Page 4 of Alpha's Fate

With this sudden appearance of things in the woods, the trees suddenly felt ominous. It felt like we were strangers in a strange land, peering out between the trees as the things began to multiply and move faster. We were being watched. Whoever it was out there in the forest seemed to be staying in a certain radius of us, though. They weren’t coming closer.

“Do you think it’s the Unseen pack?” Cora whispered, and I looked down at her.

“I thought they were a myth,” I whispered back. Clyde, the other member of our group up at the top of the hill, moved to stand behind us, looking in the opposite direction.

“It’s everywhere.” He murmured. “But they’re not coming closer.”

“I noticed that too,” Cora said, glancing around us. “It’s creepy, but if it is the Unseen pack we need to know that. It’s important that if they’re real and they’re out there watching us we need to find a way to make contact and establish some kind of rapport with them. Trying to coexist is our best bet. If they’re real and if that’s them, they’re incredibly powerful. We don’t want to be at war with them.”

“That’s true.” I said, watching the forest intently. “I’m going back down. I want to talk to the pack and let them know what we think is going on.” I looked back over at Cora and she nodded. I climbed down the obstacle and headed toward the rest of the pack. “We think it might be another pack. The Unseen.” I announced in a normal tone of voice. “We’re not sure, of course, but it fits the profile. Because we’re out here doing group training and not combat training I think we should just continue. They’re not getting closer and if they do we can just head out. It’s important that we all work together to keep one another safe while we train out here, so we’re going to spread out among the obstacles so we have eyes on our pack everywhere they go.”

“Why? Why not just leave? This is making me uneasy, Weston, and I have no intention of completing the training now. Not when we’re being watched. They could be looking for weaknesses in our training or some kind of way to attack while we’re vulnerable out here. Or what if there’s an attack at the compound? There are kids and old people in there. They might need us.” The woman who was protesting wasn’t entirely wrong.

“We’re not doing any kind of training that would show any weaknesses. We’re strong out here. These woods are ours. We can’t let some creeps stop us from our tasks- this is about cohesion and pack reliance so we need to complete it. With the amount of shadows out there I don’t think they’re at the compound. I think they’re here for us, not for the people who are holdouts. I think they’re trying to intimidate us and see if they can get any information. We can’t let them make us quit now- that will set an expectation that if they just show up we’ll back down. That’s not us at all- we’re out here to work on our group. We’re not going to give up or stop because of this. We’re strong, we’re smart, and we’re determined. If anyone wants to leave you can leave. If anyone doesn’t want to participate but wants to stay, taking up a place between the obstacles will be a huge help. But we can do this. We don’t have to run away from this.” I explained, my voice a little louder so everyone could hear.

I looked out at them, and a few people moved silently to take up positions around the obstacle course, all of us ready for whatever would happen. The rest of us regrouped and found new partners before we began to reinstate our training.

As we did, Cora and Clyde kept watch at the top of the hill, occasionally helping out when people seemed to be struggling too hard. I admired her for her boldness, standing tall and proud in the face of fear. That was another thing I loved about my mate. She wasn’t easily intimidated even in the most frightening of situations. This was proof.

There was an air of nervous energy with an undercurrent of excitement as we continued our team building exercises, each of us pushing onward in spite of the ever dwindling shadows in the woods. They never went completely away, but they appeared to be losing numbers as we worked. I was proud of our newly merged pack.

We spent the rest of the afternoon on our training but stopped before everyone was exhausted. When we finally left the grove we left in a tight group so that if we were ambushed we’d be able to fight back quickly and with force. Nobody would be caught alone or unaware. We couldn’t afford to lose anyone here- not only would it be a tragedy on a human level, but it would split the clans further and could cause an actual rebellion and fight. As of now the group who seemed to be out to fight the merger had low numbers, but they’d for sure get more if we weren’t careful about this.

The walk out of the woods was slow and casual. It was completely necessary because we couldn’t show that we were intimidated. The Onyxfang pack had been at the top of the heap for a long time and if Cora’s plans were to come to fruition we’d need to keep it that way. We’d need to be able to offer protection, financial aid, medical care, and more if we were to be able to help the clans of Schuylkill without being a competitive monolith of money and power. That’s not what we wanted. We wanted so much more than that, to be a good and righteous pack people could look up to.

