The Wanted Alpha

Chapter 34 - Together

Ethan

'Greer, I need to talk to you outside.'

Now I knew my mate was safe and not kidnapped, I needed to have it out with him. For all I knew he could have given our location away again, if it was him to begin with. When we were far enough away, I whirled round on him. The fact that he wouldn't look me in the eye just added to my suspicion of him.

"Alpha, I'm real sorry about the crash. But they came out of nowhere and…" but I cut off his rambling.

"Did you betray our pack?" my voice was deathly cold, while my wolf growled his emphasis at our words.

"What?...no! Why would you even think that?!" 

I grabbed him by his collar and slammed his back into a tree.

"Don't lie to me! You were at the hospital the same time research was stolen, your sister said you surprised her for her birthday at the hospital and that you never surprise her there. So why were you really there?! Have you been selling our pack information to our rivals?!" I roared.

"No! I swear! I would never betray our pack, I'd rather die than be a traitor!" he shouted back, struggling to get out of my grasp.

I studied his face intently, for the slightest sign of deceit...there was none. He was either telling the truth or he was very skilled at concealing it. But he was still hiding something…

I released him a little, allowing his feet to touch the ground "then why were you there? There's something you're not telling me!" I growled, still suspicious.

"My mate's pregnant! Ok?!" he shouted "I was there for her scan, but we weren't telling anyone. She's already had one miscarriage that devastated her and we didn't want anyone to know till we were sure the pup was safe. That's why I took Julia's present with me, in case I ran into her so I had an excuse...my mate...she can't shift...this could be dangerous for her, having our pup" he looked down, swallowing hard.

He was telling me the truth. I released him from my grasp as I heard people from the house coming out to see what the commotion was about.

"Ethan! What the hell are you doing?!" my mate shouted out as she rushed over to us.

"It's alright Luna...I think it was just a misunderstanding" Greer sheepishly covered for me.

Fuck. I was just one huge, raging asshole today.

'I'm sorry, I jumped to a wrong conclusion' I mind-linked Greer, feeling a little abashed by my outburst.

'It's fine, everything's a little tense right now and we're all on edge.'

My mate looked between us, knowing there was something more as she narrowed her eyes at me...again.

"A misunderstanding? It looked a little more than that" April said, eyeing me specifically.

'I'll tell you later, when the audience has gone' I told her over mind-link, nodding towards the twins and the tall, black haired vampire male.

"Fine...well, if you've finished your 'misunderstandings' for one evening, can we get you back inside before you freeze? You're just in shorts!" she exclaimed looking down at my almost bare form stood in the snow.

"Ok" I chuckled, loving that even when she was mad at me she was still looking after me "head in, I'm right behind you. I just need to grab my phone."

I heard the vampire softly laugh to himself as he left with the others "I'd forgotten how dramatic you wolves could be."

I was a little more confident now that these people meant my mate no harm and I was becoming more intrigued about their past. That male seemed to know a lot about werewolves, it had me wondering whether he had spent time living within a pack at some point. 

As I grabbed my phone from where I had left it, Greer mind-linked me 'has someone really betrayed our pack? Do you think it has anything to do with those guys that attacked us today?'

'Yes.'

He didn't reply, seeming to grasp the gravity of the situation and headed inside with the rest

As I followed, I quickly contacted my Gamma and the team heading to my location to update them. They wouldn't be here till well after midnight and would probably have to spend the night here too. I hoped these people didn't mind more wolves imposing on them.

Seeing the makeshift door reminded me I needed to make sure I replaced that properly before we left. Shit, I really did go a little berserk tonight.

'Yeah...well, that's what happens when mate is out of our sight' my wolf tried to defend ourselves.

'No, it's what happens when we don't use our brain' I said, stating the very obvious facts. Ezra just huffed at me, knowing I was right.

April was already digging into a large bowl of what looked like soup when I entered. I stilled a little, seeing all eyes on me, including two other women I hadn't seen yet.

"Uhh...sorry about all the commotion. I'll make sure to have your door fixed before we leave. If it's not too much trouble, are we ok to stay till morning? I have some more people on the way, they should get here after midnight."

The dark haired vampire male that seemed to be the leader was the one to reply "that's perfectly fine Alpha, we'll try and accommodate you wolves as best we can but you may have to put up with some discomfort tonight."

I nodded, what they were offering was more than enough.

"Who exactly are you? I think I missed the introductions."

The ones I thought were humans were actually wiccans, I wondered how they had come across these vampires? Hearing Acacia and Juniper's family name of Bloomtree, I realised they must be relatives of Jethro, the leader of the Family that had been wiped out to our packs north.

"Bloomtree? Are you the Elder's daughters?" I asked the two young women.

They nodded, with a devastated expression.

"What happened, who attacked you?"

"Rogues...we didn't see them...but that's how the three of us survived" Sparrow whispered, from where she was being held by her vampire familiar, the wiccan version of a werewolf's mate, Cowyn.

"They snuck out in the middle of the night, to go grow plants in the woods on the full moon" he chided, earning a sorrowful look from her.

