Daughter of the Darkest Moon

Visit From the Alpha

[Oliver]

I sat on the porch and gazed out over the yard and surrounding forest. She was hiding something. I bet she was a runaway, but hadn’t been at it long. Not if she was still using flatware and insisting on cooked meat in human form.

It was likely she’d been the child of a high ranking member of her pack considering how she sat and ate in such a proper manner. Maybe she ran from an arranged marriage. Some of the older packs still did that.

I pulled out my phone and dialed my Gamma. A distraction would get me out of my head. I needed another update anyway.

“Ollie. Stop calling. We’ve got this.” Geri scolded when he answered.

“Hello, I’m good. Thanks for asking. Geri, you said three got away. They could be heading this way. I need to have updates. I’m not coming home because of Ben’s order. You guys could at least let me know what’s going on in the f*****g pack!” I growled.

“We found the one that was badly injured. He was dead, broken neck. Only two are left. One of the hunters in the dungeon said they were hired to take us out, but didn’t say who hired them. He didn’t know. I guess one of the leaders was headed to you and the other led the attack here, but escaped. Has the girl given you any information?” Geri probed.

“She asked me to go get her bag from their motel room this morning. I got there and looked around. There were some files with pictures of the wolves who live in the pack house. There were other papers, but I didn’t get a chance to look them over. She’s still too tired and injured for much talking right now.” I responded.

“I’ll have Ben head your way to pick the files up. He’s near there and should be by in an hour or so.” Geri told me and hung up.

I looked at the phone. “Not even a goodbye.”

Putting it in my pocket, I went to sit on the hammock I’d been relaxing in the day before. What I needed was a plan. I couldn’t just sit around waiting to see what happened and hoping for the best. Most importantly, I needed to make sure Liviana was safe.

If she was a rogue, I’d get her into my pack and if she wasn’t, I’d help her get home. Maybe, I could help her find her mate and she could go with them. That sounded like the best option if she’d run away from home because of an arranged marriage. I’d offer a dowry to whoever the mate was so he wouldn’t reject her.

Next, I had to figure out what I’d do if the hunters came after me again. I didn’t think it was likely, but I needed to be certain the threat against my friends and family was thoroughly erased. That meant we needed to hunt the hunters and destroy them before they could get reinforcements.

I pulled out my phone and used the voice recording app to outline a plan to find and kill the hunters. I would let Geri know once I had it done. With luck, Liviana could fill me in on more information to help us. It wasn’t clear what she knew, but she knew enough to save my pack and it could mean she knew a lot more.

I put his phone away again and headed back into the cabin. If Ben would be there soon, I wanted to make sure my Alpha had something to eat. It would be good to have something for Liviana, too. Getting her healthy was one of the most important things to me right now.

***

While I was cooking, she woke up and sat in the bed watching me. I took her bag to her so she could go through her things. Liviana pulled out a large dark red t-shirt and black leggings. I insisted she let me look at her wounds and get new bandages on them. She sighed deeply and let me look her over.

All of her wounds from the fight with the hunters were gone, at least the ones on the surface. The rope burns were looking better, but the silver burn on her neck wasn’t showing any signs of healing. I cleaned it gently and applied Neosporin and clean gauze before letting her dress and heading back to check the food I had in the oven.

I had diced the last large piece of meat into bite sized chunks and roasted it with potatoes, onions, and mushrooms after a quick pan-fry. I would make a gravy from the juices, then would cover the mixture with cheese, for a little extra calcium and protein.

As I finished mixing everything together and had one bowl ready, there was a knock at the door. Liviana looked over curiously, but didn’t seem concerned. I set the food on her table with a fork and looked out the peephole to see Ben standing on the porch with Randy and Mac. I opened the door to let my Alpha in.

“Hey, Ollie. Looking pretty good.” Ben grinned and hugged me.

“Yeah, not bad for a guy who saved the pack while on vacation. Do you ever actually take a break?” Mac smirked and playfully punched my stomach.

“Good job, Beta.” Randy ducked her head.

“Come in, Alpha. I made lunch and was just serving it up. This is Liviana. She’s the wolf who warned me about the attacks.” I said, pointing to the wide eyed girl in my bed.

The trio looked at Liviana, who was trying to tuck her hair behind her ear, only to find it was refusing to do anything. I hadn’t thought about the mess in her hair while cleaning past getting the cut on her scalp washed.

Her dark blue eyes were nervously looking around the room. A blush crept across her cheeks and she chewed on her bottom lip. She was kind of pretty when she blushed.

“Hello. I’m Benjamin Freewell, Oliver’s Alpha.” Ben said softly. “This is Randolfa Getz and Cash MacDowell. My guard. Thank you for helping our pack yesterday.”

“Of course, Alpha. I couldn’t just stand by and let them hurt more innocent people. My grandfather would have expected more of me.” She murmured.

“Who’s your grandfather? Would I know him?” He asked.

“Probably. I’d prefer not to say, though.”

Ben looked at her curiously, then at me. I shrugged. She never said anything about her family to me, I had no idea.

“She said she’d talk more about what pack she comes from when she’s better. She’s still healing some major internal injuries and everything that happened while she was in a silver collar.” I explained. “Come have something to eat and leave her alone. Liviana needs to rest.”

They followed me to the little dining area and sat at the table while I served the rest of the bowls. During the meal, we talked about plans and pack movements through our mental link.

Trackers from the pack were on the trail of the two remaining hunters. The hunters had some previous training that’d helped them disguise their scent. It was taking the trackers a while to pick it up again.

When we finished Mac and Randy cleaned up while I retrieved the files and sorted through them with Ben. I looked over briefly to see Liviana had covered herself entirely and seemed to be sleeping. A small smile crept across my lips, but I shook myself and returned to sorting the files into pictures, documents, and instructions.

‘Are you sweet on the little wolf?’ Ben asked me through our link.

‘No. She’s just funny and I want to make sure we get her home safely.’ I growled.

‘To your home?’

‘Will you stop? I want to either send her back to her pack or help her find her mate and get her into their pack. I think she might’ve run away from home and been living as a rogue.’ I told him.

‘Do you think she’s dangerous at all? I can’t get a read on her strength.’

‘Neither can I. It could be because of the silver. They had that collar on her for a while. Probably since they took her. The silver burn isn’t starting to heal yet. She hasn’t acted aggressively at all. I’m not worried about her being dangerous.’ I replied.

‘Okay. Let’s play it by ear and take care of her. She bought herself a lot of leeway by saving the pack and protecting you.’ He said.

‘I don’t think she thought I could fight. There were only two of them. When I told her I caught a wild pig, she seemed surprised. I’ve never had anyone look at me and think I couldn’t manage a pig on my own.’ I chuckled.

‘I wonder what kind of pack she came from if she thinks the Alpha’s second in command isn’t strong enough to fight or hunt.’ Ben shook his head.

‘She’s a little strange in other ways, too. Whatever she’s running from, I don’t think she wants to go back.’

‘Once she’s healed, let me know what you find out.’

‘Will do.’ I nodded.