Aurora’s Life of Dreams

Terrified Excitement

Jett’s POV

I was nervous about coming home, but the best kind of nervous. Going away was rough, but leaving her was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I knew that it was part of my responsibility to become the Alpha, but that didn’t make it any easier.

I want to be Alpha and to do that I needed to mentor and see how different packs navigated so I could figure out the kind of leader I want to be. Becoming Alpha came with being a Connor and I have always wanted that responsibility, since I was my father’s first born I felt the need to love and protect this pack intensely from a young age.

Mount Fern Pack was the most beautiful place you’d ever see. We are in the mountains of Tennessee, my grandfather however many generations back loved the mountains and water so he found territory that had both, a large lake resides on the east side of the territory with mountains lined behind the pack house. When the pack first branched from the Iron Clay Pack we were small, just over 100 members, the two mountains on the north of our territory, the lake, the pack house and the village were all that we claimed. Now at almost 2,000 members we have expanded the borders to include all five mountains, two lakes inside the territory, the daffodil meadows, the pack house and village with lots of cottages and cabins now scattered all around the territory. When my dad took me to the top of our centered mountain to see all of our territory at the age of five I knew then that this was my land, these were my people and it was all mine to protect and care for.

While this pack has been my whole life from the age of five, I expanded that when mom had Payton and four years later when they brought her home. Those two always teamed up to find trouble together, but Payton always found a way to pick on her. That’s where I came in, protector of the little princess. She has always been my best friend, Payton and I never really had much in common other than our blood but she and I always played our sports together, listened to each other, supported one another, gossiped and vented about everything. She and Payton became my whole life with the pack as a close second.

I was happy to be making it home for his birthday, it just saddened me to know I missed hers. The pack I was with at the time in Arizona had poor cell reception so I couldn’t even call. All I was able to do was send a “happy birthday” text which was really lame of me, but of course she responded the way I knew she would “Thanks J, you’re the best brother ever! Can’t wait to celebrate Pay’s when you come home!” It was sweet of her to say but she didn’t know the truth. Being four years older, I took my wolf before she did. When I shifted for the first time, Troy was drawn to her.

*Flashback*

“Do you smell that?”

“Yeah. What is that? It smells like honey...”

I followed the scent and found that we were standing outside my home, but not just my home we were right outside her bedroom window.

“She’s our mate!”

“She can’t be, she’s my sister! I’ve grown up with her since I was 8 years old, she can’t be my mate!”

“But she is. She is ours to love and protect even more so than the pack! We have to protect her! We have to!”

“We will! But I need to speak to dad about this! I’m not even 18 yet how do you even know?”

“As an Alpha we can find our mate sooner than others, it’s not entirely uncommon amongst us.”

“Well I still need to speak to him, this will change everything that we know.”

I could feel Troy’s inner conflict, he wanted to run and be free as it was his first full moon but he didn’t want to leave her. I sat in his mind thinking of her, needing her by my side, protecting and providing for her always. Once we had laid there for over an hour Troy finally got up and ran through the forest. He could feel the wind in his fur and hearing his paws pound against the ground was life changing in itself. He gave out a mellow howl, in all of his running all he could think about is her. He took in one final smell of the mountain air before we shifted back to my form.

“Let’s go talk to our dad.”

“Yes, let’s.”

*Flashback Over*

My dad basically explained to me exactly what Troy said, as an Alpha I can find my mate after I shift for the first time. Because she was adopted and we were always drawn to each other, my parents suspected that we might be mates but they knew they couldn’t be sure until my shift.

It excited me and terrified me to know that she was my mate. Excited because she knows me and I know her, she’s been my best friend since my parents took her in, she is beautiful, confident and strong, caring, and most of all she is respected amongst our pack. Most alphas look for their lunas to be loved yet feared. If there’s anything I’ve learned in my travels is that those mindsets leave people afraid to come to their leaders. But Rory, she’s not feared. The pack has the utmost respect for her. They see how devoted she is to our pack, even without the leadership blood flowing through her veins, and they respect the hell out of her for it.

I’m terrified to think that she may reject me. I’ve known for 6 years that she is my mate and once she got her wolf the love I had for her swelled as my dad said the mate bond would and I kept it all a secret. A big thing with Rory is trust and I’m afraid that I may have broken it beyond repair keeping this from her. I hope that she will see I only did it to protect her from the feelings of not belonging with my parents, my family, that it would make her afraid of what it means to have me as a mate. I don’t know what I’ll do if she doesn’t see that or at least forgive me for keeping it from her.

But I guess now that I’m on my final flight home and just a few short hours away, I’m about to get my answer.