The Gamma's Birthright - Book 2

The human’s information was right.

Andy can smell his mate has passed this area, it's faint, but there.

It took them four hours to get there, so it's safe to say the trail is four hours old.

He didn’t want to be here, but he had responsibilities to his pack that needed to be addressed, but the haunted look of his mate as he told her he didn't believe her had been eating away at him for days.

His brother had offered payments to several shady people in the Neutral zone and less reputable establishments for information on her movements in the neutral zone, especially in areas that bordered werewolf territory after she'd disappeared once more without a trace.

He hadn't expected any responses from his brother's bounty offers, because there was a form of honour among thieves, people didn't sell out one of their own, because they could be next, but in this instance, one establishment had come through, which is why eight wolves were standing on the border.

Since he’s ninety-nine per cent sure that she’s pregnant, he refuses to let his pup grow up in a pack like Nightshades, he has to do something to protect it and Toni from the life she led.

This is his justification for why he’s hunting her, not that she will know for another week for sure, but he and Remus need to be sure one way or another, and the pup is his responsibility after all, he'd taken away her choice in that matter.

Remus is being both belligerent and uncooperative, he’s tried explaining to his wolf that they need to protect their pup, but he doesn’t like the idea of his mate in a cell, and neither does Andy in all honesty, but he hasn’t come up with a better solution to keep her and their pup safe as well as their pack.

Plus, it’s Kieran’s orders; at times like this, he dislikes his brother, the pain of his broken bond, a permanent dull ache in not being allowed to accept the rejection is like a festering wound eating away at him.

The one thing he’s happy about is that his wolf hasn’t left him, even if he does seem to fight his every decision.

“How strong is her scent to you?”

Alpha Kieran’s voice breaks through his thoughts, his brother had travelled down immediately after the fateful phone call in the cottage.

“Probably four hours ago, so pretty much when we got the call.” He sighs in response.

Her scent hadn’t always been muted, but at least he could still find it, unlike most of his pack mates, their main tracker could not even smell her lingering scent notes.

Maybe his brother had been right to not allow him to accept her rejection, he needed to know she was safe whether she carried his pup or not; not that he would admit this openly.

“Ok, we’ll follow in wolf form, it's safer for us that way, never forget she's an accomplished fighter.

If we find her, we are aiming to take her down with the least risk to both her and us.”

Kieran states making a pile of clothes in front of him

A scream of pain breaks the silence on the edge of the forest as Kieran watches his brother collapse to the floor.

“Defensive positions everyone” he calls out

“Paul check Andy”

His eyes are scanning, trying to find out where they are being attacked from.

“It’s not an attack” Andy is panting from the pain and effort

“Remus is fighting the shift, it’s worse than my first.”

His ashen face peers up at his brother.

“What do you mean Andy?”

Concern is written over Kieran's face

“Every bone that breaks to shift into wolf form is happening so slowly and as the next one goes, Remus is shifting the first back.”

“Bring Remus forward”

He commands Andy as he watches his brother’s eyes turn to Amber

“You will shift quickly and follow your mates’ scent, do you understand”

The power of his Alpha command is felt by everyone in the group as Andy’s dark silver wolf comes out, with a howl of pain.

As the other wolves shift, he looks at Remus once more.

“Don’t disobey me Remus, or I will punish you, brother wolf or not, do you understand?

Frank, stay with Remus at all times” He growls

He adds the last command in case Remus tries to lose the rest of them. Before he too shifts, into his black wolf, he doesn’t like threatening Andy or his wolf, but he’s aware Remus is resisting going against his mate.

Until he’s allowed to accept the rejection they will be at odds and he’s going to have to use more of his command than he’d like.

Kieran knows the risks, but he’s got about another week before they lose her back to the Nightshades pack and that’s something that will not happen if he has any say in the matter.

He has still to work out why the Crown Prince authorised his capture request so quickly, even feeding him some basic information about her direction and plans.

