Becoming Alpha

Chapter 8

Dagger

I was glad to have a new mission, but I wasn't sure what my parents and grandmother were thinking when they assigned me. This was supposed to be my cousin's mission. Ice had said everything looked fine on the outside, but Risk had a feeling something was not right, therefore, I was sent to investigate more about the situation as a neutral party. That's how I ended up in Doom's previous pack, asking about him.

"Welcome to our Pack," Devil, the Alpha of the pack and Doom's brother, greeted me. I could tell right away that there was something damaged inside of him. It was nothing easy to see, but it was there. Was this what Risk had noticed? Was there something odd about the brothers?

"Thanks for having me," I said formally.

"Was there a choice?" he asked through gritted teeth, some aggression emanating from him.

"There's always a choice, but you know I'm not here about you, I'm here to ask about your brother. As you know, he got himself a pack," I was watching him carefully, waiting to see if there was envy or anger about his brother's new position.

"Yeah, I know all about that. That pup, Hector, came here a few months ago and fell under my brother's charm. But let's go talk inside," he said, looking around as if searching for spies. I followed him to this office. He closed the door and locked it. If I wasn't sure I was stronger than him I would have worried. There was something about the whole situation that didn't sit well with me. "So, what do you want to know about my brother? Did he do something wrong?" The way he asked, was as if he was expecting me to say something bad about him.

"Not exactly. He took over the pack by following the rules. He even got the heirs of the previous Alpha to support him," I said, wondering if he didn't know or was trying to confirm things.

"Yeah, yeah. He has always been charming. If he had been able to take this Pack from me, everyone would have accepted him without protest," he said bitterly.

"So he tried?" I asked.

"He did, but not in the usual way, he tried to turn people against me. But he has weird ideas that people just didn't agree with," he said, and I felt like I was finally going to find the piece of information I needed.

"What kind of ideas?" I asked.

"He blames True Mates for what he calls our Pack's weakness. We had a big family. Unlike most Alpha families, we were five siblings, all alphas. Three males and two females. Our parents couldn't keep their hands off each other. True mates all the way. Only problem, my mom was human," that I wasn't expecting. I knew it was possible, but with so many wolves around, it was almost unheard of that we would pair with a simple human. And the fact that they still managed to produce alphas, was remarkable. "She got sick, and dad was focused on her all the time, my brother felt like he was not taking care of our Pack as he should. But then I found my True Mate and dad decided to give the Pack to me. Doom tried to challenge me, saying that I would be as bad as our dad, but failed."

"Did you allow him to stay after the challenge?" I asked, it was odd since most Alphas would have kicked him out. That's how many of our recruits ended up in the UberPack, after having failed to take over a pack. Most Alphas didn't want to have a possible challenger in their own pack.

"Of course, he is my brother. And then the rest of my siblings found their True Mates and started leaving. I wanted to keep at least part of my family with me. Then he said he had found his True Mate, only later we found out that wasn't the case. The one he joined was a chosen mate, he lied to us so we wouldn't talk him out of it.

"Why did he do that?" I asked.

"Well, by then my father had moved to one of the human cities, so he could give our mom better care. And we were fighting another pack that said that we were invading part of their territory. That particular conflict took years until my daughter turned out to be the True Mate of that pack's heir. So we decided to stop the fight, and are even considering joining the packs once my daughter and her mate take over. Since we are both small packs, it's doable," he reflected, and I had to admit that was a good way of ending the conflict. I also felt annoyed that was another problem my Pack hadn't been aware of.

"And let me guess, your brother didn't like that," I guessed.

"Of course not, he took it as a sign of weakness. He wanted us to take over, not compromise."

"So when Hector came here and talked about his father, crazy from the pain of losing his mate, your brother decided to take care of it," I guessed.

"I'm sure that for him it was a win-win situation. He always believed he could be a better Alpha than me, and he has the charisma to lead. He actually caused a few issues here with people trying to put him over me, but since the only way of taking control is through a challenge, it never went anywhere."

"Do you think that his new pack could be in any danger?" That was the important thing, the issue we needed to address.

"My brother doesn't have bad intentions, I think he is trying to prove that he can be a better Alpha than me, but, he is most likely going to try and force his ideas on others. How well this will work, I have no clue. By the time they left, Hector was really into the whole 'True Mates are a bad idea' school of thought."

"But from what I understand, he found his True Mate here," at least that was what I understood from Ice.

"No, he chose my niece as his mate, but he never found his True Mate. In a way, I don't think he was really trying, it was kind of traumatic what happened to his parents, and he was ready to buy into my brother's nonsense," he was angry, but I wasn't sure if it was at his brother or the situation.

"I have a bad feeling about all this," I said out loud, even if that was just my thought.

"If I really thought my brother was a bad guy, I would have dealt with him a long time ago. He only has weird ideas, but he is not really a bad man. He will try his best," he said, this time his aggression turning to me, and I had to recognize he was a loyal brother. He was conflicted about all this, divided between his loyalty to his family and what he believed was right.

"Thank you for all of your help," I said, knowing that I had all I needed from him. Staying for longer could end up with us fighting, his mood was too unstable.

"I hope you are not going to try and get away," he said, "the New Moon ceremony will be in a couple of days. Why don't you stay? There are a few strong females here, you should try and see if one of them is your True Mate." I wasn't sure how to take his invitation, but it was tempting. I needed to find my True Mate, and you never knew where you could find her.

"I still have a mission to complete," I tried, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to stay. I wanted my own True Mate after all.

"It's just a couple of days. You could also talk to a few more people here to try and get a feel of who my brother is, that's your mission, right?" he was back to calm and collected.

I let myself be convinced of staying, at least until the Full Moon ceremony. It did turn out to be a good idea to do a few more interviews. People seemed to be divided between loving Doom, and being wary of him. It looked like he had a campaign against True Mates.

I knew that if Menace had heard him when she first found her mate, she would have agreed, even if she had a very different idea about it now. It looked like some people in the pack had started to avoid the Full Moon ceremony to avoid accidentally finding their True Mates, afraid of becoming weak.

True Mates were one of the basics of our culture, and it was worrisome that someone was campaigning against it. From what Ice had found from his talks with other kinds of shifters, it was our True Mate culture that had helped wolves become the predominant shifter kind. Others were on the border of extinction because not all matings resulted in shifter kids, only a True Mate bond could warranty a shifter heir. Devil's pack was proof that True Mates were important to keep our kind growing since even a pairing with a human produced shifter kids.

I liked running with another pack, even if I had to suppress my power to avoid intimidating the other wolves. The only downside was that despite my hope, I didn't find my True Mate. It felt like a waste of time and it was hard to hide my disappointment.

I decided to go back to the UberPack for a day or two to report my findings before moving to investigate Doom's pack. I needed to go incognito, if possible, to see how things were going. It was not always easy, but I felt it was necessary. Doom had been very careful with Ice, so I had to assume it would be the same with me. If I wanted to find the truth, I needed people to open up to me.

I had to agree with Risk on this one, there was something odd about Doom. It didn't mean that what he had done was unlawful or that there was any reason to think that his actions hadn't been correct. But I was worried about his attitude about True Mates and the impact it could have on his pack.