Nate

I woke up in a messed up bed, a pillow had been torn and feathers floated in the air still. Neo had entered his rut last night, just what we needed. But such was life. Stress could cause an Alpha’s instincts to go into overdrive, which caused their hormones to flare and in turn, their sex drive was increased. Ruts could last a few days or until hormones aligned, or the Alpha simply relaxed, so I took advantage of this break and mindlinked my parents, letting them know what was going on. They agreed to keep Briar with them, the funeral however couldn’t be postponed so Neo wouldn’t be able to attend, lest he attack a mourner or something.

“Babe, I’m going to the funeral, I’ll be back in a few hours. Try not to destroy any more pillows.” 

I got a frustrated growl in response and I took that as he understood. I walked outside the apartment and saw Nolan,

“I need you to guard this door. Neo is in rut and he isn’t thinking clearly.”

“Of course. Will you be okay?”

“I can take care of myself Nol, just guard this door until I come back.”

“Of course.”

I was dressed in white and gray today to mimic the moon. I couldn’t pull off the robe or dress that Auntie V wore at Bree’s funeral but I thought I looked okay. I ran into Jonah, literally. I rubbed my nose and glared down at the man. He was just barely shorter than I was, but I took great satisfaction in the fact I was taller.

“Luna, all prepared for the funeral then.”

“Yes. What do you need?”

“I was looking for Alpha Neo.”

“He’s indisposed at the moment, what did you need?”

“He said Johanna died in childbirth, what happened to the child?”

“Adopted,” I growled. 

“So soon? By who?”

“What does it matter? She’s loved and being taken care of.”

“Ah, so you’re a daddy now.”

“Fuck off. Stay away from my daughter and my mate. I don’t trust you.”

“I hear that you trusted a bit too much, tell me…does having someone else touch you repulse you? Does it repulse Neo?”

“What the fuck do you know? What gives you the right to ask such a disgusting thing?”

“Feisty. No wonder that Beckham kid wanted you.”

“Back off asshole.” I turned and saw Vincent, what the hell was he doing here?

“Vin?”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“Introduce your ass to my foot, back off. No one talks to my brother like that.”

Jonah eyed Vin and backed away,

“One day, I’m going to see how much of a fighter you really are, Luna.”

I watched as the older wolf walked away and disappeared into a guest room. I was fuming, I never wanted to hit someone so much in my life. How dare he? I felt a familiar hand on my shoulder and I turned,

“Calm down little brother. We must let him show his true colors before we become physical.”

“Vin, what are you doing here? Where’s Ness?”

I heard wheezing coming from the stairs and a moment later my sister appeared, she was sweating profusely and grasping Vin’s t-shirt while she tried to catch her breath.

“Sorry it took so long…stairs are not pregnant wolf friendly.”

“It was supposed to be a surprise…but Ness and I are transferring here.”

“What?! Should you even be traveling in your condition?! Are you okay?”

Ness reached out and whacked me beside the head, now too busy with the pain I shut my mouth.

“My old doctor cleared me for land travel so we drove. I’m fine, I just wanted to be closer to family. Vin doesn’t have any family left and Purple Moon just isn’t home without you.”

“Excuse me for a moment.”

I turned and went right back up the stairs, straight passed a startled Nolan and into the apartment I shared with a well meaning Alpha but that encounter with Jonah had riled me beyond belief and I was furious.

I saw Neo emerge from the bathroom, a hopeful look in his eyes before he noticed how pissed off I was through our bond. He visibly shrank back,

“What’s wrong?”

“Why didn’t you tell me my sister was transferring here? I just ran into Jonah, who by the way is not a nice guy and Vin was there to stop it from escalating. And then my very pregnant sister emerged from the staircase and they were kind enough to tell me it was supposed to be a surprise.”

“Uh…surprise?”

“Surprise?! When were you planning on telling me?”

“After the funeral?”

“Isn’t transferring a mated pair that’s expecting part of my jurisdiction? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Ness wanted it to be a surprise…I didn’t think you’d be angry about your sister moving closer.”

Maybe if I hadn’t had that infuriating conversation with Jonah I would be less annoyed but all I saw right now was red. My mate had kept something from me. I stalked over to him and my anger overwhelmed me,

“You!” SMACK! “Should!” SMACK! “Have!” SMACK! “Told!” SMACK! SMACK! “Me!”

Neo started to cry and I instantly felt like a dick. Neo was feeling all sorts of elevated emotions right now, and adding mine to the mix wasn’t helping him but I was so angry. At everyone, but mostly Jonah. I felt arms circle around me and lifted me away from my mate and I struggled against their hold, 

“LET GO OF ME!”

