Fated To the Alpha by Jessica Hall
Chapter 148: Andrei POV
Zane’s voice in my head woke me from the first decent night’s sleep I got. A growl escapes me as my eyes fly open to him yelling for me to wake up through the mindlink.
I quickly suppress it when I see it is still dark out, looking over my shoulder Sage was still sleeping soundly. I rub my eyes trying to wake up before replying to his incessant calling.
“What?” I ask annoyed. I hadn’t slept so deeply since before Angie d*ied and Zane and his big mouth had to ruin it.
“9 were spotted along the border scouting” He says and I f0rce myself to my feet. I walk out of the bedroom and down the hall toward my surveillance room, yet I couldn’t feel the unease of trespassers close to the borderline. Surely I didn’t sleep that deeply that I ignored it.
Flicking on the screens, I scan them but nothing seems amiss. I change the camera angles scouring every inch of the borders but still nothing.
“I see nothing” I tell Zane.
“Me either but border patrol was adamant they saw them, they seem to have fled then” Zane says but now I was awake I knew I wouldn’t be going back to sleep anytime soon.
“Get everyone on patrol to meet out the front of the Packhouse” I tell Zane before walking back to my bedroom to retrieve a shirt. Stepping out of the walk-in robe I tug my shirt over my head before seeing Sage sit up looking at me sleepily.
“What’s going on?” She asks while yawning. She turns her head to the windows.
“Nothing go back to sleep ” I tell her but she was already swinging her legs over the side of the bed.
“Where are you going?” She asks, walking into the bathroom and closing the door. I wait for her to come out and she walks back toward the bed. But instead of climbing in on her side she lays down on mine pressing her face into my pillow before sighing.
I chuckled at her. It was clear she was not completely awake and by the time I walked over to her she was asleep again purring in her sleep.
“Huh well at least we don’t stink, she clearly likes our scent”. Donnie says watching our mate as he peered through my eyes. I tug the blanket up before walking out and down the steps. I could hear my men gathering out front of the Packhouse already and picked up my pace as I rush down the steps before they started waking everyone.
I walk toward the front door placing my hand on the panel and the locks gr0@n and twist before the handle jolts. I push on it and step outside into the cool brisk night air. It was a full moon tonight lighting everything up.
I shiver, I loved full moons, there was always a thrilling buzz in the air on full moon, something energising that made Donnie want to howl at the moon and the stars while running wild in the forest and give into our most primal instincts.
By the looks of my men they wanted to do the same and I see a few faces that weren’t even on patrol tonight but were clearly too wired to ignore the moon calling to them.
“We didn’t wake up Luna?” Casen asks, he was one the youngest left in the pack, luckily he asked to do scout training and had been with us, he was 17 and looked so much like his mother with his long blonde hair and hazel eyes, his eyes looking at me worriedly like he thought he was in trouble.
“No Casen” I tell him and he lets out a breath. Casen and his identical twin brother who wasn’t amongst this lot were the youngest that survived the ma*s*sacre of our pack.
I was one of the oldest Zane and I are only three weeks apart and which would now make our pack the youngest pack in the country and also the smallest, leaving us open to this nightmare we were currently living in.
All made worse by the fact that we were once like those we were up against and desperation and fear make people willing to do anything.
“How many and which one of you saw them?” I ask them and Casen and Malik both put up their hands. Malik was in his mid twenties and after Casen and his twin brother Vince lost their mother leaving them Orphaned both boys moved into his place when it was rebuilt to keep an eye on them.
Malik lost all 7 of his siblings and his parents in the masacre along with his mate and I know having the twins with him had helped keep him sane.
Malik, just like Zane and I had known each other since we were kids and all still rogues, we all
lived in the same camp which made all this harder on us knowing all too well the desperation of being rogue and the lengths you would go to just to survive.
“And your positive they were rogues” I ask him and he nods his head once before holding up a rolled up piece of paper.
“Yes Alpha” Malik said, stepping forward with a map in his hands, he showed me the perimeter near the river where we found Sage. I let out a breath knowing it must be the same ones that we keep catching snooping around the perimeter.
“They never crossed the river, just ran along it” Malik tells me.
“None of them said anything or tried to cross over?” I ask.
“No, they knew we were there, and I alerted Zane. We watched them but they just watched us back before eventually leaving” Malik explains.
“We could hunt them?” Zane suggests but I wave him off, torturing them was not getting us anywhere. Only dribs and drabs of information but rogues were unpredictable.
The only thing that was predictable about them was they never stayed in one spot too long. Always on the move looking for shelter or food, scavenging which is what made me nervous about them loitering around my pack.
Since the ma*s*sacre we have been attacked numerous times by rogue packs, our small numbers made us a target for them, easy pickings and if our roles were reversed I would do the same thing. It wouldn’t take much to overrun our pack.
That is why we have the measures we do, the only thing on our side is all our men were trained and warriors but our numbers were small and I knew there were rogue packs bigger than my pack.
Knowing that made me worry, I could ask Kat for help, but I don’t want to run to her every time I need help. No brother wants to run to their little sister for help, she should be asking for my help not the other way around and she also had gifted twins to deal with and adapting to motherhood which I knew from my phone calls she was struggling with.
“What do you want to do?” Zane asked and I could see they were waiting for orders and would follow me blindly and give in to any demand because they knew no matter how f*uc*ked Angie’s death made me. My pack was family, and I would do anything to keep them safe, they knew that and trusted that, I just hoped I didn’t let them down.
“Nothing, just stay vigilant while I come up with something” I tell them when they all suddenly drop to their knees and bare their necks. Zane remained standing with his eyes on the door behind me and I looked over my shoulder to see Sage step outside rubbing her eyes and yawning before she gasped when she spotted our men on their knees and necks bared to her.
She looks confused before her face turns scarlet when she realizes they are on their knees for her. They may be a rough bunch but they knew to show respect to their Luna, or any woman there was no place safer for her and being the only woman at the moment I knew they wouldn’t hesitate to K*ll for her or d*ie for her.
Sage hesitates for a second, her cheeks burning before she walks over, her hand slipping into mine and I look down at our clasped hands before giving hers a squeeze to rea*s*sure her. Zane clears his throat awkwardly and I stare at him and he nods toward Sage who was staring at the men on their knees.
Sage tugs my hand drawing my attention to her. “ Rise ” I tell them when I realize she was mortified that they would take a knee for her, yet she was their Luna even if she didn’t realize that fully they would all d*ie for her.
Zane once again clears his throat, his eyes darting to Sage again and I turn to look at her trying to figure out what the heck he was trying to get my attention for when I see her dressing gown undone, her cotton shorts exposing her legs and the burns that cover her thighs.
Sage was still half asleep, completely unaware. They didn’t bother me yet I knew she was self conscious of them.
I go to tug the strap and close it subtly when Casen the little sh*t happened to look up and I swear that kid has no filter. “What happened to your legs, Luna?” He blurts out like an idiot. Sage looks down before gasping and tugging my dressing gown closed. Zane kicks Casen in the thigh and growls at him.