Fated To The Alpha
Chapter 162

"We are going to be caught, I just don't understand why you haven't told him, he has been good Luna" Casen tells me as we both carry our baskets toward the border near the waterfall.

"He doesn't need to know, what if it triggers him, and he kills them. It is working isn't it, none have stepped over since we started doing this, besides even Derrick agrees, Andrei still isn't in the right headspace to tell him yet" I tell him looking down at the basket of vegetables and bread. Casen contained fruit and bottled water. "If he catches you this close to the border he will have all our heads Sage, you know he doesn't want you this close to the front lines, it is dangerous" Casen tells me. He was right but I knew Andrei wouldn't see it the way we did.

Every afternoon Casen or Zane took me to pick strawberries when in reality we had been dropping baskets of food to the borders. Since we started doing that, no one has tried to cross except those that meant harm. Malik and Zane had been good at holding them back with Derrick's help.

Derrick caught me the first time I suggested this, none of them agreed with me at first so I went alone. Little did I know nothing gets past Derrick's watchful eyes when he was in Beta mode.

Derrick told me about his time as a rogue, Andrei told me bits and pieces but I knew it was hard for him talking about it, talking about his mothers hardships and the things he had witnessed while he was rogue. It haunted him, being rogues haunts all of us like a cloud threatening to rain down on us.

When it did rain down on me trying to drown me in despair, it didn't just rain it was like a monsoon, plunging me beneath the dark depths of the water drowning me so badly I could almost feel it killing me and washing away everything I had achieved, washing me bare and raw as I relived the trauma that for so long was my life.

Derrick agreed to keep my secret but only if I had someone with me, so he spoke to Casen and Zane and in turn everyone in the pack knew where I went except Andrei. They hated keeping it from their Alpha but we all knew the monster he could become when faced with rogues.

We stop beside the border at the edge of the river and Casen crosses the river, holding both baskets above his head as he makes it to the other side. He places them down before picking up the empty baskets and crossing back over.

We didn't think it would work but every afternoon we found the baskets empty before we replaced them with the fresh produce we grew in the fields along the mountain edge.

Casen and I quickly race back towards the back of the packhouse before following the treeline and keeping in its shadows as we made our way back to the strawberry patches near the training grounds. We both dropped to the ground out of breath looking around to see if Andrei was lurking about.

We had a few close calls but one thing I learnt about Casen was he was good at explaining his way out of anything. Though he copped a roasting when we were nearly caught last time by Andrei, Casen told him he heard a deer and we went chasing after it when he found us too close to the border.

Casen was ordered to do 200 push ups and run 50 laps of the oval. I felt terrible, but Casen just sent me a wink and accepted his punishment like it was nothing, though Malik had to carry him off the training ground by the time he was done. My punishment was being forced to watch him which was horrible.

Andrei said he knew the consequences of taking me out that far, but the guilt I felt knowing he was only out there because of me made me nauseous as I watched him take his punishment, knowing it should have been mine. I wanted to tell Andrei but Malik shook his head at me telling me to keep quiet.

We start picking strawberries and placing them in the baskets. "We may need to replace something else soon, these patches are getting bare.

Andrei will know we aren't here picking strawberries soon" Casen says and I nod, trying to think of a new excuse to slip away with Casen or the others.

"How are things with you and the Alpha anyway, are you going to let him mark you soon?" Casen asks and my face heats at his words.

"Come on Sage don't you think he has waited long enough? He has barely left the pack in months and when he does he only leaves with his father so he isn't tempted to go on a killing spree"

"But that's my point, Casen. He still has those urges, he still wants to kill them. I can feel it every time rogues are mentioned" Casen nods before he sighs.

"Can't say I blame him though, what the rogues helped Jackson's pack do was disgusting, especially to Luna Angie" Casen says. Everyone spoke so fondly of her and sometimes I wished I could have

met her, she sounded like someone I could have been friends with.

"What about you, how do you feel about them?" I ask Casen.

"Most of us were rogues, Sage. We all know the desperation. Jackson was dangling a new life for them, promising them safety within his pack. I get it, I do. But to kill children, our elders, is unforgivable. I used to be angry, then sad but now." He pauses, grabbing a giant strawberry and holding it up like it was a lump of gold.

