Alpha's Legacy (Black Moon Saga Book 3)

4. The Gathering Storm

I stay with my father at Uncle Pete’s house for a total of three nights before we’re finally given the all-clear. Emerick was sent away to the training academy, and most of the people he ratted out when he thought he was trading their freedom for his have been rounded up and dealt with.

I’m not ignorant enough to believe that the mess he got caught up in is something that can be resolved in only a few short days, but I do have confidence in my mother as the Alpha. She’ll make sure to see the investigation through to the end. No more people will be getting hurt on her watch if she can help it.

As a powerful caster, teleporting is like second nature to my father, and that’s how he chooses to transport us back to town. Once we arrive, I recognize the familiar green and blue awning of my favorite bakery just ahead of us. We’re stopping to pick up breakfast on our way back to the packhouse, which is a plan I quickly get on board with.

“We should probably get a dozen of those cinnamon rolls you like, plus some apple fritters for your brother,” he says as we’re waiting in line.

“We can get some fritters, but Emerick won’t be there when we get back,” I remind him.

“Oh, that’s right,” he mutters, his eyes taking on that sad, pained expression again.

I suspect that he wanted to be the one to stay with me not only to protect me, which any of my dads could have done, but so that he didn’t have to be there to see Emerick get dragged away. Emerick probably wasn’t very happy about any of it, least of all our father not being there to face him in person.

“What about some of those messy, powdery ones you like?” I suggest, hoping to offer a distraction that will cheer him up.

When it’s our turn, he steps up to the counter and tells the elderly woman we want two dozen cinnamon rolls, and that’s all he orders. Not that I’m complaining. I do feel bad for him, though. I suspect that wherever Emerick has been sent is a lot more intense than I’ve been told, and that’s what has my father so worried and distracted.

He and I each carry a box of our goodies as we walk the rest of the short distance to the packhouse, hurrying to make it upstairs to our apartment before everyone leaves for the day. But as we round the corner onto the landing for the final flight of stairs that leads up to the Alpha’s apartment, I glance over at the hallway where my friend Melanie lives.

At this time of the morning, she will be getting ready for school, and I kind of want to catch her while she’s still at home so I can check in with her. I imagine she’s pretty heartbroken after my brother robbed her of her virtue the other night and then likely ditched her by the next day. Though I had nothing to do with it, I still want to support my friend, even if I don’t approve of her choice in men.

“Here, can you take this?” I ask my father, holding out my box of pastries. “I need to go see Melanie for a minute.”

“Sure,” he smiles, taking the box from me. “But hurry it along. You know your siblings. These won’t last long.”

I smile back at him before turning and hurrying down the hall. Even though Melanie’s room is only two doors down, I know time is limited in more ways than one. She needs to leave for school soon, and my father isn’t wrong about food going fast in our house.

I only have a chance to knock on her door twice before it swings open, and she’s standing right there. The look on her face quickly morphs from surprise into outrage.

“You b***h!” she shrieks at me, already lunging for me before I even have time to process what is happening. “How dare you show your face around here!”

And then she’s on me, and I find myself once again pushed up against a wall. Her claws are out, and I know she’s aiming for my face.

“Stop!” I manage to cry out, automatically lifting my hand without meaning to.

A burst of magical energy flows from that hand, and Melanie freezes in place. Her face looks surprised again, and a sliver of fear creeps into her eyes.

“I don’t even understand what you’re mad about, but I only came to see how you’re doing,” I explain, trying not to freak out about my unintentional use of magic. “I saw Emerick leaving here the other night.”

“Of course he did! He’s my mate! And he told me all about what you’ve been up to lately,” she glares at me, her body still fixed in place by my magic. “And now, thanks to you, the Alpha sent him away. He didn’t even do anything wrong! But of course no one will believe him when perfect little Anna Jade starts spinning her lies.”

Wait, what? Not even one part of what she just said makes a single bit of sense. Emerick obviously has her wrapped around his little finger, but how? Melanie and I have been friends since we were in diapers. How can she take his side after only one night? And this business about being his mate …

“Who told you that he’s your mate? Neither of you even have your wolves yet,” I point out. “There’s no way to know who your mate is until you do.”

