Alpha Black
Chapter 21 - Mine

Alice Forrest

Patricia almost smelt like Nathaniel, but in the same way she looked like him. She had the same gorgeous black hair, hers hanging in loose ringlets down her back towards her waist, and she had the same sparkling green eyes, yet the colours and shapes were different, they formed different patterns and shapes.

The way that Patricia smiled and acted was almost text-book for a younger sibling. She had no family successions thrown on her shoulders, her parents were retired from their duty in the pack and the number of loving older siblings before her would have offered any emotional support that their father didn’t provide.

“Let’s go to the café,” Patricia smiled, linking her own arm from mine as we departed from Nathaniel’s company as he drove off down the street towards their parent’s house, I assume tucked somewhere in the vast forests that surrounded the centre of the pack.

“Sounds lovely, I’m defiantly missing small talk with strangers,” I admitted, letting her drag me down the street.

I didn’t realise it at first, but the streets were stunning. The gutters and foot paths were hundreds of years old, hand cut and laid stone that seemed to sparkle lined the streets, then no more than three meters of green grass and tall pine trees lined the streets, rubbish bins, street lights and park benches dotted across this space. It must have been the most liveable city, no building higher than the pack house which sat happily at four stories, in the same sparkling white.

“What’s in the town?” I asked Patricia as we walked past building after building.

“Well we’ve got a lot of a little of everything,” she laughed.

“What?”

“We’re a rural town, but our population is large because the pack town is the centre for a lot of wolves who live in the area. So while all the shops are small, owned by either Nate or the family who runs the shop, they have high demand. They’ll also get anything you need. So we have your usual grocer, butcher, baker, bookstore, hardware store, but we also have lawyers, architects, builders, service centres, tech. stores.”

“So, a lot of everything but they’re little.”

“A lot of a little of everything,” Patricia laughed.

We crossed the street and took a left of the main road, where tables and chairs were perched out the front of a building, “This it?” I asked.

“Yep, what would you like? My shout.”

“Oh thanks,” I smiled, I’d completely forgotten about money, it’d only been two weeks since I had been in this new pack and I’d already come accustomed to living dependently on Nathaniel, I frowned to myself.

“Do you want a menu?”

“Oh, I think I’ll just have an iced coffee,” I said snapping back to reality.

“Wonderful, I’d normally tell you just to sit and wait while I order, but to be honest, I don’t want to risk you getting kidnapped or hurt and then having to explain to Nate what happened.”

I snorted, “yeah okay, fair call.”

I followed her into the store, where a couple people sat in booths and on tables, one young couple shamelessly making out in one of the back corners. Ah to be young.

“Patricia, my little angle, it’s lovely to see you, how have you been?” the elderly man behind the counter said.

“All the better for being here,” Patricia said with a smile. “How about you, Pix? How are you going?”

“Just like you, you light up my little slice of paradise. Who’s your friend?”

Patricia paused and looked at me out of the corner of her eye, “This is Alice.”

“Alice, it’s lovely to meet you, any friend of Patricia’s is a dear friend of mine, what brings you to Savage River?”

I opened my mouth, not sure what to say, “my mate lives here,” I answered simply.

“So you’re not just visiting then? A new flower for the pack then?” he chuckled. “Who’s your mate? I’ve been around long enough to know most people.”

I looked at Patricia, “You can answer that one,” I said rubbing my brow.

“Alpha Nate, my brother,” Patricia shrugged.

Pix’s mouth dropped to the floor, and he looked between me and Patricia, as if waiting for the ‘bazinga!’ or ‘gotcha!’. But none came. He quickly gained his composure, “My darling Luna,” he said in a hushed tone, leaning on the counter and grasping my hands in his, planting a kiss on them, “I have had the pleasure of seeing two beautiful Luna’s take care of this pack, but none, have been as beautiful as you, your mate is a lucky man, and I look forward to the blessing your presence will have on us.”

I smiled awkwardly, appreciative of his more hushed tone as to not alert the other patrons of the café, “thank you.”

“What can I get you then?” he said realising my hands, “of course for you two it’s on the house, because you have made my day, no, my week!”

“One Mango Smoothie and one Iced coffee,” Patricia said, putting fourteen dollars on the bench, “we’re happy to pay Pix, as much as we appreciate the offer.”

Pix looked at Patricia and shook his head, “you are too strong willed Pet, it will get you in trouble one day,” he sighed sliding the money off the counter not even trying to battle with Patricia’s stone cold face.

“Wonderful,” she chirped, her happy face resuming, “I think we’ll sit out front,” she said, once again looping her arm in mine and dragging me out the front where we sat in the warm Spring breeze.

* * * * * * * * * *

It had been a couple of hours since Patricia started her tour of the town, she showed me that the hospital, library, and an accommodation building were connected to the pack house. Next to the accommodation building was the sports ground which bled into the high school, primary school and day centre. These buildings creating almost a wall of large three and four storey nigh buildings and the gardens and forests that engulfed the Alpha’s house.