“Nate, you need to calm down! What is wrong with you?!” 

“LET ME GO! LET GO! DON’T TOUCH ME! LET ME GO!”

“Don’t touch him!” Neo said, and soon the familiar feeling of his touch replaced the foreign nauseating touch of whoever had grabbed me, 

“Shhh love, it’s okay no one else is going to touch you I promise.”

“Jonah told me I repulsed you. That I should be disgusted with myself…and I am! I let someone else touch me and I’m dirty!”

“Oh love, no. I’d never be repulsed by you. And you didn’t let that monster touch you! He forced himself on you using your love for me against you.”

“I’m sorry for hitting you.”

“It didn’t hurt, the pain you were feeling was what hurt.” Neo continued to rock me in his arms and I didn’t even care if someone saw. Neo was holding me, my mate.

I took comfort in knowing he wasn’t disgusted by me by reading his emotions through our bond. Other than being ridiculously horny, he was only feeling protective and angry at Jonah for upsetting me. 

“Nate, why does your place feel like Baby R Us puked all over it?”

Neo and I stopped moving. Ness still didn’t know about Briar. She knew that Neo’s mom was in critical condition but we didn’t tell her we adopted a baby…her baby. Shit. I stood and walked over to Ness who was holding one of Briar’s binkies,

“So…we may have forgotten to mention a few things.”

“You were angry at Neo for keeping me and Vin moving here a secret…but you kept you becoming DADS a secret?!”

“Surprise?”

“Surprise?” 

I backed away slowly, I knew how angry Ness could get. It was safer to get away and hide than to fight back. I backed up until my legs hit the pack and play and I toppled into it, Ness’ eyes grew wide and she began laughing hysterically. I suppose it is funny seeing a 6’4 giant fall into a space designed for small children.

“When do I get to meet your baby?”

“After the funeral. Someone please help me out of this thing!”

Vin and Neo were laughing hysterically but managed to sober themselves enough for Vin to pick me up and back onto my feet. Neo was still laughing, clutching the doorframe to keep himself upright, I was glad he was feeling better, seeing him laugh so freely warmed my heart and made the butterflies in my stomach go into hyperdrive. 

“Neo, are you feeling well enough to attend the funeral?”

“Yeah, I think I can manage.”

The funeral went smoothly, people cried, I remembered my lines and cues, and then Johanna was interred in the Pacifica Cemetery. Johanna was buried next to her mate…well I guess one of them if anything Jonah said was true. I kept feeling like someone was watching me and only me throughout the whole ceremony; I knew it was Jonah even without looking up from the gravestone. I don’t know what it was about Jonah; but he just made me feel uneasy.

Neo stayed by my side and I could feel his paranoia and anger when he noticed Jonah staring. I took his hand as we left the cemetery; more to ease my own anxiety than to quell his anger. Neo tightened his hold on my hand, Jonah approached us and there were still a good amount of pack members still milling around, some took their time passing us, wondering what was going to happen. I knew what was about to happen by the spark in Jonah’s eyes.

“Alpha Neo.”

“Alpha Jonah.”

“Now that the ceremony is over,” Jonah smirked, rolled his neck and then the words I dreaded the most came out of his mouth, “I challenge you for the role of Alpha of the Pacifica Pack.”

Neo

I wasn’t surprised that Jonah had an ulterior motive coming back to Pacifica. I wasn’t even surprised he had challenged me publicly, I was however surprised that he wasn’t looking at me when he proclaimed his challenge. No, he was looking at Nate. Nate glared back at the man, standing to his full height.

“When I win, I’ll enjoy breaking in your bitch.”

“If you win you mean. I’m not the same kid I was when you were the Beta here.”

“I’m sure you’re not.”

“Tomorrow at noon. Winner takes over the other’s pack.”

“See you at noon.”

Jonah turned on his heel and left, I was seething; how dare he threaten my mate with what he feared the most? I should’ve realized he was vile if he was paired with my parents. Nate placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and I relaxed only slightly. Not only was Nate in danger, but so was the rest of the pack…and Briar. I’ll be damned before I allowed that monster to raise my daughter.

“I have faith in you.” Nate whispered, “Just like I had faith that you’d beat your dad, and you’re so much stronger than you were when you challenged Joseph.”

“With you behind me, I can do anything.” I kissed him on his forehead and then we made our way to his parents’ house to retrieve our daughter and explain what was happening.

