Treasure
Alpha, Beta

The thought of Rori losing her family hit Chase like a punch in the gut. His wolf was howling; it was angry and wanted out. He was in full agreement. Standing himself tall, he turned to his father. “No.” His body felt the pain of refusing his Alpha, and he tried to ignore it.

“What did you just say?”

“No. I’m not leaving, and you’re not taking them. Get out.”

Rage covered his father’s face, he was an Alpha, and his wolf did not appreciate the tone of his son at all. “Chase, you’re my son, and I love you, but I’m also your Alpha! I will NOT be disrespected or disobeyed!”

“Too bad. I’m not letting you take Rori or her parents from here.” He was barely standing, his wolf was fighting the command and the Alpha presence of his father, both telling them to submit.

His father’s wolf was forward, demanding submission and not getting it. His eyes glazed as he used the link, and moments later, Coral and two Enforcers were next to them. “Take Chase Nygaard into custody and place him in the cells until trial,” he said. “He is to be charged with Disobedience of an Alpha Order.” Coral winced at the charge; wolves who disobeyed their Alphas were effectively challenging him. They could be put to death, whipped, or beaten.

“Wait,” Coral said. “What are you doing, Chase?”

“Protecting my mate and her family,” he said. “Dad’s going to have them killed. Then, he’ll let the Council have Rori for exposing her true nature to them. It’s not happening.”

She hugged him, her eyes begging him to reconsider. “Don’t do this,” she said.

“I have to. Someday you’ll replace your mate, and you’ll understand.” He turned to his father. “I, Doctor Chase Alan Nygaard, hereby renounce my position and membership in the Cascade Pack.” He winced, as did they all, as the Pack bond that tied him to them snapped.

“Chase?” Coral looked at him in shock.

“Sorry, Sis.” He hugged her, knowing this might be goodbye.

“Arrest the rogue and take him to the cells,” his father said as he waved the Enforcers forward.

“I wouldn’t do that; it’s against Council laws. Anything you do right now but packing up and leaving will result in formal charges against the Cascade Pack.” He stared his father down. “Tell me, Dad, whose territory are you on?”

“It’s neutral ground,” he said.

“No, it’s not.” He pointed to the room upstairs, where Rori lay sleeping. “This property is the temporary territory of Alpha Rori King of the Arrowhead Pack. As her mate and Alpha male, I am ORDERING you to leave immediately. Your assistance was appreciated, but your presence is no longer welcome.”

“YOU CAN’T DO THIS!” His father was shaking in rage.

“I can. Rori’s wolf is out; she connected with it today. As the rightful and only heir of the Arrowhead Pack, which never formally dissolved, she is now an Alpha like you. Taking her or those under her protection would be an act of war. Since you have not formally declared war, and have not sought the required Council mediation first, such an act would be punishable by removal from your Alpha position or death.”

“She’s not an ALPHA!”

“Coral, you fought her wolf. What kind of power does she have?”

She didn’t hesitate. “She’s an Alpha, no doubt about that. Her power was greater than mine; she is firstborn, and I am not.”

His father was gobsmacked; he knew the law better than anyone. Since Chase left his Pack, he couldn’t hold him for disobeying him. He also wasn’t a rogue, since he mated to another Pack Alpha. “This isn’t over,” he said coldly.

“I would expect not. Tell the Council we will contact them when Rori has recovered from her injuries. In the meantime, get out of here.”

“Fine.” He looked at his men. “Load up.” His Enforcers immediately got in, but Coral didn’t move. “Coral, let’s go home.”

Instead of obeying, she was linking through the still-present family link to her twin. “Your Pack need a Beta?”

“Are you sure? Leaving the Pack is a risky move. Rori might not accept me, and then we both end up rogue.”

“I’m not leaving you alone. We’re together, always.” She turned and looked at her father. “I, Coral Ann Nygaard, hereby renounce my position and membership in the Cascade Pack and join the Arrowhead Pack.” They all felt the bond snap. There was a second shock only Coral and Chase felt, as the new Pack bond snapped into place.

Her father was not happy. “You’ve disappointed me, Coral. You had a bright future, and you’ve just thrown it away.”

“I’m a Pack Beta, it’s hardly a demotion for me,” she said. “Now, I think your men need to leave our Pack Lands, and I suggest you do so now.”

“Fine.” He got into the van and closed the door. “The Council will be in touch. You are not welcome on Cascade Pack lands. If you step across our territory line, my men will attack.” The car turned around and headed back down the driveway.

Coral moved to wrap her arm around her brother’s waist. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. “You didn’t have to do that, Sis.”

“I’ve never wanted anything more for us to replace our mates and live our lives together,” she said. “I wasn’t going to let you do this alone, no matter the cost.”

They heard the van accelerate as it turned onto the road. “Come on; we need to talk with her parents. I’m sure they have questions.”

“They will have a LOT of questions. It has to be a shock to replace out your adopted child is a Werewolf Alpha.” They turned and walked into the door. Roadkill was waiting for them; he had watched the argument and probably heard most of it.

“What the hell was that about?”

“I think we all need to talk, and we can’t leave Rori alone. Why don’t we just get some food and drinks and go upstairs?” Coral went with Roadkill to the kitchen, and they quickly made sandwiches. Chase moved some folding chairs into the room. He checked Rori’s vitals; she was still resting comfortably, and her blood pressure had improved.

“You’re werewolves too, aren’t you,” Donna said.

