Second Chance

Demitri POV My name is Demitri Black. I’m the Alpha of the Dragon Stone Lake pack. I have been since I was 18. I'm 24 now. My pack holds about 1000 members and is one of the top packs in this area. My mother is a werebear and my father is a werewolf. I suppose that makes me a hybrid, but I don’t show any signs of having a bear, just my wolf Draygon(who is a bit distant with me because I chose to have a chosen mate). My brother “little” John, nicknamed after the Robin Hood stories because he is big and also because he is my younger brother at 20, is the opposite of me. He shows no sign of a wolf and has a bear. My parents are in North Holland exploring the world and my brother is off wandering. He never goes too far but never stays in the pack long either. My chosen mate is called Melisande Knight, (we are not married) our relationship is more mutual agreement. I needed a mate to be Alpha, she needed protection and stability. Melisande is 36. She found her mate at 18 and fell pregnant shortly after. Melisande had 2 children: Iska, her daughter and Ash, her son. They are both 18 now. I know what you’re thinking. They are almost my age. That is gross, but I am not their father and neither do I intend to be. Her mate died when on the hunt for food, leaving them behind. I found them days later at the edge of the border, half starved, bloodied and beaten. No one has an explanation as to what happened to them and they say they don’t remember. I felt it my duty to protect them and keep them safe, even though I was 16 at the time. I thought maybe one of the women would be my mate, and that’s why I felt a sense of duty. But I turned 18 and neither was my mate. I spent a year trying to get my father to investigate when he was Alpha but he refused because they were rogues. He only accepted them into the pack because he wanted to increase the pack numbers. If my father's opinion of them just being numbers wasn’t bad enough, Melisande and her children would get picked on by pack members for being rogues before joining the pack. My father had planned to give me the pack at 18 as is tradition in our family, but only if I had a mate, as in his words, “The Luna brings the pack strength, stability and reason”. So, after 11 months of not finding my mate, my father demanded I take a chosen Luna and mate. I might not even have a fated mate due to being a hybrid. So, after 2 weeks of deliberation of all the suitable candidates, I chose Melisande. I chose her due to the fact that she had already found her mate and lost him, so she would understand my need for my true mate, if i had one.(Its rare the moon goddess blesses widowers with a second chance mate). Melisande didn’t actually want to accept at first, but after 2 days she changed her mind as Iska (her daughter) was hospitalized and my father only punished the culprits with dish duty for a week. We agreed that she can use the benefits of being Luna to protect her children and change the stigma around rogues, as long as she does not get power hungry, while I can be Alpha. This meant I could investigate what happened to her and run the pack for the pack and not for power. Once the agreement was made, my father made me Alpha within a week, just before my 19th birthday. I think that was my mum's doing more than his. She wanted to retire and explore the world. I spent the first two years of being Alpha trying to find out what happened to Melisande and her children. Melisande eventually convinced me to give up on it and focus all my attention on the pack. So, here I am in my office waiting for the patrol report from my Beta Lewis, while I look over building arrangements for the mated couples. My office is quite large and easily able to hold 10 people with a mahogany desk with a desktop computer situated on the left side. Leaving plenty of space for me to do all the paperwork and to visually be able to see who is sitting opposite me. There are 2 black leather chairs on the opposite side of my desk and a mahogany-coloured sofa along the wall under a painting my father had left. I’m sitting in my black leather, full-backed desk chair, resting my arms on the armrest going over the building plans.