His Warrior Alpha

Chapter 16

Reed’s POV

“Melody is going to be really worried.” Benne grumbled at me. “Stupid. How could you forget to tell our mate about her Beta?” Benne had tried unsuccessfully to get me to turn around immediately after leaving the packhouse, but we needed to get back to discuss it with our father. Quinn was still in shock and I wasn’t sure how Ryan was going to hold up once things really started to settle in. I could hardly believe Uncle Derrick was gone but I had to be the one to hold it together. “-Look, I’m sorry, I know we should have told her but we were kinda on a time crunch, OK? We needed to get out of there fast. Melody will be alright.-” I snapped back at him. Melody was strong and I was certain she would understand, especially as I was doing this to take care of her best friend. “She had better forgive us.” I sighed. I didn’t like the situation either.

As we reached the front door, my father was already waiting for us with mom. Her eyes were red and full of tears. She pulled Ryan into a hug and finally the emotions hit him as well as he broke down. I pulled out a chair for Quinn and gestured for her to sit.

“How did this happen?” My father asked, his voice breaking slightly and I knew, like me, he was keeping it together for the sake of the others in the room.

“I don’t know.” I really didn’t understand how a rogue attack could cause the death of 10 warriors and the pack Gamma. Uncle Derrick may not be as young as he once was, but he was in good shape. After the attack that led to my father's injuries, we thought it was random, but now this seemed to be something else. Was the pack being targeted or was this planned by the Alpha?

“Tell me what happened from the beginning.”

My father pointed at the seat across from him for me to sit down. I explained what had happened as my father sat deathly quiet listening to every word carefully. The only other noises were the occasional sniffle from my mother. My father took a moment after I finished to consider everything before speaking again.

“I don’t understand. How did rogues take out that many of our men and Derrick? It doesn’t add up. “ He shook his head. “Why was he so insistent on Ryan taking over as Gamma?”

“I feel sick to my stomach for accepting,” Ryan said with defeat in his voice. “I couldn’t let him hurt Quinn though, Aunt Rachel is going to hate me.” He hung his head, clearly disappointed in himself.

“Rachel will understand. She’s known you since you were a pup, she wouldn’t hold that against you.” My mother tried to soothe him as she gently patted his shoulder. Aunt Rachel was her best friend. “Martin, I need to be there for her, I think I’m going to stay with her for the next few days to help her and the kids out.”

“I think that is a good idea, she definitely needs a friend right now, and the twins are a handful under normal circumstances. If you want to head over there now, I’ll come over around dinner time with some clothes.” My father squeezes mom's hand and leans over to give her a kiss.

“Thank you.” Mom tries unsuccessfully to hold back more tears as she stands up and heads towards the door.

“I can’t believe he’s gone.” My father finally says. He had known Uncle Derrick since they were children and our families had been connected for generations.

“I know dad. It just doesn’t add up. I don’t know what to think, but I don’t trust Alpha.”

My father put his head in his hands. “He knew too much and he didn’t agree.” My father finally said.

“What do you mean by that? What did he know?” I asked. I was the beta of the pack now and I needed to know what all the Alpha was involved with.

“I wanted to protect you all from this, you boys, and your mother too. A few months back, Derrick and I started looking more closely into the slave woman and female omegas that had disappeared in the last year. Shortly after we started looking into it, I was attacked on a mission in the old Blue Ridge pack territory. There were rumors that some of the women's bodies had been left there. When we went there though, it was a ghost town and we were ambushed. I was dosed with wolfsbane and never healed. If it wasn’t for Derrick, I would have died out there. When we came back, Alpha said how he couldn’t believe how much fuss was being made over some low-ranking females, and how it was a tragedy he had to replace his Beta over this. It seemed to be a message, stop looking into it or there would be worse consequences…. Only Derrick couldn’t. He told me the first woman he found was beaten and abused. She had bite marks all over her. He couldn’t get the image out of his mind and he had to find some proof to bring to the Werewolf council.”

“So you think Alpha is responsible for the woman disappearing and for the death of the warriors and Uncle Derrick?” My father nodded his head. He looked disgusted, not just with his Alpha but with himself.

“That bastard.” Ryan slammed his fists on the table, and it seemed to finally have knocked Quinn out of the daze she was in. She stood up and walked to his side of the table, pulling him into a hug. He leaned his head on her neck and started crying again. Quinn was strong and held him tighter until he finally calmed down.

