The Unclaimed Human Luna
Chapter 92

Conner POV

It was a quiet trip home, they did not rush at all and stopped to stay overnight in Vegas, booked out a whole floor and Conner took everyone down for a nice fancy dinner, used that pack card of his without caring at all, offered to take everyone clubbing as well. Not that he particularly wanted to go, he was just out to annoy his own father before he got home.

He knew that man would be tracking every cent he spent, and always did. Didn’t normally argue with anything, but if it was over a certain amount he would bring it up and mention it to him as a way of reminding him, he did actually know what Conner had spent and on what.

Though right this minute he didn’t really care, he was more than pissed off with his father. All his life he’d been led to believe his mother had not only left his father but him as well, and now he knew that was not the case. Well, she had left, but had tried to stay in contact with him. It was not really surprising that he’d had to stay with his father, no Alpha would want to give up their Heir.

But he was furious that his own father would stop him from seeing his own mother. Stop him from knowing that she wanted to see him, from telling him she’d contacted and tried to come for his wolf at 16, had tried to tell him about his sisters being born. That man had been a selfish a*****e all this time.

He understood it must have been hard for his father and his wolf Hale to know that their Mate had not only found her Goddess Gifted in another pack, had chosen to go and be with him instead of staying with her Chosen Mate. Being the Luna to a pack, her happiness and love for her Goddess Gifted had been everything she’d ever wanted.

Had a terrible history in her home pack and yes, his father had saved her and gotten her out, exacted revenge on her behalf even. But they were not Goddess Gifted to each other and his mother had told him that part of their agreement had always been that if one of them found their actual Mate and they wanted to be with them, the other would agree to it and they would separate.

Then, according to his mother and from that very brief conversation with his father just before going off to the New Moon Pack, he’d tried to stop her from leaving him. Wanted her to stay in the Wandering Moon Pack, to be the Luna. He’d told her he loved her, that Hale had loved her, but she’d wanted to go. In the end, after a month of him trying to keep her there, she had simply rejected him, packed and left and that was it. Conner, as a child, had not been privy to any of this, they had kept it from him. But she had not expected to be denied the right to see her own child.

Now it was 12 years later, and he was just learning it had been all his father’s doing. He’d always wondered if she’d left and just not cared about him, that was how it felt and with the way his father had acted had seemed that way as well.

He was not looking forward to returning to the pack for the first time in a long time, being lied to for half his life by his own father was not something that he liked, only knew they were either having it out completely and his father was stepping down, was unfit to reign. Or Conner and his entire unit were gone, even they were unhappy about the way his mother and himself had been treated.

Even worse, was that his father’s entire unit actually knew that his own father was to blame but no one had said anything at all about it, they’d all kept his fathers’ secrets and lied to everyone about it for who knew what reason. This could well be the breaking of their pack’s linage. Adam was as quiet as he was, and he knew El was worried he could feel it. The closer to the pack they got, the quieter Petal became as well.

Drove right into the pack and found his father and the entire Alpha unit standing with him. Though it was Sloan that was a surprise for him, she was leaning up against the packhouse front door, looking very relaxed to him, though he did note she was not wearing any shoes and only a simple dress, ready to have Blade rip out of her he guessed.

Conner’s eyes met El’s in the back seat. She was sitting with Sage, she smiled at him and said softly “If it’s us versus them, a little back up might be needed.”

“I doubt we will need that.” He’d nodded.

Pulled his car up right at the base of the stairs and got out, knew Brayden had pulled up directly behind him in his car. Alpha unit to Alpha unit, it was going to be, he realised, as his entire unit stepped over to him. He saw not only his father look at what was going on, he saw that his entire unit were looking at their boys as well. He wondered if they would want to take on their own children.

Also noted that there was no Luna out here, no Mates to the current Alpha unit, or many pack members either. His father was ready for a battle against him, it seemed, and didn’t want anyone else involved. Kept the women away from the front of the packhouse bar Sloan who he could not control at all.

Sloan strolled down the stairs and smiled at him. “I’m glad to see your home, Conner, it’s been interesting here the past few days.”

“I bet, grandma.” He addressed her informally, now that they were family, as she walked to El to stand next to her. A kitsune united front he would have smiled under better circumstances. But just couldn’t.

“Conner, what is the meaning of this?” his father stated. He could hear the anger in his tone, though he did not move at all.

“Meaning of what?” Conner asked. His father should well know what was about to happen after what he had done. This was a full confrontation of his father’s actions against Conner and his mother, though he had kept her out of this.

