All heads were bowed low in submission as my father's roar echoed across the plaza. You could hear it from his office in our executive building to the training fields beyond the pack house.
"WHY was I not consulted?!?" his face was as red as the light crimson color on my grandmother's smiling lips. She stared at my father, unaffected by the Alpha's emotional outburst that was crippling the rest of the pack.
"I don't need to ask you about this or anything else when it concerns my bestowing a gift upon my granddaughter."
My mother wrung her hands upon hearing her mother's words, her head still bowed and her neck straining from the Alpha command. She had just enough wolf in her, from his mating bite, to be influenced by his authority.
She, like I, was a fearful bystander in this face-off between them.
"Now, lighten up, Frances, before you hurt someone." my grandmother taunted my father, again.
Another deafening roar could be heard. This time as far as the guard station on the western edge of the territory.
"How many times have I told you, Clarissa?!? It is FRANCISCO! ALPHA FRANCISCO!!"
I could see the pulsating veins in my father's forehead. I hope he didn't stroke out.
"Settle down... FRANCISCO... what's done is done. You should know that every witch in my family has received her gift of powers on her 16th birthday and my granddaughter is not going to be any different. This is her birth right and you cannot change this destiny. The Moon Goddess herself blessed this birth." she said victoriously.
My father slumped into his chair, looking defeated. My grandmother usually got the better of him where I was concerned. My mother gently placed her hand on his shoulder. He flinched slightly before reaching up to cover her tiny hand with his.
Looking into her bright blue eyes he softened and sighed. "Tell me, my sweet Sonjia, what shall we do? Tell me how we proceed? I don't know what to do here. I'm an Alpha, not a Warlock."
My father held her hand to his forehead. The coolness soothing his hot brow. He knew the moment that he found out that my mother, a witch, was his fated mate...this was not going to be an ordinary life.
It should go without saying that I, their daughter, Sophia Aven de la Oro, future Alpha of the de la Oro pack, was no ordinary kid.