Alpha Aston sat in his office staring aimlessly at the ceiling, he was leaned back on the two-seater couch that was in there. The loss of his Mate had hit him hard. Some Alpha’s couldn’t bare it at all. Seems he was strong enough to. He already been through the rejection of one. Perhaps that had helped him to survive it. She didn’t know.
He hadn’t spoken a single word in the whole time she and Ben were gone, was reported to them by Dale, the Delta. He was concerned and had been the one waiting for them to return, near the packs border. For any news, not that they had anything good to tell him.
The two of them report to Beta Simon, currently running the pack or maintaining it while Aston was in mourning and out of action. This report had not happened in the Alpha’s office, but in the packs dining room, Simon and Charlie the Beta and Gamma had met them there. Likely didn’t want Aston to hear what they had to say at this time.
They were all frowning now, Simon took the photo and shell casing, and when they reported what they had come to the conclusion of. He gave permission for them to go and search the Luna’s things, for any evidence that she had been lured out there, to that place on their northernmost border.
They were tired but diligent and helped by both Dale and Charlie. None of them could find anything in the Alpha suite that would have caused their Luna to go out there alone to that very spot. There was no message on her phone, though she could have deleted it. There was no handwritten letter that they could find.
Did not have access to her computer, but the Beta did. He went through that on his own; shook his head at all of them and declared there was nothing there not in her recent emails, not in her junk mail, and nothing sitting in the trash which she had not emptied in a month. Nothing seemed to have lured their Luna out to that particular spot.
It did not make any sense to any of them. Ben and Mala crashed out for the afternoon and night and woke up to eat and find Beta Simon. To see what security had been put in place while they were away. Shorter patrol times so no-one got tired out there, were diligent in their duties.
They got permission to double it up on the border patrols, two wolves on each section of the border and all along the north they were back behind the tree line for safety reasons. It was technically the Delta’s job to run the border patrol here inside the Hollowed Moon Pack, but with this devastation to the pack.
She and Ben as the lead elite warriors offered to pick it up so he could help attend to other duties around their Alpha. He was appreciating of this, and it was granted. Everyone would take their orders as they would the Alpha Unit’s, being the next highest ranking under the Alpha Unit.
So, Mala and Ben picked up the slack where they saw it, to help out as much as they could. It was no different really to if the Alpha and his Unit were not there inside the pack. Mala and Ben would be in charge of the pack’s defences anyway, so the pack was actually used to taking orders that they dished out.
No-one really knew if their Alpha was actually going to survive this, he could be brought undone by the loss of his Mate and Luna. Or he could somehow pull himself together and stand strong. He still had no heir to the pack, a curiosity to Mala.
The whole pack had seen him and his Luna go at it in wolf form out in the woods many times.
Their wolves were not shy about wanting each other. The Luna had also gone into heat at least once a year, though Aston always emerged from their room days before his Luna did. He was always super attentive to her after she’d been in heat.
Always seen holding her in his arms after she came out of the room, sometimes she’d seen him look sad and wondered if they couldn’t have an heir and her going into heat upset them both. If that was the reason why their Luna stayed in their room for more days than he did, why he was so very attentive to her afterwards. It was just a theory on her part, and she’d never asked the question, would not only be rude, but certainly not her place to.
Luna Roberta’s funeral came the day after that. Everyone in the pack got to say goodbye, she’d been a good, kind Luna to them all. Was well liked by the entire pack. Alpha Aston stood and said very loving words about his lost Mate, tears formed in his eyes, and he did not seem to care who saw them fall. They had been together nearly 15 years; he had loved her, and it was clear to everyone she had loved him back.
A beautiful marble headstone was erected out by Luna Roberta’s favourite place; a small rivulet that grew wild blueberries, she was not laid to rest there though, she was cremated, the headstone was just a place they could all go and mourn her or remember her if they chose too.
