The Rise of The Alpha

Chapter 4

I woke up in the same meadow I was in when I saw my mate for the first time. I hopped up and I let Xerxes take over. He stuck his nose to the air and immediately caught wind of her scent and took off in her direction. This time we heard her before we saw her. She was singing. Xerxes was careful, approaching her from downwind so she couldn't smell us and bolt.

She was sitting on the sand along the riverbed letting her feet sit in the water while she was leaning back onto her hands. Her head was leaned back with the tips of her hair skimming along the sand and her eyes were closed. I felt Xerxes humming to himself. She was gorgeous.

Suddenly, the wind changed direction and her head shot up, eyes open and she was staring at us. I saw her roll her eyes as she stood up, fixing her dress and brushing off the sand as she did. This time though, instead of running away, she approached us.

"I know you're there. So you can stop hiding." She spoke, sitting down, patting her hand on the sand next to her. Xerxes walked forward out of the shrubbery and lay facing her on the sand, tilting his head, which made her chuckle. With no warning, he threw me the reins and next thing I knew I was sitting next to her in my suit which made her laugh, a full-on eyes closed, head thrown back and shoulder-shaking laugh which got me smiling as well.

She looked at my suit after she finished and raised an eyebrow, "Fall asleep in a board meeting?" she asked, her head tilting in curiosity.

I smiled and shook my head, "Just finished with one so I'm resting before dinner." she nodded her head, seeming satisfied with that answer.

I wanted to wait until further into our conversation to start hounding her with questions, but I had no idea how long I had actually been asleep and I needed answers of my own, "Why did you say that we wouldn't work out as mates? Why did you run away? What's your name?" I rattled off my questions one by one and only received a stare as if she were about to start scolding me.

"I don't know what fuzzy image that you have in your head about mate bonds, but please just throw it out the window, believe me when I say they're not that pretty." She looked into the forest like she did last time, "I ran away because for your sake it is better to just pretend this doesn't exist. I was hoping you'd forget this, but it looks like the goddess isn't favoring my decision. You wouldn't be here if she was." She looked out over the water and a troubled look appeared on her face.

"It's not just me. My Beta has also been in contact with someone almost exactly how we've been in contact. We need to know where you are." With that, her head shot up and she looked at me.

"I don't need saving. So stop trying to be the hero." she snorted in disgust, "You Alpha males. Always so entitled, thinking every female should swoon over you." She sucked her teeth as she shook her head, her attention going back to the forest. "It's time for me to go now. I have business to attend to."

I shot up in my bed as Thomas opened my door, "Hey Cole, dinner's being served. Hunter said that the council is having Jane eat separately from everyone else because they feel that she is threatened." I smiled to myself, she should feel threatened, none of us want her here.

I stood up stretching, "I'll be out in a second. Let me get changed." I opened my suitcase and grabbed out a pair of sweatpants and a regular T-shirt.

Opening the door, I noticed both Hunter and Chase outside with Thomas all waiting on me, "We're just going to keep marching down there together?" I chuckled, causing them all to laugh as well.

When we entered the dining room, all eyes turned to us and Sawyer, Alpha of the Nightshade pack spoke up, "So want to fill us in on the Luna competition?" He asked, leaning back in his chair with a slice of pizza in hand, causing me to roll my eyes at him.

"It's not a competition. The council and I had an agreement that should I not find my mate or another suitable female capable of taking over Luna responsibilities, that they would choose someone. I had no idea that it would be the female that I sent to them to be tried for treason against her pack." I said nonchalantly as I made my way to the buffet table, choosing a few decent sized steaks, some jumbo shrimp and a salad.

"If she's supposed to be training to become your Luna, then why isn't she in here like she was for lunch?" Alpha Kellan of the Oceanus pack asked as he twirled some spaghetti on his fork.

I nodded to Hunter, "The council feels that we are a threat. Which they have good reason to believe so because no one of any authority in our pack has any ounce of respect for her. And she will be treated as what she is, a traitor. Unless she can prove that she is indeed otherwise, and we have no intentions of letting her stay for that long." Hunter responded, looking at Kellan as he shoved a couple of fries into his mouth.

"I would appreciate it if the conversations concerning Jane would be dropped." I spoke up before anyone else could ask questions on the matter. Taking another bite of my steak, I ended the conversation, even though the Alpha's were consistently bringing her up in their side conversations, sending side glances my way, no one brought her up to me directly for the rest of dinner.

