Alpha Eric rubbed the aches out of his tired neck. He was getting too old for things like this. He glanced over at his beta, Matthew, who was busy looking through some files on his laptop as they rode in the backseat on the way to the annual Alpha meeting which was being held in the Ridgemount Pack. A 6 hour trip away from his pack and family, who all stayed behind in the Black Hill territory. His territory. His pack. For now. Hopefully his eldest son, Christopher, will finally decide its time to take up the mantel and let him retire. At age 48 he was ready to start living his best life. Retirement life. He sighed, maybe he should have groomed his second or third son for the Alpha title, at this rate he would be a great grandfather before his son took up the role.
“Its your fault, you know.” Matthew said beside him not even looking up from his computer. “I told you once he found his mate you should have pressed further, but no, you had to make sure the new Luna was also ready. Now we are stuck in limbo.”
Eric could only growl his annoyance, knowing what Matthew said rung true.
“He still hasn’t even picked a Beta,” Matthew continued. “Both Ron and Jake are being groomed for it, but as you know there can only be one Beta. Until he chooses and officially declare the title of beta upon one of them I can’t start training my replacement properly.”
“But you know that the pick of Beta is the first and most important task of an Alpha.” Eric retorted, “I know what I would do but I cannot make this decision for him.” Call him a bit biased, but he would pick Jake as beta. Jake is his second son and as a child of an alpha his wolf is stronger than Ron’s, who is Matthew’s son. However, Ron is his eldest son’s best friend since birth. Wherever you see Ron there is Christopher almost as if they were joined at the hip. He didn’t know why Christopher wouldn’t just go ahead and name a beta, unless it was to spare his younger brother’s feelings. It was true, these days neither of his other sons were in good spirits as they were both without their fated mates. His only daughter turns 18 this month, hopefully she will have better luck than her two elder brothers. Jake has started traveling the country, going to every match-making dance he can. He is currently on the other side of the country, traveling the Pacific coast on the hunt for his destined.
Thinking of the upcoming match-making dance started to stress him out again. This year the lucky pack to host it is the Blood Moon pack, and he despised everything about that pack. The alpha of that pack was ruthless and a womanizer, believing that females are better off seen and not heard. Although Lunas are able to attend these annual meetings, very few show up, leaving the betas of the packs to accompany the Alpha and there was no doubt in Eric’s mind the main reason for this was that asshole. His blood pressure started to rise again when he thought of his baby girl visiting that pack and potentially being mated to someone of that pack. He would lose her to that infuriating bastard’s rule.
Matthew closed his laptop shut and leaned back in his seat. “I would ask what is on your mind but I can already guess. Is it that bastard Deacon again?” Just the mention of that bastard’s name started a low growl in Eric’s throat.
“I don’t want Lily anywhere near that pack. But I can’t deny her the chance to go to her first mate-matching dance. That bastard just pisses me off to no end!” He admitted, slumping slightly.
“Well, there is nothing you or I can do about it. Even if we could find a way to have the venue changed that asshole is stronger than both of us combined.” Matthew rubbed the bridge of his nose. “He would take both of us out for even mentioning the thought.” He sighed, and repeated Eric’s thoughts back. “I’m getting way too old for this shit.”
A few hours later he and Matthew stood in the pack house of the Ridgemount Pack. Everyone there were dressed to the nines, most of the alphas here were with their betas. And were at least 15 years younger than them. He smiled and made small talk, introduced himself to the newer faces and talked with feigned interest. There were still a few packs missing and it was still almost an hour until the meeting was scheduled to start. He thought back to the few that were missing, the Silver pack coming to mind. No wait, it was called the SilverFang pack now, when the newest alpha took over it was spread to all the surrounding packs that the name was changed, and the new alpha, Sam, was hoping to extend all of the previous peace treaties that were previously in place.