The Alpha's Mutt
Epilogue

Ten Years Later...

“Alpha! Alpha, the twins need you!” Caspian cried as he sped into the room his small form a blur as he moved, his blonde hair wild.

I was sitting at my desk reading over the most recent reports from the recruitment teams that we had sent out into the world. They were seeking out abused wolves, misunderstood rogues, and most importantly, the mutts who had been abandoned and neglected. We would bring them here and offer them a place in the Elwood-Pariah Pack. We would offer them what they had never been offered before…a family.

However, as important as the work that I was doing was. Nothing compared to the safety of the twins. Where they were involved, I would drop anything and everything in an instant to be by their side.

“Why? What happened?” I demanded of the terrified child before me as I jumped up from my desk to follow him.

“I don’t know, Alpha. They just started screaming and crying.”

I picked up my pace and hurried past Caspian, following my instincts and the twins’ unique scents. I was not worried about Caspian falling too far behind me. He, like his father, was one of the few pack members who could keep up with me even when I reached my top speed.

“Farris…the twins…” I called through the mindlink in case he had not already been told what was happening.

“I’m on my way.” He responded without hesitation.

He had been out checking an area along the border, so I knew that it may take him some time to get there, but I still wanted him to be aware that there was something happening. I knew that where the twins were concerned, Farris was just as devoted as I was. No matter how busy he was or what he was dealing with, he would drop everything and come running for them.

That was one of the things that I had come to love most about Farris over the last several years. He was fiercely devoted. When he loved something, he would burn the world to see it protected.

I finally came upon the clearing where the twins, Caspian, Neo, and Boone had all been playing just inside the tree line of the forest right outside of the pack house. They played here often. It was a great place for little pups to play wolf.

I approached in horror as the scene unfolded itself before my eyes. There they were. My sweet little babies laying on the ground, writhing in pain. They screamed out for me as they sensed that I was near, and I hurried over to them.

“Artemis! Apollo!” I called back as I dropped to my knees between them.

I wanted them to know that I was there with them without any doubts in their young, likely very confused, minds. However, I was reluctant to touch them as what they were going through could be very painful and the slightest pressure could only make it worse. Even if it was the loving touch of a mother, one that usually calmed and soothed them. I did not think that it would be the answer this time.

“Mommy!!!” They cried out again as their pained screams began to intermix with the sounds of howling.

“It is alright, pups. I know that it hurts but you must do your best to relax. It will make the transition easier. You are shifting into your wolves.”

“They are shifting?!” Neo questioned, the look on her little round face full of fear. “They are pups!”

“Yes, honey, I know. Do you think that you could do me a favor and go get your mother for me?” I suggested.

“Okay, Alpha!” She agreed as she trotted off, her little legs moving as fast as they could carry her.

“Boone, please escort your sister back to the pack house.” I instructed and he responded with a nod of his head before hurrying after his younger sister.

I did not really need Alessa there. Farris was on his way. But I knew that it would be easier for me to focus on the twins if I did not have other pack pups around that I had to worry about. Neo was too young to see this, at only five years old, it could be difficult to understand. Boone and Caspian were older, the same age as the twins. They would be shifting for the first time, themselves, in just a couple of years. But it was still better that they leave for now. We did not need them fearing what was to come.

“Caspian, can you please go replace your father and tell him that the twins are shifting. I am sure that he would like to know.” I recommended.

“Dad’s sleeping.” Caspian chirped back as he pointed upwards to the sun, reminding me that it was still early in the day.

Sometimes it was difficult to remember that just because Caspian had the ability to go out in the daylight did not mean that Hugo possessed this skill. It was Caspian’s tribrid blood that protected him from the sun. Hugo was a typical vamp who had to hide away during the day.

“Oh…okay…your mom then.” I urged, just trying to get him away from here.

“Alright.” He shrugged before zipping off into the distance.

“Your pups are on their way to you. Please keep them busy for a while.” I quickly mindlinked Alessa and Lucy before putting my focus entirely onto my own pups.

“You’re going to be okay.” I cooed, resisting the urge to run my hands through their thick black hair, which reminded me so much of their father’s.

They howled again, the sounds were small and pitiful, breaking my heart. Sweat began to form on their brows and I knew that they were getting close. As badly as I wanted to hold them and make this all go away, there was nothing that I could do except sit back and watch on now.

“Remember my pups, this is natural.” I offered in a soothing tone. “Just allow it to happen. Your body knows what to do. Don’t fight it.”

“Mysti!” Farris’s voice called out and I saw him running up from across the clearing in nothing but a pair of jogging shorts.

