The Gamma's Birthright - Book 2

This is the second book in this series, you may find it helpful to read 'The Making of a Dark Gamma' first.

It took Toni half a day of driving to arrive at the Royal Pack gates later that afternoon, just half a day, but it felt like so much had changed within her.

A weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and for once, she felt like she could be the real Toni; after all those years of having to be the Alpha's messenger, of killing for him, she finally saw an end to this pain, and it starts here, where it began when she was made a ward, there's something poetic about the action that feels right.

She’s directed to a waiting area on one side of the guard house and told to turn off the car engine, From where she’s sat, she decides that calling it a waiting area implies there are more facilities, it's just a car park.

It’s not fenced in, nor guarded, just in sight of the guard house so they can keep an eye on the visitors as they process the requests; Toni’s shouldn’t be too long, she did, after all, have an appointment with Alpha Nathaniel tomorrow and a room booked for tonight.

A guard comes over to take down her details, so she lowers the window.

“Name of whom you are visiting and time if you have an appointment.”

His words are abrupt, to the point, with a slightly self-important air, he doesn't seem to give Toni more than just a glance.

“Alpha Nathaniel, nine tomorrow morning, booked into lodging for tonight.”

“Name, Pack and Rank if you hold one?”

This is where she is watching him closely, her command aura is held back, trying not to startle or scare anyone, if this is the first day of her new life, she will try and play nicely.

She knows at this point she will seem like a common wolf, not that they get to see the Alpha of the Royal Pack easily, so he should be a little more alert, keeping her voice calm and conversational she answers.

“Antonia Woodfield, Gamma of the Nightshade pack”

There it is, she should take bets next time she travels with someone, on what triggers them most, the surname, pack or rank.

His face takes on an ashen look almost as soon as her name leaves her lips, and he appears frozen to the spot, she sees this reaction a few too many times and knows she needs to take control of the conversation.

“Do you need my credentials?”

She asks almost politely, but there is a curt tone to her voice, people who can’t do their job annoy her, Tyra licks her lips and lowers her body into stalking mode, it’s her inbuilt reaction when she sees a prey response in anyone or anything.

Her voice shocks him back into action

“um… er… yes please”

He’s flustered and slightly unnerved

Reaching across for her wallet, she gets out her pack ID and hands it over, he takes what looks like an exaggerated swallow, but she knows it’s not, it’s part of his fear reaction, she is more than used to seeing this reaction, having seen it a few times, essentially, he wants to be anywhere but near her.

His heartbeat had sped up, and he was now sweating, she could smell it and his breathing rate had quickened, but he was now trying to cover his fear, not very successfully, sighing quietly to herself, seriously, is her reputation that bad that even a trained royal guard at the border was scared she wonders to herself.

“I’m a ward of the Royal Pack, just here to be released from that status.”

She's calm, making her body language as relaxed as possible, but she has already noticed two more guards have moved closer.

Tyra is in her head telling her it’s her fault, that she should say please and thank you more, but Toni swears at this point if she did, people would keel over with a heart attack, she shakes her head and represses a laugh at her reaction to that thought.

“We are just waiting for your escort.”

Toni nods and looks at him, possibly one second too long making him uncomfortable and fidgeting again.

“All visitors have an escort to direct you, that’s all.”

He stumbles over his words jumbling them slightly as he quickly adds that last bit of information.

“Not a problem,”

She says calmly and goes back to waiting.

Here’s the thing, he seems even tenser with the idea that she was relatively nice to him and in her head, Tyra is doing a mock death by heart attack.

Toni smiles, she can’t win, and to cap it off, she’s being mocked by her own wolf.

Tyra would be good in amateur dramatics, it’s a good job she’s professional when in control, but an unpaid comedienne in her head at all other times, her permanent friend and confidante!

About forty minutes later a pleasant-sounding voice interrupts the cat nap she was having.

“Gamma Woodfield?”

