Loving Her Alpha

2. Destiny

Since Ella’s death, every night Declan had the same dream; a vast expanse of darkness, a void that stretched endlessly through time and space. Declan floated through this nothingness of despair, with no stars, no moon, no light, each night until he awoke. Over and over the pattern repeated itself in the years since Ella’s passing. It was desolate and Declan felt despondent every morning when he opened his eyes.

This time, however, the dream felt different. There was less blackness, less despair. It was almost as if the dark was turning to gray. Declan awoke suddenly, scoffing at the notion that his shattered heart was beginning to heal. The concept was preposterous. His wolf disagreed; the animal was feeling hopeful. Besides his son, perhaps the only other thing keeping Declan sane was the steadfast belief by his wolf that they had a fated mate in the universe and someday their paths would cross. Even if Declan didn’t share that belief, he couldn’t deny his beast this dream. He drifted back to sleep hearing his wolf howl mournfully in his head.

On the western border of Declan’s territory that same night, Everly woke slowly. She didn’t know how long she had slept, but she awoke with a start having had the strangest dream. Clairvoyance wasn’t among her gifts, though it wasn’t unheard of for witches to develop new magic as they grew older. She was floating through darkness that slowly lightened to gray while she heard a wolf howl longingly in the background. As she laid on the hard ground, she pondered the meaning of the dream for a minute before rolling over and adding a few more pieces of wood to her rapidly dwindling fire.

As she stared into the flames Everly’s mind wandered towards her magical history. As legend told it, many centuries ago, a vast magical war took place with light and dark magic fighting for control of the earth realm. The cost to human life was so great that the Goddess of the Night and the Goddess of Goodness and Light combined their power to create Everly’s ancestors—a specific line of witches who could manipulate both kinds of magic to keep the balance. For centuries they succeeded, until one of Everly’s ancestors turned too far to the dark and craved the power for herself. Since then, the traitor’s descendants have been obsessed with controlling the power of the Gray Witch. They have hunted Everly and her family almost to extinction, but somehow, Everly survived.

Carefully, Everly wrapped her fingers around a locket that was always present on her body. It contained pictures of Everly’s ancestors. It was a family heirloom, passed down from mother to daughter reminding them of the gift they hold and their place in the magical community. Each new generation added their photo to the collection. The locket grounded Everly and helped her find center in a world where nothing was as it seemed. When she really missed her mom, Everly held the locket close and imagined her mom’s presence was near-by. Eventually, Everly fell back asleep with the despondent howl of the wolf from her dreams resonating in her head.

The next morning found Declan awake before his alarm, rolling over in bed and stretching, he heard little feet pounding down the hallway. Declan grinned and buried his head under the pillows. A moment later, the bedroom door was thrown open and a small body jumped on him.

“Got you Dad! Wake up! Wake up! You said I could watch training today!”

Declan’s son Maddox started raining little punches on him, doing his best to wake his dad. Maddox struggled for just a minute before Declan threw off the covers and growled, grabbing the young pup, tickling him, and wrapping him up in a hug.

“Why are you so loud in the morning?” Declan teased.

“I’m not loud, Dad. I’m practicing,” Maddox declared.

Declan was curious, “practicing what?”

“My Alpha voice for when I’m big and in charge someday.” Maddox wrapped his arms around Declan’s neck and planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek.

“And you’re doing such a good job!” Declan encouraged him, “How about we save the Alpha voice practicing until after breakfast from now on?”

“Can I try it during training?”

“Sure. Now let’s get dressed and head out or we will be late and have to run extra laps.”

With that Maddox flew off the bed and grabbed the clothes he left in the room last night. Even though Maddox was an Alpha pup Declan made sure he was held to the same rules as everyone else. There had been far too many spoiled children of Alpha’s and he didn’t want that for his son. Maddox understood from the beginning that pack rules applied to him as much as his little friends. More importantly, Declan wanted Maddox and the pack to understand that each role provided value, that ranked members were here to serve as much as to command—that leadership by example was the best version of itself. He made sure that Maddox had little friends whose parents all held different roles within the pack so Maddox would be exposed to all sorts of pack life from the beginning.

