The Lone Alpha (Book 5 of Forest Wolf Series)

Gray Moon Part 1

Sean’s POV

I drove from Colorado into Utah. The landscape here was a desert plain that transitioned into rocky cliffs and mountains. It was nice when the area turned into grassy plains with the mountains in the back. This place was quiet and calming. To say I was enjoying being able to drive all over the western part of the country is an understatement.

It took me four hours to reach the gates to Gray Moon territory. I waited for the guards to wave me through then drove up to the packhouse. It looked almost identical to Harvest Moon’s packhouse. I parked my car, got out and saw two guys standing on the front porch that were close to my age. As I approached them they stopped their conversation and turned to me. The tallest one stepped up and put his hand out to me. I took it and shook his hand.

“Hey Sean, I’m Ryan and this is my Beta Hugh,” he said.

I shook Hugh’s hand and said, “it’s good to meet you both.”

Ryan was a little taller than me, by an inch or two. He has bright blonde hair and blue eyes. He was muscular and gave off a bear vibe instead of a wolf vibe. He was wearing black dress pants and a polo shirt. He clearly has the same fashion sense as Cameron.

Hugh was a few inches shorter than me with thick black hair and dark brown eyes. He had a genuine smile and a beard. I didn’t meet many wolves that grew facial hair. Most of us shaved all the time but it was nice to see something different for once.

“Let’s go in for dinner and meet my parents,” Ryan said.

I nodded my head and followed them through the packhouse to a dining hall that reminded me of Trinity Forests. They had a high table that had an older man and woman sitting at it. I followed Ryan and Hugh up to the couple. Ryan introduced them as his parents, the former Alpha Brian and former Luna Claire. Ryan had his mother’s hair but clearly got everything else from his dad. Brian is a big bear of a man with short blonde and silver hair, a silver beard and blue eyes.

We took our seats with them and I exchanged pleasantries as we waited for our food, telling them of where I had been and what I had learned so far. Our food arrived as we talked. I looked at my plate with a questioning look. What was it? I looked up to Ryan who was watching me and smiled.

“That is a Navajo taco. Being from Texas you are used to tortillas where we use fry bread instead. The meat is brisket and the rest of it is black bean chili, Monterey Jack cheese, cream, onion, r****h, ranchero sauce, cilantro-lime rice, and pinto beans,” Ryan explained.

“That’s crazy. Do you eat it like a normal taco?” I asked.

“Yep,” he said as he picked his up and took a bite.

I picked up my taco and took a bite. The flavor was amazing and the bread was a little different. I liked this dish. It was great. This was something I would have to visit again.

Once we were done eating everyone got ready to go to their rooms for the night. I was shown to a room in the packhouse on the second floor and gladly settled in for the night. I was ready for some sleep after the day I had.

~

The next morning after breakfast, I went with Ryan into his office. He sat behind his desk and I took a seat in one of the chairs in front of his large wooden desk. Every Alpha’s office had the same layout it seemed. There was a desk and three chairs along with at least one couch.

I took my phone out of my pocket and opened my notes so I could dive into learning from Ryan. I closed the notes I had been taking of the Harvest Moon Pack and brought up a new document. I titled it ‘Gray Moon Pack’ and started to take the notes I already had saved in my brain. The pack banners here were cobalt gray and the packhouse was similar to Harvest Moon’s.

I looked up from my phone and found Ryan typing on his computer. I felt bad that I was about to disturb him but I was here to learn.

“What was it like taking over the pack?” I asked him.

He stopped typing, turned his attention to me and said, “it was easy when I took over. Dad had me practically do an internship under him for two years before he thought I was ready to take over.”

“That’s a bit crazy but I bet it was helpful.”

“It was really helpful,” he agreed.

“What do you do for work other than being Alpha?” I asked him.

“I work remotely for Google and have stocks in a bunch of tech companies,” he tells me.

“That's really cool. I was thinking of starting a writer's blog about my travels to different packs for the time being.”

“I can help you get all of that setup,” he says enthusiastically.

“That would be great.”

“Do you have a computer with you?”

“Yeah,” I said as I got up from my seat.

I went up to the room I was staying in on the second floor and grabbed my computer out of my bag. I also got my camera and went back to Ryan’s office. We worked together to get a website set up for my blog, made sure to target the right audience and even titled it ‘Paws With A Cause’. He helped me navigate the website to make it something I would get paid for. I uploaded the pictures from my camera to my computer that I had already taken from the packs I had been at.

When we were done with that it was lunchtime, so we left the office and went to eat in the dining hall. He took a seat with Hugh at a low table and explained that they only use the high table at night. That was different from where I came from. I wasn’t sure what I would do in my pack’s dining hall.

For lunch, we enjoyed chicken sandwiches before we went out to walk the village here. I took my camera along with me and had my phone in my pocket. As we walked towards the town I asked Ryan a few more questions.

“What duties will your Luna take on once you find her?”

“She will take on duties of making sure our pack members have jobs, housing, schooling they need or want and anything else they will need to live happily.”

I nodded my head at his answer. It was the same in almost all the packs but some had extra duties and jobs.

“How did you find your Beta?”

“We grew up together. He’s the son of my father’s Beta.”

I nodded my head. It seemed most Alpha’s found their Beta’s in their pack and had always had them. It was ok to be different though. I got to go on this great adventure to find my best friend out there somewhere.

We walked through the village and I took pictures of the buildings and some of the pack members. The village has wide streets and it looks like a mix of the town in Harvest Moon and Golden Meadows, but the road was paved until we got to the town square. That was the only part of the village that had cobblestone. I love the cobblestones.

