His Warrior Alpha

History Lesson

Melody’s POV

As soon as we were back, I changed into my black leggings and olive-colored shirt. The dark colors would help me stay hidden as I made my way to Reed’s house. I took my braided hair and wound it into a bun to keep it from catching on anything as I planned to take the path through the forest following the river. As it was daytime, I had to be extra careful not to be seen by any guards. After pinning my hair in place, I grabbed my necklace, looking at it momentarily in the small mirror before pushing it into my shirt so it was hidden from view.

“I found the spray in her room.” Jeremy offered a bottle to me. It was almost empty and I hoped Quinn didn’t mind me having Jeremy go through her stuff. I needed to be as discreet as possible and this would mask my scent. I still didn’t know how they had found out about Quinn and Ryan, so I had to be twice as careful.

“Thanks.” I closed my eyes and sprayed the mixture over myself. I still wondered how Quinn had gotten ahold of this. I supposed Ryan must know someone to get it through. His family, being of the Beta line, would be more likely to have connections.

“Everything is going to be okay, right?” Jeremy asked. “I don’t just mean with Quinn, but for all of us? The past two days, everything has been turned around and I haven't even been directly involved in all of it. I guess things have been the same for so long, I don’t know how to handle change.” I was surprised to hear him say all of this. Jeremy was typically the one to go with the flow and follow our lead.

“I can’t promise everything will be alright. We are only people, and we can’t predict what the future might hold.” His face dropped. He had expected me to reassure him that everything would be okay, but he was not a little kid anymore. I could no longer shield him from the world. “But, I will always be here for you, no matter what. Change is inevitable, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”

“Thanks Melody.” I nodded in response, wanting to give him a hug. I decided against it though, as I didn’t want to risk making the spray less effective.

“Alright, we just have to make sure the afternoon shift isn't patrolling and I can head towards the river. Did Celia go out to check on rounds?”

“Yeah, she should be back soon. Is there anything else you need?” Jeremy asked, looking me over to make sure I was ready.

“Actually. The back pack we brought the books in might be helpful if I pick up more.” Jeremy’s face lit up as he darted to Celia's room to grab the bag. He was excited as he knew having more to read would make her happy. He returned a minute later with the canvas bag in his hand.

“Here you go.” He said as he handed it to me. I heard the click of the door from the front room. “And it sounds like Celia is back”. He beamed, looking towards the door in anticipation.

“What’s the verdict Celia?” I said as she made her way to the doorway.

“Patrol 1 just passed by here about 5 minutes ago. I’d give it another 10 minutes or so, just in case they stop for any reason. Then you should have half an hour to get there before the next patrol heads out.” Celia gave her report.

“Awesome. So while we wait, are there any books you’d be interested in?” I noticed she was eyeing the backpack I was holding. As I said this, Celia’s eyes lit up, causing Jeremy to stare at her with an adoring smile. Goddess, these two were cute.

“Um yeah.I noticed there were books on our pack there, but not for the Silver Mount Pack or Blue Ridge Pack. I know they were a lot smaller but if you could find some of them, it could be helpful to help build our case against the Black River pack in the future. Plus, I’m sure the people from those packs would love to preserve some of their history as well. “

“Got it Celia, I’m hoping I’ll get some more answers from Reed’s dad that will help as well.”

“Oh you know, I did find something interesting in one of the books. Let me go get it and I can show you before you head out.” Celia disappeared for a few minutes before returning with a red book with gold lettering that said “East Provincial Packs”. “So, The East Provincial packs are the packs in our region. We are in the section under Northeast packs which was broken into 7 packs at the time, but is down to just 3 now. The Black River Pack took out 3 of the neighboring packs, citing alliances being broken based on one of the other books I read. Two of the remaining packs married their children and combined their packs so they would not be a target, renaming their pack the Blue Moon pack a combination of the Blue River Pack and the Crescent Moon Pack.The remaining pack, the Crystal Lake Pack.”

“Okay Celia, I’m glad you are getting a good history lesson from these books, but what am I supposed to be learning from this other than which packs surround us?”

“So it is common for packs to intermarry to form strong alliances or, in the case of Blue Moon, come together to increase their strength. This book talks about marriages between packs.” Celia flipped the pages looking for a particular passage.”It has information on who denied marriages for political reasons.”

As she said this, she pointed to a line in the book. “Margaret Stanton was the only daughter of Alpha Issac Stanton of The River Mist pack. On Margaret's eighteenth birthday, two offers were made to Alpha Stanton for his daughter's hand in marriage. Alpha Storm offered his younger son Michael's hand in marriage in exchange for an alliance between the two packs. When Alpha Stanton declined this offer, wanting to allow his daughter to take her fated mate if she chose, Blue River extended a peace treaty between the two. Alpha Jackson offered his hand. In exchange, he wanted to combine the two packs to create a new largest pack in the East Provenience. Alpha Stanton also declined this offer, also stating he wanted his daughter to have the opportunity to take her fated mate. This caused issues between the two packs for years.”

“Okay, so Alpha Jacob wanted to marry my mom like 30 years ago?” I was still missing some details because we eventually had an alliance.

“Yes, he wanted to marry her for power. Margaret eventually met Frederick Carmichael, the Beta of a pack called Southern Hills.”

“Yeah, they told me and Malcolm that they were going to a ball that was being held at the castle. It was a celebration for the Eastern Princess marrying the Southern Prince. It was the start of the peace between both nations that has lasted over 30 years. While everyone was celebrating, they caught each other's eyes and suddenly everything melted away around them. They always joked that their marriage was the first gift the Royals gave to their people as it allowed them to meet. My father was nervous about asking to marry her and my grandfather pretended he was going to reject his request. He told him “I won’t let you marry her” before he smirked and added “unless you take Alpha training first at the castle because I am ready to retire.”

I laughed remembering my dad telling us the story as kids. He would always play up how long he had spent trying to prepare himself to talk to grandfather. He had studied up on the River Mist pack to impress him, in hopes he would accept him as the next Alpha. It was rare for an Alpha to pass the title to his daughter. If they did not have a son, they would normally pass it to either the daughter's mate, a family member, or their Beta’s child. If he had said no to him becoming the Alpha, he would request she be allowed to come with him to his pack. When Grandfather said he wouldn’t let her marry him, all the arguments and preparations went out the window and he stared at him frozen until my grandfather stated his condition.

“After your dad took over as Alpha, there was a sudden shift and the Black River and River Mist Pack formed an alliance. It was a huge surprise, as everyone thought that the marriage between your mom and dad would cause a war, but it turned out to be the opposite.” Celia looked like she was trying to search her brain for a missing piece of information that would make this make sense but wasn’t finding it. “There is still something missing, why would Alpha Jacob suddenly want an alliance? I’m going to continue combing through these books while you are gone.”

“Something is up with this Alpha and his Delta gives me the heebie jeebies. We still need to find out what happened with the Black Rivers Gamma as well.” Aria reminded me. “-Yeah, I hope we get some answers today. I am starting to feel like there is more I don’t know than things I do after the past two days. We are running out of time though, so we had better finish up here.-” I returned my focus to Celia.

“Thanks Celia, if I find a good opening, I’ll try to ask Reed’s dad some questions too. He was apparently friends with Quinn’s and my parents. As the Beta of the Black River pack at the time, I’m sure he knows more that he hasn’t shared yet.”

“Time to go Melody.” Jeremy called out, we were pretty much right at the ten minute mark and any more delay and I might miss my chance all together.

“Wish me luck.” I said back to him and Celia as I headed down the hall to the front door. I grabbed my necklace underneath my shirt before taking a step outside. Hopefully it really did carry blessings with it.