CHAPTER 8

A week has passed after her unusual encounter with the Alpha King. Nothing out of the ordinary happened except that she was abstracted that very same day during work after what happened in the riverbank. She was asked to take a break by literary everyone, including the concerned customers of the diner, because she keeps on getting the orders wrong.

While sprawling herself on her bed and staring at the ceiling, she kept asking herself on why would Alpha Kallean or Dark or Kallean…argh! Damn it! Why did he do that to her in the first place?! Now, she’s confused as heck!

Doesn’t Alpha Kallean already have a luna? Or if he didn’t find his yet, he’s bound to have one. It’s not uncommon for an unmated wolf to shift his or her interest to someone else in the midst of finding their mate.

But she doesn’t want to be one of the people who will cause misunderstandings between destined couples…because she exactly knows how it feels to be rejected because of someone else’s interference. It’s painful to the party left behind, and she doesn’t want to be the cause of that pain.

After a long self-contemplation and self-reflection while staring at the ceiling for hours, she decided to just forget about that encounter and told herself to avoid any circumstances that she might meet the Alpha. This time, for real. For certain precautionary measures.

And fortunately, she didn’t see him for an entire week which was great. But for some reason, she wanted to see Dark. She wished that there was a way to separate the two of them. But she absolutely knows that it is impossible because like what Dark said, he is and will always be, unfortunately, part of that Alpha King.

-o-o-o-

Silvi scanned her eyes around the whole diner. She looked at the place with confusion. She sets the twenty-fifth order of the morning on the wooden tray awaited by Antares for one of their unusually many customers.

“Is it just me or there is an unusually large number of people today. It’s not even lunch yet but my hands are barely keeping up with making all of these orders.” Silvi said. She puts down the huge mug of coffee on the tray along with the other orders.

Antares took the tray in his hands. He was also looking at the crowd. “Didn’t you forget? Today is the Annual Alpha Territorial Meeting. The four Alphas from all the four territories in the region are gathered in one pack to talk about some werewolf territory stuffs…which I have no idea what.” He said and proceeds on delivering the order.

Ahh. She remembers now. So it was today. The family did brief her about the upcoming event a long time ago, but she had been so preoccupied these past few days, about certain things, that the event completely slipped her mind.

Antares returned with another piece of paper in his hand and handed it to her. Another order of Shepherd’s pie which she just shrugged off because she already anticipated that.

She bends down to take the order from the oven.

“Oh, that was fast?” Antares looked at her with surprise.

“I premade one just in case a customer asks for it. And look, someone actually did.”

She placed it down to the tray.

“So…are you still going to hide this year, or what…” Antares suddenly asked her. He takes the tray in his palm and raised it over his shoulder, as soon as she puts a mug of beer beside the pie.

She then glanced at Antares after he asked that question and shrugged. “Probably not this year.” She stated. “We never crossed paths for the past three years whenever they were here. And they said that the Alphas will stay inside the Alpha King’s mansion during the conference, so I’m pretty confident that I’ll never see them. Also, I just thought about it now. That if they do see me, I know that they wouldn’t care less. They’ll just probably ignore me and act like they don’t know who I am.” Hmm…maybe except for one person though.

“Good for you then.” Antares said and patted her shoulder. He took the tray with him and did his job.

The day went on and it was one heck of a busy day. She was really, really exhausted from catering all of those orders. She slumped herself unto the couch and lies comfortably.

Calber said that the meeting will last for three days so she needs to take a rest tonight because she knows that tomorrow is another busy and extra-energy-draining day.

She’ll ask for a bonus after this is finished.

-o-o-o-

Kallean was carefully reading the report in front of him. The first of the three annual Alpha meetings was over an hour ago and the other Alphas are currently off wandering around his territory. The meeting went as peaceful as he predicted, but the tension inside the room was undeniable.

“It seems that Alpha Greg is increasing the number of his pack members for an unknown reason.” Marthus said, standing with formality in front of his desk.

 “The reason had always been clear from the beginning Marthus.” He placed the papers down. “Alpha Greg had desired this position since we were young wolves. He wants to rule all of the territories and declare himself as the strongest alpha. It was simple as that.” He snickered. “But that wolf can’t even beat me in a hand to hand combat.”

The title of the Alpha king is not just a simple title that is passed to one generation to another. It is a title earned for having the most conquered and owned land, having the largest resources and number of pack members, and of course, you need to prove that you are the strongest among all wolves.

One Alpha can challenge another Alpha for the title and hold an event for a fight. The last Alpha standing is declared the Alpha King. Many have challenged the Allaricks for the title, but were easily defeated like an insect flicked from a skin.

The first Alpha king was one of Greg’s ancestors, who suddenly decided himself to create the title and rule the werewolves with iron fists. The Craigs were extremely ruthless when they were leading the other packs during their generation that wars broke out and packs merged with other until four main packs had remained. The west and east tried to overthrow the south, but was defeated and were too afraid to try again.

