Past Sins

Chapter 2: Matteo

Wolves from all of the neighboring packs were either on their way or have already arrived and here I am locked in my office doing more paperwork so I don’t fall behind this week. I couldn’t afford to pull Barrett, my beta, and Asher, my gamma, from their duties, not with all these extra packs being here I would need the extra eyes on everything and who is better than those two. They couldn’t keep their nose out of anyone's business if they tried so I figure why not put that to my advantage. A knock at the door pulled me from a boring requisition for a new plot of land to be turned into training grounds. I swear the warriors are an entitled bunch, they already have a state of the art gym inside the pack house and outside of it. Barrett and Asher didn’t even wait for me to answer before opening the door and waltzing in. “Hey man! You know that your mother is furious right now that you’ve greeted not ONE of the visiting packs, right?” exclaimed Barrett as he plopped down on the couch and threw his feet on my coffee table. “She would be more mad that you have your feet on the furniture. Besides, I have paperwork to do and little time to do it before the festivities start.” Asher came to my rescue, “Okay let us finish this up and you go shower before Aunt Rory has all of our heads hanging above her mantle.” They both audibly gulped and started sorting through the mess of papers on my desk. “Alright! You finish looking over these last two requests and Barrett you sort through the finances for the companies we own in the human town. I’ll go get dressed and meet you guys in the courtyard in an hour.!” I left the office and sprinted up the steps to my room to get changed. How those bastards found the time to shower and change while helping with any preparations is beyond me. I slammed my door shut behind me and went straight for the shower knowing I was in desperate need of it. I finished up, wrapped a towel around my waist and headed to the closet to pick out the suit I would wear tonight. 

I walked down the steps as the last of the visiting pack members arrived. As predicted my mother intercepted me at the stairs ready to chew my head off about not being there to greet the visiting Alphas. “Matteo Lucas Ramirez! Care to explain where you were today?” Her heel tapped on the hardwood indicating I had thirty seconds to answer her. I descended down the rest of the stairs and kissed her cheeks. “Happy birthday mother! You look lovely as always.” She rolled her eyes and tried her hardest to hide her smile. “Yes, thank you honey. That doesn’t quite answer the question now does it?”

“Just Alpha duties to attend to. I’m here now though and I intend on speaking with all the alphas now. Care to join me?” My mother took my elbow and we began the longest meet and greet of my life. This party was starting to feel like a political tour as I made my rounds greeting everyone and apologizing for my absence upon their arrival. Barrett and Asher had greeted everyone in my place and got them settled so they didn’t have to make the rounds with me, lucky bastards. Once I was convinced that I'd spoken to everyone I ended this political tour gone wrong and made a break for the bar. I flagged down the bartender, “Whiskey, neat please?” I placed a $20 in the tip jar. “Of course Alpha” I leaned against the bar and took in my surroundings. The courtyard was filled with people laughing and having a good time and celebrating my mother. This party was as much about her birthday as it is about the purnima festival. Luckily for us it landed on the same day so planning everything was easy, not that she let us do much of that anyway. The bartender slid my drink over and I lifted the glass taking a much needed sip. I was three drinks in when Barr and Ash joined me. “Teo, You’ve been down here for 15 minutes and you’ve already downed three glasses of whiskey. Wanna pace yourself?” Barrett laughed. “I’m okay, man. Just trying to relax after the most exhausting week ever.” He slung his arm over my shoulder and shook me. “Fun being Alpha isn’t it.?” I rolled my eyes at him. It was Barrett’s life's mission to drive me crazy and he’s been successful so far. The past 23 years with him have been a test of my patience and so far I'm winning. Asher has been a big help as far as that. In our teens Asher and I teamed up constantly to get back at Barrett. My dad used to get so aggravated with us when we were little because of all the pranks we pulled- some of which backfired on him. My grandparents used to laugh and say, “What did you expect? They’re worse than you and your cousins used to be.” My father and my uncles were not blood related but just like barr, ash, and I they were raised as if they were cousins. Our families have been running Autumn Moon together for generations and the bond of family formed on it’s own. Our parents raised us with one motto and standard above all: Family is more than those you share blood with. It’s also those you form an unshakeable bond with. 

Barr and Ash were carrying on in their own personal conversation when I smelled it, the most intoxicating scent ever. I looked around for the source and my eyes locked on the entrance to the courtyard. There stood the most stunning girl in a black and gold dress with a slit so deliciously high that you could see her thigh. Her long black hair was curled and hanging so beautifully down her back. Even though she was across the room I could see those beautiful green eyes looking around in awe. The wolf in me went crazy and then I heard it, the one thing I wasn’t planning on happening tonight. The one thing that I've been waiting on for years.  “MATE!” Six years after turning 18 I finally found her, my mate. “Dude you okay? You’re kinda zoned out” Asher waved his hand in front of my face. Realizing he couldn’t break my concentration he followed my gaze and saw what I was staring at. Smirking he nudged Barrett and pointed over to what had me in a comatose state. “I think our little Matteo has finally found his after party entertainment for this evening.” he chuckled. I let out a low growl at his insinuation that she was anything like the girls that throw themselves at us daily because of our titles. I won’t lie and say I haven’t indulged in that lifestyle before but I made myself and my mother a promise years ago that I would end it. I grabbed my drink off the bar and tossed it back then slammed my glass back down. “I’m going to go talk to her.” I was making my way over when a man came up behind her and snaked his arm around her waist- I stopped dead in my tracks. Who the hell is this guy? The wolf in me began to rear his head. He brushed her hair to the side, planted a kiss on her cheek and she leaned into him, smiling. She obviously recognizes him, I’ll have to take that into account when I rip his arms from his body. He grabbed her hand and led her onto the dance floor. Holding her close to his chest they slowly twirled around the dance floor. Watching my mate waltz with another man was driving me insane but not more than the burning question that was crowding my mind. Why isn’t she being affected by the mate bond the way I am? As I watched her dance with him over and over again I grew more and more annoyed. Ripping his arms off was becoming more of a reality than a passing thought. Whoever it was she was dancing with pulled her in closer and whispered something in her ear. He lifted her chin so she was looking at him and I could swear he was about to kiss her but he didn’t. They just stared into each other's eyes and then he let go and she rested her head on his chest. Keeping myself at bay was getting harder and harder. I tried the deep breathing technique my dad taught me but it wasn’t working. You could load me up with enough tranquilizer to take down a herd of elephants and it wouldn’t make a dent. She was so comfortable being in his arms and it was turning my stomach. They seem to be very close and it makes me wonder how exactly they know each other. If she has a boyfriend it's going to make us being mates all the more difficult- for him that is. It’s always heart wrenching when people who are dating come of age and find out that they aren’t meant to be together forever. 

