Gamma No More - Book 3
Letting Toni be Toni

Tyra lets out a howl of joy as she stops by a lake, although she’s outside the pack boundary, the land she was on now would be great to add to their pack, it was flat, lush, and importantly, sheltered by the cliffs nearby, making it great farmland for their ever-growing pack.

But more than that, they aimed to produce more than they needed and to sell the excess in the Neutral Zone, a way for the pack to make more money for future expansions.

Seventeen months after she’d taken over as Alpha, eighteen months after Karl had formed the pack and it was going from strength to strength.

The problem was with their growing pack questions were being asked on where all the ‘rogues’ were after other packs had reported a significant reduction in sightings.

It’s been six months since the broadcast and Toni had planned to spend the year focussing on getting the pack settled and running smoothly as well as learning to be an Alpha.

Having been a loner for most of her life, even as a ranked wolf, the change was an abrupt one, but she tried to model her style on the time she had spent in the Deadfalls pack, firm but fair.

But from the eighty-four wolves of various ages just after the broadcast, they had had thirty-eight new joiners in the last six months, twenty-nine of them adults.

Between the increase in their numbers, a few replaceing mates and the settled nature of the pack, the mated she-wolves had finally started going into heat again.

Nature suppressed heat cycles in times of stress and uncertainty, but now, well, her own two pups were coming up to a year old, and there were seven more in the six to nine-month category that had transferred in with family.

There were twelve more breeding she-wolves in various stages of the six-month pregnancy cycle, the biggest problem was Leah, their medic, was just over four months pregnant herself, so Toni had to replace a short-term replacement for their sole medic.

Then they had the sixteen in the two to sixteen age group, and today they had their first pup reach adulthood, hitting the grand old age of Seventeen.

He and his sister were going to see some relatives for a few weeks, now he was legally an adult, and next month, he would move, on paper at least, to the Freedom pack, so he could train with them as a Medic, eventually, if he had the aptitude, continuing onto become a much-needed doctor to the pack.

However, with ninety-six adults, some of whom were rogues, and others who had heard whispers of the pack from friends and relatives and had voluntarily left their old packs to be closer to their loved ones, they were at risk of exposing their hidden status.

It had been Alpha Joseph of the Lowlands pack who had first made her aware of the rumours, since their challenge fight and the fact that he was now ‘technically’ an Alpha Regent for her, they had formed a bond and Joseph felt a personal allegiance towards Toni.

She had also been keeping up to date on Louise, indirectly through Joseph and directly with Louise herself; Tyra had always accepted her as one of her family and eventually, although Toni had never admitted it to herself while in the Nightshades pack, she had seen her as almost a sister, so her happiness and safety were important.

But a few weeks ago, Alpha Joseph had raised the fact that packs were noticing a decrease in rogue activity, along with the unprecedented numbers of wolves leaving packs without joining another, and with no trace of bodies that had led to rumours of rogues uniting and the prime candidate for instigating that was her.

She recognised that this was always likely to happen, but she had hoped for a little longer time before questions were being asked; she doesn’t, as yet, have a solution to this issue, but since she won’t turn any wolf away that Tyra and she assessed to be okay, he knows the problem will only continue to grow.

Maybe they had been used to a bad Alpha, or they needed a different type of pack, some had wondered ‘what’s out there’ or just wanted to be with family already settled in this pack, but so far not one of these ‘rogues’ had caused issues for the pack.

Toni wasn’t naïve to think that it would always be like this, but her pack had welcomed what she had named as ‘outlier wolves’, those who lived on the outskirts of the pack, or needed more solitude than the normal wolf and more freedom than wolves normally get in a traditional pack.

For wolves like that, she’d found jobs that were more independent or had a solitary side, like monitoring the ravine that created a gateway to their pack from wolf territory.

Or being part of the hunting groups that took down wild deer and boar for the pack, since most of the time they were in wolf form or silent and they had thrived, some even moved closer to the centre of the pack as they realised, they had the freedom to choose.

Suddenly Toni replaces herself airborne as Tyra breaks her from her thoughts leaping towards the lake like a puppy, before dropping immediately out of her consciousness while Toni is in mid-air, forcing the shift to human form, giving Toni a cold wake-up call as she plunged into the icy cold water.

Tyra!

She scolds her wolf laughingly, seeing her stood tongue hanging out in her mind, tail held high but wagging slightly, over the last few months, each time they are alone, Tyra has become almost puppy like and Toni wonders had they had a normal childhood, how much trouble she would have got Toni into!

Rather than dashing out of the icy lake, Toni embraced the refreshing cold water washing over her, floating on her back and enjoying the freedom of not being the Alpha, just herself.

Over the last six months, she had been far more relaxed, never needing to call on the dark side of her command as she called it, in fact, she cannot remember the last time she had to use her command aura, something she relished.

She’s not sure if the darkness is just a part of her because of her heritage or from her training, and whenever she debates it with herself, she concluded that it’s from her training.

Some of the harsher Alphas, as Vincent had been, also had a darkness they could call on, but she hoped in time that the darkness inside her would fade.

‘Toni,’

Karl’s voice invades her self-reflection not too long afterwards

‘Yes, Karl?’

‘You wanted the reminder about the barbecue, so this is your two-hour courtesy call!’

‘Already?’

She’s sure that Karl can probably hear the exasperated sigh even through her mind link

‘Alpha, get your butt back to the main pack. We have guests arriving, a celebration to hold and I know you keep putting it off, but you need to inform the pack you are a Lycan.

