Alpha Rising

Chapter Two

Alvira's P.O.V.

The last thing I remembered after my mother's phone call was climbing into the passenger seat of Nell's SUV and peeling out of the campus parking lot. I know that she must have told me something, but my mind just wasn't picking it up.

By the time Nell and I came bursting into the oddly empty pack house, my mother was already standing with Alban in the middle of the kitchen. She had one shaking hand gripped tightly on his shoulder and the other running through his short brown curls. I could feel his fear roiling in my gut through our bond as twins. When his eyes met mine, it was like all sound and feeling in the world just vanished.

All that was left was my brother. My head was spinning and I could barely register the hazy words that I knew my mother was speaking as I quickly closed the gap between the lot of us. Instinctively, I reached back to feel for the comforting hand of Nell. Once our hands found each other I felt grounded once more.

“Nell,” my mother said in polite greeting, momentarily breaking from my brother to hug my friend as she always did. “How are you, how is your mother doing?” That was typical of her. Always asking about her pack, even when she herself was on the verge of tears. She was a strong and proud Luna, fiercely protective of her pack. But her eyes fell on us, her oldest children, and there was an uncharacteristic pain and fear in that usually strong green gaze.

Nell stepped up into the light affection with a satisfied rumble in her chest before speaking. “She’s okay, Luna Katherine.”

Just two months prior, Nell’s father had passed. It was sudden, and there had been traces of wolfsbane in his bloodstream when the pack doctor examined him. It was only the most recent of a string of attacks on us and our sister packs. His Mate was still suffering, though, and it was unknown if she would be able to survive the loss of her other half. But she was still fighting. It really was a shame. Carson had been one hell of a fighter, and a dear family friend.

“She's still struggling with energy, but she’s doing so much better than before.” Nell took a step back once released and carefully looked between the three of us. There was a question in her eyes as to whether or not she should leave us be, which my mother met with all the grace one might expect from a wise Luna. “I’m on my way over there now. I’ll be sure to tell her you asked,” the young wolf said.

Nell took the cue and gave a polite bow just at the neck before shooting me a look that told me she’d be right over at the drop of a hat. And with a light flourish of her skirt as she turned, my best friend was gone.

The kitchen as it remained felt heavy, much unlike the usually warm and bustling energy of the pack house. All lights but the hanging ones over the island were off, leaving the bulk of the room swaddled in darkness. All three of us stood in a measured silence for some time before Mom finally spoke. “Have any of the Elders approached either of you?” She asked with a softness to her voice more like a conspiracy theory than an attempt at comfort.

In this darkness, with Mom's face shrouded in shadows, we could actually see the age in her expression. Worry lines now creased on her brow, and bags were darkened and swollen under bloodshot eyes. She was just shy of fifty years old but never before had her true age been seen so broadly.

Alban and I could only look at each other and shake our heads. I’d been feeling eyes on me as of late, yes, but none had approached me or even addressed me. “Mom,” I said, stepping forward to catch her attention. She was fidgeting with the hem of the soft blue cotton top she wore, and when her eyes met mine she was on the verge of crying again.

“What’s going on?" I asked, wanting more answers than just vague hints. "Are Cecilia...Jacob…" My mouth gaped as I couldn't begin to think about what might have happened to my two younger siblings. Both were as free-spirited and as wild as you could imagine and prone to causing all sorts of trouble on their own. "Nothing happened, right?”

When Mom motioned that they were fine, I felt a part of my stresses vanish. "They're fine. I promise."

“Is Dad okay?” My brother spoke up, his melodic voice soft like our mother’s, but full of care and caution. He asked the one other thing we both were fearing. With how intense the council had been with him lately, it wouldn’t have surprised us if they had decided to take over Alban’s training themselves.

I think she caught on to our concern though and was quick to ease us with hushed tones and the gentle touch of a worried mother on our cheeks. “Oh honey,” she shushed. “Your father is fine. Don’t you worry about that.” But there was something else still yet left unsaid. It felt like she was stalling; like she didn’t want to say it quite yet.

