Golden Rule

Chapter 13

Chapter 13 – the brothers

Nathan ran toward the Alpha’s residence in his wolf form in the early hours of the morning. The sun had still not risen. This was his favorite time. When everything was all calm and still. It was just him and his thoughts. Every time he made himself a promise, he would live for his pup. His son would come before anyone. He didn’t want to think of anyone else coming into his life anytime soon. He felt content with where he was.

What happened before had to, the heartache of losing a mate in the worse way, so he could value what was important in life. There was no way he could ever repay his brother and grandmother for what they helped him get through. His father was helpless himself. He couldn’t help himself much less his son’s emotional heartaches. Although Nathan couldn’t remember a time when his dad wasn’t the strict disciplinarian that he and his brother were always scared to mess up in front of. He saw his father become the shell of the man everyone talked about was a strong and feared leader. Nathan was young, but even at seven years old he remembered his father being an imposing and strong man. Until that night that ruined everything.

Now, former alpha Richard could not even stand up straight without pain. Over the years the pain got worse, and so did his persona. He became an angry and ruthless man. Wanting to kill any suspects without evidence until he was out of control. The council decided to remove alpha Richard and put the twin alphas at the head of the pack at 15. That was when the disdain from their father began.

Before, they knew he wanted them to be great leaders and lead the pack to greatness. But their father felt betrayed. He felt he still had more in him to give. He lost his mate and two great friends to rouges attacking the pack and then he was made to retire without ever getting revenge for his dead loved ones.

It was hard for Nathan to see his father now. And he had very little patience himself to be trying to maneuver around his father’s tantrums and endless rants. Not to mention the fear he put into his pup. That s**t would NEVER happen again.

Nathan’s wolf jogged at a leisurely pace through the woods that led back to his home. He looked up and sent a quick prayer to the moon goddess that she watch over and protect what was left of his family. He wouldn’t be able to handle another loss. He would soon give his own life than suffer another heartache caused by losing another loved one.

He came upon two wolves on patrol. They mind linked:

“Alpha Nathan, everything cleared near the house sir.”

“JL, Dustin, anything else to report?”

“If you want the latest gossip sir.”

“Do I?”

“The new teacher sir, all the unmated wolves and even some of the mated ones are pining over her.”

“That’s all gossip I don’t give a s**t about.”

“Well thing is, the kitchen girls were talking about how Alpha Brandon was basically drooling over her. Staring at her like a lovesick pup.”

Nathan let out a growl.

“Sir” the two patrolmen bare their necks in submission.

“You all will address your alphas with respect. Pass that along down your gossip chain.”

“Yes sir” both wolves say still with their necks bared.

Nathan continued and finally made it to the side of the house and went in through the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of water and a snack when he felt his wolf stir, trying to lead him. He did not feel any threat so it must something else. He let his wolf lead him and was taken into the dining room. There were several smells from wolves. He could smell all the attendees of the dinner, but nothing seemed out of place. But his wolf was pacing and huffing in his head.

He suddenly began to feel… dirty. ‘What the f***’ he thought to himself. Its not like he had just worked the fields and was a sweaty mess or something. Why did he feel the need to jump in the shower immediately?

His wolf wouldn’t stop pushing forward in his head. ‘f*** it, I’ll get a shower so you can calm the f*** down.’ He made his way to second floor toward the Alphas’ wing. He stopped by to check on his pup; the little boy was sound asleep. Nathan went into his own room and jumped into the shower and scrubbed his body. After his shower, he felt like a new man. His wolf was ready to take on the day. Working with the livestock and managing the lands.

It was almost five thirty in the morning and he needed to get going to meet the workers to start the day and then make his way to the training fields to lead training. He dressed in workout clothes and packed clothes for the fields.

He stopped by his pup’s room again and this time went over to the bed and looked at his peaceful sleeping form. I loved his pup, but he couldn’t handle his mother’s essence still on him. Nathan actually held his breathe as he leaned down to give his pup a kiss on his forehead. His son was excited to start school in the next few days. Nathan knew he needed to stop being selfish and actually be there for his son every step and milestone of the way. He walked out and made his way back into the kitchen and a few of the Omegas were already busy with preparing breakfast and had his oatmeal ready to go.

