The Alpha Fate

CHAPTER 3

I flipped through the pages of the book in my hand and sighed for the tenth time within the hour. It had been a long week of learning everything about the pack and it turned out that everything Braiah taught me was just a tip of the iceberg and there was a lot more I didn’t know about, like the underground caves that housed the captured members of the other packs, people I once thought were killed and left to rot in the deadlands.

They were very much alive, working as miners in the mines I never knew existed before. The council superiors had come visiting two days after my official announcement and had sat me down to make me understand the weight of my responsibility. It was a lot and turned out, only the council was aware of everything, the rest of the pack was in complete ignorance.

There was a knock on the door and I hesitated. I wasn’t in the mood to see anyone, not to mention talking, but then, it seemed every other person was willing to talk and whatever they had to say was vital, could not be ignored.

It was Myra and she informed me that Kane wanted to see me.

He said his greetings as he walked in, his eyes scanning the drawing room where I spent most of my time of late.

“You wanted a word?”

“Yes,” he smiled “First, I must say, you are on to a great first start.”

I scoffed, that was too hard to believe “I am glad,” I replied “Hoping for a good end eventually, that’s all that matters, right?’’

He stared at me but didn’t reply. “When will you be willing to tour the grounds?” he asked.

“When I feel I am ready, there’s still much other things to think of. The paper work is a lot, I am carefully going through every one of them.” I stared suspiciously at him. “There is so much pressure about me making the ground tour already? What’s the hurry? What else are you keeping from me?”

He humped “Some workers are dead, and that’s normal, some can’t withstand the heat, others are too old...” my stomach tightened but he kept speaking “Others, overworked. We need your order to clear up and dispose of the bodies in such situations. It’s a ritual and without the alpha, it isn’t done.”

I thought of bodies, and it made me remember my grandmother. She died a peaceful death, but I still remembered how helpless she looked, she knew she was running out of time and she had called me to her side and whispered to my ears that “I should shine”. I had held onto her and cried, and begged her not to go. She had rubbed my hair and kissed my forehead, and then I had gone in to make her tea. Orji helped me with the bread batter.

She didn’t eat it but she let me know she already knew it tasted as good as always. I had left her to go to sleep, only to return to her lifeless body, surrounded by the other wolves, their distressed cries letting me know this was it.

“What were their crimes? Just trespassing?”

“Yes, spies, trespassers, defeat during a fight with a pack member.”

“What happens when it is a Silverbrooker who loses?” I closed my eyes as I awaited his reply.

“The same thing, they get captured, for what purpose I am not sure.”

I moved away from him as I processed what I had just heard. It meant every lost member of the pack had ended up dead or in some very unpleasant situation.

“I will let you know when I am ready to make that tour.”

He nodded.

I spent the rest of the day completing the book. There were others I needed to look at, of course, but in the meantime, I knew every area that was under my control, and that was good. The things on my to-do list kept getting ticked off as I went through them one after the other, all I knew I could handle except the alerting of the other packs to which we had treaties. I didn’t know how I would ever be able to handle that, especially when we got to the Raven pack. Maverick was no merciful alpha, and it wasn’t just about him, it was something more, memories I didn’t want to awaken after all these years, memories I would love to leave in the past for good.

Talking with Orji wasn’t going to help, not in this case. As much as I loved her, there were some things I didn’t want her to know. The only way to keep a secret was to never tell it that I had learnt, and that rule I found very hard to default. It was one of the reasons I hardly let her read me, even when I wasn’t alpha.

That part of me was too vulnerable to exploit and the few times I let her in, I made sure to block out the parts I needed to stay protected. And I am sure she knew, and that if she really wanted to, she would fight her way through my barriers, but she respected that, and she didn’t cross that line.

It was one of the many reasons I loved her, that, and also the fact that I was weirdly attracted to her, and if possible, would pick her as my partner. I didn’t know if she felt the same way, but I knew she had a hint, I was bad at hiding my feelings for her. Each time we communicated as wolves, I felt her, and her heart was warm towards me too, but what would the pack think?

There have never been two female alphas in history. If I decided to give it a try, we would be perceived as weak, and that’s taking it too far. I didn’t think she would want that either.