Ashes of the Forgotten Alphas

Chapter 3: Cenoesha

Before my mother had her memories erased and become who she is now, she was known as something else entirely: Red. The former Alpha of the Kiltan pack who didn’t take no s**t from anyone and had a temper that burned as brightly as her red locks. I didn’t witness it personally but I could see shadows of it in the times I visited her in Cenoesha.

Something her only remaining sister and the current Alpha of the Kiltan pack, said happened more often. Just that it occurred when I wasn’t there.

“Do you think it’s possible?” I asked her, keeping my phone close to my ears since Tate and Nicole were talking too loudly to each other. I moved away from them and waited for Farrah to answer after I had just told her everything that Daniel said and my own theories as well as to what happened.

“If it is during the last few summers she was here, it might,” Farrah said after a beat. “She was more secretive then but Lilian and I thought it was simply because she often hang around with her human friends from college and work. There’s nothing wrong with it but she liked her privacy.”

Not necessarily deterred by this since there’s no certainty she didn’t actually know Daniel’s friend King, I asked, “Was there any mention of a guy back then at least? Or someone that she acted weird around?”

“Not really, except maybe...” Farrah paused, taking a moment to collect her thoughts before she continued, “well she didn’t explicitly say anything but whenever she came home there was always this one person’s scent that lingered around her. Maybe just a close friend but it could also be what you’re looking for.”

I gripped the phone tightly in excitement, feeling like maybe this was the piece of hint I needed to fully uncover the entire mystery of how my mother met my recluse of a father. “I’ll send you a photo of King after this call. Maybe you can recognize him at least.”

“I’ll try,” was her short answer. “But don’t get your hopes up. I’ve rarely seen Tori with her friends before since she often waved me away even when I was passing by.”

“I don’t care. I need to find my father and this might be the clue I’ve been looking for all this time.”

Farrah grunted in response. She wasn’t entirely a fan of me, nor of my father who wasn’t only an absentee dad but an absentee husband. And since she cared more by the fact that her sister was controlled for years by my father’s ex, left an amnesiac, and barely the person who she was before, Farrah definitely had nothing good to think about him.

“I’ll keep you posted,” she said, then before she ended the call, “Visit soon. Tori misses you.”

I smiled as I pocketed the phone. My aunt, which was something weird to think of that I now have one after years of chasing after a semblance of a family, didn’t fully like me but we were slowly adjusting to each other. While I doubt we would be as close to each other as Lilian was to me, I don’t think there really is anything to worry about that we won’t be getting closer in our own way.

When I came back to Nicole and Tate, I noticed Rastor was there with them. Nicole had a worried look on her face and even though Tate looked calm and collected, I felt a flash of anger before he stamped down his emotions.

“Good, you’re both here,” stated Rastor, sounding every bit sarcastic. “Your pack needs to leave now. You’ve overstayed your welcome and now one of you is causing a ruckus.”

The hell. I thought, realizing why Tate is angry. Rastor was insulting not only the Alcatrozz pack in front of its alpha, but he was acting as if we were the dirt beneath his feet. I almost said something but I remained quiet, letting Tate handle this. Maybe I can talk to Rastor next time because anything I say now to help Tate would just be another notch against us.

It’s not as if I didn’t care about him because I do. While things have turned out this way between us, if he and I can still be friends then I want to do the best I can to do that. However I can’t simply barge into it like I did before, blundering the whole thing out until there was no way to salvage it.

Tate, on the other hand, didn’t care what Rastor thought as he turned to Nicole with a dazzling smile that made my heart beat faster. “You know where to find me if you need help with—”

“No, no, no I got that,” Nicole responded quickly, waving her hands in the air with a wide-eyed look on her face. “Thanks. I’ll definitely take you up on that offer if I need it but right now I don’t need the help.”

I raised an eyebrow at her response, curious at exactly what they were talking about before I got here. Seeing as she already looked so uncomfortable that she was on the verge of running away anytime soon, I touched Tate’s arm and said, “Trisha’s in the dining room.”

“What the f**k are you guys doing? You should be rushing right now to get your pack rat away from infesting us with your ridiculousness,” shouted Rastor, flushing red with anger.

“Rusty, shut up,” sneered Nicole, touching him on both his shoulders and moving him away from us. “You sound like you’re on your period or something. You know the current Alcatrozz pack has helped us more than we’ve asked for them. So stop bitching and just go back to training the new wolves.”

Seeing as it wouldn’t help the situation be better, even remotely speaking, I started walking away to go to the dining room. 

“One tip for you,” I heard Tate say, “start talking like that when you have the authority to do it. Otherwise, the threat falls short.” Then I felt Tate coming up a step behind me until he was walking with me to the dining room.

