The Headmaster Alpha's Mate
The Headmaster Alpha’s Mate Chapter 90

Hamish gave a jovial wave to both Zander and Chloe, as they pulled up the car beside them. Winding down the window, Zander offered both the Alpha’s a broad smile, as Chloe gave a small wave.

“Welcome, we are so glad you are here. Alpha Martin and Luna Patricia from Shetland Pack will be joining us tomorrow. However, this evening we have prepared a welcome dinner in your honour.” Hamish smiled, his shoulder-length curly red hair blowing in the breaze as his kilt also began to blow. Chloe suppressed a small giggle as she hoped he was wearing something under it before the wind gave them all a show.

“Please park your car just over there, Esme and Wallace will bring your luggage to the cottage you will be staying in.” Douglas smiled. He kept his darker hair shorter than his mates, and his face was clean shaven, unlike Hamish’s long red beard.

Zander parked the car on the shale inlet that doubled as the island’s car park, and got out, running round the car to ensure he got to Chloe’s door before she could open it up herself.

Hamish engulfed Chloe into a large bear hug, and she let out a small embarrassed giggle.

“Och Hamish, give the wee lassy space”, Douglas playfully reprimanded his mate.

Making Chloe laugh harder, as Hamish released her from his hold.

“Och, Princess Chloe, please excuse my mate, he is a big softy, and after everything that happened when we were visiting your pack at the games, he has been itching to just give you a wee hug.” Douglas continued, with a smile.

Zander rolled his lips together, as Caesar growled in his mind, he had to remind his possessive wolf that Hamish would be more interested in him, than their mate, and that Hamish was standing with his soul mate, the pair obviously blissfully in love.

Chloe nodded her head slightly, for the first time she was living in the moment, not the past, and the sting of the reminder of what she was dealing with pierced her heart. Zander felt the wave of pain from Douglas’ words come from his mate via the mate bond, and quickly draped his arm around her shoulder, and kissing the crown of her head.

“Aye, so, its no far to the cottages, and a beautiful wee walk.” Hamish began with a soft smile, realising that mentioning what had happened in the recent past had upset their guest, and wanting to move her on from the reminder of her troubles.

They set off walking over the lush green landscape, the cold breeze was bracing, as they passed by the old ruins of a church.

“It is beautiful here” Chloe complimented the Alpha.

The fresh smell of the sea air and picturesque landscape was tranquil and brought a sense of peace to her mind.

“So, Alpha and Luna, our pack is a wee bit different to what you will be used to,” Douglas began.

“Aye, Douglas is right, it is a wee bit different,” Hamish agreed.

“We are a very small pack, with only 25 residents on the island, not including the pups. We live in houses and cottages located in different areas around the island. Also, we do not have a pack house, rather a large community centre, where everyone meets up, either to do various activities we have sorted, or for pack celebrations, like the one this evening. We do not have any rogue problems, as there is just us here most of the time.” Hamish smiled as his mate continued.

“We have two main sources of income, the human tourist industry, who come for day trips, or will stay over at the small Bed and Breakfast, and fishing. We live simple lives, and have one rule, that is not to shift if we have visitors on the island, so each day we check with Morgan and Margo if they have bookings or if any humans are staying with them. If there are humans on the island, the pack is ordered to remain in human form until they have left. After that is when we all shift together and run around our island,without worries about other werewolves attacking our land, or being seen by humans from the mainland.”

Chloe and Zander both listened with interest, as their hands linked together whilst they walked and talked with their hosts.

“Because we are so small and quite unique, we have traditionally kept out of any altercations between the packs on the main land. Our closest allies are the Shetland pack who live somewhere between our way of life and yours.” Douglas informed Chloe and Zander.

“Aye, but Douglas and I have been talking, it has not escaped our notice that the council have held onto power without an election for a lot of years, and when news reached us that you were a Royal Wolf, we had to meet up with you. Seeing what transpired and talking with Peter at the council, we decided that to remain neutral was to support a dictatorship, and therefore we wanted to pledge our alliance to you both. We may not have warriors to fight, or money to give, but we do have 25 willing votes in the referendum, and you have them all.” Hamish smiled.

“Thank you, my mate and I, we want to avoid any bloodshed or war. All we want is for all pack members to be treated correctly, and those with human mates be treated fairly, and not forced to choose between the mate bond and their pack. I am new to all of this Alpha Hamish. I did not know I was a wolf this time last year, let alone a princess, so I do not want to rule over people, or dictate what they do, but just follow the human example that happened two hundred years ago, and abolish slavery, and have the packs be more accepting of others.” Chloe smiled.

