After the Alpha’s Death

Chapter 3

She stood in her room not knowing what to do next. She felt like she should be crying and mourning for her father, but no tears would come. They had been close once, but she felt like she hardly knew him anymore. Perhaps the tears would come later when she witnessed her father’s body burn. Melody had however shed enough tears for the both of them. Her father’s last lover had been crying inconsolably since her father’s body had been carried back into the pack territory and to the pack hospital, not that anything could be done to save him. Although she hadn’t cried or felt particularly sad she felt incredibly lost and alone. She had lost her mother when she was very young, and now her father, and she had no other family to speak of. She had no real friends and although she was polite and courteous to everyone she met, she was not particularly friendly with anyone except Connor. She spent most of her days working outside the pack lands and her evenings alone in her room or sparring with Connor in the old gymnasium. It had been due to be demolished after the completion of the new one but no one had gotten around to dealing with it yet. Most people thought she was too serious and demure and not someone to laugh and joke with them. Most of the time they would be correct but she had a fun and witty side that she didn’t let show too often.

“Astrid,” she called to her wolf. “What should we do now? We aren’t going to be safe here.”

“I don’t know.” The wolf sighed. Rose and Astrid had not had the best relationship of wolves and their humans. Rose had been disappointed in her wolf’s appearance and Astrid found this to be rude and disrespectful. As an Alpha wolf Astrid hated feeling disrespected. Rose had often dreamt of a beautiful elegant silver wolf with a coat so pale it shimmered in the night like the moon itself. A true Luna wolf that her mates Alpha wolf would to be proud to be mated to. When she first dreamt of the wolf she was so convinced it was her own wolf, she started drawing the wolf and displaying the pictures around her room. She had been a talented artist and loved to draw and paint nothing more than her silver wolf. However when she first got her wolf at 14 Astrid told her the wolf she drew was not her, but Rose refused to believe her until she shifted for the first time on the first full moon after her 16th birthday. She had been away from the pack at a boarding school for shifters. She knew this would be the time she shifted and had walked alone through the forests that surrounded the school until she came to the small lake she liked to visit at night to watch the moon’s reflection on the water ripple as she contemplated her life. She removed her clothes and waited for her shift. Most of the shifters at the school returned to their own packs for their first shift, but her father had never offered for her to come home, and she had never asked. Her fathers latest partner was due to give birth to a child the following week and she didn’t want to be anywhere near the pack for that. She had seen it play out several times in the past and knew it would be no different this time. Alpha Nick would be attentive and doting on the child’s mother until the child was born and then would find her and his new daughter a home far from the pack house with enough money to live comfortably but not lavishly. It would be a daughter as well, and it was. The one thing Alpha Nick had craved more than anything was the one thing he would never have. However when Rose shifted and Astrid took control it became apparent that Astrid had been correct. Her wolf was not silver but midnight black with dark green eyes the same as hers. Instead of being elegant and agile she was huge and brutish. She was easily as big and as powerful as her fathers wolf and he had a formidable wolf. Werewolves covet power and strength above all else but from the wolves she knew, only in the males. The males were the strong warriors and the females their delicate nurturing mates. She-wolves were expected to be attentive and submissive, two things Astrid definitely was not. For this reason she rarely shifted into her wolf and only a select few had ever laid eyes on Astrid. Astrid resented being hidden away as if she didn’t exist longing to be free to use her power and strength. However over the last couple of years they had been rebuilding their relationship and learning to live with each other better, helped by Rose allowing Astrid time to roam when she knew no one would be around. Astrid had proven that she was not only strong and fearless but a great judge of character and circumstances. Rose herself often felt awkward and out of place in her human form but Astrid had helped her to feel more comfortable. She had begged her father to allow her to attend the ‘finishing’ school for female shifters aimed at training alpha blooded females in the art of elegance and discipline, training the future Lunas in how to support their Alphas and work for their pack. From the age of 11 until she turned 18 Rose had attended the school and given her all but she was never able to feel like she fit in among her peers and had few friends at the school. She was a loner who worked hard on her schoolwork and the little fight training that she had received.

Rose pulled her dark brown hair into a loose braid and eyed her reflection in the full length mirror. She didn’t realise how tired she was until she saw how exhausted she looked. The early morning wake up and a full day of phone calls and meetings to arrange her fathers funeral had taken their toll and were evident in the dark circles around her dark green eyes.

“It’s time.” Connor informed her through the mind link.

“Coming” she responded with a sigh giving her reflection a final glance.

The cold wind blew around her making the already tense atmosphere feel more intimidating. She had not been close to her father the last few years. She knew he loved her and she was the only one of his children that he took any interest in, but she always knew she was not the child he wanted. If she had been a boy she would have had a completely different life. She was sure that she would have had a great relationship with her father. He would have spent every waking moment training with her and mentoring her in how to be a great leader, but it was not to be, and she could not dwell on that now. She was loved and looked after by him, which was more than she could say for her sisters. She looked at the flaming torch being held before her by someone she didn’t particularly recognise and took it with a nod of thanks. The heat from the flame warmed her hand but did little to stop the shaking. She gave her father’s body a final sorrowful look before lightly touching the flame to the bottom of the funeral pyre. The man who had passed her the torch began talking, but Rose was not listening. In the crowds of people gathered around she could see most of her sisters and their families. She was the only one stood with the man close to where her fathers body laid now engulfed in flames. The smoke pricked at her eyes causing them to water and tears to well in the corners, but they were not tears for her lost father. When the flames started to recede the crowds started to thin, most of the pack members returning to their homes for the evening. Rose turned to the man who had stood beside her that had spoken the eulogy and gave him a nervous smile. He was a powerful Alpha of a large pack. Well liked and well respected among other werewolf Alphas and chosen as head of the alliance. He placed his hand lightly on her shoulder before walking away.

“See you tomorrow?” he asked in a low voice to which Rose nodded her head.