Alpha's Found Daughter

Chapter 9

When we are at a safe distance from the border I place the little girl on the ground and quickly run behind a tree that always has clothes near it and quickly shift back to my human form and put the clothes on as fast as possible. Coming out from behind the tree my heart aches seeing that she is still shaking with fear almost caustiously I approach her not wanting to scare her any further than she already is. "Lily can you keep this a secret between us? If someone finds out both of us will be in big trouble." With wide teary eyes she nods in reply not trusting her voice. I give her a small reassuring smile and pat her head. She takes a handful of water from the stream next to us and splashes it on her face to try to wash away the tear stains going down her chubby cheeks. Looking at her reflection in the water she nods to herself thinking she now looks like she hasn't been crying but it’s obvious she has been crying as her red puffy eyes are incredibly noticable, giving her a little push a sad smile covers her features before she takes off running in the direction of the pack houses.

Sighing I walk into the cold stream stripping off the clothes I just put on so I can secretly wash the blood off my body, if I was to go home with even a drop of blood on me it would be like world war three in the house because dad knows anytime there's a speck of blood anywhere on me it means I've been in a fight, he doesn't even believe me the times I claim it's animal blood from hunting. But I guess after raising someone for seventeen years you learn everything about them and probably can spot their lie from a mile away, he is the only wolf who can spot my lies well obviously a few people know about my lying to stay out of trouble so they hardly ever believe me. Using my hands I vigorously scrub at my skin in an attempt to not even have the smallest trace of a blood smelling scent coming off from me, taking a deep breath I completely submerge myself and scrub at my now bird's nest looking hair internally groaning that I don't have a hair tie to pull my hair back with to try to hide the wild mess of tangles. Hopefully dad won't question the messy hair, he knows whenever I do patrol I don't exactly try to look my best, my first patrol I literally just rolled out of bed and went into the woods which made everyone in the house incredibly shocked when I came home that evening, they hadn't saw me when I left that morning and if they had Carly and Lauren probably would've marched me straight up to my room and at least make me brush my teeth or shower. When there's nobody to impress I can be gross both hygienically and with some of my actions.

Having made sure I'm completely clean I walk out of the stream wringing out my long wet hair that looks fire as the sun’s rays dance off it, scanning the are I spot a large flat rock that is to my fortune right under the sun with no trees canopying over it. Smiling to myself I go straight to the rock and lay down on it I make my hair fan out all around me so the sun's rays can dry my body and hair there’s nothing more suspicious than going on home with dripping wet hair and from the sun's position I only have about an hour left of patrol so I pray my thick tangled hair will dry by then. Thinking back to the short fight I just had I soon realize I may have messed up more than once, aside from the fact I crossed onto their land without permission and got in a fight, the larger wolf must've been the beta which is a big screw up. If I did harm the beta then he'll run to the alpha and the alpha will get pissed off and possibly march over here demanding an explanation or a punishment. The thought makes me groan cause if that indeed was the beta then there's no way today will just be kept a secret between Lily and I, dad will most likely receive a call from that Alpha either today or tomorrow and dad will become even more disappointed in me than he already is. 

Hearing approaching footsteps I scramble off the rock and quickly shift into my wolf form due to the fact I’m completely naked from not putting the clothes I found back on. My tail starts waging on it's own accord seeing that it's a guy who is here to switch out shifts, taking in my wolf form the man raises a single brow and crosses his arms over his chest. "I'm assuming you managed to get yourself into trouble." I put on my most innocent face giving him big doe eyes casuing him to roll his eyes. "It's not entirely odd that you're in wolf form but it's weird how you can be out here in the muddiest part of the woods for twelve hours and not have a speck of dirt on you." Stepping up to me he dramatically whispers into my ear. "If I was you I'd make sure I rolled around on the ground a few times and run through some mud puddles." I nod in understanding making him chuckle and wink at me. The man is one of the top warriors and he knows all about the trouble I always somehow find myself getting into and whenever he's around he tries to help me hide whatever it I did from dad, if it wasn't for him helping me and keeping secrets dad would've locked me up years ago and never let me out of my room til I'm an old granny.

