Destiny of His Pack, Book 2

Marissa

By the time eleven o’clock arrived, I was exhausted. My feet hurt, my back hurt, and my belly felt as if it weighed tons instead of pounds.

Rafferty had led me to the platform. Then helped me sit down in the chair they had brought just for me while everyone else stood.

At first, I looked around at everyone. I saw Joe and his family on the outskirts and had to smile. Then I sat there twitching, trying to get comfortable as the Alpha gave his ceremonial speech. I didn’t hear a word he said. I just wanted it to be over so I could go home.

“Calm, relax. Ye will get through this. It’s almost over, and yer part will come soon,” her lioness soothed.

I tried to take my lioness’s advice. I took deep breaths and slowly breathed out. Surprisingly it helped. I slowly relaxed and zoned back into what was being said.

“So, Rafferty, if you will help Marissa up and come stand before me,” the Alpha said.

Rafferty moved in front of me from where he had stood at my side. Taking hold of my hands, he gently pulled me up. We walked over to stand in front of the Alpha.

The Alpha began once more to speak as he held the ceremonial knife. “I, Alpha Jeff Wildee, give my position over to my son and heir, Rafferty Wildee.”

Then he sliced the palm of his hand and Rafferty’s.

While gripping each other’s hands to mingle the blood, Rafferty said, “I, Rafferty Wildee, son, and heir, do accept this honor that has been given to me. I promise to be the best Alpha I can be, that my pack can look upon me proud to have me as their Alpha.”

The Alpha stepped back then.

Rafferty turned to face me. After slicing our palms and gripping each other’s hands, he said, “As Alpha, I entrust my love and my pack into the hands of my Luna, who will rule by my side as long as I am Alpha.”

Looking up at him, I then said, “I, Marissa Wildee, mate of Alpha Rafferty, promise to love and obey my Alpha and mate. I will stand by his side, helping him run the pack as a good Luna should.”

As soon as Rafferty spoke the words, I felt a pain, sharp as a knife cut through my stomach all the way to my back. It caused me to gasp and hunch forward, one hand grabbing at my stomach, the other tightening around Rafferty’s.

“Marissa, are you alright?” Rafferty asked, gripping my elbows to hold me up.

“I think so,” I paused, listening to my lioness speak. “My lioness says the babies felt the shift of power when our blood mingled. They received their share of it, which is all they were waiting for. Now they can be born.”

“Do you mean...?”

I looked at Rafferty and smiled. “Yes, wolfman, I’m in labor.”

Then another contraction hit. Rafferty quickly picked me up, yelling, “Your Luna is about to have our babies.”

Rafferty drove like a maniac after carrying me to the car, and we soon arrived at the pack doctors.

The pack doctor and his nurse pulled up next to us as Rafferty was helping me out of the car.

“Alpha Rafferty, you drove like a crazy man! Do you even know how hard it was to keep up with you?” Uncle Ray, who was the pack doctor, asked.

“Ah, yeah, sorry about that, Uncle,” Rafferty answered a little sheepishly.

“Can we just go in now and have these babes?” I growled out as another contraction hit.

The men hustled me in at once, and the nurse helped me into a gown and onto the bed.

“How are you feeling, dear? Do you feel an urge to push yet?” The nurse asked me.

“No, not yet, but I don’t think it’s going to be long. There is a lot of pressure on my lower belly,” I told her.

The nurse nodded. “Let me get the doc to check you then.”

Then she left, and when she came back, the doctor and Rafferty were with her.

“Alright, Marissa, let’s see what we have here,” Doc said.

The nurse helped adjust me on the bed as Rafferty took my hand.

It wasn’t long before the Doc looked up. “It won’t be long now. These babies are in a hurry.”

I grinned. “Yes, they are, and to be honest with you, I’m more than ready to have them.”

Since there wasn’t anyone else in the clinic, the doctor stayed in the room with us, and in about twenty minutes, I felt it. My water broke, and a puddle of wet spread under me quickly.

“Um, guys, my water just broke,” I whispered.

