The Lost Son.

“What do you mean?” The alpha’s growl could be heard throughout the whole house. Her power made even the Werewolf counsel squirm in their seats. “Emera!” She stopped in her tracks and slowly turned. She might be one of the most powerful alphas in the pack history, and the only female alpha in pack history, Ever. But there was still one person who could make her listen. The Keeper. He was her advisor and basically her adopted father. He had taken her in after her parents were killed by a hunter almost 20 years earlier. He had also been her father’s advisor when he was still alpha, and her father was said to be more powerful than herself. “Emera, sit down and listen to the counsel before you dismember someone and have something more serious to deal with.” Emera took her seat in front of the werewolf counsel and tried hard to listen to them with an open mind. “As we were saying,” the counsel leader started, after clearing is throat, “ the counsel has voted and have decided that you must mate by the next ‘Blood Moon’ or be forced to resign as the alpha of your pack.” She was fuming again, this time through she quietly stood up, bowed toward the counsel to show her respect, and walked slowly from the meeting room and toward her own personal bedroom. The power of the alpha rolled off her like a low thick fog that covered the ground. The unfortunate pack members that happened to be along the way dropped their eyes as she passed and quickly moved out of the way. The counsel watched her leave. When she was gone, they let out the collective breath they were holding and turned to the Keeper, discomfort and disbelief on their face. “Is she coming back?” “Probably not,” he stated simply “ but can you blame her? You just informed her that if she doesn’t find a mate by the next ‘Blood Moon’ she would lose the one thing that she has worked her whole life to obtain and keep.” “Well…” “Well nothing!” The Keeper cut him off. “What make you “decide” that she needed a mate anyway? Did you also decide that all other alphas needed to mate by the ‘ Blood Moon’ as well?” The counsel just looked at each other uncomfortably. “I didn’t think so,” the Keeper looked around at the counsel members, “I will now go and try to explain your decision to my alpha what you have just told her, and I recommend that you all leave before I am done because she might just decide to make rugs out of all of you before the day is over.” The Keeper walked out of the room before the council even had an opportunity to stop him. He nodded towards the alphas second as he left and walked straight to Emera’s room. Emera barely heard the soft rasping at the door over her radio and the steady, thud thud thud, of the punching bag she had hanging in the corner of her bedroom. She knew who it was by the smell coming from under the door. The smell of musty old paper drifted into her nostrils, it was almost comforting to her. The smell brought back the memory of how she spent so many years training and study with the Keeper. He had been the one to take care of her after her parents were brutally murdered by hunters when she was only ten years old. The memories made her cringe and she got another burst of adrenaline, causing her to start a new assault of the punching bag with added vigor. She heard the quiet click of the door and the slow shuffling steps of the Keeper as he walked up behind her and quietly took a seat on one of the chairs in her room, waiting for her to be ready to discuss the news and information that had just been dumped on her by the counsel. Almost ten minutes later she finally felt the anger subside enough to be able to talk. She turned off her radio and stripped off her gloves, before slowly turning around and looking at the Keeper. She took a deep breath and then sat down in the chair beside him. “What can we do?” She quietly asked him, almost so quietly that he couldn’t hear her. “I guess we need to find you a mate,” the Keeper chuckled. The alpha let out a rumbling growl and broke into a chuckle. “So why did they decide I needed to find a mate. Or did they tell you?” He just shook his head. “That’s great, just great,” she huffed. “So when is the next ‘Blood Moon’ anyway?” The Keeper walked over to the calendar that was hanging on the wall and studied it for a couple of minutes. He slowly turned around and stared at the alpha, his eyes opened wide. “Well I guess I’ll take that as a bad sign. So tell me as it is, do I have a year, eight months?” He didn’t move, “six months?” Still no movement “ five months?” The Keeper cleared his throat and Emera was starting to get annoyed “ four months?” He finally shook his head. “Three months from tomorrow’s full moon,” he said quietly. “What! Seriously?!? They did this on purpose! So much for true love! Now my only hope is to find someone who I am willing to not make a rug out of!” The alphas second let out a snort as he walked into the room. He has over heard the last part of the conversation between the Keeper and his alpha. His laugh bellowed across the room. “We have our work cut out for us now…” He was laughing so hard that he almost missed the pillow being thrown across the room at him. “UGH,” groaned Emera and flung herself I. The floor, rolling over on her back. She looked up at the ceiling and her vision was filled by the sandy blonde hair and dark brown eyes of her second. He was not only her second, but