Page 11 of Alpha Mates

You will be mated, Max declares readily.With each day, I feel their presence a little more. They are near, and we shall find them when the time is right.

I chuckle, trying to adopt some of Max’s confidence, but it falls flat.

You will meet them,he insists, now with a grain of offence.Have I ever steered you wrong?

No,I admit, and his pride swells between us.

So then?he prompts, pulling a smile from my lips as I close my eyes.

Then, I suppose I can’t wait to meet the beauty.

Max’s delighted howl echoes in my head, making me laugh as I stare up at the sky.

Just two more days.

Chapter 3

Julian

In a pack, silence is a rarity. Any wolf can attest to that. My bedroom has always been my sanctuary to find reprieve, but today, even here, I can feel the electrified buzz of the pack in my veins.

Today is the day. By midnight, I’ll be alpha, andeverythingwill be different. No more trying to prove myself. No more endless training sessions under my father’s eye or sleepless nights enduring his lectures. I’ll be in charge, and not just because I was the second choice, but because I earned it.

The corners of my lips twitch as I scan my reflection. The Calderons had been rigid about attire—one of the few advantages of their presence. As a traditionalist pack, I would have been attending my coronation completely naked if not for them. The loose, white cotton shirt and matching trousers I wear now are a small blessing.

I take one last glance at the nearly bare room I’d called my own for the last seventeen years before I make my way through the empty house lit only by the full moon’s light.

My parents left before sundown to greet the arrivals at the Hall, leaving me to make the journey over on my own. It’s hardly a loss when it allows me a moment alone withhim.

I slow at the bottom of the stairs, stealing the handful of seconds I need to arm myself before I meet the amber eyes waiting for me. The ones that maintain so much life, even when framed in a still. He stole them from our father, but where his always blazed with power, Oliver’s brimmed with kindness. And Oliver certainly didn’t inherit that.

After we lost him, I could barely stand the pictures our mother hung allover the house. To look at him overwhelmed me—with guilt for not doing more, then with the crippling sadness of having to live without him. Sometimes, at the worst times, I felt ashamed for even daring to fill his shoes, but not today.

Today, I know without a shadow of a doubt, that if he were here, those kind eyes would still be teeming with love. That’s just who Oliver was.

“Hey, Oli,” I greet with a smile that isn’t nearly as big as his. “It’s finally time and … I’m more nervous than I thought I’d be,” I admit to him and only him. “I keep thinking something bad is going to happen, or that someone might try to ruin this.”

Only three wolves challenged me for the role of alpha in the last few months leading up to my coronation. I accepted them, as pack law demands, and won easily. But that doesn’t mean I want another.

“I know, I know. You hate when I say stuff like that—jinxing things and all,” I cut myself short with a soft laugh. “But I can’t shake the feeling. Maybe it’s just who I’m sharing this with. If it does go sideways, at least you’ll know who to haunt.”

I can almost hear his laughter, the heavy yet gentle one that had filled this house, making it feel like a home rather than the set of walls it’d turned into without him.

“I wish you were here,” I whisper as the air catches behind my ribs. “You always cheered for me the hardest.” Goddess, what an understatement.

No one supported me more than Oliver.

“I’m not going to mess this up,” I promise. “I’ll do right by you.Foryou.”

Oliver smiles down at me with that wide, unshakeable expression that could wash any problem away, and for him, I return it as best I can before I force myself to leave.

Outside, the fullness of Goddess’s light is blinding, but like a balm, its glow washes over me, lending comfort. I breathe in deeply while Alex stirs with a restlessness to shift.

After,I promise him.We’ll run with the rest of the pack after the coronation.

Alex huffs in begrudging acceptance while I head towards the chatter I could hear from afar. A purr of anticipation grows in the Hall as the pack gathers and the midnight hour approaches. But it isn’t just my pack.

Wolves from the Dark Woods Pack are one thing, their scent familiar, but representatives from neighbouring packs are another. Logically, I know it’s a good thing to have them witness my rise to power, but with Alex in the state he’s in, it’s hard to stay level-headed knowing outsiders are in my territory.