Heart of the Auburn Wolf

Mate

POV: Elijah

As I had expected, there were no issues with us arriving early at the Raven Moon Pack. Especially since we intentionally had to come one day early because I had important logistics to talk with Alpha Tommen, in private.

We were greeted warmly by him and his family. Then we were assigned rooms in his Pack house where we could sleep until the yearly reunion is done, which hopefully means tomorrow night.

Sigh... I don't quite like these kinds of meetings. Raoul is much better at politics than me. Besides, all I can think about right now is that mesmerizing waitress from the café. Vilk, my wolf, also feels attracted to her in some way but he doesn't want to admit it, since she smelled like a human. Raoul was so worried that I would just go back to her, that he ordered Colby to babysit me even in the bathroom.

After we have brought our luggage upstairs and we have taken a shower, the three of us went downstairs into the living room, where the Raven Moon Pack's Luna was reading a book to their son on the couch. She closed it the moment that she noticed me and sat up, baring her neck. She quickly ushered her son to do the same, teaching him how to respect his superiors from an early age, which is not very usual until you have your wolf and instinctively know how to show respect:

"Come on, Aiden, you have to bow."

Despite me trying to stop her by slightly signaling that it was alright, her son followed her words, getting up from the couch and bowing as much as his tiny body allowed him without falling, then quickly looked me in the eyes. Few are the werewolves that can stare me down for more than a few seconds, and yet this pup had no issues. "That's a strong spirit" I think, as I noticed his eyes starting to sparkle with admiration, which Vilk enjoyed. Though, his hazel eyes also reminded me of the waitress in town.

It was also hard not to notice that the walls in the living room were full of pictures with Aiden, at every stage in his life, or with Aiden and his parents. They must be very proud of their son.

The Luna noticed me staring at them and quickly interrupted me, seemingly embarrassed: "Tommen is happy to receive you in his office." And then she led me to the room. Raoul and Colby followed closely. As she had said, Alpha Tommen and his Unit were there.

Colby remained standing near the door while Raoul came with me, closer to Tommen.

"I hope our rooms are to your pleasure!" Tommen said, as we shook hands and he took this opportunity to slightly bare his neck. I sat on the armchair that was positioned in front of his desk and Raoul stood by my side with his clipboard.

"They're perfect for one night." I replied frankly. "Let's cut to the chase, shall we? You know I cannot wait for boring meetings to be over."

Alpha Tommen chuckled and leaned on his chair: "Of course, of course. What is it that we need to talk about?"

I also leaned on my chair, which was quite comfortable to be honest: "Tommen, you have been late with your payments for the last five months. Normally, I would overlook it if it was for a good reason, but considering the loan you requested 5 years ago, it's beginning to pile up. I don't even know what you needed so much money for, but I truly hope it was not for building this huge mansion that could house a small village. "

Everyone in the room laughed, besides me. I don’t like dealing with money and politics, but if I have to, I will. Usually, Packs have their own businesses in the human cities from which a certain amount goes to the Lycan King’s Pack, almost like a protection tax. If you cannot pay it, it triggers an alarm that the Pack cannot manage itself and their Alpha is held responsible. In rare cases, it can even lead to the replacement of the Pack's Alpha if he is deemed not fit to handle money properly.

"Have you taken a liking to gambling, Tommen?" I ask, still smiling, but serious.

"Of course not. The pack has had some unexpected spendings lately because there was a fire at our Pack's hospital. I'm expecting us to be able to pay our debts soon."

Raoul is writing down specific numbers and shows me his calculations. The sum they have to pay back is seven figures.

"Tommen, our computations say that based on your revenue and history of making the payments, your debt will be passed down to two more generations after you. How can you look at my face and tell me that you'll pay it soon?" I begin to raise my voice, as I feel lied to.

Tommen covers his mouth with one of the hands, thoughtful. He doesn't reply.

"What did you use all the money for?" I ask, out of curiosity. Normally, we don't delve deeper into the Packs' specific spendings to avoid micro-managing them.

However, Tommen stays quiet and averts his look. Lying to me again would be a grave insult and despite not being forced to provide details on their spendings, he must answer to his King. I would like to avoid commanding him to answer, since commanding another Alpha is frowned upon. Alpha-blooded wolves are proud by nature and usually they submit to the King based on purely strength difference. Forcefully submitting them would hurt their ego and break off any friendly links.

The more he avoids answering, the tenser the air gets. We are all taken by surprise when the door is slammed open and the Luna frenetically makes her way in the middle of the room, bowing and saying in a ragged breath:

"I’m deeply sorry for interrupting your meeting, but there has been an emergency." And she looks up at her mate, with a worried expression.

Tommen, almost happy for the intrusion, quickly replies:

"King Elijah, could we perhaps postpone our meeting? My Pack needs me."

"Yes, it seems so. Let me know when you're able to meet again until I leave tomorrow night."

Tommen nods and I leave the room, followed by Raoul and Colby. To be honest, I am quite curious what the issue is, considering the Luna had to interrupt a hearing with the King for it. However, we try to give the Packs their individuality, the chance to resolve their own issues. Besides, I could use this time to take a walk to that café and try again.

Raoul puts a hand on my shoulder, as if reading my mind, and says:

"Wipe that smile off your face, you're not going to that café. You know that we talked about how you should use this opportunity to meet the unmated she-wolves from this pack." He says and winks at me.

I sigh as I realize that he is right.

"Can I go after I meet them all though?"

"Hahaha, sure, then you can go." Raoul laughs and waves me off as he goes upstairs, probably to prepare my toast for the reunion meeting.

