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“Brother, I think every first-time parent is nervous. But you will be fine.” Sawyer grinned at me and nodded, pulling me into a hug before he opened the door to go in.
Going over to my door, I could smell Amora already in there. Entering the room, I realized that she was fast asleep. Smiling to myself, I slid into bed with her, not worrying about a shower since my body was exhausted and I realized I wouldn’t have been able to take a shower. Snuggling up close to her, I wrapped my arms around her body and fell asleep.
My body felt like a boulder as I peeled open my eyes and turned over onto my back. Finally adjusting to the blaring light, I realized that Amora was not in bed with me. She hadn’t been in the room for some time now. Her scent had faded out the door, telling me she had left me here to sleep.
Throwing my legs over the side of the bed, I stretched out all the muscles in my body. Standing, I went to the bathroom and took a quick shower after I spotted the time. Drying off, I put on some clean clothes and went out of the room. Making my way down the stairs, I found that a few omegas had started to clean up the packhouse.
Pack members were bringing in crates of food, everyone had a bounce in their step. I found Amora outside giving directions to other pack members. She had always been a leader, and she would be my greatest asset. Grinning, I went up to her and turned her to face me. “Nolen! About time you got up! I was about to tell Lucas to go up and throw you out of bed.”
“You wouldn’t have done that,” I laughed, cocking an eyebrow at her and then pecking her lips in front of everyone nearby. A few teenagers wolf-whistled, and I couldn’t help but grin wider. Breaking the kiss, I glanced around at all the members helping to get things back to normal.
“Where is Lucas, by the way? I need him and Sawyer with me to go to the dungeons.” I brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. She patted me on the chest and pointed over to the side of the house. Placing a kiss on the top of her head, I headed over to the two male wolves.
“Hey, guys, let’s make our way to the dungeons and find out what we can do with the Dolostone wolves.” They both nodded and followed me to the dungeons. Two guards stood by the doorway, ensuring no one came in unless to give the Dolostone wolves food and drink. I nodded to them and went inside with Sawyer and Lucas behind me.
The dungeon was underground so not much light filtered in unless the door was open, or the lights were on. Once we reached the bottom of the stairs, the cells surrounded us in a circular formation. The older wolves sat at the back of the cells while the younger ones sat in the middle. When they all realized who I was, the scent of fear coming off the younger wolves was staggering. “None of you have anything to fear. I have only come to talk.”
An older male came up to the cell bars; this wolf had seen many things over the years he had been on this earth. The scars alone on his face and torso told a thousand words. He lazily draped his hands through the bars as he sized all three of us up. “That is what you alphas always say to get prisoners to comply with you. What is it that you want with us?”
Lucas started to confront him, but I held out my hand to stop him and shook my head. Crossing my arms over my chest, I went forward to stand face to face with the older wolf. Allowing my gaze to sweep over his body before bringing my eyes back to his face. “Listen, I’m not here to harm anyone of you. That is not my style and never will be. Your alpha has passed on, and I’ve come; well, we both have come to see if any of you would like to join our packs. If not, you will be rogue unless someone from another pack will take you in. What is your name, sir?”
The older wolf seemed taken aback at my statement and question. We both stared at each other for a few moments as the mumbling from the other wolves came from the other cells. He stepped back, and his gaze went to both Sawyer and Lucas. The door to the dungeon opened, and Fin’s scent carried down on the breeze from the open door. Fin came up beside me and stared at the older wolf as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Harlen, is there a reason you’re looking a gift horse in the mouth?”
“Fin! What are you doing here? I thought you had been put to death!” The old wolf came back up to the bars, reaching his hand to Fin. Fin grabbed hold of the old man’s hand and shook it.
“Harlen, you realize these young pups need to go with one of these alphas. There’s no reason why you should go rogue after everything you and they have been through. Rogue is not for the faint of heart.” Harlen glanced over to Sawyer and me and then back to Fin. I could tell these two knew each other from a long time ago. The way the old man gazed at Fin made me think he had once been a part of Fin’s pack.
