Page 32 of The Alpha's Heir

A Dire Wolf

*** Xavier ***

When Eva shifts into her wolf form, I am terrified. Not for myself, but for my little girl. She is tiny, and Dire Wolves are distinctive for their herculean size. Her wolf form is at least four times the size of her human form. I reckon her wolf is around double the size of my own. The shift alone could kill her. I am finally part of her life and now it feels almost as if I am going to lose her all over again.

I send her back home with her Beta and Gamma. I insist on her wearing a silver bracelet to subdue her wolf so she wouldn’t try to emerge again and to stop any further manifestations. Beta Preston assures me that he will have a full Beta and Gamma Guard to protect her, but I still feel uneasy about her going home without some of my wolves too, so I send half my Delta team with her. As the daughter of the Alpha, it is an honour for them to protect her and I know Aiden would appreciate the support. I have seen the way he looks at her, I know he loves her and will do anything to save her.

Eva looks shocked and tearful, and I want nothing more than to reassure my little girl, but I feel responsible. I have a little knowledge about Dire Wolves and how they come to be. I can only imagine what my girl has been through to manifest such a massive beast of a wolf. This could have been prevented if I had been the father she needed and deserved back then. Dire Wolves, to my limited knowledge, manifest when a werewolf isn’t raised as a werewolf. When they do not exercise their wolves and allow the first shift in their teens, the repressed wolves feed off negative emotions and trauma. Eva must have suffered a great deal to have such a large dire wolf.

I have an old contact who used to work for the Werewolves Council. Elder Tabbatha is a werewolf Historical Researcher. I call her and ask her to come as soon as she possibly could. If anyone has answers, she does.

Elder Tabbatha is smart and funny with a keen and inquisitive mind. I have no doubt she will have information about Dire Wolves and how to treat them. I trust she will be discreet; people fear what they do not know, and I worry for my daughter's safety if this becomes common knowledge.

Reeling in shock and preoccupied with Eva, I completely forgot that Nikki has escaped. When I do remember, I send my Beta to inform the scouts and trackers and tell them to bring her directly to me, dead or alive.

Then I go down into the dungeon to question the piece of shit who raised my little girl with so much fear and pain in her life that she has managed to manifest a monster that is part of her.

Rose is a prisoner in my cells and has been since she made threats about exposing my world. Up until now, she refuses to talk to me, but today, I will choke the fucking words out of her.

“You can’t keep me here forever, X.” She has the audacity to shout at me through the bars. Who the fuck does she think she is? She hasn’t spoken all this time and then she tries to goad me.

“No, I can’t, but I might just chop your stinking, lying head off instead, Rose. I’m here about Evangelina. Something has happened and I need you to tell me why she would have been frightened or scared or depressed throughout her life. Help me with this. Help me to help our daughter and I’ll let you go.” Rose is a selfish, jealous woman, but on some level, she must have feelings for her child. I put my faith in humanity. Well, in Rose’s humanity.

“I gave her an amazing life, X. I tried to give her everything, but she was always so moody and brooding. Every time I met someone who made me happy, she would kick up a stink about either having to move house or having to share a room. When I married Claude, she made up a story about him trying to touch her up. There was never any evidence and that made things very awkward between us all for a short time until she got married and moved out.” She looks back down at her fingernails dismissively and Ace growls in my head, he wants to rip her throat out for not caring for our pup.

“That was the evidence. Her word, Rose. She told you and you should have believed her and protected her. I don’t know what would have hurt more, the fact that he tried to touch her or you not doing anything when she confided in you.” It’s hard keeping the disgust out of my voice. I want her to know how repulsive I find her now, but I also need her to keep talking.

“I’m guessing you know what happened between her husband and me. I bet she couldn’t wait to tell daddy.”

I cannot believe the gall of this woman. She did wrong to Eva and she’s the one acting as the victim. “I do know yes, but Eva has never spoken a word about it. Alpha Aiden told me what both you and Ryan confessed to her. Did this cause her harm?”

“I don’t think she knew until I confessed, but from the short time I spent with Ryan and then the communications I had to have afterwards, I would say he didn’t treat her very well. He called me from their honeymoon suite the night she lost her virginity to him and told me he had savaged her, and it was all my fault for refusing to sleep with him. He was brutal with her that night and the way she changed as a person, I would say he was brutal every night after that.”

My heart is broken for my little girl. I don’t know how she has endured all this. How has she been able to maintain such a sweet and caring disposition? My own wolf answers me: Lina made her able. Lina would have protected her and taken the pain. And because our pup didn’t shift, the build-up of pain caused Lina to grow. Her wolf saved her. Her wolf took care of her when no-one else would or could.

“Alpha, your guest has just arrived at the border and will be here in about ten minutes,” one of my guards informs me.

“We are not finished, Rose. Not by a long shot,” I shout back to her as I climb the stairs back up to the ground floor. When I reach the hall, my mate peers out at me, sending slivers of sharp ice to penetrate my already battered heart.

“I heard there was a Dire Wolf here. Is it true? Was it your daughter?” I don’t want her to ask about Evangelina if she is willing to break our bond over her being my daughter in the first place. I don’t want her near me because I cannot stand the pain of losing her and potentially Eva too. It’s all too much.

“Don’t worry, Luna, your home is safe. My daughter has left and returned home. You have nothing to fear.” I know I sound short with her, but I cannot keep up a pretence. I am in too much pain and turmoil to make a false front today. But as Lydia frowns at me, the worry is evident in her expression and I remember that none of this is her fault. I am being an ass. “I’m sorry for sounding short, I am extremely worried and the severing of our bond and the thought of my daughter dying is killing me inside.

Lydia rushes to me. “I don’t want to lose you, Xavier, I don’t want to lose us. I accept her, I will be her mother. We will help her excise her wolf so it can’t kill her.”

Excise her wolf? What is Lydia insinuating? How does she know this?

She explains without me having to ask. “I remember this happening to a wolf in my former pack. They killed the wolf so she didn’t shift and was therefore safe. There were a lot of other things I can’t remember but that’s how Evangelina can live. You have to kill her wolf.”

“She's right,” my expert, Elder Tabbatha, shouts from the open doors. “We have to do it under an eclipsed moon and complete other rituals so that it works. It could kill her anyway. But she has to decide if she is willing to be wolf-less and try on the off-chance she doesn’t die.”

“Elder Tabbatha, please come in and take a seat. I need more information before we come to this conclusion. I will need to explain all of this to my daughter and to her mate, Alpha Aiden.” Elder Tabbatha nods before entering the hall.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been here,” she says as she looks around the hall. She had once belonged to this pack before meeting her mate and moving away. “I have other business here too, Alpha Xavier, regarding your son. There is talk of trouble with the Mafia because of him. What do you know about this?”

Oh, for fuck's sake, I need to sort one child out first before I move on to the other. “Let’s talk about Eva first, that is more important.” At least it is to me, but Elder Tabbatha shakes her head at me, and I look back at her in confusion.

“I’m sorry, Alpha Xavier, your daughter is just one person. What your son has done has endangered all werewolves in the territory. If the information we have received is correct, your son has gone rogue and killed a Spanish Mafia Don. This will bring a war. The council cannot and will not overlook it. I am here as your friend, but you should know the council has officials on their way right now to arrest you and the Luna.”

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