The Pack with No Alpha

Author’s Note: if you are reading this story as a stand-alone novel, start here! If you have joined us from Nightmares of the Alph, skip ahead to Chapter 1 (or keep reading for a refresher) because this is Aria’s epilogue.  Aria’s POV My eyes shot open in the darkness - my heart pounded against my ribs and my breath was catching in the back of my throat. 1:22 am. Still too early to get up and go downstairs. Today was going to be a big day and the anticipation was killing me. I couldn’t sleep more than an hour or two before waking up again, adrenaline pumping, head buzzing and ready to go.  “Happy birthday to meeee,” I sang out, quietly. Ahem... to us, you mean, Reva teased. Clearly she hadn’t been able to get any sleep either.  “Do you want to go for a run? Blow off some steam?” I asked her out loud, though I knew she had already heard my thoughts before they reached my lips. It was my way of keeping us both awake. I couldn’t remember the last time I was this excited for something, so I needed this day to start already.  Yes! Yes, let’s run, please! She squealed and I could feel her tail wagging. We’ve been cooped up in this place for so long - it’s starting to feel like the old days. Run, run, run! Before I could even move to get out of bed, Reva was already pushing to the surface, ready to burst right through the second floor window.  It’s true, I’d been so busy with the pack, alliance meetings and running the new and improved iteration of the Stitches Brew, GLOW, that Reva had barely been out in weeks. She needed this, I’d just have to keep my fingers and toes crossed that none of the neighbors would notice an enormous werewolf leaping from the fire escape. As we made our descent, she cheekily reminded me that she had been doing just this for quite some time before we met, when she was still under the witches’ spell, and the humans had always been none the wiser.  She burst into the cool pre-dawn air, her nose raised to catch the scents of the night. While she raced unnoticed through the familiar streets that led to the park, I tried to let myself relax and enjoy the ride, though I couldn’t shake the ball of nervous energy in the pit of my stomach. My “aunts” had never taken me anywhere special as a child and I had never been particularly good at anything, but I imagined this was the feeling you would get the night before a big trip, game, or performance.  By the time Reva had tired herself out from the long run through Duffy Park and the woods beyond and was sauntering back down the sidewalk towards GLOW, the starless night had transformed to a watercolor dawn. It was going to be a good day. I could feel it in my bones, but first... we had work to do.  When I was gifted the Glowing Crescent pack lands by the werewolf Alliance, they were completely dilapidated and overgrown - I couldn’t exactly move in right away. Plus, the idea of living deep in the woods all by myself, even as a werewolf, wasn’t very appetizing, so I returned “home” to the old apartment above the Stitches Brew and made some changes.  Gone were the piles upon piles of skeins of wool and cashmere and in came the stage, and the bar. GLOW was a hip coffee shop by day and a shifter friendly bar by night. Of course, it was open to humans as well to avoid arousing suspicion, but I used the place as my base of operations for finding, recruiting, and rehabilitating rogue wolves from the area. It didn’t take long to find them, either - word spread quickly through the grapevine that we served a specialty drink that could actually get shifters wasted.  I might have borrowed parts of the recipe from the various spell books my aunts had left behind. Also on the menu, their soothing memory eraser tea - obviously using only a fraction of the key ingredients, so it dulled pain and anxiety, rather than erasing your memories completely. That’s what I made for myself now, after I had gotten the coffee brewing for the morning rush, still unable to relax. I curled up with my cup of tea on one of the oversized and overstuffed chairs by the window, the only things I had kept from the old cafe, and mused about all that had passed. A year ago I’d met Seth for the first time in this very place. Who could have predicted the crazy trajectory my life had taken since then - from finding out my aunts were witches and my best friend was a fairy, to unlocking my wolf and practically saving the world, to being named the leader of my very own pack... all just a few months before graduating high school!  In the year that followed, I grew my ranks, little by little, going from being a Luna without a pack to a group of nearly fifty she-wolves. Although I was using GLOW as my primary source of new recruits and the bar was certainly frequented by a number of rogue males, they couldn’t be enticed to come back to pack life, and were especially not receptive being that I was a “lady alpha”, as they sneeringly called me.  Now I was celebrating my nineteenth birthday, quite literally a completely different person than I had been last year. Just thinking about it got me feeling giddy again, despite the calming elixir. The Glowing Crescent pack house and grounds had finally been completed and tonight, after my official party here at the bar, the pack would meet on our territory for the big reveal. It was the first time that all of us would be there together and I simply could not wait for what the next year would hold for us.  ******************************************* We ran through the woods in groups of two and three, the woods I had gotten to know so well - first in my nightmares and then through my time with Seth. I howled joyfully in recognition of those times as we passed Dark Moon’s territory, though I knew that he wouldn’t hear me, he was still off discovering places unknown, though he wrote to me often to tell me all about his exploits with Moriah and Izzy.  When we crossed the river that cut through the enchanted part of the woods and finally entered our territory, my heart that had been racing all day long nearly stopped. The grounds were alive with patches of wildflowers and rough stone paths cut through the greenery. There were even some of the earth fairies there to welcome us - their tiny flickers of light dancing through the flowers. We took the largest one and arrived at the pack house... MY pack house, and it was beautiful - everything I could have wished for and more. It was built of stone and looked like a medieval castle, though inside it was equipped with every modern amenity one could imagine. There were more than enough rooms, leaving plenty of of space for our pack to continue to expand. I honestly didn’t think it could get any better than this. Oh, how wrong I was.  As we gathered in the courtyard, howling and yipping in glee, ready to take our very first official pack run through our very own territory, Reva suddenly stilled. There are trespassers here... a lot of them, she warned me.  Let’s check it out. The pack run will have to wait, I answered, hoping this birthday wasn’t about to turn out like my last.  There’s something else... they have something with them... it smells exotic and delicious... you don’t think they’ve come back for us, do you? We killed those witches, Reva, they won’t be able to control you with their treats again, I reassured her as she ran toward the intruders and the strange, earthy smell, our pack behind us as they would be from now on.  Reva was definitely right - there were a lot of them, we were outnumbered by at least double, but they didn’t seem like they were here for a fight. All of them were standing naked, as if they had just shifted, and their bodies were covered in dirt and blood. Most were women and children, but some men were scattered through their ranks as well. It was one of the men that stepped forward and addressed me.  “Luna Aria, we have travelled a long way in search of you. Please, do not turn your back on us. We are all that’s left of the Grey Rapids pack. We have heard tell of how you have opened your doors, even to rogues, so we ask that you grant us asylum here,” he begged, getting down on his knees and motioning for the rest to follow suit. Sensing no danger from these people, I shifted, opening my arms to them. “All are welcomed at Glowing Crescent. But what happened to you?” I asked. “Vampires,” spoke a new voice, one from the back of their group and my world broke completely open. Though the word itself was not what I wanted to hear, the voice was the most amazing music I had ever heard. The scent that Reva had picked up on earlier seemed stronger now too - a creamy sandalwood carried my senses away. Mate! Reva cried. We’ve finally found our mate!  “You, step forward,” I commanded. As she made her way to the front of the crowd, my whole body came alive, as if my skin was made of fizzy champagne bubbles. “What’s your name?”  “My name is Dierdre,” she answered, kneeling before me and pressing her forehead to the top of my foot, creating the most incredible sparks. “Will you help us defeat the beasts who have destroyed our home, my Luna and mate?”