The Alpha's Queen

Terry's POV

Watching my parents interact with Marizta, my heart swelled just a bit. She fits in this world, my world like she’s known about us since birth, instead of just learning of our true existence only a few weeks ago. Talking with my parents about mundane things, such as the lands that our pack is on, as well as the house she grew up in. While I'll be the first to admit, unless I was completing patrols, I've never attempted to go close to the border lines at the back of our lands. Just thinking about the fact that we grew up as neighbors and never knew each other or crossed paths is such an amazing mystery to me. That my mate, my queen, was just a few miles from my own home was something I never expected when I was looking for my mate. Thinking back on the trips I've taken, and the extensive trips that were planned across the globe to find my mate; this was just another example of the Goddess letting me know that her plans are above our own. That she will be the one to determine when the best time for any major changes, because she knows when and what the final outcome will be. The Moon Goddess must have something really big planned for us. I just hope that it’ll be something good.

After talking with the adults in her family, I have a better understanding of what they went through and how they came to be living in my territory. I don’t know if I would have been able to accomplish all that they have if I was placed in their situation. I still don’t like that the children were given wolf-bane, but I do now have a better understanding as to why they felt that was something they had to do. I do worry about what type of lasting side effects it may have on my Queen and the rest of the children in her family. Will they be able to have full control and function over their wolves? Will it have any effects over them being able to fully function? What about when these children have children of their own? Will they have their full metacognition and capacity throughout their lives? Or will the lasting effects come to light once they've grown older? While many of the health ailments of the human population don't affect the shifter community, there are a small number of issues that do affect us. Such as confusion and other mental ailments. But that’s something that we’ll have to look into at a later time. Because, without an oracle to look into the future and tell us directly, we can only watch them throughout their lives and take any necessary action if it's needed.

After showing her around the office, we walked to the gym. I heard that her cousin Juan was sparring with my Master of Arms, and that he wished to become a warrior himself. I want to watch him and go a few rounds with him myself, so that I could see where his fighting skills and techniques could be honed or improved if needed. I need to see not only how he would react under pressure, but also how good his fighting skills are. Does he need more training before I let him join the ranks of warriors? Or is he that good, where at most he might need a little adjustment in his skills and is ready now to become a warrior? 

Reaching the gym, we stayed off to the side. Wanting to observe, but not interrupt the training that was taking place. Juan isn’t the only wolf in here training, I often like to watch the wolves train without them seeing me. Not because I’m trying to be sneaky, but because I want them to continue to focus on their training. Oftentimes when I’ve been spotted watching them, I’ve noticed that the young wolves will become more focused on me watching them, then their actual sparring, which has led to some unexpected injuries. Because we’re shifters, we are able to heal a lot faster than humans. But the more serious injuries can and will still have a wolf laid up for at least a week, if not two weeks.

Juan’s fighting skills are great! After watching him spar with James, my Master of Arms, it looked like Juan was giving him a run for his money. Juan is that good, at most he just needed to learn how we fight in groups and that’s it. And to think, my beautiful queen often spars with Juan. Her own fighting skills must be on the same level. I finally walked forward enough to be seen by everyone, and sure enough all fighting stopped almost immediately, although I did notice a few who reacted slower to the attack from their sparring partner. Thankfully nobody was seriously injured, which was a very good thing. “I want to spar with him,” I told James. Holding his hands up with his palms facing me, James backed up and hunched down to sit on his heels.

After what only felt like a few minutes of sparring with Juan, there was a big commotion over by where Marizta was standing. Juan and I stopped fighting to turn and look, and saw Marizta was fighting with someone. We both immediately ran over to assist with breaking up the fight. From what little I was able to see, my Queen was holding her own very well. But the question I have is, who would want to fight my Queen? She’s barely arrived here and doesn't know many people just yet. By the time that Juan and I were able to push through the crowd, the fight had been broken up. I got a fast glimpse of Angel’s face before she ran off. I see that her disrespect for my Queen runs deep, her actions are going to force my hand with some drastic punishments.

 I'm certain that my queen has no idea what it means to challenge someone of higher rank than your own. And I can guarantee that Angel is going to try her again. How Angel feels that i would view her as anything more than a sister and friend, i don’t really know. But I do know that when the time comes, Angel and Maritza are going to have to fight it out. While I know Angel's fighting skills, I'm unsure about my queen's true skills. Mostly because she’s not in touch with her own wolf. Our wolves fighting with us; helping with our speed, instinctively guiding us to make the right moves, is a very big part of our fighting technique. I can only pray to the Goddess that Angel doesn’t try to challenge my beautiful queen until after Maritza reconnects with her wolf, but I have to say that I don’t think she’ll have that luxury. Something's telling me that much sooner than she’s ready for it; Maritza will have to fight for her role, title, rank and position within this pack. Unfortunately for Angel, she’ll never have my assistance in running and protecting a pack that my mate isn’t a part of. I would willingly renounce my title of Alpha to someone else and leave the lands with my beautiful mate. Of course, this would cause the majority of the pack if not all, to want to follow me. I’m sure that’s not the outcome that Angel is expecting. I believe that she feels that I would agree, allow, and go along with whatever her final decision was for Maritza after the fight was over with and she handed down her ruling. In fact, I can almost say with clarity and certainty, that she would expect me to continue on as alpha and protect this pack right along with her. She would also expect me to allow and put up with whatever final  decision that she makes, as far as Maritza is concerned; which I’m almost positive, would be banishment from the pack. 

I can say without a doubt, that Angel would lose at minimum 75 percent of the pack if she actually tries this. While the pack might love Angel, they love my family history with running, protecting, and managing the pack. My family has always been fair, just, and swift with whatever internal punishment that needs to be handed down within the pack. Because my family line has been a strong Alpha and Luna team, our titles and rank has never been questioned or challenged. Most other packs in the area, as well as distant lands, know of and respect my family. Mostly because we always keep our word, and remain fair to everyone, regardless of who the wrongdoer is. The most important lesson that I’ve learned, both in life situations and my training; that is, your word is your bond. Regardless of what your actions are, people will respect you more for keeping your word, being fair in all actions, and not showing favoritism between members inside or outside the pack. This isn’t to say that others will always like your actions, but if your actions are always to treat everyone the same in good and bad situations, then they will respect not only you, but your choices and decisions that much more. The bonus being, that they’ll always know what to expect from you.

And that is why I believe that Angel would end up losing the majority of the pack along with myself. Because while people may not agree with my every decision, they do agree that they know what to expect from me. 

By leaving the pack, another backlash that I’m pretty positive that she’s never thought about; would be the attacks from other packs. Once they get word that I’m no longer a part of the pack, or rather the Alpha of this pack, the packs closest to us will almost immediately start attacking to gain the upper hand and claim this land as part of their own. Which of course would mean that the pack itself will have no type of security at all. Being on guard against constant attacks is very taxing and tiring, both mentally and physically. The adults feel it more than children, but once the children start to feel the strain, then it becomes even worse for the parents and adults involved.