Ultima Trials

The Chase

Camden’s POV

It took almost two weeks for Maverick’s body to push out all the virus and the wolfsbane and silver. I took him to our room, though I think Alpha Hayden expected us to sleep separately. I kept my word and stayed with Maverick as much as possible while he was in the hospital, which was all of the time. We got to watch TV uninterrupted for the first time in his life. He didn’t like that, he preferred to read or play games. The staff fell in love with him though it was almost impossible not to. Maverick was the smartest pup I had ever seen. His mother would have been so proud.

A week after getting him out of the hospital, he was in school and had made many friends with the pups and caught up with them very quickly even though he had never been able to go before. His growth was that of a weed. He went through three clothes sizes in the three weeks, and I was trying to find ways of paying Alpha Hayden for the clothes. Not only had he grown, so did I. I was able to train with the warriors, but because of my Alpha Wolf I mostly trained with the Beta and Gamma.

Alpha Hayden hid behind the trees during trainings, and Jersey couldn’t help but show off whenever we would sense her near. No matter how much we loved Jeri, Hayden was now our mate, and his instincts were to attract her to us. We didn’t have anything else, but we could show her that we were strong enough to protect her and her pack.

At night, once I knew Mav was down for the night, I would help patrol until the early morning, when I knew the Omegas would be up to start getting the house ready for the day. I wasn’t much of a cook, but I was able to set and take down tables faster than five she wolves. I would get the dining room swept, mopped, and set up so they could bring breakfast in, before going to take Maverick to school. He didn’t even wave goodbye anymore, just bolted off to play with his friends. I would sleep while Mav was at school and meet him at his class door by the time it was over.

“Daddy, would it be okay if….” Mav stopped short.

“What’s up, bud?”

“Well, my birthday is coming, right? And… well, I was just wondering, since Grandma Gloria always made my cake…”

“Maverick, you are an Alpha. Ask what you want, and I will answer you as truthfully as I can.” I couldn’t help but remember all the times I was too afraid to ask my father for something and him telling me the same thing.

“Am I still going to have a cake? And maybe ice cream? Yardley's birthday was today at school and his mom brought cake and ice cream.”

I chuckled. Even with buying three new wardrobes for both of us, I still had plenty of cash for his birthday. One of the perks of being Alpha was running a business, and I had learned to budget when I was not much older than him. I had already placed an order for the cake and ice cream for his class, plus requested that Diane make us a special meal for just the two of us. My final quest was to go to the city and buy Maverick a birthday present.

“Yes. You’ll have cake and ice cream at school. And we’re going to have a special dinner with just the two of us. I also have one more surprise, but I need to ask Alpha Hayden for help.”

“Is she your mate, Daddy?”

I was stunned. I knew that mates were common talk during school of all ages. Hell, I couldn’t wait to find my mate by the time I was 6 and really had a sit-down talk with my dad. He didn’t explain everything, but just knowing that out there somewhere was the other half of me appealed to the little romantic in me. I was sad when I learned we both had to be of age to claim my mate. In the end, it was worth it all though.

“Well,” I sighed. “You know I loved your mother more than life itself. She was everything I could have ever dreamed of a mate. I didn’t care what her rank was, or even that I wasn’t supposed to claim her until after she turned 18. I knew from the moment I met her; she was mine.”

He smiled. He loved hearing stories of his mom, especially because that was all he could ever have.

“But sometimes, when a mate dies… or is rejected, they can be given a second chance.”

“Like how when we moved from Alpha Noah’s pack to here?”

I both loved and hated how smart he was. I hated knowing that the home that should be his one day would always be tainted with rejection. That he would never be given his birthright like so many generations before him.

I smiled and nodded, “Kind of like that. When we moved here, I was given two second chances. One to be able to give you a better life, and another mate.”

“Mrs. Neti said that when you find your mate you can’t resist them. That you have a special bond. How come you can stay away from Alpha Hayden?”

This is where hate comes in. I didn’t want to have to explain to anyone why I was resisting the bond. I noticed she was too, but I didn’t question her either.

“Let’s get you ready for dinner. I think if we go in early Ms. Diane will sneak you some of the good veggies.”

