Page 56 of The Alpha's Chosen Outcast

“We don’t want exiles in this pack.” He’s direct. I’ll give him that.

“You have the choice not to be in this pack.”

“And be an exile myself?”

“Or you can create your own pack.”

“We don’t have an Alpha for that.”

“Then find one. Or stay and accept the changes I make. Again, elder, you were part of making these laws. Your rituals are what prepared my father to hand power down to me. You all knew what he was planning and that my approach to leading this pack would differ from his.”

“We didn’t know you’d start making changes on day one.”

“Now you do.”

The elder returns to the group and joins their whispers. I can smell burgers and hot dogs on the grill. Everyone else is sniffing the air as well.

Despite the conversation they all just witnessed, they begin approaching me. The Cauleys are first. Melissa implores me with her eyes.

“I accept you as my Alpha and pledge loyalty to this pack,” she says. Then, with a sob, she adds, “Thank you for sparing our daughter.”

Raymond holds her tight to his side and nods with moist eyes. “You have our support—always.”

He bows his head and says the oath until finally walking off. I feel my throat close, watching them.

Others are lining up behind them. One by one, the pack members say the oath and head over to the area where the food is being prepared. Soon enough, the only ones left are the elders.

The man who approached me before came over to me again, the rest of the elders following behind him. He says his oath without bowing his head, and so do the others.

In that moment, my wolf wants to pounce on them, to take their throats in my teeth and make them submit. But I rein that part of me in because I know this is not the time or place for it.

I’m alone in the garden. Everyone else is over by the grills and tables, getting food and mingling. They want to move on with the next phase of starting a new pack. After all, they did lose their Alpha as much as I lost my father.

The rituals for putting him to rest will be observed after Violet returns from her honeymoon. He will be preserved until then.

We didn’t want people to associate her wedding day with our father’s funeral. She already has to live with the devastation that he died on that day in the first place.

I watch them all carrying on like nothing big has happened while my world is shattered. It all hits me at once—losing my father—Heather leaving.

After they eat, the pack mills around outside as the sun sets. Soon, it’ll be time to change with my pack as their new Alpha. I’ll be connected to everyone simultaneously at that moment.

The sun dips beyond the horizon faster than I thought it would. The pack is gathered and ready.

Though we don’t have much in the form of woodlands in the heart of the city, we have the freedom to run and hunt at night in Central Park. I can smell the night air changing like it’s vibrating along with all of us about to change.

I have to go first. With my new power, the change is painless and fast. There’s a collective gasp through the crowd as my wolf takes form in seconds.

I’m a huge chestnut brown wolf most of the time, but something feels different. I’m larger, and I feel stronger. I howl at the newly risen moon, and the pack begins to change with me.

Once the wolves are all in form, we howl together at the moon, me first, and then they answer. I shoot off towards the park, and they follow.

I can sense every one of them in my mind. I find the Cauleys and feel a deeper connection to them, like they’re family in some way. I suppose they are, even if Heather is gone.

But is she? I feel her, too. It’s faint and far away, but it’s there. The feeling of my mate, the person who makes me complete. She’s out there somewhere.

As I run, I hone in on her, trying to sense the area around her and the direction she went. She’s west, possibly somewhere in the Midwest. It almost feels like she’s not that far away, but I know better.

I can’t pinpoint her location clearly, and that infuriates me. I run faster, harder, losing the rest of the pack as I try to run out my frustration. I want her more than ever.

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