The Alpha's Fallen Princess

Ch. 2: Reawakening

(April’s POV)

“I’ve given you enough energy to last about ninety minutes. That should be enough to get you home. So long as you don’t dawdle, that is.” I nodded as I took in a deep, steadying breath and thought to myself, “Okay, girl. You can do this.”

“Yes, you certainly can, my child. And I will be with you. Always.” I looked up at Selene who was smiling warmly at me, but if I’m being honest, I was terrified about going back. Especially after everything she just told me.

But I wanted to be back in Zander’s arms so badly. He and our pups are all I will ever need. They will keep me going, keep me sane. “Ready, my child?” Selene asked, and I took another deep, steadying breath before nodding slowly.

Was I ready? No, probably not. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me either. “Then close your eyes and think of home and how there’s no place like it. Let your heart guide you back.”

Of course, me being the smart*ss that I am, I couldn’t help mumbling, “There’s no place like home… There’s no place like home…”

I kept on mumbling until the sounds around me changed. The melody of bird-song was different now. More… earthly. If that makes any sense at all. Either way, it was music to my ears which also picked up on the fact that I was no longer mumbling to myself.

I wonder if Selene got the joke?

Oh well. No way to find out now.

I opened my eyes slowly because, even closed, the brightness of the sunlight hurt a little. I gave my eyes a little time to adjust before lifting my arms and looking down at my hands.

I’ll admit I wasn’t prepared for the sight that awaited me. I looked half-dead. Nothing but skin and bone. I was pale and sickly white complected and all around my joints I noticed an ashen-grayish color.

I’m guessing either malnourishment or dehydration is the cause of that, but I’m no doctor, so I’m not sure. Though judging by the ratty hospital gown I seem to be in, I’m pretty d*mn sure I was in the pack hospital before waking up in Selene’s garden.

To make matters worse, I was all alone. I couldn’t even talk to Raine because she was entrenched in the deepest, darkest recesses of my mind at the moment. Though Selene did say it would be a while before Raine would be strong enough to help, which was why she was lending me some of her energy.

What I hadn’t expected was that my time with her seemed to be fading from my mind. And fast. But I do remember her warning to get moving as quickly as I could. So I tried to climb to my feet but failed, falling back to the ground with a soft thud.

After several failed attempts, I was beginning to feel like Bambi trying to stand for the first time. But like the baby deer in question, I wasn’t about to give up.

Once I finally got my feet under me, I took a hesitant step forward. When I managed not to fall, I tilted my head and started sniffing. Selene said I’d be close to the packhouse, but that was all she said. So the question now was, which way do I go?

I stood there trying to catch a scent I could recognize when the breeze picked up a little. I felt it flow through my hair and sniffed again. Finally! I know that scent! Food! Which could only mean the packhouse in that direction!

I followed that scent slowly, just putting one foot in front of the other, soon walking across the forest floor like the Winter Wizard in the holiday classic “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.”

Goddess, I love those old movies.

Though I may be walking like ole Wizzy, I’m sure I look more like something out of The Walking Dead. I’m actually kinda nervous they might think I’m some sort of Zombie when I show myself.

I’m never gonna be able to tease my Dad about being Zombie Dad before having coffee in the mornings again. Just sayin’.

But Goddess, what I wouldn’t give for a nice hot cup of coffee right now?

Wait. What am I thinking? Focus April, focus! Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I’m not sure how long I’ve been walking, but I’m getting very weak and tired. I’ve picked up a good, sturdy branch which I’m using to lean on for support. Though I’m thinking of taking a break for a minute or two. I just can’t seem to go on much further.

That is until my ears perked up.

Music. It was faint, but I could definitely hear music playing. So I picked up my pace a little, struggling to move a little faster but wanting to get back to civilization, to my pack, my family, and especially my mate.

Zander.

He was all I could think of now. I was so close when my legs began to give out on me. I dropped the branch when I stumbled a little, grabbing onto a tree for support. I could hear the music more clearly now. The Rose, by Bette Milder. It was one of my favorites.

I turned my body, so I was leaning with my back against the tree, so I could look around better. I could see the clearing ahead, not far from where I was standing just inside the treeline. I was close. I could see them, people I knew, moving around.

I saw my Dad holding my Mom, Momma Bear sitting by them in a chair. They had their backs to me. I could see Jeremy on a small stage fiddling with sound equipment while Zander and Poppa Bear were speaking to him.

I watched as an angry Zander plunged his fist through the sound equipment, making the electrical apparatus squawk like a dying pigeon or something. Only louder. Much, much louder.

The three of them began to argue, judging by their body language, and then they all froze when the music began to play again out of nowhere. I raised my gaze to the sky, thanking the Moon Goddess for her help, before staggering the remaining few feet to the edge of the clearing.

There I stood just hoping someone would notice me. So when Jeremy’s eyes met mine I breathed out a sigh of relief and waited. When he raised his arm and pointed at me, a look of complete and total shock on his face. That caused Zander and Poppa Bear to turn around and look in my direction.

The next thing I knew, everyone, and I mean everyone, was running towards me in a thunderous stampede that caused me a moment of panic. But thankfully, Zander noticed and put a stop to it.

***

It’s now been almost three months since the battle with Solaris and things are still not back to normal for any of us.

Who’s Solaris you ask? I know I've mentioned him a few times now. Sorry...

Solaris was once the Sun God, and Selene’s brother. But he got too hungry and began devouring stars. Which is how he became known as the Sun Eater, amongst other things.