Barrett and Asher came up beside me at some point while I was staring at them. “I know what you’re thinking and I'm going to go ahead and remind you that he obviously belongs to someone's pack and killing him may kill any alliance we have with them.” Barrett rested his hand on my shoulder- I shrugged him off. “Oddly enough I don’t seem to care about that right now, Barrett.” “Well you better because we have incoming and I doubt they want to witness a blood bath.” I turned to see David, a woman I presumed to be his Luna, and Robert from Silver Fang coming my way- as much as I didn’t want to look away from my mate I couldn’t be rude to my guests so I plastered a fake smile on my face and turned to speak with them. “Alpha David! It’s great that you all could make it. This must be Luna Laura, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’ve heard great things.” I brought her hand to my lips and gave it a kiss then shook hands with david. “Yes this is my wife Laura and I believe you’ve already met my father.”  He gestured to the older man standing next to him. “Yes of course! Robert, it’s nice to see you again.” 

“It is a pleasure to see you again as well, thank you for the invite to the festival and your mothers party. My family and I are honored to attend.”

“Of course. We are delighted that you could be here. I know things have been a bit rough as of late.`` It was common knowledge to all Alphas in attendance that the rogue situation at Silver Fang has gotten a bit out of hand. Ever since the death of their former Luna the rogues have been circling and attacking whenever possible. The fact that they accepted our invitation came as a bit of a shock. Other than us the Silver Fang pack is one of the strongest so I assume that they felt it was safe to travel outside of pack lands. Most Alphas would have stayed behind to protect their pack but Silver Fang is revered for the training of it’s warriors the same as we are. So I have no doubt that those left behind are more than capable of holding down the fort.  “Yes the rogue problem has become a bit of an annoyance but we’re handling it.” Alpha David seemed pretty confident but I still wanted to offer any help I could. I would have to bring it up after the Alpha meeting in the morning. They have been our allies since before my grandfather's time as alpha and I wanted to keep the good faith going.

“Alpha.” Gil, a guard at the border, mindlinked me. 

“Yes Gil?” Please, tell me he’s mindlinking me to let me know he saw a purple unicorn trotting through the forest. I really don’t need something to be going wrong right now! My mother’s birthday party/festival is going off without a hitch, I'd like to keep it that way.

“I’m sorry to disrupt your evening but we have rogues incoming from all sides of the border.” So much for the purple unicorn theory we were working on. I was about to excuse myself when David's eyes glazed over, obviously being mindlinked as well. He must be getting word from his warriors at the border about the rogue. Word is going to spread fast and I need to get this under control. All of the Alphas brought their own warriors to help guard the border since there were so many elite wolves in attendance tonight. Some of which were posh and prissy Alphas daughters who haven’t seen a day of training in their entire lives. I didn’t want to deal with the repercussions if something happened to their little girls. 

“How many?!” 

“A dozen coming at us from the west side of the border. I’ve been in contact with the other areas. They are attacking in groups.” That’s not uncommon since they don’t stand a chance against a highly trained wolf. I opened up the link to Asher and Barrett to alert them of the situation. “Ash? Barr? Rogues are attacking the border. One of you will accompany me to the border while the other stays behind to protect the guests.”

“Where at the border are they trying to break through?” Barrett asked, clearly surprised that they would attack at a party with so many high ranking wolves. We attempted to keep our faces neutral so we didn’t tip anyone off. If the other Alpha’s guards hadn't alerted them to the problem we had time to get it under control.

“All sides.” I said. 

Their eyes widened, coming to the same realization that I did. The rogues were after something to come at us with such ferocity. What it was would have to wait until we got the situation under control. It was decided that Asher would stay behind and guard the guests while we went to the border. Before we could excuse ourselves David spoke, “One of my warriors made me aware of the situation and if it’s alright with you my beta and I would like to accompany you?” 

“Of course. Asher, my gamma, will be staying behind to guard the guests with the other wolves in attendance. He would be more than happy to look after your family.”

“Thank you.” He turned and kissed his wife and followed us out of the courtyard and into the forest. We decided to split up and take different areas of the border to maximize our chances of keeping out the rogues. Our only problem would be keeping up communication with each other, since we could not mindlink the Silver fang pack we would have to make do and hope for the best. Once we were far enough into the woods we shifted and took off in different directions. I took the North while Enzo took the east, Barrett the west, and David the south. I ran as fast as my paws would take me and reached the clearing at the North end in minutes.