For The Love of A Wolf

Damien’s POV~

We watched a slight glow in the distance. a campfire.. just sparking to life.. It was difficult to count heads because they were about 150 out. I slid my eyes over to Blaze and he said “Already on it. Sent 8 trackers as we were coming in. We will know within forty-five minutes. Damien.. Liam and I? We couldn’t smell them. Like, at all!”

I smiled “It’s fine, little bro! Lynette caught the scent before me.. then I had to concentrate to pick it up! Reckon one of her gifts is super sniffer” and we laughed together. Blaze struggles a little with his confidence. He shouldn’t.. but he does. Bullied for being a ‘ginger’, he was a skinny gangly kid.. wore glasses and had braces.. until he was 12. When he got Dex at 14, that all changed. He filled out! His eyes strengthened. His red hair stayed, though. And now, he’s more comfortable with it. I think Lynette helps that. But.. every once in awhile.. his confidence falters.

Lynette kisses me.. saying she’s meeting Dianne downstairs…she’s been anxious about getting her here. Eliot Dawson is not a nice drunk.. and I know Lynette wouldn’t hesitate to kill him, if he harmed Dianne. Lynette is building a family. Liam and Blaze are her brothers…and no one doubts Dianne is her little sister. She is 18 in four hours and Lynette has arranged a little party with all of us in the study! She struggles keeping secrets.. so we tried keeping them apart this week.

Liam spins his chair around… “Damien.. the trackers are at the site of the rogues. It seems they are women and children. Maybe 130 people.. maybe eighteen to twenty teenage boys.” I ordered a couple buses and told the guys to have the trackers hold them in place. Linking Lynette I let her know what was happening and she told me she’d be out front. We jumped into our trucks, with the buses following.

Lynette asked “What do we know.. are they in bad shape? Hurt? Hungry? How many children? Have the trackers reported back?” And I cut her off.. “Baby..Babe…we really know nothing else. Maybe you and the guys can play a road game? We have a nearly two hour ride.” Liam snarks “And maybe I could be driving and you could play with your mate” I smirked and raised an eyebrow and Lynette smacked Liam for what I was thinking! Causing Blaze and I to laugh!

We pulled up about five miles from the camp. We had to go the rest of the way on paws. There wasn’t any roads. We all shifted and took off to meet up with our trackers. Lynette shifted and dressed.. asking one of the trackers if they had established contact and was told that wasn’t their orders. She turned to me and asked me to give her a few minutes.. she is worried I will frighten them with my size.

I gave the order to surround the camp and be ready to move if any threatening gestures were made.. My fearless mate walked right up to the fire and began speaking “Do not be alarmed. I am Queen Lynette Richardson. I have reason to believe you are all headed to our kingdom. Please know, we mean you no harm.. and are here to help you arrive safely. May I know who’s in charge?” Without hesitation, an elderly woman stepped forward “We deserted our pack. We have sustained abuse.. terrible conditions.. and many deprivations for years. We were becoming desperate. Then. the night of the full moon, the Moon Goddess appeared before us..and told us to seek you and King Damien out. You would offer us asylum and protection. So we snuck away… in the dead of night. With just what we could carry” And Lynette pulled her into a hug.. Why must she always touch!? Complete strangers we know nothing about. She just touches! Why can’t she just not touch!!?

She tells them “Let’s get these fires out. We have vehicles several miles from here.. can the majority of you shift? Those of you who can’t will have to ride our wolves. Let’s get you home! The rest of your story can wait until then. Damien? Come forward and introduce yourself..” and as soon as I stepped into their circle they all bowed. Damn! That’s awkward!

The ride home was productive.. the elderly woman was a veritable fount of information. Her name is Gertrude. And she began speaking “ We are…were… members of Black River Pack.. I’m not sure if you’re familiar.. the Alpha there.. Massimo Devereaux has gradually slipped into madness. He uses and abuses the she-wolves in the pack. Badly. And frequently. He has now decided someone stole the Alpha mantle from his bloodline and his son will not be a strong enough Alpha. Our elders tried telling him a mantle cannot be stolen from a bloodline and to give it time.. the mantle still may settle. And he killed them all.. all eleven of them! One of them… was my mate. When the Goddess appeared to us.. it felt like answered prayers. We have gone hungry too long.. have forgotten what it’s like to be warm. Some of us have lost children due to the extreme conditions. We had made up our minds we were leaving regardless. The Goddess simply pointed us in a direction.”

Lynette covered her with a blanket, telling her to nap until we arrived. She looked at me “So.. I have to be honest.. his journey into madness seems to have started when he realized the Goddess had paired him with a witch. He’s progressed to batshit crazy, now. I am certain after the video of our marking and coronation is shown… in an hour… it’s going to drive him straight into insanity.. and he’s going to gather his allies… planning on marching on Royal Lands. Not that I fear we will lose… What I fear is killing my mom’s true mate. What will happen to her? I am truly worried about that!”

I reached over and took her hand in mine… “Here’s a thought.. what if we speak to your mom.. and convince her to reject him. He rejected her.. but she didn’t accept it! She didn’t reject him back!” She nodded.. “It’s worth a shot!”

We stopped at a burger place and fed everyone. These poor people were really hungry! And I feel an anger so fierce building in my belly! Our people are suffering from corrupt leadership.. poor pack management.. Their lack of care is rapidly becoming the priority! I make a mental note to approach Dad and Aaron about this!

Getting everyone settled.. warm and fed, we finally relaxed to watch the televised version of our coronation. Then we would have Dianne’s little party. Some days, we seem to find anything to do.. then other days, we seem to struggle through a whole week…crammed into 24 hours.

I hadn’t realized how dramatic our coronation actually was. .. Lynette was stunning. And having a video of the entire night is priceless! After it ended.. we all realized it’s on now. Our defenses will need to stay on point. Training is going to step up. Lynette is even talking about making it mandatory women take some sort of training.

Dad linked letting me know Aaron was sleeping and his mate is saying he is getting bigger. Then he laughed, saying the perks of being associated with the King were awesome. Awesome! I laughed and told him still trying to be the cool dad! Although I know he doesn’t try. He’s just cool!

Catching up to Lynette, I helped her finish up everything for Dianne’s party. I love the little things she goes out of her way to do for others. Colette was telling us about her day.. she’s so busy training the new healers. It will be so beneficial for us in the long run.. but it’s a lot of work for her. My mom is sitting with her and I love how close they’re becoming. Lynette yells be quiet! And we wait for the door to open to reveal Dianne… yelling ‘Surprise’ only to watch her run back out, with Lynette going after her. She may be shy but she’s entertaining…and everyone laughed.

She walks back through the door following Lynette… and stops talking… Blaze is moving at the speed of light and pulls her into his arms.. we hear him say “I waited a lifetime for you!” And then to us “The party was lovely. But it’s late and we really must go. I’m sure you understand” then he whisked her out the door before we had a chance to say anything. We all laughed… but yeah.. we do understand!