After dinner ended I decided to go out to the weight lifting section of the training arena, as I approached the building I heard grunting from inside telling me that I wasn't the only one who had the idea. When I entered the building I grabbed a water bottle and a few sweat towels that the council provides and made my way through the second set of double doors that opened into the indoor arena. I saw Chase, Thomas and Hunter already at the weight lifting area, as well as a few Alpha's set up by the treadmills.

Hearing the springs of the ring in the center bouncing with the shifts of weight I turned my attention to see two females sparring, ponytails swinging. Immediately I began walking towards it, assuming that it was my mate which made Xerxes perk up in curiosity until the female closest to me turned and bent down to grab the water bottle by the corner nearest her. I instantly recoiled as if I'd been slapped, a snarl tearing its way out of my mouth.

Jane's head shot up meeting my gaze she gave me a hard stare, "You may have deterred the council from allowing me to dine with you and attend meetings but I will NOT put my training on hold because you cannot control your wolf." She snarled back.

Xerxes was taken aback, where was the quiet and secluded Jane we had first known? The female in front of us was nothing like the put-together female that joined us in our meeting that afternoon, this Jane was more ferocious and warrior-like. Her more soft and feminine figure that we remembered had given way to the lean and toned body of a warrior, and it intrigued us. Xerxes snapping us away from that thought with thoughts of our mate caused a growl to rumble in the back of my throat.

"Remember who you're speaking to. Traitor." I snarled at her, making the whole gym flinched as I allowed my aura to lash out as a reminder of who exactly I was. Though there was a council, I would always be the Alpha King. With that I turned and made my way towards the weights to join the guys. The whole gym was quiet with Jane, and who I'm assuming was Bane as she was mentioned to be Jane's trainer earlier that day.

"That was nice Cole." Chase said coming over and slapping me on my back making me smile, "We were waiting for you to put her in her place." He finished grabbing the weights he had been doing reps with when I first walked in.

"There's something off about that Bane girl though." Thomas spoke up, "She flinched at your aura, but still stood her ground behind Jane. As if she was still ready to step in front of her should you try to get physical." Thomas said causing me and Hunter to both pause and look at each other.

If what Thomas said was true, and should Bane be ordered to come back with Jane there may be issues among the pack. I made a mental note to have Leslie do a background check on her using the office servers, no doubt the council would be watching the pack servers by now, I would probably have to use a burner phone to call her as well.

"We'll figure it out soon enough." Hunter chimed in, "Let's not focus on that too much." He turned towards the me, "You up for a couple reps?" He asked looked towards the weights that sit untouched in front of me. I nodded and picked them up.

Not only did the reps give me something else to focus my anger on, but the lifting gave me time to think more about my mate. She always seemed to be sleeping at the same time as me, which could mean a multitude of things. She could be an Alpha like me, with the busy schedules taking naps was a sign she was busy, as I was assuming the communication was limited to sleep. She could also very well be in the same timeline as me as well and could just be a pack member with a busy work schedule.

I could feel Xerxes presence, though he was focusing on the more physical traits of our mate. The way her hair shined in the sunlight, the way her figure was toned but she still had curves. She was perfect, and no doubt would fit perfectly next to us. I huffed in frustration and the guys turned to look at me but I just shook my head dismissing it and they went right back to lifting.

It wasn't a common occurrence, me using my Alpha aura but it was a great way to remind them exactly who I was. Other Alpha's had auras as well but none were quite as overpowering as my own. I looked up when I felt Hunter's hand on my shoulder, the gym was almost empty and the clock on the wall read midnight.

"We have to get some sleep eventually." he said as he grabbed his towel and water bottle, heading towards the doors.

"Yeah, since my mate decides to visit me whenever I shut my eyes I doubt that sleep would do me any good since she refuses to answer any of my questions with anything but vague answers and expects me to be okay with it." I retorted, grunting as I finished my last set deciding that Hunter was right no matter what I would need sleep for tomorrow.

"I texted Leslie while you were zoned out and she's getting us a full background check of what Jane has been up to since she was sent to the council as well as a full work-up on that Bane character." Hunter replied as he dried his hair with the towel he was holding before throwing it into the designated bin while he waited for me to catch up.

