The Healer's Son

“Dad, I have been through this with you over a hundred times. I promise, I understand.” I groaned at my father who was going over meeting etiquette for the hundredth time. “I know this, Gabe, but one of these days you will be entering a meeting with me and I want you to be prepared when you do. Your mother is very pushy about you being prepared for when you have to take over as Alpha and I want you to be ready as well. This is all for your own good.” I looked into my father’s tired brown eyes as he spoke and smiled softly to myself. I want to be Alpha, it’s my duty to my pack, and it’s what my parents want. I’m passionate about being a good leader, I just had a hard time remembering that sometimes. “I know, dad. Let’s go over it again.” I shared a small smile with my father before he went over how to act in a professional setting with humans and the difference between that and a professional setting with wolves. We had been in his office for a few hours when we both finally decided to call it quits. I love my father, and we are close, but I don’t think we will ever truly understand each other the way my mom and I do. Rose and dad are like two peas in a pod, they are best friends, and sometimes I think I’m jealous of that, but it just isn’t who me and my dad are. I walked out of his office, leaving him at his desk to work on pack duties and heading out to the backyard where I knew Griffin would be. “Alpha make you study?” He teased as I took my shirt off and jumped into the pool in my basketball shorts. “Beta make you study?” I teased back. “Touche.” He joined me in the water but he was wearing his swim trunks so I knew he had been planning on swimming. We swam for a while, not bothering to engage in any conversation since we both knew our brains were so tired from working with our fathers. After a while, the sun began to set and I knew that someone would be ordering food soon since no one did much cooking in the house except my mom but she was at the neighboring pack’s house all day visiting my Uncle Noah. “Fixing to head in, what do you want for dinner?” I pulled myself out of the pool and grabbed a towel to dry off. “I don’t care. Whatever everyone else wants is fine with me.” Griffin pulled himself out as well but shook his shaggy blonde hair to rid the water instead of grabbing a towel. I rolled my eyes at his actions before walking back inside to see what we were doing for dinner only to be surprised by the three people inside my kitchen. “Austin!” I grinned and pulled my mom's best friend into a hug. “When did you guys get back? I thought it was going to be another week.” “Hey, bud. My mom decided she was tired of us so we cut the vacation short. Grab a seat, I’m fixing to start cooking.” I walked to the bar where Wynter and Willow were sitting and pulled them both into a hug before sitting down beside them. “How is grandma?” I quizzed as he raided our fridge. “I swear, your mother needs to get better at grocery shopping,” He laughed. “This fridge is nearly empty. She is doing okay, she misses you and your sister.” “Mom wants to take a trip up to see her during winter break so we will see her soon, I miss her too.” “She gave me gifts for you and Rose.” Wynter jumped into the conversation. “Where is she?” I smiled to myself at the girl. Rose and Wynter were so connected at the hip you would think they were twins instead of me and Rose. Wynter’s nearly white hair was in a plait showing off her natural features since she hated makeup. With her and my sister standing together with her fiery red hair, they were a sight to see. “No, she said she was going to watch soccer practice at the human school and cry because she is lonely.” I teased my twin, adding the last part. “Haha.” Wynnie rolled her eyes to match her fake laugh. “What are you making, dad?” Willow joined in. “I’m thinking spaghetti because that seems to be the only thing that Blake has in the kitchen. Does that sound good?” “That sounds amazing.” Griffin walked into the room and answered before anyone else could. I watched Willow squirm in her seat at the sight of my Beta-to-be. Her crush on him was painfully obvious to everyone except Griffin. “I thought you were going to be gone another week?” He asked the same question I had while going to the fridge to get a bottle of water. “We decided to come home early and I knew that Blake was busy so I figured I would cook for you kids instead of letting you eat pizza for the third night in a row.” “Pizza is food for the brain.” Griffin smirked. “Maybe you should eat more then because it hasn’t done anything for you yet.” The three of us let out a loud laugh at Austin’s dig toward Griffin’s grades. Griff rolled his eyes and joined us at the bar to watch Austin cook. I entered in the plain conversation randomly but spent most of my time rolling my eyes when Griffin and Willow both stole glances each other's way without the other one knowing. One of these days, one of them will open their eyes and see that none of this is one sided but that day is not today. “Dinner is ready, call your dad.” I obliged by Austin’s request and opened up a mindlink. Dinner is ready. Be there in a minute. None of us waited for anyone else to join before digging into the food. After so much junk food, it was nice to have a home cooked meal. The conversation was light for the most part, Austin and Wynnie talking about the trip and how Grandma is doing while Willow and Griffin acted awkward around each other. Eventually my dad and Uncle Zach came to eat, leading us into an entirely new conversation about different pack affairs and how mom is doing at work. I didn’t typically enjoy eating dinner with everyone but this was one of the nights that I did. After dinner, I cleaned up and went up to my room to work on homework. Most of my homework was magic based because our headmaster at the Academy, my aunt Emily, wants me and Rose to reach our full potential like mom but magic never came easily to me. For Rose, it was like breathing, everything came second nature to her when it comes to our witch side. For me, I typically gave up an hour after repeating the same spell and nothing happening. I enjoyed being a wolf