Violet

Three

One year ago my father, Donovan Price, stepped down from his role as Alpha to the Loretta pack here in Richmond, Virginia. One year ago is when my father handed the reigns to me and allowed me to step into the leadership role I was destined to have. Since that point in time, I have succeeded in running this pack similar to the way my father did, with respect, loyalty and authority. I trust my pack members with my life and I know they trust me with their lives to lead them, hold them accountable, and bring order to the pack. Naturally there were a few who opposed my taking over the Alpha role, naturally they were offered the chance to challenge me in human or wolf form. 

I often sought my father’s advice on situations that seemed out of my control, on scenarios that needed my immediate attention, but needed to be handled with delicacy. This was one of those times. 

I was sat in my study, in the pack house, joined by my father, Renaldo, my beta, Mason Riddle, and my gamma, Colin Hendrix. Mason had come to me this morning with news of a potential threat from a neighboring pack, the Gemma pack. For a long time we had been in good standing with them, until recently when a small tousle broke out between two of our warriors and two of theirs. Days after that had been settled the Gemma pack had sent two of their warriors to my pack borders. They didn’t cross the border line, however, they did pace on their side. Mason and Colin were doing a routine run following the border line when they found the Gemma warriors. 

“Tell me again what was said.” I spoke with authority, but refrained from using my Alpha command. Mason lifted his eyes from the ground and met mine. 

“When we approached them, I requested to know was business they had here. They turned and ran.” Mason spoke quickly while I frowned at my father. 

“I thought our issues with the Gemma Pack had been dealt with, are you aware of any remaining hard feelings?” I asked my father, hoping he could feed me some insight. 

“Not that I am aware of. Although, truthfully, it is possible they simply went for a run and ran too far beyond their own borders. Until a greater threat is made, I don’t think it’s anything to get worked up over. We made alliances with them a long time ago, it’s not worth breaking that alliance simply because some warriors came too close to our borders.” My father responded while raising an eyebrow at me. It was a challenge in his eyes. With a nod of my head, I deflated my uptight poster. Silently, I turned towards Mason and Colin. 

“Keep a watchful eye out for anything unusual but until something pops off it’s best to leave it be.” I spoke my final piece with a firm nod of my head. 

“Alpha.” They responded in unison and when all was quiet again I moved on to another topic. 

“I am going to go for a run, make sure everything is in order for the banquet. I believe it has been decided by the pack members that it will be held next Friday. Those newly shifted pups are creating quite the buzz around the pack.” My response was thoughtful and I could feel the tension in the air release at my comment. 

“Yes, I don’t think I have ever seen Rowena so excited before.” Colin responded with a chuckle. 

Rowena is his mate and their son Max had his first shift at fifteen. Rowena was beyond ecstatic to have been there to see him shift for the first time. The Loretta pack usually holds a banquet for pups that have had their first shift as a way to celebrate the shifting and create a positive connections between shifting and pack duties. At the banquet the pups are introduced to the pack and given the opportunity to ask for a position they want later in life, such as warrior or pack nurse. They are allowed to want and say they want the Alpha position, however, it is a mutual understanding that unless one is an Alpha heir they will not take the Alpha position without drastic measures taking place. 

“It’s good that she’s excited. They all should be. Now if everyone will excuse me, I need to go for a run.” I spoke while I made my way to the door of the office, brushing passed my father with a brief nod and a slight smile. He returned the nod and smile with his own and slowly everyone made their own way out of the meeting room, through the pack house. Pack members were everywhere, the house was bustling with noise and the overall atmosphere seemed happy. It made me feel like a proud Alpha to know that my pack members are as close to each other as they are to me. We still had our own family drama from time to time, but hadn’t had anything more severe than a couples quarrel over the last few years. 

Pack members bowed their heads when I moved passed them, some occasionally murmuring a quiet, “Alpha” or, “Alpha Aiden”. I respond with a head nod or a handshake and before long I notice I had made my way out of the pack house and onto the grounds. The pack house was built more like a vacation home. The house in itself held five bedrooms, one very large kitchen, five bathrooms, a spacious living room, and a den for the pups to play in. Outside of the pack house the dirt roads stretched to the left of the house, leading to the pack members private homes and in the front and back of the pack house was spacious wooded land for the members to runt through when their wolves needed out. 

