Alpha and Omega

Duty Calls

"The coding is all wrong.  Get this back to the IT department and tell them to go back over it and fix the errors."  I handed the tablet I was holding back to the girl who'd brought it to me to review, vaguely noting the blush splashed across her cheeks when her fingers brushed mine while taking it back.  "Please also inform them I need an update on the wolfsbane misters and infrared cameras."

"Yes your highness, I'll let  Mr. Jacobs know right away." She bowed her head to me and I watched as she scurried out of the room.  

Standing from my desk I pulled my black suit jacket off of the back of my chair and slipped it on, buttoning the two buttons and pulling the sleeves of my white dress shirt back down to my wrists.  Stepping over to the floor to ceiling mirror in the corner of my office I checked my reflection, noting the dark circles under my dark brown eyes and how untidy my dirty blonde hair was.  More then likely from running my fingers through it countless times while siting at that desk.  

Pulling the comb I keep in my jacket pocket out I brush my hair into a sleeker side part wave.  'Much better.'  I think to my self.  If I had failed to check my appearance before arriving at fathers office for our meeting I would have been reprimanded for being unkept and disorderly, things I have heard enough in my life that I  avoid the conversation if at all possible.  My folders are on the edge of my desk along with my lap top, all items I will need for the conference in half an hour, looking at my watch I decide I have a few more minutes to work on the sketches for the new boarder security initiative I had been working on for the past 6 months.  Pulling my chair out, I undid the bottom two buttons of my coat again and sat down, getting to work.  I may have only been working on my little project for the past 6 months under my fathers watchful eye, but I had been wanting to work on it for years prior to that. Finally it was all coming together and I was more then ready for it to be put into motion.

The new protocols would allow more warriors to be home with their families each night, instead of running board patrol.  Infrared cameras would be programmed to initiate boarder safety protocols when a certain temperature was detected. Anything with a temperature of 107 or higher would set off a series of spotlights in the area and motion activated cameras would click on.  If one of the guards at the monitors that night saw something suspicious, for instance a rogue wolf crossing the boarder, wolfsbane mister grenades' would be dispersed by devices hidden in the trees along the territories edge.  If the wolfsbane grenades' weren't enough to deter them, there would be land mines in the ground.  Little silver disks with silver slivers that would shoot out and embed into the enemy and vegetation.

I was exceedingly proud of the entire set up and we were almost ready to go into beta testing.  Speaking of Beta's my own opened the door to my office and strode in, my secretary, Mary-Anne, hurrying in right behind him.  Jaxon threw him self into one of the over stuffed chairs facing my desk and sprawled out, making him self comfortable, as always.  Mary-Anne rushed around my desk a lint roller in hand and began running it along my shoulders and arms and back, she knew I needed to look extra pristine any time I was going before my father.

"His Majesty has requested that you come to his office ten minutes before the scheduled meeting time Sir."  Mary-Anne's tone was off, she almost sounded upset.  When she began running the lint roller down my right arm for the 3rd time I reached over and captured her wrist in my hand, causing her eyes to lock with mine in surprise. 

"What's wrong Mary-Anne?"  I asked softly, trying not to scare my timid Omega secretary.  

"N-nothing Sir."  She answered back, but the way her eyes flickered away from my gaze and she stuttered told me other wise.

"Mary-Anne, we have this conversation 5 times a week, you can call me Gideon."  I'd insisted she call me Gideon when we were in my office since her first week working for me, but she'd always refused.  "We have worked together long enough that I know when you are nervous about something.  What's going on?"

"Your father.."  She trailed off, her anxious blue-green eyes flickering to Jaxon before falling back to the floor.  "Your father told me to have you meet him ten minutes early and call to have your bags packed for a trip out of town for a few days."

"Where are you going man?  You don't tell me anything any more I swear."  Jaxon joked, taking a bag of skittles out of his jacket pocket and ripping the pouch open.

