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This was all so confusing; I strolled blindly through the halls; one thing on my mind, I wanted it to be my birthday now. That way, I could determine if my feelings for Nolen were the mate bond or something else. If they were not the mate bond, I don’t know what I would do; I felt like my heart would break. But then it would mean these feelings were not real, that I had made myself fall for this other alpha heir that would not reciprocate my feelings.
“Hey, sis! You going to ignore me?” Glancing up, I saw Sawyer at the door to his office. Dad had finally stepped down and let him become Alpha, and Danika became Luna. I grinned at my brother, making my way to him. Dad and mom had decided to take a trip abroad and would be back a week before my birthday.
“Hey, sorry, I was in my own little world.” I gave him a hug. I still did things that I really shouldn’t, but hey, that was me.
“I could see that. What are you racking your mind about now?” Sawyer folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the door frame. He had been keeping an extra close eye on me since Nolen’s Alpha ceremony. I often wondered if he knew I had been in Nolen’s bed.
“I don’t know, a lot will change in two weeks, and I’m not entirely sure how I will feel about certain things.” I shrugged as I glanced around at the omegas cleaning the hall.
“You’ve been sitting in with mom and Danika, right? Learning as much as you can about pack things?” Peering back at him, I gave him a questionable look, while his face remained expressionless. This was another reason I was confused. Why make me sit in these types of things? Did someone know something I didn’t?
“Yeah, I mean, Mom is very adamant that I do. I’d rather be training with Beta Adam, but those are few and far between now.”
“You have to have a little of everything. What if you are a mate to an Alpha? You need to figure out what to do and how to handle the pack.” He pushed himself off the door frame and placed his arm around my shoulders, leading me away from his office. “By the way, I know you have been talking to Nolen. What is our brother from another pack doing nowadays?”
“You talk with him too. Maybe even more than I do. Why are you asking?” I asked, stopping in my tracks to stare at him. He knew something, and he wasn’t telling me. Nolen and I had been talking more since I left this time, which had me over the moon because I missed him.
“Yeah, well, I figured he would have different stuff to talk to you about. I mean, you are like a sister to him.” He continued forward, laughing. Rolling my eyes, I caught back up to him, slapped him on the back of the head, and ran for it.
I knew I would not stay ahead of him long since he had his wolf and I still didn’t. He caught back up to me within seconds and grabbed me from behind. Twisting me around to face him. “Why in the hell would you slap me?”
“I don’t know, it seemed like a good idea at the moment,” I told him as we walked back to the packhouse. He wasn’t angry with me. I used to do this to him all the time when we were kids, and so what if he was Alpha now.
“So, what are you hoping to get on your birthday?”
“Nothing. Just ready to find out who my mate will be.” I peered over at him from the corner of my eye, his lips pursed like he was deep in thought. He glanced back at me, a smile playing on his lips. That smile meant he was up to no good. Even though he’d become Alpha, he was still my brother, and I knew him like the back of my hand.
“I believe he will be strong, sorta on the good-looking side, but not as good-looking as me. Besides, he’s gonna have to be patient to deal with your shenanigans.” He puffed his chest up and started strutting around ahead of me. I couldn’t help but bust out laughing. This brother of mine drove me bat shit crazy, but other times he made me laugh when I wanted to cry. If I did have a mate in another pack, I would miss him.
I ran up to Sawyer and hugged him tightly. “I love you to the farthest moon and back, big brother!”
“I love you too, little sis. And believe me, if your mate ever mistreated you, I would go to war for you.” Sawyer pulled me tight against him. We didn’t always get along, but these were the times I cherished. “Come on, let’s go have dinner.”
We made our way to the packhouse and into the dining room. Danika was sitting at the alpha table along with Beta Adam and Delta Eric on the other side of Sawyer’s chair. I took my seat next to Danika on her right side. Sawyer had yet to name a new beta and delta since Beta Adam’s daughter was still just a kid and Delta Eric’s daughter was now the Luna.
Other wolves made their way in, and I noticed some of them were part of the trainees that Sawyer and Nolen had trained with. They were now with the patrols, making sure that the territory was protected. That is when another male stumbled through the crowd, pushing his way up to Sawyer. The unknown male fell before he made it to Sawyer; my brother stood and ran from his seat over to the male, pulling him to a sitting position against the table. “Who are you? Why did you come?”
“Alpha. Rhyolite… Alpha Nolen... Alpha Wade beat him. He is believed dead, Alpha.”
Chapter Sixteen: Rogue
My breath hitched at the male’s words, and when my brother glanced over to me, I could see it in his face what my mind was trying to tell me. My hands went to my mouth as the sob escaped from me; I shook my head, the tears bubbled up in my eyes. This was not true! He couldn’t be dead! I had just spoken to him this morning. “Sawyer, send a scout to find out what happened! We need to know!”
“I realize that, Amora!” he snapped at me before he ran his hand down his face. He gave me a sorrowful glance before he turned to survey the room around him. “I need two wolves to go to the Rhyolite pack to see what has happened.”
The whole room of wolves stepped forward; Sawyer picked out two wolves. So distraught with the grief of possibly having lost Nolen, I couldn’t understand what was happening as Luna Danika pulled me close to her and then swept me away to my room.
I sobbed on my bed; Danika sat beside me, rubbing my back. Why would the Goddess do this to me? Why would she give me these feelings and take the wolf those feelings burned for away? Danika continued to rub my back until I blacked out from exhaustion.
The wolves that Sawyer sent came back, but not with news that we wanted to hear. He was not there leading his pack. Nolen’s father and mother were in the dungeons, put there by Alpha Wade.
The pack was a skeleton of itself. None of the wolves made a sound; they worked and then went home. No one talked with each other. The two wolves couldn’t get closer to the inner parts since Dolostone wolves patrolled the inside of the territory, keeping wolves away from the packhouse.
They told us the scent of blood flooded throughout the territory, and the crimson liquid seeped into the ground as bodies decayed becoming food for other scavengers while their families mourned them from afar. The settlement had become a wasteland.
My birthday was not what I imagined it. Oh, lots of wolves were at the celebration, along with unmated males that vied for my attention. But not the one I wanted vying for it. To me, it was a dull affair, and I didn’t stay long, much to the displeasure of my mother and father.
I couldn’t handle it; I didn’t want to be near anyone. At least not who were present in the packhouse. The one I wanted at the party and who would have made it the most wonderful birthday in my life was possibly dead.
