A New Dawn

Chapter 3

The rising sun brightened the room through the pulled curtains, and the sun’s beams shined right into his eyes. The light reflecting into his eyes was bright enough to wake Aiden from a peaceful slumber. He opened his eyes and realized that he was in his bedroom alone. “I guess I didn’t realize how tired I was,” he chuckled as he rolled his eyes. He jumped out of bed, quickly dressed, and headed toward the kitchen to find Roxanne. Aiden descended the stairs, and the soft voice of his mate reached his ears. The sound was coming from a few rooms over.

He walked into the dining room and noticed Roxanne, his mother, and his father discussing their day over a cup of coffee and breakfast. He smiled in pride at how well his mate fit in and quietly entered the room, kissing her head. “Good morning, everyone. I trust you all slept well,” he said as he walked over to grab a plate of food.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Roxanne said with a smile.

“Aiden, will you be taking Roxanne shopping today for a dress for tonight?” His mother asked in concern.

“Yes, Mom, that is the plan. Why, was there something you needed?”

“Not at all, dear. I just wanted to give you this.” Mary smiled as she handed him the pack credit card, then turned to Roxanne. “Pick out a few things. After all, you are now family,” she said as she winked at the blushing girl.

A smile covered Roxanne’s lips, and she looked at Mary in sheer gratitude. “Thank you so much, Mr. and Mrs. Lockhart. I will make sure I pick up something extremely tasteful and proper for tonight. “What kind of dress should I be looking for?”

“It is a barbeque-style party for the graduate over there, so anything cool enough for you to wear outside for a few hours,” Mary answered with a smile.

“Speaking of barbeque, if we don’t go now, we will never get back in time,” Aiden informed his mate as he wiped his mouth and stood to his feet. He reached his hand out to help Roxanne out of her chair, and they walked hand in hand to the garage where his car waited. Aiden opened the door for her, and once she was seated, he jogged over to his seat. He started the car, and they drove to the mall. The ride was peaceful and entertaining as they both listened to music and sang along. They giggled and laughed at each other when they messed up the words to the songs, but it was still a great trip.

Once they reached the mall, they exited the car and started their long day there. Roxanne dragged him through almost every store in the mall and made him watch as she tried on numerous outfits. He bought everything she wanted for her to help make her transition to his pack easier. Finally, she chose to try on a dress for the barbeque. The dress was an emerald green wrap-around V-neck with fluttering sleeves. The bottom was a sweeping midi skirt cut off a few inches above the knee. The dress fit her perfectly, so she decided to buy that one and paired it with a pair of black sparkly sandals and a black choker.

Aiden went to load the things into the car as she quickly got a trim on her hair and bought some makeup and accessories for her evening of meeting the pack. When she was finally finished getting the things she wanted, Aiden realized that he had spent thousands of dollars on his parent's credit card. Unsure of how he would tell his parents, he decided to wait until later to worry about that. They then returned to the pack house to prepare for the barbecue. Showered and shaved, Aiden dressed in khaki shorts, an emerald green polo, and loafers. He then walked next door to the room Roxanne was getting ready in and nearly fell over at the sight of his mate.

“You look like an angel,” he gushed as she twirled, showing him the entire outfit. Roxanne blushed at his compliment, she grabbed his awaiting hand, and they walked outside together.

They walked out of the pack house to the party in the backyard; their jaws dropped at the event that his mother had put together. There were tents with food and drinks supervised by a few Omegas that were scheduled shifts through the evening. They served the guests with a smile and had their share of enjoyment for the packing party. The backyard was decorated with balloons and a large sign that read: Congratulations, Aiden.

Aiden and Roxanne walked hand in hand around the backyard and continued to greet their guests. Eventually, they made their way to David, wrapped up in a conversation with a few of the Warriors. “Hey, Lock, I am going to assume that this is the famous Roxanne,” he said as he flashed a charming smile to the blushing girl.

“Roxanne, this is my best friend, David Monroe. He will be our Beta once I take over the pack.”

