Gamma No More - Book 3

Toni is lost in her thoughts, it’s been a week since she had told the pack her secret and it had gone down well.

There had been some initial concerns, people focussing on the stories they were told about out-of-control Lycans, but with open discussions and the fact she had already shown them that the vampires weren’t the vicious killers history described, then they accepted that maybe history incorrect and things had settled down quickly.

Mostly, it was, as far as Karl was concerned, Toni’s calmness as an Alpha that shut down any of the concerns they had, she’d continued as normal and gradually, assisted by Diane and Yennifer, who had extolled her actions in rescuing them, along with Delta Ezra’s description of her power to keep people safe, that things had gone more or less back to the old routine.

All Toni had to do now, was to live up to that ideal, but deep down she also knew she had a dark side and the concerns that her pack had about Lycans, could easily become real, if she let that side take over, but the warning from the Prince is key, suppressing it means it eventually takes over regardless of what she wants, better to learn to control it, than let it control her.

Much like she balanced Tyra’s time to run and her time in human forms, that’s what she needs to do with her dark side, using it to her advantage and not letting it be the chain that drags her down, she intends to own her life all of it, the good, the bad and the ugly.

She had lived her life with so many external controls that adding another control to her life was almost second nature. Maybe this explains why the Goddess put her through the trials, or maybe it’s just that life sucked and it’s that thought that brings a smile to her face. She can see why Leif had given up on the gods and goddesses, but it didn’t matter; she had retained her faith; it was how she had remained sane for years, believing that the Goddess had a plan for her.

Toni smiled as her thoughts slipped to the wolves that had come back from the Shadow Stalkers’ pack. They are the positive side of being a Lycan with a dark side.

The work she has been doing with Yennifer and Diane on self-defence, along with a few other wolves is helping Diane more than she knows, not only is it giving the poor wolf confidence, it’s teaching her she has some control over people touching her, something she has shied away from since she arrived, even with her own family.

Teaching her that she has the right to ask someone to back off is empowering her, especially knowing she has some ability to back it up with defensive moves, but mostly it’s about teaching her she has a voice and deserves to be heard.

It would be a slow recovery, but Toni was sure that she would make it, she had seen the relief on Diane’s face when she found the pregnancy hadn’t taken, deep down Toni knew she was strong enough to have made that decision either way, but it had been one less worry for the poor she-wolf.

“Alpha we’re here,”

Delta Ezra’s voice breaks her from her musings.

When Toni took over as ‘Alpha’ of a pack, that by any definition was a rogue pack, she didn’t think she would feel tied to it, and definitely not in the way she was.

In her mind, they are not just pack members, but more like a family in nature and as the pack grew, so did the responsibility she felt and her protectiveness over it.

Now, she was being asked to be part of the Neutral Zone council meeting, and they weren’t based in the area.

No matter which way she turned, responsibility was staring her in the face, when she’d envisioned leaving the Nightshades pack, it was to hide in some pack with no responsibility, but no sooner than the image came to her, Tyra huffed at her breaking the image with one simple sentence.

We are strong; we do not bow.

“Alpha?”

She turns to Delta Ezra.

“Sorry, was wondering how my life ended like this, wondering if maybe I could just disappear and live a quiet life somewhere.”

Toni jokes.

“You’d hate it and we’d hunt you down.

The pack needs you and more importantly, you haven’t seemed to have clicked yet, where ever you go, wolves gravitate to you, our wolves all feel it, the need to follow and have you as a leader, rather than a need to obey you as we feel with a normal Alpha.

Which means if you go missing on my watch, I’m hunting your ass down. Karl and the rest of the pack would kill me if we lost you!”

Toni grins.

“Oh, now that’s an idea….”

She winks at Ezra as the rest of the warriors get out, following her into the meeting house. She looks around, it’s odd the towns in the Neutral zone are all different in building styles but similar in smell.

Here in Talinor, she can see several of the buildings have security bars on the windows, on both the ground and second floors, and a higher gradient on the ridged roofs, whereas Rycaprise, where she had first met Leif in the nightclub, was far more open and had a relaxed feel to it, but she guesses this town was close to both werewolf and vampire territory so it makes people, especially human’s a little more security aware.

Cloaked, more out of habit than necessity, she and her guard group enter the building and set about the introductions and pleasantries that meetings always start with, the three warriors slipping away to take positions within the building where they can keep watch on the outside of the building.