“That was unnecessary,” I said after a while, glancing at him. “But thank you for not being so hardheaded and arguing with him.”

“I didn’t do it for you,” he uttered, both his hands in his pockets. “It’s for him.” However before he elaborated on what he meant, I heard loud shouts and the clanging of various objects being thrown.

The dining room was a sight to see when we arrived with Trisha being on the other end of the table, flinging pans and dishes to Train who was by the corner of the room, deftly avoiding what was being thrown.

Her chestnut brown hair that was carefully styled earlier into a fish tail had come undone, her blue eyes frantically looking at the rest of the room. Brown fur already decorated the rest of her body but she still looked human. However, it wasn’t a good sign that she already started the shift because it meant she’s on the verge of losing control.

“Trisha,” was the only thing that Tate said as he pushed the weight of his command and power with just that one word, pulling Trisha’s focus to him. Unlike the overwhelming need that most alphas force on their wolves, Tate’s were simply a push of power that called to you to bring you to your senses.

He didn’t say anything else nor did he pay attention when Train started moving away from the corner and to the archway of the dining room.

I raised a hand to stop Train, frowning at him. “Don’t be stupid. You know better than this,” I told him. When the situation is fully diffused and Trisha is calmer, then he could move but for now to skip out here when it’s obviously one thing that sent Trisha to rage was simply a dumb move.

“Don’t you dare tell me that you cannot be with me simply because of my pack. That’s a bullshit reason if I ever heard it,” Trisha rasped, breathing heavily as she leaned on the wall for support. “But I am tired of it. Tired of hoping that you will come to your senses and at least have the decency to tell me the real reason why you adamantly refuse being mates with me.”

Seeing as she’s struggling to stand properly after all the effort she exhausted throwing those pots and pans around, I ran towards her and helped her up. Train wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon anyway, especially since as I glanced back, saw Tate looking at him intensely.

“So it’s up to you, whatever you do now. Break the bond or do something about it. Either way, I’m done. Come find me once you finally get your s**t together to make up your mind but I’m telling you right now that I won’t make it easy for you whether you break the bond or not.”

The ride back to Ashburn city was quieter than it was when we were on our way to the Reons pack. A heavy blanket of worry and other things weighed on everyone of us, keeping us silent while in the car. And while there was no inch of me that was fond of Trisha, the moment she walked away from Train amazed me.

Being mates with someone is always a complicated thing. I definitely did not make it any easier for Tate since we have our issues but we are trying to resolve them together now so that’s good. But with Trisha’s case, it was just in between the spectrum of inspiring and horrifying. Whatever happens now though, at least Trisha tried doing something about it unlike Train who made no conceivable effort to even say what he wanted to happen.

Tate and I dropped Trisha at her parents house. While she still looked less than put together as she was before, there was a sense that she was feeling more like herself when she left us with a parting, “Don’t tell Train where I live when he comes calling.”

Now, Tate and I were on the road again heading to Bromsdale city to go meet Illia, the head of the Werwulf Council and leader of all Alphas. A few weeks back he said there was something he needed my help with. Since he said it wasn’t urgent enough to put ahead of everything else, I made sure to get my affairs in order like university applications, helping my mother settle in to therapy and living in Cenoesha, and other stuff.

Despite the early notice that there was something Illia needed my help on, he still didn’t inform us what it was about. Although chances were it would be something that would benefit werewolves so I wasn’t really worried. Except it seemed like I’m the only one.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I finally broke the silence. Under the setting sun highlighting the sharp bone structure of his face, there was a seriousness about him that I noticed the more I spent time with him, only occurred when he was overly thinking about something in particular.

Tate glanced at me, gripping the stirring wheel tighter the more he talked. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s obviously not nothing if you’re acting like that,” I pointed out. “But if you want to talk about it, then you can do that with me.”

Finally he sighed and said, “I feel for the guy.”

Without saying the name, I knew immediately that he was talking about Rastor. 

“I’ve been keeping in touch with Nicole and Daniel ever since they went back to their city so I heard a couple things, including that Rastor lost his mate when they were attacked. Then without having proper time to recover from it, he’d set his sights on you and got his heart broken.”

He took a deep breath, tightly grasping the steering wheel as he kept his sights on the road. “I can’t begin to imagine what it feels like to experience that twice but I have an idea when you disappeared after saving my life. Every single day I had no idea where you were hurt more than dying.”

The weight of his feelings were heavy, much more so than the silence that blanketed the car earlier. This one was suffocating, overwhelming but in a good way like the fresh sharp intake of air after drowning for so long. That moment where you know you’re going to live despite the circumstances.

There were so many things I could have said right then: how I wished I hadn’t been so stubborn to even refuse to hear his side before, how glad I was that he was trying his best to make up for the past without slipping up even an inch. Instead, I dropped the barrier I often placed on my emotions and thoughts so he could feel everything.

