Alpha Zander
Chapter 59

I try to figure out the best way to start. We sit in the car silently… Ashleigh not even trying to start a conversation since we left training. I don’t really blame her. I haven’t exactly been fun to speak with right now either, but just her presence alone is calming me down.

Part of me hoped she would say something to try and ease the tension, but I know she won’t say anything until I do.

I drive a little further out of the city until we arrive at the place l had in mind. I used to go here all the time with mum and dad. It felt right to bring her here. Maybe one day we can have that same tradition, coming out here every other weekend.

The lake is exactly as I remember it. It is about the size of a football field, with shrubs and trees protecting it. I drive through the small clearing that is big enough for a car to fit through.

Not many people know about this place, I have never sensed anyone before, so it’s nice this little paradise has been kept peaceful and pure all these years. She would be the first person I would ever share this place with.

Ashleigh’s scent lingering in the car reminds me of this place, freshwater and forest wood. I’ll forever feel peace when she is around.

She looks around, observing the new area l have brought her to, I feel somewhat guilty we haven’t been able to go on many dates, so I hope I can make that up in the future now that everyone knows she is mine. For now, this is what we have been doing lately, I love the wildlife scenery, but I want to show her off to everyone.

“What is this place?” she asks curiously as l lead her towards the little sitting area we built out of fallen trees and stumps. A few logs were lying on the side facing the waterfront, with a little sandy bay area offering a way into the water as the water laps against the dark sand, rolling through the lake.

“We used to come out here nearly every weekend when mum was alive,” I reply, trying not to dull the mood.

As though she senses my uneasiness, she nods and continues to follow me down the path until we reach the seating area. I moved next to the smaller logs, placing the blanket out I had in the back of the car. I’ve kept one in the back of my car in case we wanted to do something like this.

Ashleigh sits on the other side of the seating area, a bit too far for my liking, so I reach out and pull her onto my lap. She makes a little “humph” noise before she settles down, leaning against me.

“Want to explain what happened back there, or do l have to pry it out of you?” She finally asks after about five minutes of me just holding her and tugging on one of her loose curls, trying to keep Jace down and calm.

He’s been f*****g restless after that interaction with dad and Derek and is out for b***d, so what I needed right now was to hold her close.

I sigh heavily before explaining because she deserves the truth. Even if dad has accepted her as my mate, he is still the current alpha and a f*****g a-sshole.

“Dad likes things done a certain way, and one of those ways is me not training until I finish school. We have enough patrol and warriors around that I don’t need to be as involved as one would normally be.” l start explaining.

Honestly, I f*****g hate it. I think we should all be training before we get our wolves so our bodies are prepared, and what the f**k happens if dad dies and I have to take on leadership? Anyone can challenge me.

Anyone can have the upper hand because of his stupidity.

“Have you asked him why? I’m sure he would give you a valid reason for his concern?” She starts asking questions I’ve asked a thousand times.

“Honestly, sweetheart, I’ve stopped asking. In the end, I just ask Richie if l could join, and he usually allowed it. Richie is my aunt’s mate who happens to be my dad’s sister. Even she has tried to reason with him bút it falls on deaf ears.”

I sigh. We’ve had many arguments about me training and joining the patrol team. Ultimately, I try my best and pray he doesn’t catch wind of what I’m doing. There have been a few times when I thought he was going to kick me out or lose his s**t on me completely. But even then, he huffs and puffs, and we don’t talk for three months or longer.

“l’m sorry you had to become a part of it all. Frankly, I didn’t think he would be that mad,” I say. I hate that she has to see his bad side. At least maybe then she knows what she’s in for, a quiet packhouse with no one around, compared to what she had back at Liverpool.

She turns slightly so she can face me, reaches up and pulls me in for a k!ss. God, I love this girl. Being open with her is surprisingly a lot easier than I thought.

“Zander, you are my mate. Your family is my family. I hope I don’t get you into trouble later because that wouldn’t be fair”

I sigh with happiness. I was just glad she wasn’t angry at me for ending the training early.

“I love you so f*****g much,” I mumble into her hair as I wrap my arms around her.

As soon as I say those words, I freak out. I’ve never felt love for anyone before, let alone said it.

