Beyond Fate

What’s his name

I was forever grateful for the strength in my family and Rose for making sure it was strong.

It was their love and support that had made me fight back against Nathan and see him for who he really was, although I’m not always able to fight against the mate bond I have come along way from being the whimpering little girl that would spend her nights locked in her room at the pack house hoping her mate would leave his girlfriend and come save her from the hell that had become her life.

Everyone was still laughing at Mina trying to convince my mom she didn’t need a bath by wiping her face with her sauce covered hand. I smiled at her, she was just wiping more food around her face.

We were all pulled out of our happy family moment by the sound of jingling keys and someone opening the front door. I frowned looking around the table. Everyone with a key was already here then the sound of the squeaking Tammy coming from the hallway had me gritting my teeth.

I groan inwardly, fighting everything in me not to say anything out loud as I hear Tammy coming in through the front door. Johnny jumped up the second he heard her.

“ She has a key?” I leaned in whispering to mom. She rolled her eyes putting her finger to her lips, dad let out a low growl obviously it hadn’t been their idea.

The happy family dinner mood soon changed when Johnny returned with a mind numbingly irritating fiancé in the form of a petite redhead who’s hair was styled in ringlets piled high on top of her head.

Tammy's outer appearance always reminded me of what I’d imagine a real life goldie locks to look like, if she had red hair instead of blonde. Her petite frame and creamy white skin were a huge contrast with Johnny's 6.3”muscled, tattooed body.

They were such an odd looking couple, on the outside he was a bad boy and she looked like his little sister he was dropping off at boarding school. Even her wardrobe screamed little girl. Tammy always favoured knee length stockings with tiny skirts and shirts. I think maybe she thought it helped her image as the innocent little daddies girl she tried to portray. No guesses needed to know who got blamed when the little slur came home pregnant. Yep my poor brother not that he wasn’t equally to blame. Key word being ‘equally’, but no poor little innocent Tammy had to have been corrupted by my big bad brother.

That was just the outside appearance that people saw, on the inside Johnny was the sweet and loyal teddy bear while Tammy was the vicious little snack in the grass spitting venom wherever she went.

“ HI fam!!” she sang, making me want to punch her. I'd never condone hitting a pregnant woman but this woman made me so very eager to do just that every time she opened her mouth. She flipped the few little strands of hair that had fallen out of her up do, smiling a little too forcefully.

Her outfit of the day was her typical school girl look. She wore a pleated tartan print skirt that barely covered her arse, along with a bright coloured bra you could easily see under her white crop top that revealed everything but her n*****s. It made me sick thinking of her dressing like that whilst walking my niece or nephew to school every day. Poor child will be embarrassed to be seen with her.

Tammy’s face dropped instantly the second she saw me.

“ oh I didn’t realise you were here” b***h. I lived here. I growled slightly under my breath. I didn’t normally have to see her. She usually came after dinner and headed straight to Johnny's room without a word to anyone. But since she’d been in wedding mode she wanted everyone’s attention on her big day.

I was about to snap at her with a come back when I heard my dad growl threateningly in his throat.

“ This is my daughters home, your the guest, remember that” he growled.

Tammy tipped her head in submission looking embarrassed. I was actually surprised she’d be so bold, dads picked her up on comments like this before. Johnny rubbed the back of his neck unsure of what to do, these moments were always awkward for him.

They all knew what the pack said about me but my dad had a rule. It was all left at the door. Usually Tammy's comments were made when no one was around, the pregnancy brain must be getting to her. she was best friends with Kelly so naturally she hated my guts too I didn’t care the feeling was mutual.

I heard a shuffle under the table and dad groaned. Mom had obviously kicked him. She gestured with her eyes towards Mina who was watching the whole exchange with curious eyes. Dad looked at her giving her a wink drawing a lopsided grin from her.

“ Right, I think we should clean up,” mom said, pushing up from the table.

“ I’m going to run Mina a bath” she added, handing the empty plates to dad letting him know he was cleaning up.

I chuckled as he did as he was told without complaint he knew not to argue with mom.

Mina chased after mom upstairs seconds later. I was about to offer to help dad when Tammy dropped a pile of folders and bridal magazines on the table with a clang.

“Have a seat babe I’ll get you some leftovers” Johnny gestured for her to sit down opposite me. I didn't miss the eye roll when Johnny wasn’t looking.

“ No baby, no carbs, the wedding remember”, it was my turn to roll my eyes now.