Mav began giggling like crazy. One day I had caught him sneaking into the kitchen while I was setting up the dining room, and when he came out he had a mouthful of cookies. When I asked what he was eating, Ms. Diane told me she had snuck him some “good veggies”. Later that night, she explained that she had traded him cookies for him finishing his entire plate, and he did. So, every night he finished his entire plate because his tummy is used to it. Most nights he passed out before the cookies come but at least he was eating healthily.

Dinner was just as uneventful as usual. Mav spoke to everyone about his day, and everyone hung on every word. Even Hayden. It wasn’t until someone brought out a huge cake and began the birthday song did Mav finally stop talking. The dining room had cleared out and it was just our table left. Bentley was singing the loudest and swinging back and forth Rich. His mate, Emma, was snapping pictures, and Hayden looked happier than I had ever seen her.

“Make a wish, little dude.” Rich said naming an Alpha Maverick was like naming a pack No Pack.

Mav looked directly at me, and his eyes swept to Hayden and he smiled at me. He took a deep breath and blew out his candles as hard as he could.

After cake and ice cream, Mav was in a food coma and was laid in the middle of the bed. As I was double checking the camera I had installed, there was a soft knock on my door. Jersey knew it was his mate.

Unlike me, he was less than happy to avoid the bond between us. Most nights I spent arguing with him because I wasn’t ready for a mate, and he hated me for keeping me from him. He loved Jeri and her wolf, Monique. They were probably the reason we shifted the second our 18th birthday came around. He knew that Jeri still had a few months, but he was too excited to meet his mate. He knew and though we couldn’t tell her, she knew too. Jersey wasn’t subtle.

He still wasn’t. Some nights we’d catch Alpha Hayden during a run, and he would stalk her. When she caught us, he’d dip as low to the ground and put his tail under his legs and ears flat against his head. He loved her wolf, and he hadn’t even met her yet. She was beautiful though. She was pure white. Almost silver like the moon, and her eyes were the deepest shade of golden that shone brightly during the night.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go on a run with me,” Alpha Hayden asked as I opened the door.

She wore some cut-off Jean shorts and a black tank top.

I grabbed the monitor from my desk and motioned her out of the room.

“I hope you don’t mind making a quick stop.” I showed her the monitor. “Since I can’t have the sound on while I’m patrolling, I give it to one of the warriors downstairs that takes the packhouse night shift.”

She nodded and I led her to the warrior. His name was Nathan. He was Diane’s grandson, one of the 15 she had. Once I explained that Mav was more than likely out for the night, Hayden and I headed towards the trees. I found my normal bag of clothes and buried them under the ground so that no one would take them. It was yet another thing I’d have to break. Hiding all my belongings because I didn’t have much was almost second nature to me in Silver Star. Once I had gone hunting because Noah refused to send food to my cottage. I had just barely shifted, but when I came back my clothes were on fire in a pile along with pictures and things from the packhouse. I wouldn’t be surprised if he burned every picture of my parents and former Beta and Gamma.

I shifted to Jersey, and he immediately shook out his fur. Unlike most Alphas who were black, Jersey was light gray, and had two white stripes on either side of his body. His eyes were ice blue and massive. He stood 6 foot tall on all four feet and probably grew two more feet on his hind legs. Jeri had tried to get him to balance but he didn’t like that. He grumbled that he wasn’t a circus animal.

It wasn’t long until we shifted and ran through the forest. Hayden was fast and agile. She was bigger than most she-wolves, but I took that into the fact she was an Alpha. We found some deer and played with them. Jersey was not happy to hunt, he might have been a Teddy bear to Jeri and Monique, he was still a wolf at heart. He got over it quickly when he saw how much fun Hayden’s wolf was having. She was covered in mud and dirt from rolling around with the deer and our playing in the stream that runs through the forest.

It was around 3 a.m. when we finally changed back into our clothes. I hadn’t really had a good fun run in a few years, but shockingly, I was more energized than I had been in a while. I felt much stronger, and Jersey was bouncing around. Though I wasn’t sure if it was because his mate was so close or because, for the first time in four years, we were being treated like a wolf and not just a slave. We could see a future not just doing things to survive, but actually living again. I got to see a smile on my son’s face every day and that was more than I could have asked for.

