The Wolf Kingdom

Chapter One

I woke up before the sun today, this has been happening more often in the last few weeks. Every night my dreams are restless, and I wake more tired that when I went sleep. I had hoped that they would get better, but they haven't. The last two nights I have had even less sleep, my father and brother were called out to the council of peace on an emergency meeting. This never happens, not since the peace treaty between the three kingdoms was signed eight hundred years ago. It’s made me restless and my mother, but she is better at hiding it than me, she is an amazing Luna to the pack and an even more wonderful mother. 

My father and brother are due back here today, but we hadn't heard word from them like we should have. At every meeting they usually call the day before to have a festival put together for when they return. The fact that they haven't called to say they are coming is yet another reason that I feel like there is a storm brewing in our world, one that might send us back to war. 

Pulling myself out of bed and making my way to the bathroom I let my mind wonder. I am the daughter of Alpha Efrom Jackson and Luna Ariel Jackson. My brother David and I are the future of the pack or more like he is. As first born, he will take over for my father if no one challenges and defeats him on the day that my father submits to him as alpha. Our pack is one of three that make up the wolf kingdom, the crescent (ours), the midnight pack and the fallen pack.

            There is no king or queen of the werewolves just the packs Luna and Alphas, when the call for meeting came all the Alphas and their Betas went. This time my brother went as my father is getting closer to handing his status over to him and twenty-five my brother will be the youngest alpha in the werewolf kingdom in over six hundred years. After the wars ended the alphas lived longer and the need to hand over the status or pick up the reins was not a dyer as it was then. I am twenty-three and will hopefully have my degree in nursing soon.

            So much good to look forward too but my instincts tell me something is off. I finish getting ready in the bathroom and get dressed in my jeans and navy-blue tea shirt. I don’t do make up as it’s just not my thing and head down to the kitchen. Its now seven am and some of the pack members will be coming to get breakfast started. We have the pack house in the middle of our lands. Most of the land is forest so that we have somewhere to shift and run when we can. In the middle is town with small shops and restaurants and most of the houses although some of the members chose to build outside of the city or village.

            The pack house is a four-story Victorian style house with a ground floor that is set up for public use. There is a huge industrial kitchen, massive dining hall that hold up to five hundred people and theatre and game rooms. While the entire pack can’t fit in at once it does allow the members that have not settled into family life or are just alone for various reasons to get together. In the kitchen I see Annie my best friend and her mother the Rachel already getting started with cooking. There are a few of the wait staff here already too. Annie looks over and see me turns back to her mom and says something then turns to me and smiles as she heads over.

            Annie is pretty with light brown hair and hazel eyes, her skin is fair and she petite at five-five, which is about three inches taller than me if you ask me. If you ask anyone else, she is about five inches taller me. I am on the short side at five-foot two no matter what the measuring tape says. I have dark brown hair that looks black when its wet and bright blue eyes. We have been friends since grade school when someone tried to pick on her, she was a smaller kid, and I broke the kids nose. Not my finest moment but he stopped teasing her and now thirteen years later we are all friends. Thinking of that I smile my first smile in days.

            “JJ, why are up so early?” Annie asked while she grabs my arm and leads me to the fresh brewed coffee.

            “You know how it is. Just anxious for dad and David to return. I just can’t shake this feeling that there is something big coming.”

            She grabs two cups and hands me one, “I know I think more people are feeling it too. I went for a walk with Jeremiah last night and it just seemed like the village was feeling down. No music playing, the park was empty, and I swear not even the forest could be heard.”

            Even with the doom and gloom in the air I couldn’t let that one go. With a smirk I look at her as we take our coffee to the bar top in the middle of the kitchen and sit in the stools. “You went for a walk with Jeremiah huh?”

            I had thought for a little while that there may be something brewing there but neither would acknowledge it. She can’t hide the blush that runs up to her cheeks. I sit and sip my coffee thanking the caffeine gods, still smirking at her. She takes a sip and sets her coffee down and I see a smile growing. “We have been spending more time together but its not like that. We are just hanging out and talk a lot. After what happened with Trevor, he’s just being a good friend.”