"First off Jaxon, as she just said, my father ordered my bags packed, so we're learning about my little trip at the same time.  Second, if you're going to start throwing skittles in the air and catching them like a child then you will be getting on your hands and knees and picking every single one you drop up off the floor."  Raising an eyebrow at him in challenge Jaxon just shrugged his shoulders and chuckled.

"Thats what you have cleaning staff for, there's no way I'm risking this suit, it's Prada."  Jaxon argued as he threw a skittle in the air and caught it in his mouth, grinning at me as he chewed it.  "Besides, I'm a wolf, with reflex's like mine how could I miss?"

"Anyways, thank you for letting me know Mary-Anne, did my father happen to mention where I was going to be going on this little impromptu trip?"  I watched as Jaxon threw another skittle in the air and I launched my pencil at it, knocking it off course to skid across the floor towards the door.

"Dude!  That doesn't count, interference!"   Jaxon grumbled, standing from the chair and walking to pick  the skittle up off the floor,  as he squatted to grab it my office door was pushed open again and my sister Catherine walked in, stopping in front of Jaxon with a smirk on her red lips.

"I always knew I'd get you on your knees in front of me in the office one day Beta."  Catherine purred, crossing her arms over white V neck blouse and tapping the toe of one of her back stiletto heels on the floor.  "Didn't think it would be in my brothers office though."

"If you wanted me on my knees in front of you all you had to do was ask kitty Cat."  Jaxon responded back, dropping to his knees and wrapping his hands around her waist, pulling her closer so he could bury his face in her stomach with a growl.  Catherine bust out laughing and smacked him on the head before insisting he stand up.  Seconds later my Beta and my sister were kissing in the door way of my office with Mary-Anne watching them in awe and envy, a look I'm sure I had as well when watching them.

"Alright now, cut it out you two.  I don't particularly want to see you bend my sister over in my office Jaxon."  Catherine's face grew red as she and her mate separated, her fingers going to her lips to attempt to fix her lips stick and Jaxon's hand slipping into the pocket of her suit jacket to pull out a white handkerchief, wiping her lipstick off his own lips before offering it to her.

"Just because you haven't found your mate yet doesn't mean you get to be jealous of my time with my own Gideon." Jaxon chided, throwing Catherine a wink which she rolled her eyes at, walking past her mate and sitting gracefully on the edge of one of the chairs facing my desk.

"It isn't you with your mate that I have an issue with, it's you with my sister."  I muttered, glaring at him as he picked Catherine up and sat back down in the chair, setting her on his lap.  "Anyways, Mary-Anne, you were going to tell us where my father is sending me?"

"Oh, umm, yes sir."  Stammered Mary-Anne, pushing her spectacles further up her nose.  "Colquitt, GA USA.  Apparently an Alpha's son there is graduating and your father is sending you in his place to attend."

"A graduation?  With like, kids?  Sounds boring, glad I don't have to go."  Jaxon snorted, wrapping his arms tighter around Catherine and nuzzling her neck.

"Didn't my sister there in your lap graduate last year?"  I asked with a raise of my eyebrows, making Charlotte laugh and Jaxon glare at me.

"Actually Beta Jaxon, I was told to contact your secretary and give the same instructions."  Mary-Anne added just above a whisper, her cheeks growing red again.

I chuckled when Jaxon looked at Mary-Anne as if she were crazy and Catherine burst out laughing.  "Ha!  That's what you get for being an asshat to my brother!"

"To be fair babe, he's an asshat to me all the freaking time and you never do anything to defend me.  I guess I see where your loyalties lie."  Jaxon stuck his bottom lip out in a fake pout and looked away from his mate.

"Oh shut up you big baby, he's our future Alpha and future King, if you want to risk his bad side, go ahead, but I like having Princess in front of my name."  Catherine shrugged her shoulder but collapsed against Jaxon in a fit of giggles as he started tickling her sides.  I looked at my watch again and decided it was time to make my way to my fathers office.