She opens her eyes, looking round, no other car has come into the car park, so she wonders at the question in his voice

“Yes”

His surprise is evident, she glances in the mirror, and the hard-faced, cold look that normally adorns her face isn’t there, looking back is a young relaxed girl who looks barely old enough to drive, something that surprises even her.

“I’m here to direct you to your assigned parking”

“Jump in then,”

She says, removing her bag from the front seat.

He’s not a bad-looking guy, black hair, short and neat, but not the buzz cut some guards are sporting, deep brown eyes and tanned skin, which isn’t surprising for a Delta or warrior, since they spend a lot of time outside.

But she is betting on him being a Delta, he has more confidence than the warriors around her and an aura of power.

“And may I know your name?”

Her wolf is watching on, approving of the softer friendlier tone.

“Delta Asher”

“I must be bad if I warrant a Delta as an escort!”

She jokes, laughter in her eyes as she pulls away

“Which way?”

“Ranked wolves normally get a Delta as an escort”

He answers too quickly but she can smell the slight salty tang in her car

“Riiight and pigs fly there on their own I guess”

The sarcasm in her words is clear and she can’t help laughing at his face, surely, he knows lies are easy to spot.

“You aren’t what I expected from the descriptions I've heard.”

His eyes boring into her, Tyra is restless, they aren’t used to being under so much open staring, but she swallows down her normal reaction.

“And what did you expect?

Tell me the myths and reality you’ve been told.

The haggard evil woman, the one used to scare kids into behaving?”

He looks slightly embarrassed as she glances across

“Hard ass? Rude? Cold? Vicious? Dangerous?

Any of those parts of the descriptions you were expecting?”

Toni’s voice is calm, she’s aware of her reputation, she’s been the one living the life, and at times purposefully cultivating it after all.

He nods before speaking

“I’m just curious, the guards were all on edge when you turned up” his voice is almost apologetic

“I noticed and that was me being nice.” She sighs

“Which I think freaked them out more than anything else”

“Thing is, you don’t feel like a Gamma, I would say you feel more like a normal pack wolf.” He admits

Normally, it’s not hard to identify a ranked wolf, they give off a feeling of power, thanks to the command aura, the way they stand or look, Toni and Tyra have a knack of hiding their power, which is useful allowing her to travel unnoticed.

They always could, it’s how she hid her wolf in the Deadfalls pack, so it’s just second nature to her now, but she essentially appears unassuming and less dangerous, so people often mistake who she is.

But since she’s assuming she gets her freedom after this meeting, she has a lightness of spirit and is trying to drop the tough cold exterior, reminding herself regularly that she can be friendly, she’s even acknowledged that she hasn’t even bothered correcting him on the correct way to address her.

He’s like a kid with a new play toy, wanting to push every button he can, trying not to break it, but too excited to calm down.

“I find it hard to balance the person I’m told you are, and the person you appear to be.” He continues.

“Most people regret meeting the Gamma from the Nightshades pack and here you are disappointed that you haven’t met the person you expected!"

Trying to caution him, her tone is slightly more serious.

"Well, you are nothing like your reputation." he continues.

"Do you want to see the person you’ve had described to you?”

She looks over at him and he nods, Goddess she must be stupid, especially when she doesn’t like the persona she’s expected to be.

Pulling over, she calls to Tyra, who is huffing at her for suggesting it, her wolf wants to present a kinder image to others.

She turns herself inwards thinking of the disgust she has towards the Royal pack in general, bringing forth the person she has to be, all expression from her face gone, eyes narrow, harder, holding a look of death.

Letting Tyra rise to the surface as a show of dominance, not the playfulness of before, but releasing only a small portion of her command aura out, she knows it will come across as dark and suffocating.

Turning to him, he’s still staring at her, this time he’s not so sure of himself.

“The correct form of address is Gamma Woodfield.

You’ve lied to me once already Delta Asher, so make sure you answer this next question honestly” Her voice is cold.