and I think a part of me was looking forward to being Alpha so much because then I would know that at least one part of me was successful. I sat down at my desk and closed my eyes to connect to my inner-self. This week's lesson for Empath’s is to focus on clearing our mind and conjuring something from our mind into reality. Rose and I were the only Empath’s in the school so the lesson was only for us but aunt Emily is very prideful in our special lesson plans. I kept my eyes closed and focused, trying to pull the image of a pen I had in my mind to my hand but the more I focused the more my head hurt and the less likely it was going to happen. “Ugh!” I grunted out loud and hit my hand against my desk before mumbling to myself. “I can do this. I can do this!” I closed my eyes again and evened my breathing out to calm myself down before trying again. I imagined a pen in my mind and slowly pulled it to the forefront before I could nearly feel its weight in my hands. “Gabriel?” I heard my mom call for me from downstairs. “Dammit!” I rubbed my eyes harshly at my mom's voice as I cursed to myself. I almost had it. We both knew that she could have mindlinked me but I was grounded and she was upset so she was going to make everything more difficult on me. “Yeah?” I shouted back and I knew it would make her roll her eyes. Get down here. I groaned as she opened a mindlink which I didn’t respond to. I sluggishly pulled myself out of my desk chair and headed down the stairs to see what my mom wanted. “Yes, mother?” I plastered on a smile that she knew was fake. She rolled her bright green eyes that mirrored my own as she pulled her long black curly hair into a messy bun on top of her head. Even though I was taller than my mom, her height never stopped her from intimidating me so when she gave me a glare I straightened up. “Your sister is bringing a friend to the hospital. He got a concussion during soccer practice and she wants me to go to the hospital and check him out.” My mother spoke. “Why can’t aunt Allysa go do it?” I groaned in response. Since I was grounded, I had to go everywhere my mom went when I wasn’t in school and I didn’t want to go all the way across pack territory to the hospital. “Because Rose asked me to do it.” She hesitated for a moment as she smelled the air and her eyes lit up. “Is Austin back early?” “Yeah, he cooked dinner for us because he didn’t want us to order food again. I think he is downstairs with Wynnie. Willow is outside with Griffin.” I answered and smiled to myself when I watched my mom grin. Austin was her best friend and she is always happier when he is here. She wanted to go with him to see Grandma but he convinced her not too since she had work to do here. “Okay, I’m going to go say hello. Get dressed and meet me back here in five minutes.” I grumbled in response, not daring to argue with my mother. Everyone in the pack knew that she could kick their ass without hesitation so typically it was her way or no way. I walked back upstairs to my room to put a shirt and shoes on so I wasn’t leaving the house in just my shorts, before meeting my mom by the front door. She grasped my hand in silence before warping us to the hospital in a split second. When I teleported with her when I was younger it would always give me a headache because I hadn’t used magic so I wasn’t prepared, but now when we teleport it is nothing but a normal occurrence since my magic helps combat hers. We entered the front doors of the hospital and I assumed my mom knew where she was going so I followed behind her up two flights of stairs. As soon as we got to room 224, she knocked before we both walked in. “Rose, my love. What happened?” My mom began to speak but my mind was taken away from her words. As soon as I walked into the room that held my sister and her friend, I was hit by the most sickeningly sweet smell. It was like lavender and lilies but only if someone had bathed in their scent. I was taken off guard so abruptly that I had to stifle a cough. I looked around the room trying to find the source when my eyes landed on her. Her light blonde hair and soft smile captured me. I was in a trance unable to move a muscle as if her eyes held me in place. Everything about her was perfect, down to the freckles that littered her face and shoulders. She laid in the hospital bed with her eyes watching the ceiling and her body relaxed, the embodiment of a Goddess on Earth. All of her features were equally beautiful, not a single one standing out of another except her eyes. She had one blue and one brown and it was then that I realized she is part human part healer. Mate. “Rose, where is your friend?” My mothers confused tone broke my trance but I hadn’t moved a muscle. My mom had assumed that Rose’s friend was a boy. “This is her, this is Jo.” Jo. I stood there, frozen in my spot. Staring at the girl in front of me as I felt my brain and my heart being altered all within moments. She looked at me quizzingly but there was nothing in her expression to show that she felt what I was feeling. That she felt the mate bond materialize out of thin air. How had I never seen her before? How had I never met her? Surely she split her time between the human school and the academy like the rest of the wolves in our pack did. It made sense I wouldn’t have run into her at the human school because it held wolves from three different packs along with thousands of humans, but the academy was small. It only allowed wolves and witches from our pack and our territories inside. How could I not have seen her there? My brain began spinning. All of these thoughts and fantasies and ideas of what my mate would be like. I would meet her once I had taken my place as Alpha. She would be a full blood healer to match my lineage. We would have an easy relationship where I handled pack affairs and she handled the society of the pack. It would be normal. It would be easy. We would do what Alpha’s and Luna’s have always done before my parents changed it. I wouldn’t recreate my parents' mistakes. My brain started swirling, I felt like I was either going to faint or vomit and neither of those were options. So I chose what had never failed me before. I ran.