Courage of the Wolf

Chapter 12

I couldn't believe this man and his hoe showed up at my party! And because I'm still part of this pack I have to be polite. Way to ruin my birthday alphahole!

"Welcome Alpha Rafe. I hope you enjoy my birthday BBQ. We are pleased to have you stop by."

Everyone there greeted Rafe and Sofiana. Nobody seemed pleased to see them but we were all smart enough to know better than to voice it. Mac came over to flank me on my right side and out of nowhere Ray was flanking me on my left. Rafe was watching us with narrowed eyes. I wondered what he was thinking of my Betas flanking me. It took me a minute to realize that the team and the squad were lightly ranked behind us, backing up their new Alpha. I was a little worried I might have an Alpha fight before I ever even became an alpha.

"Hello young Alpha Rafe. We are very happy to have you join us. Please, help yourself to some burgers, steak, or chicken and any of the sides you and your partner would like," Sarif says very politely. Mac's mom kicks butt at diplomacy.

Rafe smiles condescendingly. "Thank you but no. We just stopped in to wish Hope a wonderful birthday. We will be on our way now. Come my love, let's leave these people to their little BBQ."

There is a chorus of byes as Rafe and Sofiana took their leave. We all mingled quietly while still holding our breaths. After about 10 minutes we all breathed a sigh of relief. Denali came towards me, followed by the rest of the squad.

"Hey Hope, thank you for giving us a chance to prove ourselves better. Speaking for the squad, we are very sorry for the way we disrespected the three of you."

Denali is a warrior with a thick build, medium length auburn hair, and beautiful grey eyes. Behind her, spread in a semi-circle, is Shayan, Sequoya, Vijoux, and Neka. Shayan is a nurse's aide with a thin build, straight long black hair, and brown eyes with a hint of purple. Sequoya is a warrior with a thin but muscular build. She has brown hair cut in a bob, deep chocolate eyes, and lighter caramel skin. Vijoux is a baker with curly red hair, vivid green eyes, pale skin with freckles, and an extremely bouncy personality. I've always been a little jealous of how easily she gets on with everyone. Neka is a cook, and a damn good one too. I have no idea how she stays so thin. She has shoulder length brown hair, black eyes, and is Native.

Ok, enough about them. We all grabbed some food and sat on the grass chatting and joking with each other. I can tell by Mac and Ray's faces that they are having just as much fun as I am. Pretty soon it was dark and we were all getting ready to shift together.

"Ok everyone", Rysen says loudly while clapping to get attention. "Let's all get ready to let our wolves party!"

Every body started cheering and stripping. Wolves are not shy about their bodies so nobody cared about stripping right there.

Reign Reynolds, Ray's mom, says "Listen up everyone! We are going to let our soon to be future Alpha lead this run. Come on birthday girl, it's time to lead the pack!"

I'm going to kill that woman!! I knew I needed to start acting like an Alpha but I'm not ready!! I take a deep breath and yell out, "Everybody, let's have a good run. Let's stay within howling distance of each other and keep our eyes open for any rogues that may be around. Ok, is everyone ready, then let's shift!"

The cracking sound of bones realigning is all we can hear for a minute while everyone at the party shifts. Pretty soon the yard is full of extra large wolves of varying colors, most of them prancing around and bumping into each other, all excited to take off into the forest.

I howled to get everyone's attention and when they all focused on me, I gave a wolfy grin and took off! Hanna is so happy to be running free right now. We noticed we were way ahead of the pack so we decided to play hide and seek. Yes, it is a game but it's also a good training activity. We mind linked the pack and told them about the game, then we took off to the side and backtracked behind the pack. We tailed them a while, then took off to the other side and ran about a mile to the little creek that runs through pack property. We decided to cool off so we just lay in the water and waited for the pack to find us.