CALLUM
I was left standing there dumbfounded when Ava left. The looks on Oscar, Noah and Theo’s faces said they had exactly the same thoughts.
“Dad,” I asked. “What is Ava? How… Why can she…”
“That’s a question for Ava, son. But as she tried to tell you, she doesn’t need to go to the hospital, wolfsbane doesn’t affect her.” He sighed, turning back to Alpha Jacob. “You and I should probably go and apologise to her, Alpha.”
Alpha Jacob nodded, sighing too. “We fucked up, she’s going to be pissed, and rightly so. Her power when she commanded you was something else… I know I would have had trouble resisting if it had been focused on me.” He groaned.
“Yeah, I had no chance of resisting that command, Alpha,” dad replied.
“If she doesn’t forgive us, we’re going to have to come up with a plan to back her up because she’ll tackle this on her own.”
“Wait, Ava commanded you, dad?”
He nodded, a scowl on his face.
“Boys, why don’t you go down for lunch and make sure Ava is okay? Beta Alexander and I need to finish up here and then somehow apologise to Ava.”
AVA
By the time I reached the dining room, my mood couldn’t have been much worse if I tried. I just needed Jacob and Alex to back me up on this, not to fight me every inch of the way.
We needed to deal with what was starting to feel like an enormous organised rogue group and work out what that meant for me going forward. Should I claim my pack? Should I not? That was the question we needed to answer.
Within a couple minutes of me sitting down with my lunch and a massive mug of coffee, the Alpha and Beta twins joined me.
“Ava…” Callum started, his voice low, tense. “Are you okay?”
I snorted. I mean, rogues were coming after me because my wolf and I are special. I’ve suddenly come into my Alpha abilities, which would be great, if it wasn’t causing major tension with Alpha Jacob and Beta Alexander. The three of us were always at each other’s throats. And that was just the easy bits.
“Not really, Callum, but there’s not much any of us can do about that.”
“Talk to me, Ava, please.”
I sighed, putting my knife and fork back down, leaning back in my chair. “Not here. You can ask your questions and I will try to give you answers, but not in a location that is this public.” I thought for a moment before coming up with a plan. “There’s an empty office a couple doors along from Alpha Jacob’s. Every office on the entire floor is soundproofed. I’m going to the gym after I’ve eaten, so I’ll meet you all in that spare office in about two hours.”
I pushed my plate away, standing and turning to leave the room. Before I could leave the room though, I ran straight into the two wolves I would rather not see.
“Ava, please, listen to us,” Alex begged.
“Alex, Jacob… I don’t know what you expect me to say. I’m not going to roll over and say ‘yup! It’s fine, I’m going to sit down and let everyone else fight my battles for me’!”
“Ava, we’re not going to ask you to do that,” Jacob’s voice was pleading.
Alex looked at Jacob like he disagreed, like he wanted to say the opposite.
“Alex, I’ve known you long enough that I can read your emotions and intentions incredibly easily. I know you have absolutely no intention of letting me do this.”
“Ava, I’m just worried about you.” Alex’s voice deepened as Kieran came forward.
“There is worrying and then controlling, Kieran.”
“Artemis, please, just let us handle this.”
“Absolutely not, Kieran!” I growled.
The room went silent behind us.
“Kieran, we promised Artemis.” Lloyd had pushed forward too.
“Kieran, answer me honestly. Why don’t you believe I can do this? Both Ava and I are more than capable, we’ve proven that time and time again.”
He just stared at me, his face stoic. “You’re my little girl, Artemis.”
The tension in the room was thick.
“Kieran,” Artemis started, carefully. “I appreciate you looking out for us, but I don’t need to be mollycoddled.”
“I’m not trying to mollycoddle you, Artemis!”
“Really, Kieran? I don’t believe you.” I turned to walk away, before stopping and turning back to face them. “I don’t want to do this, Kieran, but if it comes to it, I will command you to step aside and let me do what I need to do.”
I walked away, leaving a sea of shocked faces behind me.
Two hours later, I met the twins in the spare office I’d commandeered as my own. I never did make it to the gym, instead, I sat at the bar in the pack house and worked my way through most of a bottle of rum.
