Alpha's Adopted Mage

Second Chances

Johnathon Pov:

Bridgewood was a small and peaceful town. Most of the villagers were mixed of different breeds. To the humans, elves, werewolves, and two female mages, now three. The night before, we were attacked by the Alpha Rogue. I lost at least a hundred people. Including strong warriors, women, a few elderly and some children. It hurt my heart watching the parents and others grieve their lost. The rogues had attacked in daylight just out of the blue. It seemed an attack so convenient that two days later, I sent a message to the Northwestern Paw Pack and the Elder council. But I still hadn't heard back yet and time was running short.

"No!" I barked at the Mage Queen as she was standing with her hands on her hips.

"What do you mean, NO?" She narrowed her eyes at me.

"I don't mean anything other than NO." I told her, crossing my arms back at her.

She came up with this stupid idea of sending every Bridgewood person to the Northwestern Paw Pack. Came up with the crazy notice that her sister was going to attack. We argued about it and she convinced me it wasn't crazy. She said, "I had a vision. I know it's true." Still I couldn't get passed that she was just going to volunteer herself to her sister, just so she could die.

"This will save lives John. No, it isn't an option, they must leave and so should you," she replied.

"I know the Elder council more than you do. I know my uncle's hands are tied. This is even after you didn't mention me. Could you see if you did? No. Help still won't come your way." She took a deep long breath before she continued.

"I need to get Annabell out of town and to safely away from my sister. My sister should never know about Annabell. I still can't risk sending her with you either, just in case they do attack. Just the knowledge alone, they would chase your people to the ends of the world just to find us." She said as she paced back and forth.

"You can't ask me about this! You will die. You know there will be nobody here to help. What then uh?" I responded.

"Then I will die." she said stubbornly, lifting up her chin.

"Please stop this, you two, " Evie said. Evelina is one out of 5 elves that live under my protection, but she is the only one is a mage as well.

"This isn't helping," she also added.

Mara sighed, "I know you both love me but I must protect her and the people here. If we wait for help, then we all die, not just me. Then all hope is lost. I will try to hold her off as long as I can. Then, in a few days, you can arrive at the pack boarder and Evie can leave the cave the same day. It should be safe to bring Bella there."

"So is that just it then?" I asked her, "No doubt, no arguing this over with you? This is what you decided and none of us has a say?"

"You can say them, John, but I won't listen." She said, crossing her arms in front of her.

I had signed at that, got up and went to her, giving her the biggest hug. "D**n you, Mara! I love you and wish this was different."

I walked over to Evie next and gave her a huge too. "Protect Bella with you life." I could feel Evie nodding and left to round up the rest of the people and try to talk them out of bring the whole town's items with them.

It took a couple of hours to get everybody rounded up. Eventually, I managed it. We were an hour out of Bridgewood when the earth shook and the explosion went off. We could see it just above the tree tops. There were screams, shouts of anger, cries of despair. It took me another 10 minutes to get people to focus back on the task at hand. Rogues could attack us at any time.

We had travelled another half an hour and that was exactly what had happened. They had attacked all around us and I had lost at least half of my people. Men, women, the elderly, and even some of the children. It could have been worse, I thought. Somehow, someone called the rogues away, sending them back toward Bridgewood. I got the people moving as quickly as I could. I wish I could have let them mourn properly, but I couldn't. Rogues could come back anytime.

By this time, I was sure that Mara was dead, too. I only had a few people left and barely enough help to protect the remaining ones that we had left and I was pretty d**n sure, if we didn't get to the boarder soon, many people, including myself, would be dead as well. My emotions were shot and nerves were fried and I had to keep a professional face to keep my people moving. They didn't deserve this, nobody did, but we had no choice. All I could do was keep thinking, keep going, keep praying to whomever was out there.

Finally, we came up to two men that were standing in one of the forest openings. I looked at them and instantly could tell they were werewolves. Back in the day, I accomplished hunter. I could hunt down the supernatural with efficiency. I held up my hand, everyone noticed now that we had two strangers looking at us. They both looked young, 18 years old perhaps. One of the elder men came up to me.

"There are just teenage boys," he commented to me.

I shook my head with a "no".

His face dropped, "But who?"

"Werewolve." I stated, his face dropped further.

"But they are not attacking us. That's good, right? Are they part of the pack that your bringing us too?" the old man asked, shifting his feet back and forth with nervous friction.

I turned around looking at the rest of them and noticed Callie Stamper pulling her brother Dylon closer to the back. Callie was a werewolf herself and so was Dylon. However, Dylon was only two years of age. Callie had turned 18 recently. She had found her mate but her mate had rejected her. Then that same mate told Callie's parents. That it was Callie who rejected him. For mate bond as far as I know, are sacred in the werewolf community, but I guess it happens from time to time. The rejection wasn't the only thing that hurt, but her parents were not parents. According to Callie, they would beat their children and when they found out about the rejection, they pulled her down to their basement. They had beaten her and broken every bone in her body. When that wasn't enough for them, they kicked her out of the pack and told her if she wasn't gone by the morning. Then they would kill her.