“Aye, I see that in you princess, and after all, Hamish and I have suffered from some prejudice ourselves because of our sexuality in the werewolf community.” Douglas offered, a sad smile on his face.

As they rounded the corner towards a large building that was the packs community center, a large red brick building with a black roof, sat in the middle of an area that contained a fish and chip shop, tea rooms, a small clothes shop, a bank, and a food shop. As they entered, a young girl of around 7 years of age ran over to Chloe, curtsied and passed her a bunch of freshly picked purple heather with an excited smile on her face. Chloe bent down to the little one with a smile.

“Hi, I am Chloe. What is your name?” She asked.

“I am Hazel, and I am the future Alpha of this pack.” Hazel said proudly, her green eyes shining bright, a perfect contrast to her long red hair that hung to her waist.

“Well, I am very pleased to meet with you. Future Alpha Hazel. I like your dress, it is very pretty.” Chloe grinned, and looked up at Zander. She was pleasantly surprised that this pack had a girl as their future Alpha. However, she could not help but wonder what the logistics of that had been. Zander looked down at the little girl and smiled, then let out a sad yet contented sigh, and pushed the thoughts of what their pup would have been like, a girl or a boy, to the back of his mind.

“Daddy, Papa, when can I have the ice cream?” Hazel asked.

Hamish gathered the girl up into his arms, with a proud smile on his face, then chuckled.

“After you have eaten all your dinner, just like always Hazel.”

Hazel’s smile turned into a small scowl as she let out a sigh, and nodded her agreement, then wiggled free from her Daddy’s arms, and ran off to play with some of the other children in the corner of the large square room.

Douglas motioned for Zander and Chloe to take a seat at the head of the large melamine tables that had been placed together to create one large dining table. They had been covered in white crochet tablecloths, the silver and white china plates already set along the rows of seats, a wine glass with the silverware perfectly wrapped inside a silver napkin beside each plate setting. A large vase of purple and pink heather sat in the middle of the table, with jugs of water on either side. Bottles of wine were placed along the table, both red and white. Swags of blue with red and dark mustard tartan that matched Hamish’s kilt hung from the sides of the table, and hung from the ceiling, making the room look warm and inviting.

Taking their seats, the rest of the pack members sat, as the children were ushered to the dining table and encouraged to take their seats.

Hamish stood up and cleared his throat.

“It is with great pleasure, Alpha Douglas and I welcome Alpha Zander and the Luna Princess Chloe from the Creseant moon pack to our beautiful Island of Egilsay, and to our humble pack. I would like to thank all of you for helping pull this celebration together, and those who will also be working hard tomorrow to welcome our friends and neighbors from the Shetland pack. Now let us feast and be merry as we make new and life-long friends.”

An echo of ‘Here, Here’ and the clinking of the bottles as they filled up their glasses with the wine filled the room.

Chloe was keen to replace out about Hazel, but was unsure of how to broach the subject. However, she did not have to wait for long.

“So Hazel is our daughter. She was the daughter of our old Beta and his wife, who were tragically killed in a boating accident five years ago, when Hazel was just a wee little pup at two years old. Beta Lewis is her uncle, her mother his sister, but he is yet to be mated, and felt he could not properly take care of her, and take up the pack duties. Douglas and I always wanted to have a child, but it was not possible, so we had accepted that we would need to announce a successor to the pack in later years. We agreed with Lewis to take Hazel and bring her up as our own daughter, and so she is now the future Alpha.” Hamish smiled lovingly at his daughter as Chloe grinned at him.

“That is amazing. Well, not the death of her parents, but that you have a chance to be a father, and there is an opportunity for a female Alpha.”

“Aye, we love the wee raskle all right, and she will make a fine leader if she can get over her need for ice cream for every meal.” Dogulas laughed, as Hazel poured some juice into the glasses of the other pups.

The conversation flowed nicely, and once more Chloe felt relaxed, and she smiled warmly at Zander, as he watched her with pride in his eyes. As the plates of Scottish salmon were served, Chloe licked her lips, she had not forgotten the tease that they had started, and as she placed a fork full of the delicious fish in her mouth she let out a soft m**n, and instantly Zander’s eyes turned black, and he leaned into her ear.

“You are deliberately playing with fire now, and trust me, you will be punished twice over.” he whispered huskily in her ear.

Chloe giggled slightly, and looked up at him, her eyes dancing with a joy that had so long been missing.

“I really hope so.” she grinned, then turned her head away from him and began a polite conversation with beta Lewis, as Zander let out a low growl in his chest, wondering how long before he could grab his mate and hightail it to the cottage they were staying in and lock the door behind them.