After the Alpha’s Death

Chapter 1

“Rose, Rose” the harsh whisper accompanied by a rough shake woke her from her sleep. Her eyes wandered to the clock on the bedside table then to the figure still holding onto her shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” She groaned at the woman.

“Your father’s missing.”

“So, what does this have to do with me? It’s nearly 3am go back to bed”. She snarled, her annoyance at the woman clear, but this only made the young woman cry more. “He will be out having fun, let him be, you knew what he was like before you climbed into his bed”. She pulled the cover higher, half covering her face. She-wolves had always thrown themselves at her father, trying to become Luna, for as long as she could remember. But he would never take another Luna, she knew that. They never learned, they all thought they would be different, that they would bed Alpha Nicolas Mason and give him the male heir he so desperately wanted, and they would be his Luna with all the riches and power that came with that title. However despite 8 daughters to as many she-wolves he was without a Luna and more importantly an heir.

“He is not out having fun.” The she-wolf growled. “He was here with me but left an hour ago to find the Michaels and Hughes families.” Rose scowled at the petite young woman that stood in front of her. This didn’t make any sense to her. Gregory Michaels and Lewis Hughes were her fathers Beta and Gamma. His best friends since childhood and his most trusted advisers. There had been tension between them lately which had been evident to everyone in the pack, but no one thought there was anything seriously wrong in the Alpha unit, nothing that would cause them to leave in the middle of the night. It had just been the three of them since the Deltas death nearly 5 years ago. Her father had tried to find a suitable replacement but had given up after a year and the three of them had become a strong unit together. It was incomprehensible to her that her father wouldn’t know where they were at this time of night. Their families too, should be in the pack house asleep. Why would her father go looking for them at 2am? Sensing her confusion her father’s partner continued. “They rejected the pack and left by the North border an hour ago. Nick left to find them and talk some sense into them, but he never came back. I don’t know what else to do.” s**t, this was the last thing the pack needed. The pack would be vulnerable without a Beta and Gamma to support the Alpha. Once the neighbouring packs found out not even the alliance could protect them. The alliance, made up of the packs in the area, who agreed to protect the Alpha’s and their packs, and offer assistance to them if necessary. However if the pack did not have stable leadership the alliance would turn on the Alpha, claiming them unfit to rule. Other Alphas would come to take their lands. There had been no wars between the packs in the 5 years since the war that claimed the Delta’s life, the war that lead to the formation of the alliance, but that did not mean that there wouldn’t be a war now.

“Fine, I’ll find him”. She responded defeatedly, sleep well and truly off the cards. There were things going on in her pack, the Crimson Moon pack, that she was not aware of. Things that her father had kept hidden from everyone.