"They went to grow plants, I just followed after them" she muttered to him, burying her face in his chest.

"She's an aura wiccan" Christopher, the coven leader, clarified.

He described the night from two weeks ago and from how he spoke I doubted this was the first time he had talked about it today. The Family had been sheltering the vampire coven for the last month prior to the attack, when rogues came in the middle of the night and tried to raid their commune. The surviving coven had managed to dispatch them, but a fire had broken out and because their homes were wood and thatch, it spread faster than anyone could react. Many of Christopher's remaining coven were lost that night, these four were all that were left of the twelve he had. The three young women present, along with the four wiccan children, asleep upstairs, were all that remained of the Family. 

It had actually been the four vampires and Sparrow that had been following my pack members' vehicle. She had felt ready to face her old home for the first time, to pay her final respects to the graves. Having seen my pack going to the commune, they had been worried other rogues had come looking for their associates and had followed them afterwards to make sure they weren't on the hunt for revenge. They had been about to turn around when they saw the attack on my mate's vehicle and had jumped in to help. 

The attack on the wiccans was exactly what I had wanted to avoid and why both myself and my father had tried to get them to relocate to our pack's borders. Like my mate, these people had lost everything, but I could offer them safety and protection...if only they'd accept.

"You could come to our pack? We can keep you safe and give you a home for as long as you want, even make it permanent. You saved my mate, it's the least I could do, for all of you."

"Do you really mean that, Alpha Ethan? You'd let us have a coven in your pack?" Maeryn asked, leaning forward on her chair.

"We've never had one before, so you'd be the first" I said, looking to their leader for his confirmation.

"If my people and the girls want this" he said, giving a quick glance over them "and the children agree to it in the morning, then fine. It's a very generous offer Alpha, thank you."

My mate's face broke out into a beaming smile. She had been listening intently, I could feel her grief as she heard of their loss and now her happiness that I would accept and take them in, giving them safety just as I had done for her.

April stood, facing vampires and wiccans, by my side.

"I really hope you'll come with us. I lost everything too once, my family, my pack...but White Tree pack changed all that. It's been a while since I felt at home somewhere and I know you can have that too, if you join us?"

The three young wiccan women still looked at me with unease but their faces softened when they looked to my mate.

Sparrow timidly spoke up "I think I'd be happy to go along with Cowyn...I feel I can trust you, Luna...you have a really beautiful aura."

The sisters nodded in agreement as my mate blushed a little at the unorthodox compliment. 

"This is gonna be so awesome!" Janine enthused from the side.

"...you guys don't actually feed on people, do you?" Jaime asked, looking a little worried.

Janine promptly hit her brother's shoulder "ignore him! He's an idiot and didn't pay attention in species studies!" the twins glared at each other.

Christopher seemed to find it rather amusing than insulting "it's quite alright, we know there's still a few stereotypes hanging around about us vampires. If it makes you feel better to know, we drink from the life force of plants, not animals or people...the four of us are actually vegan."

I knew that vampires rarely ever drank blood from a person, but the idea of them actually being vegan was...unexpected?

"That just raises more questions for me!" Jaime exclaimed.

Rhian laughed heartily "well by the sounds of it, you'll have plenty of time to ask away on the drive to White Tree, ay?"

"Ok, I've got to know though. Where are you guys from? I don't recognise your accents at all?" my mate asked in genuine wonder.

"We all met in England. But originally, I'm Dutch and the others are Welsh. We came here to the states around 20 years ago now, after the pack we lived with in North Yorkshire...collapsed" the memory seemed to be quite a difficult one for Christopher. 

He had mentioned having twelve coven peers before the attack on the wiccan Family, something told me he once led many more. And after 20 years of wandering, I hoped all four of them could finally find some peace within my pack. I knew vampires aged quite slowly and were longer-lived than even us wolves, but the four of them barely looked a day older than myself...just how old were they exactly?

I was broken out of my thoughts by the sounds of shuffling footsteps coming from the hall behind me. My Beta's scent preceded him as he appeared at the archway with one arm holding his side and the other holding him steady on the wall. His breathing appeared a little laboured, but his sights were set intently on the sitting room. April was the first to react to his presence, rushing to his side to help him.

"Jude! Are you ok? You shouldn't be standing! Here, come and sit." 

I moved to help her, offering him a slightly awkward smile. In our last conversation...I had spoken to him atrociously. I had been so singularly minded on my mate and her safety that I had completely lost sight of anyone else. I had grown up with him, he had been my best friend, I was the first person - as young teens - that he had come out to...and today I had treated him as though he was beneath me. 

"Jude?" I prompted, noticing that his attention was still focused elsewhere.

I followed his line of sight into the sitting room, seeing what held his focus…

The unshakable and cool demeanor that Christopher once had was gone, as he stood looking at my Beta with wide eyes; his breathing, too, a little uneven.

"Mate" Jude strained out.

"...yes...it would appear so."Bonus

Chapter 35 - The Wanted Alpha