Jace has been hounding me for ages to tell her, I know she told me a few weeks back, but I didn’t know how she felt after all this s**t went down, and honestly, I was f*****g terrified that she didn’t love me anymore.

“I love you, too,” she whispers before leaning into a deep k!ss.

I felt everything .. her frustrations, her annoyance but the one thing I felt the most was her love. It was like the bond had strengthened, like there wasn’t a wall up anymore. I can only imagine what it would feel like once I marked her, and I can’t f*****g wait.

We haven’t sat at the dining room table for years. It was a tradition mum used to keep, but that stopped altogether after she passed. So imagine my surprise when Ashleigh and I got home to a cooked meal and table set all nice and fancy. Now here we all are, sitting around the dining table in tense silence for the last fifteen minutes.

Danni is next to me on one side and Ashleigh on the other. Dad is across from me between Ellie and Jake.

Tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife, and no one has said a word since we started eating. I wasn’t f*****g game enough to say anything until Dad did. I knew how that would pan out If I spoke up first. I could see silent conversations between Dad and Jake. Their eyes would glaze over every time one was talking. Ellie sometimes joined in now and then, only making Danni, Ashleigh, and I shift uncomfortably every few minutes.

The only thing keeping me sane right now was Ashleigh being here. I just wanted to come in and say goodbye, then take off again back to our little cottage for another night of peaceful happiness. But of course, Ellie coaxed me into staying for dinner. Now I wish I hadn’t agreed.

Dad suddenly slams his fist down, making everyone jump in their seats and looks at both Ellie and Jake. Leo’s Aura blazes through, making everyone cower except for Ashleigh and me.

Gotta say, Ashleigh didn’t even break a sweat with Dad. So f*****g proud of her! After all the s**t she has been through in the last two months, I’m so f****g thankful she didn’t give up on me.

It was clear the conversation was about the three of us. Out of all of us, I was the one who would have to deal with this s**t later. Honestly, I’d rather do it with Ashleigh here so she can help calm me.

“What’s going on?”I ask and look directly at Dad and shift my gaze between him and Jake. Ashleigh puts a hand on my knee, helping me stay calm and keeping Jace at bay for now.

“Nothing,” Dad growls and starts eating dinner again. Jake rolls his eyes but continues to eat.

“Clearly, you have something on your mind, so why don’t you spit it out already,” I grind out.

I can feel Ashleigh squeeze my thigh telling me to calm down, but honestly, if this was about earlier this morning, I’m still pissed.

“Some information came to light, and we need to sort it all out” Jake responds, earning another snarl from Dad. “He deserves to know, Wyatt. He’s old enough now.

That last part caught my attention. “Know what?” I ask, zeroing in on Jake. I am owed so many f*****g explanations it’s now beyond a joke.

Jake tries to ignore Dad and begins to tell me what they were discussing, “There have been a few issues around lately.” Jake starts slowly.

“I said enough, Beta. I will not have my son end up like his mother!” Dad yells, slamming down his knife.

My anger builds up even more. I need answers. In fact, I f*****g demand answers if it has to do with mum.

I’m so sick of being on the sidelines.

“What does this have to do with mum? You can’t continue to keep me in the dark like this. Now that I’ve found my mate, I’ll be able to claim the title of Alpha at the end of the year. As your f***g son and future Alpha, I can’t believe that I’m not allowed to patrol, train, or f****g anything to do with this pack.” I snarl back, venting all of my frustrations over the years.

Even though we’ve had our fights, I’ve never been allowed to express how angry I have been with him. We never have a conversation unless we are at each other’s throats.

I want to be a part of my pack. I want to help out as Ashleigh and Oliver did with Liverpool. No wonder my pack members think I’m a little s**t who doesn’t do anything because, frankly, my f*****g father is an a-sshole who thinks he knows best and doesn’t allow me to. But, of course, no one else sees that except me.

“Alpha, if I may .. maybe if it is explained why we aren’t allowed to do things a certain way, it will help us understand everything a bit more,” Ashleigh says softly trying to take the heat off me.

My eyes snap over to her as she watches how dad will react to her comment. If anyone can get Dad to an understanding, it’s this girl right here.

I see his mind churning as he contemplates Ashleigh’s words. He sighs before taking a swig of his drink.

“A few months before your mother’s death, there were disappearances … children, women, our elders, basically anyone vulnerable,” dad starts to explain carefully, closing his eyes. The memories are still painful to this day.