Though his father’s eyes moved past him, past everyone, and Conner wasn’t the only one to turn and look at what his father was looking at, there were over a dozen men and women strolling his way. He had no idea what was going on. But caught the smile on Sloan’s face. They weren’t pack members at all, didn’t really smell. Looked at Sloan and she smiled right at him, “Like I said, it’s been interesting around here. I’m dealing with it the way I, as an Alpha Luna, would deal with a threat to my own family. Which you are now, Conner.”

He snorted now, they were all going to be Kitsune’s, he realised, though it was Juliana that surprised him as she moved from the back of them to the front, smiled right at him and greeted El warmly. He watched her hug El a moment later as El laughed and ran over with Emily to hug her.

“A threat to me?” he asked and turned to look at his father questioningly.

He could see that man’s jaw ticking like crazy, “I’m no threat to my son, we just need to have words.”

“Words?” Conner shook his head; in all likelihood his father had threatened to beat him senseless within earshot of Sloan or lash him for his disrespect or something like that. It was his usual go to.

Though he was surprised to see that Juliana had made it here to the pack for this, had found a non-stop direct flight or hired a private plane perhaps. Hell, she could have one for all he knew.

“Yes Conner, you stopped taking my calls, ignored your own Alpha at every turn, got your entire unit to ignore their own Alpha as well. That is boarding on starting a rebellion and looking like you’re plotting to overthrow me.”

“I might very well be, seeing as how you completely disrespected me all my life. Disrespected El, still do, still demand she bow down to you, instead of asking her nicely to please be initiated. You also completely disrespect the entire ranked members of this pack’s wishes, even. Enforce your will on them all and make them not only do what you want, but instead of giving them a choice as to what they study. Make them study what you want. No one here gets a choice with you in charge, father. That is going to change.”

“Is it son? I do what is best for the pack. Our pack members are studying for the future of this pack.”

“The future father.” Conner shook his head, walked up the stairs “I’m the future of this pack, and I don’t see that they should study what you want. How is the pack supposed to grow and flourish, make new businesses if you don’t let them study what they want and open businesses to their liking.” Conner stated, stopping right on the top step in front of him, knew his unit were all right there a single step behind. They all knew it was coming, all of them also wanted choices they’d been discussing this moment for the past two days privately between them.

“We have all the businesses we need, Conner.”

“Really? You’re the one who said I don’t have a plan for the pack. What will I do to make it better? So if there is nothing to do with it, I don’t need a plan as you just stated.”

His father was glaring right at him, he’d just contradicted himself and he knew it, stared right at him waiting for him to state anything at all, seems the man didn’t know what to say or didn’t want to say anything, with all these people present.

“Well, let me lay it out for you, my plan. The plan is quite simple. From now on, everyone will be able to study what they want, where they want. Open new businesses which could flourish and become big conglomerates on their own, or stay small but be a good source of steady income. I myself will open a new business, an architecture firm.”

Saw his father scoff at him “You’re not even qualified to do that.”

“Because you wouldn’t let me study it, I will be studying it. Adam and Cameron want to go into advertising and marketing. I’m going to let them. It will be good for the pack. They can be the pack’s own advertising agency, head of promoting pack business in the human world, as well as pick up human business. Brayden will go to medical school, he wants to be a psychologist, which is fitting considering he’s the Gamma, will help with his duties, don’t you think? Could run a company that helps other packs wolves with trauma and grief. Perfect for him, but you vetoed it like you did everything else.” He stood staring at his father. “I have also already brought a new alliance to this pack, via Cordi and Collin, with El as my Mate. We’re now allied to a new pack, because they wanted to be close to her still, a good thing allowing her to still have her childhood friends. I have more than one alliance in the works for when you step down as well. I just never bothered to tell you. It is my business as the future Alpha, met some nice Heirs to other packs at Alpha College and we still communicate regularly.”

“Well why didn’t you bother to tell me?” His father rapped out, sounding more than annoyed.

“What’s the point? You don’t do anything that doesn’t suit you.”

“Well, we could have those alliances in place now, Conner. I could have sorted that out.”

“And taken credit for my hard work. No thank you. Then you’d just be back to saying I have no plans for the pack.”

“What do you want from me, Conner? An apology for running the pack the best way I know how? Not going to happen! I did what I thought was best for this pack.”

“I’m sure you did, I’d like you to consider letting everyone study what they want. Will you?”

“They are already doing degrees, so I’m not pulling them from that.”

“Right.” He nodded, turned and looked at El, “Would you like to go home, El? Nothing here is going to change.”

“Conner!” His father yelled right at him. “You can’t just leave because your unhappy.”

“Actually, father, I can. I warned you already I will go where El goes. I will take my entire unit with me as well!”

“Conner, we’ll accept the gypsys and any that want to return to Willow Moon Pack.” It was Sloan.

Heard his father snarl angrily and looked right at him. “You have two options from what I can see, father. Change your ways and stay the Alpha or don’t change your ways and lose a lot of pack members to the Willow Moon Pack.”

