Queen, Alpha, Mate

Chapter 15

Diana POV

We swiftly notify Katie and Daniel of our upcoming departure and make our way to the black Range Rover Joshua and Daniel arrived in. Daniel takes the wheel and Katie sits down in the passenger seat next to him. Me and Joshua make ourselves comfortable on the back seat. 

"Buckle up, backseat babes." Daniel says, conjuring a giggle from me and a vulgar gesture from Joshua. "I'm serious", he says. "Put your seatbelt on or we're not leaving. We're driving through dangerous territory and I don't want any accidental damaging the goods. I refuse to have a grief-crazy mate on my hands."

We put our seatbelts on and Josh blows a kiss at Daniel, saying "Yes, dad. We'll be good". He wraps his arm around my shoulder. I laugh and Daniel raises his eyebrow with a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Then off we go", he says, and starts our long drive to Crescent moon pack.

When we're about an hour into the drive, Joshua is asleep on my shoulder and Katie is napping in the front seat. The silence is starting to drive me a little crazy. 

"Hey Daniel", I say softly. "How long have you and Joshua known each other?"

"We grew up together! My dad was his dad's beta too, so I was kind of born into the role. Luckily, we've always gotten along well. It'll be nice to go for a run around our own territory again. My wolf, James, is always a little hesitant to come out in strange territories. How did you an Katie meet?"

"We actually haven't known each other very long. She came to our pack with her parents about 5 years ago. They fled from their pack, because their alpha had it out for her father. Her mother was apparently his second chance mate after his own died and her dad refused to part with her. It was pretty messed up to be honest. I became super close with her and chose her as my beta. I'm surprised Nicolas didn't make more of a problem out of it, given that his father is my father's beta. He is still going to be my gamma, so I think that made it easier for him to accept his position. I don't know too much about him as he is a couple of years older than I am. Speaking of, the beta role is one you'll have to share with Katie when our packs merge. Same goes for the roles of our gammas."

"Hey, anything that lightens my workload I'm happy to do." Daniel laughs. "Her past sounds pretty intense. I hope she's feeling fine otherwise. I'm curious about this Nicolas fellow too."

"I think she's pretty happy about where she currently is. I hope she meets her mate soon, so we can do a bunch of couple things together. Same goes for you, by the way."

Daniel laughs. "Who, me? Naaaahhhh man, I'm planning to be an eternal bachelor. Can't have the distraction of a mate, I'd be much to scared they'd get in all sorts of trouble."

"Yeah, you say that now", I reply "but just you wait. You'll feel so different about it when you do meet her." He sticks his tongue out at me.

We sit in silence again for a while until I, once again, can't stand it anymore. "So Daniel, what do you like to do?"

"Me? I don't have time for hobbies. I train, I fight, I patrol and solve disputes."

I stare at him with big eyes. No hobbies? Nothing to do in his free time?

"Just kidding of course, you should see your face." He says. "Of course, I have hobbies, my alpha made sure I did. You'd never tell, but I love to draw and paint. I play the guitar too. As for the first, check under the car seat, I should still have a sketchbook there if I remember correctly. That is, if you want to see it of course."

Indeed, I did not take him for a painter. I take out the sketchbook from underneath the seat and open it to a random page. Before me appears a beautiful grey and white pencil drawing of a wolf. It's so intricately detailed. In the drawing, the wolf is lying on a tree branch and is looking lovingly at the moon, at Selene. I flip to another page and find another pencil drawing of a woman's face. Her face shows wrinkles and her eyes are kind. 

"Who is this?" I ask as I turn the page around so Daniel can see it in the mirror.

"It's my mom", he responds. "Isn't she beautiful?"

"She looks kind", I say. Carefully, trying not to wrinkle any of the pieces of paper, I close the sketchbook back up.

"You're very talented!" I say. "I'll make sure you get your own art office in the castle when our packs merge. Leisure is important. Do you sing too?"

In response, Daniel sings the first few lines of Charge, by Elbow. It's beautiful. It also wakes up Katie and Joshua. 

"Wow, Daniel", Katie whistles, "You have a beautiful voice!" I wholly agree with her of course and Joshua starts cheering. Daniel becomes encouraged and sings the rest of the song. Like this, we continue the rest of the way, singing and chatting. 

Out of nowhere, the car shocks and we're thrown off the road. We roll down the hill we were driving on. When we finally lie still, upside down on the road, we see several wolves approaching the car.