An Alpha's Promise

Five

Crescent moon pack

It’s been a few months since I’ve been back at Crescent Moon Pack, I think since Zack completely took over and didn’t need my help anymore. My absence helped with people seeing him as the now alfa and not just my son. I’m considering staying at the packhouse for a few days. Hopefully, the distance will help Cataleya come to terms with seeing me again and working in the same company. After the run, I’m still feeling restless, so before I head to the packhouse, I begin to wander aimlessly around the pack land to remind myself why I had done, what I did, and why I walked away from my mate.

Without realizing I stumbled upon Alex’s house. I’m not really surprised I ended up here, I think I need someone's opinion about the situation and it’s not like I can come clean to just anybody. Almost no one knows I found Cat, or who she is to me. I found Alex in his garage working on his old mustang. Retirement looks good on him, hasn’t made him lose his muscles. He’s still larger than life. When he sees me walking up to his garage, he gets out from under the car. Opens his arm and we hug clapping our backs.

“Brother! It’s good to see you. What brings you here?” He asks holding me at arm’s length “Not that I’m not happy to see you but it’s unusual for you to drop by.”

“I saw her again Alex,” I confess, while he’s walking alongside me.

“Who? He asks, distracted.

“Her,” I whisper.

Alex stops, dead in his tracks, and turns around. He turns around wide-eyed.

I just nod, not trusting my voice.

“I tried talking to her again, but it was a disaster. She lashed out.” I tell him with resignation in my voice. “I mean I can’t really blame her. It’s been eleven years since the last time we saw each other. At that moment it seemed like a great idea, to talk to her again, but when I saw how she reacted, I ran, again. So here I am.”

Alex drops everything and sighs. “Look man, you made a difficult decision 11 years ago. I would dare to say an impossible choice. You made a decision as an Alpha to put his pack first, not as a man in love.” Alex rubs his goatee, deep in thought. “I didn’t agree with how you executed that decision, and still don’t, but I understood where you were coming from and had no choice but to respect it because you were my Alpha.

If I had a chance to have Carla back, I would take it any way I could. Hell, I would sell my soul, but that’s just what I would do. I was a man in love above all. Now, you need to ask yourself if you’re willing to let her go, correctly this time around. You walked again once. Are you going to walk away again for good? Reject her? You need to be sure. She was supposed to be my Luna. I have a loyalty to her too, I made a mistake last time, allowing you to abandon her and she suffered. I won’t let you hurt her again. If you manage to hurt, her this time it isn’t to protect her.”

“She works for the company. She’s a supervisor. Celian almost lost it the moment we walked in and smelled her scent.

“I can totally see that happening,” Alex says with a mischievous grin on his face.

Emery walks out of the house and greets me:

‘Hey, Uncle Colin!”

“Hi, sweet pea,” I answer as I hug her. Emery is the daughter I never had. Damien needed help to raise Emery and Brant when Carla died. Brant and Zack were the same age, so they were always together. You couldn’t find one without the other. I took care of some of his Beta responsibilities so he could spend more time with Emery, she was younger and needed him more, but that also meant Emery spend a lot of time with us while we were working. Even though Emery had a rough time getting used to her role as prophetess of the pack, I always supported her decisions, it was always her choice. She saw it for what it was, unconditional love.

“Are you staying for dinner?” Emery asks.

“How could I say no, now that I know you’re here.” That wins me a grin from her.

As we start walking back to the house, I ask: “How’s school?”

Emery has a bit of social anxiety, and I understood, because when I was her age, I was a bit like her, quiet, and retracted. While Alex was a social butterfly.

As we walk into the dining room, Alex’s mother, Martha, was at the table setting it.

“The prodigal son returns,” Marth says as she walks towards me.

Alex claps my shoulder and steps around me.

“Ma stop being so dramatic.”

“It’s always a pleasure to see you, Martha.” I kiss her cheek, but she grabs my face and inspects me. Marth has always been an insightful woman.

“I see through your bullshit Colin. Always have, always will.” She pats my cheek and lets me go.

Alex is already at the table pilling food onto his plate.

Suddenly, Zack walks in. “Imagine my surprise when the border patrol informs me that my old man is in pack lands but hasn’t visited me.”

I open my arms to hug him. I have never been shy to show my children how loved they are.

“Ohh busted,” Alex says

While Emery teases: “Well Zack I don’t know why you’re surprised, you know I’m his favorite.”

Zack messes up her head, “Shut up squirt.”

“Where’s Brant?” I ask Zack “You guys are attached at the hip.”

“He’s with Gabriella.”

Emery and Martha both make a face.

“He’s with whom?”

Emery answers “It’s this girl he’s dating.”

“I take it from your reaction that you don’t like her?” I ask her.