            Trevor was Annie’s ex that was banished from the pack and branded a nomad wolf six months ago. He was caught trying to force himself on Elizabeth who is sixteen. It was a blow to all of us but more so to Annie. Trevor wasn’t a weird or rude person. He was always funny and uplifting he had a temper sometimes, but no one saw that coming. He gave no reason and showed no remorse, when Annie went to see him to ask what happened he just laughed at her and told her “I wasn’t getting what I needed from you so I figured I would try elsewhere”. It took Annie three months to pull out of it.

            “If you like him that’s okay Jeremiah has always been nice to you and he is a really great guy.”

            “I know and maybe one day but right now I just need more time.” With that I let the subject die and sip more of coffee.

            We sat in silence for a few minutes, not the awkward ‘I don’t know what to say after that’ type of silence but just a peaceful quiet moment. For the first time in days I started to feel some of my anxiety draining. Maybe was I was being anxious for no reason and the emergency meeting just has everyone spooked. “Girls, can you help get some of the dish carts out to the benefit tables in the dining hall?”

            We both look up to Rachel in front of us. We smile and at the same time answer, “Yes.” We laugh and she shakes her head and we all make are way to the dish carts. “I am going to go help the wait staff start to fill the food treys and set everything out its about seven forty-five, so we only have another fifteen to twenty minutes at most before people start filing in. You girls still okay to move these on your own?”

            Looking at the fifteen carts that hold plates and cups with silver where I shake my head, “Yes we got this.” Smiling I turn to Annie and Rachel moves back to the heart of the kitchen, “You want to tag team this you can take the empty tray carts for the dirty dishes and I will take a full one we can go table to table and put one on each end.”

            “Sounds like a plan but let’s race while we do it.”

            I laugh a really good and strong laugh at that. We treat everything we do like a game so that it doesn’t feel like chores. It has gotten us into trouble from time to time. With that thought in mind I double check that my mother hasn’t made it down yet and agree. We set the usual rules the first one back to the kitchen after dropping the trays off at the table wins who ever wins the most has to do the other one’s chores for the weekend. It’s not like we have a lot of chores, but it makes it fun. Laughing we start and right as a get back the kitchen first on the fifteen tray my walks in and looks at us. She smiles shakes her head and looks over to where Rachel is, “I don’t think they will ever fully grow up, Rachel.”

            “Probably not, but hey at least we will never be bored. But I do think they are worse than the boys were.”

            Annie and I are walking over and we both give a loud “Hey” indignantly since we know there is no way that we are worse than the boys, AKA my brother, Jeremiah, and Axel. They laugh and we all finish helping to move the move from the kitchen to the dining hall. People had started to file in before we even got finished. We all sat a table together with Jeremiah, Axel and Axel’s little sister Marybeth joining us. Marybeth is eight and she is my favorite little person. She is also a Daddy’s girl all the way.

            “Miss Luna? Do you know when dad will get back?” came her small voice as most of the hall has left to get on with the rest of the day. Her and Axel’s father is the Beta of our pack, Paul Anderson. Her mother passed in childbirth with her and my mother and Rachel had stepped in to help him with the kids when but mostly little Marybeth.

            I look at my mom and see is has a small smile on her face, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “I have told you little Mary you can call me Ariel. They called this morning not long ago they had to stop at the neighboring pack and would be here in the afternoon.”

            A smile broke out on Marybeth’s face, “Thank you, I am going to see if I can get some cookies made to meet them with.”

            That earned a laugh from us as she snatched up her plate and put it in the dirty dishes bin and ran off to the kitchen most likely to see if Rosa was in there. She makes the best cookies. My mind though gets stuck on the pack that my mother said they were visiting. It could really be either one, but we sit in the middle of both the midnight and fallen packs, but the path to the council only goes by the fallen. No one has been to the fallen pack in almost tens years since Landon Blacks father Greyson become ill. They would venture out and let council member in, but they wouldn’t let others though their gate.