“So, how have things been going?” She asked as we walked back to the packhouse.

“Good. It was a major adjustment at first, but no more than the last five years. I mean I went from teenager to Alpha, husband….” I trailed off. “Mav really likes it here. He also never got to see the beauty of Silver Star.”

She looked up at me, even though she wasn’t as tall as most Alphas, she was definitely taller than most she-wolves. I was pushing 6’7, and she came to my chin. When I first came here, she had hair down to her waist but now it was right below her shoulders.

“You got a haircut.” I remarked.

She nodded and pulled a strand in front of her face, “Yeah, uhm… accidently though.”

I titled my head in confusion.

“I told my stylist I wanted a trim, but when she started cutting I got a phone call. I got upset and moved more than I should have.” She growled, “Sorry. Just that stupid call. Did you ever go to the Alpha conventions?”

I nodded. I went every year from the time I was sixteen until Jeri died.

“Every single year, I never actually get to be in the room with the Alphas because, technically, I’m a Luna. ‘Highest ranking female in the pack’. Bullshit if you ask me. If I was mated, I’d be the Luna, but now I’m a f*****g Alpha and those misogynistic dickwads keep me out of the room.”

Jersey released a possessive growl at the idea of her being mated.

Hayden rolled her eyes, “Anyway, this year, apparently, the convention is being held at Sliver Star and when Noah called to double check I was coming..”

Jersey released another growl.

“Anyway, I was wondering if you’d… we could..” She groaned, “Would you be willing to mark each other so that I could get the land I want, and I can also tell Noah to shove it up his ass?”

I froze.

“They won’t take me seriously until I’m marked, because marked usually means mated. I’m not ready to be a couple, but my warriors are about to need bunk beds. I’ve used all my extra space to bring in a lot of people running from different packs. We had to upgrade the hospital.” She groaned. “I still need 30 more cottages to put up, and because of the stupid battle of the d***s, there’s a lot of orphaned pups, and since I have the most single wolves in my pack, they all come to me. So now I have to build an orphanage that I don’t have space for.”

I looked around at the empty space between the packhouse and the forest.

“That’s where the new warrior building is hopefully going to be. Makes the most sense. Would also get warriors out of my basement. I had to redo the cells to turn them into 25 rooms. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to turn cells into livable rooms?” She sighed, “So what do you think?”

I raised my eyebrows. I wasn’t sure how I felt about marking someone who was mostly a stranger, but Jersey was chomping at the bit to mark our mate. To a human it would look like two scars, but to a werewolf it was our wedding ring. Except getting divorced was almost unheard of, and incredibly more painful than losing half of your stuff. It required rejection, a witch tearing apart your soul, and a lot of paperwork. I had only ever seen one rejection, in the end, the male wolf died. He couldn’t live without his mate. The she-wolf never got a second chance and her wolf refused to speak to her. She was locked up in an institution not long after.

It was both exhilarating and terrifying. The idea of being bonded to someone again, knowing that I would have my mate back in my arms. The feeling of being whole after many years of being incomplete. I never thought I could have that feeling again, yet there I stood in front of my mate. She asked me to mark her. To make her mine, and me hers. Thought she’s not. She’s asking me to give her the rightful place at the table of Alphas. The one that should have been her brother’s, but she had fought tooth and nail to become just as deserving of her pack as I had been.

I knew I didn’t have much time to think about it, as the convention was just a few days away. One day would be needed for her mark to heal, and another day to let our wolves adjust to being mated. We would have to spend our free time together to keep our scents mixed. After that, it would be simply to keep our wolves from going insane.

“You know you are asking me to make you mine? Once we are bonded, we can’t reject each other without dying. If something happens to you, I will not be granted a third mate and my wolf will slowly die if he doesn’t kill us himself.” I wanted this to be as plain and simple as it could be. Of course, there was nothing simple about a mate bond. It was complex and though wolves had been around for thousands of years, the mate bond was still as unknown as what was buried in the deepest ocean.

“I’m asking for your mark. We won’t be mating anytime soon, and I don’t plan on you being my Alpha. I just need the mark of my mate.” She grumbled.