“The pack members are loyal, Conner.”

“But to who I wonder. The Alpha that demands everything or the Heir that will give them choices. Shall we call the elders and let the pack vote on it?”

“You didn’t want to be in charge yet!” his father shot right at him.

“I don’t. But it seems you’re too selfish to be in charge. I stand here before you, father, have been now for what 10 minutes and have you yet to even once apologise to me.”

“What for?”

“What for?” that explained a lot. He didn’t think he had to apologise, “My mother.”

“She left us.”

“No, she left you.” Conner corrected him. “She wanted to keep in contact with me, you denied her that at every turn.”

“You take the word of a woman you haven’t seen in 12 years, over your own father.”

“I do, Alpha Cole also confirmed she has tried to see me, speak to me, tell me about my three sisters even. You denied it, on this end. Yet still you don’t see you did anything wrong, do you? No wonder I’m so screwed up, so overbearing that I nearly lost my own Mate because of who I was, who you raised me to be!”

“I didn’t raise you to hate humans.”

“No, you didn’t, but I certainly didn’t learn from you to love unconditionally, now did I? I didn’t even believe in a mate bond. Ask Adam my opinion on what a mate bond was before I met El. Might shock you more than a little. That is what I learned from you to not trust in it. I didn’t think it was love, didn’t know that until El, in fact, and fought it damned hard. I was very confused, I’m just bloody lucky El has a huge heart.”

“That, you and El, was your own fault. Don’t blame me for your own stupidity, Conner!”

“I’m not blaming you, I own it. I was wrong, have apologised, admitted it was all my fault, can do that you see, because it was all my fault. I grew a lot with El here, learned how to say I’m sorry, learned that sometimes just being an Alpha doesn’t always make you right. That you can make mistakes even as an Alpha, learn from those mistakes and grow as a person, apologise and be a better Alpha. Can you do that?”

“I have run this pack for a very long time, Conner, it’s a strong pack and runs very well with my leadership.”

“Hm, you say that. But did the border patrol tell you El was trying to get out of the pack? No, I got informed as I came in through the gate. They didn’t tell you at all. That says something, doesn’t it?”

“You’re not in charge, Conner. If you want to fight me for it, so be it, but your Mate and her kin are to stay out of it.”

“I don’t want to fight you father. What would be the point really, if I lost? Nothing would change at all, other than either me dying or being banished by you. What I want is for you to call a pack vote, bring the elders in and let’s see what the pack thinks about the changes I propose. If you’re willing to accept them, and the pack is happy. You’ll stay in charge, make those changes and let them live as they all please, but if not? I guess El and I will take over even though neither of us are completely ready to do so.”

“That’s all you want?”

“No, I want the truth about mother. You can volunteer it or have Sloan or El make you tell the truth, either one of them can make you bow down and force the truth out of you. You told me we could discuss it once, before I went to New Moon, but I get the feeling you’d only tell me what you want me to hear. I want the truth.”

“I’ll call the elders for the pack vote shall I!” his father snapped at him and stalked off inside the packhouse.

Conner’s eyes moved to the current Alpha Unit. They were all watching him. “You all had to know it was going to come out at some point. What did you think would happen?” he stated flatly and turned and walked away, back down the stairs towards El and her kin. He was curious as to who they all were.

Sloan smiled right at him. “Juliana was wise in not taking your head off, I see. I will order the truth from him. El doesn’t know exactly how. Petal has good instincts but is very young and he might not make it, if she’s ticked off.”

Conner nodded “Who are all your kin?”

Sloan chuckled, “Not all are my kin, but all are Kitsune, the ones that live here in the States. Sloan came at my request. El is still a Willow Moon Pack member, so Juliana and I have rights to protect her as her Alpha, Luna’s.”

Conner smiled “Pulled some strings then.”

“I did what I always do, I know a lot of my kind, and I help out nearly everyone that comes my way, so they help me when I put a call to them.”

“What made you do it, if you don’t mind my asking?” Conner was curious.

“Logan was ranting about not just you being disrespectful to him and his decisions, but your entire unit as well. Stated that he was going to pull you into line even if it meant lashing you and your unit for every phone call you all ignored and putting you in the cells for a month. I already knew your mother was there in the Lake Valley Pack, El told me before you lot left and she messaged me worried about you. After you found out your father was the reason you never got to see her, wanted to know what to do to help.” She smiled. “You are right, Conner she has a heart filled with love and compassion. Will keep you grounded and pull you into line when she thinks it’s necessary.”

That only made him smile. “I know, I might need it sometimes, was raised by my father. I hear myself sometimes, and I hear him when I say certain things.”

Got chuckled at by not just Sloan and El, but his whole unit as well.