Heart of Glass

The Scent

The next morning, I woke up with the sun rays falling from the window curtains. I looked at the time and groaned. It was seven already. The distance between the pack house and the castle was only a half an hour drive. But I don’t know why, I had a feeling that I had to get there to the castle even before our appointed time. Alex was yipping constantly. I didn’t know the reason.

“Will you shut it down, you’re behaving like a fool.” I internally smacked his snout.

“no, I wont. I’m excited about today’s trip. Now, be quick and get ready. We need to go the castle. NOW.”

“what the f**k, Alex. You never behaved like this. If you don’t give me proper reason now, I’ll call alpha Henry myself, and will cancel the meeting.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” I gave him the look.

I was already in the bathroom, in front of the mirror, brushing my teeth. Now, if someone looked at me from behind, at the mirror, at my expressions, they would think immediately that I have gone insane. It would look like, I ran from some mental asylum. My expressions were changing every second.

“Ok, Ok. Now don’t go all mad on me. I have this feeling that we might meet our mate there.” This jolted me up right out of my half sleepy state. The thought of finding my mate was exciting. Now I understood why Alex was running around and yipping like a puppy dog early in the morning. “Hey,” he said, though I could feel his wolfy grin, with his tongue hanging sideways.

I smacked myself internally. I was an alpha for goddess’ sake and here my wolf was behaving nothing but a 5 year old on sugar rush. How did I end up with such a stupid? It is always like this with him, ever since I met him, when I was 13 yrs old. He was always cheery, optimistic and childish. Me, on the other hand, was quiet, composed and serious at times, when the situation demanded. Him and me, we agreed together and acted as one, only when the matters at hand concerned the pack’s safety and it’s wellness.

“One more of those comments from you, I would smack you.” He said. Like he can do it actually. I rolled my eyes and quickly showered and changed myself into a black button down shirt, black jeans and formal shoes. I was going to meet high alpha. So I need to look presentable. I combed my hair and went downstairs to see that my beta and 5 of my best warriors already up and ready for today’s meeting.

“Can you feel it alpha? My wolf is on edge already today and is looking forward for today’s meeting”, Landon, one of the warriors spoke up. Everyone nodded quickly, saying that they too can feel the tension. So, I was not the only one to feel it. I thought I was going mad.

“Ok guys, let’s eat up and we’ll go by walk. It’s only half an hour drive from here. By the time we reach the castle, I guess, we can calm down this feeling whatever we’re having now. So that we can meet alpha Henry in a sane way. I don’t want him to be looking down at us as one looks at mental patients.” Everyone just laughed out loud and said “Yes alpha.”

As on cue, Maggie, one of our cooks came with trays of food with eggs, bacon, sandwiches, orange juice, cereals and milk. Maria, our pack house caretaker, too came and took a seat besides Jacob. She was his grandmother and had seen her fair share of generations of alphas taking charge. She had a kind and warm smile on her lips and looked at us with affectionate eyes.

“Ready to go and meet alpha Henry, George?” she asked me with a glint in her eyes. Something about her smile told me that she knew something was up. But I didn’t ask her anything. If it was worth sharing, she would tell me immediately I thought. But there was a mischief hidden in her smile. Was she teasing me?

“Maria? Is there anything you know about? I know that mischievous look” I said.

“Ah, don’t worry about me darling. I can just sense your wolf behaving like a puppy jumping up n down.” Being an Elder, coming from an older alpha family, she had her own abilities to sense either danger or emotions. And right now, with Alex behaving childishly, I had to smack myself internally.

“Urghh.. just let me be Maria” I groaned and she laughed incredulously. Everyone joined her. Well, that’s my pack to you in normal situations. Except for Maria, and few other older she-wolves, who worked in the pack house, and maintaining it, everyone were almost of my age or at the maximum, 10 years older. That’s it. All the elderly people were there in Royal Luna pack, some taking up jobs in alpha Henry’s restaurants, or training the warriors and in the negotiation teams, or patrol. Some took up the job to teach us wolves in the pack high school located in the castle grounds. So we were all energetic and enthusiastic at all times and having someone with a firm hand was much needed in the pack house, to keep it in one piece. Maria took that task into her hands and so far, except for my office and bedroom, every other room, retained its piece of furniture intact.

“well, I’ll be leaving now Maria, Karl will be here soon. He’ll be taking care of things while I’m out.” With that, I nodded to everyone else and we started towards the castle. The forest was quiet today but there was a slight change in the air, we could feel some kind of power rolling out from the castle. We reached our destination in silence, everyone downed in their own thoughts. I wonder if the wolves in the castle felt the power rolling out. As quick as it came, it disappeared. I knit my eyebrows in frustration.

