Page 87 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

brYN

While Night was away, I was left to prepare myself for both the Alpha ceremony and the binding ceremony. I couldn’t keep myself from wringing my hands every few seconds as I paced in the living room of the Alpha’s cabin.

I knew why I was unsettled—Night was gone, I was alone in this huge cabin, I was on the Kings pack lands, I had a meeting with the Elders in a few hours, and even though Night and I’d had sex in the bedroom and many of the other rooms in the house, the place still stank of Troy a little.

It made me queasy every time I got an unexpected whiff of him, and it caused my thoughts to jumble together when I needed them to be linear.

I wished I had Night beside me again. Sure, he would distract me with those wonderful little kisses and the wicked things he could do with his fingers and tongue, but he also grounded me.

Alone, I felt like I was being sucked up in a tornado.

I hadn’t even been able to leave the cabin I was in such a state.

A knock on the door brought me up short.

For a moment, I worried that Troy had escaped from the cells and come to drug me and kidnap me all over again. But as I approached the door, the familiar scent of earth and lavender greeted me.

I threw open the door, exclaiming, “Mom!”

She grinned and pulled me in for a tight hug. Mom was just as I remembered—long, silky white hair, laughing brown eyes, and an embrace that was just as warm and comforting as it had always been—and I sighed into her shoulder.

“Hey, baby,” she said, rubbing my back. “I figured you would be in need of a distraction. Care to come with me to the garden?”

“Yes!” I couldn’t imagine a better place for me to be right now.

It was mid-morning as we walked to the community gardens, and my eyes widened at the sight of the weeds and shriveled growth. Mom, seeing my surprise, nodded sadly.

“Troy’s evil did a number on the land, Bryn,” she said.

“All the blood he spilled, all the terrible things he did in the name of this pack…” she trailed off, shaking her head.

“There is little he can do to make amends for this damage. I tried to do what I could, and I saved a lot of what we cultivated, but without my girl at my side, I couldn’t save all of it. ”

I looked up at her. “Mom, I’m sure you did better than I could ever have done.”

She gave me a smile. “I’m not so sure, baby.

I have a connection to the land that lets me sense the way it feels and the things it wants, but Bryn, you’ve always had an affinity for plants and growth.

Even when you were just a toddler, you were tugging on my leg to tell me when a plant was thirsty or hungry. You were always a little prodigy.”

I blushed under her praise. “Mom, you never told me any of that.”

“I know.” She took my hand. “It never felt like the right time.”

We walked together into the garden, and she handed me my old gardening gloves, apron, and rain boots.

I donned all of my old stuff, savoring the way the fabric gloves tickled over the backs of my hand as I grabbed my usual trowel and small shovel.

Mom suited up, and we both crouched low to the ground to begin weeding.

“You know,” Mom began, “I had a feeling you would be safe with the Wargs.”

I glanced at her. “But Mom, every time the Wargs came up in the past, you would tell me about how dangerous they were.”

She nodded. “I’d always believed that was true.

But after Troy came through the village, stuttering about how you were kidnapped by the Wargs’ Alpha and taken prisoner, I started to suspect that there was more to the Wargs than I’d given them credit for.

For one thing, as much as I missed you, I wasn’t worried about you as much as I thought I should be.

Something was telling me that you were somewhere safe and secure. ”

“Really?” With the Wargs, I’d worried so much about Mom and how she was taking the news of my being gone. It eased some tension to know that she’d at least been able to sleep at night. “I’m glad there was something telling you I was okay.”

“Me too.” She shot a mischievous look at me. “I guess you can’t pretend anymore that this mystical stuff doesn’t exist, huh?”

I laughed at the tease. “Well, Mom, I guess I can’t deny that. When I consider all the stuff I’ve found out about myself, I have to agree.”

She smiled and dug out another weed with her trowel. “Could you…tell me about that night? I’ve been worrying myself sick about what kinds of awful things might have happened to you.”

So, I told her the truth about the day Night had saved me. I admitted that I had been planning on leaving the pack to get away from Troy, and I told her about him drugging me and keeping me in his bedroom. I glossed over the most intimate, scary bits, not wanting her to worry about me.