He bites into it, it was huge, nearly the size of his palm. "How did we miss you?" He says to it, strawberry juice running down his chin and I chuckle before he passes the other half to me. I scrunch my face up and he rolls his eyes.

"That one is sweet, not like the rest of these sour a*s ones we have been eating" He says and I bite the other half of it, popping it into my mouth. " See?" I nod while chewing, it was extra juicy and sweet just like he said. "Anyway I know my mother wouldn't want me duelling on the bad stuff, she was a bit of hippy my mum. Loved crystals and meditation and nature, she used to tie dye our clothes. We hated it." He says with a laugh.

"Now I would give anything to wear those ugly a*s shirts if it meant she was still with us, shit I would wear them everyday and eat her horrid cooking, no one burns food like my mother used to" He says.

"She sounds like she loved you a lot" I tell him and he nods.

"Yeah I miss her, but what hurts the most is everything she will miss out on, she won't get to meet my mate when I replace her, our kids if I have any" He says with a shrug.

"Yeah" I tell him knowing exactly how bad that hurts, but at the same time I was glad she was gone because she didn't have to witness the vile things the rogues did to me, like I had to watch them do to her. She was no longer suffering at their hands. "What was your mum like?" Casen asks.

"Strong, they never broke her, no matter what they did, she fought until the end. She fought for me until her last dying breath. When they took us, they killed my dad first.

I have never heard someone scream the way she did when they killed him. I just stood there, I was frozen, but mum. Once the screaming stopped she changed. She knew what was to become of us the moment they chained us.

They used to try to break her to get to me, but no matter how much she suffered she would always get up offering herself so they wouldn't touch me, no matter how broken she looked the determination to save me kept making her get back up until it killed her" I tell him.

"She sounds like my mother, when we found her body, she was torn to pieces, but half the blood on her we realized was not hers. I think that's what got to the Alpha the most, he blames himself for all the women being defenceless. He was planning on changing it but it was too late, they were gone before we got back here. Luna Angie was always fighting him and the elders for women's rights and she won, she just didn't know it" He tells me and I nod thinking of the strong Luna she would have been standing up for her people, standing up to Andrei.

"When we got back Alpha Ezra pulled her down off the flagpole, they strung her up n***d and she was beaten to death, I will never forget the screams that left everyone as we discovered them gone, that haunts me most, the screams of our strongest warrior breaking, and Andrei felt it all, all our pain, their deaths, I think when they died that day a piece of him died with them."

I couldn't imagine feeling the lives of every pack member as they died, feeling their tevers break, feeling your pack's emotions while trying to deal with your own grief.

Hearing footsteps and leaves crunching as someone got closer we both sat up looking to the hill before seeing Andrei walking toward us.

"This is where you are, you pair have a serious strawberry addiction" He says stopping next to me, Casen and I are both covered in dirt and moss.

"Alpha" Casen nods to him standing up with his basket, we had hardly any strawberries the patches bare.

"Malik was looking for you earlier, best go see him" Andrei tells him and Casen nods before ducking down and hugging me. Andrei watches him but says nothing before he darts off in search of Malik.

"You and Casen seem rather close, "I nod. I was pretty close with most of them here now, I was comfortable with them. Andrei growls before huffing and I raise an eyebrow at him.

"What?"

"Nothing, just a little bit jealous with how much time you spend with everyone but me lately" He says, bending down and gripping my arms. He pulls me to my feet, wiping off the dirt covering my knees and bum.

"No need to be jealous. Only one person I want and that is you" I tell him. Casen was like the little brother I never had, that was the same with the rest of them, it was brotherly and being the only woman here made them a little overprotective and always happy to follow me around, natural instincts kicking in to protect the omega and I have learned too get used to their lingering and watchful eyes, knowing it is just worry for me and not anything creepy.

"I know, but I feel like you are always off doing something with everyone else, while I only get to train with you and get you of a night" He says.

"That's not my fault, you never leave your office" He growls tugging me to his side and draping his

arm over my shoulder. He leans down pecking my lips before licking his. "You taste like strawberry and soil" He chuckles before dipping his face in my neck. I shiver at his closeness pressing closer to him and stealing some of his warmth. "Zane got more marshmallows today so after dinner everyone is going out to play darts and roast marshmallows over the bonfire"

"Hmm, sounds good to me " I tell him excited for tonight.