than usual. No, I know I was. Maybe my words overstepped a mark. There was no reason to bring Lily into this. I know the pain he went through. I went through it with him. I will need to find him later to apologise, I think. He did not deserve my bitterness. My temper in that moment, yet I could not hold my words back. I could sense his anger, not only his, but that of his wolf too, but he was holding it back. He was struggling, battling it. I knew that, but he was managing, just. I assume that was why he was rushing out, or perhaps that was simply because he could not bear to be around me? And, in all honesty, I don’t think I could blame him. My words were close to unforgiveable. Holding back his rage was different for him. He was such a sweet, and caring guy as a whole, but his temper was like a switch, that once triggered there w
The Alpha seems to have gone quiet. A pained look on his face. His hand now gone from around my shoulder, in what I had assumed was a show of kindness. His fist however, now clenched by his side. Perhaps I should not have mentioned his mate. But he was giving me sympathy. Something I hated. Something that seemed to be a natural thing when people heard of my Dad. It was human nature after all. But I detested it. It simply reminded me he was gone. Reminded me of this incessant war, that was completely needless. And the sick and twisted man behind it all. He was the man I blamed for the death of my father, not the war. But I did not want sympathy. Sympathy meant people felt sorry for me. I did not like people feeling sorry for me. I just wanted the sick bastard to pay for his cruel acts. See he got the retribution he deserved before he died, and then once more in hell, because no doubt that was where he was bound. But, then there was me, offering the same sympathies to t
After rushing out of the library I had made my way to the door of the packhouse. My wolf, Kali was already pushing to the surface of my skin. He had had enough. Needed a break. Wanted to get out and go for a run. Who can blame him after the words of our so called best friend? Our Alpha? I was already struggling with the confusing feelings I was battling toward this young new she-wolf that had suddenly appeared into our lives. And the overwhelming sense of guilt these feelings brought with them. I had no clue what they all meant. But there was something about Evelyn Anderson that I could not shake. I could not get her from my mind and I felt drawn to her. I flung the doors of the packhouse open, Kali lingering at the surface under my skin, I could feel him, he was pushing to shift and would be forcing it if I did not go to shift soon. I need to go for a run. The morning sunshine was still bright and warm as I walked down the steps of the packhouse, heading toward the
We sit at the desk of the small office, all modernly decorated, a window looking out over the gardens of the packhouse lets me see the beautiful flowers they have growing there, only enhanced by the sunshine currently shining brightly. Working here would be enjoyable. As i take in the view of the office, I am sure I can feel Alpha Jackson's eyes on me. Alpha Jackson had informed me this would be the office I worked from, just down the corridor from his and Beta Cayden’s offices if I should need them. He had provided me with the necessary logins for all their systems and shown me the computer I had been provided with. I honestly cannot wait to begin working properly. Show them what I am capable of doing. Help them get their business and pack under better organisation. Jackson sat and spoke me through a few formalities of my role and handed me some official documents I would have to read. Bedtime reading for me later, no doubt. But I genuinely did not mind. I had done it, I ha