There was nothing to Tammy she was a size six, and as a werewolf we had a naturally high metabolism, we could literally eat carbs for every meal our entire lives and it not effect our body, and with Tammy being pregnant it was just plain stupid. Was it really worth being a size four if it meant hurting your pup. No. The answer should always be no.

Not that Tammy was the doting mother and wife to be you’d expect. There was only one reason she’d smiled when she found out she was pregnant and that was that she’d trapped my brother with her for good.

In our outdated world, wolf law states that in the event of an unplanned pregnancy the parties involved are to mate before the pup is born, if one of those parties were already mated then the other party would have to become a mistress. In our pack it meant living in the apartment complex we called The Block.

The Block housed all the unmated wolves that had illegitimate pups with someone who was already mated, it happened more often that you thought.

Being a werewolf meant we didn’t fall in love the traditional way a human would. We were given a soulmate by the moon goddess selene. She is the one that created the very first of our kind and in turn creates our perfect partner in life ,the other half of our soul, something that is meant to be a gift and cherished as such.

At least that is the moon goddesses plan but I know from personal Experience it doesn’t always work out that way. But because the mate bond was created by the goddess herself it was almost impossible to break. It’s only in rejecting the bond officially can it be broken and you don’t feel the pull to be with that person anymore. One reason I’ve been so desperate for Nathan to do it for the past three years.

Obviously there's no telling where or when you will find this soulmate. Potentially a wolf could go their entire lives and never find them. Sometimes wolves decide to bite the bullet and take a chosen mate instead, others like Johnny who are just clumsy and end up with an unplanned pregnancy meant the decision was taken away from them.

The block existed because eventually everyone found their fated mate and well if they already had a chosen mate they could only ever take their fated mate as a mistress. Yep, life sucks sometimes.

Which in a nutshell meant Johnny was stuck with Tammy whether he liked it or not. So I got that Johnny was making the best of things with Tammy. If there were such a thing. At least at the end of it all he’d have his pup. I think that’s what he chose to focus on, that and praying to the moon goddess that he would never meet his fated mate.

Johnny had already told me he planned on rejecting her if he ever met her. He didn’t want her to have the same fate as all those other wolves that lived in the block. It was no life to live, they had no titles, they weren't allowed to work. they relied solely on their mate to provide for them but they were never allowed to acknowledge their mate. They were more of an outcast in the pack's eyes than I was and Johnny had sworn he wouldn’t let his mate live that life, he knew if he rejected her she could go on and have a chance at a happy life without him. He just prayed the day would never come when he would be put in that position.

So I guess you can understand why the impending wedding and pup weren't something my family was celebrating. We all knew Johnny was trapped in this life and without his fated mate. It didn’t help that Tammy was a power hungry b***h as much as Kelly was and had bagged herself the best warrior in the pack and a Beta blood. Their pup was likely to be the next generation pack Beta. Tammy was playing the long game for sure.

“ Anyway babe didn’t you have something to ask Alisha” Johnny said coming to sit down again at the end of the table putting him between me and Tammy.

“ Huh?” Tammy said absentmindedly like she wasn’t listening but I knew full well she was. She had her head in one of the magazines she’d brought pretending to be engrossed but I knew she’d just done it to avoid making small talk with me.

“ oh um…” she stuttered, still not looking up. I could tell from the way she bit her lip she was thinking of a way out of what was going to happen next and I suddenly felt very uneasy. Johnny shook his head, turning to me with a smile.

“ Tammy wanted to ask if you’d be a bridesmaid at our wedding” my eyes went wide, I heard clattering and a cough from by the sink, dad clearly found this as amusing as me.

“ Bridesmaid…really?” I tried hard not to cringe as Johnny looked at me eagerly while Tammy was trying hard not to roll her eyes; this obviously hadn’t been her idea.

I’d rather drink acid than stand up in some church next to the female I hated with a vengeance while I watched my second most hated female marry my big brother.

“ umm” I didn’t know how to say no without hurting Johnny, I wonder what he’d had to agree to in order to get Tammy on board with this.

“ Oh babe look don’t force her, it can't be easy I mean having to compare herself to the others, after all kelly Is the most beautiful female in the pack who could compare to that” she smiled smugly as if gloating. She couldn’t possibly know could she?

“ What are you talking about, my baby sister is more beautiful than any of the others” I smiled at Johnny warmly. I did love him. Oh goddess, get me out of this situation.

