The first thing Leah noticed when she entered the room was the amount of power exuding from the male at the head of the table. The other males, who were sitting around the same end of the table as their Alpha, barely captured Leah’s attention as their collective power hardly matched up with that of their Alpha. Leah noted that while the males were all dominant and would most likely intimidate a less dominant wolf, none of them held enough power to be the Beta or too high ranking in the pack. Dismissing them all, she took one last glance at Matthew before letting his hand go and facing the Alpha.
The Alpha stood as he saw the lone wolf preparing to meet him and as he stood, so too did the other men in the room. As their eyes locked, Leah could feel the Alpha’s power trying to force her into submission, but not, she realized, out of the Alpha’s need to dominate but rather from the raw strength of his power. She could feel her mate standing beside her, a silent guardian protecting her from the other males as she was left vulnerable to face his father. As her challenge drew out, she noticed the door open behind her and she felt the presence of two males who were greatly more dominant than the collective males but still did not meet that of the Alpha in front of her. Leah could feel the Alpha’s power exhausting her human half and could see that he knew it, thinking that he would have her submission; Leah, however, had yet to bow before any Alpha. Even as she could feel her body weakening, she let loose her wolf, pulling down the barriers which separated the two halves, once again making herself whole.
As her full Alpha power was released, every male in the room fell into a submissive pose, save for the Alpha across the room. Leah grabbed Matthew’s hand as he started to fall, keeping him up with the silent declaration that he was her equal and would never be lesser than her. Watching the Alpha closely, Leah could see when her power became too great of a force for him to fight and at that precise moment, she pulled all her power back and gave a slight nod to him, not wanting to overpower him in his pack. Seeing him return her nod, Leah lowered her eyes, knowing she had the respect of her mate’s Alpha and father.
Looking between his son and the loner, the Alpha knew his pack was about to change forever, especially after the phone call he had received the first thing that morning. Gesturing towards the empty seats, the Alpha indicated for the newcomers to sit while his sons who had shown up in the middle of the challenge moved to the seats beside him. Unsurprisingly, Matthew sat beside his mate, however, while the Alpha expected it, his other sons did not and were visibly upset by it. Ignoring them all, he turned to the loner and said, “Well, now that we have determined your dominance, I would like to know who you are and why you are here.”
Before she could respond, Matthew stood and said, “Father, I had expected this to be a private meeting as we had discussed last night when I told you about my mate. I had planned on introducing her to you before bringing her before the rest of the pack.”
Turning to his son, the Alpha stated, “Well, you can introduce her now. Plans changed after we last spoke but we will get to that in a bit. For now, introduce your mate and let her answer my questions.” There was no allowance in his statement, just pure demand for his son to obey.
Sighing, Matthew said, “This is my mate—”
Before he even finished, Matthew realized he had never even asked her name, she had only told him her brother’s name and her mother had introduced herself, however, his mate never once told him hers.
Leah knew that Matthew didn’t know her name, she had wanted to see how long it would take him to realize and then ask, however, now was not the time to play with him. She interrupted him before he had the chance to embarrass himself in front of his pack, “My name is Leah. I am an Alpha from a supposedly respectable line; however, I have never met that side of my family due to my mother being latent.” There was a shocked gasp hearing that her mother was latent; how could she be so powerful when her mother couldn’t even shift much less hold a position in a pack? This was the same question she was asked over and over, and the one she never had an answer to.
Continuing despite the brief interruption, Leah said, “My mother’s job as a traveling nurse, has us continually moving, so we do not belong to any pack. It is just the two of us and my little brother, Alexander, who was with me last night.” Seeing the questioning look from the Alpha, she knew he wanted to know why he wasn’t here asking for permission as she was. “He is only 12 years old and has only, in the last week, shown signs that he will shift. I’ve raised him with as much exposure to the shifter world as possible for someone I wasn’t sure would shift.”
Taking a moment to process all that she had said, the Alpha was quiet as he studied her. “That explains why you are here, however, I want to know who you are. You are young, no older than my sons it seems, and yet, you have more power than anyone I have ever met. Who is your father? You have mentioned your mother is where you got your shifting but what of him?”
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