Page 50 of Claimed By the Alpha Pack

The ticking of the clock in the bedroom sounds like the ticking of a bomb that you’re waiting for it to explode. Grace and Barrett are curled up in a tight ball shifted as their animals, with Ashina asleep as her puppy in the center.

“What prompted this?” Conrad leans briefly into the room, looking at them, then back out again.

“After the rogue attack, she’s been napping like this. She remembered how we shifted when she first came to live with us and figures there’s merit to being her wolf when she sleeps.” Shrugging my shoulder, I look back in to see my mate’s wolf raising its head, looking at me.

“Just checking on you and the baby Darlin, we’ll leave you be.” Grace watches me for several more moments before lowering her head and going back to sleep. I motion for Conrad to follow me back towards the kitchen. Mom and Griff are sitting at the table looking at the map of the pack lands.

“What did we miss?” Conrad pulls up a chair as I move to stand at the head of the table.

“Four other Alphas want to meet Grace and see if she’s all that they have been told.” Griffin seems to have aged ten years, fielding the additional calls.

“So? They come and meet her, then leave. That’s it.” Turning from the table, I head to the fridge and grab four beers, then pass them out.

“That’s not it. What if one of them thinks she’s also their mate?” Mom chimes in and that wasn’t even a thought until she brought it up.

Mom’s question raises the hair on the back of my neck. “How many mates can a moon touched wolf have?” I throw the question out there, honestly I don’t think I can handle the answer.

Mom slaps an ancient tome from the archives down in front of me. The plume of dust makes me sneeze and I shake my head from it. There’s a silk ribbon marking a page, so I open it to the section. There’s a drawing of a wolf that looks exactly like Grace’s. The wolf in the picture has very pointed ears and looks more like an arctic wolf than the timber wolves we call kin. Taking the book with me, I walk towards Grace’s bedroom and stand in the doorway, comparing them. I never noticed her muzzle was more pointed and narrow than mine, nor did I notice the difference in her ear’s shape.

Walking back to my mother and siblings, I drop the book back down onto the table. “She looks exactly like the wolf in this depiction.” I read through the information on moon touched wolves. Other than several minor differences, there’s not much difference. The one crucial detail that sticks out is that moon touched wolves are never born, they are created through tragedy. I choose to read that line out loud and watch the different reactions my family has. Mom is in shock. Conrad is pulling the book towards him and Griff walks away towards the window.

“Do you think the rogue knew when Grace was born and was trying to make her moon touched?” Griff drops the mother of all bombs on us.

“What if once she gave birth he wanted to turn her to make her moon touched? Those babies born after she’s moon touched are stronger than your average born wolves.” Conrad adds as he points to a passage mentioning those of the moon wolf’s blood line.

“Mom, do all the packs have legends of the moon wolves, or is it just regional?” I close the distance between my mother and I.

“The Goddess Mani, or otherwise known as Selene, is depicted with a silver white wolf at her side. It’s a cultural thing, not regional.” Mom says, making my worse fear take shape.

“So let’s look at the local packs and why they would make a male a rogue.” Reaching into the junk drawer, I pull out a notepad and pen.

“Challenging an Alpha and losing.” Conrad says, looking up from the book, and I add it to the list.

“Hurting a female or child.” Mom adds, and I make a note of it.

“Doing things that can expose the pack to humans.” Griffin adds in and that one makes me pause.

“Remember about seven years ago when that woman was ranting on the news about a man turning into a wolf before her eyes?” It was a story ran on the local news with a very poor quality video of a being shifting into a wolf. People dismissed it as a hoax not long after it was televised.

Conrad pulls his phone out and starts searching for the video and casts it to the T.V. in the breakfast nook. Watching the video, we determine it was an actual shift caught on film and it very well could be Grace’s ex. “If that’s him, it’s exactly why he was cast out.”

We must have watched the different videos on the internet that were of the same shift. Apparently at least four people witnessed who ever it was shifting. If it’s Grace’s ex, this was definitely the moment that caused him to be turned rogue. “I’m surprised his Alpha didn’t kill him on the spot.”

“I think he tried to.” Grace’s voice is soft as she stares at the video on loop. “Hunter had several scars along his stomach and near his throat, he claimed was a hunting accident. That a bear had tried to kill him.” Shrugging her shoulder, she steps closer to the T.V. watching the footage. “That’s defiantly Hunter, he favors his right leg sometimes. Again claimed it was from the same hunting accident. You can tell he broke his leg at some point and it didn’t set right.”

We watch the video several more times and take notice of him favoring the leg. This was the defining moment that sent her ex down the path to being a rogue. The way Grace is studying the video, I can tell it’s bothering her. Stepping forward, I wrap my arms around her and hold her close to me. Slowly, she leans back against me and sighs.

“I never knew he had another side to him. The sudden change in him after Ashina was born hurt. He went from loving the baby in my belly to hating both of us because she was female.” Grace looks up at me. The slight golden glow of her wolf rises through the blue in her eyes.

Doing the only thing I can think of, I lean down slowly and press my lips to hers. I can’t fix the past, no matter how much I wish I could. Internally, I’m kicking myself for not approaching her on one of my trips to her town and preventing all of this bullshit. Sighing softly, I feel her melt into the kiss and smile as I pull away. “No more about the should have, could have. We live in the now. And right now we have a wedding announcement to plan and a meeting with four other alphas.”

Rolling her eyes, she pulls away and shakes her head. “I really don’t want to.”

“Don’t want to get married?” Griffin says from the far side of the room.

“That’s not it. I don’t want to meet the other alphas. What if they try to take me from you guys?” Grace says as she turns to face each of us.

Barrett and Ashina come down the hallway, apparently having heard the conversation. “They can’t take you. If that was their goal, it was shot to shit the minute we bit you. To kill your Alphas would be to kill you.” Barrett’s tone shows how unhappy the conversation has made him. For once, his tone has an edge to it, almost an anger.

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