“What’s to say that they won’t ask me to sit at the table instead of you? Alpha wolves are dominant creatures. It’s in our DNA.”

She snorted, “Yet here I stand. One of the few female Alphas. Those other female Alphas don’t go to the conventions due to being denied their seat. It’s easier to send their mate to their place. I’m not for easier.”

Jersey huffed in agreement. We could tell there would be nothing easy about our mate, but he couldn’t wait to bond with her, nonetheless.

“I will have to come to the meeting. A newly mated Alpha will not be able to spend that much time away from his mate.” I sighed. “Mav will have to come as well. I trust your warriors and your pack, but I cannot allow my son to be out of my sight for that long. He’s never spent that long without me.”

“Does that mean you accept my terms?” She asked.

I nodded. “Does this make me an Alpha or a Luna?” Jersey growled in annoyance.

At one point in my life, I was a jokester. I loved playing pranks, especially on my Beta and my parents. Mom hated it the most, but I was her only child. She put up with a lot more than she should have. Now all I want is for one of these nights to be revenge for my pranks. I would take all of this grief and pain, if it meant they could all come back to me.

Hayden giggled before turning on her heel. We made small talk up the stairs. My time was mostly talking about Mav. Of all the things I was proud of, it was him. I had saved the last bit of money from Gloria to buy him a present he should have been given the moment he was brought home. Of all the things Gloria could have saved, those family heirlooms were locked up tight in the safe of my parents’ bedroom. Most people didn’t even know the safe was there. It was possible that Noah hadn’t destroyed them because he didn’t know they were there.

For years, my father rejected any sort of jewelry, except the bracelet that held the crest of our family. It was blood red, black, and gold with three arrows and a lion in the background. I used to have a matching bracelet that was a thick leather material, and each year my father would have to have it fixed to fit my wrist. That was the day he’d take me to the jeweler and have my wrist measured, after we’d spend the day going to do different things. He took me to a baseball game once. I didn’t understand it, but I was more than excited to spend time with my dad just us. It was the only time we could just be father and son rather than Alpha and future Alpha. Those days weren’t anyone relied on us, we just got to be. I wanted that with Mav.

At my door, I opened the door just a little bit to see that Mav was still tucked in safely and sleeping as soundly as possible. The sugar from the cake and ice cream crashed into his little body.

“Do you want to do it tonight?” Hayden asked.

I nodded. The sooner we did this, the more believable it would be that she had actually found her mate rather than showing up to the convention with a fresh mark.

She led me to her room. It was not what I was expecting. Smaller than most master bedrooms and reminded me of Jeri’s bedroom when we were teenagers. I looked around at all the pictures of her and her brother until he was sixteen.

“I.. Sleeping in my parent’s room freaks me out. Even when I was a pup. If I had a nightmare or something, they would either come in here or we’d make a huge fort in the living room. When they moved out, I didn’t see any point in moving my stuff when it was perfectly set up the way I like it. I wanted to redo the entire floor, but…” She trailed off.

I sat on the small couch in front of her bed while she sat on her bed and pulled a pillow into her lap. The pillow was a deep pink color with tassels. We sat in silence for a few minutes before Hayden let out a deep huff and groan.

“You’ve done this before. Was it this awkward with her?”

I gave her a small smile, “Yes and no. Jeri and I were together for three years before I marked her. Which means I was a virgin. I had no idea what I was doing, and my wolf was absolutely no help. But we had already established that we were mates by the time we got this far.”

“What would have happened if you weren’t mates?” She asked. “Would you have rejected your mate for her?”

Shockingly, I had never been asked that question. Everything about Jeri drew me in from the second I met her. Even if I couldn’t feel the bond yet, there had been no doubt in my mind that she was my mate.

“Jeri wouldn’t have let me reject my mate. Jeri’s parents were chosen mates, and though her mother loved her father, the feeling wasn’t reciprocated. One day when Jeri was fourteen, she caught her father with another she-wolf, and her mother… well, her mother couldn’t take the pain. So, Jeri moved to Silver Star. Jeri wouldn’t want to feel what her mother did.”

She looked sad at that.

“But on my eighteenth birthday, I scented her, and I knew. Just like I knew with you.”

She smiled slightly. “Let’s do this.”