He continues, “we stationed patrols everywhere but the disappearances still kept happening. Back then women were included in patrol and training. At some point, the kidnappers figured out which women were mated to Our male warriors and would take them. The men would go crazy and many took matters into their own hands.”

He sighs, “to be honest, I couldn’t blame them. We had no leads for weeks and the situation was getting worse. That was when we decided not to allow women to run patrol and training, in case the pack was being observed. We couldn’t risk them being targeted and making our men fall when they lose their mate.”

My memories surrounding mum’s death are foggy at best – I barely remember a thing. I think I blocked most of it out because of the pain.

l only remember we stopped going to the cottage, visiting grandma, and going out during the evenings.

The kids started to have warriors around when we were in the playgrounds and school, but we never found out why. It just happened one day.

“We never found them. For all we know, they could still be alive somewhere locked up. We never found out who did it or who was capable of doing it. It was always a clean job, no scent around, no evidence. The only reason we knew people were missing was that someone would report them missing. One evening they took your mother.”

He sighs and scrubs his hand over his face. I know he is trying to cover the pain because, f**k, it hurts me, too. I think this is the most he has ever spoken to me without yelling or being an a-ssh0le ..just having somewhat of a decent conversation.

“I thought Mum was killed by rogues,” I frown in confusion, looking between them all.

“That’s what we told everyone,” dad says with a sigh. “The truth is we don’t know who or what it was. We know she was taken when she was out running one afternoon and then just reappeared at our border three days later, dead. There was no sign of how she died – no bruises, puncture marks, bites, or anything. They did a full workup on her but found nothing wrong. She was perfectly healthy. The doctors said that she shouldn’t have died, but she did.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, Alpha, did you feel the bond break when she passed?” Ashleigh asked curiously.

Dad hesitated before answering, I hoped Ashleigh didn’t step on any boundaries by asking this question, but I was curious to know where she was going with this.

“It was faint, it wasn’t an excruciating pain like I was always told. But the next full moon, after she was buried. that’s when I felt it. So did other members who lost their mates, but we never recovered their bodies. I knew then we would never see them again. As for the children, we have no idea if they are alive still or not.”

Ashleigh nodded, clearly thinking. I can see her eyes glaze as she talks to Kia.

“From some studies I remember, witches can create a sacrifice to break or weaken a bond for a brief period. I believe because you were a ranked wolf, you still felt the bond with your mate. The next full moon cycle is significant because the moon goddess gifts us with our mates. It can break through whatever spell the witches cast. They have always tried to keep wolves out of the moonlight. It helps strengthen us. That’s why many packs form links and ceremonies on a full moon. It helps bind the Alpha and Luna’s strength at the moon’s peak,”

Ashleigh explained.

“The pain you and your pack members experienced was the final snap of losing one’s mate. Usually, that happens as soon as the mate dies. Due to the nature of it, I would say someone is working with the witches,”

Ashleigh finishes.

“We have always had peace with the witches. We’ve never had any problems with the covens,” Jake frowns.

Ashleigh shrugs, “they could have been forced to do it, taken their members until they help. Oliver mentioned something the other day about the disappearances happening again. Am I right to assume this has started back up?”

“Yes, it’s not that we don’t want you not to train, but with what happened last time, we just don’t know who to trust. At the moment, we are trying to check out all our pack members but we have well over 800 pack members so it is going to take some time. We need to make sure every member is safe and well,” dad says, looking at me.

“I never meant for things to escalate, Zander. I only thought what I was doing was best to keep you out of harm’s way, especially if we didn’t know what was going on in the pack. Things settled down for a while, but it’s gotten worse this year alone. It’s like they are looking for Someone or something. It’s not just this pack they are targeting. It’s everyone.”

I sit silently, going over all the information I’ve just been told. After all these years, after all our fights and arguments, I feel the strain unravel and let go. Maybe now we can finally have a father-and-son relationship. I didn’t have to worry about any implications as I did before.

I feel the energy from Jace, wanting to fight to keep my members safe. I want to train. I want to patrol. I want to figure out what the f**k is going on. I want to be the f****g alpha I was born to be and protect the ones I love, and I won’t rest until the son of a b***h who killed my mother is dead.