“Do you like what you see now?”

There’s an underlying threat to her words, she knows Tyra is challenging his wolf as he drops his eyes quickly, like Toni, Tyra can pull out the cold-assed killer side if she needs to.

“Not so much, no Gamma Woodfield”

His voice has changed to be far more respectful, way to kill a fun time she thinks.

Telling Tyra to chill, she rests her head on the steering wheel briefly, feeling herself relax, why do people ask for things they don’t want to see or experience? She wonders.

“More like you’d expected?” she keeps her voice calm and conversational

“Yes”

He doesn’t look her in the eye for the rest of the journey, the dark side, the side that runs most of her life is there because she has to, not because she wants to, it fills her with sadness that the only time the lighter side of her comes out is when she is in her house alone, maybe she should keep it that way for now.

“Park here”

He’s indicating a space outside the front of the packhouse that she considered too large and prideful all those years ago, she still feels the same way, but that’s not her problem it’s theirs.

“Gamma Woodfield, I need to check for weapons before I can take you into the pack house”

There’s clear reluctance in his voice, as they get out of the car, she can tell he’s now wary of her, regardless of the fact it was his request, ahh well she thinks, she hadn’t planned on staying long anyway.

Passing him her cloak she speaks, no longer the light-hearted Toni she had been before the car journey.

“That has pockets so start there”

She leans against the car door waiting for him to thoroughly check the cloak, as he comes to stand in front of her, he looks a little awkward as she moves from the car and stands arms out from her sides.

“You are unmated Gamma Woodfield; I can get a female to…”

“Just do your job, I may be unmated, but, I’m not some delicate flower!”

She cuts into his comment, there’s a small hint of amusement in her eyes he doesn’t see, she can’t wait for him to start, he’s brought this upon himself.

He starts running his hands along each arm, over the shoulders, down her back, stepping to the front he runs his hands down her breast bone and she swears Tyra is egging her on, she’s sat there in her mind, tongue hanging out, tail wagging, knowing we have a month off pack lands is giving them both a weird sense of fun.

As he moves his hands under her chest she speaks

“Of course, no man has put his hands on me like that……. and lived to tell the tale”

Her words are barely audible, delivered slowly, it’s as if he’s just been electrocuted, jumping back and looking flustered

She looks over his shoulder, knowing if she looks him in the eye, she’ll laugh at the fear reflected on his face!

Guessing from his age and lack of confidence he’s not been a Delta for long he probably has never had to deal with someone like her and he brought it on himself when he asked to see the dark side of her, a girl has to get her kicks somewhere.

“Any problems Delta?” Beta Dan asks as he walks up

“I was …”

“Royal Beta”

She bows her head interrupting Delta Asher.

“He was just ensuring I was comfortable about continuing with the frisk search, and of course, I was, he was being nothing but respectful.”

She flicks her eyes briefly at Delta Asher,

“I believe.”

Asher drops his head and carefully resumes the pat down before handing her the cloak back, but her eyes go back to the Beta, holding his gaze, she has a hint of amusement in her eyes.

“Are you okay being her escort Delta?”

“Yes Beta, the Gamma has been nothing but obliging”

Asher answers but not with the greatest of confidence, although the look the Beta gives him is one of disbelief.

“The Delta wanted to see my ‘serious’ side, I think he was caught out a little.” she shrugs

There’s a whole conversation going on via mind link between the Beta and Delta, she can see it in their eyes but what she doesn’t know is why the Beta is on the defensive, she’s never given him reason to be wary of her, always been polite in all her dealings with the Royal pack, but eventually, he turns and leaves.

“Thank you, Gamma Woodfield,” he says quietly after the Beta has gone

“Why? Nothing I said was untrue, and Gamma is fine.”

She throws him her bag to do the final weapon check before he takes her into their pack house and her assigned bed for the night, at this point she’s not sure she cares if Alpha Vincent finds out that she was allowing such an informal address.