Giving the man a nod in thanks I take off ready to be home I make sure to follow the advice given by rolling around on the ground and going through mud, each time my paws sink into the thickness of the mud my nose automatically scrunches in distaste but hey you gotta do what ya gotta do to keep from getting into trouble. When the treeline comes into sight I let out a howl of happiness, glad that I'm almost home. Stopping behind one of the trees I pull out a pair of clothes that's hidden in a small hhole under a tree root, slipping on the giant t-shirt and shorts my eyes scan over my body causing me to slightly frown. What should've looked like I've spent the day in the woods ended up looking like I've been living in the woods and never heard of a bath. Mud coats most of my arms and legs and I can feel some of it dried on my face and neck hopefully if someone asks why my entire body is covered in the gross brown substance I'll be able to come up with a reasonable response it’s possible they would believe me if I said I fell out of a tree I was lounging in.

Entering the house all tenseness leaves my body when I sense nobody in the house which isn't exactly an unusual thing considering everyone has their own important duties, rushing up the stairs I go to my room leaving muddy foot prints on the floor. As soon as the door closes I strip off my clothes leaving them on the floor and head into the bathroom to take a hot shower to get this gunk off me. Stopping at the mirror my eyes pop wide open at my appearance, if I thought I looked bad this morning then I have no clue what to think about what I look like right now. My red hair is a long tangled mess that's so bad it looks like I've never used a hair brush in my entire life, what I thought was just a few streaks of mud on my face is actually big globs of it that cover half my face if someone was to see me now they'd definitely figure out about my getting into a fight because it’s very appearnt I went a little overboard in trying to make myself appear a little dirty. Turning on the shower I get in and scrub every inch of my body harder than necessary to the point my skin is red and raw to get the disgusting muck off me.

Getting out of the shower I dry myself off and go into the bedroom and straight to the closet to grab something to wear. Getting a oversized shirt and short shorts I quickly put them on and already feel so ready to climb into bed but it's way too early. Sighing I toss the towel I had wrapped around my head on the floor and leave my bedroom thinking of how pissed the maid will be having to clean up more clothing off the floor used to I left clothes on the floor due to being lazy but now I think it’s something I do subconsciously just to piss the maid off. Sniffing the air a smile lights up my face, dinner is already ready and from the smell of it it's one of my favorite meals. As I happily start going down the hallway someone tightly grabs my forearm and I'm being yanked into a empty room. Extending my claws and canines I whirl around to face the offender ready to attack but stop when I see a very angry Trace glaring at me my claws and teeth immediately retract but my body tenses up a little at noticing just how angry he is, I can almost feel the strong emotion radiating off him.

"What the hell!" I whisper shout trying to keep my voice low enough so nobody in the house will hear us, anytime I'm pulled into a room by Trace it's always because he has something secretive to say to me and it’s also usually a good scolding.

"You better tell me what you did today." He grits out through clenched teeth making me pale a little. Trace either has someone always following me to report my behavior to him or he has an uncanny intuition. Since the day I became a teenager and got into my first fight he has never trusted me to not get into some sort of trouble.

Gulping I look away from him. "All I did was patrol today and you know that."

He raises an accusing brow at me. "I know you better than that, and when you were leaving the woods we all saw your appearance so we know you did something. It would be wise to tell me so I can give your dad a head's up so he won't be blindsided by whatever your actions were and we both know it looks bad on an Alpha to not have any idea about something that happened involving their pack members especially their child who will be Alpha in less than a year."

I sigh and run a hand over my face suddenly feeling completely drained of all my energy. "I got in a fight, I had some blood on me and washed it off in the stream then on my way back I tried to make it look like I hadn't done anything today aside from patrolling by running through mud puddles." It's not a lie, I'm just leaving out the part about how the fight was with the neighboring pack that hates us.

"I get that being an Alpha makes you hot headed and easy to loose your cool but you can't keep getting into fights or any other sort of mischeif anymore, you're already twenty years old meaning you’re a grown woman the pack will look down on you if you get in fights all the time when you officially become the Alpha." Trace loves to scold me about the whole future Alpha thing just like dad did yesterday.

Wanting this conversation to hurry and end I decide to let out a little more of the truth but not reveal too much. Holding up a hand I cut Trace off. "Listen if I could've avoided the fight I would've but I couldn't." He raises a brow and crosses his arms over his chest hoping I better have a great explanation for my actions. "Two grown wolves were bullying a little kid so I stepped in and it ended in a fight and I made sure not to cause too much harm to the wolves." Narrowing his eyes he stares straight into my bright green ones searching for any hint that I'm lying and technically I'm not, I'm just not telling the whole truth. Satisfied that I'm not lying Trace lets out a sigh.

"Next time something like that happens inform someone so we can deal proper punishment to the wolves, we don't need fighting going on in the pack." I just nod my head. "Alright you can go."