We emerged from the forest to see the estate was completely fine. The place was as mundane as a place could be, standing as tall and proud as Cora had earlier. We still approached with a certain amount of caution, though, as we couldn’t tell from the outside if the inside was as pristine. Once we reached the door and found it locked as usual I let out a soft sigh. It was likely that nobody was inside unless they’d broken a window and I hadn’t seen anything as we approached.

The legendary Unseen pack also operated in the shadows if the legends were to be believed.; They’d be hard pressed to approach the estate unseen in the middle of the day. Maybe once the sun began to go down and the shadows stretched into the woods, but until then it seemed to me that the estate was safe.

Once inside Cora and I proceeded to her suite to talk about the day’s events. The way that things had played out we both silently agreed we needed to talk. We walked up the winding staircase, passing her office as a fretting assistant was waving paperwork at her. Cora assured her that we’d be back down in an hour or so and we continued to the top floor- her suite.

“We need to make a plan,” she looked at me and I nodded in response. “That was terrifying for a minute. We’ll have to research the Unseen and see if there’s a way to reach out to them to form some kind of cohabitation here. Do you know anything?”

“Just the basics everyone else knows. I can ask around the older clan members when I get back to my house, but I don’t know that they’ll know anything either.” I shrugged and sighed softly. “It’s not something I was ever really interested in as a kid, and besides that we never really talked about legends.”

“Well hell,” Cora said. “At least we have my father’s books.”

Chapter five

Cora

Weston and I had been so tired after all our research that we decided to stay in my suite for the night. More research could be done in the morning and there was no reason to push ourselves past exhaustion just to try to find out something we had absolutely no proof was real. We crashed instantly, curling up around one another in our sleep. I woke up first tangled in his arms. For a while I just stayed there to doze, half asleep, andlisten to him breathe. After about five minutes, though, I pulled myself away from him and got out of bed to get ready for the day.

Weston stirred when I got up and sat up himself, bleary eyed and still coming up out of the waters of sleep. It was nice to watch him wake up the same way I did, just taking his time to make it up out of the bed and into the waking world. Even I was slightly better about getting up than he was and I was terrible at waking up. I managed to brush my teeth with him next to me at the second sink, both of us yawning through the task. It was nice to just have a daily routine with him even if we didn’t spend the night together every single night. I managed to get done and headed to my closet to change.

What was nice about this morning routine was that we were integrated into one another’s living space. Our own toothbrushes, clothes in one another’s closets, perfume and cologne where we needed them. It was just nice to know we were part of one another’s lives in such a domestic way. I couldn’t wait until it was time for the second mansion to be built and he could move to the estate with me. At some point we would build a home on the land close to the estate- a place just for us where we could be near our pack but far enough away to have privacy and a little garden.

Once we were nice and fresh I leaned up and kissed him softly, wrapping my arms around him and laying my head on his shoulder.

“Shall we cook up here or head down for a professionally prepared meal?” I smiled up at his face and he grinned back down at me.

“I vote for downstairs honestly. Like I love cooking with you but I’m still tired from all the stuff from yesterday.” He replied, leaning in to kiss my forehead.

“Downstairs it is, then!” I was secretly happy he’d chosen my choice without realizing it. It was nice not to have to worryabout cooking. We finished getting dressed and moved on down to the dining room. The breakfast was delicious and by the time we were done I felt much better. More awake and alive, and it seemed that Weston felt the same way. He gave me that signature grin and I smiled back.

“Research?” He asked, and I nodded. It was the right thing to do. In any situation where we were unsure like this it was proper to find out as much as we could about the people we were going to be in contact with, especially when they were potentially dangerous. It would be boring, hard work but we’d slog through it together. We spent a few hours at it before I finally found a lead. It was a simple drawing, something which we could see was important. The book I found it in was incredibly old, to the point that I wore gloves to handle it. It was in a version of our language that I could understand enough of to translate it. I made a copy in my ever present notebook translated into English, complete with a simplified version of the drawing.

“I think I found something,” I said softly, and he tilted his head at me. “This book is talking about some kind of effigy in the forest. I’m not sure what it is, but it looks like a headstone or a stone of some kind. There are no directions but we can comb the forest for it and just see what we can see. Maybe it’s not even there anymore but I think we should try to find it. It might be important.”

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