Even though he is not convinced the two missing wolves from his pack are down to her, it happened not long after she’d left the Royal Pack.

According to the most recent update from the Crown Prince, a time when she’d left Susan in the hands of a Protector Designate.

All of that meant she could be behind the wolves going missing, with her whereabouts in question, but the traces left behind were almost too obvious, there’d never been any evidence of her actions before, just rumours and threats from Alpha Vincent to go off.

The complications came once she was captured, the interrogation phase, if she was pregnant with Andy’s pup, they couldn’t risk the pup’s life, that would be something Andy and Remus would never forgive him for, but worst case, they would wait for the six months until she birthed the pup to question her.

He prided himself on how secure his cells were, even in those for the less dangerous prisoners, he’d have to make some adjustments, but he was pretty sure he could make the lower-level cells more suitable for a pregnant she-wolf.

Medical care could be problematic if she fights them, but one step at a time, first they had to catch her.

If it turned out she was innocent, then false imprisonment for months could create issues, but the removal of her pup, well they could fight that claiming Andy would be the better parent.

He doubts anyone in the werewolf world would contest that, but hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that.

Setting off following his pack, he places himself near Remus and each time Remus slows too much he gives him a growl and nip on his back leg to keep him moving.

After eight hours of running, Kieran calls a brief halt, everyone shifting to grab some snacks.

“Any closer on her scent trail?”

His eyes bore into Andy who looks tired, probably from fighting Remus, being in conflict with your wolf is draining, but he’s not that concerned, Andy is strong in both forms, and he’ll bounce back, once he accepts the rejection of the Gamma.

“It’s stronger now, maybe an hour ahead”

Andy’s face isn’t happy but before he can continue their main tracker Paul speaks up

“Alpha, I agree with the Beta probably an hour old, but stronger, more like a normal scent trail so one I can follow, but there’s also a smell of blood.”

Kieran looked at the pain and concern in Andy’s eyes, knowing exactly where his thoughts were, had his mate been hurt, and no matter his views on the Gamma, he was concerned for his brother.

“Have you felt anything through the mate bond?”

Andy shakes his head, lips pursed

He walks over putting his hand on his brother’s shoulders

“I may not like who the Goddess paired you with, but everyone says she’s tough, strong and not many want to mess with her.

You told me she fights well, so I’m sure if you’ve felt nothing, she’s okay, some of the terrain has been tough, she may have stumbled and cut herself.”

He squeezes Andy's shoulder, offering silent support.

“Paul will take point in tracking the scent for now unless he loses it, then Andy you’re up again.

Everyone shift.

We have a Gamma to find”

He lets his voice carry his command, not singling out his brother this time, wanting to spare Andy the additional embarrassment.

Tyra had run for hours, wanting to lose themselves from conscious thought, their combined pain was almost overwhelming them.

Not for the first time, she wished she’d ignored that small loose thread on her parents’ death; instead, she’d given it a small tug, ready to fully cut the cords of her past, and now, her whole life had felt like it was unravelling.

All while she was still in pain from rejecting her mate and his reaction to learning who she was.

How naïve had she been in thinking that she could have any part of a normal life, like a mate?

Or that by visiting the human, she’d get closure on her parents’ accident, when in reality she’d had that already, just never accepted it before; now, she has a gaping chasm of pain, this wasn’t just reopening an old wound, this had inflicted a whole new wound and she’d done it to herself.

Tyra lets out a long mournful howl of loss before Toni feels Tyra dropping out of her mind, needing time to heal herself as she shifts automatically, losing herself to the emotional mess that is brewing inside her.

Consumed by the pain of rejecting her mate, and specifically his reaction to who she was and thinking about her parents, Toni feels like there are twin demons of pain, fighting inside her, to see which one consumes her first, destroying her from the inside.

She lets herself succumb to the feelings, years of experience in suppressing her emotions, are not enough for her to control this pain.

