An heir with heirs.

I sighed as the pack meeting dragged on, I brushed my bright pink hair behind my ear as I struggled to listen to my adopted father talk about pack training tomorrow. My adopted father and mother had mated when I was 8 years old, you see my mum had chosen a mate when she was 17 and had me, then when I was 8 she met her fated mate who took me in without a second thought. My mum is of Alpha blood. My step father or dad as I call him, is the Alpha of Lunar Eclipse pack. We are the biggest pack in Australia. We have to be careful because wolves aren't meant to be here. We've been caught on camera a few times by farmers and every time one of those blurry photos comes out the hunters flock to the area. The farmers believe we are mountain lions. V my wolf bristles with annoyance at being called a big cat. I can feel her anger radiating. I made a similar choice I took a chosen mate when I was 18 he and I had two sons as my dad doesn't follow the archaic idea that only male heirs can inherite the back I am the next Alpha. It helps I come from Alpha blood thanks to my mum, who's pack is from Ireland. My oldest son will inherite the pack when he is older. As long as his father doesn't find us and kill us whispers V we should have killed him when we had the chance. I can't help but agree with her. My chosen mate had been a mistake. One I am not keen on repeating. I doubt the Moon Goddess has a fated mate for me, I have been in this pack since I left Thomas, my chosen mate. I shudder as I remember the hell I went through. Michael my oldest son remained oblivious to the cruelty of his father, James my younger son witnessed violence beyond his years and sadly appears to carry the burden of it all. We should of killed him. V growls. She's not wrong. I watch my two sons running around the pack as the Omega sitter, Sarah tries desperately to keep up with them. Poor Sarah, she's no match for these boys, they are of double Alpha blood and are vivacious and cheeky. "Training will start at 5am sharp everyone must be there, if you are able to fight you train" my dad booms. I don't know why he bothers with that every pack meeting he's had everyone training since he took over the pack. He's what they call a progressive Alpha. He's done away with a lot of the old traditions. He even treats our Omegas with respect. They are paid a wage, live comfortably and we don't tolerate bullying here. It was a bit of an adjustment for some of the pack members, none were happy that the pack would come to me, rumours went around that it was only because I already had heirs to take the pack that I would be Alpha after my father. Some doubt a female can run a pack without a mate. Some still believe Alphas must be male and the an Alpha female is nothing better than a Luna, to plan parties and functions and facilitate mating balls, have heirs with her true mate and be protected from everything. PASS screams V disgusted at the thought. V is a warrier she was born to protect the pack and her cubs, she longs for her mate but knows I have my doubts after Thomas, my chosen mate. Thomas is a rogue now, he was banished from his pack for crimes against the counsel laws. I don't know what exactly his crimes were and I don’t care. I just wish the counsel had sentenced him to death. Dad will tell us whispers V. I don't want to know I growl back. Sarah is trying to get my boys to bed for me. "BOYS, listen to Sarah it's bed time" "Yes mumma" they chorus back and run to Sarah's arms. I let Sarah know I am going for a run then will come home and relieve her for the night. I like Sarah, she is kind and the boys love her dearly. V is impatient to run and so am I. Checking once more that my devil cubs are listening to Sarah, they are thank the Goddess. I head into the trees and strip, hiding my clothes I let V take over. V is a beautiful wolf she has blue black fur, signalling her Alpha blood. She is huge, I am five foot nothing but V is as large as most Alpha males. She is breath taking. Thank you she purrs. She is far from modest but she deserves it. She shakes her fur and begins to run, she runs to the top of the hills and howls to the moon, we are far enough out that I doubt anyone will hear her. She follows the scent of water and finds a large dam and paddles her way into the water she paddles around the dam enjoying the swim, after a few minutes she climbs out and shakes the water from her coat before taking off for a run. We get to a clearing after an hour of running and she sits, clears her throat and says We need to work out what to do about Thomas, Kayleigh he won't stay gone forever. Our boys are in danger as long as he is alive. I know she's right. I know she wants to protect the boys but the idea of killing someone I loved is foreign to me. I still bear his mark, killing him will kill us. Not if we find our fated mate. V whispers I don't want another mate look what Thomas did to us! I yell. Our fated mate would never hurt us! V growls at me. If he'd even accept us! We have cubs to someone else, that is grounds to reject us right there. Not every pack is accepting of mates with cubs. Besides I am next Alpha our fated mate will likely be an Alpha who will expect us to lay down and play Luna, we are not Luna types! We need to be treated as equal, not something to be protected from the world!! I grumble. I take control back and V whimpers knowing I won't budge. She let's me walk back. Sitting in the back of my mind crying with injustice. We get back home and Sarah is looking relived to see me. She looks exhausted. "Were they hard to get to sleep?" I ask her Sarah sighs and looks at me with pain in her eyes. "Michael was fine as usual, James as usual fought me on bed time, he is still scared his father will come for him" I hang my head in shame, Sarah comes and gives me a hug. "What about you, are you still having nightmares?" Sarah asks with concern clear in her eyes. I nod with tears of frustration in my eyes. "I hate that he has damaged me so much" I whisper tears choking my voice. Sarah tightened her hug "You survived that's all that matters, you are safe now" Sarah is an older wolf about 40, no children of her own so she dotes on the children of the pack, she attends self defence but not training, her role is to protect the pups and keep them all safe in case of an attack. We are rarely attacked because of our size. Largest pack in the country grins V Oh, there you are, I was afraid you'd decided to ignore me all night I whisper I can't do the that, night is when you need me most. V replies. She's right. Night time is the worst. It is when the night terrors come, the memories rush to me and more than once I've woken to a destroyed room. Tonight will be no different. I decide to sneak a look at Thomas' social media page. He's been suspiciously quiet lately. I pause when I see a photo posted. He's holding a silver knife, the caption reads "until death do us part". My blood runs cold and V let's out a feral growl. This is why we should of killed him V mutters I can't just kill him, that makes me no better than him. I whisper back, I slam my laptop shut and fluff my ridiculous number of pillows up creating a nest around me. I fall into a fitful sleep. I am swarmed with nightmares and flashbacks, like every other night. His hand wrapped around my throat, his breath in my face as he threatens to kill me, his eyes dark with anger and hatred.