“Well, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but his wolf awakened a few weeks ago and identified me as his mate. I don’t have mine yet, but I felt it too. That happens sometimes when the connection is strong enough, like ours is. He’s my mate. I know it,” she insists stubbornly, and then it seems like another idea occurs to her, and her face contorts into that angry, outraged expression again.

“Of course, it all makes sense now,” she adds, back to glaring at me. “You saw him with me the other night and got jealous, so you made up all that stuff about him and convinced your mom to send him away. Well, it isn’t going to work. You and I are no longer friends, so let me go and get out of here, freak.”

Feeling defeated, I release her as requested. I can already tell there’s no point in arguing my innocence, or reminding her that Emerick is a warlock and could just be messing with her head and making her think she’s his mate. But then again, I heard him growling and noticed subtle little things that made me wonder if he somehow had access to his wolf. Maybe she really is his mate. I’m just not sure whether that’s the better or the worse alternative here.

“Now leave, and don’t come back,” Melanie sneers at me. “And don’t bother running to Chrissy either. I already told her what you did, and she hates you now too.”

Considering that she and Chrissy were my only two friends in the whole pack, that makes me officially friendless. It’s unbelievable that Emerick is still somehow messing everything up for me, and he’s not even here.

I turn and exit her room, collapsing against the door once it closes behind me. I need a moment to catch my breath and let my head wrap itself around the past minutes of my life.

“I lost count of the number of times someone called me names like that when I was young,” my father speaks up, surprising me because I didn’t realize he was hovering just outside her room like that. I thought he already went upstairs to our apartment.

“The name-calling I’m used to. I wouldn’t even care if it weren’t for the fact that she was a good friend until Emerick got his claws into her. He got to my only other friend as well, so I guess I should at least give him credit for being thorough,” I laugh ironically, standing and brushing off my skirt as if I can somehow dust the encounter off me like crumbs.

“I’ll take that back now,” I add, reaching for the second box of cinnamon rolls.

I guess the fact that both he and the food are still here means he hasn’t even bothered going upstairs yet and has just been waiting for me out here.

“I sensed your magic,” he says after we’ve walked the few paces back to the stairs. “Which is the only reason I didn’t barge in and try to intervene. It was protective magic, and I assumed you were resolving the situation yourself. Benevolently, at that. Not even a trace of offensive magic, despite the apparent hostility of the situation.”

He’s proud of that. I can hear it in his voice and see it in his encouraging smile. I’d feel better about it if I wasn’t still reeling from my interaction with Melanie and grieving the loss of my friends.

Finally, we make it upstairs to our apartment together, meeting up with the rest of the family who are in the middle of their weekday morning routines. My younger brothers and sisters are there along with my mother, Adam, and Tian. Since Emerick is gone, we’re only missing Margot, who is probably already at her morning training session.

“Donuts!” Tommy exclaims as soon as we make it into the kitchen. He’s nearly five years younger but already bigger and taller than me.

“Sticky cinnamon rolls,” my father corrects him, setting out both boxes on the counter island. “Dig in, everybody. There are plenty.”

“I’m glad you’re back,” Mom says, but I think she is mostly talking to my father, who she pulls over to her by his hand so she can plant kisses on his lips and face. Then they stand there holding onto each other, gently swaying back and forth as they embrace.

“I need to speak with you guys,” she adds once they finally pull apart.

I don’t know whether she means me until she strides away, gesturing for me to follow her. The only problem with that is I’m hungry, but I haven’t managed to nab any of the cinnamon rolls yet, and unlike my Alpha siblings, I’m not the type to elbow my way through a crowd to get what I want. I usually stand back and wait for the others to finish fighting over stuff, hoping that something has been left for me.

Tian catches my eye from the corner where he’s been standing and watching silently since before I arrived. He seems to catch on to my dilemma, giving me a conspiring smirk as he holds up his hand and makes a beckoning gesture vaguely in the direction of the counter island. I watch with interest, smiling when two of the pastries lift from the counter and float over my brothers’ heads and right to me, complete with napkins for me to hold them with.

“Thanks, Tian,” I tell him, pausing to give him a grateful kiss on the cheek as I pass by on my way to my mother’s home office. Despite my disheartening start to the morning, his small gesture does help me feel a little better.