“Farris! They are shifting!” I explained as he looked at his pups with alarm.

This was difficult for any parent to see. Their children obviously in pain. Though he calmed some upon hearing that it was merely their first shift. But he still looked worried, his brow remaining furrowed as he dropped to his knees between their feet.

“They are a bit young.” He mentioned as he looked them over with concern.

“I know.” I sighed. “I have no idea what could have triggered it.”

Pups typically had their first shift sometime after their tenth birthday. Very rarely, it happened before they turned ten, but we were talking mere weeks, not years. Artemis and Apollo were only eight years old. Shifting this young was entirely unheard of, yet here we were.

“Maybe it’s your demigod blood.” Farris suggested, almost hesitantly, as he rubbed his hand over the back of his neck.

“I didn’t shift early. If anything, I was a bit of a late bloomer.”

“Yeah, but your demigod side had not fully activated yet. We had the twins after all of THAT.”

“All of that” referring to the war with the vampires that ended with my death and subsequent reincarnation. This had become a habit of Farris’s ever since that time all those years ago. He would talk about the virus and even would even talk about the war. But when it got to the end, the story was always over quickly with a simple “…and Mysti saved the day.” Or something similar.

He was reluctant to ever come close to discussing how I was almost lost to him forever.

Not that I could blame him. I had, for all intents and purposes, died and if my mother had gotten Her way, then I would have never returned. I would have remained in Her realm, helping Her to rule over the night as a Goddess of the Moon.

However, knowing the life that I would have missed out on here with Farris and now, our pups. It would have been such a sad waste to stay with Her. I may have been an immortal Goddess, but I would have missed out on everything that I had here. My loving mate and our beautiful family. I could not imagine never being in this place.

I looked down at my little babies and hoped that their shifting would be over soon. I could not take watching them in pain for a moment longer. Much of the writhing had stopped, but they were still whimpering in discomfort.

“It should be over in soon.” Farris offered, likely sensing my worry.

And almost as soon as he had said it, I looked down in time to clearly see the first tufts of fur beginning to sprout across their bodies. Their bones finally snapping into their new locations, reshaping their forms.

“It’s silver!” I gasped in surprise as I looked over the fur as it spread.

The twins both had midnight black hair like their father. So, we had just always assumed that they would have the same deep black fur as his as well. Artemis’s eyes were silver like mine, so I suspected there was a chance that she could have inherited my silver fur. But being that Apollo’s eyes were gold like Farris’s, I had never even imagined that his fur might sprout silver.

“Looks like he takes more after his mother than you thought.” Farris joked, as I had always thought that Apollo was the spitting image of Farris and had inherited none of my traits.

Moments later, two young, little wolves stood on either side of us. They stared at each other, inspecting each other before wagging their silver tails. They looked at each of us with wolfish grins before they began to yip, playfully. Now that the pain was over, they were obviously excited to have taken their wolf forms.

“Shall we?” Farris questioned as if he even had to ask.

“We shall.” I agreed with a smile.

We each quickly shifted so that we could run in wolf form with our pups for the first time and remind them that they could still use their mindlink now that they were in their wolf forms. If anything, it was even stronger now being that it was our main form of communication, other than howling, of course.

Minutes later, we were a family of wolves running through the forest. It was an exhilarating feeling. I did not think that I had ever felt happier in this moment than I had in all of my life. Running through the woods with my one true mate and my pups by my side. I did not think that anything in this world could be better than this.

Farris and I held back, letting the twins lead the way. This was their first run, and they were in charge of it. Whatever they wanted to do, they were welcome to, as long as they remained within the pack borders.

“Oh geez…” I sighed, as I watched them taking turns running up and tackling each other as they weaved through the trees. “We thought that they were a handful before. How are we going to control them now?”

“Just wing it, like we always do.” Farris replied with a chuckle.

Ironic that he should phrase it in that manner, because moments later, Artemis intent on dive-tackling her brother had climbed onto a small boulder and jumped off. However, instead of landing on top of her intended target, she floated through the air for several feet before gracefully landing back on her paws.

Farris and I froze in shock. We could hardly believe what we had just seen. That could not have been real, could it? Had we really just seen our pup float through the air? This was simply not possible.

Apollo, not to be outdone by his sister, climbed atop the same boulder and jumped off, floating through the air as well. Once this new skill was discovered, they made a game of it, getting a running start and then jumping up only to float upwards and along the path before descending safely back to earth. Almost as if they were trying to...fly.

“Uh oh…”

“What the hell was that?”

Farris and I looked at each other, the uncertainty clear in both of our eyes. If this is where things were starting…what surprises were we in for next?