Alliance of Shadows: NEIL

Friendly Fire

I hated knowing my father would be able to silence me without a second thought. Hell, my Beta, Colton Brake, would probably be his first choice of successors if not Kaden Cage – my False Omega.

His was a story I didn’t want to get into, but he was one of the few black werewolves in the pack. never mind. I may as well explain his origins since the little s**t was a good friend of mine.

You see, his mother had been adopted into the pack after her Ronin parents were slaughtered by Rogues just outside our boarders. Years later, she ended up being the Mate of none other than Rowan Cage, the Crown Prince of Druids. Reluctantly, Dad released her to her Fated position as future Queen of the Druid people. Kaden has always been a bit of a thorn in my side.

Colt, on the other hand, was my go-to for a good laugh. However, he’d taken his family to another pack after my spiral into insanity and sarcasm began. For him, it was a chance to learn pack dynamics while assisting them with various tasks. There were times my father and I had no choice but to interfere, and, at one point, we dismantled the entire Alpha family for that pack over their inability to uphold the rules of our world.

While there, he attended college for Architecture, chasing the dream of eventually building houses and such for the Shadow Storm pack – our pack.

My earliest memory of Colt was watching him stand up against the son of a known Warrior. That was the first time an Omega stepped out of their role and it made him stand out. Seeing his resolution, his desire to befriend anyone, including the pack’s very first Hybrid (yeah, I’m talking about Kaden), I knew I wanted him at my back when I took over the Alpha title. He and Dreson – my best friend – got along in their own twisted ways, but they sure knew how to make me see reason when I didn’t want to.

For me, Colton’s departure was a bag of mixed nuts. I fell deeper into a depressive state, kept afloat only by Kaden… until he entered the picture. He, being John Sinclare, someone I realized almost too late was a bad seed. A guy who, despite Kaden’s pleas, I’d put my trust in for so many years.

It was day two of Izaria’s stay within my family home, and I had already started driving our cook crazy with requests for the girl. I wanted to make her want to leave, but even the Omega’s had been given the hush order from the Grand Alpha himself. They flat-out refused to listen to me, silently ignoring me, and it was a sobering experience.

My dad can be such a buzz-kill.

Fine. If he wanted to play that game, let’s go. I had a death wish, and I really wanted to make him make it happen. I would watch the little mouse – a name I had taken to calling her - but I wouldn’t lift a damn finger to help her in any way. I wanted my quiet back, not this circus that started with her arrival.

The longer I watched over her from afar, the more I learned without trying. I didn’t want to get to know her, and, yes, I realize just how childish that sounds coming from a twenty-year-old werewolf. Yet, she seemed like she was hiding something, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. as far as I could tell, she was nothing more than a powerless, weak, unimportant Human.

My original view of her was extinguished as I quickly learned that she could walk without making a noise, which was kind of scary if I was being honest, and that she loved to read. More often than not, I could find her tucked away inside the in-house library. She would be curled up, leafing through a book while sipping some kind of herbal tea. An Omega always at the ready, but normally dismissed by the girl so she could do things for herself.

She could cook and clean, often helping out the Omega’s without a single complaint. Hell, she didn’t even know what they were, but she donned an apron all the same. Though quick to help with anything around the house, it was the fact that she didn’t seem to mind getting dirty in the garden that had me wondering. The plants seemed to bend to her will, the soft humming that always came out of her apparently weaving a spell in the air.

I shook my head as she tended the flowers, the smell of Hyacinths stronger each day. I chalked it up to my inborn abilities and elevated Alpha status. It gave me a sensory and skill boost most Rogues didn’t want to deal with.

On the third day, I was sitting in the shade of the Oak I could normally be found in when I got a call. Not a mental mind-link summons from my father, but an actual call on my cell phone. Pulling it out, I almost lost my balance and fell out of the tree when I saw the name. It was Colton, my Beta.

When he first shifted into his wolf at sixteen, he was little more than the size of a small Husky. After he accepted and ascended to the rank of Beta from Omega, he received a boost in size, strength, and speed. A transition from scrawny to bulky that did him a ton of good.

“Hey,” I said, trying to rebalance myself in the tree.

“So, I’m a little concerned. Did you know K was leaving to go do that stupid magic-user school thingy?” He asked right out the gate.

There was no need to use pleasantries. We never did follow proper speaking protocols anyway. “Yeah, no kidding. I’m getting bored without my False Omega to rile me up.”

“Flat’s a good look on you,” Colt managed, yelping suddenly.

I could hear my cousin, his Mate (yeah, yeah – Fate’s a bit of a fun-maker) yelling for him to get out of her homemade icing. “It’s chocolate, isn’t it?”

“Is a tit? Yep, that describes you,” he answered. Typical Colt. His sense of humour was a mixed bag of sweet, hilarious, upstart comedian, dark, and, well, sarcastic.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just stay outta her kitchen?” I asked, knowing what was coming.

Colt snickered, yelping again as his mother, Sandra kicked him out of the kitchen to go wait with his father. Yeah… I couldn’t see it. Those two were like peas in a pod. It was honestly a wonder how Aunt Sandra hadn’t beaten them both to death already.

Let me clarify something. No, we’re not incestuous. Within the Alliance between the current power players of the supernatural world, those of us who became as close as siblings called each others parents by the Aunt or Uncle designation. Now, back to our regularly scheduled stupidity.

“That wood be a hard feeling,” Colt commented, and I could hear his father laughing in the background. “Wooden shoe like a real one, though?”

“Is that the best you have?” I countered. Obviously I’m going to encourage his shenanigans – it was funny!

Glancing down, I spotted Izaria and Clara walking around the corner of the manor. It looked like they had been in the garden again.

I didn’t want them digging up any bones. Not since that was where only the past Luna’s were buried after a literal scorching hot funeral. Each Luna was turned to ash, their remains stored in an ornate box and buried at the base of the Black Ironwood my great-grandmother planted during her tenure. Each Luna after was advised to care for the garden, to make it their own as it would inevitably be their final resting place.

For us supernaturals, burning our dead was also to avoid having the Humans make their science schemes come true. While they knew about us, they feared the power we held and it helped them stay alive and us from being hunted by them.

“You still there or did you really turn into a board?” Colton asked in my ear, eliciting a growl from me.

“I’m here. Just dealing with some bullshit my stepmother brought home.” I replied.

He made a sound of interest, “Anything in particular?”

“Nah, she just adopted some kind of rodent. I’m not in the mood to get close enough to care,” I told him. He knew I was still drowning in my inability to let go of certain things, but I couldn’t help it. Besides, it wasn’t as if he was here to do anything about it. Still…

“So… how are the twins doing?” I asked, hoping to change the direction of his attention.

He was smiling so bright I swear I could feel it through the phone. “They’re growing like weeds! Sammy is a perfect replication of me, but Devy’s not. He’s like his momma.”

“Sammy I can understand, but Devy?” I questioned.

He chortled, “Samuel and Devon. Of course, both my mother and my Mate hate the name I use for Devon. He answers to it, though.”

“He’s definitely your kid, Colt. They’re, what, three already?”

“Yeah,” he sighed. Anyone with a working brain could see how fatherhood was treating him like royalty. “So, have you… you know… found her?”

I wanted to say yes, that I had finally found the woman who would help me heal and turn my life right-side-up again. Yet… “No, not yet. I remain hopeful, but it’s not looking good for me.”

“Chin up, bud. You’ll get there sooner or later.” He told me.

We ended the call after that. I was no longer willing to talk, and he was being called to get supper. If anything, he was definitely food-driven. Little did I know how true his “sooner or later” was, but I would soon find out.

Even if it was against my better judgement…