As Toni introduces Delta Ezra to Alpha Dimitri and Delta Cage, shortly followed by Raine as the representative of the witches and Jenna, who headed the human contingent before Leif finally showed up once the sun had set.

Between her and Alpha Dimitri, there had been a relaxed tone, they had used him as a go-between for setting up deals for her pack with other wolf packs; he had, of course, taken a cut, but that was fine with Toni, it was, after all, just business, but it had left them on easy first-name terms.

The first part of the meeting mostly concerned the day-to-day minutia of the Neutral Zone, in the way of every meeting, the routine topics seem to fill up the time, expanding to fill the first ninety minutes, while never feeling like there’s much substance to any of it.

Toni groans internally, praying to herself that her participation doesn’t become a requirement or regular occurrence. Meetings were never her strong point, she acknowledges to herself; she had never had to attend most of them in Nightshades.

Once a loner, always a loner, she thinks to herself.

“Last question of the regular meeting.” Jenna’s voice brings her back to focus on the meeting.

“How is Edwards? Apparently, his family is asking.” She looked at Leif.

Leif glances toward Toni briefly.

“For those that need a reminder, Edwards tried to cause harm to my protected by informing on her whereabouts to a wolf pack that was hunting her.

He’s got six more months before he’s released, but as far as I know, he has retained his phone privileges, that’s something I can check on when I leave here, but as you know, we adhere to the rules as the offence was within the Neutral zone, so contact with family is permissible via his mobile phone.

And how is he?

Well, he’s as healthy as any of our prisoners, for his last few months he will help wean our new vampires onto live feeding. It won’t be pleasant, but he will be alive and healthy when he’s released.”

He has a hint of a smile on his face as he looks down at his phone

“but according to the records, he has no family. Who was asking?”

Jenna looks down at her notes.

“We had a call from a distant relative, one Mr. Parker. He didn’t give his direct relationship.

Called the Nags Head bar to find out where he was on Edwards’s private line apparently, before the staff directed him to me, I passed on his mobile number, so I assume they phoned direct.”

Leif shrugs as he looks at his notebook, but Toni also sees a flash of concern cross Alpha Dimitri’s face.

“Well, he admitted taking payment from the Iron Claw pack to reveal Toni’s whereabouts, so he is paying for it as an enslaved Thrall, but he will be free soon enough.

He probably doesn’t want to see a vampire ever again, let’s just say he’s never got to experience the hormone high normally associated with vampire feeding…”

A twisted smile hits Leif’s face, his mask of civility dropping briefly.

“He’ll be sent to me at the end of his punishment?” Jenna looks to Leif.

“Of course, alive if a little drained!” Leif nodded, smiling.

“Thralls will bring him to you the day before his release date.”

Jenna nods approvingly.

“If there’s no other general business, let’s take a brief break before we get onto the new business.”

Jenna looks around the table, getting nods of agreement.

Toni gets up stretching she moves towards Leif.

“Please tell me you didn’t insist I join you so I could hear about ‘Edwards’” Toni rolls her eyes.

Leif chuckled.

“No, there were several reasons, but I assume you have contacts within the werewolf kingdom that have let you know things aren’t going well.”

Toni nods she’d had contact with both Alpha Joseph, technically her regent of the Lowlands pack and also Alpha Lance of Deadfalls, both, of course, unofficially.

“Raine just asked that we have someone familiar with the territory here.

But first, come, let’s grab some refreshments while we can. These meetings can go on!”

Toni is standing with a mug of coffee, towards the edge of the room, just watching and listening to the general chat of those familiar with each other, an example of the different species working well with each other.

Both Raine and Jenna have brought their second in command with them but look totally at ease mixing with the wolves and Leif, as the only vampire.

Delta Ezra was chatting with Jenna. She expected he would probably mingle with everyone, given time; he was naturally a people person, but here, she was sure he was mingling and getting contacts for future use.

As she watched him move around the room, there was a part of her that knew he was under-utilised as a Delta, he should be at least a Gamma but she hadn’t wanted to throw in a lot of ranked people initially while the pack was small.

“So apparently you don’t like to keep your head down,”

Toni turns to Cage as he chuckled.

“What do you mean?”

A quizzical look spreads across her face.

“The Shadow Stalkers are in uproar, demanding your head, apparently you stole rogue prisoners and members of their pack in the dead of the night.”

The grin on Cage’s face is telling.

“You certainly keep the werewolf gossip factory going, the stories that are circulating about you…”

He shakes his head, pursing her lips. She answered in a slightly outraged way.