The city was compact with commercial buildings running the first several of blocks, of shorter buildings but still around three stories high. On both sides of the town their were then several neighbourhoods scattered throughout, with parks, reserves and playgrounds scattered throughout. Most of the space inside the walls was a built urban or suburban area, but the way that nature was integrated into the city, well, it made me apricate the town planner, who ever he or she may be.

Patricia dragged me into the most obscure stores at random, chatting with people and introducing me to the occasional shop owner, but in hushed tones as to not catch any unwanted attention.

I was just thinking about the puppies and kittens in the pet store that we had cuddled and played with, wondering if Nathaniel was more of a cat person or a dog person – or maybe reptile, when Patricia dragged me towards an old and dusty bookstore.

My eyes lit up, “I thought you might like this,” Patricia giggled looking at my face, “I’m a big of a bookworm myself, so this is one of my favourite hand outs, so you can image I was ecstatic to replace out you were one too.”

She pushed the glass door open, a bell ringing and a an young man looked up from his book as he leaned on the front counter, “Hey Patricia, who’s your friend?” he said, his gaze falling back down to the book.

“Just the new Luna, Mum’s the word of course,” she laughed playfully, pulling me into the labyrinth of tall bookcases.

“Wait what?” He boy said, putting down his book and looking up again, he stuck his head around the corner of the bookcase and looked at me.

“It’s nice to meet you!” I said, a giggle in my tone as I gave him a wave as Patricia turned a corner and he disappeared from view, “I assume you know him?” I asked, remarking on the informal manor in which she greeted him compared to others.

“Yeah,” she sighed, releasing my arm and tracing her fingers down the bindings of a book, a sadness seemed to wash in her eyes. “We were close in school, to be honest, I’d kinda hoped that he was my mate, but when I turned eighteen, nada.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, I’m sure you’ll replace him one day, and he’ll be lucky to have you,” I said, placing my hand comfortingly on her shoulder.

“Did you have a boyfriend before Nate?”

I chewed on my cheek thinking about how to answer the question, “I didn’t really date in high school or anything like that, I was too busy with my friends, my studies and avoiding my family issues to really fall in love with any boys.”

“What about after?” she asked.

“I remember being very conflicted,” I admitted. “Apart of me just wanted to wait and see if my mate would turn up one day, but I also wanted to live my life, make memories of my youth and the enjoy being a young adult.”

Patricia looked up at me, her eyes sparkling, “I dated the Alpha’s son, Tom, for a couple of years. It started off as nothing serious, but we ended up dating for about two years or so, we broke up not quite a year ago.”

“Why did things end?”

“For the same reason I was hesitant to start seeing him. Tom’s parents were pushing him to replace his mate, they wanted him to have kids before he took over the roll of Alpha and so he was put between waiting or trying to replace his mate, and marking me.”

“So, he broke up with you?”

“No, he wanted me. He started talking about proposing, wanted to meet my father officially as my boyfriend, ask for his blessing, buy a house in the pack, talked about be being a mother, a stay at home wife, having children, what baby names he liked.”

“And it was all too much?”

“Exactly, I loved Tom, but with him, it is nothing compared to how things are with Nathaniel, how easy it is to love him, how effortless the relationship is.”

“Did you regret your time with Tom?”

“Yes and no,” I answered, “I loved the memories I made, but even if we weren’t wolves, if we didn’t have mates, I don’t think he is the type of person who I would have wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I don’t want to be a stay at home mother and a trophy wife, I want to have a career and further my education.”

Patricia seemed to be absorbing my words and pondering on their meaning with great thought, when we eyes snapped up, “We need to leave.”

“What? Why?” I asked, jumping as she grabbed me aggressively by the wrist and ran out of the book store.

“Rouge attack, Dad just told me,” she hissed quietly.

She didn’t need to tell me twice, Nathaniel’s wolf would want to protect me, know that I was safe over everything else.

“Pack house or Nate’s house?” I asked as we ran down the street, dodging between some cars.

“Pack, there are more warriors there, you’ll be safer.”

We slowed down at the steps of the pack building and about half way up I looked back to see no less than fifty rouges over powering the front gates, this was no casual attack.

“Get her down to the basement!” Jamie yelled, grabbing me tightly by the forearm and snapping me back to the reality of warriors and guards flooding out of the building, brushing past me. “Get inside, Alice,” he hissed, nearly carrying me into the building. “Stay with Patricia, make sure she tells Nate that you’re in the safe room when you get there.”

Author's Note:

Honestly, I hope you guys know I love the comments that you leave. Hence the recent inspiration and spamming of updates. I love hearing what you guys have to say, let me know what you love and what you think is going to happen next!