Chapter 1 - 4 long years

Gamma Gabe’s POV

I’ve waited 4 long years for today, the day my fated mate turns 18 and gets her wolf.  I shake my head as I look into the mirror, I hope I’m right about this because if I’m not I’ll never hear the end of it.  My Alpha’s have given me shit about it for years now, and my mate, being one of Alpha Abigail’s siblings, made it even worse.  I leave my room and meet Gamma Dimitri on the stairs, he gives me a knowing smirk, “hmm, today is your day hope it works out for you,” he chuckles as we hit the foyer on the ground floor.

“Yea,” I rub the back of my neck, “me too.”  My eyes dart towards the kitchen and shake my head, “they’ll never let me live it down if Teresa isn’t my mate now.”

His laughter is loud as he tilts his head towards the kitchen, “my brother will not care, but her sister is another story,” he chuckles, “especially now.”

I look at the kitchen entrance way and see Alpha Abigail standing there with a smug grin on her face, her hand rubbing her small baby bump, a sippy cup in her hand as she holds it out to Alexander, our 3 year old Alpha heir.  I gulp as her voice enters my mind, “Good luck today, Gamma Gabe,” she arches a brow to me, “either way you’re going to need it,” she cackles out loud as she leans down and picks up Alexander and places him on her hip.

I narrow my eyes at her but stop the minute Alpha Christov steps up behind her, wrapping his arms around her and their son, he kisses her cheek and then the top of Alexander’s head and glares at us, “Gamma’s do you both have nothing better to do than to just stand there?”

I shake my head and Gamma Dimitri answers, “We’re leaving now Alpha Christov,” he nods and elbows me in the side.  I nod to both and follow him out the door, “Good luck Gamma Gabe,” Alpha Christov’s voice comes through my mind link, and I smile as we head to the training fields.

Being the biggest pack in the United States has its perks and down falls, but we have 2 Gamma’s and 2 Beta’s along with our 2 Alpha’s.  The packs were combined 4 years ago when our Alphas had their union and we all are now the Crescent Moon Pack, the Iron Claw pack no longer exists along with the horrific reputation it once had, but that is another story and history as far as we are concerned.  Training is daunting, the amount of warriors we have is time-consuming, but Dimitri and I seem to work well together and have had since day one.  That doesn’t mean we don’t have challenges with the warriors, it took time for them to work together as a team and not as separate units.

After training the warriors, we head to the school to train the pups, those without their wolves, so they can protect themselves when they venture into the human world.  Dimitri and I both agreed when Alpha Abigail suggested it, but watching Teresa flirt non-stop with the younger males has worked my last nerve and Dimitri finds it hysterical.  Me not so much, it was bad enough when former Alpha Braddock had me removed from his pack house that we all lived in once he found that I thought his daughter was my mate.  She was only 14 then and it didn’t matter to him that I was there when she was born. 

The conversation plays in my head as he glared at me, “you think Teresa is your fated mate all of a sudden Gamma Gabe care to explain.”

I remember how fucking intimidating he has always been, but now talking about his princess as my mate, he was 20 times worse, “my wolf seems to think she is Uncle Braddock.”  Yea, that didn’t work so good for me at that point, calling him uncle only fueled the fire that was just smoldering inside him.  I explained what happened on the day Bisnonna passed, how Beta Josh tried to take Teresa to comfort her, when my wolf growled at him and nearly took his arm off when he was just trying to console her.

He leaned back looking at me with a sinister smirk on his face, “you will move out of this pack house once Alpha Christov and Abigail’s pack house is completed, you will also limit your interactions with Teresa, she is not to know what you think as far as her being your mate.”  He moved from the chair he was in and towered over me as I sat on the couch, “she is much younger than you, she deserves to enjoy her youth, not have it hindered by a bond that may exist, your wolf could be wrong.”

I shook my head, he did not just use age as an excuse to stay away from Teresa, he’s more than 20 years older than his own mate.  I nodded, “yes uncle...”

He cuts me off “stop calling me that, if she is your mate that makes it even weirder now doesn’t it.”  I couldn’t help but smile at him, which in hindsight was a mistake, because the next thing I knew his huge paw hit me in the back of my head “your just like your old man,” he shook his head, “I’m not saying you can’t speak to her, just keep it casual, I don’t want her hurt,” he stated as he walked to the door, “or you.”

We walked to the football field and waited on the bleachers for them all to come out of the side door from the locker rooms.  I can’t help but scan the girls and notice she is not there, and my heart falls a bit, but then remember it is her birthday, so she is probably being pampered by Luna Charlie and former Alpha Braddock and getting ready for her big party tonight.