“ Baba, your mom just mindlinked me, she asked if you could grab little pup’s P.J’s for her” I looked up at dad who had moved closer to us, silently thanking him. I know he’d made it up to get me out of there, mom would have just mindlinked me herself otherwise. I didn’t want to hurt my brother but I sure as hell didn’t want to be a bridesmaid.

I headed upstairs towards the bathroom deciding to take a quick detour to my bedroom going into the drawer where I kept spare pyjamas for Mina on nights like this. It meant I could just take her back home to the pack house and put her straight to bed.

Going into the bathroom I found a soaking wet mom with a giggling Mina splashing about in the tub. As I’d suspected mom already had a pair of pyjamas for Mina on top of her towel.

“ hey, hey I thought we kept water in the tub not on nana Kat.” I smiled at Mina who giggled looking at mom who was also giggling wiping herself down with the towel.

“ we were just playing baby shark” mom sighed, dropping the towel back on the floor.

“ Nanna Kat attack” Mina squealed, throwing herself back down into the water.

“ Shes’s just been telling me her daddy is coming home soon” mom looked at me questioning raising her eyebrows, I looked down at the floor.

“ yea we’ve talked about it, Luna Jamie insisted” I mumbled looking back up at mom, she gave me a sad smile.

Luna Jamie had forced my hand telling Mina her dad was coming home to her very soon. Mina had always imagined her daddy off fighting bad guys like a knight from one of her Disney films. Luna Jamie and alpha Felix hadn’t helped by adding to the fairy tails by telling Mina he was a great warrior fighting off the monsters to keep our pack safe but one day he would return to her.

I didn’t like being the bad guy in all of this but someone had to be realistic.

The truth was we had no idea what Mitchell’s state of mind was now. Sure we all wanted to believe he’d come back to the pack and dive straight into being the alpha and father we all needed him to be, but what if he wasn’t. What if he delayed coming home again, it wouldn’t be the first time.

We all heard stories of what had become of him in the past few years and in all honesty I didn’t want to picture the kind of man that could be coming home to us. What if he changed the pack for the worst, what if he was never going to be a real dad to Mina. What if I did end up being the only parent figure in her life. Losing your fated mate changed you. Luna Jamie and Alpha Felix seemed blind to all that, like Mina they loved the fairy tale better. They expected the strong, kind, loving Mitchell that had left years ago to be the one coming back, but what if there was nothing remains of the boy they had known in the man that returned.

Doing what I always seemed to do lately when her dad was mentioned I changed the subject.

“ So guess what?” I smiled brightly.

“ what!” they both said in unison.

“ I’ve just been asked to play dress up in the plastic barbie wedding show” I did jazz hands to make it more theatrical putting on my best fake smile. Mina clapped but mom rolled her eyes.

“ So he asked you, did he?” She sighed grabbing the towel Mina stretched her arms out to me and I scooped her out, uncaring that she soaked me too.

“ You knew?” I asked frowning, she wrapped the towel round Mina rubbing her dry.

“ He said he wanted to get you more involved, your his sister baby, he just wants you to be a part of it” she sighed sadly.

“ Be apart of it, I rather kiss a frog” I had a better thought in mind but kept it to myself keeping it PG.

“Yuk !!” Mina giggled, pulling a face.

“ Ribit Ribit!!” I licked my lips puckering up for a kiss, mina giggled going to hide behind mom.

I heard the doorbell going and dad talking to someone I couldn’t tell who over Mina squealing at me being a potential bridesmaid asking mom about my princess dress and could she have one too.

We got Mina into her Beauty and the Beast pyjamas that I immediately had to swap for new ones because and I quote ‘ Belle wasn’t a real princess’ can’t argue with a three year old about Disney princesses. Trust me. I’ve tried.

After changing Mina into Ariel pyjamas we quickly dried and braided her beautiful brown hair before heading downstairs. Mom disappeared to quickly change her clothes whilst I was finishing off Mina’s braid. She came back wearing big fluffy pyjamas with ‘Top Dog’ written on the front.

Dad had brought them as a joke for Christmas. He was lucky mom had a sense of humour not many of our kind would be.

The word ‘DOG’ was used as an insult to us more than any other species. I'm sure you can understand why. But luckily for dad mom had loved them and wore them all the time.

“ Come on, let’s go watch TV and see if grandpa grumpy has cleaned up yet” mom

Whispered to Mina who was holding her hand while we walked down stairs, Mina and I giggled.

