Authors: Kirsty Moseley
"Scott, it's Jay, you need to shift" I said, his eyes fluttered again but nothing else, damn it! "Scott, you need to shift" I said sternly, his hand moved slightly, "If you don't shift you going to die, now shift" I said shaking him slightly. Come on Scott please! He opened his eyes and looked at me, he was trying, he couldn't do it, I could tell by his eyes, they were hopeless. He knew he was going to die.
I refuse to lose my best friend because of that asshole. "Scott Porter, you WILL shift right now!" I commanded using my full Alpha command, his hands started to shake, shit he's doing it! It was almost impossible for a shifter not to submit to a full Alpha command, he was born to be a second so he had more control over his submission than other lower rankers but it would still be strong.
"Shift now, I'm telling you to shift, now do it! Do it now" I commanded. He squeezed his eyes shut and a couple of seconds later exploded into his tan wolf with a small yelp. "Holy shit it worked" I cried excitedly looking at Paul who looked like he was about to pass out through stress.
Brook laughed sounding relieved and Paul grabbed me into a hug, "Thank you, oh God Jay, thank you" he said gratefully. I can't believe that worked! He was going to be fine. I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled as Brook kissed Scott on the side of his snout, she really was amazing, less than two weeks ago she didn't even know what the hell a shifter was and now here she is kissing a wolf.
I rubbed my hand down her back, "Maybe we should let him rest, he'll need plenty of sleep, we can come back in the morning" I suggested looking at Beth, she nodded and hugged Paul tightly. Brook stepped away, I looked at him, God I was so happy I could burst. "Well done, good job and thanks for saving my life" I said grinning, he whimpered slightly. "I'll come back in the morning, rest, recover, that's an order" I said sternly before hugging Paul.
"Is it ok if I take Scott's car, I'll drop the girls home then come back to get you" I suggested.
He shook his head, "Rachel and Mel want to come to the hospital, I told them to wait at home, I'll call them, you take the car, I'll see you tomorrow, and Jay if you need me to come to the meeting with you tomorrow you let me know ok" he said smiling. I nodded, Paul was a really great guy, and such a great Dad, in a way he had been a Dad to me too, he always treated me like one of the family when I was at Scott's.
"Thanks, I'll see you in the morning" I said taking a last look at Scott who was now asleep on his side. "Come on then shortie, Beth let's go" I said nodding to the door.
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I woke in the morning with my body wrapped protectively around Brook's. She was still asleep, I brushed her hair away from her face and tried my best not to look at the heeling teeth marks on her neck, he was dead now, there was no point in me getting myself worked up about it again. I still can't believe Brook shifted like that, her Dad would have been proud of her if he'd have seen that.
We were both just lucky that she was able to get back, I'd follow her anywhere and be happy whatever happened, but the thought of not seeing her beautiful face or hearing her beautiful voice wasn't something I ever wanted to got through.
We hadn't spoken much since last night, by the time we got back to my house she was exhausted and barely managed to climb in the bed before she feel asleep. I loved waking up to her, it was the best thing that I could ever wish for. After an hour she stirred and pressed her face into my chest,
"Mmm, I know you're awake Jayden, you better not have been watching me sleep again" she mumbled against my skin. I laughed, wow busted! She pulled back to look at me smiling teasingly.
"Sorry, couldn't help myself" I said shrugging, she laughed and shook her head as if I was being silly, she obviously wasn't over the hang-ups about her body quite yet.
She kissed my chest and I felt my wolf fighting me growling at me to take her. I sighed and wrapped my arms tighter around her, I didn't ever want to let go. "Shortie, can we talk about something?" I asked swallowing my nerves, she nodded looking at me tenderly as she ran her hand over my chest lightly making my wolf growl louder.
"I was wondering if now that everything's sorted and you've agreed to be my mate, whether you would move in with me" I said quietly, praying with every fibre of my body that she would say yes.
She looked at me a little shocked, "Um, wow that was unexpected" she said looking uncomfortable.
Great, nice one Jay, she's not ready, way to go.
"It's ok, sorry I shouldn't have asked, it's too soon for you it's fine" I said trying to sound like it wasn't killing me inside thinking about not waking up with her everyday for the rest of my life.