His wolf again acting antsy and wanting to go back into the dining room. He quickly walked in and took a deep breathe and his wolf calmed down for the time being. Nathan only rolled his eyes and walked back through the kitchen and out the door.

He jumped into one the pickup trucks and made his way to the corn fields where it was almost time for harvesting so they had to keep the 200 acres of the crop healthy a few more weeks. He gave instructions to the 30 human workers. He then drove over to the dairy farm to make sure the overnight crew hadn’t slacked the night away like the day crew had complained about. After this, he made his way to the training fields.

***********************************************

Brandon had woken up at his usual time of five in the morning and began to get ready for his day. He knew it would be a long day and he already felt he was on autopilot. He couldn’t stop thinking about Miriam Levy and his wolf was a mixture of excited and longing at the thought of the teacher. There was definitely something about her that drew his wolf to her. But he couldn’t figure it out. She wasn’t his mate so what could it be?

Brandon walked out of his room and stopped by his nephew’s room. He could smell that his brother had just been in there. He felt in tinge of sorrow for his brother as even he could still smell the mother on the young pup. But he knew his brother was trying. It wasn’t easy getting over losing your mate. He went down to the kitchen where he met up with Anthony at the entrance.

“Good morning, Alpha Brandon, Beta Anthony. You just missed Alpha Nathan, he already headed out.” The lead morning Omega, Fanni, greeted them and handed them their overnight oatmeal jars as well. They made their way to the training fields to help set up.

The talk around the fields was all about the new schoolteacher and Brandon found himself getting more and more irritated at the comments. How hot she is, her badass ride, she looked like a city girl, who would ‘hit that’ on and on. He was sure none of the warriors present had even seen her. They were merely going off hearsay.

Finally, he had had enough. “All of you shut the hell up! Start 20 laps around the fields now!” He barked out. All the warriors groaned but began their run before the alpha decided on more. ‘Learn to speak of women how you want other men to speak of your mothers or daughters. Pick up the pace NOW!’ Brandon mind-linked them all.

He saw Nathan jogging up to them smirking. ‘feel free to keep the lead Bran.’ Nathan linked him.

‘No, these dumbasses just needed a lesson in manners.’ Brandon responded.

Nathan joined the run and asked, ‘does this have anything to do with a certain teacher?’

‘F**k off Nathan.’ Was his response. Nathan smirked even wider, and they continued with their training after the long run. They continued with training as usual and afterwards Brandon and Anthony made their way back to the house to shower and have breakfast.

“We’ll take our breakfast in the private room please Fanni.” Said Anthony.

“We’ll be right behind you sir.”

Brandon looked at Anthony with a knowing look, but he didn’t want to have this conversation so early in the morning.

“What’s on your schedule today buddy?” Anthony asked Brandon.

“Calls and meetings.”

“Is today your meeting with the mayor?”

Brandon rolled his eyes and let out an exhaustive breath “yes, it is.”

“What happened last night? With the chandelier?” asked Anthony as they made their way into the small private dining room that was soundproofed for private meetings.

That second question surprised Brandon. He thought Anthony would want to ask about the teacher not being his mate. “I’m not sure. At first I thought I was imagining it moving until I saw you looking at it too.” They sat down across from each other at the six-person table after closing the door.

“That was some weird s**t man, there’s no way a breeze or something moved it. And no one else noticed.” Said Anthony.

“Or they acted like they didn’t see it. The teacher had just been looking at it.”

“You think her pretty face managed to make the chandelier fall in love with her too?” Anthony said laughing.

“Too? I want Adriana to hear you say that?” smirked Brandon.

“It ain’t like that man. All the unmated wolves were all about Miss Levy last night in the pack link. I mean she’s hot, anyone can see that even Adriana. She liked her alright. She mentioned if she’s not your mate you could take her as your chosen.” Anthony cautiously said. Brandon actually thought about that for a minute. Their conversation paused when two Omegas came into the private room with trays of breakfast foods and coffee. They set everything out on the table and walked out closing the door behind them.