He and Selene were once in a constant state of war with her trying to watch over the earth and creating all the life forms here, while he couldn’t have cared less about life or the fact that we needed our sun to exist. All he cared about was power. Which was why he tried to take Selene’s.

Eventually, Daddy got involved and basically gave Solaris a big ole time-out in the form of revoking his godly powers and casting him out to live here on Earth. Which in-turn turned him into the world's first demon.

Eventually, Solaris teamed up with a dark witch so that if one or the other was defeated and sent back to one of the levels of h*ll the one remaining topside could bring the other back without having to wait out the standard thousand-year imprisonment. In return for the service, the witch got a super-duper power boost and Solaris got a pet witch to do his bidding.

Which is kinda where I come into play.

See, Solaris actually defeated Selene during her time here on Earth. However, in doing so, all he managed to accomplish was sending her back to her own realm. The Moon. From there she was able to create her ultimate species…

The Great White Wolf.

My ancestors.

They were ultimately betrayed and killed, but not before one was whisked away to live out his life safely. Ironically, he did so right here in this pack as the Beta. Which is why our family has always held the title of Beta for this pack. Though we never knew that before this whole mess.

Then Winter and I were born. On the night of our birth, while my Mom was still delivering me, Winter was kidn*pped. He spent the next eighteen years being t*rtured in an effort to prove he was the “Ultimate Weapon” of some prophecy. Which he wasn’t. That was me.

But of course, being the st*pid, evil f*ck he is, Solaris had no idea there was more to the prophecy than there just being a weapon. There was a shield. Which was Winter. Plus, all the t*rture in the world wouldn’t have brought out his wolf. Only his true mate could do that.

However, since we’re twins, I could feel some of what he was going through which helped lead us to find him, and some others who were being held with him. But the point is that Winter and I are special wolves with special gifts. Gifts we are able to innately share with our pack though we have no idea how we do it.

We wish we did, but we don’t. And because we don’t the gifts given seem random and class-based. Like a tracker gaining heightened vision, hearing, and smell even beyond that of any other supernatural being.

Anyway, I'm telling you this because I find I've been struggling with my gifts since returning. Without Raine, who is still pretty much non-existent, I can’t even heal properly. Which means I’m still without my voice and having to do physical therapy to regain proper muscle control. I’m finally eating solid foods again, so hopefully, I’ll begin to regain some weight.

Our focus has been my voice, primarily. Without it, we can’t get our babies back. We’d sent them to safety right before the big battle and, due to the wording of our Royal Command, Aries, Allison, and Arsyss can’t bring our babies home until Zander and I can mind-link with them together and give them the all clear.

Thankfully, we have Aggie and Cassy working on an alternative means to communicate with them. Aggie is a white witch and Cassy is her daughter. She’s also a white witch. Well… she’s the Master of Magic, but she was a white witch first. Cassy’s also Jake’s mate, so she’s part of our pack. So is Aggie, who is mated to Zander's Grandpa.

We all thought it was odd when they found out they were mates, but then when Austin and Conner wound up mated to two wood elves, we didn’t think a witch was a crazy idea as a mate anymore. Of course, no one even knew elves existed at that point in time. At least we knew witches existed. It was just rare for one to be mated to a wolf, is all.

With the addition of Mateo and his clan of vampires, we thought we’d become the most integrated pack to ever exist. We were wrong.

We found out just how wrong when I found Arsyss sunbathing one afternoon. Which, I know you’re thinking “April, loads of people sunbathe.” Which is true. But the thing is, Arsyss was napping in the sun in his birthday suit. Which is to say he was in full form.

His form being a silver dragon.

Talk about a surprise. Arsyss, or rather Prince Arsyss, was one of the people we rescued when we rescued my brother. He had sworn an oath to protect the next generation of White Wolves. (Yes, he’s that old.) Surprisingly, even without knowing who Winter was, he was trying to protect him while they were imprisoned.

He came here with us when we freed them, all the other captives did. So we wound up with more vamps, some were-tigers, and some more wizards. But dragon? No one even remotely guessed at that.

To make matters worse, it wasn't long after that my Dad’s Father, whom we all thought was dead, showed up. And he wasn’t alone!

He had apparently found The Eternal Valley, the place where the Fae, and other Supernatural beings, went to hide themselves away from the world. It was a place behind a magical vale where no mortal could tread. A place that was considered myth, even in our world.

But Selene apparently sent him looking for it and when he found it he waited years to be told to bring the beings there to us. So, as a result, they are also now a part of our pack as well. And it’s up to me and the other ranked officers to sort all this out.

So, while we were waiting to get in touch with Allison, Aries, and Arsyss, we were working on trying to figure all the rest of it out as well. And it was quite the task, too.

Aside from that, we are all trying to get to know one another as well. Which is a whole other situation entirely. It seems the Fae are pretty particular creatures, for the most part. Especially the "High Elves". They aren't as easy to get along with as the Wood Elves, which is what Nora and Noel are.

Nora, Noel, and their family don't seem to particularly get along well with the High Elves either. It seems that High Elves are more... ummm... shall we say sophisticated than Wood Elves. I mean, I thought Nora and Noel's brother, Trayaurus was on the haughty side. Which is why I nicknamed him Sticks. Because when we met I thought he had a stick up his a*s. Everyone else calls him Tray, though.

Tray is a good guy. And a friend. But that stick seems like nothing now in comparison to these High Elves. They seem to think they are simply above almost anyone or anything else. And they don't like it when we go into the forest. For any reason. It's been causing unnecessary issues. And if they keep pushing me, they're gonna see a side of me they won't like very much.