Mother motioned towards the end of the long dining table nearby, mugs of tea and coffee already set out waiting for us to sit and hold. The last time she’d done this was when she broke the news of the first rogue attacks to us. My heart skipped a beat as she motioned for us to sit. Alban took his seat first, then I followed. He went right for the straight black coffee, I knew he would. It was the only bitter or straight thing about him.

As our mother finally sat, hands still wringing at whatever fabric she could catch hold of, she looked nervously between the pair of us. “You know that your Alpha training is supposed to begin soon, right Alban?”

“Yeah, once I turn twenty-one.” My brother nodded, pausing as he raised his coffee to his lips. This bit of acknowledgment seemed to make Mom cringe just slightly as she took a deep breath.

“That’s right,” she said quietly, reaching out and subtly adjusting her mug in front of her. “But Elder Yancy wants us to start early. He-” she swallowed hard and clenched her eyes shut tight. “Your father has been trying to buy some time.” As she said this, she locked her eyes right on mine, and I felt my wolf start to pace frantically back and forth in my mind.

“Why?” I asked, almost fearful of the answer. I could feel Alban shift beside me, just as anxious as I was it would seem.

"Is it the rogue attacks?" Alban added. It would make sense if the Elders wanted him trained up for that. They would likely have wanted an extra able-bodied wolf at the ready should the worst happen to us like it did to Star Garnet just the Year before.

"Well," She said with a shuddering sigh. "It's a bit more complicated than that." Mom said with a ragged breath out. I watched as she looked between us, uncertainty clear on her face. “Because,” she eventually continued. Every second of silence that ticked past in that heavy moment felt like an eternity. The swell of it started to rush in the frantic beat of my heart that I knew was certainly audible to the both of them. Mom seemed almost apologetic. “Alban. You…” Another deep breath, and I could have sworn she cursed under her breath. “You aren’t the firstborn.” We both sat in stunned silence until she continued on with her declaration. “Alvira is.”

While the world around me fell silent, my wolf howled and keened in pain in my mind.

Somehow in the shock, I'd dropped my mug. Hot tea splattered over the table and the shattered ceramic of the mug, shocking me back to attention. But this went beyond that. This was a hyper-focus.

The drone of the clock on the wall, the clink of my mother’s ring against her mug. Even the caught breath of my brother beside me. I could hear and feel it all. My chair clattered to the floor as I nearly jumped back from the table. With clenched hands and a rapidly rising heart rate, I was trying to just keep from shifting right there in the kitchen. But the mounting pressure inside my skull was having none of it. I had to move, had to run.

Alban felt almost more tense than I was. The sound of my chair falling had clearly spooked him, and he’d almost dropped his coffee cup in shock too. The hair on the back of my neck stood and trembled in confused fear and anger as the realization started to fully sink in. Alban, sweet Alban, wasn’t destined to be the Alpha. He wasn’t meant to be the leader, to rouse our warriors and tend to the council.

I was.

Almost simultaneously, the two of us locked eyes. It made so much more sense, looking back on our childhood and on our habits. And although I know that we only sat there for a few short seconds, it felt like it stretched for hours. He was the first to speak, thank the Goddess. I don’t know what I could have said if I’d tried to make that first connection. “How…” His voice was soft- softer than normal. But still, it trembled with what I could only assume was the same deep-seated anger that coursed hot through my veins.

A low rumble started to flow through me, though I could sense that it wasn’t my own. Alban had reached out to take hold of my forearm and was clutching it so tightly I feared he might bruise me. It was a force and emotional instability that was uncharacteristic for the usually calm head that my brother was. I could feel him brimming with energy, and knew that he was as close to exploding as I was. So I spoke up for both of us.

Well. I ‘spoke’ as much as I did shout.

“You knew?” I damn near roared. “This whole damned time. You knew!” I felt lied to and cheated. If there was a reason for the deception, it better have been a damn good one. Alban’s grip on my wrist tightened, and I could feel him trying to help keep me calm.

“I had to,” my mother said through choked tears. Almost immediately, I regretted raising my voice and losing my temper. Mom was never one to hide anything from us or our siblings. And to see her so shaken up and riddled with guilt over this only led me to believe that something more had happened. “The old laws.”