"That's a start. I'll race you back to the house and whoever wins owes drinks when we get back to the pack." I snickered knowing there was no way that he'd back down from a challenge.

Hunter smiled slyly then took off without warning for the mansion. I shook my head smiling to myself at his childish antics, but allowed him the head start before taking off after him.

As I began to catch up to him I noticed his pace had slowed, "What's the matter? Giving up already?" I shouted at him as I caught up.

He shook his head, all playfulness gone from his now stony demeanor as he nodded towards the backdoor of the mansion that was our unmarked, yet designated, finish line. I squinted my eyes a bit and noticed two figures, clearly waiting for us. From the height and build I could already tell that my night was about to get a whole lot worse. As we got within talking range Jane began talking.

"You can't avoid me and treat me like this forever Alpha Cole. Like councilman Adam said, 'if your mate doesn't show by this time in two years then you have to take who they chose as your bride' and you agreed." She began, sauntering forward, the second figure I could now make out as Bane unsurprisingly following close behind her. "You're throwing a fit to something you agreed upon and I will NOT tolerate this treatment. So suck it up and get used to the new me because that weakling you used to know is gone and she's not coming back." She finished, turning on her heel and entering the mansion without giving Hunter or I a chance to respond to her.

"Why couldn't she have gotten all of that off her chest in the arena? Instead she chose to wait until I was actually enjoying my night again to ruin it in her own little sick and twisted ways." I huffed as I pulled open the door, Hunter shrugged as he walked in behind me locking the doors.

"Who knows? She got one thing right though. One thing we didn't account for was the pair of balls she's gained, clearly." Hunter said as he grabbed onto the staircases railing. On their way up to their wing they noticed that Evan's wing was occupied, the huge oak doors that were set in place to seal the wings off from the rest of the house were sealed shut.

"Perhaps we'll get some entertainment from Evan tomorrow during breakfast?" I asked Hunter making him laugh as we entered our own wing. Upon reaching our respective doors we parted ways for the night, one I wasn't looking forward to.

After I got into my room I immediately stripped out of my gym clothes and made my way to my bathroom, I started a hot shower and hopped in quickly to wash the dirt and sweat off of me before hopping out and running a hot bath to try and relax myself. When I got out of the bath I threw on a pair of sweats and a pullover and climbed into bed semi-prepared to visit with my mate upon falling asleep, but tonight, I didn't.

I didn't dream at all, one moment I was dozing off, the next I was waking up to my phone alarm going off signaling that it was six in the morning. I rolled out of bed running my hands through my hair as I picked up my phone and canceled the alarm. Xerxes was quiet as well and whenever I tried to reach out to him it was unsuccessful, leading me to believe that he had retreated into the back of my mind.

I opened my door and made my way to the mess hall, noting that Evan's doors were still tightly sealed, and now also had some council guards posted on either side of them. As I passed the guards I nodded my head to them in greeting, and received a nod back.

Walking towards the mess hall I braced myself and Xerxes for the fact that Jane and Bane were most-likely going to be in there, my suspicion was confirmed as I opened the door and saw Jane's head thrown back as she was laughing to something that Alpha Kellan had just said. Feeling my lip turn up in disgust I chose to ignore them and grab my breakfast from the spread that Chef Khloe had prepared today, which consisted of scones, pancakes, waffles, bacon and so much more.

My stomach grumbled at the sight of it all and I heard a soft chuckle to my left, "Sounds like your stomach agrees with breakfast today Alpha Cole." Chef Khloe said from my right as she approached me to pile some fresh bacon and scrapple upon their respective plates, placing some of each on my plate as well which was already piled high.

"Yes I had a very restful sleep last night and woke up with quite an appetite." I replied smiling down at the older woman, receiving a smile in return. I grabbed a fork and knife set and made my way to the head of the table once again, noticing that though Jane had not placed herself directly to my left, leaving the space still open, she had placed herself at the first chair on the left side of the table with Bane seated next to her.

I was about to address the next meeting time when a woman entered the dining hall, clearing her throat she spoke, "My Alpha will be joining you at the meeting Alpha Cole and I was sent to find out the time of said meeting so that they may be on time." I looked at this female, she stood with a warriors stance, her feet were shoulder-length apart and her hands were clasped behind her back. If I would've looked away for a second I would've missed the look of disgust that was sent towards Jane and Bane, who were also looking at the female.