he was her closest friend. They were inseparable as they grew up, both had the power to be potential alphas but he never actually had that desire to be one. Instead he was one of her biggest supporters. When she challenged the former alpha for her right as pack leader, and won, she never Southaven made it without him. He stood behind her and do to the fact that everyone liked him, they stood behind her as well. Since then, she had proven herself to her pack and had won their trust. “Couldn’t I just marry you Ryan?” Emera asked, “it would make this whole situation lot less stressful .” She knew the answer to the question though, they had talked about it a couple times as child’s. After they had learned about the true mates of werewolves, both of them wanted to find their true mates. So far Ryan hadn’t found his mate and neither has she for that matter. Now she was going to be forced to mate someone before three months time. Ryan just smiled at her and shook his head. He laid down I. The floor next to her and they both looked up at the ceiling u. Silence for a few minutes. “I’ll leave you two to figure out what the pack should do next and I’m going to go do some research for you about the mating ceremony of an alpha and see if there could be a loop hole around the council’s vote.” “Thank you,” Emera didn’t have to say much more, the Keeper could tell how she felt. He quietly walked to the door and closed it behind him. “Can you believe what the counsel has decided on?” Emera growled. “What else did you expect them to do?” Ryan stated, “ You scare them; they don’t know what to do about having a female alpha. They don’t like change, it scares them. They are pretty old school and set I. Their ways.” “Why do we have to listen to a bunch of washed up old alpha’s that can’t even…” “Emera,” Ryan cut her off “ they are the counsel, every alpha has to listen to them, you just have to suck it up and prove to them that you are just another alpha that will follow their rules and they don’t have anything to fear.” Emera took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Your right. So, what do we do first? Call a pack meeting? Invite all eligible wolves in the world to our pack so I can pick? I just don’t know where to start.” Ryan jumped up from the ground and reached his hand out to help Emera up. “Your first step is to go for a run, I know you can use one to clear your head right about now.” “Your right,” she huffed and grabbed her running shoes, setting on the couch to put the. On. “I’ll take care of the rest well your gone,” Ryan finished. Emera nodded and headed out of the room, down the hall and out into the courtyard. ‘I love this place’ she thought and took a deep breath of the cool crisp mountain air. ‘Ill take the long loop’. It would help her to clear her heart and it would allow her to check the property. “An alphas job is never done!” She chuckled and took off at a sprint across the training yard. ——————————————————————- “Will there be anything else sir?” “Nope, I think that will just about do it,” Alexander smiled as he finished signing the last few papers in front of him. He had spent the last ten years building his father’s multi-million-dollar business into a multi-billion -dollar business and was ready to take his leave fo the whole thing. “Well Sir, I guess I’ll see you around then, it was a pleasure working with you.” Alexander smiled and shook Irwin’s hand. He had been a trusty advisor for the last ten years, he just hopped that the gift he had left for hi. Would be enough. “Thank you, Irwin, you have been wonderful, now it’s time for me to go and enjoy the rest of my life. You should do the same,” he smiled as he handed the man a plan white envelope with his name scrawled on it. The old man looked up at him and smiled, with tears in his eyes, then reached out and pulled Alexander into a hug. “I’ll miss you kid,” he sniffled. “I’ll miss you too,” he said softly then walked back to the deck and picked up a thick envelope and sauntered to the door of the office. He looked around one last time, it was a bittersweet exit for him. His father had died ten years earlier and left the whole family legacy to him. He wasn’t much on the whole suit and tie thing but ga e it his best and had actually done quite well at it. But now he wanted to move on and figure out what else life had in store for him next. “One last thing.” Irwin nodded and watched Alexander walk out the door and down the hall to the elevator. As he entered the elevator he pulled the poets out of the envelope and studied them. The envelope would be the only thing left to remind him of his father’s legacy. He has sold off everything. The business, the family houses, the cars, the planes, the boats and everything else. He was going to start his new life just the way he wanted too. It helped of course that he would have more money than he would know what to do with in a billion life times, but who really cared about that. Smiling he slide the papers back into the envelope and closed the clasp. He reached into his coat pocket and grabbed his keys, when the door opened in the garage he noticed a big black super duty parked where his sleek black BMW use to be. He shook his head and smiled. ‘Irwin sure knew how to do it.’ “Now to fill up the tank and get on the road,” he smiled to himself and put the truck in reverse pulling out of the garage of ‘Garrison Inc’.