Wolfsfoot (Kingdom of Wolves #1)

Flint smiles and pats my hand before stepping towards thedoor. “I’ve told Beta Goldman to send anyone that wants to leave to you Lykos.I know you’ll make sure they are alright, or you’ll make sure they get to thepack of their choice.”

“I can do that. Nobody should fear for their lives in theirpack. It’s supposed to be a safe place. Supposed to be home.” Lykos murmurs,wrapping his arm around Akela.

“I’m going to make my way back home. I need to get Gabrielsettled and get his work organized. I’ll also be speaking to other councilmembers and see if I can get them to agree to stand Alpha Torrance down. Ifnot, we’ll have to wait for Connell and Knight to get to where they are readyto take over. The Alpha wolf, Toxic, is feral. You can see it in his eyes, andit’ll not be long before he goes too far and Connell, including Beta Goldman,will have to make a stand.” Flint looks sad and you can see he’s taking nopleasure in what he’s saying.

“We are here if you need us to help. But if the Alpha bringshis pack to town to take Tati, I can assure you, although we are rogues, we’llband together and stop him. So far, we’ve remained neutral to the adjoiningpacks, but we won’t allow interference.”

After saying our goodbyes and Lykos giving his word, we willall help anyone that arrives, asking for help. We quickly go to bed and I can’thelp thinking it’s been one long, strange day.

Waking, I quickly shower and dress, rushing downstairs tograb a drink before the day starts. Thinking I was early enough that no onewould be awake and in the kitchen, I’m surprised to see Akela at the back doordrinking coffee and enjoying the morning air.

“Morning Tati. Drake will be here soon to start yourtraining. We need you to look to the future.” Turning to look at me, I can seeshe’s wanting something from me. “Get a drink and then sit with me. I want tospeak with you before Drake arrives.”

I pour myself a glass of fresh orange juice and take a seatat the kitchen table. Watching Akela closely. I can see she’s working out howto say something to me, so I wait calmly for her to arrange her thoughts.

“You know you are an Alpha female, which is rare. We’vetalked to you about this. We’ve also said we’d like you to consider being anAlpha for the rogues, creating a pack. What I’m asking is, do you think youwill, or can do that?” Akela is looking at me with such hope in her eyes that Ifeel anxiety that I’ll give her the answer she needs to hear.

“I’ve thought about what we are doing. My learning how thecouncil works for the town. How the businesses work in town. I’m happy to learnall that. I have two years to grow into the knowledge of how a pack works, howI would run it, and how everyone here would see me doing it.” Taking a deepbreath, which I pull hard through my nostrils, I blow out slowly through mymouth, letting the anxiety flow out. “I love the people of the town, and apartfrom a few, I’ve been welcomed warmly. My answer at the moment is that yes, Ican see I could lead this pack, but it will depend on what happens within thenext two years.”

“Lykos and I see you as a daughter, and we don’t want you tomove on to somewhere else. We would always be here for you, no matter yourdecision.” Akela runs a hand down my forearm before squeezing my hand. I lookup and give her a smile, which stops when I see Drake walking towards us,whistling. Darn it, time to train and I’ve not even had breakfast!

Today I started the human side of my training, which wasmore than a little surprising. But dodging Drake’s feigned punches was not aseasy as I thought it was going to be. Taking a few hits before, I learned tomove faster, and duck any which way I could to avoid his fist.

You got better as the day went on, Tati. We will be goodin two years when we have to decide what we want to do.

‘Yeah, we have two years to get everything learned thatwe’ll need. The fighting is a little strange when I was always the lowest inthe pack, but we’ll get it. I’m sure we will be strong enough, Ebony.’

We will be strong, we are strong. We both have to learneverything we can. When the time comes, I think we’ll know if we want to leadthe pack or not. Maybe we’ll find our mate and he leads the pack and we will bea strong Luna?

Chapter 12

TATIANA

Today I’m going to the Blood Pearl Pack border with Drake. It wasorganized that I go with Gregor, but he’s some council business he apparentlyhas to attend to.

Come on, Tati, it’ll be fun.

‘Yeah, so you say Ebony. You know he’ll run like crazy andwant us to keep up.’

Yeah, but we haven’t used our full power yet. Let me takecontrol and I’ll lead him around a bit before he realizes we’re playing withhim.

‘Okay, but let’s get moving before you take over’. I have toagree it’ll be fun if Ebony can outrun Drake. He’s so fit and is a warrior inheart and body.

Turning to watch Drake jogging toward the farmhouse, I turnmy head to smile at Akela. “Drakes here. I’ll see you later.”

“Okay, Tati, enjoy yourself.”

Stepping out of the doorway, I meet Drake with a smile.“Good morning, Drake.”

“Good morning, Tati. Today, you’ll be using your personalityto speak to the pack Alpha of the Blood Pearl Pack. Alpha Aurora is tough butfair. She is not a female Alpha like you are. She’s a female who took the Alphaposition once she had decided she wasn’t taking any more abuse from her Alpha.She challenged, fought him, and won. Since then, she’s cleaned out all the maleshifters who were not up to her standards, and now the pack is predominantlyfemale. You will learn more in the next two years, and I hope you and Aurorawill become allies.”

“We’ll see in time how people will react to the female Alphawho was treated so badly. But Drake, they will either like me or not, and bothEbony and I don’t care anymore what people think. We are happy to move on withour lives and in time maybe we’ll do as you all want, and create a pack fromthe town, but time will tell.” Walking into the forest, I quickly shift toEbony and follow Drake towards the Blood Pearl Packs border.

Two hours towards the border I allow Ebony to take over andshe squeals with delight, taking Polaris by surprise when she shoots forwardand begins ducking and diving around trees, over fallen trunks, and evenbacktracking to come up behind Polaris and yipping, making him jump.

I’m quietly watching through Ebony’s eyes now, and althoughI’m still fairly new to shifting, I’m enjoying the freedom that I feel throughmy wolf’s emotions.

This is fun, Tati. See, Polaris is having to run hard.