The Alpha's Stubborn Rejected Mate

Chapter 4 - Michael

The morning briefings that my father held with his beta and head warrior had become a boring but essential part of my day. If I was ever going to take over as the alpha of this pack I was going to need to prove to them that I was capable of doing the job. A difficult task to achieve when these meetings were the only thing that my father would let me take responsibility for.

For a while I have had a suspicion that he is deliberately trying to make it difficult for me to become alpha because he doesn’t agree with my moral code. It would be easy for me to lose my patience with him over this but that would be counterproductive. It would just give him one more thing he could use against me when I next asked him to hand over the position.

It felt as though most of my brain was still asleep as I ran through each of the usual agenda items. Thank the goddess for coffee. If I didn’t have a huge cup of the stuff before heading up to my father’s office then I would be asleep and drooling at the table before this meeting was through.

“Before I let you go, is there anything else that you would like to discuss this morning?” I asked. I gripped onto my coffee cup tightly for moral support as I tried to summon some motivation for the question which I already knew was coming.

“Have you put any more thought into your mate problem?” My father asked.

It was the same question he had been asking me every morning since I accidentally let slip about my catastrophic first encounter with my mate. He should have never had to find out about that, I was hoping that I would find some way of getting her back before anyone in my pack found out about her.

Things hadn’t exactly gone to plan on that front. Omegas generally weren’t allowed to leave their packs without special permission and I wasn’t welcome in the Hartford pack. That made it very difficult for me to set things right between me and my mate, I was going to find a way to fix things between us though. Of that much I was sure.

If only I hadn't gotten drunk a few months ago and spilled the whole sorry tale to my asshole future beta. I should have known he wouldn't be able to keep my secret if his life depended on it. He was exactly the type of person who would do anything to gain favour with my father. It was disappointing that I had been proven right about him and even more disappointing that he couldn’t have waited until I had sobered up until he stabbed me in the back. But at least I had learnt something from the experience.

“I’m not going to take a chosen mate, I have a mate out there and I am going to get her back.” It was the same answer I had given every day for the last couple of months, and I would continue to give it for as long as it took for him to accept it.

“Well then it is a good job that I have a meeting with the Harford pack today.” My father declared with a huge smile on his face. He hadn’t told me anything about this meeting until now but a quick glance around the table told me that I was the only one who didn’t know about this.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”

That was the pack where my mate lived, if I could go with him then maybe I could track her down and speak to her. The alpha probably wouldn’t let us wander around the pack unattended but I was sure that I would find a way to sneak off for a few minutes to see her. This was just the kind of opportunity I was waiting for, it was perfect.

“I didn’t tell you because it would be difficult to talk about you if you were there with me.” He replied, his tone so matter of fact that it took me completely off guard.

“Why would you be talking about me?”

“Well if you won’t be proactive in finding yourself a new luna then I will have to take steps to secure our future position. If I can also use it as a way of destroying a rival pack, well that is a bonus.”

Now he was really starting to get on my nerves. He was using a lot of words to tell me absolutely nothing which was pissing me off, and for once me and my wolf were in complete agreement. He was snarling in the back of my mind at the suggestion of replacing our true mate with someone else.

“Calm down boy. It’s not like I will force you to claim her but you will need an heir to take over your position as alpha. Some information that I have recently discovered about Jasper Hartford will allow us to do just that.”

He turned his laptop around and pushed it towards me. On the screen there was a report which had been written by a member of our pack who had been tasked with keeping tabs on the Hartford pack. They had discovered that Jasper’s wolf wasn’t actually an alpha but an omega. The report also claimed that they were only managing to keep it undercover because his mate’s wolf was an alpha.

It looked as though the Harford pack was going to keep this information under wraps until Jasper’s younger brother was old enough to take over as alpha. I could see why my father would be interested in this information. Jasper’s parents wouldn’t want this information to come out for fear of what the council would do. They would probably agree to just about anything to make sure it didn’t fall into the wrong hands. My father thought that this would include allowing another alpha to impregnate their son’s mate.

I had to admit that some parts of his plan were quite appealing. I would be able to make Jasper’s life miserable for a while, something he thoroughly deserved after the trouble he had caused between me and my mate. Maybe my presence might even be enough to weaken their bond and cause friction between Jasper and his mate.

There were a couple of things I wasn’t willing to do however. I wasn’t going to claim Jasper’s mate as my own or have children with her, and I wasn’t going to let my father do anything that would hurt members of either of our packs. Gaining business advantage was one thing, but actually hurting people was something completely different and I wouldn’t stand by and let that happen. I would challenge him for the alpha position if that is what it took to keep everyone safe.

“What are you hoping to gain out of this situation?” My father’s beta asked.

“The Hartford pack has been stronger than the Graves pack for the last one hundred years. This is our opportunity to change that.”

“Fine, I will go along with your plan but I am not sleeping with Jasper’s mate.” My father laughed at my response but he had that look in his eyes that he got when he thought he would be able to change my mind.

“It is a shame, it is said to be very painful to experience your mate sleeping with another.” He said with a gleam in his eyes.

He knew how much I hated Jasper and he was trying to use that hatred against me, even though he had no idea where that hatred came from. While it was true that I wanted to make Jasper pay for the pain he caused me, there were some things I wouldn’t compromise on.

“It would also hurt the woman, that is against my rules.”

“You and your stupid rules. They are only going to hold you back, the sooner that you give up on your misguided sense of morality, the sooner you will be ready to become alpha.”

My wolf growled and pushed his way forward within my mind, an occurrence that was getting more frequent ever since I rejected my mate. He didn’t respect me anymore, I was the one to blame for his mate not being here and I could tell that he would love nothing more than to be rid of me for good.

At least pushing him back into the dark recesses of my mind where he belonged was enough to distract me from the conversation going on around the table. I could vaguely hear my father joking with his beta, and knowing them it would be something derogatory about women or omegas.

By the time that I had managed to settle my wolf, everyone in the room had calmed down and carried on with the meeting. My father was running through everything that we needed to know about the deal he was planning to make with the Hartford pack. He had planned out every detail of this deal. It must have taken days if not weeks for him to work all this out and gather the evidence that he needed to ensure its success.

As I watched him taking over the meeting and giving everyone their roles I came to the realisation that he was never going to hand the alpha position over to me. That was why he refused to give me any real power or responsibilities. It made me wonder how long he had planned to string me along for before he told me the truth.

Well, I wasn’t going to let him do that to me. If I couldn’t prove myself to him with hard work then I would prove myself to him with violence. Just as my father had done, and his father before him. Nothing was going to stop me from taking over this pack and making it a better place to live for everyone who lived here.