            From what we know Landon’s father passed on about three ago and Landon took over as Alpha at twenty-nine. I choose to not get involved in the political side of our status, so I have never met the alpha, but I heard he was strong and took good care of his people. Father had been to see him before and always said good things at the same time he would curse him a ‘stubborn asshat’ but never said anything awful. It was interesting that they would stop there. I knew mom wouldn’t have anymore answers as to why, so I didn’t ask. I just hoped that it wasn’t another sign of bad things to come. I realized that I wasn’t the only one to realize how weird it was when I looked up see Axel’s face scrunched in confusion.

            We shared a looked as everyone else stood and then we stood and headed for the kitchen. After making sure little Mary was okay me and Annie headed back upstairs for a while. There was nothing that could be done at the time and from what mom said we wouldn’t have any real answers till later this afternoon. We talked for a while bout nothing in my room on the fourth floor. Then turned on a rom-com movie and laid down. We must have dosed off because a little while later we woke up to Axel’s voice, “Hey, we just go word they will be in less than thirty. We will wait on the front porch if you want to come down,” his voice was muffled through my door but me and Annie both woke up and jumped out of bed.

            I went to the door and opened it, “thanks Axel. We will be down in a few minutes.” Giving a nod and half smile he turned to leave, and I closed door. Me and Annie took turns using my bathroom to tidy up some and then went down. We got to the front just as the cars pulled up. I looked round and notices that there was a larger crowd than the usual friends and family that came when they returned from the other meetings. I guess Annie was right to think that more people were on edge.

            The cars parked and my dad, brother and Paul all got out of the second while the guards they took were getting out of the first. Making their way up the path my father looked round and I saw the sad look in his eyes before he masked it, climbed up the steps and turned to the crowd. My brother moved to mom gave her a hug and then stood by me throwing his arm over my shoulder. That wasn’t weird to me it had done it so many times that it was expected but the kiss to the top of my head made me look at him closer. He smiled down at me and mouthed later at my confused expression. He turned his attention to our father, and I looked at Annie who had the same look of confusion. Me and my brother weren’t known for having more than a comedic and sometimes devious brotherly sister love.

            My father’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts and looked to him, “Everything is okay for the time being. We don’t have anything to worry about right now and to show you how serious we are about this there will be a celebration. Both the Fallen pack and the Midnight pack leaders will be joining us. It will be in two weeks. I hope to see everyone there.”

            The people seemed content with that, but some still had doubtful expressions as they walked away. Father turned and came to mom giving her a hug I head over to them when he turned and saw me, he smiled big and grabbed me a huge bear hug. I was always going to be his little princess and thanks to the height difference he would probably always see me that way, not that I minded I loved my father. He was always going to be my giant, him and my brother sat at six foot seven inches making them two of the tallest members of our pack.

            Setting me down he too kissed head and then turned and headed inside. Once the leaders were all inside, we headed to dad’s office that was on the main floor so that all pack members could come and see him if needed. Paul closed the door once he came inside. It was my family Paul, Axel and Jeremiah. He was training to be the new head of security for the pack. My father gestured for everyone to take a seat while he sat with mom on the little sofa everyone else took the chairs and floor.

            “There have been some new developments but nothing that we should worry about right now. We won’t go into detail on any of it but me and the other alphas feel that we should work to better united our packs. Bring more familiarity to each other. They will be for the weekend in two weeks they will get here Friday and stay till Sunday. The celebration will be on Saturday.” He looked to my mom and smiled then to me.

            “Are you sure that everything is okay?” I asked my father then looked at David.

            David smiled at me, but it wasn’t his normal smile. “Yes” father said “Just some rowdy parties here and there. We will be fine and to show that I want to throw this celebration.”

            “Okay, we will help in any way we can. Annie and me and off from school for the next three months.”

            “Thank you, now why don’t you and mom head, out while we sort out some details.”

            I smiled and he leaned in and kissed mom. What ever is going on may not be as bad as what I thought it was but its not completely oaky either. The pacts got together rarely and never for this big of event. The next two weeks looked like they were going to long. Me and mom headed out to talk to Rachel and Annie. Maybe later I could with David and see what was really going on.