"Well, as fun as this has been, I have work to do, and apparently a graduation to attend.  I'll see you in the meeting in 20 minutes Jaxon, don't be late."  I gave him a pointed look as I stood from my chair and grabbed my things off my desk.  Mary-Anne followed me out the door, the lint roller sliding down my back as I walked out the door, she stopped at her desk as I continued on, down the hall full of glass walls and office doors.  My dad started this company when he first became Alpha some 25 years ago, the year after he had me and proved he'd be able to give the kingdom an heir.  Two of the conditions of handing the crown down to your heir was they had to be mated and had to have an heir as proof that they would be able to continue the line.

My parents had found each other when my father was 22 and my mother was 19, earlier this year I had turned 24 and my father had been adamantly insisting that I find a mate, and soon.  He didn't care if it was my fated mate or not, at this point all that mattered was that I was mated with an heir by my next birthday.  Father was ready to step down and hand over the reigns, and though I was chomping at the bit to rule and bring all of my ideas on how to improve the lives of our kind with me, he couldn't give me the crown until I was mated and an heir in hand.

Shooting my fathers secretary a friendly smile I rapped twice on my fathers door before walking in, not waiting for him to tell me to enter.  Father's office was similar to the others on the floor, except his back wall faced the forest that the city edged up to, that forest was our private lands and father said that having an eye on his domain was one of the most important parts of the job he'd inherited from his father and his father before him.  The job I would inherit from him my self one day, hopefully in the near future.  My father was sitting at his desk, his chair turned away from me though as he looked out over the forests that made our packs home.  

"Anakin is clawing at the confines of my mind, I may have to let him run after the conference today."  Fathers deep voice said from across the room as he turned his chair around to face me.  Mother often said that her womb had just been a copying machine for my father to make me, because I had always been exactly like him. My father an I could pass for twins if not for the laugh lines around his eyes and the scar around his neck.  Werewolves do not scare easily, it takes a life threatening injury to cause a our skin to scar.  We had the same dirty blonde hair, chocolate brown eyes and classic masculine features; square jaw, angular face, and prominent brow.

Father had been on the 'Worlds 50 Hottest Men' list for magazines every year for the past 30 years, I had joined him on the list 4 years ago, starting out 10 spots under his 5th place, last year I had taken 2nd and father joked that if I reached 1st and still hadn't met my mate, he'd just auction my hand in marriage off to the highest bidding royal family.  I knew it was a joke, but I was to the point of telling him to do it.  I had never met a woman I wanted to mark as mine and seeing as how my mate had yet to show her self, I had begun to accept that I didn't have one.

"Loki needs a run as well, perhaps we can go together after the conference."  Striding in the office with a warm smile to my dad I sit in one of the chairs in front of his desk, resting my folders and laptop on my crossed knee.  "Mary-Anne said you asked for an audience, is everything okay?"

"Yes, yes, nothing dire or anything like that."  Dad says with a wave of his hand as he stood from his chair and walked around to the front of his desk, leaning back against the large wooden structure and crossing his ankles and arms.  "Alpha Neo of the Pale Moon pack in America has a son graduating in two days, I usually send a representative to all future Alpha major life events, Graduation, marriage, funeral, you understand I'm sure."

"Of course, keep the packs close and loyal through friendship rather then fear, you have taught me the same and I plan to continue it."

"Good, I like hearing that Gideon."  Father said with an approving nod.  "This time I would like to send you."  He paused, watching my face to gauge my reaction, but I just nodded in understanding.

"I have no quarrels with going, though I am curious as to why you are asking me to go instead of a representative?"  I watched as dad pushed off his desk and moved to where he kept his liquor in glass decanters.  Picking up one of the glass bottles dad pulled the cork out and splashed the fragrant alcohol into two crystal cups, picking both of them up he walked back over to me and handed one to me.  "Is this so serious I would need sustenance to get through the meeting?"