A knock at the door jerked me back out of my thoughts.
“Come in,” I called out, before taking another swig from the rum bottle in front of me.
“Ava…” Noah started. “I would ask if you’re okay, but that seems like a stupid question.”
I gave him a small smile. “Yeah, it would be a stupid question.” I took another glug of rum, before sitting back and putting my feet up on the desk. “What do you want to know?”
I watched the four of them glance at each other, trying to work out where to start. Callum stepped forwards.
“Who… who are you, Ava?”
“Ava Wright, heir to the Eclipse Mountain Pack.”
Their faces all dropped, mouths open in disbelief.
“The Eclipse Mountain Pack? Why are you here, then?”
I shrugged. “My parents were murdered when I was young. I was adopted by a family here. My remaining relatives didn’t want to risk me being too close to the pack territory to keep me safe.”
“Eclipse Mountain? That would mean you’re Lycan?”
I nodded.
“But you run on four legs as a wolf instead of two as a Lycan?”
“My bloodline has both forms. The wolf comes first, and the Lycan form comes on the 18th birthday.”
“That’s why you’re so strong… you’re not just an Alpha. You’re a Lycan Alpha.”
I shrugged. “That’s the start of it, anyway. Are any of you familiar with any Lycan legends?”
They all shook their heads.
I nodded. “Okay. I’ll tell you the full legend of the Alpha Queen another time, but the short story is that I’m heir to that pack. The legend talks of someone chosen by the Goddess to reunite the kingdoms. There has always been tension between the Lycan and wolf worlds, and that isn’t something the Goddess is happy about; we’re all her children. To deal with it, she gave a bloodline extra abilities, such as the ability to have both forms, extra strength, healing, resistance to poisons, things like that.” I paused, just to take another mouthful of rum. “The legend says a girl would be born into that bloodline that would possess the abilities, strength of will and character that would be required to reunite the kingdoms and bring an end to the slaughter between the two species.”
Their faces were all unreadable. They were starting to put two and two together.
“The legend has a description of what her wolf form would look like because the spirit of her wolf would be a reincarnation of the last Alpha Queen. That wolf is the size of an Alpha werewolf, midnight black and has a silver crescent moon on her chest. Once she fully comes into her power and matures, she’ll have green and gold eyes.”
Their mouths were open. “You. You’re the next Alpha Queen,” Oscar’s voice was breathy, almost as if he was in disbelief.
I nodded.
“Where do the rogues come into this?”
“Assuming history has repeated itself, they have chosen to believe some parts of the legend, whilst ignoring others.” I tapped my fingers on the table. “One of the earlier iterations of the Alpha Queen was kidnapped and forced into a mate bond. The individual that committed that atrocity believed that by taking her as a mate, he would be able to build a more powerful society with their pups that he could rule over.” I gulped rum again. “Essentially, she was forced into being a breeder for a power-hungry scumbag.”
“So… your fight with my dad?” Oscar asked.
“He is trying to make me sit by the sidelines and not let me get involved. As I’m sure you’ve all seen by now… your dad and I are at each other’s throats about it. I’ve proven time and time again that I’m more than capable of defending myself, but your father is as stubborn as I am, so it’s causing major arguments.”
“So… are you planning on claiming your pack, Ava?” Noah asked.
“I don’t know, honestly. Maybe? It depends what fate has in store for me. The plan was always that I’d wait until after my 18th birthday so that I’d get access to both of my forms, I had access to all of my power, and I might have even managed to find the mate who should be standing beside me when I reunite the kingdoms.”
“Does the legend say anything about the Alpha Queen’s mate?” Theo asked.
“Nothing helpful, Theo. It’s written like it could even be multiple mates instead of one, and it’s just really vague. It’s too easy to interpret badly.”
“Does it explain why all of us could be so irrevocably drawn to you, Ava?” Noah asked.
“Maybe? I don’t know. There haven’t been many iterations of the Alpha Queen over the centuries because not many have been needed. The ones that have been born, stories about them have been limited.”
“What can we do to help, Ava?” Callum’s voice was concerned.
“I don’t know right now, Callum. Other than ‘don’t be surprised if I rip your fathers a new one’. One way or another, I’m doing this.”