Alpha by Blood Luna by Fate

Chapter 6

Five Years Later.

"Let me help you with that, Andrew," I said, noticing one of my pack members struggling to lift a heavy box from the back of his truck.

The brown-eyed man straightened immediately and dipped his head in a respectful bow.

"There is no need, Alpha. I can handle it," he insisted.

"I know you can," I said, already reaching for the box and taking it from his hands. "But I want to help. I don't mind the heavy lifting."

He stared at me for a brief moment, caught off guard, but he knew better than to argue. No one argued with their Alpha anyway. Together, the two of us unloaded the remaining containers from the truck and carried them to the kitchen, where the rest of the pack was already moving around in organised chaos, preparing for the Friday banquet.

"Thank you so much, Alpha," Andrew said with a warm smile once the last box was set down.

I waved a dismissive hand and looked around the bustling kitchen. Everyone was working so hard; every surface occupied, every person purposeful.

"The banquet is tonight," I thought aloud.

"Yes, Alpha," Andrew agreed politely. "It is one of the best ways for us to connect with members from other packs. People get to mingle, share stories, some even find their mates." He smiled at the thought. "It is quite an event."

I nodded and a small grin tugged at the corner of my mouth. A reason to dress nicely, drink good wine, and let loose for one night. There were worse traditions.

I turned back to Andrew. "Have you seen Liam anywhere?"

Before Andrew could answer, I heard someone clear their throat with the kind of quiet pride that announced itself before the person did. I turned around.

Liam stood at five feet nine, his long, shaggy brown hair slicked back neatly, his hazel eyes bright with amusement. He was smiling at me the way he always did, as if he knew something I didn't, and was thoroughly enjoying it.

"Lowe," he said flatly, the old nickname slipping out with the ease of fourteen years of habit.

"Hmm," he echoed, dipping his head in a slight bow. "Good morning."

Only Liam called me by my name, Lowe and got away with it. I had allowed it because I had known him since we were children, since back when our parents were the best of friends and the world was still something simple and whole. He had earned the right to call me whatever he wanted. I would never tell him that, of course.

Silence settled between us for a moment.

Do you have something to tell me? I asked him through the mind link, holding his gaze steadily.

He met my eyes, held them and sighed through his nose.

"It is a lovely morning, Alpha," he said aloud smoothly. "How about we take a short walk? We can talk while we move."

I shot him a brief look of mild irritation partly at how immaculate he looked this early in the morning, and partly at the sudden, careful formality of Alpha from a man who had just been calling me Lowe. But I knew that tone. It meant what he had to say required privacy.

"Fine," I muttered, already walking out of the kitchen.

I heard him fall into step behind me.

Walking the territory with Liam in the mornings was something that had become routine over the years, a moving council of sorts, where we discussed strategies, reviewed pack policies, talked through anything that required the kind of honest, unguarded conversation that the walls of an office didn't always allow. He was my Beta, my second-in-command, the one person whose counsel I actually trusted without reservation. And before all of that, he had been my oldest friend.

As we walked, I let my eyes move across the territory, the training grounds, the common areas, the familiar faces of my people going about their morning. The pack had been called Midnight Crew once, back when my parents were alive and the world was different. But the night everything burned, the night the rage rose in me and I looked out at a world painted in blood and crimson moonlight, I had renamed it.

Shadowfang pack.

It suited what we had become. What I had built us into.

My wolf stirred at the thought her presence rising briefly, pressing close to the surface the way she did when something caught her attention. I felt her before I heard her: that enormous, restless energy, that power that had been both my greatest weapon and the most difficult thing I had ever learned to carry.

You are a white wolf, Liam had said to me once, years ago, with that particular look he got when he was stating something obvious to someone he suspected was being deliberately obtuse.

You are ten feet at the shoulder with crimson red eyes that glow in the dark, he had added.

Don't call me that, I had told him through clenched teeth.

I could hear him even now fighting back a smile.

My parents had adored nicknames. Kaelira had spawned a collection of them over the years Kae, Lira, Elira each one offered by someone who thought they were being endearing. I could not tolerate any of them from anyone who wasn't my parents. The names belonged to a version of my life that no longer existed, and hearing them in someone else's mouth felt like being handed something broken and being expected to act like it was whole.

I breathed in deeply, tilting my face toward the blue morning sky.

It was a calm, ordinary summer day. The kind that felt almost dishonest in its pleasant golden light, a cool breeze cutting through the heat, everything green and unhurried.

A pack member passing nearby caught my eye and smiled.

"Good morning, Alpha."

"Good morning, Beta," another added.

"Good morning to you both," I said warmly, slowing my pace. "Are the goods arriving today?"

The woman beamed. "They already have Alpha. Everything came in early."

"Good." I nodded, satisfied. "Well done."

We exchanged a few more words before Liam and I politely excused ourselves, continuing further along the path until the sounds of the kitchen and the banquet preparations faded behind us.

I spotted her before we reached the garden.