Chapter two

The time we spent in that bunker turned out to be the best days of my life, it was like a dream and as dreams do, it ended too soon

"Alpha?" A knock on my door derails my train of thought pulling me out of those bittersweet memories, 7 years and yet I still think of him

"Come in!" I beckon my second in command of how to walk in with a bow, a needlessly showy and overly elaborate mix between a bow, a salute, and a heart attack, "What in the blazes was that?"

"A new secret handshake," he says proudly wagging his eyebrows, I couldn't help laughing at the smug look on his face, only he would be proud of something that

He joins me filling the office once again with the sounds of our laughter the way we've done ever since we were kids "..it's nice to hear you laughing again,...." He seemed hesitant, mulling over his words before saying "... you always get so down this time of the year, around the anniversary finished finished finished his words trail, but we both knew what he meant

Around the anniversary of my father's death, seven years ago, this month, 2 weeks from the exact date my Father died, I understand his concern, I can't help it, my body gets slower around this time, my kind more scattered, my emotions unruly, especially today, but the father's death was not the cause of it.

Seven years ago today the rockets fell, and I found a boy under a fallen tree in the middle of the woods

Whenever I think of him I want to run to him, to find him, every fiber of my being yearns for him, but I can't do that

"Correction, you won't Hear That" her voice slithered into my mind like an unwelcome guest

Her voice in my head makes me groan

"I don't enjoy having to be here either" she huffs

I remember being so excited to get my wolf once I turned 18, it was usually a fixed event, a standard time marking the coming of age of werewolves where they'd meet their wolves, their other halves, unlike us the wolves have existed for millennials, some even older than time itself when a werewolf comes of age they meet their wolves for the first time, they become the same where they share thoughts, emotions, and even memories, and when they die their wolf is released to go be one with someone else, the wolves are not born very often, they don't fully understand how wolves are born, they just come into existence at odd times, some older than others, some much much older than others, and when the body dies they move on

That's how it's supposed to be and yet my wolf came a year late, I didn't meet her till I was 19 when I needed her the most as a new Alpha she didn't show up, it was after the excitement had already worn off and I had gotten used to working around that lacking aspect of my life when she showed up for passed fashionably late, and if it wasn't bad already, as if to make it worse by adding insult to injury, I realized I was stuck with a selfish raging b..

"Don't you dare finish that sentence…" I could hear her snapping her teeth at me, her entire presence in my mind was invasive and just downright unpleasant " Notre was not my first choice either"

She usually ignores me when I try to talk to her, I ended up trying to be her friend when I turned 20 years old and turned to her for guidance and opened up to her about my insecurities about leading a pack and she told me to stop whining, that my incessant prattling was giving her a headache, an absolute joy isn't she?

She stays quiet most of the time but around this time of the year she gets restless, like she was about to jump out of my skin and run with no direction and no destination in mind, it took so much mental power to keep her sated within me

"You mean keep me caged"

I wouldn't have to if she just listened! I didn't enjoy pooling all my energy into containing her, I usually got so tired from doing just that that I was as unable to do anything else

"I can see Ruwa is putting you through the ringer," Mihai said playfully but his voice was laced heavily with concern, I appreciate that my second in command is so attentive and reliable, but it just makes it harder for me to hide things from him

"Don't worry about her, I'm assuming you came here for something…"

"Ileana…"

"Answer the question Beta Adam" You could see the hurt in his eyes but he knew better than to keep pressing me, I hate having to pull rank with him but I know if I left him alone he would keep praying till I told him and I would sooner die than tell him in I'm still pining over a boy with tanned skin, brown hair, and the the deepest most enchanting brown eyes

"Of course Alpha Ardelean…" he cleared his throat holding up his stack of report papers that seemed to appear out of thin air "...the river seems to be flowing fully this season, the plants are vibrant and the farmlands managed by two of the Gammas has been flourishing…" that's good, really good, too good

"...so the humans demand we either cut costs and have them pay less or that we do not sell our entire harvest, they said having over availability of a product would cripple its market value and damage their profit…" typical of those greedy pathetic humans, if they're not warring with neighboring countries they're pulling each other apart from the inside if we didn't need them I would've never suggested opening trade with them, but after the war the world was in ruins, lands decimated and people barely having enough to feed themselves, opening trade with the humans was the first major decree I made after taking over my father's role as Alpha and so far it has been going great, save the unpleasantness of human nature but otherwise great

"Tell them we will sell it to them at a discount price so long as they buy in large quantities, demand they buy at least double of last year's inventory, what they do with the supplies after we sell it to them is their business and we will not interfere, next…"

"The barracks are overflowing, in the last seven years there has been the largest influx of fighters willing to take arms to defend the Neomenia pack, the problem is there aren't enough barracks to house them…." That's good to hear, after my Father died I feared it would kill the morals of the wolves and make them hide away, especially with a young and uneducated pup who hadn't even gotten her wolf to take the seat, I expected more protest, I had some pushback but nothing threatening, I took the mantle and worked endlessly, diligently, madly, many things I did I would never utter out loud, I take no pride in it, but given the chance I'd do it again in a heartbeat

"That's no problem at all, I'll have a word with Gamma Dalca. I'll have her and the construction crew erect a new banner in the clearing behind the sparring field, no issue at all, next.."