"We'll wait as long as you want, I just though that" I started but she put her hand over my mouth to stop my rambling.
"I'd love to" she said smiling happily. She'd love to? Is that a yes? Hold crap she said yes!
"You would?" I asked rolling so I hovered above her being careful to keep all of my weight off of her.
She laughed, "Hell yeah I would" she said pulling me down to kiss her. As soon as my lips touched hers, her damn hormones attacked my nose making me instantly hard. Damn it, this being mated is like I'm stuck in some permanent horny wolf state, she was gonna kill me I swear.
When I finally managed to prise myself off of her glorious body we went to the hospital to visit Scott. Beth stayed at mine to pack up her stuff as they had restrictions on the number of visitors at one time, she said she would go later instead. When we walked in he was sitting up in the bed chatting to Mel, I grinned, he looked so good.
"Well you look like crap Scott, maybe you should have stayed shifted" Brook teased as she hugged him tightly making him laugh.
"Thanks Brooklyn, nice to see you too" he said shaking his head amused, Brook went over to hug Mel so I sat on the edge of his bed.
"Hey man, how are you feeling?" I asked, he smiled and nodded.
"Yeah I'm good, they said I need to shift for an hour then come back then do another hour so I don't heal too fast or something, I don't know, but I feel good actually" he said shrugging.
"Scott, thank you so much for coming in like you did, if you hadn't shown up I would have been dead and Brook probably would too, I owe you, seriously anything I can ever do for you, let me know ok?" I said honestly.
He grinned, "You don't owe me anything Jay, if that was me you would have done the same thing right?" he said shrugging as if saving mine and my mates lives were nothing.
"Yeah of course I would have but still, thanks" I said honestly, I would never be able to repay him for saving Brook. If I'd died she would either be with Trey, dead or stuck shifted.
"So Brook shifted huh? She a pretty wolf?" he asked teasingly waggling his eyebrows.
I laughed "Damn fine" I said laughing he is just too funny.
"On a serious not though, my Dad said you're Alpha of the Tridents, what's going on with that? I mean you gonna have two packs or what?" he asked curiously, hell no I wasn't.
I shook my head "Nah, I can't have two, I'm gonna let them compete for it, there'll be some guys there that want it" I said shrugging, there was no way I was having that pack too.
He nodded "Yeah, probably for the best, I mean you'll have Willow Creak soon right?" he said laughing.
"Glad my life amuses you" I said sarcastically making him laugh harder.
My phone rang and I stood up grabbing it out of my pocket, it was my father, what the hell is he gonna want? "Hello?" I said not really wanting to deal with him right now.
"Hi Jayden, I spoke to Paul early this morning about what happened yesterday with Alpha Newton" he said.
"Yeah, it's all sorted now, I just need to sort out his pack" I said frowning.
"You mind if I come to the meeting with you? I mean it would be better if there was a representative from both of the other packs in the area" he asked, I closed my eyes. I really didn't want to spend anytime with him but I guess it was better to have a repetitive from each pack there at the meeting.
"Yeah sure, I'm going there for twelve, I'll pick you up at half past eleven then ok" I suggested.
"Great see you then" he replied, I sighed and snapped my phone shut watching Brook talk and laugh with Scott and Mel, God she was so damn beautiful.
After an hour I needed to go, "Shortie, I need to go, want me to drop you home or something?" I asked grinning at the word home meaning my house that she was soon to be living in. She smiled happily too so maybe she was having the same thought about living with me.
"Can't I come with you?" she asked wrapping her arms around my waist, I shook my head fiercely, I didn't know what would happen at this meeting, I didn't think there would be any trouble but just in case I needed to know she was safely away.
"No shortie, I need to do this on my own ok?" I said kissing her forehead, she sighed and pressed her face into my chest, I tangled my fingers into her silky hair and lent down to kiss her, ignoring the blast of desire that hit me as soon as my lips touched hers.
"Ok, I'll stay here then and you can pick me up on the way through or something" she suggested looking hopeful, I smiled and nodded, she'd like to stay here and gossip with Mel some more, Scott was due to shift again for another hour so Mel wouldn't have anyone to talk to otherwise.