She was in the Alpha’s office a week later with Ben and the Alpha Unit, Aston had called them all to his office. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days, was tired and he was, for the first time, unshaven and looked a little on the shaggy side.
“It was me.” He stated to them all after several minutes of silence, he was sitting holding the picture of Roberta, the one she and Ben had found up in the mountains. “This was a warning to me, not to Roberta.” Watched as he picked up the empty shell casing and turned it over and around in his fingers and then just placed it back on the desk.
“I’ve stayed away from my home pack for a lifetime. My first Mate decided to choose between myself and my brother. She would not be shared by us, I was weak according to her because I was too kind and nice to the pack members. My brother, half-brother; my father had two mates and we were born the same day though had different mothers; was strong and capable according to her. I thought he could be mean and nasty to be honest. We didn’t always get along.
“He was spoilt, a brat who threw tantrums to get his way all the time, beat up other wolves in the pack even from a young age, for not doing as he wanted or told them to. We were supposed to rule together with one Mate.” Sighed heavily “This.” He touched the shell casing. “Is her signature, likely it was her herself that pulled the trigger. She was a weapons specialist in her pack. Damned good if I recall.”
“Why? If you don’t mind my asking.” Mala asked, “If she rejected you, would she do that?”
“Because she is cruel like my brother. I won’t go into the details, let’s just say she had words with me after she chose my brother and rejected me. Cruel nasty words along the line of “You’ll always belong to me.” He shook his head “I have kept this pack safe from all. I was not required to fully legitimise it and that’s what kept Roberta safe all these years…” watched him scrub a hand over his face “Now…I will be alone, it’s unlikely she won’t keep tabs on me, now she knows where I am, make sure that I find no other.”
“Cruel is not the word I would use.” Beta Simon muttered.
Mala agreed with him on this, his first Mate didn’t want him, but also didn’t want any other to have him either. It was more than cruel and now it seemed that woman knew where he was finally, and had taken action against him because he was happy with another.
“Why would she even care, if she rejected you? I don’t understand it’s been decades, and she has a Mate.” Mala asked. She didn’t understand it. Once severed from your Mate, that was it, they were gone from you. It might take time for the pain to leave you, but it always did in the end.
“Some, out there, Mala, though they reject you, do this for reasons that are to them, out of necessity; but deep down they still want what was gifted to them, can never let it go. Still believe they belong to you, I suppose.”
“That is stupid, Aston, it was her choice. She holds no claim over you anymore.”
Saw his blue eyes move right to hers, and then he just nodded slowly, “I agree with that statement, but…it seems it’s not always that simple…I won’t be letting this affect our pack. We will be going on and be strong. It’s what Roberta would have wanted. She knew about my rejection, all the horrid details, all the risks that came with being my Mate. So, let’s use her death to make us stronger, not weaker.”
“A full month of morning.” His Gamma stated sadly.
“No.” Aston shook his head “A month of training, let's amp it up, let's show that bitch what we’re made of. Let her come.” His eyes moved to Ben and then Mala herself. “I want to really show her, the pack I have created with love and kindness, all the things that she thought made me weak.” Was now staring right at Mala, for a long time, like he wanted to say something but didn’t. It was several minutes of him just staring at her.
Then he produced from his desk draw the Warrior Challenge invitation, banged it down on the desk in front of himself “Mala, you and Ben will select the best of us, and we will go to this stupid event. We will win it and show that bitch, we are not to be messed with.”
“You don’t even know if she’ll be there.” Ben frowned at him.
“She won’t be, uses weapons, not herself or her wolf, but her Mate, my brother Raymond, will be. My old pack always, attended this stupid thing…Mala” once again, he looked right at her “You placed second, and were considered wolf-less at the time. Now you have suki to heal you. Win this for us. Help me to show her we’re not down and out. Her action only made us stronger.”
“Alright, I was itching for a better challenge than Ben here.” She grinned and jabbed a thumb at him.