The Cold Moon pack was large, with several thousand members scattered across a few states in the Northwest of the United States as well as parts of British Columbia, Canada. The hunting lodge where Declan lived served as a pack house and business cover for one of the pack’s many companies. When the lodge was built, it was in the center of the pack territory, but as the pack grew, the lodge ended up being closer to the northern borders. After Ella’s death, Declan didn’t want to move to a more central location, so he had another lodge built that was more convenient for the majority of pack members and held many of the larger pack meetings there. In spite of his loss, the general consensus within the pack was that Declan was an excellent Alpha—even if he was somewhat withdrawn and hidden from most of the pack members.

Declan’s parents, while retired, lived in the other pack house and kept an eye on things. Declan also had his Gamma living there and his Beta went back and forth quite a bit, so there was always a ranked member available for pack concerns. The pack had grown mostly by smaller packs asking for sanctuary given the high number of rogue attacks over the last couple of years. It worked out in Cold Moon’s favor and they were now able to use a combination of technology, magic, and patrols to keep everyone safe.

Long ago, Declan’s dad, forged an alliance of sorts with an odd coven of white witches and they provided some magical cloaking and deterrents over about a fourth of the pack border that bumped up against some of their sacred land. It was a mutually beneficial partnership. Cold Moon didn’t bother the witches, and so far, they hadn’t bothered the pack, except for the occasional request to deal with a rogue on their part or obscure magical oddity on the part of the pack.

About a year ago, Cold Moon went on a massive offensive against some rogue camps lingering on their borders. They had significant intelligence that the rogues were gaining power from an unknown source and capturing innocent women (both werewolf and human) and children for nefarious purposes. It was unacceptable in the mind of Declan and the other pack leadership. They were successful in eliminating and destroying several hundred rogues and their living spaces. The source was correct and several camps holding innocents were found. Those wolves recovered who wished to stay were adopted into Cold Moon, and dozens of pack members found or chose mates among the prisoners.

In the midst of the rescue Declan found an odd magical signature of which he was unfamiliar. Declan relayed the information regarding the obscure magic to the coven of witches and was assured the coven would “take care of it.” Nothing had been heard since, and things had been peaceful so Declan wasn’t concerned. Though he was curious as to what caused the weird magical feeling.

Maddox and Declan made their way out to the training grounds right on time. It had started to snow yesterday, and it really started blowing overnight. It was going to be a cold day. A big storm, maybe even a blizzard was moving in over the mountains. Fortunately, it was the slow season for the hunting lodge. The few guests remaining had cancelled or were leaving this morning before the storm got worse. Given the position of the lodge, they were likely to get snowed in and perhaps lose power. None of the pack minded, their wolves loved the cold and the freedom to run and hunt without humans around. Declan was particularly looking forward to some human free time. It was shaping up to be a not terrible day.

Declan noticed his cousin Bridget, her mate Cole, Bridget’s brother-in-mating Ben, and one of his warriors Jake. They were heading out on patrol since the storm was messing with one of their border sensors on the western edge of the territory. At least Declan hoped it was just the storm. There had been some trouble in the past and he hoped this wasn’t part of it. Regardless, the four warriors were certainly be able to handle the situation. They were among the best Declan had. Ben and Declan were particularly close since Ben was mated to Whitney, Declan’s cousin and best friend growing up. Since Ella’s death, Whitney had become de facto Luna for the pack, picking up the slack that Declan was incapable of recognizing. Ben was the chief warrior and kept the fighting forces in tip-top shape. Plus, he was a brilliant strategist whom Declan respected.

As Declan waved at the group, little did he know that his destiny was just beginning.