Once we were done in the village we took my stuff back to the packhouse and got ready to go for a run. Ryan figured I would enjoy seeing the area fully. We went to the woods and shifted to let our Alphas out. Charlie was happy to go for a run, he had been bugging me about it. He also got to meet Ryan’s wolf, Ammo.

The territory here is surrounded by two rivers with maple, pine and hackberry trees. This place was amazing. I was really enjoying getting to see the difference in the territory landscape. After running for a while, we turned back to go back to the packhouse for dinner. It had gotten late quickly.

~

The next day, I trained with Ryan and Hugh on the training field with their warriors. I took on Hugh first and was happy to have someone that had the same amount of energy as me. I was quick to take him down though so now it was Ryan’s turn.

Fighting with him was tough and he beat me three times before he said it was enough. I wanted to keep coming back for more but he said no. He was the first one to beat me like I was nothing. It kind of crushed me.

We sat on the field to rest and I asked both of them questions. I hadn’t seen Hugh much so I wanted to learn more about him.

“What are your duties as the Beta?” I asked him.

“I handle warrior training, guard duties and at the moment the duties a Luna would normally handle.”

“Have you found your mate yet?”

“Nope,” he said with a sigh.

“How long have you two been training as warriors?” I asked them both.

“We start training to wrestle at eight then combatives start at ten,” Ryan answered.

“How are you so good? Hardly any of the other Alpha’s have beaten me so badly,” I told him.

“It might have something to do with my Lycan, Montu,” he answered.

“Wait, so you and your dad have Lycans?”

“Yeah. His Lycan is Anubis.”

I was seeing a pattern with the names. Their family had Egyptian-style names. I couldn’t wait to see what the names of the pups Lycans each family would have. What would Eric’s Lycans name be?

I switched subjects as two female warriors started sparing close by. They were loud with their growls and hits but it didn’t bug me too much. I liked watching them. It didn’t seem to bug Ryan either but he didn’t watch them. He gave off the vibes of a goodie two shoes. At dinner, I noticed he never let his gaze linger on any of the good looking she-wolves. Hugh watched them for a minute but I realized that he was observing to make sure they were training right.

“What issues have you faced so far as the Alpha here?” I asked Ryan.

“We don’t have any crime in the pack and rogue issues have died down a lot. The only thing we see from time to time are homeless humans stumbling onto pack territory.”

“How do you handle that?” I asked.

I had never seen humans stumble onto a pack before. This was new and I wanted to make sure I was prepared just in case it ever happened to me.

“My warriors will detain them at the spot they are found and I go out there to tell them they are trespassing on private property. In reality, they are. All of them apologize and leave and we don’t have any issue with them.”

“What would you do if they started a problem and started pressing to be helped?”

“We have protocols for that. We place a bag over their head and escort them off the territory.”

I nodded my head at his answer and turned my head to watch the two she-wolves train for a minute. Both of them looked to be Native American and were training hard.

I spent the rest of my day walking around on my own meeting pack members and seeing if there was a she-wolf here that I was destined to be tied to. So far there was no one. There were a number of lovely she-wolves here but not the one for me.

Hugh let me know that there were three other Betas in the pack besides him. I found and sat down with each of them. The first one was a guy named Paul and he was a bit insane. I wouldn’t trust him with a pen much less a pack. The second Beta I talked with was Conner and he gave me the creeps. He just gave off odd vibes that made my skin crawl. The last of the Betas here at the Gray Moon pack was Jude. He was a cool guy but was uninterested in talking with me at all. He kept watching all the other members that walked past us. How disappointing.

Later that night after dinner, I went back to my room. I showered and sat on the bed in the room I was in with my computer. I was typing up my first blog to be released about Hunter’s Moon when there was a knock at my door. I put my computer down and answered it. There I found Ryan.

“Hey, what's up?” I asked.

“My warriors have a homeless guy at the edge of the territory. I wanted to see if you wanted to tag along.”

“Yeah let me grab a shirt.”

I left the door open and turned to get a shirt out of my bag. I pulled it on and then my shoes. I followed Ryan from the room, out of the packhouse and into the woods. We walked quickly towards the spot where the warriors were with the homeless person.

When we got there, I saw two male warriors and two females standing there guarding a person. One of the females I recognized from this morning on the training field. The homeless guy stood there looking at all of them then turned his attention to Ryan and me.

Ryan let out a sigh and asked, “Why are you back on my property?”

Oh, a repeat offender. What was he about to do?

“I didn’t realize your property was so big and that it backed up to the Yellowstone National park. I’m sorry about that,” he said.

“Not a problem, just don’t let it keep happening.”

“Yeah. You got it,” he turned to walk away.

We stood there as we watched him walk off the territory and out of sight.

“Alpha, what if he comes back again,” one of the warriors asked.

“Then we will need to take other measures,” Ryan said.

“What would that be?” I asked.

Ryan turned to me and motioned to walk with him back to the packhouse. I followed and waited for him to answer me. When we were halfway back to the packhouse he finally spoke.

“If that guy would come back a third time we would relocate him away from the Utah area. If he keeps coming back after that then we would need to kill him. I can’t afford hunters coming after the pack.”

“Has that happened in the past?”

“When I was a young kid we had hunters get onto the territory. They killed three wolves before the warriors were able to kill them.”

I nodded my head and went to my room on the second floor while Ryan went to his on the top floor of the packhouse. What an odd situation to have a homeless guy stumbling onto pack territory twice. Was it an honest mistake or was he after something?