“It’s not that I don’t like her, it’s that I didn’t see this happening.”

“Exactly what’s happening?” I ask, needing some clarification.

This time Zack answers “Brant think she’s his mate.”

“We’ll she not. I can tell you that much.” Marth says “And I don’t need to have a gift to know it.”

I look towards Alex for some answers or help, but he just shrugs and keeps eating.

If someone saw us right now, they wouldn’t believe that we were one of the most powerful families in our region, but between the goofy exterior, I can see Zack is tensed. His shoulders are tight, and his smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

A father knows. So, I ask him:

“What’s going on?”

Zack looks around the table and sighs.

“Not that I didn’t want to see you dad, but I was hoping Emery had something for me.”

“If I saw or heard something important, I would’ve told you Zack. You know that.” Emery replies.

“I know, I know, I wasn’t implying you were withholding something. I meant it more as things we wouldn’t normally pay attention to.” He rubs his face with his hands, frustrated “Weird things have been going on, like the wolfsbane poisoning, plus the rough sighting are increasing in the surrounding packs and we are no closer to finding out what is going on. I think,” Zack inhales, “I think they know about your gift and are working around it.”

Martha gasps. Emery’s gift is not widely know. Because of the rearety of her kind and uniqueness of her gift. We’ve been always tight lip abaout her to protect her.

Zack continues, “I’m not sure. This is just speculation at this point.”

“Have the elders had more luck?” Zack asks me directly.

“I barely just got here, I went to Energeia Inc our consulting company first because they are getting hit as well, but I haven’t had a chance to look through all the reports and see if I could find any discrepancies or any similarities between Energeia and packs that are suffering.”

“I know I’m an old fox, but I can offer some insight if you kids need it,” Alex says to Zack but

Emery’s eyes went blank, and our attention got diverted.

Wind will guide us, water will heal us, fire will cleanse us while the stars protect us but beware of the soil for it has shifted. Hold on to the flower it holds the answer.

“Flowers, the answer is flowers,” Emery whispered as she locks eyes with me.

Cataleya is a type of orchid, a flower. Martha mind links me.

“Could it be a coincidence that the uprising in rouge sightings in the Western Region was due to my mate being here?” I ask out loud.

“Wait” Zack looks confused. “What are you talking about? How is that possible?” It takes him a second to process the information I’d just given him. “You mean to tell me, that you found your mate? You’ve known all this time who she is?”

“Yes.” I answer defeated; my shoulders drop.

“She’s human and I met her 11 years ago. She’s younger, a lot younger. That’s why it took me so long to find her.’

“The same mate that you would always pester me about treating her right because mates are gifts the Moon Goddess gives you; a person made for you. But because of your insecurities, you abandon her and left her unprotected. Did you reject her?” Zack ask me.

I don’t have the strength to voice the answer so I just shake my head.

“You couldn’t even reject her so she could move forward with her life.” The disappointment in his voice is palpable. “I just want to make sure I got the information correctly. Since this is valuable information, information an Alpha should know, to be able to protect his pack.” The anger that rolls out of Zack is almost palpable.

“Not insecurities, Selfishness maybe, but never insecurities.”

“You’re an elder for Goddess’s sake.” Zack says exasperated.

“Son, do you know what happens to Alphas and their packs when their Luna dies?”

Zack opens his mouth to speak but Emery interrupts and touches his hand.

“I saw it Zack, and it was a vision like no other. I felt everything.” She swallows deeply and shakes her head. It must’ve appeased Zack because he looks at me to continue.

“A pack's grief is so much that sometimes their never recover from that loss, I never recovered from her loss but it wasn’t just me. I had to think of you and your brother, and all the members of the pack. People’s lives depended on me and my choices. The pack would have suffered the loss of your mother as their Luna through the divorce and then the death of Cataleya. It was our undoing. The pack and it people will always be more important than my happiness.”

I take a deep breath and continue.

“I didn’t know she had moved here. I met her on a work trip to human lands more than a decade ago and cut all contact with her. She was never a factor to consider because I didn’t know where she was. When I saw her again, I didn’t make the connection until just now.”

I turned towards Zack to look him in the eye. “Son, no one knows about her and after hearing what Emery said, she’s the answer. No one must know who she is.” I begged him.

“Not even our circle? How can they protect the pack without knowing what we’re up against. I trust them with my life.” Zack argued

“It’s not a reflection on you Zack. We just want more insight as to what’s going on before it becomes public knowledge.”

“She deserves to know before anyone. She deserves to make that choice.” Emery said. “We owe her that much.”

“The mood goddess is giving you another chance brother. To fix what you broke.” Alex says all amusement was gone from his voice.

Let’s go get our mate back. Celian declared.

Let’s. I agreed.