I cleared my throat, "The next meeting will be held an hour before lunch. Will your Alpha not be joining us for breakfast today?" I questioned her.

She smiled frostily still making eye contact with Jane. "No. And I will be sure that my Alpha will be ready to join you by then." She made her way to the table, loaded up a cart with multiple plates and walked out of the hall without another word or glance at anyone.

Hunter nudged me, "Did you notice that too?" He asked, "The way she was dressed was not the way Evan dressed his females. And her posture as well as the way she spoke weren't consistent with the females we've seen in the past." He stated, a confused expression on his face.

I nodded and replied in a low voice, "She also took notice of Jane and Bane, including where they're seated. As well as briefly glancing around the table." I placed my hand in my palm, resting my elbow on the table. She seemed to be sizing people up, depending solely on where their position was at the table.

"Perhaps that was the delay that took Evan so long? He could've finally found his Luna?" Hunter speculated. All of the Alpha's seemed to be confused, the female didn't even bother introducing herself so no one even knew her name.

Breakfast continued on without another interruption, with Jane and Bane whispering amongst themselves. Alpha brothers Kellan and Jason of the Oceanus and Drenwood Packs also had their heads bent together deep in a conversation as well. Hunter kept shifting and looking around, and I could also feel that Xerxes was also becoming anxious so I decided to reach out to him.

"Any idea what's going on?" I asked dropping my mental barrier and reaching out to Xerxes. I felt him stirring but I didn't get a response. It was if he was just siting there staring at me with no intention of answering so I gave up and put my mental barrier back in place with a frustrated sigh.

After I finished my breakfast I decided to go out to the ring and spar with Hunter, I took my time eating so I was the last one outside on the field. We didn't train as vigorously here like we did back at our pack, nor in the same way. Hunter and I, as well as our warriors and our guards were all trained in different forms of combat. It was a form of training that our fathers had come up with, anyone who wanted to become a warrior would be sent to allying packs across the Atlantic and be trained by five other packs across the span of one and a half years, sometimes two years if the warriors decided to stay in a pack longer.

Typically after finishing with the first meetings of the year Hunter and I would wait until the start of next month to go visit my Uncle's Pack in Greece, our sister pack, where we would stay until the end of the year Alpha meeting. But if Jane and Bane are indeed coming back with us it is more then likely that I would be made to take her with me on the trip, meaning Bane would come as well. I've always known my uncle to be a peaceful man but I knew he wouldn't tolerate either of the females coming into his pack, and neither would his pack members.

Once Hunter and I entered the ring to spar the gym fell almost completely silent, all eyes glancing between the two of us. We usually never sparred during our stays at the mansion, but because of all the stress we'd been going through we figured sparring would be a good solution to working out our anger. Since Hunter and I were meant to take over the Alpha and Beta positions, my father made us work harder in school so we were able to graduate at the age of sixteen. We left for training a week later and we chose to continue with our training until a month before our nineteenth birthdays, being born only a few days apart made the decision quite easy.

We went back and forth swinging and dodging each others hits for quite some time, to the point we were tiring each other out more then sparring so we decided to call it a tie and move on to working on our cardio, joining the Alpha's and Beta's from the two other eastern seaboard packs. I rarely went to the northeastern pack personally, so I wasn't as familiar with Alpha Turner like I was with Alpha Oliver. We chatted amongst ourselves until a butler walked in telling us that lunch was ready to be served.

After taking a quick shower in the back half of the locker room, making sure to wash all of the sweat off as well as quickly washing my hair, I entered the main area of the locker room and, like all the other Alpha's were doing, changed into a three piece suit that I kept in my designated locker. Exiting the locker room I saw that there were already butlers inside the gym cleaning it and replacing punching bag and the corner padding on the ring as well.

Turning to exit the gym I saw Hunter outside locked in a heated discussion with Chase and Thomas, once I walked out however the conversation ceased and Thomas handed me my briefcase. I nodded in thanks and didn't even bother waiting for them before heading towards the main building to eat, clearly if they stopped conversing when I was around it had something to do with me and I wasn't one to worry about what was being said.