Slowly, the tension in his body started loosening and he relaxed a little more in his seat. A soft smile started on his lips as he glanced at me again. “What did I do to deserve that?”

“More and more every single day.”

“The thing about what he’s going through right now,” Tate said again as the stoplight turned red and he slowed to a stop. We were a good three hours and a half into the trip so at this rate since we weren’t stopping the night or anything, we’d reach Bromsdale before sundown tomorrow. “Responding with anger wouldn’t have been a good idea. Similar to how you tame wolves who have become uncontrollable.”

“I see. I’m just surprised but happy that you did it since I know you don’t like him.”

“I don’t. Doesn’t mean I can’t see his side though.”

Something vibrated in my pocket, signalling I got a text so I pulled it out and saw one of my favorite people in the world texted me. 

“Baby girl, call me ASAP.”

Shaking my head with a smile on my face at Phink, I pressed the call button and a moment later the sound on the other end started ringing. Tate looked at me in question so I mouthed Phink’s name at him. A moment later, the Phink’s voice came through.

“Honey bunch, why didn’t you drop by?” he immediately said and before I could answer, he continued, “I just heard from Daniel now that you visited him a second ago. Did something happen to put you off visiting me here in my fantastic abode of a paradise? Was it how morose Daniel is?”

I grinned. It’s been a while since I’ve talked to Phink since he had been busy handling other things he wouldn’t mention a thing about. While I wanted to visit him earlier, I wasn’t even sure if he was actually home at this time since whenever we talk, he was always jetting somewhere. 

“Nothing like that. But we did have to leave early since there was a problem when we were there.”

“Sounds horrendous, especially if you didn’t think to drop by,” he miffed. “So are you anywhere close that you can come pay me a visit? You know how much I miss you girl.”

I took in a sharp breath, looking around the area we were passing by. “Sorry. We’re close to Huitterton by now and I didn’t even know you were home. Last I heard from Medea, you were on a sunny beach vacation in Calahista.”

“Oh, she’s lying!” Phink chuckled. “Didn’t think that girl would believe me. Anyway, no. I was in Calahista because I thought this thing I’m looking for would appear there but no luck so I just came home.”

Interest rightfully piqued, as always with Phink who seemed to have a hornet’s nest of secrets about him, I asked, “What were you looking for?”

“Nothing you need to worry about, baby girl,” he answered lightly, his tone changing in the next second. “Since you said we, I’m assuming you’re with Tate? Hi there alpha dog.”

Despite the weird nickname that Phink developed for him, Tate replied with a nonchalant, “You’re getting too cocky there, Blue.” He was referring to Phink’s predisposition to surround himself with anything and everything in the color, despite of course his name.

“So are you two finally eloping or what?”

“Far from it. Illia needs me for something so we’re heading there.”

The teasing tone that Phink had was gone in a second as he answered, “Did he say why?”

I glanced at Tate, worried a little at the somber concern in Phink’s voice. Tate shrugged at me since he only knew the same thing I did. “Not really. But it’s Illia so I don’t think there’s really anything to worry about. Unless you heard something cause I know you have your ear to the ground?”

“Oh baby girl, there’s always something to worry about when dealing with him. Anyway, I haven’t heard anything but text me the moment you know why he called you so I can help,” then his tone changed to the same teasing one earlier, “after all, I have my hands in a lot of pies.”

“Really? I know you don’t like him but I really don’t think warning me is necessary.”

“Baby girl, I’m always on your side except the times I’m on my side. Generally though, my side is with you so yes of course I will worry and warn you because I know William. That beast has more layers to him than you could imagine.”

I shook my head at his words. I’ve seen them both time and again together so I knew the animosity betwen the two ran deeper than anyone knew. “Alright. Warning received. I’ll update you when we get there.”

“That’s my good girl.”

Tate cleared his throat loudly at that, apparently still keen on listening in despite the surge of traffic we were moving in. As a dominant, more so since he’s an alpha, his possessive streak is always apparent even in minute things.

The situations before where he was arguing with Rastor like they were dogs fighting over a bone flashed in my head. Thankfully, he has slowly not made it so apparent now that we were together. It just appears at random times like this and in small gestures.

I was about to comment on it when I remembered who else will be there when we arrive.

“By the way, someone will be there for the meeting,” I said, trying to remember the name of the long haired man who looked like oak personified. “His name’s Karael I think.”

“Karael? Oh no. f**k, okay. Don’t go anywhere and don’t do anything until I get there.”

Worried at the sudden panic in his voice, I asked, “What? But why?”

“No time to talk but just listen to me on this, okay baby girl?” Then the call dropped.