“Is that what their worthless Alpha is claiming?

I took back two of our pack that were being held illegally and offered a place to one she-wolf that was being abused along with her family.”

Cage grinned, holding up his hands.

“Whoa Toni, you don’t have to justify anything to me, but your reputation is growing exponentially.

I think in about two months you will either have grown a second head…. split yourself into two people, or maybe just grown wings.

If you split into two, send one copy to me. I’m sure life would be fun with you around!”

He shrugged, smiling, with a definite twinkle in his eyes.

“I will do my best to meet expectations, although a wolf with wings may look a little odd.”

Toni winks, deciding to change the conversation.

“But hey, we’re spending time together.” This time it’s her that grinned.

“And?” he looks at her, confused.

“So, tell me, Cage,” Toni begins with a mischievous glint in her eye.

“We appear to be having a drink and getting to know each other, so I’m pretty sure that was the criteria for finding out your nickname!”

Cage stares at his cup of coffee and looks around the less than empty room.

“This isn’t what I had envisioned,” He looks at Toni.

“And I think you know it…” He sighed.

“Come on, it can’t be that bad…” she goads him.

He lets his head drop backwards, as if sending a prayer to the heavens.

“Females!!”

His words come out almost like a curse, but Toni is silent. She can see he’s on the edge of telling her when a wry smile hits the side of his mouth.

“It started back when I first got my wolf, about three months before I was seventeen. Everyone thought I would get my wolf a little earlier, even though I wasn’t from an Alpha bloodline, as I started filling out well before I hit sixteen, but it didn’t happen.

However, Alpha Dimitri’s father allowed me to train with the warriors early, as I was, how do I put it, a little reckless and needed discipline.

He figured even without my wolf, it would help calm me.

Anyway, once my wolf came, I got a little cockier, if that was possible.

One night I borrowed the Alpha’s car. I guess technically it would be called stealing, but I hadn’t intended for it to get damaged…”

Cage is grinning at his memory.

“Anyway, I and my two friends got caught, and the Alpha made it clear he expected us to pay for the damage, three thousand a piece and we were to be excluded from all training, pack events and even eating in the pack house until we had repaid the debt”

Pausing in his retelling of the story, he grins at his memories.

“As you are a Delta, I assume you managed it?” Toni gives Cage the side eye.

“Oh yes, I was the first to do so,” he chuckled.

“As I had been training for a while, even at seventeen I had muscles and the agility training gave me, how can I put it… moves…

I got hired by a club in Emlinase, called ‘On the Edge’. It has strictly human clientele, specifically women.”

Toni thinks about this for a short while before her eyes open wider, grinning, she asks the key question.

“Strip club?”

Cage sighed and nodded.

“Specifically, a strip club for human females that featured only supernatural male performers.

Vampires were ‘chained in silver’, clearly faked, wolves, well the idea was our animals needed to be ‘controlled’ in a ‘cage’.”

Cage shakes his head as if he can’t believe he’s telling her the story.

“As a wolf, well, when we got to just our underwear, we shifted. The underwear fastened with Velcro so that it just ‘fell apart’ during our shift, all while we were in a cage for the ‘patron’s protection’.

The tips were insane, especially if we allowed a human male ‘handler’ who was in next to nothing, to put a muzzle on us and lead us around, which took some negotiation with my wolf Hakan…”

Toni is chuckling quietly.

“Took me two months to get the money together. No-one would have known except the old Alpha invited the Mayor and his wife to a meal.

Turns out she’s a regular and she was ‘Haven’t I seen you before’”

Toni is trying hard to hold in her laughter.

“I was all ‘no ma’am’ but then she blurted out, ‘You are the wolf, from the strip club, the one in the cage’ and, well… that became my nickname.

So at that point, I decided all I could do was to own the name.

Happy now?”

Toni turns to Cage.

“What’s your real name?”

“Dominic, Dominic ‘Cage’ Stone, but I decided a while ago that only my mate gets to call me Dominic.”

Toni nods.

“So how did the other two wolves pay your old Alpha back then?”

“I spent six months working in the kitchens during my spare time to repay the debt and my Beta did security work for a Neutral Zone for about six months, as he was a few months older.

Both of us wished we’d taken the job Cage did, especially as he continued working there for four more months and brought his own car.”

Alpha Dimitri’s words are humour filled.

“But alas, as much as I’d like to tell you a few more of our youthful exploits, and we had a lot, it’s time to get back to the meeting.”