Chapter 8: Home

I was taken straight to the car. There were three cars actually and it turned out that a few of my father's men who were alive were being taken home with me. I saw them in a clearer view and recognized each of them. I was in the car with one of them named Theo, who explained to me that the other men were tortured and eventually died from it. "I will explain the rest when we are in our territory alpha." He said, being aware that the person driving us was not a part of us. 'I hope you can forgive me.' It was a mind link from Roman. I blocked him out of my mind before I could give a response, and within minutes I fell into a deep sleep. I woke up after being shaken by Theo. "We are home alpha." He said to me with a smile. I walked out to find a large number of weres waiting on us. In front of the crowd was Joseph, my father's beta, and Mesalla, his son. I guess now that I was in power, Mesilla was automatically beta too. "Welcome home." He said smiling pleasantly. "Thank you," I replied, feeling more than thrilled to be home. Howls and shrieks filled the airspace, which was well described as everyone around being pleased to have their leader home. It made me incredibly happy. I settled in my house that afternoon, taking a long bath and finally picking out clothes from my closet. "Finally." I thought to myself. Another hour of sleep took me until interrupted by a knock at the door. I opened the door, revealing my visitor. Mesalla stood there with a smile on his face. For the first time, I looked at him, his features. I had never noticed he had hazel eyes, more rich in the red than the brown. He was much taller than I and very well-built. He was very handsome and it was not hard to pick up on that. "Hi, come on in. How may I help you?" I asked, pretending I didn't just scan every feature on his body. "We have a lot to discuss," he said, getting right into it. "Things that can't wait." I nodded. "Tell me about the men that were with my father. On the day of his death." I said to him. He responded immediately. "When you left the pack, my father anonymously brought out men to surround you wherever you went. This was because you, as our future alpha, were supposed to stay safe at all times, no matter the situation. As you know, your father was quite a stubborn man. He wanted no one in danger from the pack, including you of course, but he did insist that he would protect you." He went on, "Those men were set up to signal the pack, and in the case of emergency, to give your father a direct signal. And that day? Well, that was an emergency signal because the attackers were from the rogue pack. They had followed your every move and when they saw you settle, that didn't make Nali happy at all. But the events had taken a turn for the worse because our alpha and Lunaa wound up dead. Nali wanted their blood on her own hands. That's where Roman comes in. He killed our former alpha, and worse off, killed Nali's mate and lost love. So now it's up to our plans to get to Roman first, before she does. We should be lucky he let you go because we are now at an advantage to avenge our alpha's death." He finally took a breather. His words stung me. It was all so much, and I didn't know what to think about first. But the thought of taking revenge on Roman in this manner was never my plan. I had not told anyone that he was my mate, so the situation seemed more complicated. My revenge on him was to deny being his mate and to stay as far away from him as possible. Looked like my plan would backfire. On the look of my beta's face, he wanted revenge. And I should have wanted it too. "Let's call it a night. I will get back to you on this tomorrow morning." I said looking at the thin air ahead of me. He nodded, even though his expression showed a form of agitation. When he left, I had mixed feelings. My mind wanted to watch him die. To be tortured and killed by me if possible. But my heart, body, and wolf just could not entertain the thought. He's our mate, my wolf howled inside of me. I had to make up my mind. Tell my pack he was my mate, or have my revenge. I knew one thing was for sure, if he was presented as my mate, my pack would be heavily disappointed but still accept him. Mates were an important addition to packs in general. And both Roman and I Being alphas would strengthen our packs in more ways than not. Just thinking of myself with Roman reminded me of Lenny. She hadn't come back to see me or even to say goodbye. She was a good friend to me and probably my very first real friend. I missed her terribly but I didn't know if I would see her again. With all these troublesome thoughts, I drifted to a sleep that had me dreaming of losing the most important people to me. Being back in my The family home must have triggered this. The next morning, I found myself awake a little late. I quickly took a shower, got dressed, and rushed down the stairs straight to the kitchen when I heard a knock at the door. "Beta Mesalla." I thought to myself. I opened the door. "I see you are awake," Joseph said to me with a smile. "Yes," I said smiling back pleasantly. "Please come on in." I finished. He sat down on the couch. "I assume you spoke to your beta last night?" He asked me trying to get clarity on what he already knew. "Yes. He explained the situation to me. It was just a lot to take in, so I decided to sleep on it." "I'm only here for one thing though." He responded seriously. "What's that?" I asked curiously. "Mesalla mentioned that you had a wary expression when he mentioned our plot to avenge aAlphaRoman. Now he may be a little naive, but I am not. Any wolf would jump at the chance to avenge their parent's death and you, to him that is, didn't look enthusiastic about it. What should I know about that?" His expression made him seem worried. Joseph was close to me. When my father was extremely busy and unable to spend time with me, Joseph made the time in his stead. It helped us build a really good friendship. One that had allowed me to be open with him and him to pop up with me. I always opened up to him when I had the chance, and this right here seemed like the chance to do so again. "Ro....Roman," I breathed heavily, "Roman is my mate Joseph." I finished the sentence. His eyes grew wide with shock.