Once she was healed enough, she sneaked back into the house, grabbed some of her belongings and took Dylon with her. I looked her in the eyes and nodded. She gave me a small smile and I announced "I'll find out." Turning back to the boys in front of me, I walked a few feet to them.The boys still didn't attack, they barely moved. So my gut feeling that we were at the Northwestern Paw pack's boarder was confirmed.

"Is this the Northwestern Paw Pack?" I asked.

The blonde boy nodded, then added, "Are you Johnathan McKennith?

I nodded back to him. So they knew we were coming, I thought.

"I'm here to see your Alpha and ask permission to stay in your pack. I also bring news that needs reporting containing the up mosts important information." I added with a sad manor, I couldn't help it. It was how I was feeling.

"Yes, I'm well aware of your circumstances, you may pass but Johnathan. The Alpha is still at Bridgewood."

I closed my eyes and then looked at them. "So he knows?"

"Yes, but not all of the pack knows. You and I will chat since Alex left me in charge. The rest of the pack will lead you to the guest rooms and give you everything your people need," the blonde boy said, then gestured to the burnette man next to him "Come with me and this is Zack. He'll help."

I looked back at my people, nodded and then walked to the young man. We shook hands and he started to lead me towards the pack area. We made it two steps before I heard "Mate." I turned around to see the burnette man, Zack, who was standing and looking at the crowd of my people. The one who was leading me to the back house turned around as well. I looked to see Zack and he was looking straight at Callie. Callie's eyes were wide and she was shaking her head nervously.

Dylon losing his grip on Callie's leg and looked at this man, "You won't hit?"

The man shook his head, "Anybody who hits the incident is weak. Nobody should lift up their fist unless it's to protect themselves or the people they love."

The man bent down to Dylon and looked him at the boys eyes. Then he opened his arms and waited. Dylon looked over at this man and suddenly ran to the man. The man hugged him and looked back at Callie holding Dylon in one arm. He lifted his other arm wide and waited. Callie was shocked and crying but something clicked in her and she ran to the man, hugging him. The man squeezed them both and growled, "Mine."

I turned back to the blonde and he had this stupid grin on his face.

"That was fantastic. I bet there's a story there." he said, looking back at me. I nodded.

"Oh, I'm Jacob Cooper by the way, Jake for short." he grinned more and shook my hand, yet again. Cooper, I thought, then it dawned on me. I looked him up and down and finally asked, "Cooper, like Matt's boy?"

Jake laughed, "Yep" with a pop.

"My younger brother looks like him too. His name is Joe. He should be up in the Alpha office when we get there and, if not, then that means he's still on his patrol. Which scares me to death, you see, he is only 15 years old right now and only three months from getting his wolf. I hate putting him out there, but I have no choice right now. We're running at full speed and my warriors need to train and patrol almost all night."

When we got up to the office, it wasn't as small as most I'd been. The walls were painted a deep rich red and dark wood floor, and a desk to match. The Alpha Alex had a picture of his parents and some of his closest pack mates hanging on the walls. With an updated fax machine in the corner and what looked to be a new computer on his desk with a flat screen monitor. The seats were covered with thick puff tan pillows on the seats and on the back rest, and the wood was just the same as everything else. I sat in one of the chairs and it was heavenly. I sank right into the cushion and was trying to force myself not to fall asleep.

Jake chuckled at me. "Long day, uh?'

"Yeah." I said "Could you update me on what you know, I'm just going to relax here and if I need to I'll add or comment inbetween."

Jake nodded and updated me on everything that was happening. So far, I have added some information before I had left Mara the other night. What she said and how she pushed us out. Where Evie was with Bella? Jake apparently hadn't heard of Evelina yet. So I had to catch him up about her. Jake jumped up and I followed suite.

"What's wrong, I asked?" looking at him confused.

He smiled, "Their here, my mates is here too!"

He took off at a run, back out of the house. I tried to keep up, but let's face it, I'm an old man surrounded by many supernaturals. I was five minutes behind him. When I got there, he was all ready making out with a girl. I assumed it was his mate. Then I was bulldozed down by two arms that were hugging me to death. I looked up and saw Matt Cooper's rugged smiling face looking at me.

"Jesus, How old are you again?" I sneered at him, his rich laugh filled my ears.

"Good to see you too, John," he replied, and let go of me.

I turned around and saw Alpha Alex, holding Bella in one arm, and holding Evelina's hand with the other. My eyebrows shot up in confusion.

Alex smiled, "Good to see you again, old friend. Apparently, the Goddess gave me a mate that died. Then my mate gave me a child, then if that wasn't good enough. She gave a second chance mate in Evelina."

I knew I was shocked. I could feel my jaw drop.

Evie sneered at me and said, "Close it John, you'll catch a bunch of flies. I mean, unless you are hungry after your long hike. By all means, then, I hope you gag on them."

I snapped my jaw up and started laughing, "Congrats!"

Evie rolled her eyes and Alex grinned like a fool.

"Let's go celebrate," said Alex and kissed Bella on the cheek while she smiled and cooed at him.

I looked at Evie, "You have a lot of explaining to do, my girl, but you know you can at least act a little bit happy about it."

She looked at me, "As soon as I can figure out what h**l is going on and then I need some time to search about how I feel about all this first, once I figure that out, then I'll let you know.

We all walked into the pack house. Ready to eat, drink, chat, and, for the love of God, sleep! He hoped.