When she regains awareness of where she is, she finds herself lying naked on the ground, her eyes feel swollen and sore, her face salty, she’d shed tears she didn’t remember, and she feels drained, no, exhausted, but strangely calmer.

It takes her ten minutes to finally find the energy and desire to stand up, releasing her balled-up cloak, she’s too numb to follow her usual routines, she doesn’t even know how long she’s been on the ground, but the sky hasn’t changed all that much so probably not as long as it felt, maybe an hour, possibly two, but probably not longer.

She looks down at herself before getting clothes out of her bag, her legs are cut, but she knows Tyra had been running blind, not her usual graceful self, so it's just one of those things and nothing that she cares about.

Sighing, she dresses slowly before throwing the cloak in the bag, she doesn't need it for now, her legs are healing slowly, but that’s okay Tyra needs time, they both do.

But she reminds herself, with less than a week until the challenge fight, she can’t remain in this maudlin state, she will give herself two days to accept these emotions before she knows she has to force herself and Tyra to move on.

Feeling a little calmer, she turns heading to higher ground, running up to the peak will be good training for her human form.

After another few hours, Toni hits the summit, after breaking out of the treeline ten minutes earlier, she finds herself staring out over a sea of undulating green.

Something she normally sees as a canopy, but from here it looks like a blanket with the sunset bleeding colours into the sky that reflect off it.

Understanding how lucky she is to be able to experience this freedom, one that not even ordinary members of other packs get, gives her an insight into how strange her life is.

To be so regimented and controlled, forced to live a life she didn’t want on the one hand and yet free enough to be able to see their world in ways others cannot, the juxtaposition makes her smile, accepting that in being controlled, she has also been set free.

She moves over to the edge of the cliff, watching the raging waters below her, maybe this is a depiction of her life, calm and uniform on the inside like the forest canopy, and the raging waters represent her inner fight against that control, both in their way scary and beautiful.

This peak seems isolated and forgotten, so deciding to settle there for a few days seems a good idea, being alone and having a quiet calm settle around her, this is as good a place as any for her wolf to heal.

She won’t ask Tyra to hunt, she can set a few traps tomorrow and be self-sufficient, her wolf needs time, she needs time and this area is remote and peaceful enough to give her that.

“So, what does it look like up there?” Kieran asks quietly

“She’s on her own and appears to be cutting some rope to make some traps.

There’s a break between the last of the trees and the cliff edge, but from what I can see, it’s a sheer cliff down, no other exits off the plateau.

It's about a hundred and sixty, maybe two hundred foot (50 or 60-meter) drop to the river below.

But from the way the peak is formed, if we are all about two meters apart, the eight of us should be able to stop her breaking through”

Cal is glancing at Andy as he draws out the lay of the land in the dust.

“This point here has a lot of rocks and overgrown brambles, so we probably don’t need to have people in that area.

If she heads that way, the natural terrain will slow her down easily, but I would assume she’s already seen it, patrolling the area in case of trouble.”

“Seems almost too easy, any sign of traps?”

“No Alpha”

Cal stands back from his dust drawing as the Alpha nods

“Let me be the one to talk to her” Andy butts in

“She doesn’t react well to being trapped, last time she jumped a ravine”

“Andy, there’s nowhere for her to go.” Kieran retorts

“Set the line with seven, we’ll have enough cover, but let me try and talk her down, to coming peacefully, Remus needs this.”

Andy sounds resigned as he speaks

“I will go talk to her and keep myself between her and the rest of you.

Honestly, I don't think she will attack me, but I don’t think she’d hold back with anyone else.”

Alpha Kieran nods, he’ll give his brother this chance.

“Well go in at dawn, make the trip back easier in daylight.

Everyone needs to stay well back to stop scent travelling, and get some rest watch order is for two hours each, I’ll take the first watch, then Cal, Ryan, Jeff then finally Paul.”