His great-great-great ancestor, however, Alpha Clemdor Allarick during that war bravely challenged the Alpha king for the title. Through a sword fight which led to a hand to hand combat. His ancestor won and thus was declared as the new Alpha King. He stopped the wars one by one and marked the borders of each territory. Peace between the packs was finally achieved.

The former Alpha king and his people were not banished but were made to sign a treaty to never disturb the peace ever again.

All of the four packs agreed to not cross the borders unless with permission from the other pack.

The Allaricks have been keeping the title of Alpha king for five generations and no one had ever taken it from them no matter how many times they were challenged.

“Continue observing the Shadow Heart pack to observe their alpha’s movements. Make sure to stay out of the radar. But since Alpha Greg has some issues with his wolf, I doubt that we’ll worry about this sooner.”

“Yes Alpha.” Marthus said.

“Good.” He replied.

Marthus took his leave and closed the door behind him, leaving him alone in his office, regaining the thoughts he was trying so hard to forget.

Silvi Eon Mayne. His mate.

Her face has been invading his mind whenever he is not thinking of anything else. Ever since he discovered that she was his mate, the strong urge to see her again never ceased. No matter how tried to resist, there is a small part of him that says otherwise.

He wanted a mate, so damn much, for a long time now. And the situation would be really different if Silvi was a wolf. He would instantly accept her and claim her the moment that he sees her. However, she is not. She is a human. She will never be on par with the capabilities that a she-wolf has. A proper she-wolf would be a better choice to assist him in running all the packs.

Though, Dark wanted to her so much that he even suggested to ‘mark’ the woman immediately. He could not convince Dark to reject her.

A mark is the symbol of a bond between werewolves. A mark would warn other wolves that a certain werewolf already has a mate. Bonded wolves can no longer be affected by any other wolf pheromones, nor shall affect other werewolves with theirs. Upon its existence, a deeper link is created and the marked werewolf couple could feel the emotions felt by the other.

He cannot deny the obvious fact of why Dark is extremely attracted to her. Damn, he thinks that Dark has fallen hard for the woman.

He said to Dark that there are no key features of her that made her stand out.

But the moment she smiled to him…so to say, to Dark, for the first time, an unknown emotion stirred inside him. At the very back of his mind, he knows that there is something about her that no one should falsely overlook.

He sighed and decided to shift his thoughts to other much more important things.

He picked up the documents again and began reading it when a familiar scent caught his nose.

-o-o-o-

“Thank you for coming, come back again.” Silvi greeted the last customers for the day as they exited the entrance of the diner. They decided to close the diner earlier than before.

“It was great! We’ll sure to come by again.” Said the female wolf.

“The food was delicious. It’s a shame that we don’t have this kind of food in our pack.” The male wolf said, who she assumed was the woman’s mate.

“I’m so glad that you liked it.” Silvi replied.

The two smiled at her before they departed the diner.

She watched the couple with a heavy sigh. She saw the man plant a soft kiss on top of the woman’s head. They looked like a happy, sweet couple.

She shook her head and headed back inside the diner. She will only hurt herself if she stared more.

“Silvi, could you come here for a second.” CAlber called out to her from the kitchen.

“Yeah?”

“Could you do the shopping for the ingredients today? Antares and I are on patrol tonight.”

“Sure. No problem. Did Lucy left already?”

“Yeah. They need her help for the preparations.”

Lucy told them the other day that she’s going to attend the wedding of the daughter of one of her friends. She is part of the preparation committee as per requested by her said friend.

“Here’s the money and the list.” Calber handed her a small pouch on her palm and the money clinked inside it. A piece of parchment was handed to her as well.

She laughed when she saw the writing. “You really have a bad penmanship Sir Calber.”

Sir Calber raised an eyebrow at her, but then laughed thereafter. “I know. You have no choice but to bear with it.”

“Haha. Don’t worry. I’ve memorized the pattern of your handwriting over the years. It’s just like ancient ruins with codes that needed to be deciphered.”

“You didn’t have to put it that way.” He said, laughing. “Now, take your time in buying these things. We’ll probably return by morning. But don’t stay out too much. Be back before dinner.”

She chuckled. “What am I? A kid?”

Sir Calber playfully ruffled her hair. “I know you’re not, but you’ll always be a kid to me. I’m just worried.” He sighed. “And you’ll be eating here alone tonight.”

“Come on Sir Calber, it’s not like it’s the first time.”

“You’re right. I’ll be going then. Antares already started. Everybody’s waiting for me.” He took his belt-sling back and wore it. “Take good care of yourself, Silvi.”

“You too Sir Calber.” She smiled to him to let him know that there is nothing to worry about.

Sir Calber took his knapsack bag on the table and went to the entrance, lowering his head on the doorframe like always. He wave goodbye and she did too.

Now she’s all alone in the diner.

Well, time to go for some shopping.