Alpha Black

Alice Forrest

Nathaniel ran his hand down my back, sending waves of shivers down my spine. I looked up at my computer, offering him a friendly smile, “how are you going?”

“I’m well thank you, and how are you? How is your application going?”

“Well, you know, I’m having to rewrite something in a more impressive manor so I’m accepted into an elite university which I had never, in my entire life considered attending.”

“So swimmingly then,” he laughed, catching onto my forced enthusiasm.

“You don’t normally come out of your office for another few hours,” I said, leaning back against the chair, assuming he was here with a purpose.

“Mmmm,” he agreed, sitting on the desk I had claimed and crossing his arms, a scowl now forming on his head. “Everyone has now heard rumour that I have a young woman, locked away.”

“How scandalous.”

“Indeed. But Jamie happened to let it slip to my grandfather, that you are my mate.”

“So now we must attend his funeral?”

“Yes, well- wait what?”

“Jamie, I assumed you beheaded him and his head is now on a spike on the wall.”

Nathaniel looked at me in shock, “what?”

I couldn’t hold in the laugh, and I lifted the serious expression from my face, “I’m kidding, you like Jamie too much to behead him.”

“What?”

“Now I regret distracting you, what were you saying?”

“I was going to suggest it’s probably smart if I introduce you to my family before they come and trample down the front door,” he said dismissively. “You think I would cut off Jamie’s head and put it on the wall?”

I smiled, “you’re an idiot.”

“How does dinner sound?” he said letting out a sigh and rubbing the side of his head.

“Do I have a choice? Can I not just spend the remainder of my days in your library?”

“They’re coming over at 6,” he said, ignoring my jokes.

“Do you want to tell me about them, before throwing me into the flames?”

He sighed, “I hate it how right you probably are.”

“Probably?”

“Fine, yeah, okay.” He said, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the chair, “come on,”

“Wait, where are we going?” I said as he lea me by the hand out of the library.

“There are some photo albums in my office, I’ll show you, so you recognise their faces.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Where did you think I was taking you?” he asked, shooting me a quizzical glance as we ascend the stairs.

“I am not sure,” I admitted.

The first room at the top of the stairs was the Alpha’s office, Nathanial has pointed it out to me, but hadn’t shown me in, as if he were guarding a secret. Yet the way he threw the door open and pulled me in, was so nonchalant.

It was a large room, just like all the other rooms in the house, a wall to the left was covered floor to ceiling in bookcases and books, with his desk situated in front of it. Across the room from the door were several large windows, with armchairs positioned in them and to the right of the door was another doorway, tucked between more bookcases and another chair.

He sat me at his desk and traced his fingers across the bookcase, pulling down a couple of albums. “When my father passed me the title of Alpha, he told me that family is the most important thing in the world. Of course, a contradiction to the parent he was to me, or any of my siblings. My whole life, he and my grandfather had drilled into me that your pack was worth dying for, that at all costs you must do what is right for the pack.”

“Do you agree with that?” I asked.

He turned and looked at me as he pulled another album down, “I now see that to my forefathers, their family does not just follow their bloodline, but they mean the pack. The pack is your family, while they were Alpha’s before me, they did everything in their power to ensure that the pack was strong, safe and wealthy.”

“Do you feel the same?”

“They may have failed as a fathers, displaying love and warmth to my brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and myself. However, they have created a strong and pure line of Alpha’s and successors. As I told you, not long after we met, I have nephews, uncles and cousins who hold the right to be the next Alpha. They created, not children, but Alphas.”

“Do they treat you the same way now, now that you’re the Alpha?”

“Yes and no, they expect me to do everything faster, sooner and better than what they did, of course it dosen’t help that they’re still alive.”

“That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” I said giving him a judgmental look.

“I will leave that decision up to you, after our dinner tonight you can make the decision and get back to me with your answer.”

“Show me the dam photos,” I groaned, rolling my eyes and opening one of the albums.

“Well, I’ll going in age, there is my brothers Darius and Alexander, then, Sophia, Georgina, Louisa, and Patricia. Patricia is the only one unmarried as she is only eighteen.”

“Do they all live here? At Savage River?”

“Alexander, Sophia and Georgina live in the pack, but not at savage river, they man some of the other werewolf only towns with their mates and children,” he said pointing to some photographs of his sisters and brothers, on wedding days and holidays.

“They all look like you,” I said with a smile, “the same hair and eyes.”

“Mmm, aren’t we just blessed, their wolves are all the same too, smaller than my own, but black.”

“Ah genetics, thou are a heartless bitch. How you have cursed this family with such attractive features, why would you make them suffer?”

“You think I have attractive features?”

“I said your siblings did.”

“You said my siblings look like me.”

“I said you should shut up. Tell me about your family members who I’m going to meet tonight.”

“Well, mother is about the only person more scary that my father and grandfather, but you don’t need to worry about her, because Patricia told me she’s already so in love with you.”

“That’s comforting,”

“You can cross and argue with my father and grandfather, but not my mother, she, like all Luna’s control their Alpha’s.”

“Does that mean I can control you?”

“You already do,” he said, lifting my hand and placing a kiss on my knuckles, “more than you realise.”

I cleared my throat and flicked to the next page in the album. “You don’t look a think like your mother, nor do any of your siblings.”

Nathaniel sighed, “they said it’s the curse of our blood.”

“What do you mean?”

“They say, well not really any more, but they believed that at some point the Black family blood line was cursed, that we would all look just like some evil Alpha that ruled us and upset a witch… or something like that.”

“Well that’s a bit dramatic isn’t it?”

“It’s really our bloodline, because we’ve never been challenged, we’ve been Alpha’s our whole history since, well, forever, the Black genetics are stronger than those of my mothers.”

“So everyone looks like a Black, because it’s the stronger bloodline, the stronger wolf.”

“Precisely.”

“So tonight we’ll be hosting my Grandfather and Father, both Nathaniel and of course, my mother Ellianna.”

“What do I call your father and grandfather, as they have the same names?”

“Nathaniel, unless they say otherwise. They’re pretty much the same person, so it’s fine,” he dismissed.

“My brother Darius and his wife Lillian, they have two sons, Nathan and Robert. Then my Sister Louisa and her husband Thomas, with Noah and Gracie.”

“I’m seeing a theme.”

“What?”

“Are all the first born children sons? Out of your nephews.”

He laughed, “yes, as a matter of a fact, they are.”

“And they all start with N?”

“My grandfather demands that the first born son, the direct bloodline is identifiable by name.”

“I think you should write me a rule book, I’m never going to remember all this.”

I leaned again him, as he sat perched on the arm rest of his desk chair, “meeting the family should be a big step.”

“I know,” he purred, running his fingers across my head, “but I feel like we’ve done everything backwards.”

“Maybe we have, maybe that’s just what our whole relationship will be.”

“You want me to be the Luna too?” he scoffed.

“I think that is pushing it…”

I couldn’t help but wrap my arms around his waist, letting his scent fill my lungs and comforting me.

“I’m afraid, Nate,” I whispered.

“What ever of, my little mate?”

“That I will not be able to live up to the expectations of your pack, that I will not be tall enough by your side, that I will fail you, and your family.”

“Do not fret my love, you are more suited to this role that you know. The Moon Spirits would not have matched us if one of us was unworthy.”

“You have more faith in the spirits than I,” I sighed.

“What do you mean,”

“My mother was killed my her own mate, remember,” I said standing, “I think I will go back to the library for a couple more hours until your family arrives."