Everyone turned their heads towards the door as they heard a click of the door knob being turned. Had mom forgotten something? “Mom?” I asked towards the doorway, but as the door opened wide, I saw that it wasn’t my mother standing there, instead it was Melody. “Mate came to find us because we let her behind.” Benne huffed in my head.

“Mel!” Quinn shouted, running towards her friend and nearly knocking her over.

“Thank Goddess you are OK!” Her voice sounded tinged with worry and her face showed grief at not knowing what had happened to her friend. Her face was red as if she had been running as she panted for a moment to catch her breath.

“Just look at her, she is clearly upset. She’s never going to forgive us. Look how worried she was.” Benne was right, she looked really upset but the moment she realized her friend was okay she plastered a smile on her face. My stomach sank, I had definitely messed up.

“How did you know to come here?” Quinn asked her friend, still holding her tight.

“After Delta John took you away, we waited forever for you to come back. He finally returned without you but with the Warrior trial sign-up. After we signed up, we left the Pack house, intending to find you, but Jeremy said we wouldn’t be able to catch up and said you had left in this direction, so I assumed you were coming here. As soon as it was clear to go, I ran here as fast as I could. How did you get Jeremy signed up?” Melody questioned, she was speaking a mile a minute and hadn’t even taken a breath.

“Alpha used me to make Ryan accept the Gamma position and when he said that I would still have to earn my freedom myself, I appealed for Jeremy to join too.” Quinn gave a very pared down version of what had happened, trying to spare Melody any additional worry. Melody’s eyes glazed over for a moment, she must be speaking with her wolf and in response Quinn tapped her nails nervously.

“And the rest of the story?” Melody crossed her arms and stared down her friend.

“Dammit Aria. You are supposed to be on my side.”

“Aria? That is Melody’s Wolf’s name!!! “ Benne howled in my head. “Aria?” I asked, pulling the girls from their stare-off.

“We can introduce our wolves later. Right now I need to know what the heck is going on?” Melody demanded, she was impatiently waiting for an answer as her aura flowed out of her.

“Not fair!” Quinn whined before taking a deep breath and before explaining everything again.

“We have to get to the bottom of what is going on here. The Queen will be visiting in 6 months from now when the trials were initially supposed to be held, right? So we have 6 months to put together proof.” Melody looked deadly serious, which only made her even more attractive. She was definitely the full package, sexy, smart, and powerful.

“I don’t know if that is a good idea, people have already lost their lives over this.” My father hung his head as he responded. I knew he had only done what he needed to protect our family, but there was still the shame of being associated with such awful things.

“And how many more will lose their lives if we don’t do anything? How many more people will suffer? I’ve already lost my father, mother, and brother. I can’t sit by and not do anything while people are still suffering at Alpha Jacob’s hands. I will do this alone if I have to, but it would really help if I had your help.” She looked at my father, hoping he would say yes. Either way, I knew I would follow this girl to the ends of the earth if I had to.

“Okay… I will help you, just let me know what you need.” He smiled weakly at Melody, who extended her hand to shake on their agreement before turning to Ryan.

“How does it feel to be outranked by your mate, Gamma?” Melody smirked. The sudden outburst helped ease the tension in the room.

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask Reed?” Ryan joked back at her.

“Speaking for myself? It is probably the single most attractive thing. But if she’s Alpha, do I get to stay Beta or am I a Luna now?” I teased back, causing everyone to break out in laughter.

“I think the term is luno,son, and you’d have to have a marking ceremony first.” My dad chimed in.

“You are getting a bit ahead of yourself, Reed, she hasn’t even officially accepted yet. There is still time for her to change her mind and take Dawson as her mate. He loves pretty she-wolves.” As normal, Ryan was the one to take it too far. Melody and I let a warning growl out in unison.

“Okay boys.” My father stopped the conversation before one of us could say something that would start a fight. “Let’s take this one step at a time. There is plenty of time to discuss things like that later. First we should come up with a plan.”

“I think first I need some information. Celia was combing through the books you had given her and something was off about it. I was hoping you had more information. Once we put together a timeline, we can look for evidence to fit that while training for the trials.”

“That sounds like a good start, so what do you want to know?”

“When you came to my pack when Quinn and I were 5 and 6, what was the proposal from Alpha Dawson?”