“Yes,” Chase answered. “This is my twin sister, Coral,” he said as she came in with a tray of sandwiches, Roadkill behind her with a bunch of Cokes and waters. They sat down, each taking a paper plate. “As you saw, Rori is a werewolf too. That voice she’s heard in her head, the blackouts she was having, it was all her fighting her wolf when it tried to come out.”

“So in the woods, when Jenny got hurt? And this last time in Seattle?”

“Her wolf pushed forward, taking over to protect her. Since Rori hadn’t accepted her wolf, they couldn’t share her mind. It’s like the human Rori got locked in a closet while wolf Rori ran everything. When the danger passed, her wolf receded, and changed back to her human form.”

“And was found naked,” she said. “Wait, today it was like she was still there! Rori protected us, and she came to us. She even understood me when I talked to her.”

“She’s off the medications, and her wolf is getting stronger and stronger. If they have bonded, she and her wolf share her mind in wolf form. That would allow her to behave like that. It’s great news that she came to you.”

“So this wolf thing,” Roadkill said. “Was she bitten? Are we in danger from her?”

“A werewolf bite on a human in our wolf form results in a painful and slow death, not making you like us. It’s not something you can get, no matter what the movies say,” Coral said. “You are born with it. Her parents were both werewolves.”

“You know who her parents are?” Donna was curious and nervous, like many adoptive parents, she was worried that her birth parents would come back in the picture and take her away.

“Yes. Rori’s parents were both killed, along with every other member of the Arrowhead Pack the same night you found Treasure by the side of the road,” Chase said.

“That fire, the one that destroyed the house and all those people in the next county,” Donna said.

“Yes, a cover for the attack. The true death toll was much higher as the police didn’t count dog skeletons.”

She covered her mouth and looked like she was going to be sick. “And Rori?”

“Left by the road while her guardian went back to confront the attackers. She died, too. Rori was the only survivor. We only found out she was alive after the kidnapping attempts.”

“Those were you?”

“No, those were the same Pack that destroyed Arrowhead to get her. Those men are gone now, put to death for their crimes. Her uncle and grandfather have been trying to help her; their Pack is in the Adirondacks.”

No one spoke for a minute until Chase did. “It was a worst-case scenario for Rori as she matured. You did what you thought was best, but you couldn’t understand what was going on. She was a werewolf and didn’t know what was happening. With no support and with no training, she fought against her wolf until it took over. That is dangerous because it made her mentally unstable. It is dangerous for my kind as well. We live freely among humans because we keep the secret. It would only take one mistake to expose her to humans, placing all of us in danger.”

“And this danger from human authorities replaceing out is not academic,” Coral picked up. “We’ve been around for thousands of years, but entire Packs in Europe and a few here have been wiped out by humans. The stories of werewolves have a basis in reality. The remaining Packs formed a Council to govern us. That Council has strict laws we observe. The Council typically executes anyone who exposes our existence to humans.”

The realization hit, and their faces showed that. “They can’t do that to Rori,” Donna said. “She was trying to save us!”

“That’s not all. The Council has a policy on dealing with humans who replace out,” Chase said. “They kill them, no questions asked. That’s why my father was arguing with me; his men were going to kill the two of you before taking Rori back to my old Pack. I put him off for now, but it isn’t over.”

“How can they do that?”

“I’m not letting them.” He was about to explain when he heard an engine outside. Someone was here.

--

As soon as Alpha Nygaard reached an area with cellphone reception, his phone blew up with missed calls and text messages. The Pack had felt the loss of Chase and Coral and were understandably concerned. He spent the next ten minutes trying to explain why her son and daughter left them, then called Councilman Forrest to report in. It took him ten minutes to update him on all the events, ending with his frustration with the law now being used against him.

“Alpha, just to clarify, did your son mate with Rori King?”

“No, sir, they are mates, but I didn’t see a bite on his neck or smell her on him.”

“If he’s not mated, Chase had no authority to tell you to leave.” The Alpha told his driver to stop while he thought about it. “He’s not Alpha of a Pack until he mates with a hereditary Alpha. He also can’t have been in her Pack if he was still in yours, and you said she was unconscious. She can’t accept him into her pack without a conscious act. You got played by your son, Alpha Nygaard. He’s nothing more than a rogue in unclaimed territory.”

“You’re right, sir. Thank you.” He hung up as his driver turned the car around. He couldn’t kill his children, but he would bring them home. “Load the dart guns with sedatives; we’ve got rogues to take down and humans to question.”

It took them half an hour to return to the cabin. Pulling in, the driver suddenly stopped. “What’s wrong?”

“Smell it,” he said. “Humans. Lots of them.” He put it in gear, pulling closer to the house. As they made the final turn, it looked like a party was going on. There were over a dozen motorcycles there, and one of the men was firing up the charcoal grill. The men were armed; they could see pistols in waistbands, and one was carrying a rifle.

“Shit,” the Alpha said.

Coral saw them and walked their way, holding the grip of a pistol that in the waistband of her jeans. “What are you doing back here? Chase warned you, Alpha Nygaard. This means war.” A group of humans followed behind her; all were big and dangerous-looking.

“My mistake,” he said as he determined the odds weren’t in their favor. They couldn’t shift around the humans. “Tell Chase we’ll be in touch.” His driver backed the van out of the driveway, and he drove back home.

The whole way, he was wondering how so much had gone so wrong in so short a time. It was all Rori’s fault.