In this light, I could really see the streaks of silver that started to shine in her hair as her head hung low in shame. “If they’d known-” Tear-stained cheeks shone in the dim light when Mom raised her eyes back up to meet ours. “I couldn’t let them take you, Vira. I just couldn’t.”

Before I could even open my mouth, my brother was asking what I was already thinking. “Let who take her?”

Mom took a deep breath in and muttered a quick prayer to the Moon Goddess for strength. It was beyond clear that this was distressing on so many levels for her. “The Elders,” she finally answered.

"Would they really have taken me?" I asked, still a mess of disbelief and pain. My entire life had been a disservice to me and my wolf. True, I had always known I had Alpha blood. Even sixteen-year-old Cecilia did. But that I was to be the Alpha.

Somehow, that didn’t surprise me.

Mom only shook her head. "I don't know for certain," she admitted. "But everything I'd heard, I just..." Her hand went to her mouth and I could see the pain this was causing her. I really didn't think that she hid this from us out of malice. But the anger and the distrust were still there.

The council of Elders was made up of the oldest and wisest warriors and retired Alphas of all of the Eastern Celestial packs. Ours, the Black Opal pack, was only recently the largest in the region. And we were climbing the ladder of importance in the Elders’ eyes with how quickly we were still growing, and how strong our warriors had become. It made sense that they would want to obsess just a touch more with tradition in regards to us.

Mom seemed to be able to follow my line of thought as I stood there shaking in my silent rage, and was quick to add information where I might not have truly known. “We were hoping that you would grow into it, Alban,” she said with an audible sigh. “That you’d be able to take the responsibility and make it long enough for your father to earn his place with the Elders.” She shook her head in shame once more. “But they’ve been watching. They know the signs and the cues to watch for around this time.”

Her eyes met mine this time, and they glittered with the tears of apology that I hoped wouldn’t fall. If she cried, I wouldn’t be able to hold myself together. After swallowing the growing lump in my throat, I tried to keep my tone as even as possible. “So my mood swings. My energy spikes… They’re all-”

“A part of the process, yes.”

It was my turn to shake my head, only this time in defiance. “Then why not let me?” The fire in my chest was growing now, a great and consuming heat that roiled and twisted in my gut and slowly crept out across my limbs. I knew the answer already, of course. But I had to hear it.

With a small voice, my mother practically whispered to us. “Females are barred from leading.” The droop of her shoulders only solidified my original thoughts, but her next words gave me more ammunition than I could have ever hoped for. “It took centuries for us to be allowed combat rights. This...this is so different.” Finally, she stood and made her way over to where I had been standing, gently placing both of her hands on my cheeks and guiding my face to be level with hers.

“They might have killed you, Vira.” The words rang in my head for just a moment before truly being registered. “If the rumors are true," her words dropped low. "You would have been a sacrifice to the Goddess in order to bless your brother and transfer your power to him.”

I all but wrenched my face from her grasp. Yes, I could understand why she had hidden this; but for it to go on for so long was just mind-boggling. "But you didn't know for sure!"

"Vira please," Mom pleaded, reaching for me again. "There is so much more than you-"

My body was hot and my mind was buzzing with the combined emotions of myself, my wolf, and my twin. I needed to run. I needed to breathe. My shaking hand raised to gently stay any step forward either of them wanted to take, long enough for me to steady myself with a deep breath. “I need air,” I mumbled out as I started to turn from them. I kicked off my shoes with a practiced motion as I walked, leaving the pack house door open as I sprinted out into the woods without waiting for an answer.

Nothing mattered more in that moment than the shift and crack of my bones and joints as the shift happened. Each stride brought more fur to my body, and the full transformation left my clothes in shredded ribbons on the well-run path through the trees. The power behind every step and the push of cold mountain air through my lungs fueled me and helped me to clear my head and almost forget what I’d heard.

It must have been nearly an hour that I ran before I started to consider going back. They could find me if needed. The patrols cycled through here regularly enough, and I hadn’t done anything to mask my scent. I hadn’t thought to. With every swell of my chest, that tightness and anxiety came back.

With my nose pointed to the sky and my ears pinned back against my head, I let out a long and low howl, beckoning the Moon Goddess to come and answer for these hellish questions.