“Did you guys feel that?” I asked looking at my beta and warriors.

“Feel what alpha?” they asked me in unison. I frowned. Why was I the only one to feel it? What was happening? I definitely needed to find it out. Something real quick has happened in the castle and only I felt it. Now that I looked up at the castle, the power came in from the western wing. That’s where the alpha’s office was. I frowned even further and quickened my pace.

As soon as I reached the castle grounds, my wolf was suddenly alert and was talking all gibberish. I couldn’t even make a single word out of it. “calm down Alex, you are giving me a headache” I said. He huffed and went silent. We were met by a young wolf sprinting towards us.

“Hello Alpha George, I’m Lance. A patrol team member. What can I do for you?”

“I’m here to request an audience with alpha Henry. Can you please inform him? We’ll wait here.”

“Sure alpha. I’ll be back soon” with that he shifted into a small grayish brown wolf and ran towards the castle. Judging by his wolf form, I noticed that he was quite young, 15 to 16 years old may be. We waited there for like around ten minutes in one of the many gazebos placed around this side of the castle and soon Lance came back with news.

“Alpha George, alpha Henry is in a meeting right now with his beta and few pack members. He’ll see you soon. He has asked me to accommodate you in the eastern wing, while you wait. He also have prepared a lunch for you while your meeting. Please, follow me this way.” With that he started towards the castle and we followed him to the eastern wing. We were given rooms in the first floor of the eastern wing. As soon as I was about to reach the room given to me, a smell hit me like a lightning. A smell of mint, chocolate and strawberries. I knew it by the way I felt about the smell, it was my mate’s. my wolf was running around and was doing a dance. I wanted to follow the smell and find out who it was. I took a step and was suddenly stopped by the young wolf from earlier.

“Alpha George, your room is this way.” He was looking at me expectantly. I nodded at him and asked him, “who’s there in that room?” I pointed out to a white double door room with golden detailing. That’s the room the scent was coming from. I was dead set on finding out who my mate was. Since, it was a room in the eastern wing, I knew my mate was not from this pack and was visiting the alpha, just like us.

“I’m sorry alpha. You know we cannot disclose any of those details, until and unless high alpha makes it clear to us. Kindly bear with us. You may know it soon.” Lance said. Though there was politeness in his tone, the sternness of the words can be noted. There was no point anymore in asking him or any other about my mate. I had to wait until I met alpha Henry. I sighed and went into the room allotted.

I lied down on the bed in the middle of the room and soon I dozed off. I didn’t even notice it, until Karl, my third in command mind linked me saying “Alpha, rogues at our borders. They’re trying to get in.” immediately I rushed out of my room, mind linking my beta and warriors about the situation. I found the same lad Lance on the grounds where I saw him earlier and quickly explained him the situation. With that, me, my beta and my warriors, we shifted into our wolves and ran towards our pack, howling. If the Royal Luna pack members could hear us, they can surely make out of our howling, a call for help.

“I wanted to see my mate.” Alex whined in my head on my way back.

“I know Alex, but there’s a serious situation at hand. Focus.” I said to him.

“I want to kill each and every one of those bastards for dragging me back home, before I even met my mate,” he whined and growled in anger. I felt the same. I was very angry on those stupid rogues. Can’t they find any other time to show themselves? It was not like I wanted them to attack, but, their timing was literally bad. I felt my mate after a long time and before I knew who she was, I was being dragged back home.

“we’ll be back soon Alex, have patience for now. Our dear ones are in danger.” With that he growled angrily and took control over, pushing our paws even more faster in anticipation to reach the pack soon. Within moments, we were joined about 30 warriors and the beta Cole leading them. We all together reached our pack in no time and could see about a hundred wolves fighting our patrol team. A few warriors were also there extra, fighting the rogues. All in all, there was no big damage and the rogues didn’t even manage to cross the borders.

“Damn they did the best, I’m so proud of our pack” my beta mind linked me. I couldn’t say it any better at that time. I was really proud. We soon joined the fight and the rogues were all dead within seconds. We managed to catch two of them. I shifted immediately to my human form and put on some pants, from a nearby shed, where we stashed our clothes for emergency purposes.

I looked around to find beta Cole and his warriors, and said “I sincerely thank you Beta Cole and your warriors for the help. Kindly thank Alpha Henry on our behalf. Today’s audience didn’t happen, but I certainly will visit him tomorrow, after I’m done with these two rogues.”