Chapter 14 Gabriel

Packing again to go to Silverpine for three days, for the second time in barely a week. Although, this trip was for a much less celebratory reason.

Corren was dead. Killed the same night as the Bonding Feast. Everyone in Coralridge Pack packed quickly that same night, and we left as soon as all pack members were vetted by Silverpine security.

We were traveling light for this somber event. Seith and I, Uncle’s mate Halia, would serve as our Luna seeing as how she was the most senior female in our pack.

Nakoa would serve as point of contact back here for anything that required immediate attention and I couldn’t be reached by cell. He had years of Alpha experience in the years between the deaths of my parents and when I came of age and assumed the role myself.

Also traveling, was one of the pack’s females who bonded with one of Silverpine’s males. She was a second year and would travel back with me and remain with her new pack.

That was it.

Two visits to Silverpine in a week was more than enough for me. They would be here in three weeks, but at least I’d only have to deal with their delegation and unbonded females.

Coralridge would host the next Bonding Feast, and it would be my turn, yet again, to stand there touching wrists. I’d been through that ceremony more time than I cared to count.

Some Alpha fathers didn’t pressure their sons to participate for the first few seasons, but having been orphaned at a young age, I didn’t have much choice. Once I turned eighteen, it was expected for me to try and find my mate.

Flipping from one shirt to the next, bored, I finally chose a coral hued silk shirt to pair with my charcoal gray suit. It wasn’t black, but it was dark enough. The Silverpine could wear black. It was their Alpha.

On second thought, I grabbed a black suit. Corren was like a second father to me when mine was still alive, and even more after he and my mother died in a plane crash coming back from the Islands to visit her family.

Corren offered to take Coralridge under his protection, but my Uncle Nakoa…Mother’s brother and Father’s Beta declined.

Publicly, he told Corren they would always maintain alliance and welcome his wisdom, but privately he told me that he didn’t trust Corren’s Council or his son.

Too much competition between us, he told me. Even though I didn’t feel that way, as I got older, I saw what he meant. It didn’t matter what the situation, Lucien always seemed to want to do one better.

His ridicule focused almost exclusively on pack names. Lucien along with other future Alphas in his little clique at the Academy loved making fun of the Pack’s name.

Coralridge, they taunted. What a pansy name. Coral is for lightweight sissies. Pussypack is more like it.

It bothered me at the time. All most teenagers want is to be accepted, and I was no different. Coralridge was a pussy name for a wolf pack. My father should have just kept it Ironridge like his father before him.

That’s what I thought when I was an impressionable teen. Until Uncle sat me down and told me about the rich history of his Island pack Karangicliffs. They were older than Ironridge by more than a millennium. The original protectors, not the mother and father of all wolves, but not too far off either.

Typically, when an Alpha bonds, his mate becomes Luna, but her pack remains as it was. The isles believed in neither patriarchy or matriarchy. The first child assumed the role, and my mother was that first child.

My father and mother, each alphas in their own right, bonded and decided to form a whole new pack.

The end result was a pack so rich with history, knowledge, culture, and riches that was the envy of packs around the world.

Some days I wonder if Lucien Veyric ever regrets being an asshole. It’s Lucien, so I doubt it very much.

Then I blink myself back into present day and smile.

Personally, I don’t give a rats’ ass what the man does or doesn’t do, but I’m glad I listened to my Uncle all those years ago. I’m still glad I listen to him, even though he isn’t my Beta. The man deserved to age without worrying about the damned pack every moment of every day. Leave that to the next generation.

It didn’t hurt that his son, my cousin, Seith was my best friend, confidant, and Beta. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as they say.

Three days. I could get through this.

Seith was with me the last time we went to Silverpine Territory. The second he caught wind of poison; he forbade me from ingesting anything more.

Since I’d barely eaten anything at the dinner, I made him stop at a diner for breakfast on our way back home.

It was there I saw her. The rejected girl from the feast. Her eyes still puffy from tears. Her silvery, golden, white hair pulled back into a drab ponytail. A far cry from the loose curls that fell below her shoulders the night before.

My wolf found her scent interesting, but he was more interested in food at the moment.

I chose a corner table where both Seith and I could keep an eye on the door and the diner.

Habit.

The scared little wolf felt me come in. I saw her tense and scarf down the rest of her meager meal. She made tracks pretty quick.

I walked out behind her, just to make sure she had wheels or some kind of transportation. That’s what I told myself anyway.

It had nothing to do with the fact I found her fascinating.

Watching Silverpine Security squeal up and arrest her for the Alpha’s murder.

Guess I need to evaluate who I found interesting and why.