Why He Calls

Chapter 12

Zeke’s POV

Today was long. Full day of Gamma duties on not much sleep followed by a meeting with Alpha Morgan. I never used to feel less than my older brother before. He always treated me as his equal. But now it feels eerily like walking into the principal’s office today. I didn’t give him much to go on when I requested this meeting. Just that it was confidential and no immediate threat to the pack so not to worry.

I sat down across from Morgan’s desk. When we were younger, he sat on this side of the desk with me, facing our dad. We spent most of our teen years training together. The difference was always he had additional training with our dad. Our dad had started a program for the future Alpha’s to gain experience from other pack’s Alpha’s as well. Morgan would travel to other packs over the summer which ended in an exhibition week. The future Alphas would call in their chosen Beta and Gammas to compete with them against other future hierarchy. Different packs hosted the event each year.

Charlie and I always held our own against the others in the singles matches and would score pretty high. But Morgan was overconfident a few times and lost earlier on. He got better over the years.

One year we had a partner fight. The Alpha chooses either his Beta or Gamma to fight alongside him. Most of the other Alpha’s choose their Beta but not Morgan. Charlie is the oldest in our friend group and he’s built like a bear. He’s basically invincible and someone complained that it wouldn’t be a fair fight. I was a late bloomer, growth spurt not until end of sophomore year. So as Morgan always put it, ‘I was scrawny but I was smarter, scrappy.’ I walked onto the platform and the other guys thought we had to be kidding them. It kind of felt a bit like hustling someone.

I’d stand next to Morgan but a step behind him. It was supposed to be a sign of respect, a sign of following your Alpha. But instead, it was perceived as hiding behind him. And I let them think that way, not making eye contact. That was until the bell rang and the fight began. Our partner score reigned the highest every year until someone finally beat it about 4 years ago. Alpha Morgan was aged out of the program by then (once the future Alpha turned 21, program over). But whoever competed that year was scary good. It was also the same year a female future Alpha placed in the top 5.

“Hey Morgan. So I need to talk to you about…” I began and he cut me off.

“Is this about Celeste again?” He asked. How does he always predict what I’m going to say.

“Yeah sort of.” I answered lamely.

“What’s going on?”

“As you know, Celeste is a lone wolf, so she can’t join our pack. But her siblings want to.”

“Her brother and sister? They’re both under 13?” He asked.

“Yes. But Aden has already shifted and both of Kate’s parents are dead. We can register Kate as an orphan pup, she’ll be official when she shifts for the first time.”

“Or if she were adopted by a pack member. And since Aden already shifted he’d be swearing fealty to a different pack than his birth pack. He does understand doing that gives up his title?”

“What do you mean?”

“With Celeste being a lone wolf, the title of future Alpha would have automatically been passed to Aden. Swearing fealty means loyalty to a new Alpha and their order of hierarchy. He’d have hierarchy blood but his title would be demoted to Elite Warrior.”

I began to ponder on this problem, Celeste said Aden didn’t care if he had to go rogue to join our pack. Just then, I had another vision. This one was many years away. Aden was older and was standing next to a girl who looked like an older version of Lily. A council member stood next to them and said, “I present to you, your new Alpha and Luna…”

“Woah. I just had a good vision.” I blurted out excitedly.

“Really? Almost all your visions are bad. What was it about?” Morgan asked.

“Aden becomes Alpha of his pack and, this is going to sound insane, but I think Lily is his mate.” I explain.

“What?? Your visions aren’t usually that far into the future. That’s crazy.”

“It only looked like 5-6 years into the future. Not like he waited until 21.”

“Okay then. I’ll allow Aden to stay here as a pack guest and Kate will join our pack. Aden will stay with Evelyn and me until Celeste returns for him. Kate will stay with our parents until she’s placed with one of the foster families.”

“Why are you separating them? They’re siblings. And why did you pick yourself and our parents?” I inquired.

“Aden is a future Alpha, if he’s my foster kid, I can start his training properly. Because of that, the only other placement option for him would be our parents. If you’re right about him being Lily’s mate, it’d be odd to have them living together as foster siblings. We don’t know how long this arrangement will last. With Kate’s history of sickness, I want her with a family that can best care for her if she ever comes out of remission and who can help her with all these big transitions. Without having time to go through the files of the other foster families in the pack, we already know our parents can help her.” He explained.

“You make good points.” I admit

“When will the children be joining our pack?” Morgan asks.

“I’ll find that out tonight. I’m having dinner with Celeste and the kids.” I reply.

“Hmmm.” Morgan rubs his neck thinking.

“What is it?”

“I think you should take a couple warriors with you just in case. Especially since the Crimson Alpha knows where Aden’s school is.”

“Yes, sir.” I agreed and then headed out to my truck. I called Celeste to let her know I was on my way.