“Look, I know Nathan took a chosen mate and things ended…. tragically. But you deserve to have someone, at least try. And lighting doesn’t strike twice. What happened to Nathan won’t happen to you. Plus, Daisy was a human, the teacher is a she wolf. Apples and oranges man.” Anthony continued. Brandon only nodded. After breakfast Brandon made his way to his office to begin his day, he stayed on the phone with the multiple banks the pack used for almost two hours getting money moved around to pay the warriors, omegas and human workers. He had a headache by the end of it all. By the time he was done with more calls and video meetings with two other alphas about a livestock sale it was past lunchtime. He hurried and ate a hearty soup and sandwich Fanni had prepared for lunch. He had to make his way toward the village square since he had a meeting with the mayor.

He knew what the mayor was worried about. He had heard some of the rumors going around and if they were true, he was prepared to have a serious talk with mayor Verde man to man. He walked out and jumped into an SUV and started towards the mayor’s office. Once there, he was ushered into Verde’s office quickly.

“Mr. Duran so glad you could make It!” greeted the 60 something year old with a round middle and of average height. He was an alright guy, but the events of the last year were straining the relationship with the human who found himself in a rough spot with the twin alphas. And the pack at that.

“Mayor Verde, I hope my men haven’t been causing any trouble around the village.” Brandon said sternly.

“No, no, not at all. I wanted to discuss a more pressing matter with you.” Said the mayor hiding the fact that pack members had in fact been causing problems around the village. It was a terrible position to be in, but the mayor wanted to keep the peace among everyone. But Brandon sensed the mayor was lying about this and it irked him. There was too much miscommunication happening between the pack and the humans and Brandon didn’t want things to get out of hand.

“What matter would that be mayor?”

“Well (clears throat), the village council members are um, worried about uh, the harvesting for the upcoming season.”

“What are they worried about?”

“(clears throat) that you or y-your uh, brother could sell the goods to another town or someone else.”

“Why the hell would they think that?!”

“Given the events of-of the past year, we thought-“

“No! You thought! What type of f*****g people do you think we are?! Not only do we have a contract you also have our word. Our crops sell to this village first, we won’t let people starve because of one person. Did you have anything to do with what happened with your daughter?” Brandon was furious. How could this man think this less of them? F***! He wanted to punch him in his f***ing face.

Mayor Verde choked out, “Of course I had nothing to with my daughter-“

“Our contract stands, Mayor Verde. Rest assure your village will not starve because of anyone else’s f*** ups.”

“Thank you, Mr. Duran.” The Mayor thought about a time when they considered each other family. He called the great Alpha by his first name, and they joked around, had dinner with each other’s families, met for pool and beer. How much things had changed in the past year. He did miss his only daughter terribly. He couldn’t understand why things happened the way they did. He dared to ask, “How is Alpha Nathan holding up?” he winced at the glare Brandon gave him.

“He’s doing just fine. Raising his son as best he can. Is that all Mayor Verde?”

“Yes Alpha, thank you for coming by.” Said the mayor reluctantly, wanting to know more about his grandson.

Brandon got up and rushed out of the office without another word and out the building. He started making his way to give Fred a quick visit. He hadn’t seen his old friend, the local priest, who was a werewolf himself and a close family friend. Brandon was passing shops and started slowing his steps when he caught a particular scent. He kept making his way down the sidewalk when a couple shops ahead he saw the new teacher and Ms. Jackie came out of one of the shops. Miriam looked so sophisticated and regal. He walked behind them keeping his distance while Ms. Jackie introduced Miriam to a family with grade school children. He saw how all the members of this werewolf family looked at Miriam with awe. The two little girls smiling brightly at her, and the older brother blushed when she spoke to him.

He wanted to be near her himself. He wanted her attention as well. He felt like a kid, but he couldn’t help it. He walked up to them in time to hear Miriam ask Ms. Jackie about the village dynamic between humans and weres. He seized on the opportunity.