The Alpha's Runaway Daughter

Chapter 4

We had been driving for two days stopping to grab sleep at cheap motels along the way. We were getting closer to the Lightning Ridge pack and the closer we got, the more nervous I became. During the course of our road trip, Eric and I had formed a bond. Nothing romantic. Just… a familiar bond of sorts. It was as though our souls had latched onto each other, almost like we were all we had in this world. A kind of, it’s us against the world type of thing.

I had accepted that from the moment we had left the Blue Thunder pack, Eric had pretty much become my entire world. He was the only friend I had in this world. It was an incredibly sobering thought when you realised that there were over eight billion people on the planet, and I only had one friend in the whole world.

When we were less than an hour away from reaching our destination, we renounced all ties with the Blue Thunder pack. We would have done it sooner but had decided it would have been safer to not be caught travelling as rogues. Rogue wolves were not looked kindly upon by packs, and because of this, packs often had a kill first ask questions later kind of mentality when they crossed paths with rogues.

When we crossed onto the Lightning Ridge packs territory, I felt a knot of apprehension form in my stomach. As if picking up on my anxiety, Eric looked over to me and said, “It’s going to be okay. My grandparents will make sure nothing happens to us. I promise you that I am not going to let anything bad happen to you.”

“What if the packs Alpha orders us killed? Your grandparents won’t be able to help us then,” I whispered, feeling panic begin to consume me.

“Cleo, you need to breathe. You are getting worked up over something that hasn’t even happened yet,” Eric said, trying to calm me down.

Before I could respond or get myself under control a humungous house came into view. Just by looking at it I knew it was the main packhouse. Spread out around the pack house there were a variety of different sized dwellings.

As we got closer to the pack house, there were people outside doing a whole variety of everyday things, but they all stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to Eric’s car.

“I think they are trying to figure out if we are a problem that needs sorting,” Eric murmured, smiling lightly.

“That’s not funny,” I whispered.

“It wasn’t supposed to be. I wasn’t joking. They are keeping an eye out for any threats to their pack. That’s the way a pack is supposed to be. Not like the pack we just came from. It’s okay Cleo. Just stay calm, okay,” he replied.

We pulled up in front of the main pack house and Eric opened his door to climb out of the truck. There was a lady walking past and Eric asked, “Excuse me Ma’am, could you please tell me where I might find Sally and Clyde Jones?”

“Sally and Clyde?” the lady asked, looking nervously between me and Eric.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Eric replied.

“One moment, I will go and get them for you,” she said, before she quickly walked into the pack house.

“She is going to get a heap of warriors to come out and s*******r us. We are rogues now. She could smell it on us. Couldn’t you see how scared she was?” I said to Eric, wrapping my arms around myself in an attempt to literally hold myself together.

“Calm down,” Eric said, keeping his eyes fixed on the door that the lady had just walked through.

I don’t know how long I sat there for, but eventually, the lady Eric had spoken to came back outside with a group of people following closely behind her. Before I could say anything to Eric, two people broke away from the group and ran towards him with their arms outstretched.

“Eric, oh, Eric. What are you doing here? Oh, it is so good to see you,” the woman said before wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

“Damn good to see you my boy,” the man said, clapping his hand on the back of Erics shoulder.

“Grandma, Grandpa, we need to stay here. Do you think you could help us talk to the Alpha?” Eric asked, looking between them.

“Us?” his grandmother asked, before dragging her eyes away from his to look in the truck. When she saw me sitting there in the passenger seat, she turned to Eric and said, “Eric, is that your mate, son?”

“No grandma, she is my friend. We need your help. Can you help us, please?” he asked.

“We will take you to see the Alpha,” his grandfather said. “Come along little lady, we will go and talk to the Alpha,” his grandfather said, looking into the truck and meeting my eye.

Eric went to walk away from his grandmother and she grabbed his arm and asked, “What are you doing? We are going inside to talk to the Alpha.”

“Just give me a minute, grandma,” he said before walking away from her and coming around to the passenger side door of the truck.

He opened the door and gently helped me out as my back was still raw. Once I was out of the truck, he closed the door and steered me around to where his grandparents were still standing. He closed the driver’s side door and locked the truck before turning back to his grandparents.

“Okay, lead the way,” he said.

His grandparents led us into the pack house. As we walked past the group of people standing between us and the pack house were watching us intently. Some were curious about us. Some were wary, and others appeared to be openly hostile, because they could smell the stench of rogue on us no doubt. Packs hated rogues. The view in our world was that rogues were not to be trusted. They were viewed as thieves, murderers, rapists, the lowest of the low in the werewolf world.

Since we had renounced our ties to the Blue Thunder pack, we were now werewolves with no ties to a pack. Usually when this sort of thing happened, it was because wolves had been banished from their packs by their Alpha’s for crimes they had committed. That knowledge was the reason for the wariness and the hostility I was seeing in their eyes. They were clearly wondering what it was we had done to be booted out of our pack.

"The Alpha has two offices. One in his private residence and one here in the main pack house. You are lucky. Today he is working in the office here in the pack house," Eric's grandfather explained.

We entered the house and followed Eric’s grandparents through the house to the Alpha’s office. We were standing outside the door to the Alpha’s office when Eric’s grandmother knocked on the door. The door opened and a man poked his head out. When he saw us, all standing there, he stepped out into the hallway.

Looking at Eric, he said, “Eric, is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me, uncle DJ,” Eric replied.

Eric’s uncle embraced him in a hug. A moment later he stepped back, leaving his hands on Eric’s shoulders. He looked him up and down and said, “Man, you sure have grown.”

“Yeah, well, it had to happen sometime, ay,” Eric replied with a laugh.

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess so,” his uncle agreed.

His uncle looked to where I was standing and asked, “So, who is this? Is this your mate?”

“No, she is my friend,” he replied.

His uncle held his hand out to me, and said, “I am Eric’s uncle Daniel, but everyone calls me DJ. What’s your name, pretty girl?”

Eric stepped between us and said, “Her name is Cleo.”

“Protective. Got it,” DJ said, laughing out loud.

“Daniel, we need to speak to the Alpha. It’s urgent,” Eric’s grandfather said.

“Right. Okay give me a minute. I will just make sure the Alpha isn’t on a call or anything,” DJ said, stepping back into the Alpha’s office.

We stood there in the hallway waiting for DJ to come back and tell us that the Alpha was ready to see us. As we stood there, I felt my anxiety building again. DJ’s flirtatious behaviour had put me on edge. Picking up on my nervousness, Eric stepped back to stand beside me. Leaning down he whispered, “You’re okay. Everything is okay.”

DJ opened the door and poked his head out. Looking at us, he said, “The Alpha will see you now.”