But he underestimates me. It took me and Colby only four hours to spread the news about me wanting to find my mate and to meet all of the she-wolves that were present in the pack. There were about 30 females, some of them even with deceased mates, praying for a second chance and Vilk did not even glance at either of them, as he has always done.

Colby agreed that I had done my part of the deal and followed me to the café, where we were notified by the lady there that the waitress had already left. She said some more words about how we behaved like a-holes, then forbade us from ever stepping foot into her business again, but I just slumped my shoulders in defeat, as my waitress' presence was still lingering around. I'll have to try again tomorrow morning.

We returned at the Pack House just in time to admire the dazzling full moon. The mood in the house was a bit dark. I was announced that one of their pack members was killed by a hunter not too far from the border. Another she-wolf that witnessed everything swears that the hunter jumped out of the bushes at the third pack member's orders and now everyone is on the lookout for them. If that is true, I hope that Tommen will not have mercy on them, whoever it may be.

As I head upstairs to take a shower, I pass through the living room where I find the Luna crying.

"I am deeply sorry for your loss." I say, as I pass by her.

She just nods through her sobs.

"I am sure that your pack will catch that traitor and pass judgement. Only death befits someone like that."

Surprisingly, the Luna begins crying even more hysterically, so Colby pushes me away and ushers me upstairs. I comply as I admit that I might not be very talented with my choice of words.

I then take a shower and just as I finish, I hear some noise coming from downstairs. The thuds and slams keep getting louder and louder as I struggle to get dressed and quickly make my way downstairs, followed by Colby and Raoul who were also worried.

The first thing I notice is that the front door is wide open. There is also a heap of puzzle pieces on the floor near the kitchen table. The noises are coming down the hallway, where I find Tommen's Beta and Gamma looking sheepishly at what seems to be a fight between two wolves. I quickly recognize Tommen's wolf, Stark and his mate's, Skadi. They both pledged loyalty to Vilk and we never forget a wolf that swore to us. It takes me by surprise to see two mates at each other's throats, which is very unheard of. Mates are normally refrained from attacking each other by the mate bond, settling their differences through talking. This must be a really big contention point. They have created craters into the hallway, each throw damaging one part of the wall, but luckily, I smell no blood. Both are of Alpha lineage and not likely to finish in a friendly manner, so I decide to stop them while they still have a house left:

"What is going on here?!"

Stark and Skadi both wince at my voice. After looking at me, they shift back to their human form. Erik and Lorik bring Tommen and Revna a change of clothes. Both of them look flustered and unwilling to look at each other.

I look at Tommen and say: "Alright, I need to know why the two pillars supposed to be running this Pack are fighting between each other. Don't lie to me." The last phrase comes out like a growl, as I am getting tired of reminding him of this part.

Tommen understands my silent threat and sighs, looks at his mate and then finally says: "The traitor that we had been looking for is... our daughter."

"Damn" I think, as I recall what I said to Revna earlier. But at the same time, a traitor is still a traitor. And Revna is a Luna before she is a mother. The Pack should always come first.

"How old is she?" I ask.

"She's 19."

I nod and realize that I must resolve this issue before it escalates, as it is clearly too personal for them. "Where is your daughter now?" I ask, looking at Tommen. Revna throws me a harsh look with the corner of her eyes that Vilk notices and doesn't appreciate.

"She ran. But she's not far." He says, averting his eyes.

"Why would you say that?" I inquire, as that's an odd thing to say considering werewolves, especially young Alpha-blooded wolves, can run at more than 80 km/h.

"Don't." Says Revna casting a self-explanatory look at her mate.

"Because she's human." Tommen says, looking in my eyes.

I remain there baffled. This has never happened before. How could a human be born out of two Alpha werewolves?! Why was this not brought to my attention? Why is she living inside a Pack?! I have so many questions going through my mind, but I don't get enough time to process this information, as Revna suddenly notices:

"Where's Aiden?!"

Revna rushes to the scattered puzzle pieces and sniffs out the air, following his smell outside. During this time, Tommen receives a mind-link. We watch as his eyes turn back to normal and he informs us that it was Aiden. Him and his sister are attacked by two stinky pale men. They're near a lake, beyond the border.

"Stinky pale men?!" Revna shouts, as Tommen already begins directing his men to be on the lookout.

"Those must be vampires. If your daughter is a human, her smell must have attracted them." I say calmly. "Do you know where this lake is?"

Tommen quietly says: "I have a pretty good idea of where it might be."

"Alright, then let's go." I usher them, as I nod towards Raoul and Colby and we all shift into our wolves. Vilk is an enormous grey wolf, towering over the others, even Stark. He can impose respect just by his stature itself.

When everyone is done, we let Stark lead the way, through the woods.

"If the vampires didn't kill her yet, you know that you will have to." Vilk tells me on the way.

I hesitate a second before replying: "I know."

It took a while of trial and error, but we knew that we were at the right lake when the smell of rotten blood hit our nostrils. The scene we arrived to was gruesome, to say the least: ripped pieces of flesh were scattered everywhere on a 20 meters radius. The pieces were so small and far apart that we couldn't even make out the number of bodies involved, though it must have been between four and seven.

Somewhere in the middle of the macabre scene, there were the figures of two bodies lying besides each other: Aiden, with his tiny body covered in blood and, besides him, there laid my sought-after waitress, in the full splendor of her naked body. The silvery light coming from the full moon embraced her body, as if the Moon Goddess herself extended her arms to touch her. The thickness of the stench of putrid blood made it hard to feel at first, but as we all got closer, the smell of cappuccino flooded my senses; the smooth, delicious note of coffee and milky undertones, my favorite drink.

"MATE MATE MATE", Vilk cried, as he sprinted towards her.