"Ok shortie, I love you" I said honestly looking into her beautiful hazel eyes.
She smiled "I love you too Jayden" she said going up on tiptoes to kiss me, she still wasn't tall enough so I bent my head slightly and pressed my lips to hers again, moaning slightly as my wolf growled at me wanting her right now. Wow horny wolf state again, jeez give me a break! I pulled back before I wouldn't be able to and looked at Scott.
"I'll see you in a bit then, you should shift again Scott, Mel look after my girl" I said winking at her as I turned to leave.
"Good luck Jay" Scott called as I walked out of the room, yeah good luck I was probably going to need it, they weren't really going to like what I was going to say I could tell.
I drove to my fathers house and waited for him to come out, he would have heard the car pull up so I didn't bother getting out of the car. I watched him walk up to the car seeming a little hesitant, he got in and smiled looking at me but not quite meeting my eyes as a sign of respect, damn it I swear I'll never get used to this.
"Hi" I said nodding in greeting.
"Jayden, how are you and your mate?" he asked politely, I smiled thinking of Brook.
"We're good, she's a little sad, did you know that Dominic Logan died?" I asked frowning.
He nodded "Yeah, Paul told me, I'm sorry, he was a good guy" he said.
"Yeah he was" I said quietly. We drove the rest of the way in awkward silence stopping to pick up Christian on the way.
When we pulled up at the meeting site there were cars everywhere. Damn how big is this pack?
"Christian how many shifters in the Tridents?" I asked as we walked to the field.
He shrugged, "I would guess at a hundred" he said, Christ a hundred? Great this is just great, well I guess the competition will be fierce for Alpha with that many shifters there's bound to be a lot of males of age that want it.
I followed him to the top of the field to talk to the guy that was at Trey's yesterday the one that arranged the meeting. "Alpha Philips, it's good to see you, the whole pack is here" he said nodding respectfully.
I held out a hand for him to shake, "Thanks for arranging all of this, sorry I didn't ask your name yesterday" I said apologetically, I just had too much going to to worry about pleasantries when I spoke to him yesterday.
He shook my hand excitedly, "It's Alan" he said grinning.
I smiled "Well then Alan, let's get this show on the road shall we?" I asked nodding towards his pack who were watching my every move. He nodded and stepped back so I could step onto the little wooden box thing that they obviously used as a platform for meetings.
"Hi I'm Alpha Philips of Bane's Creak, as you're probably already aware your Alpha is dead as are most of your high rankers, as the rules state I killed Alpha Newton therefore I am the new Alpha of The Tridents" I said looking over the sea of faces. They all started cheering and dropped down onto one knee, I rolled my eyes. "It's fine you can stand, I need to talk through some things with you, you might want to get comfortable" I said sitting down on the wooden box. They all started whispering and sat down on the grass looking at me like I was slightly crazy.
"So I already have a pack that I have just taken over, running two packs isn't something that's going to work out for me" I said honestly. The whispering started again so I held up a hand to silence them, "What I'm suggesting I do is step down as Alpha and let you compete for it, those males that are of age who would like to compete for it would enter into a competition and the winner takes over as Alpha, obviously I'll stay on as Alpha long enough to oversee the competition so that the pack isn't left without a leader" I said looking round at the shocked and scared faces. Ok they don't look like they are going for this at all!
"So seen as we're all sitting down it'll be easy to see who would like to compete, so if you would like a shot at Alpha and are over 20 if you could stand up" I said. People started looking round at each other curious to see who stood up, but no one had moved. Shit! "If you want a shot at Alpha stand now so we can see how big the competition will be" I said sternly looking over at Alan, he was sitting on the floor next to the platform I was sat on. He shook his head firmly at me, I glanced at Christian to see him sitting down too, oh come on seriously?
"No one wants Alpha?" I asked shocked. There were murmurs of 'No' from the crowd. I glanced at my father who shrugged, damn it I don't want this pack! "Ok well as I'm stepping down as Alpha and no one wants to take over how about another suggestion, you have two pack representatives here, I'm here on behalf of my pack and my father's here on behalf of Willow Creak" I said waving a hand in my fathers direction.