“Get ready. It is time, and it will go quickly,” my lioness told me.

The doctor stood and checked me before he nodded and said, “It won’t be long now. Although sometimes labor can take a while when it’s your first.”

“Not this one, doc,” I informed him just as another contraction hit, and I felt the need to push.

“Are you sure that isn’t your impatience speaking, love?” Rafferty asked as he ran his fingers through my hair.

I looked up at him. “No, that’s my lioness speaking, and now I need to push,” I said, turning back to the doctor.

He nodded, and we all prepared for the babes to arrive.

After feeling the urge to push, it didn’t take long. A few good pushes, and my first babe was born.

“It’s a boy,” Doc said, holding him up.

“Wolf,” I whispered. The babe had dark hair and eyes just like his father.

The nurse quickly cleaned him as he whimpered. So she asked, “Do you want to hold him?”

“Rafferty needs to hold him first,” I told her.

Rafferty took the baby and held him as if he were made of glass. His love for the babe was evident in his eyes as he smiled down at him. Rafferty’s eyes flashed the gold of his wolf as he said, “My first pup, your name shall be Coleman. One day you and your twin will be Alpha.”

Then holding the babe in the air, he lifted his head and howled.

I heard the pack howl with him. Then, I gasp, drawing everyone’s attention. “Time to have his brother.”

Once more, with just a few pushes, our second babe was born.

After cleaning the baby up, the nurse handed him to Rafferty.

This babe was the complete opposite of his brother. He was ginger, just like me, his eyes green. He lay in his father’s arms quiet, just looking up at him.

Rafferty smiled as he spoke. “My first cub, your name shall be Raphael, and one day you and your brother together will be Alpha of the Wildee Pack.”

Then holding him up just as he had done with the first baby, he howled, and I roared with him.

That’s when we heard it. Rafferty and I looked at each other, our eyes wide. We listened to the sound of wild cats, lots of them, and their roars blending in with the howls of the pack.

“They’re here. I told you the felines would come, now they are here,” my lioness stated.

Rafferty handed Raphael to me and walked over to the window.

“How many?” I asked.

“At least fifty, including my father’s friend, his family, and yours,” Rafferty answered.

I turned to the nurse. “Help me up.”

“Luna, I don’t think you should get up. You just gave birth,” the nurse said, her eyes wide.

“I know, but it’s just for a moment, please,” I begged. “Wolfman, open the window.”

So, the nurse helped me up as Rafferty opened the window. Then turning, he took Coleman, and together we turned toward the window.

In his Alpha voice, Rafferty spoke to the large crowd that had gathered for the birth. “Today marks a change for the Wildee Pack. Today we welcome not one but two into the Alpha family, one wolf, one lion, both very much Alpha. One day, when my reign is over, they will run this pack together.”

Then Rafferty threw his head back to howl, and the wolves howled with him. I let out a roar, and the wild cats roared with me. The babes in our arms let out their version of a howl and a roar as Rafferty, and I looked at them with pride.

“They will be strong Alphas. Listen, they already try to roar and howl.” We heard from behind us and turning we found our parents standing there in the doorway.

“Come, Marissa, back into bed now,” Ma encouraged, taking my arm.

I let her help me as Rafferty once more came to stand next to me. He softly said, “When I met you, Marissa, I knew you were everything I had been searching for. I knew you were my destiny, and it never mattered to me that you were a feline. It never mattered to my wolf because you were ours.”

Then leaning over, he kissed me than each of the babes.

Our parents looked on full of pride for our new family and us.

Narrator

Those inside the Pack Clinic listened to the howls and roars filling the air outside. They know that the changes have already started. The difference would make the Wildee Pack one of the largest ever to combine Pack and Pride.

Rafferty, now the Alpha, had taken a half lion shifter to mate because she was his destiny.

They now have the twin boys’ fate promised them. Coleman, born a wolf, and Raphael, born a lion, who together will one day run the mighty Wildee pack.

With pride, their father, Rafferty, gazes upon them because he knows they are the destiny of his pack.

THE END