David shook her hand and looked at her strangely. Her eyes flashed strange emotion when Aiden said that, giving him reason to pause. He shrugged it off, chalked it up to nerves, and smiled at her. “Welcome to the New Dawn Pack; we are a fun bunch; I swear, you are mated to the most boring of us all.”

Roxanne giggled and released David’s hand; she wrapped her arm around Aiden, then kissed him. As she opened her mouth to answer David, a scream came from outside the party.

WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!

Aiden grasped Roxanne’s hand in fear, and he quickly pulled her in the direction of his parents. “Mom, Dad, what is going on?” He frantically asked as his dad was shouting orders to the warriors.

“We are under attack by Rogues Son,” his father answered matter of factly.

Aiden clenched his teeth and turned to face Roxanne, “I need you to stay with Mom, go hide out in Dad’s office if you need to. We will take care of this.”

Roxanne nodded in agreement as Mary grabbed her by the hand and began to pull her toward the office. The women walked further away; Aiden grimaced at the look of worry in Roxanne’s eyes. He knew he needed to mark her soon and regretted not doing so. At least if he had done that, he could have been assured that she was alright. Aiden sighed deeply and turned to his father, “what do we know about the Rogues? Are they after something in particular?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that they are being held at the border by the guards, and we need to get out there,” he answered solemnly as he shifted into his wolf and ran towards the border.

Aiden remained in human form and began to run behind his father. He ducked limbs and jumped over fallen trees until he finally reached the border where the war was taking place. Once he got to the battle zone, he gasped in shock; hundreds of Rogues were on the battlefield, locked in battle with his pack mates. Aiden grabbed a set of knives off a dead Rogue and ran into the fray to help anyone he could. He noticed a female warrior who struggled to protect her throat from one of the Rogue wolves who had tackled her. The girl had a firm grip on the Rogue’s jowls, and she pushed him away from her with all her might. However, she was beginning to tire. Aiden knew he had to hurry because this wolf’s teeth continued to get closer to her throat. He sprinted up to the wolf and quickly stabbed him in the head, which caused the wolf to release a loud pained yelp before falling dead. Aiden kicked the dead wolf off the girl and quickly pulled her to her feet. He gave her a nod in respect as she turned and reentered the battle.

Aiden turned to face the battlefield again and began to scan the field. Through all the chaos and fighting, he tried to locate his father and David. However, he was so focused on the scene around him that he never heard the Rogue sneak up behind him until he was wrapped in a bear hug. Aiden tried to pull free of the Rogues grip. However, he was stuck. He knew he needed to break free somehow, and he began to panic when he saw another Rogue coming upon him with a knife. Aiden knew he must take care of the Rogue with the knife first. So he braced himself, using the man holding him as a crutch. He picked up both his feet and threw a kick as hard as possible into the Rogue’s face. The Rogue he kicked screamed and crumpled to the ground as Aiden shifted into his black wolf. The shift broke Rogue’s grip on him and allowed him to break loose. Once his four paws hit the ground, he quickly bounced towards the Rogue holding him. His teeth and claws connected with the Rogue, and Aiden managed to get a deep bite on his throat and kill him instantly.

After he released the corpse, he began to work with the other warriors to assist in killing the Rogues. Once the Rogues started to retreat, he smiled wolfishly and joined the others in their howl of victory. Suddenly, the internal pack link felt the breakage of a specific link: the link to the Alpha. Aiden’s father was dead. Aiden quickly shifted to his human form, and Aiden grabbed some shorts, and sprinted around the field looking for his father’s body. Eventually, he found him lying on the ground as a Rogue stood over him. This Rogue had long brown hair, which was pulled into a ponytail. His brown eyes were filled with disdain and anger at the dead Alpha, and a smirk of satisfaction was imprinted on his face. A growl of anger permeated the air, which caused the Rogue to look up at Aiden; he threw a wink toward Aiden as he left the field. Slowly Aiden walked to his father’s corpse; he had no words. His heart was breaking into pieces, and he knew he would have to help his mother get through this tragedy.