“So, you were planning on running away that night,” she said to herself. “I worried you might do that, and I know I did a lot to talk you out of staying.” She stuck her trowel into the soil and wiped the dirt from her gloves. “I should have run away with you, Bryn.”

It surprised me to hear her say that. “I wouldn’t have asked you to do that for me, Mom. This place, this land…you have roots here. I could never have asked you to come with me.”

“I know you wouldn’t have; that’s why I should have insisted on going along, too.

I realize now that I was so shortsighted.

I was sure that there was a place in the pack for you, one that neither of us were aware of, but all I did was make you feel like you had to hide your plans from me.

I pushed you right into harm’s way, Bryn. ”

“Oh, Mom, don’t say that.” It made my chest ache to see how sad she was.

“You had faith in me when nobody else did. You were always in my corner, and I know that if you suspected even for a moment that Troy would chain me up in his bedroom to do who knows what to me, you would have gone with me in a heartbeat.”

She gave a sad sigh. “But why didn’t I see it? I should have had some indication of the danger.”

I reached over to touch the back of her gloved hand. “If you were me, I think you would tell me it was because the spirits didn’t want you to know.”

She paused, and then burst into laughter. I joined her, and she turned her hand under mine to intertwine our fingers briefly before we resumed gardening. We sat in companionable silence, plucking at weeds.

Eventually, I came across a particularly stubborn weed.

I got annoyed trying to dig it out with my trowel, which seemed too imprecise for the job, and finally plucked off my glove, my hand already forming into a claw, and buried my hand in the loose soil.

I followed the root of the weed down a few more inches and then lifted it up, only to find it wasn’t a weed at all, but a large radish that had dug itself deeply into the soil.

“Whoo!” I said, shaking the dirt off my hand. “Look at this thing! I hope my claws didn’t damage it too much.”

Mom gasped and caught hold of my hand. She stared at my claws, still covered with dirt. “My, my. I can’t say I thought I’d ever see the day that you were able to do this.” She let go of my hand, her eyes bright with excitement. “Please, tell me about your wolf and your first shift.”

I launched into that story next, but left out the fact that it had happened right after Night and I had made love for the first time. I did tell her that he had been with me at the time, and about how he had helped me.

She pressed her hand to her heart and sighed. “I wish I could have been there to see it, or that your wolf had felt she was able to come out while I was around. But true love was the only catalyst for her, I suppose.”

“The Wargs’ Elders and Violet told me that my wolf locked herself away to protect me from the trauma of losing my birth mom.”

“I see.”

“They also told me that I’m a descendant of the original pack mothers.” I added that a bit quieter, because it still seemed like something that was meant to happen to someone who deserved that sort of honor, not me. “I guess they have a plan for me, but whatever it is, it’s hidden to us.”

Mom nodded. She didn’t seem at all surprised to hear this news about me.

“These things always work on their own time, not ours. But I knew that I was always meant to find you in the forest, Bryn. I knew you were meant for something more.” After a pause, she pushed a stray strand of hair out of her face and gave me a shy look. “Can I see your wolf?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” I grinned.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

It still took me a few seconds to reach my wolf, but every time I shifted, that time got shorter and shorter.

Soon, I knew, I’d be able to do it at will just like any other shifter.

The change came over me more quickly, too—my wolf was eager to let our mother see her.

I shook the clothes off of my body as I shifted and got up on my hind legs. I did a turn for Mom, who clapped harder and laughed.

“Bryn, you are even more gorgeous in the sunlight,” she told me, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. “My baby, a shifter. It’s like a miracle.”

I dropped back onto all fours and pushed my nose into her neck.

She giggled as my cold, wet nose poked her.

She scratched me behind the ears and under the chin, and my tongue lolled out.

She giggled again and got to her feet and led me inside my childhood home to my room, a place I’d been certain that I’d never see again.

“I had the scouts bring this back from Colville for the day when I would see you again,” she said, pulling a shimmery, peach sheath dress from my bed. “You can change into this when you’re ready to—”

I was already shifting back to my human form before she finished speaking.