My father and Adam are already in there with her and they’re whispering lowly, a conversation that pauses as soon as I come in. I assume it’s about what just happened with Melanie, but I don’t know why they didn’t just use their mind-links if they didn’t want me to hear them talking about me.

“Anna Jade, I went ahead and excused you from the rest of your scheduled shifts at the pack hospital, and I don’t want you signing up for more right now,” my mother informs me. “Not until our investigation is completed anyway. We don’t yet know who all was involved, but I suspect that one or more of the new doctors might not be what they seem. I don’t want you around them not knowing who we can trust.”

That news is more devastating than it might seem. I don’t have school to keep me busy right now, not until I turn 18 and can enroll in specialized training for my career path. It’s kind of dumb, but that’s something that’s not assigned until a werewolf comes of age, after the pack witnesses the first shift. It ensures that the training fits the wolf and is no more and no less than the wolf can master.

It’s especially important to wait when it’s someone like me whose wolf is kind of a wildcard. If my wolf turns out to be an omega, my education and training will be somewhat different than for pretty much any other kind of wolf. Omegas are the smallest and weakest of our kind, and their training is less physically demanding than for other wolves.

Personally, I suspect that’s what mine will turn out to be, but with my mother being an Alpha, almost anything is possible. I could even turn out to be a warrior, though that’s so crazy of an idea that it isn’t even worth worrying about. The only thing I know for sure is my wolf won’t be an Alpha. It’s impossible, since my father isn’t one.

So, with my wolf still somewhat a mystery and my career and training path remaining undefined, volunteering at the hospital was pretty much the only thing I had going for me. I know I’m going to be a healer, and I’ll be undergoing medical training of some sort, so volunteering has been more like an apprenticeship for me. I’ve learned a lot, and without it, I’m going to go back to feeling like I’m spinning my wheels, drifting in no particular direction. Especially with no friends to help keep me busy now.

But I know better than to argue with my mother, and I understand and even appreciate her concern. I suspected the doctors too, and I wouldn’t feel safe there anyway.

So, all I say is, “Okay. I understand.”

“I’m sorry. I know you enjoy working over there,” she says sympathetically, holding out her arm to offer me a hug.

“It’s okay. I’ll find some other way to occupy my time,” I assure her, but I think I’m mostly trying to convince myself.

I do go to her for that hug though. Not only do I really, really need it today, but it’s been a while since I’ve had the chance. I feel a sense of calm and comfort wash over me as we stand holding each other. That's one of her special abilities, the one that allows her to influence people’s emotions. Sometimes, it annoys me to no end, almost like an invasion of privacy or a disruption of my free will or something, but right now, it feels good. I guess I needed the help this time.

“And you,” she points to my father, pulling away from me as she diverts her attention to him, “I need you to walk with me while we talk. Let’s take it downstairs to the Alpha’s office.”

I glance at Adam as my biological parents leave the room together, confused as to whether I’m dismissed or if there’s something else he needs to tell me.

“That was all we had for you,” he informs me, sensing my question.

Then he pushes himself away from the desk he was leaning against and closes the distance between us, reaching out for me. I guess I could use another hug, and admittedly, Adam’s hugs are some of the best. He’s a towering, hulking mass of full-grown Alpha male, and even his gentle hugs seem a bit like warm bear hugs that swallow a person whole, but in a good way.

“Does Emerick have his wolf already?” I can’t help asking him. I feel like he would know since he’s been working so closely with my mother on all this, and he was likely involved when they were questioning him.

“No,” he says firmly. “If he told you he did, he lied. What he has is a drug problem, same as all the other guys who got mixed up with this club. The effects of the drug seemed to allow him to emulate certain aspects of having an active wolf, mostly with his voice and eyes, but his wolf is still dormant. In fact, he may even have stunted his wolf’s maturity a bit, and might have to wait longer than his eighteenth birthday for his wolf to wake up.”

“Oh,” I say while I’m considering it all. “It wasn’t him that told me. It was Melanie. He told her he had his wolf, and claimed his wolf identified her as his mate. It sounded like some scheme to get her to sleep with him, but she was so certain that it made me wonder.”