Let’s not just surprise them one day when you pop up on two legs!’

She rolled her eyes, unsure if the vampires were correct in their assumptions. The more she contemplated it, the more uncertain she became about being a Lycan. Perhaps it was simply dormant Alpha genes that had awakened within her.

‘And if they are wrong, what point is there in telling the pack?’

She can almost see Karl’s face becoming sterner, trying to pull the ‘listen young lady’ face as if his five extra years on this planet gave him additional knowledge or understanding.

‘Toni, we’ve talked about this, it’s time to talk to the pack…. See you at the barbecue in two hours!’

Toni grinned. She knows Karl hasn’t got an answer to her argument, but she understands why he wants her to warn the pack, they have tried to create an atmosphere of openness within the pack and she’s harbouring a potentially pretty big secret.

Lazily, she swims back to the edge of the lake and tries to wring the excess water from her hair before shifting and running back.

Two hours later, the pack is gathering together as the sun sets; they have another hour before their guests arrive, but Tommy and Laura, the wolves that were appointed to Gamma, have done well with the arrangements.

Tommy was the life and soul of the pack, Laura was quieter more studious, she had joined the pack lessons in the old language and picked it up so quickly that she and Toni often just reverted to it as their primary language to help build up her vocabulary.

Laura had become proficient enough that she had taken over teaching the pups and the outlier wolves, while Toni did the lessons on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for anyone in the pack. Gradually, they were bringing back an almost dead language.

It pleased Toni that so many were trying to learn the language, seeing it as another way to mark their pack identity along with the cloaks that Toni used to wear, that the rest of the adults had adopted for both practical and identity purposes; the weather was a harsher up in the desolate wastes, so they had a thicker grey cloak for winter and thinner green for summer.

But as she looks at the assembled pack, identity aside, she feels a sense of pride, there wasn’t a single wolf in this pack that hadn’t been involved in making it a success, from the original ten founding wolves they had grown as a family and now, that family were nurturing the next generation of their pack, their future.

Then it strikes her. Tonight cannot be about her.

She stands on the makeshift podium as the pack falls silent.

“Tonight, we come together to celebrate two things.

One, the pack is now officially self-sufficient, we’ve run the last three months in the black after all expenses and that is all down to the hard work that every one of you has put in, you make me proud to call this pack my home.”

She paused as a celebratory howl rippled across the pack.

“Finally, we mark a milestone as the first of our pups has reached adulthood, and as every wolf knows, without a next generation, a pack has no future, so we are here to celebrate our every growing pack and our future generations.

Today it’s the coming of age of Samuel, and from this point forward, we will have a pack celebration each month where one or more of our pups becomes an adult, to remind us of our future.

But for now, Samuel, please come on up, so I can cloak you to show you have taken your place as an adult in our pack.”

Samuel walks up, slightly embarrassed at the attention as Toni puts a grey cloak around his shoulders.

“Now it’s time to relax and party.”

She hears a low, unhappy growl from behind her on the right and she smiles as she turned to Karl. Whispering as she stepped down, the happy cheers of the pack drowning out her conversation with all bar those nearest to her.

“Today needed to be about the pack,”

“You are part of this pack, hell without you, this pack wouldn’t be as successful.”

Karl answered quietly before he sighed unhappily, knowing he can’t win that argument with her.

“I’m off to meet the guests,”

He huffed as he moved away, leaving Toni shaking her head.

She knew she had upset him, something she was loath to do as she counted him and his mate Leah among her close friends, but she had doubts that had arisen over the last few months that she needed to resolve before telling the pack.

She casts a last glance at Karl’s departing figure before turning to go join the rest of the pack in celebration of their achievements.

After forty minutes, Toni noticed Karl walking towards her with two of their guests. She wondered why he was only bringing these two, when they had four in total, but regardless, she stepped away from the group to greet them and welcome them to the celebration.

“Your Highness, Lord Leif,”

She greets the two men waiting there formally, bowing her head briefly in respect. She is, after all, in full view of her pack and wants to show them the proper way to interact with them.

Prince Einar is as dark-haired as Leif is blonde, both tall, lean but muscular, but the prince has black eyes, marking him as a Pure Blood.

“Alpha Ant,” they replied, dipping their heads in response.

Leif is grinning, loving the banter.

“What happened to the feisty person I met at the club?”

“Oh, she’s still there, buried under my responsibilities. But I could hardly let my first words to you today be disrespectful in front of both your sire and my pack now could I, you ancient parasitic bloodsucker!”

Toni winks at Leif as Prince Einar grins, he’s seen these two banter a few times over the eight months since they had first met, almost like siblings, if this wolf were human, he’d want to turn her himself, she would have made an amazing Exalted.

It’s been centuries since he felt the desire to turn and train someone, triggering him to think that maybe he should take some time to mingle with the general human population more; peace had made him lazy.

Karl smiles before interrupting politely.

“If you will excuse me, I need to replace my pregnant mate. There’s probably an impossible task involving food she needs me to achieve.”

Karl rolled his eyes and turned to head to the main pack. Prince Einar and Lord Leif laughed at his words.

He turns back, far too casually, and Toni could tell he was up to something.

“Oh, and Toni doesn’t think she’s a Lycan, so won’t tell the pack.

She thinks the two of you have lost the plot on that one… discuss!”

A smug, self-satisfied grin plastered across Karl’s face as he turned, walking away, leaving the two vampires looking at her quizzically.