Leah didn’t want to answer, knowing that some wolves would see her as lesser, however, she knew that the Alpha was not asking, he was demanding her response. “My parents were true mates. Even as a latent, her wolf spirit called to her other half. My father comes from a pack that doesn’t believe that true mates are fated. Their pack believes that bloodlines are more important, that keeping the older families alive means having arranged matings.” Leah stopped for a moment, knowing that when the shock passed, there would be anger coming from the gathered wolves.
Matthew grabbed Leah’s hand as if his hold alone would keep her with him. He had heard of packs that would forsake their true mates for more advantageous mates, however, he hadn’t known that Leah came from one of those. Looking at his father, he saw him watching Leah before nodding and calling order back to the room. He nodded once again, telling her to continue.
“My parents knew they were mates, so my mother told him about her heritage and her bloodline, it was enough for my father and his family to agree to the mating, even though they had already found another match for him. However, three years into the mating, after I was born, my father was disappointed not only in his latent mate but in the progress of his offspring. He saw a lack of power and strength when I was only three years old, so he went back to visit his family and unknown to my mother, he mated with the match his family had made before my mother came along. A year later, his new mate gave him triplet daughters and that was when we knew we were better off without him. My mother was never able to confirm what was happening; she was never able to find a balance between her wolf and human halves so for a long time she purposefully dulled her wolf senses before meeting my father. She continued to be the dutiful mate while my father would go off on ‘work trips’ to meet with his other mate and pups. Two years later, my mother got pregnant again but my father was planning on leaving us, he had been preparing for over a year. He saw his three new daughters as stronger than his one daughter born from a latent, never knowing how strong any of us would become. In his haste to leave, he stopped paying attention to what was happening in his home and focused on quietly transferring his work to his new home, so he never realized his mate was with pup. The day he left, he destroyed our family, and my mother and I have never settled down.”
Shock spread across the wolves in the room. None of them would have believed it possible to cheat on their true mate, much less that anyone would want to. Once again, the Alpha watched her. Leah could feel him searching her for answers, trying to see if she was anything like her father, wanting to know if she would move on from Matthew if she ever found someone better, would she give up her pups if she found them lacking, or would she stick it out and love that which she was given? She opened herself to him, wanting him to know that she would never give up, that she was loyal to those she loved.
The Alpha could see that Leah was true, that she tried to distance herself from who her father was, so he once again nodded to her before saying, “So that is who you are.”
Not letting him continue, Leah spat, “That is not who I am! That is who my father is!” Taking a breath at the Alpha’s arched eyebrow, she continued, “My bastard of a father is not who I am nor will I ever aspire to be anything like him. Do you want to know who I am? I am the female who, at the age of nine, shifted for the first time without anyone to tell me what was happening. For almost two months, my wolf reigned and I was taken in by the wolfkin. They taught me how to be a wolf and when another shifter finally passed through their territory, they saw the same difference in him that was in me and forced him to come and teach me how to shift back. Even though I was pack to those wolves, they knew we weren’t the same but they did their best to teach me what I needed to know before I was finally able to become human again.”
A shout from one of the males, “That’s not possible! You can’t shift that young!” The Alpha had to once again silence the males before allowing Leah to continue, “I am the female that at the age of ten, started a new pack, becoming Alpha to a group of loners, running from an abusive Alpha. I am the female that at the age of fifteen, became the Alpha of the largest pack in the world, holding court to most loners in the continent with more than ten Betas to carry out my will.” This time there were gasps of shock but no one wanted to face the Alpha’s wrath by interrupting. “I am the female that at the age of sixteen became the youngest ever Elder of the Shadows of Tyaos. Not only did I defeat the two necessary Elders to earn my place, but I also defeated the entire council to prove my worthiness at such a young age.”
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