“We’ve heard that same story from at least a dozen other girls,” he tells me, sadness and shame creeping into his voice.

He pauses, sighing heavily before he adds, “I know he’s your twin, and he threatened and intimidated you, but I still wish you had come to us sooner, Anna Jade. His involvement in a criminal organization not only placed the entire pack in danger and got a lot of people hurt, but he’s done irreparable damage to his image around here, and I don’t know whether there will be many ready to welcome him back once he is released from the academy.”

I’m in shock about pretty much all of what he just said to me other than the part about the girls. I’ve known Emerick was a player for a long time, at least a couple years. I didn’t know the part about him claiming to be their mates and have no idea how long that has been going on, but it wasn’t my business. What I can’t believe is that Adam, my dad, is standing there acting like I’ve been knowingly keeping things from them.

“But how is that my fault or responsibility?” I demand in outrage. “We haven’t been close in years! How was I to know anything? I had no idea about the drugs, and I only found out about the club the night before I told Tian. What about you? Or Mom? Or any of you? How about not having so many kids that you don’t have time to pay attention to them all! What about listening the first time someone complains to you about one of them? People have been complaining about him for years. I’ve been complaining for years. Don’t you dare put this on me.”

The rage and frustration that have been building in me over the past days, and maybe even the past months, feel like they're bubbling to the surface, and I might lose control if I stand here even one second longer. I turn and stomp away, seething about our conversation as I go.

I can hear him calling after me, but I don’t care to hear anything more he has to say. I’m outraged, but more than that, I’m hurt. I failed to speak up about something for one night. One single night. And because I’m the goody goody girl who everyone can always count on to help and who never does anything wrong, that one night that I spent living in fear of my own twin is one I will apparently never live down. There is no room for mistakes when your name is Anna Jade. Not in this family.

Because it seems to be the only place I’m comfortable staying anymore, I spend the rest of the morning packing my bags and moving into Uncle Pete’s cottage. I don’t even ask or care what any of my parents have to say about it. I’ll be 18 before they know it, and I’m sure they will appreciate being free of the burden of having to look at the face of their massive disappointment day after day.

And then I spend the night lying awake in his bed lamenting about my relationships with family these days. I love them all, but some days they make me feel like I’m suffocating. Those days seem to be growing increasingly more frequent and unbearable lately.

Between my parents holding me to a higher standard than they seem to have for their other children, other than maybe Margot who is the future Alpha of the pack, and my siblings always ragging on me for being a goody two shoes, a suck up, a tattle tale, or whatever else they can come up with to tease me about, sometimes life as a Brentwood gets to be too much for me.

When I was younger, I always had Uncle Pete I could go visit when I needed to get away. It’s kind of ironic when I think about it that the family members I’ve always felt closest to are not even technically family. Well, Tian is. He is my mother’s mate, but he’s not biologically related to any of us kids. Uncle Pete, on the other hand, is just a good friend of the family who once made the mistake of telling me I could call him my uncle if I wanted to. I did, and never stopped.

I adore Tian, and he always seems to be the one parent who truly understands me. My mom is great, and I love my father and Adam, but Tian is special to me. Everyone says we’ve shared that special bond since the moment I was born. It was him the nurse first handed me to, and I stuck to him like glue for the first few years. And it has always been him I go to when I need to talk something through or just need someone to listen to me.

But the problem with Tian is he’s a central member of the family. Going to him has never been the escape that Uncle Pete always provided for me. None of my siblings were ever as fascinated with him as I always was, so when I went to his house, it was just the two of us. We’d go walking in the woods or work in his garden for hours. He’d teach me how to whittle wood or help me practice more questionable skills like knife throwing, making me promise it would be our little secret. It was always so peaceful and comforting being with him, and his house was just the respite I needed whenever things at home would get to be too much for me.

Even now when he’s not around anymore, I still come to his house when I need to get away. The house needs me as much as I need it since no one else has been taking care of it in his absence. And now that I know that there’s not much left for me over at the packhouse – no friends, no hours at the clinic, no family who appreciates just plain old me when I fail to live up to their expectations – I’m thinking this house and I need each other more than ever.