Alpha's Faire

XIII

"So I heard that you are the latest target for unmated females." Alpha Brothe tried to lighten the mood between the two. It didn't work. Raphael's lips curled into a scowl as he reached to pour another drink of scotch.

"Are you going to try and fix me up?" Raphael sighed as he watched the glass fill with the golden liquid.

"Goddess no." Brothe laughed. "I know what it's like to be a prize. I have no interest in subjecting you any more of the same torture. But I do find it curious. You're reaching almost 30 and still haven't found your mate." Raphael resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It wasn't too odd for a werewolf to reach this age before finding their mate. But it was still uncommon for an Alpha to do so.

"And your point is?" Raphael dryly replied, bringing the drink to his lips. As painful as this subject was for Raphael, this was still a distraction from their reality. Alpha Brothe and Raphael had just finished a virtual meeting with the other packs that have been affected so far by the virus. Preparations to transport the worst afflicted to Whitehaven were proving more cumbersome than thought. Each Alpha wanted to use their people to transport their afflicted pack members, but the risk of spreading the virus was too much. This risk left them with either the FLA or using humans. Right now, neither of those were an option. If Hamma was in charge come morning, Raphael would have to take matters into his own hands. But that also complicated things deeply.

Regardless of whatever plan he could think of, he still would require the assistance and expertise of Dr. Jess Lewis. She was essentially the key to their survival, given her father's work. But it also meant that he would have to find a way to get her to join and potentially lead a team that she had no interest in doing. So rather than mull over Dr. Jess Lewis repeatedly, he welcomed the break.

"Have you considered looking outside of us wolves?"

"Like who, a faire?" Raphael snorted. The fae people were notorious for having chosen mates over fated ones. They thought it gave them even more justification to behave high and mighty over other species. They weren't victim to a goddess playing matchmaker.

"It's not impossible. I heard that Commander Trellis is on leave with his mate. She wasn't even his chosen mate; they were fate mates." Brothe broke out. Raphael's eyes narrowed. Commander Trellis's mostly human mate was a cultural shock to the world. That was for sure, but he doubted that he was in the same boat as Trellis's mate.

"Like I want to spend the rest of my life with someone like Hamma," Raphael replied bitterly. "And don't even bother with humans. There are too many to go through at this point." Brothe's laughter grew louder.

"But surely you must be curious about someone these days." Brothe smirked. "I know that the mate pull is something personal."

"It is." Raphael quipped, hoping that Brothe would get the message to tread carefully. The middle-aged Alpha nodded, knowing that Raphael wasn't exactly keen on this conversation. But then again, the man had just consumed an entire bottle of wolfsbane scotch. It would knock Raphael off his feet, but Brothe just seemed fine, other than opening up this topic and deciding to give some fatherly advice.

"Got it." Brothe waved his hands up. "But I'll leave you with this piece of advice. When my mate was underage, I thought that the attraction I felt to her was a mistake. After all, she was my beta's sister. The whole time, I felt like it was just a test, that she was just a distraction from my duties, my real mate. Little did I know how wrong that was. So hold on to them when you find them."

"I appreciate the advice." Raphael politely nodded. "But let's leave it at that. Right now, the last thing we can both agree on is me finding my mate right now."

"True," Brothe paused with a small grin that almost made Raphael roll his eyes. In all honesty, it was the worst time to find a mate. If he had, the urge to remain at their side would be unbearable. Many wolves on, finding their mate, tended to lock up together for weeks at a time. Alphas had it even worse. Not that he needed Brothe to remind him of that. "And sorry if I overstepped." Brothe tried to back out politely. Raphael allowed a simple nod. Had anyone else but Brothe and Alex broach this, they would be inside of a wall. But Brothe was irritatingly like a father to Raphael. So he indulged these little moments from Brothe.

"You did, but it's fine." Raphael rolled his eyes at the man who smirked. Raphael brought the glass to his lips for another sip. Brothe was more of a father than Raphael's father, not that Brothe needed to know that little fact. The man had an ego already.

"Good. Now, I can tell Thea that I had this talk with you." Brothe sighed in relief as he relaxed back into the chair. Raphael smirked at the mention of Brothe's mate. It figured that she put him up to this talk. The woman had been trying to give the same advice to Raphael for years. But somehow, he always was able to dodge the conversation between the two.

"I take it that she finally pinned you down?"

"The Goddess couldn't have made a more troublesome woman." Brothe sighed. "I swear, she was going to pop up here if I didn't swear that I was going to have this conversation at least once with you." Raphael laughed.

"Well, at least that awkward conversation is done." Raphael took another sip, the grin still on his lips.

"Thank Goddess." Brothe groaned, his hand covering his face. "I like you Raph, but I don't think you need to have the damn mate conversation."

"Insightful as ever, Brothe," Raphael smirked at the man's agony as he placed his glass down. His phone began to ring. Raphael pulled it out of his pocket and narrowed his eyes at the unknown number.

"Hello?" Raphael answered the phone. Brothe sat up to listen in.

"Alpha Stone, the force is getting called in for an emergency meeting." Dr. Lewis's voice came through clearly. Raphael's eyes narrowed even more. Her tone was flat, serious.

"Dr. Lewis, should I ask why?"

"If you have to ask, that means you haven't gotten a call yet then." Dr. Lewis replied with a sigh. "Captain Yong was performing a review of the items for the briefing tomorrow and followed up with a couple of packs. It turns out that we have our first casualty while on the orchid." Raphael's teeth gritted together. They had just finished debriefing the other packs an hour ago. The orchid treatment was keeping the disease at bay so far, according to all of their reports.

"Which pack?" Raphael's voice came out raw.

"Wintercrown." Raphael froze. Wintercrown wasn't even in their list of packs and approved orchid shipments. Their Alpha was notorious for being isolated. They hadn't even reported a case of the disease to the rest of the community. Raphael kept track of how many interactions Wintercrown had with Whitehaven, given how infrequently they reached out. It also didn't help that the territory was one pack's territory away from Whitehaven.

"Damn it." The curse wasn't even coherent. It was more of a growl than anything. Raphael's fist clenched as his mind began to race. "Wintercrown hasn't reported a case of the disease. They aren't even close to the other afflicted packs. How did Yong even find this out?"

"He apparently had a subordinate in the pack for a separate matter and decided to see if there was any knowledge of the virus." Dr. Jess Lewis stated, almost strained. There was more to this. Something that couldn't be said over the phone. "They were trying to treat the disease themselves. According to Yong's informant, the Alpha didn't want this to spread to other packs."

"We'll be there in twenty minutes." Raphael hung up, not interested in extending the conversation. Too many questions were arising in his mind. How close was the disease to Whitehaven? How many were afflicted in Wintercrown? And where the hell did Alpha Mikhal of Wintercrown get ahold of the lunar orchid?

Just wanted to leave a note and say, thank you for reading this. I hope that this story's heading in the right direction and people are enjoying this.