In a flash I'm opening the door and trying my best to not run down the stairs to put as much distance between Trace and I as possible. Hopefully he won't tell dad about the fight because I've already disappointed dad enough lately and I really don't want to add on to it and make him think I'm a lost cause or something.

Bounding down the stairs a grin breaks out on my face when I see Deardra carrying a tray of food into the dinning room. Yep she made my favorite. Happily I skip into the large dinning room and take my seat across from dad who sits at the head of the table since he's the Alpha. My mouth starts to water at the sight of a whole roasted small chicken on my plate, it takes everything in me to not start digging in. Dad and the rest of the high ranking members are big on manners to the point where nobody can eat til everyone is seated at the table which annoys me to no end. I may have grown up in the pack for seventeen years learning all kinds of manners but you can't take away the three years of living in the wild with no rules out of me. Luckily all the others shortly come into the dinning room at the same time and sit down so I can finally eat.

Picking up my fork and knife I start cutting into the chicken and let out a moan at the first bite making dad and Carly chuckle. "After all that running around in the woods you must be starving, I know whenever I do patrol my stomach feels like it's going to eat itself when I get back." Luke says as he watches me eat like a starved dog amusement clear on his face. Lauren scrunches up her nose, she went on patrol once and apparently complained so much afterwards that she was never given patrol duty again. How I wish I could be that lucky but no amount of whining and complaining will ever get me out of patrol, everyone would just wear ear plugs so they couldn't hear me and keep making me patrol.

"Tyson we are going to have to have a talk with the older wolves about bullying the young pups." Trace's words make me freeze and drop my fork. I thought he wouldn't say anything since I made it sound like such a small matter but guess I was wrong.

Dad looks at Trace questionably. "Did the teenagers start picking on the pups again?" I want to face plant at the reminder that this used to be a problem that was taken care of by punishing all of the teenagers with hours of extra training and my withholding truth could get them all in trouble, bullying is something that the pack takes seriously but when it’s only two wolves I don’t understand why Trace would mention it to dad.

"Apparently. According to Emma she saw two wolves bullying a young girl." My heart drops at the mention of my name. All eyes go to me waiting for me to elaborate.

Nervously I set my knife down and let out a sigh. "While on patrol I stumbled across the scene. It wasn't really a big deal, they were just teasing her like any teenager would." Trace narrows his eyes at me knowing I'm lying but with dad in the room he won't call me out on it atleast not until he figures out the whole truth.

Dad sighs in exasperation and looks me straight in the eyes. "A little teasing may seem like no big deal but it could easily cause the families of the young ones and teenagers to get in arguments and we can't have that. The pack is supposed to be united and with conflicts like that going on it doesn't make us united and the parents will eventually come to one of us about the problem and they'll expect us to pick sides and when it gets to that point it's harder to take care of the problem peacefully."

I just nod in reply, my mouth is too dry for me to form any words as guilt at omitting the full truth weighs down on me and somehow dad hasn’t already caught on and if he has he might be trying to give me the benefit of the doubt. Out of the corner of my eyes I notice Carly has on her knowing look meaning she knows I'm lying and thankfully she gets me out of situation like any good friend would do. "Oh! I forgot! Emma it's our turn to watch the pups for a few hours." Getting out of her chair she quickly grabs my arm pulling me up and we both hurriedly rush out of the dining room not caring that we barely ate any food.

I'm grateful for her intervening but now we have to go watch the pups and come up with some reason to the wolves that are already watching them as to why we are there. Maybe we can just say we thought it was our turn but they would find that strange considering I've never watched the pups before but Carly has on multiple occasions even though she's only sixteen. I can't wait for this day to be over so I can snuggle up in my big warm bed and sleep. 

The females watching the pups were more than happy to let Carly and I take over for awhile, they used the time to go home and enjoy dinner with their mates and I think a few of them had more naughty ideas cause when they came back their hair was in a mess and they were brightly glowing with huge smiles plastered across their faces. For some reason mated wolves can’t keep their hands off each other. Carly didn't ask what exactly it was that I'm hiding she knows that I'll eventually tell her so she doesn't pry too much which I’m thankful for because I plan on keeping this a secret for as long as possible. I was glad that when we got back home later that night that everyone in the house was already asleep, it was pretty shocking to me that Trace wasn't waiting up to call me out on my withholding of information but I say more than likely Lauren made him come to bed. They've been mated for twenty years and she still can't fall asleep without him plus she loves nagging him about how he scolds me then usually hits him on the back of the head. Going straight to my room I plop down on my bed and immediately drift off into a fitful sleep.