We got to the bottom of the stairs I caught a glimpse of dads office door opening, as we passed to go into the living room I heard a hushed tone and the guy from earlier Lucas, I think that was his name, came out of dad's office shaking dad's hand thanking him as he left.

He caught sight of me as he moved towards the front door, wow I hadn’t been wrong earlier the guy was seriously hot. He smiled wickedly like he had earlier as he passed me.

“ Nice to see you again sweetheart” he whispered then winked at me. I couldn’t help but blush at him. Though I did catch a slight whiff of another she wolf as he walked past, it was faint but definitely there. Did he have a mate. Probably just fooling around with one of the pack omegas. I had to admit I was slightly disappointed he’d run off straight to another she wolf after flirting with me this afternoon. But then who was I to judge unmated males were all the same if they weren’t fighting they were f*****g.

He left the house without another word. I turned around to see dad leaning against his office door, studying me intently.

“ Do you know him, Baba?” He asked suspiciously. I felt a bit embarrassed that my dad had caught me staring after a guy.

“ Do you know him, dad?” I shot back, raising my eyebrows with a smile. Dad forgot I wasn’t fifteen any more he was used to scaring boys away from me, as you can imagine I didn’t have much experience with boys before Nathan. None in fact.

“Very clever, just do me one favour?” He folded his arms over his chest, giving me his serious expression.

“ Don’t get involved, he's dangerous,” he said sternly.

“ Sounds hot” I replied with a wink, dad rolled his eyes at me knowing I was winding him up, although I wasn’t blind to how hot the guy was. I'd never been that type of girl.

“ What did, what’s his name want?” I pretended not to know his name, I didn’t want dad asking too many questions.

“ What's his name, huh?” Dad chuckled “ Well, what’s his name just wanted some information on a pack member?” Dad’s face turned serious again.

“ Which pack member?” I asked just as Johnny interrupted coming from the kitchen. I saw Tammy trailing behind him, she glared at me from behind Johnny and I glared right back.

When I looked back up to Johnny, he and Dad's eyes suddenly glazed over and I knew he was mind-linking Johnny. I could understand him not saying anything in front of Tammy but for him not to include me hurt my feelings a bit, did he not trust me.

A moment later dad looked back at me seeing my unhappy face but he quickly brushed it off. Johnny and Tammy went upstairs to his room.

Dad and I went into the living room to find mom and Mina cuddled up under a blanket on the sofa watching sleeping beauty together. Dad went and sat down in his arm chair while I snuggled up to Mina and mom.

After a while of watching TV I felt myself being shaken. I opened my eyes to see dad smiling down at me. He had gotten out of his chair. There was some more of Johnny's paperwork in his hand.

“ Johnny will go mad if he sees you with those” I smiled stretching out.

“ You fell asleep baba, you better get little pup to bed it’s late” he said ignoring my comment, I yawned looking at my watch. It was almost ten. I fell asleep two hours ago.

“ Oh goddess they will be sending out a search party for her” I scrambled up rubbing my eyes. Mina and mom were fast asleep too. Mina had her head on mom's lap and had been stretched out over mine too. I was surprised she was still asleep after I’d jumped up so quickly.

“ Don’t wake her Johnny is going to come with you” dad stopped me when I moved to pick Mina up.

“ I can carry her dad, don’t bother him” Mina wasn’t heavy and the pack house was only a ten minute walk.

“ No I don’t want my girls out this late alone, Johnny will carry her” I nodded he was right I don’t usually go out this late and the thought of walking back alone in the darkness kind of freaked me out.

I went into the hallway grabbing mine and Mina’s coat, Johnny came creeping down the stairs careful not to make too much noise. He glanced back up the stairs and sighed as if relieved.

“ Are you ok?” I whispered. Slipping on my coat.

“Shhhhh, she finally fell asleep, if we’re quick she won’t even notice I’m gone” he whispered.

“ Did you have the pup already and not tell us?” I laughed.

“ haha very funny, she’s been a bit weird about knowing where I always am lately” he groaned. Yea because that didn’t give an insight into what being mated to Tammy would be like. Note the sarcasm.

“ Stalker much” I exclaimed trying not to be too loud.

“ I think it’s just pregnancy hormones” he nodded towards the living room going in. I followed him glad he was moving off the Tammy talk.

He scooped Mina up without disturbing mom. I covered her with the blanket they’d been using earlier as Johnny moved out of the room he noticed dad's hands.