"It is serious, but the drink is more for my self and I didn't want to drink alone."  I laughed at his honesty as I brought the glass to my lips and closed my eyes as the liquid splashed down my throat, warmth spreading through my chest and abdomen as it splashed into my stomach.   Dad took a sip as well, sighing in appreciation at one of his favorite vintages.  "We have not had to over throw an Alpha family in over 20 years, but the reports I am getting about Pale Moon's Alpha family has me concerned.  I'm told that the son coming into power is not only an imbecile, he's weak, insubordinate and likes causing trouble, especially with other packs.  He's conceited and full of him self, an inflated ego from years of being told he was stronger.  I need your opinion.  I need you to spend time at the pack, talk to it's members, get a feel for how things are ran and if the members are happy."

"And if they are not?  Happy that is?"  I asked father, already knowing the answer.

"Then you may very well get to know what a war is like after all."  Father said grimly, swirling the amber liquid in his glass before shooting the rest of the contents down his throat and setting the cup on the desk carefully.  "I never wanted you to have to see war, but if it comes down to it, we will use any action necessary to keep the peace we have enjoyed for over a thousand years.  I will not risk another global war."

A millennium ago every pack on the planet had been locked in a bloody feud for power and land.  Until one powerful warrior had come forward and united the packs of the world, he was the first white wolf, the first Alpha.  From his blood line all other Alphas had come being placed as heads of each respective pack.  That warrior was the first King of our kind and my ancient relative.  He'd had 25 children over the course of his 250 years alive and 4 spouses.  So technically speaking, the Alpha I was going to judge and decide if he'd live or die, was a very distant cousin, the original Alpha of my line was the oldest son of the original Alpha, Pale Moon packs Alpha family would have been one of the lesser sons given how small the pack was. 

"I am in agreement.  When do I leave?"  Following father I splashed the rest of the liquor down my throat and stood, putting my folders and laptop in my seat and walking the glass back to the decanters.  

"You get on a plane within the hour."  Well I hadn't expected him to say that.  Spinning around to face him I looked at him in shock.  

"What?  And hour?  What about the conference?  I was going to show everyone the finale stages of the security system, I almost have the code in place.  The silver land mines are starting the building process and the wolfsbane mister canisters are done with beta testing!  I need to convince the board that these security measures are exactly what we need to protect packs around the world from rogues."  I had been working so hard on all of this, I needed it to get past the planning period, rogues wolves were on he rise, k********g, r****g and destroying outlying villages and families.  Doing and taking what they wanted.  Isabella's face came to mind and I forced it down, back to the recesses of my mind.  

"Calm your self, son.  I understand what this means to you, I will be putting my full support behind this, I have more votes then any other other person on the board, even if only one other board member voted with me it is a done deal.  Your security system is being implemented."  Father smiled at me now, pride shinning through his eyes as he watched my reaction, my eyes going wide and my mouth dropping open.  It was happening.  The packs would be safe.  No one else would end up like her.  "I never told you how proud I was of you I was for that.  It was truly genius.  I am proud that the pack will be going into such good hands when it comes time to hand it over."

I felt my words catch in my throat as I walked to my father and gathered him in a bear hug, which he returned with vigor.  He'd  had to carry me back home that night.  The night when our world had tumbled around us.  But we had rebuilt and we had stuffed the pain deep inside.  Now my dream was becoming a reality.

As we broke apart I shared my fathers smile.  "Thank you."

"No need for thanks Gideon, you came up with a brilliant idea to not only keep our boarders safe, but to give us an advanced warning, while keeping our warriors safe and at home with their families more.  It was a no brainer to make it a reality."  I just nodded my head, I knew I wouldn't be able to talk right now.  "Now go get your stuff together and get to that plane on time." 

I nodded my head, picking up the items I had brought with me and heading towards the door.  "Also, remind Jaxon that as your Beta he is to accompany you, along with 3 pack warriors you trust.  I know you can handle your own in a battle, but you're going into an entire pack of wolves who's Alpha is being reviewed.  I need to have back up."

"Of course."  I threw over my shoulder as I left his office.  I knew when I told Jaxon and Charlotte about the security system becoming a reality they would want to go out and celebrate, but it would have to wait till we got back from Colquitt GA USA.  This would not be my first trip to America but it would be my first trip to small town USA.