I took the dress from her. I couldn’t tell what iridescent fabric had been used to give the dress this shimmery look, but I loved the way it caught the light.

I slipped it on, and the fabric settled like cool liquid over my skin.

I looked at myself in the mirror, still in the same spot I liked to keep it, and admired the way the dress suited me. Mom had such an eye for this.

“Let’s get some tea and continue our chat,” she said. “I made up a rosehip green tea that I think you’ll love.”

Minutes later, I found that Mom was right; this tea was exactly what I needed.

The rosy aroma complimented the mellow flavor of the green tea leaves perfectly.

At our dining table, I let myself sink into the cup and told her about the friends I’d made in the Wargs, including Dom, Tavi, Violet, and Pax.

I told my mother how welcoming everyone had been but that I missed her terribly.

She smiled at me. She had her elbows on the dining table, and she cradled her head in her hands.

“Tell me about the man who hugged you in the middle of the arena,” she said. “I’m sure he’s the one who gave you that bite.”

I touched the mark on my neck. My face burned red, but I was eager to talk about the love of my life. “Night is the one I’ve been telling you about,” I said. “The man who saved me from Troy, and who was there for me when I shifted for the first time.”

“Oh, honey, you’ve barely started talking about him, but already you are glowing.” She covered her smile with her hands. Her giggle was infectious, and it made my heart fill with warmth. “I can’t wait to meet this man officially.”

“Well, that shouldn’t take long. He’ll be here for the Alpha ceremony—and for the binding ceremony.” I added that last bit quietly, but of course Mom heard me.

She gasped and sputtered, but before she could get out her questions, there was a knock on her door.

Once again, the sound of it took me back to the moments leading up to Troy’s kidnapping me.

I hopped to my feet before my mom and crossed the room to the front door in a few quick strides.

I threw open the door and found Tavi and Violet standing there.

“Violet!” I screamed, throwing my arms around Violet and holding her fiercely to my chest.

“It’s good to see you too, girlie,” she said, hugging me back just as tight. “Congrats on your temporary role. You really, literally earned it.”

I laughed as I let her go. Her hair was gray and gathered into one thick braid down her back, and her eyes were every bit as vibrant as ever.

The only difference was the paleness to her skin and the black veins that spread from the locus of Troy’s bite.

It angered me to see it, to remember who had put it there, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on those sorts of sad things.

“What about me?” Tavi jumped in. “I think I should get at least two hugs.”

I turned to her and gathered her into my arms carefully, hugging her just as fiercely as I had hugged Violet.

I could sense that Tavi hadn’t fully recovered.

Her hug was weaker than I was used to, and there was a slight, trembling fragility to her that I didn’t understand.

When I pulled back to look at her, I found her features bold and beautiful as ever, but her dark brown eyes were haunted.

It was obvious that it took a lot for her to be here, even though the woman I knew usually jumped at the opportunity to meet new people or to hang out.

I wanted to ask her so many questions, the one standing out most prominently in my mind being, “What did those sons of bitches do to you?” But I knew it wasn’t the time to ask her all of that. I would talk to her when it was just the two of us and we had some privacy.

As things were, I pulled her in for a second, quick hug, and took her hand. I led her and Violet into my mother’s cabin, to where Mom had already prepared two more steaming cups of tea. I noticed Tavi eyeing her cup with appreciation.

“Mom,” I said, “this is Tavi, my best friend, and this is Violet, Night’s mother, and the woman who protected me the way I know you would have if you had been with me. Tavi, Violet, this is my mom, Glenda Hunter.”

“Aha,” Violet said, walking up to my mother. “I’ve heard so much about you, but it’s good to finally put a face to a name.” She stuck out her hand. “We’ll have to share gardening tips with each other.”

Mom laughed and took Violet’s hand. “I agree. It’s always nice to get to know another woman who isn’t afraid to get to know her land.”

They each had a twinkle in their eye as they shared smiles. I watched as the woman who had raised me shook hands with the two women who had kept me sane and accepted me when I needed it most, and my heart swelled with joy.

I took my seat among them, and the four of us began to chat.