“ Dad seriously what the hell you can’t keep going through those” Johnny whisper shouted glaring at dad. He just glared right back putting his finger to his lips. We all looked down to see Mina stirring in Johnnys arms after a few second she cuddled up to him and settled again.

“ We will talk about this when you get back” dad shook the papers in Johnny's face. Who just rolled his eyes angrily as we left the house.

Johnny and I walked for a few minutes in silence until I felt we were a safe distance away before piling on with the questions.

“ So what was that all about?” I nodded back in the direction of the house. The pack was eerily quiet this time of night, only the sound of our boots under the gravel path gave way to the nothingness. We didn't even have many street lamps, only the light of the moon and the odd house was all that spared us from complete darkness. Not that it bothered us, we were able to see easily in the dark even better in our wolf forms.

“ It's nothing, just pack stuff” Johnny stated sounding bored. I looked up at him giving him a look that let him know I wasn’t buying it.

“ Fine! Nathan keeps reducing worriers at the border patrol for bullshit errands anyone in the pack could do” my mouth made an O shape, I could understand why dad was so angry, reducing warriors at the borders meant less wolves guarding the territory, which meant more openings for attacks.

“ Is that why that guy was here earlier?” I thought back to dad and Johnny being cagey before.

“ No. he wanted some information on someone” Johnny said, looking slightly nervous now.

“ who?”I asked as we reached the pack house, Johnny climbed the steps looking around to see if anyone was in sight.

“ You” he turned back to me. My eyes went wide. Why would he want to ask about me?

“ Well to be more specific, he wanted details about what happened that day, and since dad was the Beta at the time he came to ask him directly, apparently he doesn’t trust Nathan’s word either,” I didn’t need to ask what day, Johnny knew I’d know which day he meant.

“ Don’t worry dad didn’t say it was you, this Lucas guy just wanted facts about what happened, seems he’s not taken in by this pack's inbread gossipers” Johnny stated a little louder than needed and I knew it was in case anyone was eavesdropping.

“ Who is he?” I asked Johnny, he readjusted Mina so she was now over his shoulder. He opened the front door going straight in.

“ I don’t know, some kind of friend of Mitchell’s but I’ll tell you this for nothing he’s a powerful wolf. I wanted to be in there when dad spoke to him but Tammy…” he looked at the floor sheepishly.

“ I got it, don't worry, what will you do about the warriors?” Wanting to change the subject. Johnny sighed, starting to climb the stairs.

“ I know what dad will say, to ignore that i***t and put the patrols back up, but it’s not that easy Ali, dad forgets he isn’t Beta anymore and neither am I. I can’t just go against Nate if he gives me an order” Johnny blew out a breath.

I knew how much of a blow losing his Beta position had been. Imagine preparing your whole life for one purpose to then have one of your best friends snatching it from under you.

Every time Nathan laid down the law for Johnny it was like rubbing salt in the wound. He might have control over the warriors but when Nathan pulled rank Johnny had no choice but to obey.

“ Well if you need help you know I don’t mind taking a patrol” I offered, mom and dad used to take us when we were in our teens. We had started our training with high hopes of being permanently on boarder protection unfortunately omegas weren't even trained in our pack so Johnny was the only one to ever have the honour.

“ I know thanks but you have your own problems plus if I made you too tired for the day time, this one will never let me hear the end of it” he smiled gesturing towards Mina.

We both chuckled as I pulled out my keys from my pocket but before I could unlock the door it was flung open wide.

I jumped back from the shock that the nursery was once again unlocked. Heather stood there her tiny frame stood in a defensive stance but I soon realised it wasn’t against me, it was for the two warriors stood behind her.

Heather gave me a sympathetic look before scooping Mina up out of Johnny's arms before he could protest taking advantage of his distraction at seeing his warriors in the nursery. As soon as Heather was inside the warriors came to the door pushing me back when I tried to enter.

“ Stand down both of you” Johnny growled at them both although they dipped their heads in submission they didn’t move.

“ Sorry sir but our orders came directly from Beta Nathan”

“ Really and what orders were they?” Johnny demanded becoming more agitated. Getting in one of the warriors faces. The guy seemed seriously scared with good reason Johnny wasn’t just a good trainer he was also as feared and respected a warrior as our parents were.

“ T…t..to guard t..t..the Alpha pup and to keep the omega…I...I mean your sister out and away from the pup” the guard stuttered trying to hold his ground. But all I could focus on was the words that had just come out of his mouth.

“ What!” I gasped.