As I walked into the building, replying to a text update from Liam, I realized I wasn't alone, looking up from the phone I saw that Jane was already seated and eating. There was a manila folder open in front of her and upon hearing the door open she looked up and meeting my stare she simply rolled her eyes, shut the folder and placed it in her bag that was on the floor next to her.

I quietly made my way to the lunch spread and grabbed a few pork chops, some macaroni salad, corn and a pile of mashed potatoes covered in gravy. As Hunter, Chase and Thomas walked in, they were no longer whispering and even though them talking earlier didn't bother me I was curious about what they had been talking about but I figured that they'd tell me when they were ready.

"Walked in without your posse today I see." Jane stated nonchalantly, "Trouble in the ranks?" she asked raising an eyebrow questioningly, as I looked up to acknowledge her.

I rolled my eyes, "Just because Hunter is my Beta and Chase and Thomas, our bodyguards, doesn't mean we have to stick together constantly Jane. It's called individuality." I deadpanned as they all took their seats, Chase raising his eyebrow at me looking between the two of us while Hunter and Thomas looked confused. I waved it off and resumed eating.

A few seconds after all the other Alphas joined us and were eating and conversing with each other Bane walked in, whispered something that seemed to be of importance in Jane's ear and they both left without a word to anyone. As they were walking out of the door however, the same female from this morning was coming in with the cart she took during breakfast. She proceeded to place all of the empty plates and silverware in their designated bins that the kitchen staff leave out for when we're finished eating.

She didn't acknowledge anyone in the room but repeated the same pattern as this morning, she loaded the cart with new silverware, napkins and plates of food and then proceeded to make her way towards the door. Hunter nudged my arm on the table, gesturing towards her. She had just reached the door and was grabbing for the handle when I decided to speak.

"Female." I said, clearing my voice and making her stop in her tracks, "What's your name?" I asked, causing her to turn towards me on her heel.

"My name is Tara." She stood up straighter, "Is that all Alpha Cole? I do have to take this food to my Alpha before the meeting begins." She spoke, nodding her head towards the clock on the wall showing that the meetings would be beginning in half an hours time. I nodded and she turned, opened up the doors and made her way up to Evans quarters.

"Well that was a quick conversation." Hunter said placing a bite of steak in his mouth, "She doesn't seem to be the one for talking." He spoke behind his hand with a mouthful of food, chuckling a bit.

"No, doesn't seem like it." Chase added in between bites of a breadstick, "She's definitely a strong-willed female to be able to stand up to you like that." Thomas nodded in agreement as he shoved another forkful of potato salad into his mouth.

"I've never seen any of Evan's girls stand up like that before. They were always submissive, not to mention the skimpy outfits that he always made them wear. Something just isn't adding up." I replied as I stood up and took my plate over to the bins.

I turned to address the rest of the mess hall, "There's fifteen minutes until the meeting. I expect everyone to be there on time." I looked directly at the table of Alphas, making my way out, as I finished speaking.

I entered the meeting room, made my way to the head of the table and placed my suitcase on top of the table. Opening it I pulled out the last files I had to go over in the meeting and my laptop. Turning on the laptop I noticed I had updates from Leslie on Jane and Bane but I decided that I would wait until after the meeting to open them.

I looked through the papers and noticed that Jason and Kellan had put in a request to combine their packs, which would never be approved by the council. Two packs combining placed too much power into one persons hands, even though I'm sure that Kellan and Jason would still try to reassure the council that the packs would still be ruled separately it just left too much room for revolution. I shook my head and put that folder at the bottom of the pile, if I could avoid addressing it and just leave it for the council to deal with.

As I was getting everything organized and settled the Alpha's began filing in and taking their seats, as the door was about to shut Jane and Bane entered and sat this time in the left corner and without a council member with them either.

"First order of business. Tsar, you're asking the council to send someone in your stead so you may go to South America to 'handle urgent family business?'" I asked, looking up at him and raising my eyebrow in question, "Care to elaborate a bit so I can give the council my formal opinion?"

Tsar stood and cleared his throat, "My uncle is giving my cousin his pack. The request is for a week because the doctors suspect that's all the time that my uncle has left." He let out a huff as he sat back in his chair, his Beta clapping him on his shoulder as he did.

"Alright then you're going. No need for this to even see the council." I replied, writing "Approved" across the top as I did. Then the office door opened.