Heard Ben snort, he was not offended, she'd put him down, more than once, so had Suki for that matter. He actually liked a good one on one with her and twice a week the two of them would just go head-to-head, no holds bar, Simon would stand and supervise, a good test of their fighting ability.
“My old pack will likely be there as well,” She knew they would, attended it every year, “let’s kill two birds with one stone Alpha.” She would show that shitty pack what they had lost.
“Good” he nodded “You and I, Mala, we will show them all, we the rejected were made stronger by them. Are better than they are, a real warrior pack, not to be messed with.”
“When is it, Alpha?” Mala asked.
“Two months from now.”
“Then I’d like permission to train separately as well, to hone my skills properly as I used to.”
“You, Mala, will have all the training time you need and with whoever you want, as well.”
Smiled right at him at that thought, even heard both Simon and Charlie sigh heavily, looked right at them “One month on my own, then boys, you will bring everything you have every day, no holds bar, for the next month.”
“Done.” Aston nodded “Go and organise a new training regime, amp it up out there.” Aston nodded to her, looked at them all and saw them all nod right back. It was time to show the wolfen society just who they really were.
The next month was all training, hours upon hours of it, no one was left out, two hours of hand to hand, two hours of wolf training and two hours of running for all of them.
Ben and Dale ran the morning class, Mala and Simon ran the afternoon class and Aston and Charlie stepped in and ran the evening class. Every training session started 2 hours earlier than normal and they all overlapped each other, thankfully they had plenty of room for training now.
Mala trained on her own in the pack house’s indoor gym after dinner till 9pm, even after training her allotted group. Simon called her crazy. She’d smiled right at him, told him “this is nothing I used to train near on ten hours a day those last two years before coming here.”
It was quiet inside the packhouse gym, and she could focus solely on her own techniques and brush up on all those martial arts skills she had trained the pack in the ways of. Nothing was going to be left to chance.
She’d been wolf-less the last time she was in that warrior challenge, no way to heal herself during a fight, not after either, had to fight exhausted and injured. Sheer determination had driven her back then, determination to become someone else, stronger and unbreakable.
Now she had Suki and would be able to heal at will. She knew there was no wolf assistance other than healing, so Suki was going to be her blessing this time around. They did not particularly relish the idea of coming across their old Mate, Hudson, or any from the Glimmering Moon Pack. But a part of them really wanted to show them what they had lost as well. Though Hudson knew he had learned too late, what he had done. How he had treated her, had lost him, his own Goddess Gifted Mate. To never be his again.
It had been a long time now, since that life was left behind her, she’d never looked back, not once, and he’d never hunted her down even after seeing Suki, or not to her knowledge anyway. That was their only blessing. Those first few years here they had been expecting that from him, seeing as he’d realised his mistake too late, seen it right in his expression, when they'd heard him try to talk, wanted to rescind his rejection after seeing Suki.
Mala wondered how her old Alpha, Glenn, took the news of his son being Mated to her, the wolf-less, and then rejecting her only to have her wolf emerge a few seconds after it was accepted, right before his eyes, then run away from him.
It was likely that he’d gotten a beating from his own father on that, considering how good a fighter she was without Suki. They were now ten times faster and stronger, healed too. Though she still had scars from him and that warrior challenge, some of her wounds had healed prior to shifting for the first time. Still had that bite mark of his on the back of her shoulder, and puncture wounds down on her sides and hip area, where he’d hurt her to try and make her scream. Claw marks down her back. Wounds caused by him, her Mate at the time, because he was cruel and had hated her. Enjoyed hurting her and she knew it. He had likely wanted to because he’d been given a wolf-less mate, something abhorrent to him.
Mala liked having Suki’s healing ability, no bruise ever lasted for more than a few hours, some not even that long, Suki was good and strong in everything she did, including healing. Loved her wolf, felt blessed to have such a strong wolf every day of her life. Even before she emerged, she’d been strong.