He hesitated on this one, glancing between me and the paper nervously, from his reaction I already had a feeling I knew where this was going, and I had a feeling I would detest it

"The Fracti Luna have sent a letter, they wish to…

"Next..!"

"Alpha Ardelean please reconsider this mig.."

"Next!"

"Since they got this new Alpha they seem to be moving differently and with the rogues on our borders I…"

"Next!..." I slammed my hand down on my hand so the desk so hard it shuddered, I took deep breaths to calm myself "..if you make me repeat myself one more time I'm afraid you'll need to search for employment elsewhere"

I hated the Fracti Luna, I don't care how many Alphas they had, or which of their demon-blooded kin took the mantle, I don't care how many letters they send, or whatever lies they offer, I will never speak with the monsters that started this war and killed my father

He didn't like my tone, it's hard for him to separate the Alpha from the girl he ate mud cakes with as a kid but that's exactly what I needed him to do, and if he can't do it I will find someone else who will take orders without query

"Yes, Alpha Ardelean…" he said with a tight-lipped smile balling his hands into fists and crumpling up his papers, I remember he did that a lot as a kid, especially after his father told him that gentlemen should never hit women, now he can't hit me and it made him so ticked, "-lastly, the rogue attacks around our borders have doubled over the last two months, they've gone from 2 times a week to 4 times a week, sometimes even five, the extra manpower isn't doing much to curb it because our men aren't able to catch them, everyone who has fought these said there's something about them, something wrong, how they fight, how they move, sometimes even how they look, our soldiers can't keep up with them"

"Your soldiers are weak" she sneers in disapproval, the disgust rolling through me in waves, it gets difficult to discern her emotions from mine at times and I freaking hate how she feels everything so intensely and forces her emotions through our link that I need to sit down and thoroughly sift through our emotions in an attempt to discern her feelings from mine

'These are your soldiers too', I remind her in a very matter-of-fact fine tone, she was in my body and I and the Alpha of the Neomenia pack, we are supposed to be the same making her the Alpha of Neomenia as well, she huffs

"Please, my soldiers were Trojans, Romans, conquerors, and revolutionaries, my soldiers would eat your entire town as a light snack"

Of Course, the only time she ever talks about herself or her past lives is when she's gloating

I can't deal with this right now, I've been cooped up in this office for hours sifting through trade agreements and military formations all while drowning in bitter-sweet memories, and now he tells me this! There's always one war or the other, I've had it to my neck, sick and tired of it

"I don't suppose the rogues want to have a meeting with me" I joked and he openly glared at me, anyone else and I would have put their eyeballs in a jar "Come, we could both use some fresh air, maybe even go for a run, God knows it's been too long"

You can see in his eyes he wants nothing more than to keep me in this chair and finish all the work I've been putting off for so long, but at the same time he knows he might never get this opportunity ever again, to be out of this God forsaken office, run in the forest, feel the wind in hair, the battle behind his eyes was fierce but at the end he dropped his papers in a neat pile on my desk making sure the letter from Fracti Luna was on top before bowing

"Shall we?"

I couldn't jump out of my chair fast enough, I skipped off of it, the dreary monochromatic room, my father had bland taste in furniture but I couldn't bring myself to throw it out, I was sick of the town house, it was where I worked, a needlessly large house right in the heart of the pack, it had stood passing the tests of time in this same spot since the Neomenia pack was founded, every new Alpha makes renovations here and there but she was otherwise still the same, strong and resilient, just like us

My nose went into the air taking a deep inhale filling my lungs with summer air, a warm scent, a mix of different herbs and perfumes used by the townsfolk, a smell that made me long for home even when I was already there, followed by Earthy scents, the grass, the ground, the Oak and beech trees that circled us keeping us in our hidden little sanctuary.

Our page is one of the oldest very small ones, it exists somewhere between what the humans called Romania and Hungary, our people have seen many hardships, and many wars, many of which we didn't understand the purpose of, frankly I don't think the humans know the reason either, but we survived through that, we can survive anything

"Alpha, Alpha..!" Barely out of my office a young wolf came barreling towards me, I think I recognized him, he was one of the messengers that worked at the infirmary, was stopped in front of dropped ping into a deep bow waiting for permission to speak

"Rise, whatever it is I'm off work it'll have to wait….."

"Forgive me Alpha but the soldiers that fought the wolves around our borders last night just returned and they are heavily injured"

"So?, Just clean them up, give them some ointment, and have them on their way…"

"We did, Alpha, but they're not healing"

"What?"

"The wolves, Alpha, the wolves aren't healing"