I felt like we just couldn’t catch a break, if someone wasn’t being kidnapped, they were dying and now I was being challenged for the first time since I became Alpha. I wasn’t just fighting for me, I didn’t really care what happened to me, but I couldn’t allow anything to happen to my pack, to my mate, to my new daughter. I would win for them, and I would vanquish the last of the ghosts that haunted my past.

After talking with Csilla and Calvin, and cuddling Briar, it was decided that Briar would remain with them until after the challenge was completed. Nate wasn’t happy with leaving her, neither was I but we needed to focus on the task at hand and the danger it posed for the pack as a whole. We had accepted close to a thousand LGBTQIA werewolves and their families in the months since I became Alpha, they would be in danger in the event that I lost.

***

Noon came far too soon the next day. I stretched on the lawns of the training grounds waiting for my opponent to arrive. Nate was on the steps of the armory, his face pensive and he looked deep in thought. He didn’t like that I was technically fighting this battle for him. He was more than capable of defending himself, and I knew that. If it came down to it, if I couldn’t continue the fight, Nate could step in as my mate and second. I didn’t want that to happen but it could and I knew without a doubt that Nate would win.

Jonah arrived with his own second, a timid looking she wolf who looked like she would rather be anywhere but here. Jonah looked behind me to where Nate was, the man in question approached with an identical look of disdain on his face that Jonah had on his. 

“Alphas, a challenge has been proclaimed and accepted. To the victor go the spoils as they say. If one of you can longer fight your mate may intercede but only a mate. This wolf will only bear witness. Is that understood?” 

Jonah and I nodded our consent before Nate continued,

“As representative of Selene herself, she wants me to let you know that she is watching. She will interfere if any trickery is used.”

Jonah seemed to pale at that. Nate seemed to notice but continued, “No weapons. Wolf or human form once one is chosen you cannot shift once the fight begins. Make your decision.”

I glanced at Jonah, both my forms were powerful so it didn’t matter to me but I knew from experience that Jonah relied on his wolf Octavius for anything important like challenges and sparring. His human form wasn’t as skilled as his wolf.

“We’ll decide with a coin flip. Heads for human, Tails for wolf.”

I watched the coin flip into the air and land on the ground, we all bent to examine the result and I smiled, Selene truly was smiling down on us today. The face of George Washington stared up at us and I could hear Jonah’s audible gulp of trepidation.

***

Nate and the unknown she-wolf stayed to the sidelines of the sparring circle, so far they were the only spectators, but I knew Malcolm was close by. Jonah and I circled one another before Jonah offered the first move, it was sloppy and easily dodged. I had seen Jonah fight in human form, and Deaton had cataloged all his favorite moves. He was easy to read, and his moves were easy to predict. He was fueled by what I could only assume was rage at what had happened to my father and mother. My mother dying from complications was hardly my fault but deciding to save Briar instead of her most certainly was.

I ducked another one of his clumsy swipes; it wasn’t even a proper punch. I extended my leg and spun, knocking the older man to the ground with a grunt. Like my father I didn’t waste time and quickly pinned him with my body weight. I pummeled him with my fists until my own knuckles were raw and bloody. I stopped my assault and felt for a pulse, there was one and it was faint. I knew what I had to do now. It was Pack Law, Challenges were to the death. I extended my claws, and swiped them quickly across the man’s throat. I didn’t like that this was the third heart to stop beating beneath me, I didn’t enjoy the fact that once again my hands were stained red…but I had won and I felt the power wash over me. Three lives taken, and their power absorbed…I was pretty much unstoppable now.

***

Jonah was dead and that meant his pack of rogues were now mine to control and do with as I pleased. Sighing, I turned to the timid woman,

“Where is the rest of your pack? Can you send word to them?”

“They’re twenty miles west of here. I can bring one of your messengers to them.”

“What’s your name?”

“Melody.”

“Welcome to the pack Melody.”

Melody ran off, no doubt to find the others she had arrived with. I looked at my mate and he was already looking at me and then both our gazes locked on the body still on the lawn. Another pyre, or should we bury him with his mates? My father intended to kill Nate, not violate him so I had forgiven him for his disrespect and buried him like the Alpha he was…but Jonah had threatened to make Nate his in every way and I couldn’t forgive that.

Jonah would burn. Let the Moon Goddess decide what to do with him. 

I was so tired, I just wanted a shower and to curl up in bed with my mate and forget the rest of the world. I let Malcolm know the results of the battle and that I would be taking a few days off to recharge.

“Let’s go home.” 

Nate took my hand, and he practically carried me back to our apartment and for once, I didn’t care who saw.