“Why don’t you return as Alpha of Dolostone? You understand we would be better as three packs instead of two,” the old man said, and I realized that he had been part of his pack. But had he always been Dolostone, or had he been part of a pack that was taken over by Alpha Wade? I turned to Fin and glanced at him; his face was stoic, as always, showing nothing to give me a clue about what was going on.
“That would not be a good idea. I’ve been rogue way too long to be an alpha now.” He cocked an eyebrow at Harlen when the old man scoffed and then started to pace. The air in the room grew tense as the two of them kept silent. These two had history, and I didn’t know if I wanted to be here when that history came out to play.
Fin turned to leave and was halfway to the stairs when the old man hit the bars, rattling the iron cage. Fin turned to him, a lazy expression on his face. “You know you are the rightful alpha of that pack! Your uncle was never meant to have it!”
Chapter Twenty-Four: Rebuilding
What took Wade a few weeks to demolish took me a couple of years to rebuild. The pups that had been raised under him took a while to trust that I wouldn’t harm them. Everything was a learning curve for everyone, including me.
I took the oath of the alpha a few days after we held the massive funeral for all the wolves lost in battle. Amora took her place beside me as Luna; she’d been born for this just like I was. Lucas became my beta, and Hannah and Harley took over the Gamma position.
The Delta position was still up in the air as Daylen’s mate ran after she found out he had been caught and was sentenced to death for war crimes. I didn’t know where she was, but I realized she wouldn’t be with the Quartzite pack or the Dolostone pack. She might have gone back to her original pack before she’d met Daylen.
Fin finally conceded to be Alpha of the Dolostone pack. Which made me feel safer he was able to take over, we could have split them up between mine and Sawyer’s pack, but this felt right. Like something Selene would have wanted. To bring the packs back in harmony.
Old man Harlen had been Fin’s father’s beta and now acting Beta until his daughter came of age. Fin had a whole lot to fix as well, and Sawyer and I helped with that since his uncle depleted the packs’ funds. He tried to dismiss our help, but there would’ve been no way he would be able to get out of the debt that his uncle had forced the pack into.
The lands my father and Wade had disputed about now became a neutral place for all the packs to gather. We built a school for the pups of all the packs to attend. Calling the school Tri-Cairn since it resided between all three packs. Can you believe that Olli decided he would be one of the teachers there? I laughed at the thought when he told me, but thinking back to when he helped me through those weeks as a rogue, I knew he would be a good one.
Today, I sat at my desk working through all the files and revenue for the pack. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the warmth from the sun called my name. Sarge snorted; he’d seemed agitated the entire morning. Which, in turn, made me distracted. What is your deal this morning?
Something feels off with mate. She and Kulai are hiding something. The massive animal paced in my head, his tail tucked tightly against himself. As much as I needed to finish this paperwork, there would be no way with Sarge acting like this that I would be able to get anything done. Standing, I stretched out the hours of unused muscle and headed for the door.
Leaving the office, I stood in the hallway, sniffing out my Luna’s scent. The packhouse was unusually quiet, and that bothered me even more. I set off down the hall to the front part of the house; Sarge was at attention inside my head.
Her scent called to me but not from upstairs in our bedroom. Strolling out onto the front steps, I saw her walking down the drive into the woods with Hannah. It was never good when those two were together, so I decided to follow them. For one, she shouldn’t be going into the woods in her condition, and two… I couldn’t think of a two at the moment.
We had been blessed by the goddess, and she carried twins. The pack doctor had told her she needed to stay off her feet. But what was he going to do when even I couldn’t make her do anything she didn’t want to, and I was Alpha. When she told me she was pregnant, I thought I would vomit, because I was not prepared for that; I was still trying to bring this pack back to whole. And then, when the doc said it was twins, I fought to keep myself from passing out.
That’s when he put her on bed rest, but that Luna of mine would not stay in her room. She has always been stubborn and would do what she wanted anyway. The good thing was Hannah always followed her around, which made me feel a little better knowing someone would be with her if something was to happen.