I made my way through the trees, in front of the house, until I felt I was far enough away to shift into my wolf. I would often shift in front of pack members, however, for this moment I wanted to be on my own for a run. Once I halted my trek through the trees I reached down to untie my black boots when the sound of my ringtone blared out in the silence, causing all motion to cease. I let out a frustrated sigh as I straightened up and pulled out my phone, not bothering to check the caller ID. The only people who had my phone number were those in this pack and my patients for stalling my run was wearing thin. My wolf, ready to burst out of me, began whining in my head at the prospect of having to wait even longer to run. 

“What is it?” I asked gruffly into the phone. 

“Alpha, this is Regina, I am sorry to bother you if you are busy but I felt it important to pass some information along.” Regina Gardner’s voice was heard on the other end of the line. 

Regina is considered an elder of the pack. A few years back she lost her mate, Edmund, due to an attack at the border line. Rouges had killed him and after his death Regina felt it to be too difficult to live on pack land. She didn’t want to severe her ties with the pack so instead she and my father agreed she could live separate from the pack lands and work in the town but still provide good use to the pack as she provided intel on the humans. Some of the intel was useful, like if a human planned to come close to the pack territory for camping on nights when our newly turned pups were to go for a run; some of it pointless, like funny or odd encounters she had with the humans that day. 

She and I are close as she used to babysit me when I was a pup, when my father had business to attend to and my mother had Luna duties to uphold. I never bothered to ask her how she gathered the intel but I assumed it was due to her kind nature. People just wanted to talk to her. It was a great feature for her to have. 

“What is the information?” I asked softly, not wanting to be rude to the woman who did most of my raising when I was young. 

“A girl just moved to town, I believe she is human, nothing special about her until I spoke with her. I can’t explain why but there were a few times in the conversation I had with her that I accidentally almost called her Luna, she had a different presence about her. Her name is…” I cut her off before she could continue. 

“Regina, you know as well as I do that I have not found my mate. I have not had any signs that my mate is in this town. Now, you have interrupted my run, if this human girl is no threat to the pack then I need to go attend to more important matters.” I spoke up harshly. 

I hadn’t wanted to be rude to her but I had no patience for Regina’s matchmaking games right now. She had been trying to pair me up with any unmated female for months now as a way to gain the pack a Luna but I grew tired of it when I had no special mate bond with any of them in the past. I heard no response on her end of the line so I chose to bid my goodbye’s. 

“I am hanging up now, I will come by the diner later and see you.” 

I spoke up, only to met with silence once again.

With a shake of my head, I hung up the phone and continued on stripping myself of my clothing. Once the clothes were off, I found a hallowed out tree and placed the clothes in them. Without a second thought of Regina or the girl she spoke of, I shifted quickly. My wolf, Rune, stretched out his muscles and quickly bathed himself down in his our scent. As an Alpha wolf, I stand much larger than the others, only slightly larger than my father’s wolf. Possibly about the height of regular chair at a dining table. I was midnight black with bright amber eyes. 

Rune wanted to take the reins and I could feel his mentality pushing on mine in my head. I gave way to him quickly so we could communicate. 

“Run, Rune wants to run!” He shouted in my head. 

“I know you do, I will have us run however, I need to make sure we don’t get too close to the humans and scare them.” I spoke to him through our own mind link and when I received no argument, I took off in a sprint through the trees. I remained silent as I watched the forest around me fly by. I had no set destination in mind and neither did Rune. We were simply enjoying the feeling of the wind ruffling up our fur. Once I felt we were a safe distance away from anyone I retreated further within myself and allowed Rune to have even more control. I stared out through his eyes as he super focused on the dust particles in the air and the sounds of rushing water from a small brook only a few miles away. 

He listened to the other animals arounds us and quickly moved towards the sounds of water. The human part of me didn’t mind the taste of fresh water from the brook. It was the taste of dead animals that we killed that I wasn’t a fan of. The strong iron taste and strange roadkill smell aren’t at all my most favorite things when it comes to shifting. Usually I try to limit the amount of dead animal Rune tries to ingest and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It wasn’t until I felt a pang of hunger and smelt the fresh blood of a small rabbit nearby that I realized this was going to be one of those times where I’d have to deal with the not so favorable downsides to shifting into a wild wolf. 

I allowed my mind to flit to other, less important things, as Rune continued to hunt, run and play around while he had the time. It wouldn’t be long now before we would have to change back so I could take care of the pack needs and go to see Regina. Internally I smiled at the thought of seeing her again. It had been such a long time, and despite her frustrating matchmaker tendencies, I am still very excited to spend some quality time with her at the diner.